//------------------------------// // The Center // Story: Kindness and the Fate of Shadow // by Raven-Flight //------------------------------// “Greetings, ambassadors of Equestria, and welcome to The Center!” The tall, serpentine form bent into a bow, then straightened again. “I am Ilmatar, Queen of the draconequui.” She, like all the draconequui standing in a great crowd behind her, possessed a myriad of mismatched parts (some of which from no creatures the ponies could recognize) all attached to a long, serpentine body. Aside from this general outline of form, the draconequui were so varied that it was hard to take in. The ponies all bowed, then Twilight introduced them. “I am Twilight, Princess of Equestria and of Friendship, and Element of Magic. This is Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty, Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter, Rarity, Element of Generosity, Applejack, Element of Honesty, and Fluttershy, Element of Kindness.” The birdlike face of Queen Ilmatar brightened with rapt interest. “My, what fascinating titles! What could be the significance of these ‘elements’ you represent?” “Together, we are the Elements of Harmony, and each of us embodies a key aspect of the magic of friendship.” “How sublime! I do hope you will tell us more so we can add this knowledge to our Library.” Twilight gasped in excitement, but the Queen continued. “First, however, I believe we have a momentous occasion to celebrate. Which of you has come to be joined with Discord?” “Um, I-I have, your Majesty,” said Fluttershy, hoping nocreature noticed her trembling as she bowed. A soft, luminous glow encased Fluttershy and pulled her upright. “Lady Fluttershy, you need not bow to me, for I am not your equal,” admonished the Queen. The light continued to lift until Fluttershy was floating and she found herself suspended in the air next to Discord. Queen Ilmatar turned to face the draconequui. “Fellow seekers! This mortal pony is revealed to us this morrow to be that which no other being in the vast expanse of Existence has ever been or could ever be. Behold Fluttershy, Element of Kindness, the equal and soulmate to the great Discord!” A cacophony of cheers erupted. When the jubilant draconequui began to bow, Discord snatched his quivering soulmate out of the light and held her against himself. “Yes, thank you. That’s enough now. We don’t want any more deference.” The entire congregation quieted and straightened in obedience, though Discord hadn’t even raised his voice above normal speaking volume. “Let’s give these ponies the grand tour, shall we, Ily? No more of this pompous babble.” “As you wish, Discord,” answered the Queen. “But first...” She swiftly waved a fountain of light down over the three of them, Discord, Fluttershy, and herself, to create a private space to talk. “Lady Fluttershy, forgive my asking, but this mark upon your neck…?” Discord twisted his torso so that the pony in his arms and her black-scarred neck were no longer under the Queen’s scrutiny. “It’s just an infection she’s been getting over. Nothing to worry about.” “Are you sure? It registers to me as dark magic.” “What do you know of dark magic?” “Very little. We’ve encountered trace amounts of it in our explorations—just enough to know it as something distinct from other kinds of magic and that it is very dangerous.” “Yes it is,” Discord hastily assented, once again speaking before Fluttershy could give any reply. “But I assure you she’s on the mend. The binding will only help her get over it quicker.” Queen Ilmatar’s mouth moved, but Fluttershy could no longer hear the words. They were for Discord’s ears alone. “You realize that once you are bound, her infection will spill over into you too?” Discord, too, had become inaudible to Fluttershy. “Of course I know that! I’ve withstood a dark magic infection myself once before and came out of it just fine!” “That is well, but if you should fail to do so again… We know this magic is capable of terrible things...” “It. Will. Be. Fine! Don’t you know who I am? Well, you don’t know who Fluttershy is, but she has a special magic of her own that resists the dark magic. I assure you it is nothing to worry about.” “Who am I to argue?” The shield of light dropped and both draconequui became audible to all again. Queen Ilmatar turned to the other ponies. “Pardon the interruption. Let us begin the tour. We are currently standing in the center of The Center, where we typically hold our gatherings and festivities. Come, we will make our way through the city toward the crown of our society.” The crowd parted smoothly to allow the party of two draconequui and six ponies to pass. Discord continued to carry Fluttershy to comfort her (and himself) as Queen Ilmatar explained interesting monuments and cultural and artistic features of The Center. Twilight hung on every word, but the others gawked continually at all the marvels surrounding them. The city appeared to be built on nothing at all; it and all its residents were floating in a vast expanse of space. Except “floating” wasn’t the proper term, for gravity—or something like it—anchored all to the ground, which was perfectly invisible and yet somehow solid. Thus, if not for the eclectic buildings that lined the street, the ponies could see what looked like stars glowing brilliantly on all sides, above and below, as if they were walking through the arm of a galaxy. “Oh, those aren’t stars at all,” Queen Ilmatar laughed when Twilight asked. “They’re gateways into the surrounding dimensions. The Center exists in limbo, the fabric between dimensions. We have no true stars here! If you like, we can visit some of the nearer dimensions during your stay here.” The tour continued through the Interdimensional Preserve, a botanic park teeming with exotic flora, then crossed over the glittering Torrent of Becoming. “Just a visual metaphor we created to represent the cyclic eddies of existence,” said the Queen. “It runs in a perpetual circle around The Center, and those who dip themselves in the flow find themselves refreshed and reset into what they understand themselves to fundamentally be—which is important for those who may have lost parts of themselves in their travels. And here we are at last: the pride and glory of the draconequui, our Library!” Before them gleamed a colossal palace that looked to be as large as the entire city through which they had just passed. Twilight spun in a circle of glee. Then she spun halfway around again for a double take. “What happened to the city?” The other ponies turned around to see that The Center was no longer behind them, nor could it be seen in any direction above or below. “We have left it, that we may visit the Library,” explained Queen Ilmatar. “But it should still be behind us!” argued Rainbow Dash. “Recall that we are in limbo, between dimensions. There is no space here, at least not of the kind that can be measured. When we wish to return to The Center, it will be there for us.” The concept inspired wide-eyed looks in every pony except for Twilight, who merely shrugged and pranced onward toward the Library. They were shown through seemingly endless aisles of books and scrolls. Twilight couldn’t get enough, but the others showed signs of varying degrees of waning interest. Fluttershy looked up to Discord’s face as he continued to carry her. “Hey,” she whispered. “Yes, my love?” he whispered back. “When, exactly, are the soulmate rituals happening? Not knowing is making me more nervous.” “There is no ‘when.’ Time doesn’t exist here.” “I mean, um...” Fluttershy clutched at her spinning head. “When are they happening, um, in reference to everything else that’s happening? After the tour, or is there some kind of signal we’re waiting on…?” “Ah, well, we’re just waiting on you, my dear. The rituals have to be done on an empty stomach, so really, once you feel hungry enough, we can start.” “Oh! But I don’t remember how long it’s been since I last ate.” “That’s irrelevant. We’re not in time here.” “But then when will I ever be hungry?” “As soon as you decide you are.” Fluttershy furrowed her brow. Then, her stomach gurgled. “Sounds like we’re good to go,” Discord chuckled. “Are you ready, or do you need more space to process first?” “I think I’m r—” An open book hit the floor and echoed mightily. Twilight stood above it, but she was staring at Discord, mouth agape. “Twilight,” he smirked, “I know I’m awe-inspiring, but I thought we were past—” He caught a glimpse of the contents of the dropped book. “Oh.” Of course Twilight had picked up the first cosmology volume she encountered. Discord vanished it away before she could flip any further into its pages. “You were there?” Twilight’s mouth still hung open. “Where?” asked Fluttershy. Discord’s only answer was to crush a palm against his face. “He was at—” A disembodied shushing finger forced Twilight into silence. Then a haggard sigh escaped Discord’s throat. “Alright, follow me, everypony. It’s storytime.” He lead the ponies up a flight of stairs to a vast lecture hall. Queen Ilmatar followed, smiling serenely, as did a growing stream of other wide-eyed draconequui. The ponies and the Queen sat in the front row of seats while Discord conjured an easy-chair for himself in place of the lectern. He sat, donning spectacles and opening upon his lap the book that Twilight had discovered. “So… Ahem, who invited all of you?” A dizzying number of mismatched eyes filling every seat and available airspace were all trained on Discord. Queen Ilmatar spoke on behalf of her seekers. “Come now, Discord. It’s not every morrow this story is told by its primary source!” Discord rolled his eyes. “Very well. So anyway, in the beginning, there was… me.” Now everypony’s mouths fell agape. “When existence first came into existence, there was an explosion of matter, time, and space, but no form or organization. It was chaos, and that chaos was me. I had no form either for the first few turns of thought, but as space expanded and matter congealed, I began to take shape. Then I chased myself. The spatial plane was still so small that I could see my own body retreating before me as I flew forward. Eventually, I outpaced myself, which is to say that the spatial sphere had grown enough that I could no longer see all the way around it. That’s when things finally started getting interesting. “There were collisions and sparks and new explosions! Space was expanding so rapidly that matter and antimatter were ripped apart, and I saw more and more space-time bubbles bursting all around me like fireworks! Each explosion was lit slightly differently, and these slight differences spiraled out into all kinds of universes. I flew from bubble to bubble, fascinated by all the different processes that were shaping all the different worlds. “But the first universe, limbo, was still expanding, and more universes were still being born within it. Suddenly, I felt a great tearing inside me. A matter-antimatter pair had been severed inside me, and as the resulting new universe expanded, it ripped my body into shreds! Of course, I had rather liked the form I had before, so I willed it right back to the way it was, but the body parts I’d lost took on lives of their own. Now there were nine of us, and each of the new draconequui shared exactly one body part in common with me. “I realized I now had many more eyes with which to witness the myriad new worlds unfolding all around us. I devised a writing system on the spot and sent each of us into different universes to observe and record their progress. Thus was the multiverse born, and the race of the draconequui, and the draconequui’s culture of exploration.” Discord slammed shut the book from which he hadn’t been reading. “The end.” Awed silence across the room. The six ponies were all glued to their seats and reeling with revelation. “Thank you, Discord,” said Queen Ilmatar. “Is there no more you wish to tell of this tale?” “The. End.” A draconequus off to the side stood up. “Now that you’ve found your soulmate, won’t you stay with your people and be king again?” Six ponies jolted, speaking in unison. ““KING? AGAIN?”” “SILENCE, PTAH!” roared Discord. “I made you, and I can un-make you!” But nocreature heard, for the entire hall was already booming with “King Discord! King Discord! King Discord!” The draconequus in question scowled. Then he snapped his fingers, vanishing himself and Fluttershy out of the room. Everything was dim and black, yet every surface glittered as if made from stardust. The only light source was the floor itself, or rather, something faintly luminescent flowing with perfect tranquility beneath the transparent floor. Having the light hit from below cast an eerie pattern of highlights and shadows on Discord as he stood before Fluttershy. It made him look taller. Ghastly. Unfamiliar. “Discord? W-where are we?” A black blob appeared on the floor. A beanbag chair. Discord plopped backward into it. “My suite in the palace. Untouched since the morrow I left, by the looks of it.” Fluttershy looked around again as her eyes adjusted to the odd lighting. There was furniture lying at bizarre angles on every wall, and the ceiling, too. All over the floor were bits of things, unidentifiable in the gloom, that could have been balls of paper, dust bunnies, or other trash. After some intense staring, Fluttershy realized that a particularly dense jumble of glinting points of light off in the corner was a shattered mirror. Discord sat still, silent, unseeing. “...You were their king?” “Mm.” He picked up the nearest scrap on the floor and fiddled with it. Without a seat of her own (unless she wanted to pry one off a wall), Fluttershy sat gingerly on the glowing floor. “They adore you, and… you left them.” The scrap in Discord’s hands turned out to be a charred piece of parchment. He stared at it, reading what words were left, then crumpled it up again and tossed it over his shoulder. After waiting for an explanation and receiving none, Fluttershy cocked her head. “What was that?” “Official correspondence. The last one I ever tolerated. Well no, obviously, I hadn’t tolerated it.” Discord raised his eagle hand and used it to mime the words. “‘We don’t understand your wisdom on this matter, but of course we are ready to obey as soon as you put your seal upon it.’” His hand fell back to his lap. “I just couldn’t stand it.” “What had you asked them to do?” Discord, head still drooping, looked up at her. “Destroy the Library.” Fluttershy considered this. Considered all that she had just learned in that lecture hall, and all that she already knew. “...When you asked them to help observe all the new universes, it wasn’t for knowledge. It was because you were thrilled by the beauty. All the new possibilities, and how they spiraled out into more possibilities. Your ‘culture of exploration’ was just an accident. Is that right?” He nodded. She scooted closer to him and laid a hoof on his knee. “Will you tell me what happened?” “I was King,” he shrugged. “For a while, it was exciting. Comparing notes and learning how this newfangled Existence worked, how it could be manipulated. I was chaos incarnate, and the others, they each had only a fraction of my magic. And besides, I was the first. So as Existence matured and our race grew, just like that I was their king. It was fun and then it became… stifling. And predictable.” “So… You asked them to destroy the Library so you could all start over again? You were trying to recreate the newness you had before?” “Not exactly. I knew even then, in my youth, that the novelty of Existence was a sensation I would never feel again, at least not in the same way. No, I asked them to destroy the Library because I wanted them to defy me. Overthrow me. I was tired of being saddled with the abominable responsibility of making sure our society progressed as predictably and productively as possible. Now this,” he retrieved the crumpled parchment again and waved it in the air, “was around the time they were really pushing the soulmate thing. The draconequus population had been growing because everyone was finding their soulmates and having children—” “So you can have children, then—draconequui, I mean?” “Yes, two draconequui can reproduce. Seems that’s gone out of fashion now, though. Everyone here is an adult. Mind you, we can also choose to die if we want—not that overpopulation is an issue in limbo. Looks like Ilmatar, Ptah, and I are the only ones left of our original nine.” “Oh.” “But anyway, at that time,” he waved the parchment again, “they’d started to notice I was unhappy, and they thought it was because I hadn’t found my soulmate yet like they had. Ol’ Bemba tried to set me up with literally every unpaired draconequus they could find to try and trigger the soulmate magic. Honestly, it terrified me.” “How come?” “It seemed like they were trying to trap me there, in that role, their benevolent and wise leader forever! Like they were trying to chain me to another being to tame me, or something!” Fluttershy’s ears fell back. Discord scooped her into his lap. “I’m sorry, my dear. It’s not like that now. I understand it now. Back then, I would see Kore or whoever one morrow, and the next thing I knew, she would be arm-in-arm with Pluto and would act nothing like the draconequus she was before! You know, I wasn’t ready for that! All that time, I’d been so busy being King of my ever-so-faithful ‘knowledge seekers’ that I hadn’t had the chance to really explore who I was, me, on my own. They wanted me to find my soulmate to mollify me, and to me that looked like hitching up with another soul was supposed to turn me into a completely different being!” “So you ran away.” “You bet your flank I did! I ran to a world so remote, no draconequus but me would ever have the magical stamina to get there! They’d never see me again, and I’d never have to worry about accidentally springing the soulmate magic and getting dragged back into a life I didn’t want. That’s how I came to Equestria, only,” he chuckled, “It wasn’t Equestria back then. Your dimension was still in its primordial stage.” Unaccountably, Discord broke down laughing, and Fluttershy had to flick out a wing to keep her balance on his lap. “What’s so funny?” she asked, once her perch had returned to some semblance of stillness. Discord wiped away a tear. “Just imaging the look on Twilight’s face if I told her—” He stifled another laugh. “Well, that’s a story for another time. Maybe I will tell her sometime, and you, but enough of that for now. What I wanted to say is this: I’ve had plenty of opportunity by now to be my perfect chaotic self, and—” Fluttershy raised an eyebrow. “My perfect chaotic self,” he reiterated, “and I still don’t want to come back and rule over the draconequui. There’s too much else in the multiverse to see, to do. But I’ve learned better about the soulmate thing. Finding their soulmates didn’t transform my fellow draconequui into new people. Actually, it helped them become more the person they already were. Now that I’ve finally found my soulmate—heh, imagine running away only to run headlong into what you were trying to escape—but anyway, now that I’ve finally found you, I understand what a wonderful thing it is.” Discord stroked Fluttershy’s mane with one hand, cupped her cheek with the other. “You’ve always let me be my chaotic self. You’ve always helped me be my best chaotic self.” “Oh, I don’t know about that...” “No, really! Before I met you, my chaos was untethered, above and beyond reality and somehow empty because of that. I constantly needed more and more chaos because it just wasn’t satisfying anymore, and that’s how I turned into the villain that so terrorized Equestria. But then you came along, and you set boundaries and convinced me to respect them, and suddenly my chaos had meaning. Suddenly, I had a place, a real place in the multiverse that I had watched spawn all those eons ago. That’s why you’re my soulmate, Fluttershy. I’m sorry I’ve been keeping all these things from you, but I suppose it’s best you know everything now, so you can still back out in case you don’t… Feel the same way...” He trailed off. For a while, it was quiet. Fluttershy sat on Discord’s lap, gazing into his down-turned eyes, regarding him. The blue-white light from beneath the floor was shifting subtly into more of a sickly greenish hue before she attempted to reply. “For the longest time, I only had my animal friends. I was too afraid of other ponies to really engage with them. Nevermind extending kindness to them. Then I met Twilight and the others, and I started learning how to practice my kindness on other people, but I was still timid and closed-off. And then,” she reached out, took Discord’s face in her hooves, “I met you. You were my biggest kindness challenge yet.” Discord put his hands over her hooves, wanting to hold her there in case she was thinking of running from this challenge. “Next thing I knew, you were my friend, and I was starting to actually feel confident in myself. My exciting, chaotic friend helped me find a new wonder in the world. He showed me that it wasn’t such a threatening place after all. I wasn’t as scared anymore to own who I was, thanks to you. Like you were saying, I feel more like the person I always was when I’m with you.” To hide the tears that were welling in his eyes, Discord folded Fluttershy in a close embrace. Hugging him back, she went on. “It’s not like I haven’t kept big secrets from you, either. That whole thing with—” She shuddered, clinging tighter to Discord. “That whole thing with the dark magic. I’m so sorry! I was terrible to you, and you loved me through it. Loved me back into myself. I need you, Discord. Maybe I’m a little nervous and a lot intimidated, but I want you, and I want to do this.” She stretched up to nuzzle under this chin, and there they rested in each others’ softness. The light from the floor turned a rich, placid ruby, falling on every glittering surface until the whole room seemed ablaze with sweet warmth.