I ran a hoof through my mane, wishing that it was less tangled first thing in the morning. I glanced back at Discord and Luna. Both of them were sprawled out on the ground, sound asleep. I resisted the urge to smile and turned my back on them, focusing on the stars in the sky. My horn buzzed with warmth as I closed my eyes and focused on raising the sun. Relieved, I smiled as the glow of the orange sun fell over my face. The warmth awoke my aching limbs. Maybe, despite my lack of sleep, despite my tangled mane, despite the disturbing stranger who had volunteered to "help" us, today would be a good—
I heard a startled gasp come from behind me. I leapt a foot in the air, flapping my wings and glancing backwards. It took all my strength to keep the sun suspended in the air.
"Do you mind?" I snapped, sighing and returning to the earth. I tried to get the peaceful feeling back, but it disappeared. I turned my back to him and focused on raising the sun, but Discord was making my focus difficult.
"You . . . you raise the sun?" he stuttered, blinking. "How is that possible?"
With a final thrust of the sun and a toss of my mane, I whipped my head back to him. "What do you mean? How else would it get up there in the sky?"
"Well, it just always up there. The planet rotates so that it rises. Right? Something like that? I don't actually know, I just always assumed that . . . wow. Huh." He looked genuinely terrified, which made my curiosity mount even more.
"That makes no sense," I said, wrinkling my nose. "If the planet was rotating, how would the sun get in the sky? You draconequui have strange ideas. Next you're going to tell me that the weather thinks for itself . . ."
Discord opened his mouth, then shut it, as if it was too much energy for him to argue. "So where you come, ponies make the weather move, too, huh?" he said, blinking a few times and rubbing his eyes. I stared back at him, equally astonished.
Luna seemed to notice the tension through her sleep. She stirred, her back leg twitching, and slowly sat up, yawning. "Huh? Tia? Discord?"
Discord didn't seem to notice that she was awake. "What about the moon? The stars?"
I fidgeted. "Well, I raise those, too . . . Luna's going to have to do it when she gets old enough, but I do it for now." I bit my lip, trying to resist the urge to laugh.
Discord's eye twitched. I decided it probably wasn't the best idea to laugh at him. "So you mean that in this forest, everything just works on its own?" I said, wrinkling my forehead. "The weather just—just moves on its own and stuff?"
"Yes." He sighed, putting a claw on his forehead. A dull flush was creeping over his cheeks, as if he realized that he had let his guard down. "That's how things work in this forest. Everything's free. We don't need ponies to weigh it down."
I shivered, although the sun was quickly warming up the forest. Luna glanced up at me, her forehead crinkled. "This is weird," she stated, pouting and flopping down onto the ground. "I wanna go back to Canterlot."
I suppressed a groan. "Luna, you were the one who came up with this stupid—I mean, who came up with this idea in the first place. The least you can do is stop complaining about it."
Luna's pout grew larger. "But I'm hungry," she whined, rolling around on the ground restlessly. I closed my eyes and silently began counting to ten, but by the time I had gotten to five, Discord's voice interrupted my train of thought.
"You come into the woods and don't bring any food?" he asked snidely. "Honestly, I thought that your sister would have been more prepared for a trek like this. I guess she's less obsessed with order than I thought."
"Huh?" I opened my eyes and glared at Discord, trying to burn him with the sheer power of my eyes. "Of course I brought food. What do you think I am, stupid?" Without taking my eyes away from his, I levitated some apples out of the saddlebags and rolled them over to Luna. She bit into one reluctantly.
Discord let out a snort of laughter. "Do you really want me to answer that question, Tia?"
"Don't call me Tia," I snapped, shooting a glare at Luna as well. Why did she have to give me that stupid nickname in the first place? It was just another way for Discord to get the upper hoof on me.
"Awww, but I think it's adorable." He widened his eyes and pouted, greatly reminding me of Luna. I shook my head. How had I managed to surround myself with two Lunas?
He glanced at Luna, who was finishing her apple, and pointed at my saddlebags. "You didn't happen to bring any more, did you?"
"What? No!" I stomped my hoof. "If you're planning on tagging along and annoying us and acting like a creep, then you can do so without using up our food supply! Get your own food!" I got an apple for myself and chewed furiously, my teeth grinding and clacking.
To his credit, Discord didn't get upset. Raising an eyebrow, he snapped his fingers. A small wooden table, complete with a red silk tablecloth, appeared before me. I let the apple fall to the ground with a thunk, but that was the last thing on my mind. Somehow, the table had filled itself with plates and plates full of breakfast foods, along with several pitchers of chocolate milk. I rubbed my eyes, feeling my mouth go dry. Much to my displeasure, the foods looked delicious.
Luna squealed and ran over to the table, grabbing a muffin. The muffin bowl refilled itself immediately. Goosebumps broke out over my forehooves, despite the ridiculousness of the situation. "That's not possible," I said, backing away. "You can't just—you can't just make a table appear and—the food—argh!" I flew away, keeping my chin held high in the air. "Can you just leave already?"
Though I couldn't see Discord with my back turned to him, I would have been a million bits that he was making a face at me or rolling his eyes. "Why, Tia, I thought that princesses were supposed to be more polite," he said through a mouthful of food. It took all my control to keep myself from turning around and blasting him to pieces with my magic. Instead, I took a deep breath before turning around and beginning to pack up my saddlebags.
"Finish up breakfast soon or I'm leaving without you two," I said quickly. A rush of tears pooled in my eyes. I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek and continued my instructions for my two companions. "Discord, if that food is poisoned or something, I'm going to imprison you in the moon. Luna, you'd better be ready to help out with the saddlebags. I expect both of you to be helpful and quiet. Any prank-playing will be met with extreme consequences." I swallowed hard, hoping that the sudden need to cry would go away. "Any questions? No? Okay, good, get rid of the table and shut up and pack up and just stop talking." I turned away, the final rush of words fading away as I swallowed hard and ducked my head. Do not start crying now, I berated myself. Crying won't make things better.
I glanced around once I had swiped under my eyes a few times. Discord and Luna were staring at me. Luna had dropped her muffin on the ground and was staring at me with wide eyes, trembling furiously. Discord, on the other hand, was regarding me as if I was a little filly throwing a tantrum. I took slight satisfaction in the fact that he had snapped his fingers and made the food disappear.
"Take care of the table," I mumbled to him, strolling over to Luna and patting her on the head. "You ready to go, Luna?" I said in a kinder voice. She nodded at me, her eyes downcast, and flew over to her saddlebags. She put them on expressionlessly, only deepening my urge to curl up on the ground and sob. Instead, I stretched out my wing and pulled her closer to me, feeling like the worst sister in the world.
"I have to tell you, I'm surprised," said Discord calmly, teleporting to meet up with Luna and me. I shot a glare at him, but he continued on, a calm smile creeping over his face. "For a princess, you sure do seem scared by the ability to make a bagel appear."
I filled up my cheeks with air and blew it out slowly. "Ponies can't just make food appear," I said, kicking at the dirt pathway. A perfect comeback came out of the blue to me, and I grinned, wishing I'd thought of it a few seconds earlier. "And for somebody who can make a bagel appear, you sure do seem scared by the ability to raise the sun and the moon."
Discord stiffened, drawing himself up to his full height (which was about twice my size) and crossing his arms. "I'm not scared. And it may surprise you, but Canterlot isn't the only place in Equestria. Has it ever occurred to you that not everypony out there makes their own weather and cares for every animal out there?"
"Shut up," I snapped, scowling into the distance and keeping my eyes trained straight ahead. I prepared a rude response, but realized that Luna was there. I glanced down at my sister. "How are you doing, Luna?" I asked in a kinder voice, letting my wing fall from her side and ruffling up her mane.
She shrugged. "I dunno. I'm tired. Do we know where we're going?" She directed this question at Discord, making her eyes wide.
"That's an interesting question," I said, turning to Discord at well. "You had better know where we're going. I've been putting up with you for hours just because I'm hoping there's some way that you'll be able to lead us to the Elements of Harmony."
He put up his paws defensively. "Look, you haven't even told me where I'm supposed to be leading you to. Don't get so angry, Tia."
"Ugh!" My wings flared out. "You're supposed to be leading us to an ancient temple or something like that. Could you just show us it already?"
He widened his eyes, as if I was being completely unreasonable. "Fine, fine. A temple?" He paused to consider this. "I think that there's something like what you're describing in the center of the forest. We're going to have to go in deeper, though." He stopped and swiveled around, glancing about his surroundings before settling in one place. "This way," he said confidently, pointing a claw at a different winding path and beginning to stroll down the path.
I hurried after him, and Luna followed, fluttering her wings so that she wouldn't have to walk. "You know this place really well," she said, her voice filled with awe. "How come you know everything?"
He shrugged, stretching his long arms and yawning. "I've been living in this forest my entire life. I've had plenty of time to explore the forest over the years."
Seeing my opportunity to ask the question that I'd been wondering since we first met him, I jumped in. "So how long have you been living in this forest?" I asked him, jogging to catch up with his quick steps.
He glanced down at me, clearly thinking me an idiot. "I just told you that. I was born in the forest, and I've been living here my whole life."
"No, I mean—" I struggled with the question, knowing that it would eventually lead to him asking me the same question. "I mean, how old are you? It's really hard to tell with creatures other than ponies."
He opened his mouth, then shut it. A red blush spread over his face as he scratched his neck. "I—how old am I?" he stammered, his voice cracking. The blush deepened as I attempted to hide my smile. "You mean, uh, like how many years I've been living?"
I blinked. "No, Discord, I mean the amount of seconds. Yes, I'm asking you how many years you've been living! That's typically what ponies mean when they ask you how old you are." Though I didn't want to feel excited, I couldn't help but feel my heart begin to beat faster. If he was being this evasive about the issue, there could be a possibility that—no. I couldn't let myself begin thinking like that.
Discord stammered intelligible syllables for a good thirty seconds before throwing his arms up in frustration. "Fine! I don't know my age, all right? I don't know what day I was born! Happy now?"
His comment took several moments for my mind to process. When I finally managed to understand, I spoke slowly to make sure that I hadn't misheard him. I had to speak carefully. "But do you know the general amount of years that you've been alive?" It doesn't mean that he can live forever, I carefully instructed myself. It could just mean that he doesn't have any parents, or that maybe nopony's told him yet.
He gnashed his teeth together. Luna nervously flew away from him, but I stared up at him, fascinated. Anypony with a bit of sense would have known to walk away slowly, but I had lost common sense around the time that he mentioned that he didn't know his age. "I don't know, all right?" he barked. "Maybe eight hundred. I don't know. I don't remember much from when I was little, so I can't say when I was born. Happy now?"
I stared at him, the corners of my mouth turned up in a slight smile. For some reason, we had all stopped walking sometime during this sentence, and we were all staring at each other with wildly different expressions—Discord looked livid, Luna looked terrified, and me . . . well, I probably looked ridiculous. I felt my smile grow bigger slowly.
"What?" asked Discord defensively, scowling. The blush had faded from his face slightly, although his cheeks still looked pink. "We live longer than ponies, all right? Is it such a crime that I don't know what day I was born?"
"No, it's just that . . ." I shook my head to wipe the smile from my face. "It's just that Luna and I don't know when we were born, either. And we've been living about as long as you. It's just . . . interesting." I let my hair hang down over my face. "It's just interesting to know that draconequui live about as long as ancient ponies," I elaborated, feeling like I had to explain my excitement. Both Discord and Luna were staring at me strangely, apparently startled by my excitement. "Nothing big, really."
"Huh," said Discord. He lifted up his claw to his face and examined his nails. We both kicked at the ground uncomfortably.
"Uh . . . should we go?" I asked, clearing my throat to break the sudden silence.
"Right," said Discord quickly, nodding emphatically and starting to walk down the path further. I smiled to myself, glancing at his back. Luna flew up next to me, her brow crinkled in confusion. I didn't blame her—I hardly understood myself what had just happened and why it made me so pleased.
I turned my face towards the sun and kept on walking.