//------------------------------// // Like Paper Planes in Playground Games // Story: Tales of Equestria: Accord to Discord // by Julian McQueen //------------------------------// “How dare you speak about my father that way!” Celestia yelled at Cloud Popper who had just made an insulting remark over how Discord was Celestia’s “brother”. “He isn’t related to me by blood, he’s adopted.” Cloud Popper sneered. “So what does that mean? Are the two of you bucking around or something?” The pegasus bellowed again, his laughter joined by a few ponies in the crowd. Discord looked around, his eyes searching for a certain azure Alicorn. “Luna.” Discord whispered to himself. “Where in Equestria did you go?” He suddenly froze as he heard a large “whump”, followed by a shocked gasp from the ground. He turned to see Celestia kneeling towards the ground. Discord quickly ran to her side and saw that Cloud Popper had thrown a small rock at her, leaving a red mark above her left eye. Looking at the startled dracoequus, Celestia simply gave a smile indicating she was okay. Discord smiled, but stopped when he heard Cloud Popper’s rude bellowing again. He turned to the laughing idiot, and let out a low growl, showing that he meant business. “Aw, isn’t that sweet. Are you going to defend your precious princess?” Cloud Popper flapped his wings and began floating into the air, laughing again. As he did, Discord noticed as three ponies walked out from the crowd. Two were unicorns, one with a green coat and a red mane, and one with a black coat and a cyan mane. The third was another Pegasus, one with a golden coat and a monochrome mane who floated right next to Cloud Popper. “Let’s see you try, you mismatched ragdoll!” Discord didn’t stand a chance against the unicorns, who were in magical classes far more advanced that Discord’s and ultimately overpowered him. The green one, who Cloud Pooper called “Kringle”, instantly held him down with a green blast of energy, a restraining spell, which held him down to the ground. “Discord!” Celestia called out to the bound Dracoequus, but was restrained instantly by “Wint-o-Green”, the second Unicorn, who surrounded Celestia in blue force field. She bucked, kicked, and used her magic to try and break the barrier, but the unicorn’s magic was too powerful for her to do anything. Meanwhile, Cloud Popper looked down at his captive before turning to the gold-colored Pegasus. “Would you like the first kick, Daring Doo, or should I?” Daring Doo sneered and made a polite bow before Cloud Popper. “After you.” She said in a mockingly polite tone. Cloud Popper nodded his head and flew down at Discord, driving his front hooves directly into the Dracoequus’ stomach. Discord let out a sharp cry in pain as the crown cheered, enjoying the violent spectacle, regardless of who was participating. Daring Doo followed suit, resulting in Discord letting out another pained gasp as the golden pony struck him. Cloud Popper then stood upright as he lowered his head towards Discord, whose eyes were watering from the first two blows. “Welcome to a world of pain, ragdoll. Bada-boom.” The next hour was a blur of hooves as Discord was mercilessly kicked, bucked, and stomped on by Cloud Popper and Daring Doo, unable to defend himself thanks to Kringle’s magic. Every kick in the stomach Cloud Popper made was echoed by Daring Doo stomping on Discord’s arm, and every kick to the leg Daring Doo made was responded to with Could Popper swiping his hoof across Discord’s face. But what was probably the worst part, however, were the hateful words that pierced Discord like daggers, injuring him emotionally, as well as spiritually. “Ragdoll!” “Creep!” “You don’t deserve to live here! “Monster!” “Freakshow!” “Get out of here! You’re not one of us!” “Freak!” “Freak!” “FREAK!” “You should just DIE!” Finally, Cloud Popper ended it as he swung a hoof across Discord’s face. The last thing he saw were Daring Doo and Cloud Popper flying away as fast as they could, and before everything faded to black, he heard Celestia’s voice call out his name. When Discord woke up, he immediately recognized his surroundings as his room in the palace. The dracoequus sat up and saw his wood desk with parchments and fresh ink. He saw his poster of the Wonderbolts hanging off the wall. He even saw his schoolbooks, neatly stacked on his desk. The dracoequus stepped out of bed, winching as a surge of pain shot through of his talon, and slowly walked into his personal bathroom, stopping as soon as he looked at the mirror. His right eye was blackened and swollen almost completely shut. His upper lip was split again, his face was red from scrapes and bruises, and was swollen to the point that he could consider himself unrecognizable. As he looked as his body, he noticed his body was decorated with even more bruises and scrapes, and his talon arm was wrapped in bandages. Discord sighed at his wrecked body, but turned at the sound of hoofsteps behind him. As he turned he saw Celestia, an expression of surprise on her face, standing before him. The mark abover her eye was barely recognizable, and Discord made a slight smile at the princess. Celestia suddenly ran to Discord and hugged him tightly, the dracoequus winced as his arm ached from the sudden embrace. He looked down and saw Celestia’s face buried in his chest, sobbing. Discord blushed and awkwardly wrapped his arms around Celestia. “I-I’m sorry…” Celestia choked. “I should’ve… should… They were so mean…” Discord held Celestia as she cried, his awkward expression turning to a sobering one. She was right, they were mean. Discord was aware of that, but it wasn’t HOW mean were they that bothered Discord at all. It was WHY. *This is a unfinished chapter, as I'm too tired to finish it. I'll try and finish the chapter later. Toodles~*