“You do realise mother hates you?”
“I love you, you idiot. I don’t care about her.”
“Please... Please don’t say that....”
------
Discord poked the vegetarian meal put in front of him. He couldn’t eat in the dining room so was having his meals in Celestia’s bedroom. Celestia hated how she both couldn’t leave him alone and didn’t want to leave him alone, her feelings made her feel slightly giddy inside when she sat near him and when he laughed she felt happy. Such feelings weren’t right and yet they felt so good she couldn’t help but indulge them.
“Stop poking it. Eat it.” She didn’t sound annoyed, more amused at the odd look of distain. She took a bite out of her own salad, she was sitting close enough to Discord to feel when he shuddered.
“Do you have any meat?” Discord was part pony but also had many carnivore parts so occasionally craved something else, Celestia raised an eyebrow and looked at him. “What? You know I’m an omnivore.” She nodded slowly remembering
“Ah yes. That was quite a shock to learn on our second date.” Celestia muttered, taking another bite out her salad. Discord let out a laugh as he remembered.
“Oh I remember now! You should off seen the look on your face!” He chuckled and put a paw over his eyes as he remembered how shocked she looked when he pulled out a cooked chicken out the picnic basket. Celestia couldn’t help smile at his laugh.
Being a vegetarian living in a predominantly vegetarian society she didn’t have any meat in the castle so after an unsatisfactory meal there was nothing left to say. For a while they just sat there in an awkward way.
“I have a lot to do today.” Celestia finally broke the silence. “Will you be ok?”
He hated the feeling in his chest as she said that. It was hard to behave but when he was with her he had something to do, he was distracted.
“I’ll find something to amuse myself.” He let out a dramatic groan and wrapped his arms around Celestia, they both let themselves enjoy that for a little while. “I won’t cause chaos but can I at least pull pranks on the guards?” He had the perfect one in mind; pretending to be a guard and striking up a conversation then disappearing the second he looks away. During the confusion he becomes another guard and spreads a rumour about a ghost guard. It was childish, it was silly and it was perfect.
Celestia sighed a little and shook her head, she didn’t want him to be stifled but she couldn’t risk hysteria if he was found out. Discord groaned and stood up.
“Fine, I’ll just disguise myself and go for a walk I guess.” Before Celestia could disagree Discord twisted his body into one of a stallion, his horns disappearing in a shimmer and body turning into one shade of brown, the wings turning from his mismatched pair so simple Pegasus feathers. His rear shimmered and puppeteers strings graced his flank as a cutie mark. “Ugh.. So boring.” He glances at his identical hooves almost in disgust.
Celestia stared at his new form with confusion, he was almost as tall as her and his coat was kind of shaggy but he looked like an ordinary pony, he almost looked normal but something seemed wrong. Discord noticed this look and stared back, his eyes were still the same as always, an almost demonic yellow and red.
“You look... Wrong.” She muttered. Whether or not this was an insult Discord took it as one, which at this point in time he liked because he felt the same way. Wrong.
“What do you mean wrong? I look...” A shudder of disgust. “Normal.”
“Exactly.” Her words carried all the meaning he needed. Her voice was a little weak and disinterested. Even in his stallion form his grin was still the same as ever.
“Aw... You don’t like me in this form?” He trotted over to her and nuzzled his princess, breathing her scent in for a second. “I’m sorry my love, have I ruined same species relationships for you?” He said in a low teasing tone. He let his wings out and trotted to her window ready to leave. Try as she did Celestia couldn’t say anything to him, she couldn’t say he was wrong and she didn’t want to admit he was right.
“Discord.” Celestia managed to say before he got to the window. “Do you.. Ever think that maybe if I allowed you to perform a few harmless tricks.. You’ll be able to give up wreaking chaos?”
No. Never. Not in a thousand million years. Not even for Celestia... But sometimes a white lie is what’s needed to keep the one you love happy, if only for a little while.
“Give up chaos? Of course, my sweet mare. Anything for you.” He trotted back to her and gave her a long comforting kiss, something that felt weird in his current form but still sent a little spark of electricity through them both, then turned and jumped out the open window, spreading his wings wide he caught the air and was soon flying away from the castle.
Celestia sighed deeply as he left, thinking to herself that she probably shouldn’t have let him go but part of her trusted Discord, part of her thought he’d try for her. It was the same part that loved him. Even if it would be hard she wanted to believe he’d try.
That part believed his promise.
Ponies in love are usually the blindest of the blind.
-------
The Everfree forest was the perfect place for him at the moment, the plants grow without aid, the animals take care of themselves and the weather doesn’t need any help at all. To Discord this was the heaven, what more perfect a place for a spirit of chaos than a chaotic land?
His stallion charade faded and Discord let out a breath of relief as his mismatched form returned to him.
“Perfect again.” He smiled to himself. Looking around he saw no animals intelligent enough to rat on him if he caused a bit of a ruckus. “Dare I...? If my dear found out... She won’t find out.” His smile widened.
He could cause so much chaos in an empty place. It wouldn’t be the same as causing chaos in front of other ponies but it would tide him over, it’d be just enough for him. His fingers began to itch again at the thought, the very thought of causing chaos created a light headed rush that flowed through him filling his very being to the brim with excitement. He couldn’t hold himself back anymore, his excitement was causing his breathing to get quicker and quicker and he needed to let it out. With a flick of his wrist the path he was on changed into a light shade of pink, he flapped his wings and lifted himself in the air before the pink goo reached his feet. The draconequus giggled manically at the animals getting stuck on the bubblegum path he had created. This felt so good to him after so long.
More.
He needed more.
He pointed to a tree and instantly it twisted and turned, small spring like noises where emitted as the bark became elastic. Another manic laugh escaped him.
More.
Bang. Boom. Sproing. One after another things where altered in chaotic and random ways. Discord felt happier and happier with every single change he made. The chaos surrounding him was causing wave after wave of ecstatic joy to wash over him, spurring him on to creating more and more.
He smiled wide and spun around, observing the effects around him with proud wide eyes.
Eyes.
There was another set of eyes watching him.
Discord froze as he saw them, they weren’t fleeing, they were scared but they where a ponies eyes. No, a zebra’s eyes.
A zebra was watching him with wide, fear filled eyes. For a second nothing happened, everything fell silent and still. Discord knew if she got away everyone would instantly know it was him causing all this chaos and that he couldn’t allow.
“Whatever you do, don’t run.” His words fell on deaf eyes as she began to gallop fast away from him, His eyes opened wide in fear. “What did I just say?!”
Quick as a bolt he was after her, flapping his wings as hard as he could to catch up to the frightened zebra. He sent random bursts of his chaos after her to try and slow her down but that only served for her to run faster, she knew these forest way better than Discord and the intertwining low branches of the trees were not helping him. The zebra burst through the edge of the forest and ran as fast as she could for Ponyville. Discord knew he couldn’t go out in the open in case someone saw him and sent a final last ditch attempt ray of chaos her way.
Bull’s-eye.
The zebra shimmered brightly before shrinking to a quarter of her size, her fear filled eyes scanned her body as her vision returned to find herself turned into a young filly, she cautiously looked back to see the monster that had chased her was not following her anymore so ran as fast as her tiny legs would allow. A worried groan escaped Discords throat as he saw a young zebra run away, his chaos would wear off eventually and she’d become adult again.
She would tell everyone about him and his chaos.
He would lose Celestia’s respect.
He would lose her.
He had never felt such panic before. He needed to do something, anything. He needed to think of something quickly or he would lose everything.
Fear is a powerful thing. He could of turned back into a stallion and run after her, his long powerful adult legs would catch up to a filly in no time. He could off became invisible as is one of his chaotic talents.
But instead he simply stood there, his mind drawing a blank except for thoughts of his Celestia, the look on her face as she approached him after learning of his lies. The bitter angry words that she would insult him with, none of which he felt he deserved. He was a spirit of chaos, this was his nature, he can’t be expected to hold out but he did make a promise, an empty promise but still promise. Then the inevitable.
The cold stone imprisonment.