"Don't worry, princess! Er—fear not, princess! Thou—um..." Sweetie Belle sighed, dropping her paper sword and letting it flutter back down to the ground, next to her gloomy, absently kicking hooves. "Rarity, how should I say it?"
The fashionista unicorn heaved a heavy annoyed sigh, tapping her hoof and wrinkling her snout in annoyance. She hesitated for a moment, about to walk over and lend a hoof, but to Sweetie Belle's dismay she changed her mind and went back to her design.
"Sweetie Belle, I'm a little busy at the moment. I have to finish this design for a very important client and the deadline is much too soon!"
"But you always say that!" Sweetie Belle protested, her lower lip set in a firm, trembling pout. "The client is always important, but I really need you too, sister! I know you're good with acting and all so couldn't you lend a tip as to how to be a great knight? Just a little help? Please, the play is in less than a week!"
Although her stomach felt a little heavy with guilt, Rarity desperately drowned out her little sister's plea with her own thoughts a she carefully, expertly trimmed through the fabric. "Look, darling, it's in five days and this dress is due in two days! I must finish this first so please try to understand."
The young filly gurgled out a furious growl too low for her sister to hear and fell despondently on her flanks, fiddling with her paper sword. She glanced back over at her older sister and sniffed indignantly, wrinkling her snout like Rarity did when she didn't like something.
The sound of a ringing bell reverberated through Carousel Boutique and Sweetie Belle could tell just by the way her sister didn't even look up that she was expected to open it. Trudging and mumbling to the door, the unicorn swung it open.
"Oh, hi Sweetie!" Fluttershy greeted happily, patting the child's poofy, swirly mane. "Is Rarity there?"
Sweetie Belle tried not to give much of a snippy tone; she liked Fluttershy after all and it wasn't her fault Rarity was being mean. "She's busy right now. What is..." The girl trailed off, jade eyes widening at the sight of a certain draconequus painting polka-dots all over Rarity's flowers. "What's he doing here?"
"Oh, I really need to do some things in Canterlot with Twilight today and I need somepony to look after him-" she punctuated that with a glare behind her and a sharp tug on the spirit's tail to get his attention "-for me. I know it's a lot to ask, but Pinkie Pie is busy with the babies, I'm terrified of leaving him with Rainbow Dash, he's terrified of being left with Applejack again-"
"I am not!" Discord growled, face pinkening in embarrassment, confirming he was indeed.
"-and I can't leave him alone in the cottage. He'll destroy everything if somepony doesn't look after him and keep him in line." She bit her lip at Sweetie Belle's hesitant look as she glanced back in the boutique.
"Well..Rarity is kinda busy, but I guess I could look after him!" How hard could it be?" Really, he was an adult, wasn't he?
"You'd be surprised," Fluttershy muttered, gently pushing Discord in through the door, where the impish spirit slithered over to one of the mannequins, drawing faces on them with markers. She shook her head and gave the filly a grateful nuzzle. "Thank you, Sweetie Belle. Let me know if he's too much trouble."
"It should be okay..I'm responsible enough!" The little unicorn warily glanced back at Discord (who was now amusing himself by stealing Opalescence's toys right from under her). "Umm...yeah, we'll be fine—huh?" The child blinked as a pink, fluffy feather duster was pushed into her hooves.
"If he gets out of line use this on him. Don't leave any valuables with him, and he eats ten times a day and shoves pennies up his nose. Thanks Sweetie, I'll see you tonight!" The door closed.
Sweetie Belle fondled the duster in her hooves, probing at the dastardly, soft feathers. "Well okay. I guess I'll go tell Rarity we have a guest...that just taped our cat to the ceiling—RARITY!"
"UGH. What is it, Sweetie Belle? I already told you I'm too busy to help out with your little play right now!" The fashionista blinked as her sister came rushing in, breathless.
"We have a guest!"
"What?" Rarity cried as if Sweetie Belle had just told her she mopped a grape stain with white towels. "A guest? Now? Oh, I'm much to busy! Why in Equestria didn't you send them away?"
Come to think of it, who was the guest? She knew her friends well enough to know their greetings. Pinkie would bound in bouncing on her hooves and chatting incessantly, Fluttershy would peek around the doorway and squeak if she could come in, Twilight would go on with something tedious and boring she read the other night, and Applejack and Rainbow would usually just trot (fly) in.
"Well, I would have...but he needs a ponysitter." Rarity blinked at her. He? She didn't know of any 'he.' Her heart pounded in dread when she immediately thought of one of those cake kids, but why wouldn't the daughter be here as well?
"Who's the 'he'?" Something complied the unicorn to look up (perhaps it was the tuft of white fur dangling into her eyes).
"Why hellooo, Rarity~! Seen your old flame Tom lately? If not I found a pebble the other day that you'd die for! He's a little small, but does size matter to you~?"
"WAUGH!" The chair creaked and splintered as she flailed back in horror and surprise, impacting the ground with a harsh thud, Discord's laughter ringing above her. "What in Equestria is—how did—WHAT is that DOG doing here??" The seething fashionista fumed as she rapidly gestured to said dog eating her fabric.
"Fluttershy dropped him off," Sweetie Belle squeaked, withering under the nearly murderous look in her sister's eyes as she regarded the chaotic demon, yanking the fabric from his mouth. "She went to Canterlot with Twilight and he needs somepony to look after him so he doesn't..do stuff."
The fashionista's cheeks puffed out in rage, eye twitching and mouth grinding, prepared to explode in a ferocious rant and or scream as the filly ducked for cover under a table. Discord just looked amused; ponies exploding were one of his favorite things.
Rarity swallowed her steaming shrieks and scathing words as she walked up and drew her reluctant little sister out. "Alright, fine then. Sweetie Belle." A maniacal glint in her eye, the unicorn sneered. "But you have to take care of him. Dogs take a lot of responsibility. You have to feed him, groom him, clean up after his business-" Still snickering on her ludicrous words, she couldn't get angry when Discord furiously hurled a pin cushion at her.
"Uhh...will do, sis!" Sweetie Belle turned to the towering spirit, insanely intimidated by those daunting, scarlet eyes and that sharp looking fang. Her voice a little constricted, she squeaked out for him to follow her, watching him turn Rarity's dresses into garbage bags on his way out.
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Anxiety ran high as the two approached the large swinging doors leading to the entrance at the palace. Both Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged wary glances and both guts clenched under the smooth skin of their abdomens. Both sleepless and bloodshot eyes burned from the sunlight. They had been up all night talking, discussing what they would say upon coming here.
"Are you ready?" Twilight asked, reassuringly and comfortingly gripping Fluttershy's hoof. A squeaking whimper was the response and Twilight had no idea if that was a yes or no.
"What if the princesses get mad for asking all this and—and they throw us in a dungeon or something?" A lavender hoof brushed against her bottom lids to wipe away the dew and the other hoof tightened around her arm.
"Be positive, Fluttershy." Her voice was a little contradictory since you could almost feel the negativity seeping from every word. The unicorn pushed open the grand doors with a high pitched creak and trotted inside. Fluttershy wasn't as quick to, warily glancing back at the palace guards.
"Aren't you..you going to stop me like last time?"
The guards glanced at each other and focused their stone faced look back on the young pegasus. "We hath received orders from Princess Luna to always let the bearers of harmony in for whatever reason. And we must throw apples at the one called Discord."
Fixing perplexed looks on the two guards, the pony hesitantly slipped past the grand doors, falling into step beside Twilight. Making their way down the tedious, forever stretching hall, Fluttershy kept her eyes plastered to the fibers of the carpet, tears threatening to brim when she could feel the cold eyes of stained glass Discord watching her every move.
"Now we can't stay here very long," Twilight warned her in advance. "Having been a student of Celestia I know it's around this time that the princess is either answering to her scrolls or attending a royal audience so we can't take too much of her time. Let's go in quietly in case she's busy with her work."
Nodding in understanding and trying to keep from pursing her lips in annoyance, Fluttershy helped Twilight push open the large doors.
"Checkmate~!" There was the sun princess, in the midst of "working" on an oh-so-important chess game with her little sister that was currently throwing a tantrum over having lost, pointing an accusing hoof in her cackling sister's face.
"Cheater! Big cheat! Cheater! I saw you cheat, I saw it!"
"Oh, Luna, don't be such a big baby! Just accept your older sister-" She struck a ridiculous pose, batting her eyelashes flirtily, "-is UN-DE-FEAT-AB-AAAAALLLLLLLE!" Despite wanting to stay angry and pout like a brat, Luna fell back in a fit of giggles. Neither had noticed the very confused and dumbfounded girls that trotted up to them.
"Princess Celestia.." The cautious, almost squeaked tone still had Celestia shoot up, causing the board and pieces to launch off her as the alicorn struggled to regain her royal status, smoothing out her mane and turning to – what she suspected to be a servant – dignified.
A wide grin spread across the ivory face at the familiar, butter colored and purple little forms. "Oh, Twilight! Fluttershy! How wonderful to see you all." Her wings fanned out, one touching their backs in greeting. "What brings you both here?"
As much as Twilight wanted to engage in a long, what-I've-done-with-my-studies filled chat and Fluttershy probably wanted to ramble about Discord, the two knew they couldn't get distracted. Honestly, both wanted to get this to-be interrogation session over with and leave as soon as possible.
Celestia's smile faded off to a worried frown as both faces were suddenly devoid of cheer. "Oh dear. Is something wrong?"
"Princess Celestia..." Twilight bit her lip, scuffing her hoof against the tile and averting her eyes. She could feel her teacher's prying eyes on her and knew there was no going back. "We would like to know about your past with Discord. And....and your parents."
Instantly the tension was as thick and choking as smoke. Luna's hoof had frozen from where it had curled around a chess piece, and she dropped it. Celestia just stood there as stiff as a statue. Luna's eyes eventually roved up to meet both cowardly faces. She wasn't angry; both her and her sister were merely shocked and tense.
"What...what you you wish to know?" the night princess finally whispered, body inadvertently lower to the ground, wings drooped to the sides of her, dragging on the ground. "Why ask of our parents?"
"You want to know about our childhood with him," Celestia said, more to herself than anypony. She sauntered silently to the window; one of those soul searching looks on her face as she gazed up into the clouds. The girls were about to apologize and leave when Celestia spoke again.
"I was around five when they first found him. He was two; this tiny, fuzzy and ugly thing with fur sticking up everywhere. Looking back now I realize how adorable he actually looked, but I was a little too afraid to see him as anything but frightening." She flushed. "I was five."
"And he was ugly," Luna muttered.
"When my parents found him in the palace labyrinth they weren't sure what to do with this creature. They knew he was a draconequus, but their race has been extinct for a while. Exterminated. They took Discord to their seer and she was just as dumbfounded."
The alabaster unicorn violently shuddered as the memories racked her brain. "The seer had no explanation as to how he had survived when the rest of the race died out, but they told them this particular draconequus was a demon." Fluttershy's breath caught in her throat. "He was a spirit, the bearer of chaos, pain, and destruction. Crystal Pendulum told our parents to drown Discord, but they refused to kill an innocent baby.
They instead decided to raise him. We were all naive at the time; we thought we'd actually be able to change him of what he was the incarnation of. Our parents were foolish enough to think they'd be able to save his soul. Perhaps it was because he seemed so innocent and playful. Rather dopey and stupid in the beginning."
Fluttershy's thoughts flashed briefly back to those owlish, scarlet eyes and silly smile on that tiny face from Discord's dream and could easily picture it.
"I thought Discord would be raised along with me as my brother, but I hardly saw him until he was five. Sometimes I'd see him through the window to the library wing as he'd be staying with our nanny. It turns out that my parents had betrothed us the moment they took him in. They figured I'd be able to steer him right."
Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged suppressed gasps. The book had been right.
"When he turned five he came out to play every day. In that time my parents would look after him. Growing up, I know he felt estranged to Father as he was punished for something everyday. Father never tolerated a break in order. To be honest though, I think Father favorited Discord over us. He just never saw it that way."
Luna snickered, only hopping into the conversation when she could delight in adding humiliation to him. "He was constantly given the switch and from the ages of five to nineteen I don't think I ever saw him sit down."
Fluttershy visibly cringed again, recalling where she had extracted from the poor spirit as to why his rear end was covered in a network of welts when she brought him back from Applejack. "Oh yes, poor thing received that from Applejack the other day." Luna just fell down laughing.
"From the beginning," Celestia continued, wishing to get this over with as fast as possible, "he was always prone to chaos. At the ripe age of two he had a tremendous amount of power and seemed to be able to do anything even at his age. I didn't even have that amount of power at his age."
As her lids quietly closed, Twilight could see a bit of water forming at the rim. "The light hearted pranks of banana peels on the floor and salt in the tea turned more malicious as he got older. Simple parental punishments did nothing and our parents knew it. They went back to the seer. She again told them either the solution was to kill him or disown him."
It was now, the emotions having gotten to Luna, she spoke up. Her voice wavered. "But how could we? He was our world!" The princess tried to remain stoic and strong, but the raspy breathing indicated the tears were near. "He was my brother and Celestia's heart. He was mother and father's baby just as much as we were!"
Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other, ears pressing back at the haunted sniffles coming from the night alicorn. They had gone too far to go back now. It was press on and no turning back.
"Even as he grew colder, more distant, we still regarded him as family," Celestia whispered. Her thin, pained voice was nearly inaudible. If Discord could see this. "Even when Luna and I began to fear him, we still loved him, as did Mother and Father."
"I'm pretty sure a few servants over the years made numerous attempts to kill him 'accidentally'. One of them 'fixed' a cabinet that conveniently fell the moment he stepped near it. Another one left a large butcher's knife on the table when he was two. I think I recall a servant also let him play pretty much on the hot stove. They were all fired."
Twilight's bright purple coat had blanched a few shades of blue where her friend was squeezing the life out of her, a look of horror on her face.
"Eventually, I think my parents decided they'd need to banish him in order to save their kingdom. I'm not sure, but I think so. It was the only time I saw Father cry...and so hard."
Large tears were dripping down Luna's midnight blue coat, making her necklace glisten and staining the tiles. "But...but if that was their decision, or if they just wanted to talk to him, they never had a chance to do either." The girls knew this was coming: "They died. I-I don't know how. None of us do...The doctors suspected it was either an abrupt fatal illness, or something that had built up in their immune system over time. But...but it was terrible."
There was a very odd and unreadable look in Celestia's eyes. Even through the crystal, brimming tears, the girls could see the look. They didn't know what her eyes were saying though.
"Yes...the illness must have been terrible and so sudden and unexpected. Discord took over Father's throne soon after..and we had no choice. We had to put him in stone. We had to make sure he wouldn't harm anypony..or...or even himself."
"The stone wasn't our plan," Luna whispered, "but it was in the Elements' plan. The Elements don't care about pony's feelings – they do what is best for Equestria. They were the only ones not oblivious to the facts we tried all our lives to deny: that he couldn't change. Even when he freed himself, and when we thought maybe the Elements would give him a chance this time. They wouldn't."
A silence.
"So that's the story I suppose," Celestia concluded with a listless shrug. "Discord from cradle to corruption. Is that all the information you need?"
The young equines looked at each other again. Twilight had already begun to turn on her hoof to leave, but Fluttershy stayed firmly rooted there. She looked up at Celestia and Luna.
"You say the Elements would never give him a chance to show he can redeem himself....but would you?" At the tense and nearly stoney looks on the alicorns faces, she hastily went on. "You say he is the face of chaos and he can't change...but he can," she squeaked.
They all looked doubtful and she couldn't blame him. Nopony knew that draconequus like she did, not even the girls that were raised with him. They remembered the demon to be a vicious creature that betrayed their trust, fought his way to the throne even after his own parents died. They only knew him as a beast that had harmed them.
Fluttershy knew him different. She knew him as the snarky draconequus that painted her walls in honey and peanut butter; the draconequus that teleported himself into her own nightmares just to protect her from the monsters that plagued her. She knew him as the creature that constantly got into hilarious bantering wars with her pet bunny, and the one that would constantly flop next to her on the couch and demand a belly rub. There was a difference in how they all knew him. Fluttershy knew him as playful; Celestia and Luna knew him as lethal.
"I know he can change.. I..I don't mean stop his chaos all together – we all know that can't ever happen.... But I've seen those mean attacks just turn into...simply pranks! He's always looking after me.. He hasn't ever hurt me and he would never."
Celestia shook her head, focusing her pained, violet orbs on the young girl. At this point she truly had no idea if Discord had the pegasus under a spell, if she had gone delusional...or if she was right. Nonetheless, this same conversation was becoming tiresome and stressful to deal with.
"Fluttershy, dear...we do want to believe you, but it's hard, and you must understand that." Celestia turned to a trembling Luna, gently turning her little sister towards her and pressing her face into her side, concealing the blue, tear stained face from view with her wings.
Twilight felt her heart constrict and twist, the tears beginning to brim over at what pain their selfish questioning caused her mentors. Quietly, she draped a hoof over the very still, very silent Fluttershy and pulled her along, leaving the two heartbroken sisters to their grief.
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Sweetie Belle sat laid there belly down on the floor, absently twiddling and rolling around a few of her old crayons she had gotten out in case Discord wanted to play with them (clearly having no idea how to entertain a spirit of chaos). If anything, he seemed to be finding amusement in stuffing them up his nose.
"Uhhm.....so, what do you like to do?" Sweetie Belle asked awkwardly, scribbling red over a sun she was coloring. She grimaced at realizing the colors didn't match with what she wanted and tried to color the red over with an orange.
"Chaos," was his automatic, toneless response.
The filly tried holding out an orange crayon. "You want to color?" She only watched with a stunned blink as he took the crayon, tossed it into his open mouth and swallowed it whole. "How about a green one?" He ate that one too.
Picking the wax out of his teeth, Discord casually hovered over towards Sweetie Belle's bed. The wary unicorn filly anticipated what he was going to do and watched, captivated as his talon glowed with a golden hue – before immediately turning her bed sheet into a very bright, complementary slice of cheese.
"Hey!!" The child darted towards the cackling spirit, taking a flying leap and landing only in the space of air he was floating in. She glared as he appeared behind her, twiddling his fingers in a mocking hello. He turned from the child and darted over to her bench, gleefully transforming it into a very large chocolate bar and taking a bite out of it.
Fluttershy wasn't kidding! This creature really did eat ten times a day; bedclothes and interior decorating alike! Sweetie Belle's jade eyes caught sight of the limp little duster in the corner of her room. She darted to it, taking the tickly instrument into her hoof.
Now's a good chance for me to practice my lines and get into character! The unicorn child hopped out in front of Discord, standing tall on two hooves and brandishing his feathered nemesis towards him. She gave angry snort and scraped a hoof against the ground.
"Vanquish, foul beast!" Not even giving the child so much as a glance Discord poofed the duster into a rather frenzied chicken that immediately ran amok around the horrified filly's room, knocking over ornaments and darting out into Rarity's work area.
"Oh nononono – bad chicken!" Sweetie Belle screeched, scampering into her sister's room, where a now shrieking Rarity was trying to shield her designs as the golden talons of the creature clicked all over her desk and hopped over her head.
"Sweetie Belle! Get that thing!!" The filly zip-zagged past her sister, taking a flying leap at the bird. Oh, she had it now! Right when Sweetie Belle felt the feathers of the chicken brush against her chest there was a sudden snap and the oh-so heroic girl fell hard on the duster rod.
Glancing over at a hysterical Discord rolling about on the ground and a Rarity lecturing and screeching at him, Sweetie Belle pulled the rod away from her abdomen and groaned. It was going to be a long rest of the day.
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"Well, that felt great," Twilight hissed with heavy sarcasm, inwardly kicking herself and outwardly banging her head against a wall. Those pained eyes would forever haunt her mind. "There's nothing better than making your teachers cry, hm?" She struck her hoof back at the palace walls, making a painting above tremor slightly.
"I hated it too," Fluttershy whispered, repressing the sniffle at seeing her friend so mad because of her. "But we...we needed answers, didn't we? I-I know you are only doing this whole Discord thing for my sake but I know you..you were a little curious too."
She had her there. Twilight had been dying with curiosity and kept hidden of the fact she just lay there blinking in bed most of the night, anxious for the conversation. "Alright, I admit to that." The unicorn levitated Equestrian Royal Origins out of her saddlebag and a capsule of ink and a quill.
Fluttershy sat beside her friend, watching as Twilight scribbled notes on the side of the paper. She rolled her eyes as Twilight scribbled beside the pictures of Aegeus and Astraia: 'killed by Discord.' "Is that, um, really necessary, Twilight?"
"No matter what you're investigating, it's very important to make notes," was the unicorn's response, writing beside a picture of Discord: 'supposedly spawned by demons, Aegeus and Astraia's adopted son.'
"I can't believe the princesses really think that an illness was what took the life of the king and queen!" Twilight exclaimed. "Wasn't it Princess Celestia that straight out told us an alicorn can only be killed by brute force and magic? They should know they didn't just catch sick and die. They're in denial..." She glanced back. "I think we should tell them-"
"NO!" Fluttershy was in front of her friend in an instant, having whipped towards her so fast Twilight stumbled over the book. "If they find out Discord killed the king and queen they'll put him back in stone for sure!"
"Well, we have to say something!" Twilight retaliated. "We can't just not tell them who killed their parents. We have no right to keep that from them!"
"They will get told," Fluttershy stressed firmly with a firm stomp of her hoof, "but it..it is not our liberty to tell them.." Both girls fell silent and Twilight resumed to writing a few more notes in the pages of the book. Dejected and quiet, Fluttershy's saffron hoof fell on the page's frayed edges. She looked at her friend with tears in her eyes.
"Can I hold onto the book for a while please, Twilight? I..." She shut her eyes and the edge of her delicate eyelids twitched with clinging tears. "I want to remember a time when he was happy. When they all were happy."
Twilight understood completely and gave her friend a reassuring hug, enveloping the book in a magic field and sliding it into Fluttershy's saddle bag. "Ready to go home yet?"
"Yes; I just want to make a quick stop at a Canterlot bakery on the way. I promised Discord I'd bring him back his favorite cookies..."
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Click click went the sound of a penny being tossed back and forth in a lame game of boredom Sweetie Belle and Discord had cooked up. The two's first idea had been to cut snowflakes out of Rarity's old fabrics, but nooo, the priss wouldn't tolerate the mess.
"Could you two PLEASE keep it down? I am in the middle of a very important commission and you are both ruining my concentration!"
"Please, every commission of yours is 'important'," Sweetie Belle muttered in a snippy manner, prompting a snicker from Discord.
"I hardly care about what you foals think. A commission for Princess Celestia is not something I do every-EEP!" She squealed as Discord abruptly darted in front of her face, a talon gripping the silk of Celestia's dress, studying it closely. It actually didn't look like he was about to destroy it. For some reason he was staring sharply at it.
"What are you making a dress for Kill-estia for?"
"The Grand Galloping Gala. This year she's actually going to be attending it rather than greeting everypony at the door. I believe Princess Luna is doing that." She turned from him, carefully wrenching the silk from his grip. "Never have I made a dress for royalty – it needs to be absolutely flawless!"
"She likes sunflowers."
"What?" Rarity turned to the spirit. He was on his back now, lips pursed, arms crossed, face emotionless. He didn't even turn back to her.
"If you truly want to 'dazzle' her, then she likes SUNFLOWERS," he snapped. "It was always her favorite flower." The fashionista's eyes settled on his face for a moment, briefly, ever so briefly flashing with concern. It disappeared instantly once he suddenly summoned a rubber spider and taped it to the dress.
"Hoho, or we could make a dress that would really make her crawl indeed!" he cackled. "IF you'll let me help, elegant Rarity, I could create the most chaotic dress in all of Equestria!" Those eyes darkened at the sudden remembrance. Well, he never and would never forget. "Why would you make her something beautiful after what she did to me!?"
Rarity's pearl white teeth ground in annoyance, eye twitching like the oh so many times Sweetie Belle did something to render her on the verge of exploding. Yet, just like those oh so many times she cleared the rage and glanced back at the filly with calm eyes, she did it with Discord. Perhaps it was time to try a different approach.
Discord had his head turned, seething vermillion narrowed and looking at the wall. He blinked and squeaked out a yelp as the fashionista half comfortingly, half sternly gripped his face in her hooves and turned him to her.
"Now, listen darling," Rarity forced out, surprised that it didn't make much effort to be comforting. "I understand you're very angry with the princess for crippling you. Even I agree from what Fluttershy told me that you did nothing to deserve that." He tried to nod, but the mare gave his face a single shake. "But I will not have you jeopardizing my business for the sake of petty revenge!"
The marshmallow hooves left his face and the spirit clenched his jaw angrily, venomous, glazing rubies darting back over to the angelic, bulky dress. "Who said I'd jeopardize your business, my dear?" he asked calmly. "I'd only jeopardize this dresses color scheme and over-all design..."
"A dress that belongs to the princess!" Rarity huffed out in exasperation, shooing the spirit away that was currently over her head and glaring balefully at the dress. "If she sees it fit she could shut me down! I'm quite certain she'd do that if I gave her a spider dress."
"Hmmph, who cares. Fashion is a stupid career anyways," Discord muttered venomously, almost thankful when Rarity seemed too preoccupied in her work to hear him. He hovered back over to Sweetie Belle. The filly was busy mumbling things about dragons and what sounded like the old Canterlot dialect. His eyes roved over the script, realizing it was a play.
"Vanquish, foul beast! We hath...we hath arrived to save thy princess! No...that's not right." Sweetie Belle moaned and let her head flop into the script. Stupid, stupid play! Unknowingly to her and the busy-body unicorn Discord had snapped his fingers..and something was breathing on the child's shoulder.
Sweetie Belle had suspected the annoying chaotic demon was lounging over her shoulder and breathing on her, therefore the last thing the poor girl assumed was to turn and to be targeted by a pair of malicious, yellow eyes and have a thick cloud of smoke being blown into her face from a very realistic looking illusion of a dragon. No, it was Discord.
"WHOA!" Sweetie Belle shrieked, falling back over her script book as the Discord-dragon towered above her. "What are you doing?!"
"Say your line, my little pony!" Discord said cheerfully, as if it was completely normal to stand there as a giant red dragon. "They always say it helps to get into an acting role when you have good props!" He cackled.
"V...vanquish, foul beast! We hath returned to save thy princess!" she shouted, fumbling to grab her paper sword, looking less like a fearless knight and more akin to a toddler that that thought a monster was in its closet. She squeaked as the spirit of chaos summoned and struck out a paper sword of his own. No..his was a gummy.
"We will never return thy princess! Thou art leave! ...Ah, that isn't right; Luna was always better at this 'Royal Canterlot shlop' then I was." He twirled his goatee (that he had taken the liberty to make sure was still attached to his dragon form) thoughtfully.
"Aha!" With a flash of white the dragon was gone and there stood Discord with a toffee crown on his head and a candy scepter. "I shall be the royal prince of GUMMY BEAR LAND!" With a flick of his wrist a gummy bear jewel appeared on top of his scepter. "I am here to save the land of cheese doodles and apple sauce from the evil robot!"
Sweetie Belle was on her stomach, pounding the floor with her hoofs as she giggled and guffawed, frantically waving the script to him. "Discord, there aren't any robots in this play!"
"Oh yes there are!" Sweetie Belle only watched as Discord swiped up an empty cardboard box from beside the mountain of costumes and shoved it over Rarity's head. "And she is the evil robot!" The fashionista shrieked and struggled, hooves grasping at the edges of the box, but Discord held it on.
"For making all the children of the world eat their broccoli, take that!" Discord shouted, slamming the rod of the duster against the side of Rarity's box head and causing the fashion pony to tumble off her chair and into the trunk of costumes.
"Oh, you dog! You impolite, uncouth beast!" Rarity screeched, marshmallow hooves scrambling at the sides to try and pull herself up. If was no use, the trunk was just too steep. "You just wait until Fluttershy hears about this! Or Applejack! I swear to you, I-" Her promised threats fell silent as Discord nonchalantly kicked the trunk closed.
He turned, expecting the snoot's younger sister to rave at him to let her out, but to his delight his feline paw met her hoof in the air as they slapped a high hoof/high paw. Just as the front door swung open, revealing two certain, very tired little ponies.
Fluttershy was the first to drag herself in, poofy mane seeming to be deflated in exhaustion, hanging low to the ground. The pegasus smiled when she saw the familiar, sweet (to her anyway) little twisted face. The rest of his body was sprawled out on a trunk. She incorrectly guessed he was laying there out of exhaustion (not even pausing to consider he was trying to contain a screaming pony).
"Evening, sweetie, did you have fun?" The pegasus asked, trotting up to the spirit and affectionately nuzzling his torso as he tried to subtly worm away from her.
"Oh, it was the best," Discord chortled darkly, and Fluttershy either chose not to detect the playful malice in his voice or was simply too tired to. "Can 'Auntie Rawrity' and 'Auntie Sweetie Belle' babysit wittle Dissy every day?" he crooned, sneering at the opposing screams of a certain unicorn probably drowning under a sea of clothing.
Fluttershy wasn't deaf to the screams. "What's that sound? And where's Rarity?"
"Hm? Oh, it's probably just Opal~ And I believe Rarity said something about having a nice, hot bubble bath to wash away the stress of looking after little-ol'-me~!" Fluttershy's suspicion only lasted about half a second as she merely shrugged and turned to walk out the door with him.
Discord gleefully followed, and a certain little filly trotted to the trunk to help out her distressed sister. Really, if this was the kind of things he could get away with Fluttershy this tired then he wasn't ever going to let her sleep again~!
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Even Discord had to admit he was exhausted. A day of eating crayons, getting ready for his grand role and then the tedious fly back to his guardian's cottage. Why in Equestria did she have to live nearly on the edge of Ponyville?
"You look just as tired as me," Fluttershy sighed, practically crawling through the front door to her cottage. "You didn't even make the day long trek from here to Canterlot and back either."
"Well no, but a day of chaosing can easily wear a Discord out!" The spirit situated himself all snuggled up and comfy underneath his quilts, batting his eyelashes towards Fluttershy, twinkling scarlet eyes gazing up at her expectantly, like a child waiting for his bedtime story. Or something else.
"What?" Fluttershy giggled tiredly, rubbing at her sapphire eyes with saffron hooves.
"Cookie!" he pouted, really sounding like a four year old now. "Cookie, cookie, cookie!" He blinked as the pony cringed and averted her eyes sheepishly.
"I'm sorry sweetie, but there were none left when Twilight and I got to the vendors. They were all sold out." Discord's eyes went owlish and nearly watery, as if somepony had told him his puppy had died. He stared at Fluttershy, but she shook her head and reaffirmed she had gotten none.
"I can get you a nice warm glass of milk though to help you sleep!" she offered. He merely stared at her so the pegasus tiredly cantered off to the kitchen. Every joint felt as if a screw was being tightened more and more with ever step. Her stupid saddlebag wasn't helping any. Far too exhausted to process common sense at the moment, she threw it down near the coffee table.
A frivolously scowling Discord was doubting his caretaker's honest words. He knew the pegasus well enough to know she condoned eating sweets before bedtime, like all typical mother hen figures. Fluttershy's Element wasn't honesty after all.
"If I find you're hiding my cookies from me I will turn your tea to soap," he muttered under his breath, dumping the contents of the bag out. Only one thing fell out, and it wasn't cookies The large, hard cover book flopped to the ground in front of the draconequus. The spirit of chaos could only stare at the engraved words on the front of the book.
Equestrian Royal Origins.
He already had a bad feeling, but he shakily stepped out of the bed and picked up the book anyways. He sifted to the bookmarked page. His blood froze rigid in his veins. It was his parents. Visible, old tear stains had tainted the images of the large, enchantingly beautiful alicorn as black as night, and the cream colored stallion with a flowing mane that looked like smouldering embers. Discord could still make out their ever loving faces, their smiles, their gentle and serene eyes.
The moment surreal, time having stopped, not even sure if he was breathing. Discord's eyes scanned Twilight's notes.
King Aegeus and Queen Astraia, killed by Discord from a magic debilitating spell.
Foster parents of Discord.
Betrothed to Princess Celestia.
Used the "Alicorn's Power" book on them.
Killed by Discord. Killed by Discord. Killed by Discord.
"Okay, sweetie, it turns out we're all out of milk, but what you like some-" The glass precariously fell from Fluttershy's hoof and smashed into thousands of pieces on the ground, spewing out a small tidal wave as white as snow.
Fluttershy could only stand. She could only stand and stare on in terror. His face hadn't risen from the pages of the book, reading the same words over and over again. At last, he turned to her.
".......Where....did you get this?"
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(Firstly, HAPPY EASTER!
Secondly, OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SNAAAAP!!)