//------------------------------//
// IV 
// Story: Rebirth 
// by The-Pony-Librarian 
//------------------------------//

Year 1004, Celestial Era - 353 years ago 



Discord watched as Twilight slumped down the hall, head low, wings hanging loosely at her sides. By Starswirl’s Beard, did she look like Tartarus. He snaked down the pillar he had been curled around and furrowed his brows, watching as she continued down the hall. Poor thing was really taking it hard.
He didn't even remember her looking that depressed when he had reversed her element and she had been trudging around all dull grey colored, with tears dripping down her face and landing on the ground in the shape of broken hearts. He had added that touch himself. Dear Celly had told him that he shouldn't be proud of any of his actions while messing with the lives of other ponies, but he had liked that one. Very poignant.
Now Twilight just resembled somepony who had just gotten into a particularly nasty run in with the bad end of a minotaur. It was positively depressing. Turns out having all your friends die can turn you into a real downer. Really, who'd have known?
Not that Discord was unsympathetic per se. He had just been around the block enough times to know that, inevitably, without fail, neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night would stay ponies from doing what they they did best. Dying.
Ponies died. It was a fact of life. No need to get all fussed about it. Honestly.
Sure, he had been close with Shy. She was a sweet little thing, nice to talk to, just about the only pony who would put up with him for any extended period of time. Though really it was probably because she had gotten so much practice putting up with that tiny monstrosity Angel Bunny. Never had a name been more unfitting. The point was though, she had been a good friend. 
Then she died. 
He would remember her, but anything more than that would be pointless. Wouldn't make her any less dead, at any rate. Besides, there was nothing he could have done. By the time he'd come into the picture, there had been no stopping Tia.
Twilight clearly didn't see things the way he did though, moping about like that. She would learn though. By the sixteenth or seventeenth dead friend she would hardly feel a thing. Being around the other princesses would help too. Gather enough immortals in one place, and eventually they'll start to resemble a group of vultures flocking around a decomposing body composed solely of cynicism. A feeding frenzy of ennui and disenchantment. Which is why Discord was leaving.
That kind of thinking was unhealthy for a long lived creature such as himself. That was the sort of thing that had lead to the downfall of the rest of the draconequui. Discord gave a little shudder from ears to tail-tip before putting it out of his mind. Suffice to say, the entire thing was about as cheery as a funeral...an analogy he could confirm very well, having been at one recently.
Sure, he had managed to keep his lively spark despite being older than than Sunbutt, Loudmouth, Bubblegum, and Miss.Crybaby over there combined, but he had found himself to be the exception when it came to that sort of thing. Enough time around this place Twilight would be as jaded as old Tia and Lulu in no time flat. Soon she'd be fake smiling and offering platitudes and slowly shriveling up inside and-
...And he didn't like that idea very much.
With a snap of his fingers, he blinked directly in front of Twilight. "Hello!"
The alicorn gave a squeak, plopping directly back onto her star emblazoned flank. She blinked up at him dully, mouth slightly open, face blank, without even the grace to look annoyed.
She closed her eyes, opened them slowly, took a moment to rearrange herself. She picked herself up into a scant approximation of standing, hunched, head barely lifted enough to look Discord.  "Look, Discord..." her voice was tiredly flat "I really appreciate you saying hi, I just- I really need to be alone right now."
Discord grinned, "That's great! Because I'm leaving! And so are you!" With a deafening noise of about seventy three steamer trunks, twenty six duffel bags, three TSA compliant carry-on’s, and a fanny pack falling to earth, Discord was quickly was surrounded by a pile of luggage taller than himself and large enough to fit in a moderately sized tour van, which was convenient, as, after a short pause, one of those dropped from the ceiling too, rattling the entire hall. In another instant, a camera had slung itself about Discord’s neck,  and his horns were stabbing neatly through the top of a baseball cap. Reaching into his fanny pack, he pulled out a bottle of sunscreen and sprayed a healthy amount onto himself, filling the palace with the smell of pools and beaches and miserable summer camping trips. 
Twilight coughed violently, squinching up her eyes "I...Wait. What?"
"We're going to see the world, look at the sights! What's the point of immortality and wings if you don't use them to see the world? Ammirite?" An Equish to Griffonian dictionary appeared hovering in front of him, along with several others, and he made a show of paging busily through them "Better brush up on your languages Twily. How's your Saddle Arabian? Know what البرسيم و ذكي means?”
Twilight just stared at him, eyebrows furrowed, head tilted ever so slightly to the side like a bemused dog. Discord gave a dismissing wave of his claw “Well, best you don’t anyways. Innocent ears and all that...If any strange ponies in Tubuck start shouting that at your from across the street,  just say no.”
"What?"
Discord had no delusions about being benevolent. He was not a good samaritan, or particularly altruistic. He was a nuisance at his best, dangerous at his worst, and usually had a penchant for causing trouble, even restricted as he was to mostly harmless trouble. Despite all that, he needed to get Twilight out of there.
Something about seeing the huffy, impatient, snarky, know-it-all reduced to a gluttonous buzzard of disillusionment and self-pity just didn't sit well with him. He grabbed Twilight, held her out at arm's length in front of him.
"Twilight, trust me on this one, you don't want to stay here." He shook his head emphatically, pulling her to his side and gesturing dramatically outward with his eagle claw. She wriggled out of his grasp, looking offput "No, it's best you leave to become a wandering nomad or something. Or maybe a cave hermit, dispensing out wise advice to anypony brave enough to climb up to her mountainous abode"
Hovering in the air with his limbs tucked in lotus position, and wearing an expression of the utmost inner peace, he gave his beard a quick tug, unrolling it to the floor like a parchment scroll. His low peaceful humming filled the room, only to be interrupted as he cracked open an eye and sniffed at Twilight’s offended look. Being a cave hermit wasn't a bad gig. He had done that for a couple thousand years, though his advice had proven to be less than stellar on several occasions.
King Silver's famous "Chicken Decree" had been a riot, though.
...Literally.
"I'm not going to go live in a cave, Discord!" Twilight glared at him "I have duties, responsibilities!"
"There's nothing here for you anymore, but duties and responsibilities."
Now she furrowed her brows "That's not true, I mean, after..." her voice wavered. "But I still have my family, I have Celestia, and Lun- What?"
"What?" He quickly composed his expression into a mask of neutrality.
Twilight recoiled slightly “What the hay is that?”
Discord removed the carved mask from his face and regarded it. It was a little creepy.  A quick flick of the wrist threw it offscreen. “So anyways…”
Twilight wasn’t biting, she narrowed her eyes "You were making a face." 
"No I wasn't."
"Yes you were, I was talking about Celestia and Luna and- there it was again!" Twilight pointed wildly.
"There what was again?" Discord gave her his best confused look.
"The face. You just made that face!"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Discord." Twilight took a step forward, voice lowering.
Discord looked away "I really shouldn't say."
"Tell me."
"No."
"Tell me."
"No."
"You tell me right now!" There was flare of light as Twilight's horn lit up threateningly.
""Okay! Alright." Discord raised his claws "All I'm saying is that, well..."
Twilight pursed her lips "Go on."
"In a court of law, one might consider that it was possible that Celestia could have been slightly involved in- the deaths of all of your friends" Discord gave a little wince, "Or, really, directly responsible for them, but-"
"What." Twilight cut him off, face expressionless.
"I mean, who'd have thunk it, eh?"
"Discord?" Twilight regarded him coolly, head tilted slightly to one side. "What is wrong with you?" her voice was flat, soft.
"Look, I know it probably sounds a bit crazy-"
"I lost the five ponies who meant the world to me this month, Discord." She said quietly, looking down at the ground "These past few weeks have been the worst of my entire life, and-" She stopped, the words catching, and Discord watched as she  swallowed furiously past her trembling voice, hooves shuffling, wings fluffing at her sides "And now,” she finally continued, the words heavy “You. You have the gall to suggest that Celestia, the pony who practically raised me, mur-killed them."
Discord drew himself up, growling slightly “Well I figured it was something you would want to know” he said, annoyance tinging his voice. He was just trying to give her some important and honest information, but there she was blaming him for that. Maybe it had been a bit badly planned, maybe he wasn’t the best when it came to things like, well, tact, but he was just trying to help her. Honestly, she could be so unreasonab-
“You thought I'd want to know.” The words dripped with scorn as Twilight looked up at Discord, staring him straight in the eyes with utter contempt, her voice almost a whisper, but filled with venom "After all the years of being reformed” her laughter at the word was joyless “You still don’t understand a thing about how ponies work, do you?”
"I-" Discord took a few steps backwards, flinching slightly.
Twilight gave a small, choked sob.
"Do you think this is funny?" she screamed, the fur on her cheeks damp with tears. "Do you think this is some big joke?"
"Twilight, if you'd let me explain..." 
"Just go, Discord." She slumped slightly, all the fire leaving her in one breath. "I don't care anymore, just go away"
Discord winced. That hadn’t gone as planned. No. He should have known that Twilight wouldn't believe a word of it. Not against Celestia, and certainly not from him. He flicked his tail. This was the exact reason he didn’t get into pony affairs. No, they just offed eachother and made eachother immortal and then dumped it all him. And Faust help you if you tried do something fun, like turn them into plants. This was why he stayed out of things. He raised up his claws in resigned defeat. “Alright, I’m going.”
Twilight gave no response, to busy in a valiant, but ultimately failing effort to cry quietly.
Poor girl. It would be an ugly scene when she found out the truth for herself. Discord sighed.
“Look. Just take this, okay?” He opened his paw and inside was a small wooden box. Cracking it open with his claws to show a small glass sphere, milky blue, with mist swirling gently inside. “I owe you. From back a while ago. With Tirek. If you ever need a Favor, just break this pretentious little glass thing,” Discord waved it around helpfully. “Dramatically, if possible." He gave a little grin. "I'll do what I can."
Twilight wouldn’t even look at him as he placed the box on the floor beside her. “I don’t want your favor.”
That made Discord smirk a little “I’d like to see you try to get rid of it.” His favors had a tendency to follow ponies around. Indefinitely.  He made a big show of turning smartly on his heel before adding over his shoulder "And actually...it's Favor, with a capital "F." Sounds more formal that way."
"Go to Tartarus."
"Goodbye, Sparkle." Discord wasn't one for sympathy, but if Twilight had looked up at that moment she might have seen something like pity on his face.
There was no reply as he snapped his claws and disappeared from the hall.