//------------------------------// // It Starts Here // Story: Start, Fall Apart, Rebuild // by Fret //------------------------------// Celestia blinked open her eyes to the bright sunlight shining through the gap between the curtains and onto her face. Slowly, she pulled herself up and yawned, stretching out her cramped up legs. Using her horn, she pulled open the curtains to reveal the bright and sunny day. "Oh... today looks lovely." She commented as she looked outside. "No important duties today, I should have time to go out there for a while..." She thought for a moment. On a day like this, the Everfree Forest would be a beautiful place to walk and play. She didn't really want to go alone though... Celestia trotted down the hall towards her sister's room. Just in case she wasn't awake, she opened her door slowly and quietly. "Luna?" She whispered. "Luna, are you awake?" A murmur came from the lump in Luna's bed. "What...." She muttered, half asleep. "It's a nice day today. Want to go and play outside before our duties start?" She trotted happily over to her. Her sister however, didn't even turn over to meet her. "Unlike you... I prefer to sleep in when we have no duties..." Luna rasped, covering herself with her blanket even further. Celestia gave an annoyed pout. "But..." She protested. "Noooo." Luna croaked. Celestia sighed, and gave up. "Fine... I'm still going out on my own though." --- Celestia trotted through the Everfree forest, breathing in the fresh air around her. She could never comprehend why ponies feared the forest. Sure... weird creatures lived here and could sometimes be dangerous. But Luna had made plenty of friends with the wildlife whom lived here. But Celestia's favourite part about the forest is the surprises. No pegasi controlled the weather here, the Everfree had free will. Though, it didn't usually clear the clouds away like it had on this occasion. So she had took the opportunity to take a stroll under the bright sun. Her princess duties could wait - there was nothing important going on. She had no idea how long she'd been walking, but the sun was starting to feel like it was burning her coat and feathers. Shade - shade would be nice right now. She hadn't noticed she'd stepped hoof in a clearing, but ahead was a large oak tree which gave all the shade she needed. She settled under it, and decided to admire the beauty around her. Not yet did she notice she was on the edge of the Everfree Forest, but either way, the view was quite beautiful. Birds of different types flew in and out the tree's branches, and animals of the ground gracefully leaped and hopped in the long grass and pink and yellow flowers. She wasn't surprised the tree had many of inhabitants, it was so big it could be made into a cottage or something. Even in the shade, the air was still thick with heat. Maybe if she just closed her eyes for a bit... Thump! Something landed in front of her, seemingly out of the tree. It jerked her more awake, that's for sure. "Oh dear, are you okay?" Celestia could tell it wasn't a pony. It probably didn't even understand her. Come to think of it... the creature wasn't anything she was familiar with. She saw that as it stood up on two different types of legs, it was a mish-mash of all sorts. It brushed grass and petals off it's long, snake-like body with both a lion paw and eagle claw. It's tail was a serpent's, but it's head resembled a pony's. A weird one, but it was indeed a pony's, with two different antler stumps growing out of it. "Yeah, I'm fine." It answered, looking at her with uneven eyes. "Are you going to keep staring at me like that?" Celestia blinked. She didn't realize she was staring. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean-" "Eh it's fine." He shrugged. "Used to it I suppose." "I see..." She answered awkwardly. Why was he smiling? "I'm guessing you're Princess Celestia?" The creature guessed, flapping it's wings so he could hover in the air. He flew closer to her to observe her, head to hoof. "Um... yes." She nodded slowly, covering some of her body with her hoof as she started to feel uncomfortable at him glaring at her like he was. He took the hint, and moved backwards, then stood up on his hind legs once again. Then there was an awkward silence between them. "So... what's your name?" Celestia asked, tilting her head. "Oh. I'm Discord." "Well, hello Discord. If you don't mind me asking... what are you?" She twiddled a hoof on the ground, hoping that Discord wasn't offended. He instead chuckled at her question. "I'm a draconequus. I thought you would of known." Celestia shook her head. "I haven't." She told him. Discord gave a huff of sarcastic surprise. "Well, I suppose it's time for me to make my exit." He said, bending down to get ready to jump back into the tree and out of sight. "Wait!" Celestia stood up suddenly, holding out her hoof to motion him to stay put. Discord blinked at her in (real) surprise, then relaxed his body from his almost midair position "Yes...?" He urged her to go on out of curiosity. "I'm always one for new friends. You seem nice." She smiled. The... 'draconequus'... still kept his surprised look, which slowly morphed into suspicion. He leaned closer to her, trying to spy anything out of the ordinary. Celestia just blinked in confusion. "...What?" She stuttered. "Um... you're not joking, are you?" He raised a furry brow. Celestia shook her head at the statement. "Why would I? I love making friends." Discord sat back on his two hind legs once again. "I don't really hear those words that often. Well... not at all to be exact." He explained. "And a princess would be the last one I'd expect to say that to me." He pointed to her wings and horn. Celestia looked at the two features that she held, then gave a pitiful look to the creature sat in front of her. "I may be royalty, but I'm still a pony." She pointed out. "Besides, my sister, Luna, is friends with a manticore. Who's to say I can't make friends with you? At least you speak my language!" She giggled, thinking about her inability to speak to Luna's lion friend. Discord echoed a chuckle. "You do seem like a nice pony, princess. I suppose I could stick around here for a while - I have nowhere else to go if I'm honest." He tapped her on the nose as he hovered in the air at her head level. Celestia giggled at his sense of humor. She then watched as he tumbled out the air and roll next to her, the tree being what stopped him from rolling any further. A loud bonk! distracted her from laughing though. "Oh dear... are you okay?" She looked down at him as he laid on his back, limbs splayed out. He blinked open his eyes and smirked at her. "You're really gullible, for one." Immediately, Discord flipped himself over and landed on all four of his limbs, then he pushed himself backwards until he was leaning against the tree and slowly sliding down, stopping when he reached his comfortable point. Celestia managed to pull out a smile, then knelt next to him. "I've noticed you don't have a mark on your butt." He began, tilting his head to her blank flank. Celestia followed his gaze. "My cutie mark? Oh no... I don't get that for quite a while." She shrugged it off. "But I've seen much younger ponies with cutie marks." "Alicorns age differently though. Therefore, me and Luna get out cutie marks much later." She explained. "However, I'll admit that it's awkward how so many ponies so much younger than us have found their purpose. And we're princesses!" Discord gave a grunt. From what emotion, she couldn't tell. "So you've been around ever since that huge blizzard?" He asked. Celestia nodded. "Me and Luna were around long before it, actually. She was really young... but either way, we didn't really understand what was going on when it came. Both of us had to travel all alone for a long time..." She recalled back to the huge blizzard they both had to travel through. Even when they found a safe place, it seemed to follow wherever they went. "Really? I remember that blizzard. Well, kinda. It's all a blur, I was so young." Celestia blinked in surprise. "But it happened many years ago... you look about as old as me. Then again... I've never seen a draconequus before." Discord shrugged. "I'm like you. I age differently to those around me, I figured out." "You're saying you have the same life span as me?" She gasped. Discord nodded, but didn't catch on to why she was surprised. "That's great! I thought I'd outlive everypony aside from Luna. I'd have to watch all my friends... um..." She looked at the ground. "...Leave." "Leave? Where would they go?" Discord gave her a confused look. "No, leave as in, pass away." "...Uh..." He continued to stare blankly at her. Celestia rolled her eyes. "Die." "Ohh... well you could of just said that in the first place." "I don't like to talk about death though..." She looked away, into the distance. Discord's slender body allowed him to stay sitting in place, but also curve over and face Celestia, to her surprise. "Why's that?" She gave a mournful sigh. "I last saw my parents when they told us to find Canterlot Mountain, where it would be safe. They flew off, and me and my sister never saw them again." Celestia watched as the draconequus slithered back into his regular sitting position. "Well..." Discord tapped his chin. "Maybe they're out there somewhere." The white mare shook her head. "I was told the alicorns were wiped out. Apparently they tried to stop the blizzard... I think you can work out the rest." "I don't know... can I?" He smirked. Celestia gave an amused huff. "You seem smart enough." She shrugged casually. "I'll take that as a compliment." As he said that, he snapped his fingers, making a pink cloud appear in his lion paw. Celestia flinched in surprise at the use of magic. "How did you..." She blinked. "Poof this up? It's natural." He explained, taking a bite out of it. She blinked again. "What is it, exactly?" She poked her hoof at the pink fluff, which turned out to me quite sticky. She cringed as it hung onto her hoof when she pulled away. "Why, it's cotton candy of course." The pink cloud of puffed up sugar was moved closer to Celestia's face. "Try it." He told her. Celestia had to admit, she have a sweet tooth, and cotton candy was no exception. The scent grew stronger as she slowly leaned towards it to take a bite. Sugar started to melt in her mouth as it came in contact with her saliva, but as it shrunk, the taste on her tongue grew. "Mmm... this tastes really good! You made that yourself?" She commented. "Yeah, you could say that. Also, I just noticed - it's the same colour as your mane." He pointed to her wavy pink mane. Celestia giggled at his statement. "Maybe it tastes like cotton candy." She joked. To her surprise, Discord reached for the part of her mane that grew from the back of her head, and disconnected it easily and started to nibble on it. All she could do is let out a gasp, and start feeling for any left over roots that would be just above her neck. "Wha... how'd you do that?" "Magic." He snorted, his voice muffled through each hair strand. "But how do I put it back on? Do I have to wait for it to grow back?!" She started to panic. Discord just gave an annoyed groan. "Calm down, princess." He muttered, holding her still so he could attach it back onto her. When she ran a hoof down the back of her head, she was shocked to find that it had magically been placed perfectly onto her, like nothing had happened. She swung her head to face him. "I don't get how..." She trailed off. "My magic's different to yours, princess. It doesn't make sense, but hey, where's the fun in that?" He gave her a nudge. "Now, don't you have some royal duties or something?" He angled his tail to the sun's height in the sky. Celestia gasped. "Oh gosh, you're right! I have to go." She must of been here longer than she'd thought. Quickly, the alicorn stood up, and started galloping in the direction of her castle. But then she stopped to look back at Discord. "Bye, Discord. It was nice to meet you!" She smiled. Discord then widened his eyes, then hovered over to her. "Was a pleasure, princess." He gave a slight bow in mid air. Celestia could help but laugh. "Oh Discord, we're friends! You can call me Celestia!" She playfully patted him on the head. Discord could hold back a smile. "Well, okay Celestia." He corrected himself. "Do you want to meet here again, maybe?" The confidence in his voice faded a little, since he could predict what she was going to say... "Sure!" He perked in surprise. "Really?" "Why not?" She giggled. He shrugged. "I'll be here. Just come whenever you like." "That's fine. I'll try and make it this evening." With that, she turned around, and continued to gallop towards home.