Celestia entered her library, looking for the pony whom she always met around this time of day.
"Celestia!" The stallion exclaimed. He had been hidden behind a tower of books, no wonder she couldn't see him.
"Hi Starswirl." She smiled, scanning the different genres of books around her. "What exactly are you studying right now?" All the different types confused her. There was teleporting, to levitating, to history books.
The unicorn chuckled. "Time travel." He said. Celestia's eyes widened.
"Oh... that seems difficult."
"And boooring!" Another voice called from the other side of the library. She knew exactly who it was, and rolled her eyes.
"Shut up, Luna." She retorted. "If studying is so boooring, why are you in here?" She looked over to her sister who was running her hoof over the books sat on the shelves.
"Because constellations are cool." She simply answered, finally stopping on a dark blue book. Using her magic, Luna levitated it in front of her and opened it to begin to read. Celestia just gave a sigh and turned back to Starswirl.
"I'd be honored to help you complete this spell." She offered, glancing at his few pages of notes so far.
"Help would be good. Thank you, princess." He nodded to her. "But before we begin, I think we should have some lunch first."
Oh dear. Celestia wasn't in the mood for healthy food, now that she'd eaten half a... um... cloud of cotton candy. However, that news couldn't be shared, for, in her opinion, it was not princess-like to eat dessert before lunch.
"Good, I'm starving." Luna slammed her book shut, and trotted along with Starswirl towards their dining room, abandoning the collided pages on the floor. The book was then glowing with gold aura, as Celestia gently set it on the table.
"At least show some respect for the books you do like." She scolded, as she caught up with her sister.
Luna just rolled her eyes. "What was it gonna do while we were gone, burst into flames?"
Celestia just gave out a sigh.
---
The three ponies eating at the table were silent. It seemed nopony knew what to start a conversation about. So Celestia took it as an opportunity.
"Starswirl?" She broke the silence. The unicorn wizard flinched at the sudden voice, then looked up at her.
"Mhmm?" He mumbled, with his mouth full.
The alicorn's hooves twiddled. "What's a draconequus?"
When she said that, Starswirl stopped, and put down his silverware. "Creatures I hope I never meet face to face." He began. "I've studied them in the past. Before I knew it was Windigoes causing the huge blizzard, I thought that the amount of disharmony between ponies may have been caused by their species. I'm glad I was wrong."
Celestia tilted her head in confusion. "What does disharmony have to do with draconequuses...draconequi.... what's the plural?"
The unicorn shrugged. "I really don't care. But their kind has an obsession with creating disharmony among other beings. They think it's fun, really. And something creating corruption between others for the joy of it is probably one of the most evil things one can do."
The princess looked at the floor. "Where do they come from?"
"I'm not completely sure, to be honest. As far as I know, they where most likely first created by disharmony itself, but I think from then on they reproduced like regular life forms. I heard myths that with each birth they grew more harmonized feelings, but they keep it hidden, you can only unlock it like a door and a key. I doubt that last parts true though..."
At first, Celestia didn't know how to respond. Lucky (or unlucky) for her, he spoke before she could.
"Why'd you ask?" He raised a brow, moving his hat upwards as it started to tip over. Celestia would admit the truth, but somehow it seemed wrong.
Discord didn't seem evil or anything like that... sure, a bit mischievous, but heck, I'm mischievous quite a lot too!
"...Oh, I just saw the word in a book not long ago. I didn't know where I could find out what it was though." She lied.
"You find a lot of words in a lot of books." Her sister commented, her voice muffled with the food that was stuffed in her mouth.
"Just remember, Princess, if you ever see a draconequus, you must report back so we can get rid of it. Their magic corrupts them, and will eventually hold no bounds."
---
Guilt was biting at Celestia's hooves as she trotted through the Everfree. Ever since lunch, she had been trying to persuade herself that Discord didn't match Starswirl's description on his species. She found Discord amusing, and finding out he aged the same as her was more than satisfying, like she would have a friend and a sister forever, and she'd never have to let them go.
But what if Starswirl was right? What if Discord was indeed evil?
The more she knew him, the more sure Celestia could be. And she'd hate to accuse one of their reputation... that's how the three pony tribes were separated by their hatred for each other.
She didn't even realize it when she reached the clearing she'd met Discord in earlier that day.
"Discord?" Her voice echoed across the open space. No voice came back. She kept walking towards the oak tree, keeping and eye out for a slender mish-mashed body. But so far, there was no one in sight. "Discord?" She yelled again, this time a little louder.
Again, no answer.
Just as she was about to give up and turn back, weight smashed into her front, rolling her down the small hill that she was standing on. Celestia grunted as she stopped, then blinked open her eyes, to see a familiar face above her.
"You scared me!" She gasped, as the draconequus on top of her stared back down at her.
"So did you." He said, as he rolled off of her. He lent her his lion paw in order to help the alicorn get back on her hooves, in which she accepted.
"How did I scare you?" She tilted her head.
Discord shrugged. "I didn't expect you to come back."
Celestia then smiled at him. "I said I would, didn't I? Of course I came back!" She gave a giggle, being echoed by Discord.
"So, what do you want to do?" She continued. He tapped his chin, thinking for a moment.
"I don't know. I didn't plan anything."
"Well, you're very organized." Celestia sarcastically commented. Discord gave a scoff.
"Do I look organized to you?" He held his arms out so she could look at his whole anatomy.
"Point taken." She continued to think of some sort of game to play. "I bet you can't catch me." She teased, galloping off into the forest.
When she looked back, she saw that Discord hesitated at first, but then smirked and started to flap his two different wings so he could chase after her. She began to dodge through small gaps in the trees, and chaotically maneuvering in jagged paths. But to her surprise, non of her tactics seemed to shake him off. In fact, it seemed he knew every move she was going to do next.
"Impressive." She called back to him.
"Oh, you've seen nothing yet, princess." He taunted, suddenly dashing a different way, into oblivion. Celestia skidded to a stop, unsure to what he was trying to do. She looked around, but she could hardly see further than two of her own tail lengths. It didn't help that the only thing she could hear was the breeze weaving through the tree's branches.
"Discord?" She whispered. Then something leaped out from the bushes in front of her and tapped her on the nose.
"You're it." Discord chuckled. Celestia blinked in shock.
"How did you-"
"No time for questions." He said, as he flew towards the sky, above the trees. Celestia settled into her playful mode again, and started flapping her wings to chase after him. As soon as she emerged from the forest into the air, however, clouds surrounded her and blocked her vision.
"Show yourself! It's no fair if I can't see you." She grunted.
"You have to look for obvious clues." His voice somehow seemed to echo in her mind. "Where do you think I am?"
Celestia tilted her head to where she thought the voice was coming from. She could tell his voice seemed to be more in her left ear than her right, therefore she turned right. A small movement in the clouds caught her attention, and she straight away dashed towards it. Though, she didn't expect to bump into anything. She thought wrong though, and found herself face to face with Discord, both oblivious to them plummeting towards the ground.
"Clever." He commented.
"I dread to think how good you are at hide and seek..." She fretted. Discord chuckled.
"You can always try me." He bet her. But Celestia raised a brow at this.
"What that suppose to mean?"
Discord covered his mouth in realization. "I meant, we could always try and play that."
"Oh, okay." She huffed.
"And Celestia,"
"Mhmm?"
"We're about to hit the ground." He pointed below them, and along with his statement, came the thud. Though they both grunted, Discord did so louder, since he was squished between a mare and the ground.
Celestia shook her pink mane out of her face and gave a pitiful look at him. "I didn't hurt you did I?" She gasped, seeing his pupils were rolling around in his eye sockets. He shook his head and looked back up at her.
"I'm fine..." He rasped. "Though, I'll admit it was a bit of an impact." 'A bit' was an understatement.
"...Maybe we should wrap up the games." Celestia suggested, rolling off of him. Discord didn't exactly move position, just rolled over on his side to face the alicorn lying next to him.
"Agreed." He said, rubbing his head.
"Look at the bright side - we cleared up some of the clouds. We can see the sky." She pointed a hoof to the black sky, only lit up by the moon and a few faded stars. Seeing how dark it was made her sigh.
"What?" Discord asked her.
"It's just that..." She began, rolling back on her side to face him again. "I remember, very faintly, the night sky used to be lit up with stars... and the moon used to be so much brighter."
"Well, I obviously don't, but why would it be any different now?"
"Well... when there were more full grown alicorns, they used to light up day and night for the ponies. It was always such a beautiful sight... but ever since the unicorns took over, the sky has never been the same. No offence to them, of course." She added quickly.
"Why don't you do it? You're an alicorn." He pointed to her wings and horn.
"Me? Oh no... the best spell I can do is teleportation. Moving a huge celestial body? No way."
"You're names 'Celestia' for a reason, I'm sure." He smirked.
"Nice pun, but no. Also, the unicorns still need a job around here, I'm afraid they'll get shunned for it." After she said this, Celestia gave out a small yawn. Discord took note of this.
"I didn't know princesses got tired." He dramatically gasped. Celestia rolled her eyes.
"Princesses especially." She told him.
"Maybe you should go home and sleep?" He suggested, pushing his upper body half off of the grass. The alicorn gave a guilty look.
"Already? Are you sure?"
"Eh, I get it. You have duties tomorrow. I'm guessing you should've went to sleep a few hours ago."
She slowly nodded, then got up, copied by Discord.
"It's been a pleasure, Discord. I hope we can do this again soon." She smiled.
"Same with me."
The two both said their goodbyes, and Celestia started trotting back to her castle, rather drowsily. Throughout the journey, there was one thought at the back of her mind that she couldn't ignore.
What could be so evil about him?