This story is somewhat different than most you probably had read at some point in your life. There are many different versions of how the earth as we know it came to be, with it's distinct round shape, four seasons, wide variety of life, and the sun and moon revolving around it.
One theory tells us that it was all an accident, random chance that somehow all added up to what's here now. Others say that it was created with intelligent design in mind. Ahh, but now comes the fun part, intelligent design, who designed it then, and why? Well, it depends on who you ask. Ask a gryphon, and they say that the gods created them in their image, and the world is some sort of great test to make it to the great aerie of the gods. Where game is a plenty, and you can hunt, fly, fight, and feast with the gods forever.
Cows and Donkeys both share in the idea that the world was created for the entertainment of the gods, like some sort of grand version of Ogres and Oubliettes. That a chosen few are actually vessels of the gods to play among us, and we are simply here to fill in the gaps for them.
If you were to go up to a minotaur and ask them, they would tell you that the world is simply what it is, and it doesn't matter how it got here. What matters is how you play your life out, and use your lessons well in the next one.
Ah, but as a pony, and you'll hear some interesting things. That Celestia and Luna created it all, and only came down later to save the ponies from Discord's rule. And why not believe in such things? After all, the sun and moon literally does rise and set by their hooves. But if you were to ask either of those two, Luna would probably roll her eyes, and Celestia would try not to laugh before telling you simply, "The answer is out there. Go find yours."
This story is only different because Discord is a loose cannon. It all started on a summer evening in Canterlot. Discord was bored, as was usual for him lately. Granted that things were looking up for him in the Ministry of Practical Chaos, especially with the new direction they had been moving in with their latest invention. But now that the drafting was finished, and it was still a few weeks away from testing, he didn't have much to do other than paperwork.
Discord gave a slight sigh of discontent as he viewed the papers before him, each needing to be signed before sent off to Celestia's office in the morning. It wasn't a particularly big pile, just enough for him to want to skip reading and get it over with so he could get out there, and mix things up a bit in the castle. "It's not fair, why do i have to be cooped up in here when it's so nice outside?" He looked out his window and saw several foals playing a game of polo in the street. "Where did this window even come from?"
His mind began to wander a bit, as he realized that he probably put it there out of boredom, because his office was in the dead center of the building and offered little to look at. He also was debating keeping it or not when there was a sudden knock on the door. He quickly tried to look busy before saying, "come in," with a sing-song voice.
He didn't have to look up to know who it was. He always knew it was her when she knocked on the door. Seven rapid, loud knocks in an even tempo before silence. "Hello Discord, I was hoping to catch you here."
He wanted to roll his eyes, or even physically wince as Twilight Sparkle walked in. "Well, you caught me. Good for you for finding me at the one place I'm always at five days a week."
Twilight felt a small blush cross her features before continuing. "Er, yes. About that, you should really keep a schedule for when you come in and out of here, besides when you feel like it."
"Oh Twilight," he said with a slight chortle. "That's not the way I do things. Now, can I help you? I know I'm very busy with all this paperwork, but I'm sure I can make time to chat with you. "
Twilight looked at the three sheets of paper with interest. "Wow, you're already down to three sheets? How long have you been here?"
"Two hours," he said with a frown."
"You must have had a lot of paperwork to sign if it took you this long to get down to just three," she said with a hoof to her chin. "It usually takes me at least an hour to do all mine, but I only have around fifty things to look at. How many did you get today?"
"These three," Discord moaned as he slumped back in his chair. "This is cruel and inequine punishment!"
At this, Twilight actively facehoofed hard enough that Discord could hear the clunking sound it made through his prolonged groaning. "Discord, you know you could have been done in five minutes! What in Celestia's name were you doing for two hours?"
"Procrastinating," he said nonchalantly as one of the pens he had flicked up to the tile ceiling an hour ago, finally came dislodged and fell to his desk with a clatter. "I just wanna get out of here."
Twilight walked across the room and looked at the papers for a few seconds, going over each word carefully. "Okay, this first one is asking if you approve of a budget of thirty thousand bits to be requested from the treasury for your project. Do you?"
"Yes," Discord replied in a bored voice without even looking up from his desk.
"Then sign it," She said before shoving the paper to him. "This next one is a statement that says the device has been safety tested, and you wish to hold a field test, is that true?" Discord nodded, and she passed the sheet across the table to him. " The last one here says that you will personally pay for any unintended side effects that the device has, should something go awry so long as it was being used properly, do you accept?" He nodded once again and she quickly placed the sheet before him. "There, that didn't even take us two minutes, now sign them."
Discord quickly grabbed his pen and dipped it in his inkwell, scratching his name on all three sheets of paper. "So tell me, do you think you can come back to do this tomorrow?"
Twilight groaned slightly as Discord put the papers into a pneumatic tube to send them away. "Now can we talk? I do have a reason to be here besides handling your paperwork for you."
Discord floated around his desk with a smile, "Ask away Princess," He then continued past her and out the office door before jumping onto a giant ant and riding it down the halls. "But let's meet over some coffee first! Donuts at Pony Joe's, my treat, H-YAH!" Twilight was about to protest, when one of Discord's chairs swept her up and took her for a ride.
The ride was wild, and it didn't take long for Twilight to reach the front door of the Ministry of Practical Chaos, where the chair unceremoniously dumped her off by the front door. By the time she had arrived, Discord was long since gone from the strangely shaped building. Ugh, how can he stand himself? She wondered for a moment before galloping to catch up with him.
At least she knew where he was going. Despite the fact that it was only a block and a half away, Twilight was not an athlete, and was clearly winded by the time she'd caught up with the lord of chaos. "Ah, so lovely to see you made it! I hope you like sprinkles, this one's glazed, and has one half covered in sprinkles!"
Twilight tilted her head in confusion at the pastry. "But why would only half of the doughnut have sprinkles?"
Discord simply shrugged before chomping down on the treat, and shivered slightly from the taste. "Ooooh yeah, that's the good stuff."
Twilight gave off a heavy groan before slumping down on the seat next to Discord. Sensing the immanent danger of a distressed Twilight, Pony Joe quickly poured her a cup of her favored coffee before dashing off to the back to wait out her rising mood, and check on his insurance coverage. "Discord," she said with a slightly forced smile. "I came by to discuss something with you that's been bothering me lately."
If Discord heard her, he made a good job of pretending he hadn't. Instead, he continued eating his doughnuts and slurping down his hot cocoa. "Mmm, wha? Sorry, I'm just enjoying the taste of freedom and capitalism in action." He then munched down a bear claw in one bite. "And it is loaded with sugar!"
"I'm serious!" Twilight said with a slam of her hoof, finally making him look her in the eye. "Look, I'm sorry. I know that you want to just have fun right now, but there's something in the journal you turned in that's bothering me."
He grinned and placed his clasped his mismatched hands together. "The directors cut, or the abridged version?"
"Both, I mean, wait, there's a longer version?"
"Oh yes," Discord said with a smile. "The one I turned in was edited slightly, there's things that I felt should be best kept to myself." With that, a very thick book appeared at his side, with several papers threatening to spill out. "Like my conversation I had with my socks! It's a work in progress you see."
Twilight wanted to take the book, hoping that maybe it would have answered some of the questions she had, but before she could grasp it in her magic, Discord sent it away with a puff of smoke. Feeling a twinge of disappointment, she quickly shook her head of the thought, and continued with her original train of thought. "That's irrelevant. It's about the part where you wrote about the past. You know, about the founding of the Gryphonian Empire."
Discord nodded slightly as he took another long draw from his hot cocoa. "Hmm, yes I did write about that a bit. Nothing that you probably wouldn't be able to fill the gaps in yourself if you read a history book."
"That's just the thing," Twilight said in exasperation. "I've been trying to find out more about that era in the library here in Canterot, but all the books I do find from that era seem to be too fantastic to be true!" Discord looked at Twilight with worry as her speech sped up more and more. So he moved a few inches away from her. "I mean, they mixed in lore with fact, stories and legends that couldn't be real! That's why I came to you, I need your help."
Silence rang between the two, and Discord widened the gap even further for his safety. It was in this silence that they finally noticed that Pony Joe had come back to the counter in an old set of guards armor to protect himself from Twilight's possible coming onslaught of destruction. Finally, it was Discord who broke the awkward silence. "I'm sorry, you want my help... how?"
Twilight pulled a scroll out, from where, nopony knew for sure. "I thought to ask Celestia, but she wouldn't give any answers. But you've been around even longer than her! Surely you must know some things that time has forgotten!"
A small groan escaped Discord's lips as he realized what she was asking. "Twilight, I really don't think you want to know everything that happened in the past, the world was much different then."
"But, but," she slumped down in her seat as disappointment settled in quickly. "I just thought that," she slowly ate her doughnut as she rested her chin against the table.
Discord looked at the distraught alicorn, and felt a slight twinge of guilt. Not enough of one to stop his doughnut buffet, but enough to make him talk. "Well, I can't promise you everything, but what is it you want to know about the most?" Twilight muttered something around her doughnut causing Discord to lean in closer. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."
Twilight swallowed in embarrassment before answering again. "I wanted to know more about you and Rhyme. Where you came from, who she was, and-"
Discord quickly slammed another doughnut into her mouth to silence her. "Whoa whoa whoa! Settle down princess!" He looked around the doughnut shop to see if anypony heard what she said. Fortunately they were quite alone, other than Pony Joe. "Would you mind leaving us for a moment? Go make some more of those custard filled ones or something Joe."
The doughnut maker was about to protest, but saw the dangerous look in Discord's eyes and Twilight's unstable mood. "Alright, I'll just be going out to my supply closet to grab what I need, I guess." He was quick to exit the room, leaving the two of them alone in the shop.
Discord looked at the confused Twilight for a moment, jammed one last doughnut down and pulled Twilight so close to him that they were cheek to cheek. "It's not exactly an easy thing you're asking of me Twilight. To learn of my past and Rhyme is one of the greatest mysteries out there, one that could have consequences if this knowledge fell into the wrong hooves."
Twilight looked confused for a moment before laughing slightly. "Discord, as a Princess of Equestria, I'm sworn to do my duty to protect Equestria. But as a student of... a lot of things actually, it is my duty to discover the truth."
Discord nodded slightly as he weighed down her reply. After a few silent moments of thought, he gave a reply. "Some of the things that happened then, still weigh heavily in debate with scholars. Several countries have different legends about that time, and there have been wars fought over belief of what is true. The last thing I need is Celestia blaming me for a war. That being said, I'll help you out."
Twilight's wings flared open as she jumped on the table with joy, sending Discord back in slight worry. "You will! Oh great! When can we get started, I've got lots of paper for notes, and quills, and,"
Discord sighed slightly as he downed the rest of his drink. "Yes yes, bring all that with you. Come on, let's go somewhere private."
With a snap of his fingers, the pair disappeared from the doughnut shop, just as Pony Joe came around from the back. He breathed a heavy sigh of relief to find that he was alone to run everything in peace once again.
It has almost been an hour since the pair had teleported to the secret library of Star Swirl the Bearded, hidden deep underneath Canterlot Castle, and still nothing more exciting than Discord grabbing and discarding books has happened. Twilight looked up at him as he grabbed, thumbed through a particularly thick tome, and then tossed the priceless book over his shoulder like it were trash. "Discord, what are you even doing?"
"Research," he said shortly before tossing another book onto the table behind him. "I need to see if there's anything here to back up my claims, and if there's anything that I should leave out for your own safety."
Twilight meanwhile organized everything as neatly as she could. She stacked up the books into a pile, dusted off a table, placed a scroll on it, and placed a row of ink wells and quills for her to use. Finally, after several minutes and three re-checks of her supplies, Discord sat down and cracked open one of the books. "Alright, if you are ready to start, I suppose we should start at the beginning."