//------------------------------// // Day three: Suspicious progress and a worried draconequus // Story: Chaotic Romance is the Best Romance. // by Siswitch //------------------------------// If it was anypony but Celestia Discord would off given up by now. He was a being of little patience but the fact he loved her was inspiration enough to keep going, the bonus that he’d go down in history for doing it just sealed the deal. The draconequus paced around their campsite trying to think of new ways to teach her his ways, his feet dragging along the ground leaving a noticeable groove in the dirt as he walked. A quiet thought flickered nonchalantly in his mind. There is one option, Discord... One thing you could do to ensure your future is lovely and chaos filled. Force corruption. The tall creature stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widened to the size of saucers as the thought whispered to him, he had no qualms about corrupting other ponies but Celestia was another story. She already thought he might be controlling her inadvertently. No need to add truth to that suspicion. Discord quietly brushed the thought away not wanting to entertain such an idea but the idea wanted to be entertained. Come on. You know she wouldn’t be able to tell either way! This way everyone wins, Celestia’s happy, you’re happy, Luna’s unhappy. Well, Luna won’t be happy but what the hay. You can’t please everypony! The idea was tempting him like a freshly baked pie sat on a window sill. It would be so easy to do, no pony would know. The more he tried to force his mind to think of other solutions, think of other subjects even, he found himself always pondering his personal favourite. While corrupting Celestia wasn’t the best solution at the rate she’s going she’d most likely give up and maybe even... Come to her senses. That though scared Discord into considering the option, summoning a chair he sat down and pondered some more. Shortly after he sat down he heard Celestia’s familiar hoof-steps and quickly stood up straight as though she would be able to tell what he was thinking off just seeing him sitting in a chair. Celestia looked happy, surprisingly happy, like she’d just heard a funny joke or something. “Discord, I want to try that object test again.” She said confidently, standing in front of a still rigid Discord. Discord tilted his head slightly before shrugging. After all, who was he to say no? He set up the test exactly like before, lining up rows of fairly uninteresting objects for Celestia to hopefully change. Celestia walked over to the objects, spreading her legs slightly as though she was bracing herself. After a short pause her horn began to glow soft yellow as it always did, that smug grin that Discord was more than a little curious about was still on her face, her body jerked slightly as she sent out three rays of powerful magic to her targets watching happily as they shimmered and morphed. Discords jaw almost hit the floor as he saw what his beloved had created. The rocks had turned into a giant sponge that was resting bent on the trees behind it, the stump he had conjured up had twisted and grown into a tall spiral of wood. The texture of the bark was stretched like taffy until it faded so much so that the tip didn’t look like wood at all, keeping only it’s brown colouring. Discord’s mouth closed and a wicked grin crossed his face. “My dear, that’s amazing!” He wrapped his arms around the alicorns neck and chuckled happily, Celestia let out a small giggle and leant into his hold. A thought stopped Discord from celebrating, realisation dawned on him that yesterday she just stared at the rocks trying to think of something to do and know she could conjure up very random objects with hesitation. He pulled away and eyed her warily. “Wait a minute, how did you..?” He left the question hanging as she trotted away from him, a skip in her step. “I have no idea! I just woke up this morning feeling a little hyper so I went for a walk, as you know, and I started getting this... This...” “...Urge?” “Yes! Urge!” Her voice was excited as her face. “I have no idea what it is or how I got it but oh boy this feels awesome!” She spread her wings wide and hovered a few metres of the ground. Discord had a sinking feeling at her sudden ‘chaos urge’ and hyper behaviour, this was something common of a spirit of chaos not an alicorn who despite having a mischievous side was still very composed at most times. Celestia happily flew around the campsite showing no sign of slowing. “I have so much energy and... Be right back!” Celestia said in a sing-song voice before shooting up into the air, veering as she reached a high enough altitude and disappearing from Discord view. He had a very bad feeling about this. This wasn’t right. Sitting back in the chair he had conjured Discord tried his best to think about what could of possible caused his dearest to act in such a manner. Was it... Me? That thought made him sigh. It was possible his strong want for Celestia to succeed caused her to have a very sudden and out of the blue urge. Even though he usually loved the type of behaviour Celestia was portraying he had gotten used to her mostly composed personality, the sudden change was very jarring to say the least. Before his mind could bring up another thought Celestia landed very suddenly in front of him making him jump in surprise. “Oh my! Celestia you know better than to sneak up on ponies like that!” He wasn’t proud that that scared him. The draconequus was about to say something else when he noticed the look on her elegant face, worry. “Celestia?” “Why did I do that?” She asked him. From the tone of her voice it didn’t sound like she thought he knew. “Why did I act so... ?” “OOC?” He offered. “... OOC?” “Never mind.” He stood up and pondered some more. “I have no idea. It certainly wasn’t natural... Then again, when is chaos natural?” He tried smiling at her, she returned a worried look. “... Well maybe it’s just you’ve been hanging around me too long!” Discord tried again to smile at her but was finding it harder and harder to as he looked at her worried face. “Discord... Maybe we should spend some time apart.” Of all the things she could say, Discord didn’t expect that. “Maybe you are influencing me. It might be best to test th-” Her words where muffled by a paw. “Celestia.” Discord sounded annoyed. “I am VERY skilled at what I do. I do NOT let magic go without wanting to!” He folded his arms. “You’re so cruel if you suggest I’d ever do something like that.” Even though you did think of it earlier. Oh shut up. He replied to himself. Celestia paused for a second before smiling, Discord smiled back thinking he had convinced her finally that- WOOMF The draconequus stumbled back as he was hit by a white wing. “Tag! You’re it!” Celestia shot into the air again and flew fast away from the still surprised Discord. It was on. Discord grinned and jumped in the air after her, teleporting until he was right next to her. Celestia let out a squeak of surprise as she felt his talon poke her shoulder. “Tag, my darling.” He teleported far enough so that she couldn’t reach him but close enough so that she could still hear him. “And sorry in advance for taking advantage of you when you’re acting like this, I promise to find out why later!” Another teleport as she veered towards him. “But for now, ‘chaotic you’ seems fun!” Celestia narrowed her eyes as he flew away from her but not for the reason her ‘normal side’ would. He was cheating. She sent a blast of magic his way, encasing him momentarily in soft yellow. “What?” Discord looked himself over as it faded. Celestia stuck her tongue out and jabbed his chest with her hoof. “Tag, and no teleporting.” She angled her wings to take her down. Discord pondered what she said and tried teleporting only to find in his horror that she had disabled it. He had no idea she could disable magic, never mind that she’d actually do it. Slowly, as he flew after the quick white alicorn, he came to the conclusion that it was whatever was causing her to act like this that made her less wary of the magic she used. He knew he shouldn’t be encouraging whatever this was but it sure as anything could play a good game of tag. Celestia suddenly froze midair, causing Discord to crash into her, before he could ask why she’d stopped he saw her gaze turn to the sun which was still high in the sky. It was slowly falling. “Um... Celestia? Not that I’m one to tell you how to do your job, me of all ponies, but.. We woke up four hours ago.” He was starting to get really concerned. This wasn’t like her at all. As the sun dipped below the horizon and the moon rose on the other side she turned her bright eyes onto him. “What’s the matter, sweetheart? I thought this was what you wanted? A more.. Chaotic Celestia.” “Well, true.” He fiddled with his paw. “But this a.. Suspiciously fast transformation. What happened? Why are you suddenly so.. Me-ish?” He hated the common sense ruining this perfectly chaotic moment but his genuine concern for his love overwhelmed, at least momentarily, his urge to enjoy this moment. Celestia seemed upset for a second before smiling again. “It seems we are rubbing off on each other.. You give me chaos and I give you common sense.” She fluttered closer to him. “What fun is there in making sense? Why aren’t you enjoying the moment?” “Why are YOU?!” As much as he wanted to he couldn’t shake the feeling this was wrong. This wasn’t Celestia as he knew her. This was what he wanted Celestia to be eventually when she was ready, not something he excepted overnight. Something was wrong. “Trust me, my dear, I want to enjoy this but this is just... Too much too fast. Scarily fast. You of all ponies wouldn’t change in the course of hours... ” Celestia let of a chuckle, shaking her head. “You are suspicious of me?” Before he could answer a sliver of bright light caught both of their attention, the sun was rising again. Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Stupid Luna.” Her horn began to glow again as she forced the sun down, her expression got more annoyed as the sun still wouldn’t go down. “Discord, help me here.” Her words where strained. Discord thought for a second before sighing deeply. “Forgive me, Celestia. I need to know if something’s wrong with you.” Celestia was about to ask what he meant by that when everything went black. ---------------------- “So in short.. She’s acting very weird. Like me except a mare.” Discord shrugged as he finished his explanation. Zecora tilted her head a little in confusion before turning to the unconscious princess. “But I thought that chaos to you was revered... Also that explains why the sun disappeared.” She muttered the last part as she scanned the princess’s body. Discord rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. I love chaos but I love Celestia too, and this behaviour is too suspiciously spontaneous to be fun or enjoyable.” Discord was getting increasingly annoyed with himself over the fact that he stopped Celestia doing what he wanted her to do all along. “She thinks it’s because of me and my magic. I think that’s a bunch of horse apples.” Zecora gave Celestia a once over, asking Discord random questions like ‘has she been acting like this long’ or ‘has she been acting any differently’. By the end of the hour Discord was getting frustrated. “Oh come on aren’t you good at finding what’s wrong? Witchcraft to you is like Pinkie and a song.” He blinked a few times. “Your rhyming is contagious.” Zecora sighed and shook her head. “It is not my skill to be a ‘witch’, I cure things like poison joke or a persistent itch. If I know what is wrong I can fix it quite quick but if I don’t know my cures don’t stick.” Discord was about to reply when he heard Celestia groan. The two turned to look at her as she pulled herself into an upright position. “What happened?” She blinked a few times as she looked around. Her hyper-ness seemed to have subsided. “You where being unreasonable to I took you to Zecora to see if you had ‘chaos flu’ or something.” Discord backed away a little in case she was mad at him knocking her out. Celestia paused for a second before remembering. She let out a small ‘oh’ before turning to Zecora. “And?” She said in a soft voice. Zecora sighed. “What Discord has told me has given no clue, he hadn’t seem until know anything unusual with you.” The zebra walked over to a low shelf and picked up a small bag, she put it in front of Celestia. “This may hold the key to finding what is wrong, if it is an illness we’ll know before long.” Discord narrowed his eyes in conclusion as Celestia magically took a small smooth stone out of the bag. It looked like a normal stone in every way. “This stone endowed with magic from generations past, just hold it with your magic and we’ll know at last.” Celestia nodded and continued holding it with her soft yellow magic. Discord was about to foolishly ask why she didn’t suggest it before but remembered she was unconscious, he stayed quiet and waited impatiently for something to happen. After a little while the stone shimmered faintly before turning colour, taking on a pinkish hue. Zecora smiled and let out a knowing ‘ah’ before going to her shelves again. Celestia looked at the stone curiously. “What does it mean?” Celestia placed the rock beside her and watched as Zecora placed another bag beside her. “I can say with confidence the mystery is solved , it is because of Discord but no magic was involved.” She still had a smile on her face Discord didn’t like. He was starting to grow wary of smiles as of late. “I recommend you take these once a day, you’ll need to be prepared as a foal is on its way!”