//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Home...? // Story: A Life Long-lived // by Night Music //------------------------------// There were so many things Twilight wanted to ask. What type of magic was that? How did you make the tree grow back? And in the exact way it had been before it was destroyed? But the question that she asked was, "What was that?!" She shrieked. Walking towards the fixed home. Its new owner in its doorway. "What?" He asked, eyebrow raised in genuine confusion. "You know what I'm talking about! The light!" Twilight replied, stopping in front of him. Diamond shrugged as he looked at the confused alicorn. "Alicorn magic, stored a bunch of magic in those gauntlets in case of an emergency. I'll have to order another pair," Diamond said, mumbling the last part. "What are you talking about?! Alicorn magic?! How do you know Alicorn magic?! What even is Ali—" Diamond shushed her with a finger. "Oi, back in the market I said we'll be finishing the questions in my new home," he looked to the rest. Noticing his gaze, their shocked expressions turned to coy smiles. "Come on in, like I said before, gem tea." With the rest of them walking to the house, Rainbow Dash spoke out. "You said rock tea actually," she said with a calm demeanor, as if she didn't see what happened a minute ago. "I did? Huh, well it's gem now," Diamond said, turning back and entering the tree. "Much more flavor, I'm feeling like rubies." Spike rushed to his side. "You can make tea out of gems?" His eyes wide and mouth watering. "Yes actually, you can. I'm not a dragon so I had to find a way to consume the hoard I gathered over the years," stated as he entered the kitchen, his pack set up against a fridge. "See, what you do is, you take the gem and grind it up into—" As Diamond and Spike were preoccupied in the kitchen, the girls all stared at the walls of the library, bringing up old memories. Mostly good, only one of them bad. Discord deciding to busy himself with a yo-yo, which had gone up instead of down. "It's amazing, it's like it was never destroyed," Rarity said, looking over the wooden walls with bookshelves carved into them. "How do you think he did it?" Rarity asked, turning to Twilight. "I don't know," Twilight replied in a hushed tone as she gazed at the walls of the building that was once her home. She turned to Discord, the only one who could give her answers. When she looked at him, he was tied from head to hoof in the rope that was tied to the yo-yo. "You said he was a family friend, just who is he?" She asked. "My dear pal Diamond? Why who isn't he?" He asked back, not answering he question. "Discord, I'm serious here, he just waltzes into town and says he lives here? Not only that, but he knows some form of magic that I don't know about?" "He isn't evil is he?" Rainbow Dash blurted out. "Now how did ya come to that conclusion, Rainbow?" Applejack asked. "No no, he isn't evil," Discord said, crossing his arms as he did. "All I know is that, when he came to my home when I was a wee little lad, he wanted to learn our way of life, after he learned all we could teach him, he went on his way. Searching for more magic to learn." This made the mares even more confused. "You can teach somepony chaos? Why would any sane pony want to learn chaos?" Twilight asked. "What made you think you couldn't?" Discord asked. "Chaos is like any other type of magic. Yes, I admit it is more, chaotic, but it is magic nonetheless," Discord chuckled at his own pun. "Oh yes, and no one can truly learn it. That's why I'm the spirit of chaos after all." "So let me get this straight," Twilight said as she rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "He's immortal, the only of his kind as far as I know, and he knows how to use a plethora of different magics?" "From what I know? Yes. But a lot can happen in eleven-thousand years. And he was definitely immortal before he showed up on my doorstep." "Ah yes," Diamond said as he reentered the room, carrying a tray of cups and a kettle. "I became immortal the moment I mastered Necromancy in the depths of Tartarus, accidentally removing your own soul is never good for the health." He laughed. Nobody else joined him. "You removed your own soul?" Fluttershy asked, worried, and confused. Mostly worried. For her own soul of course. "Yes," he stated proudly. Putting down the tray he turned back to his pack. "I still have it here actually, fond memories and all of that jazz." Rummaging through his pack for a moment before pulling out a glass jar, with what looked like a firefly floating inside of it. "Here it is," Diamond said turning on the spot and not a moment before tripping, jar in hand. Everyone winced as the jar shattered. The firefly floating before them on the ground. Getting up and dusting off his legs he looked at his own soul. "Ah, well at least it stayed here this time and not like tha—oh there it goes," Diamond said with a frown as the soul faded from existence. Everyone looked from where the soul had been and to Diamond, wondering why he wasn't freaking out. His soul just vanished after all. "Oh well, not like I needed the useless thing." He shrugged. Accepting the whole thing as if it were normal for him, they moved on. With Diamond pouring and passing cups, Rainbow Dash broke the silence. "You said you were in Ponyville before, what was that like?" "Hm? Ah yes, Ponyville. A small town if my memory serves me, the most notable family there being the Apple family." "You know ma family?" Applejack asked, curious as to what he thought of them. "Yes actually, the week I was here, they had offered me room with no cost. Of course I turned them down. Generosity like that takes it's toll, I'm eternally grateful for their offer though," Diamond said with a small smile. "How is your family by the way, no troubles over the years that I've been gone?" "It's just me, Granny, my brother, and little sister there now," Applejack said, her chest hurting slightly. "Ah, Miss Smith, there was a fine mare If I do say so myself," Diamond said with a dumb smile on his face. Fluttershy, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity, all of which were drinking. Choked on the tea. Blushing red at the thought of the pony they knew as Granny Smith in that sort of light. "Something wrong with the tea?" Diamond asked. Looking at the ones who had trouble breathing. "No no, the tea is quite alright," Rarity said, clearing her throat of left over tea, and her head of left over thoughts. The tea was quite good actually, not what she expected rubies to taste like. "Spike dear," Rarity said as she turned her head to the drake. "Is this what rubies taste like to you?" Taking a sip, Spike smacked his lips in thought. "Basically, hold back on the spice a bit though, and more like a strawberry," he said. "Okay, now that we have our tea, back onto topic, how do you know such 'Alicorn' magic? And what even is that?" Twilight said with a authoritative tone, looking back to Diamond with furrowed eyebrows and a thin-lipped frown. Diamond sighed as he sat down at the table. Taking a sip from his tea after he did so, letting out a sigh after he swallowed. "Getting right down to brass tacks are we now?" Twilight folded her ears back and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, I just need to know." With a flash from her horn, a quill and paper appeared before her. "Ah ah ah, no one is writing any of this down, this is private thing I am willing to share with you, only because you asked so nicely," Diamond said with a smirk. "I can't take notes? Why can't I take notes?" Twilight asked, her one chance to study something so foreign, denied. "Because, I said so, that and the only notes of my knowledge of this stuff that are going to exist, are the ones that I took." He put down the cup and crossed his arms. "And no, you can't borrow them." Applejack looked at Diamond "Don't you think yer bein' a little strict?" "Not at all. I know what you ponies are like when it comes to magic that you— sorry. Celestia has deemed dangerous. She obviously won't find you guilty, only the one who supplied the information of said magic." Rainbow Dash scoffed. "You've sure done your homework," she said sarcastically. "Yes I have, Miss Dash. I've done my homework because I chose to live here," Diamond said, his voice raising in volume the further he went on. "And I will not be evicted because a certain Alicorn decides to tell her fellow princess that she learned a certain inhabitant of her city knows how to steal souls!" He pounded his fist on the table, causing the ponies and drake to jump in fright. He sighed. "I know how to use every single magic of the races that has lived, and still lives on this planet. From the highest order of Windigo magic, to the most basic magic of the Timberwolves. Does that make me evil?" He looked to Rainbow Dash a straight face. He sighed once more. "Discord, you can stay if you like, my home is your home after all, but I'm sorry that the rest of you must leave." Taking a sip of his tea, he watched as the ponies and drake walk out of his home with a slow trot, worried looks on most of their faces. Had they done something to offend him? Taking another sip of his tea, he looked up to Discord. "My my, you sure have changed," Discord said with a shake of his head. A small frown on his face. "As have you," he quipped. "Ponies. A being that covets harmony like a childhood blanket, one to keep the monsters away. How you, a being of chaos, managed to become their friend, is a miracle." Diamond shook his head right back, chuckling as he did so. Discord madly laughed. A thought popping into his head. "That is the magic of friendship after all." Diamond's face asked, 'Are you serious?' "Forget what I said earlier, you aren't welcome here anymore," Diamond said jokingly, trying not to laugh himself. Discord calmed down. "Well, I do actually have to go, chaos to cause and all of that, we'll catch up later, eh Diamond?" Snapping his fingers, Discord disappeared without a trace. Sitting at the table in silence, taking the occasional sip of his tea, Diamond wondered what he would even do in this town of ponies. Ten-thousand years to get himself a hobby, and he had nothing to show for. Feeling a tug on his pant leg, he looked down to see Aphid, the fabric of his pants in her mouth. Chuckling, he picked her up. And put her on the table in front of him. She looked to him with her forelegs outstretched and mouth open. "Yes yes, I know you're hungry, give me a moment please. My magic doesn't work that fast. While we're here, say it. Say dada," Diamond said, babying the last part. "Mama," Was all Aphid replied. "Now I just think you are doing that to spite me," he pouted.