• Published 18th Feb 2012
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The Steadfast Sky - Greytercakes



Celestia, Luna, and Discord grow into their godhood by unearthing the Elements of Harmony. EqD 6 Stars.

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II : Discord

The Steadfast Sky : Chapter 2
The Grey Potter
http://cosmicponyfanfiction.blogspot.com/

~Discord~

At last, night finally fell over Canterbury’s face. And the only way I could tell was through Ruin. After sitting in the dark tunnel for almost an hour, he abruptly slithered out of the castle, through one of the many little exits hidden at the foundation. Everywhere around me, cobblestone and brick, smooth and worn down by who knows how long. It’s exactly the same thing in the castle. Predictable. Boring. I don’t feel any more free out here than I do in that dark fortress.

Ruin arched his long back and yawed, snapping his sharp jaws at the sky. I tried to hold on, gripping his uneven horns tightly as he shook out his sleep. Unfortunately, this alerted Ruin to my plan far quicker than I wanted.

“Let go, little one. Walk beside me,” he grumbled, lowering his head to the flagstones. I stayed put, steeling myself atop his head. Heck if he was going to tell me what to do.

“You walk so fast, Ruin, you’d just leave me behind,” I informed him.

“Then run to keep up. I am not your riding horse.”

“Father said we should stick together, and this is the only way we can.”

“He said no such thing.”

“Yes he did, when I said I wanted to come along.”

“He would not be so kind to one as insignificant as you.”

“He’s trying something out, you know.” It came to me then, the perfect cover story. My specialty! “He’s seeing if he can send the young Draconequus out sooner if he teams them up. More eyes on the street is better for everyone, you know.”

“I’ve heard nothing of the sort.”

Dang. He wasn’t buying it. Gotta keep trying. “Oh, you don’t know? I’m so sorry to hear that, but the Shadow Stallion told me to find a bigger patrol Draconequus to protect me while I-“

A claw jammed itself under my body and pried me off, slamming me rudely on the ground. I felt all my innards wrench together in strange ways, pushing all the air from my body. I wheezed a little.

“Stop your tongue, Discord. Do not throw your Father’s name around with no weight or bearing. We depart. You walk.” He raised his claw and began striding forward, the same pace that he always went.

Gotta love my brothers, we have such interesting and one sided arguments. Don’t like reasonable demands? Eat the weakling. Not like Ruin would but... I wonder how anybody around here actually manages to grow up. I begrudgingly ran after Ruin, what else was there to do? Sit around the castle as the Elders silently loathed me for not being old enough to go out on patrol? For leeching off their food and returning nothing?

I guess what I’m trying to say is, life kind of sucks right now. It’s boring, predictable, and nobody appreciates my existence, let alone anything I do. I need to grow up or just get the heck out of here. But right at this moment, I need some air. I need to follow Ruin around and pretend he was still cool.

At my age, I was only a few feet long, but Ruin was huge, easily five times my length. Some of the oldest elders were trapped in the deepest part of the castle, easily twenty times my size. Maybe more. Well, never mind them, right now Ruin made it difficult to run along beside him, what with his massively long legs. How I wish my wings were grown in enough to glide above him. Maybe then I could keep up. No way he could fly up and lose me either, his bat wing was torn off in a fight a long time ago. Father didn’t see a need to gift it back to him. Who’s the inferior one here, Ruin?

The big guy stopped, tensed up, finally allowing me to catch up. I tried to get my breath back, tried to see what he saw. It wasn’t that hard. A blue pony, clearly panicked, galloped not a block in front of us. The creature couldn’t see in the dark at all, but to us, the pony was as clear as it would be in day.

Ruin flowed forward, following the Pony around the corner. I heaved a sigh as I tried to keep up, but by the time I got there, it was already done. Ruin’s shadow flowed around the pony, surrounding it completely, coating it. A moment later, the creature was gone.

I hurried forward as Ruin straightened himself.

“Why do we send the ponies on the streets back to the castle, anyway?” Ruin raised a bushy eyebrow at me. “No, I mean, I know why we send them to the castle, but why only limit ourselves to the streets? These houses must be full of ponies, why don’t we bust down a door and take them too?”

“It is not your place to question Father.” And that was apparently that. He stalked off.

“I’m just wondering!”

“It is not your place to wonder either. We execute his will, and his will states that at night, we take the ponies off the streets. That is all.” He continued to stride forward. I stayed where I was, and pantomimed exactly what I felt about him behind his back. To think, Ruin is one of the more likeable to the Draconequus… Yeah, that stick-in-the-mud. Likable.

Another loud whinny and Ruin took off. I didn’t bother to follow behind.

Maybe coming out here was a phenomenally terrible idea.

I turned down another street, wondering if I should go home or actually try and catch one of the candy coated creatures. I wasn’t especially skilled at shadow magic, but my illusions were something to brag about. I could trick a pony into running all the way to the castle, maybe disguise myself as an ally to drive it on. My proportions would be funny, but in the dark, what would the pony be able to tell? Sounded like a plan, I decided to test it out.

First things first. Find a pony.

The sound of hoofbeats immediately followed this mental declaration. A bit too soon after, honestly. I stumbled in confused circles before diving into an alleyway. Did it see me? What was I thinking, of course it didn’t! I poked my head out of my hiding place. The hoofbeats had stopped dead, but I didn’t see a pony anywhere. Did someone else get it? Should I start building an illusion anyway? What illusion? A dead end, my own disguise? As I mused, the startled pony shot by me, rushing to the end of the street. I leapt out into the street just as it dove into a house, slamming a door after it.

“Yeesh, those ponies are fast,” I said to myself.

Wait, there’s a problem here.

That pony was on the streets… but now it was in a house? Should I fetch it because of where it used to be, or leave it because of where it was now? I had no idea. And nobody to ask.

Eh, the no house rule was stupid anyway. Breaking in and taking a pony? Exciting! Those stupid elders wouldn’t know what hit em! A Draconequus smaller than a normal pony, capturing one only using only his own wit and charm? That was something to dream about!

No, screw dreaming, I was going to try it!

I strolled up to the house, watching as it slowly began lighting up, despite thick curtains. Was that pony the first to get home? Or maybe it was the only one living there. Perfect! I could manage to trick one pony much easier than attempting to trick a family. How big were their family units anyway? I’m sure the Shadow Stallion didn’t make all the ponies, but then, what did make the ponies? Did they have their own Father, or fathers? How many ponies did said father make each year?

I guess I don’t know much about ponies. But that didn’t matter at all.

I found a window, away from the lights, up on the second floor. It was difficult to shove open, but I did my best, which wasn’t very good at all. I forced myself to squeeze through the stubborn crack of a window and dropped to the ground on the other side. Being a graceful Draconequus, I landed hard on my left shoulder.

“Who’s there?”

This was going just perfectly.

A dim blue glow lit the room briefly, illuminating a pony, the smallest pony I had ever seen. I mean, it was shorter than me, and that’s saying something. It was hard to tell what color it was in the brief flash of light, but my best guess would be blue, like the glow.

No time for an illusion. I sprung away, ducking into an open chest full of nothing but air. I doubted it could see me, most ponies couldn’t. So of course comedy demanded the little pony’s head poked over the lip of the box and stared at me.

“Um, hi there?” it said, “What’re you doing in my toybox?”

“Uh…” I blinked up at it. “Hiding?”

“What, from me?”

“I guess so?”

“Well I’m not going to hurt you. Are you afraid of me?”

“Of course not?” Isn’t that a question I should be asking her? I wondered if the pony really could see me. I must look crazy to her, with my mismatched limbs and snakelike body. Even in a silhouette, I’m sure I looked nothing like a pony. But she smiled up at me, completely ignorant of my appearance.

“Then why are you still in there? Come on out!” The pony’s head disappeared and I rose up after it, peering out, getting a better look of the room I was in. It was small, with white plaster walls and stuffed toys scattered all around. In the center of the room was a straw pallet with a sheet tent built on top of it. This is where the pony walked, hopping up on the bed and turning to look at me, smiling a greeting.

In the streets, every experience I had with ponies held that they were running, panicked, whinnying and nearly wordless. But she, I thought of her as a she, was calm. Her gait was graceful. I didn’t think anything could walk as gracefully as her. My paw, talon, other mismatched bodyparts didn’t exactly function smoothly. When I walked they all slapped and scratched at the ground, serviceable, but awkward. Each one of her steps made the same sound, and their beat made something of a calming tune.

I won’t say it left a good impression, and that I wasn’t still planning on trapping her but… That would just be so normal, so boring, what everyone else would do. Go out at night, trap the lawbreakers, go home. Day after day, so on, so forth, never really get to know them. Understandably, but, it made it interesting to just watch this pony. This was something new, something different. Something that didn’t involve suffering and screams.

It was peaceful. I’m not sure I can remember a time when I could call a moment that. I especially couldn’t remember a time when I thought that was a good thing.

“My name’s Luna,” she said from her tented pallet “What’s your name?”

“Discord,” I replied automatically. I saw no reason to lie.

“Huh, really? That’s a weird name.”

Weird name? That’s all that’s weird? “It’s a family name.”

She nodded happily, “That makes sense. It’s how me and Celestia were named.”

“Celestia?”

“She’s my sister! The nicest most awesome sister in the world!”

“That’s descriptive.”

“Pfft, yeah, I know it isn’t, but do you get a better description from white with a pink mane?”

“I guess that’s a good point.”

She giggled. “Anyway, what are you still doing in that box? Ooh, you wanna play a game? Celestia’s not home yet, and I’ve been kind’ve bored. I’ve been playing princess!” Luna stood up, nearly disturbing her pallet tent. She held her head high, and a strange angle, and her horn began to glow blue. Magically, she dropped a crumpled paper crown on her head. “Hear ye, hear ye! I am Princess Luna, The Ruler of Stuffyland!” She waved a hoof at her surrounding toys. “I decree that Discord is, uh, hey Discord, what do you want to be? Prince? Rival prince? Evil Dragon? You could be an evil dragon pretty good, with that snakey body, but it’d be pretty cool to fight another prince. Ooh, but I’m going to need to make a crown. Where were my crayons…?”

I snorted laughter through my paw, tumbling backwards into the toybox once more. “Stuffyland!” I snickered, “And that crown!”

“What, you don’t like my crown?” Her head poked over the lip of the box.

“No way, I love it! This is great! And you really want me to play?”

“Sure! I havnt had friends over in ages, and you don’t seem that bad of a guy, despite your wierdness.”

“That’s not a word!”

“What are you, my sister?”

“No, no, it’s a good thing! Also.” I stood up on my hind legs, mimicking her regal pose. I spun a small illusion, making a crown appear on my head, “As Prince of Boxburgh, I do decree you are invading my territory!”

Luna giggled. “No I’m not!” She scurried backwards to her bed.

Any thought that I’d bring this little pony back to the castle had been long banished. Why would I? Luna was fun, relaxed. New and interesting. I wondered if all ponies were like that.

I heard hoofbeats outside the door. Luna apparently did to, and urged me to hide, giggling. I dove behind the box, thinking I had stayed in the container far too long. I guess I’d find out my answer sooner than expected.

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