LIX : Friends Together I
The Steadfast Sky : Friends Together I
The Grey Potter
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/11495/The-Steadfast-Sky
http://cosmicponyfiction.tumblr.com
~Luna~
I had stowed my sister’s Element, yet I couldn’t stop thinking about it. What was happening to her? Why was her Element changing like this? Discord quickly assured me that ‘Nightmare’ Elements revert to their stone form, like the rock he stole from the Stallion. But who cares? This transformation clearly wasn’t a good thing. So what if my sister wasn’t transforming? It was worlds worse, because we had no idea what was happening to her!
She needed us.
We all needed each other.
But…
My sister was made of tougher stuff. I think, of all of us, I trusted her to take care of herself more than I trusted me to take care of myself. And I definitely trusted Celestia alone more than Discord, because seriously, I’m afraid of what harm he can do to himself when he’s alone.
Seriously, he’d probably go back to starve himself if everybody didn’t shove food in his face. That adorable, messed up dipstick…
Still. I have to wonder.
“Discord?”
He jumped, then nearly tripped over a fat road rock. We must have been walking in silence for a while now. Little illusions bobbed around his head, a complicated jumble of nonsense. They vanished quickly, and he ran to my side.
“Yes, Luna?” he asked.
I was silent for a time, gnawing on a thought. Eyes on the road, I asked:
“What do you think that feels like?”
He frowned. “What, exactly?”
“What would transforming into a nightmare feel like?”
Almost instantly, he leapt to answer. “Celestia’s not turning into a nightmare, you don’t have to worry—“
“I know my sister’s fine,” I huffed, “I’m just, you know, thinking about it. I mean…” I looked at my friend, similar heights allowing me to easily hook his big yellow eyes. “You read about all of them, about the fall of each and every alicorn.”
“Not all of them,” he mumbled.
“Still,” I asserted, “What do you think?”
He looked away, and after a moment, “Well one of them, Honesty, he apparently caught fire while he was transforming.”
I commented, “That can’t have been a good feeling,” and Discord laughed hollowly. He stared at the clouds, face quiet in his thoughts. I wondered what exactly he was thinking about. Was he trying to remember a certain passage? Another memory, maybe of the Stallion? Was he waiting for me to answer my own question? I asked it to hear him talk, so…
Suddenly, he looked back at me, face blank.
“It’d feel like dying,” he said.
“You think so?”
“Yeah.” He nodded darkly. “It’d feel like dying. It’d be like...” His gaze snapped downwards, glaring at my feet. “Say… you’re caught up in all this pain, and all this misery. And you’re not able to fight it any more. You can feel yourself on the brink and…”
He shivered, and, in a strange motion, he briefly ran a talon down his throat. It was only a flash of movement, and in the next second he was right back to talking.
“You have no say any more,” he said, “No control. You’d just feel yourself slip away, and watch as some doppleganger makes your own limbs move...” Discord heaved a sigh. “And then, I guess, the good part of you would just wither and vanish. It’d die.”
“That’s a morbid answer,” I swiftly replied. “A nightmare’s just an alicorn overtaken by its own pain and flaws. That means the good part would have to be there to corrupt.”
He nodded. “Yes. It would corrupt. And then die.”
I frowned sympathetically at Discord, but I doubt he saw it. His eyes were still on my feet. I asked him, “How can you be so certain?”
“Well, actually, that’s another thing I’ve been thinking of.” A little less tense, he said, “Generosity and... Paleheart and Butterfly Bright. They knew the secret of reversing the petrichoric corruption, yes? They could comfort and assure each other until the end of time, right?”
“Exactly,” I said.
“But they couldn’t do it forever,” he asserted. “They still got overwhelmed. Bright turned into a nightmare. And even though Paleheart and Four-Clover had the ability to purify Bright, they couldn’t cleanse the Shadow Stallion. They couldn’t bring Bright back out of that darkness. So…” Discord’s eyes flicked up to my own, hard in thought. “Butterfly Bright must have died the moment that darkness overtook his body.”
“Yeesh,” I said with a shiver, “Dark stuff.”
Discord laughed, a faint smile on his face, “Well you’re the one who brought up the topic.”
“And I still want to talk about it,” I said, “And I’m going to answer that thought with another thought.”
Discord shrugged, “Alright…”
“So Bright transformed into a Nightmare. Obviously.” I waved at the dark clouds overhead. “So why didn’t Paleheart and Four-Clover turn the Shadow Stallion into stone?” Discord went quiet, looking away from me and thinking some more. I shook my head and continued, “They didn’t do a single thing about The Stallion. Didn’t, or maybe couldn’t turn him into stone, and they definitely didn’t hug him all better.”
“Maybe they weren’t around to,” Discord quickly retorted. “Four-Clover and Bright went to see Paleheart. Then two vanished, and Bright emerged transformed. We don’t know what happened in that time. Heck, we don’t even know if they all met up, or something happened along the way.”
“So we don’t know if the good parts of a heart die when the body corrupts,” I said firmly, “We are absolutely clueless.”
“Oh, that’s a fun conclusion,” Discord rolled his eyes, “We don’t know anything about this horrible process! I mean, anything could happen!”
“Exactly!” I shot back, smiling, “Which means it’s possible to save a transformed Nightmare, doesn’t it?”
“Maybe? No! I mean…” Discord rubbed his forehead. “But if the First Gods knew how to reverse the process, wouldn’t they have tried to fix their friends? The ones that had already transformed? Wouldn’t they have helped Laughter... Golden Jubilee, Hurricane, or uh... Bookends?”
“Wait,” I interrupted him. It was like a clear bell had just rung in my head, a memory coming to me sharp and bright. “Bookends?”
“Yeah, that was Honesty’s ‘birth name.’ Bookends.”
“That sounds so familiar! Wasn’t that…” I frowned. The clear thought was more insubstantial than I thought. The name, that sounded like something I heard before. But nothing else was coming to me. “I thought…” I huffed, “Didn’t we meet a Bookends?”
“What?” Discord cried, “Where?”
“I dunno...”
Discord stared at me. I stared back. He glanced away. Then with a mumbled, “excuse me,” he leaned over, rooted through my bag, and yanked out the map.
“Want to go to Honesty’s tomb first? Maybe.” Discord no longer seemed down on himself. If anything, there was an edge of excitement in his voice. “Maybe we can see if his statue’s there!”
I grinned, “See if the last three actually managed to purify him before they vanished?”
“Yeah! I mean,” he chuckled. “Could be just a family name. But if we’re out to get the Elements anyway…”
My easy gait slowly started turning into a trot. “It’d be worth seeing if there was something good left of Bookends!”
“Yeah!”
I took off in an excited gallop, and Discord quickly followed, laughing after me. We charged down that dirt road, kicking up sand and rocks, feeling the wind rush all around us, both powered by that overwhelming feeling of hope…!
But after about five minutes we slowed down again, panting and gasping for air.
“Okay… actually…” Discord heaved, “The tomb’s… you know… over a week’s walk away…”
I giggled, “I dunno why I started running.”
“Guess we… were just so excited...”
I smiled brightly at my friend, “Yep!”
A week away didn’t seem long at first, but after all those months of inactivity, each day was a chore to get through. We stopped often, and Discord always did his best to make the journey comfortable for the both of us. He summoned us blankets to lie on, and if it was a longer stop, pillows or mattresses. He took our food and covered it in the illusion of different flavors. With everything he ate, he’d drop in his own memory of mint, tweaking and tasting until he got it just right.
“I dunno how long I struggled with the illusion of taste. Takes a completely different line of thinking.” He tapped his carrot, took a bite, shrugged, tapped it again, and broke off another chunk with a louds snap. “Still can’t emulate that cold feeling right. Close enough, I guess.”
I took another bite of my oats. They tasted just like ripe oranges. Pretty cool, but tasting an orange without the citrus, the liquid and pulpiness of an orange? That was just weird. I don’t know how Discord can take all his food like that.
Asking him to recreate a whole dish was way better.
“So,” I said eagerly, “How about a slice of cherry cheesecake?”
He snapped his fingers, almost absentmindedly. Not only did two slices of the cake appear, but they came on little china plates with the daintiest forks. I could very clearly see the cherry juice rolling down the sides, and a part of the crust crumbled as I magically lifted the plate towards me.
“Mm! This is so good!” I shoveled in another mouthful. “Screw these bags of carrots and celery. Why didn’t I just assume you’d summon all the food?”
“It’s not summoning, it’s still an illusion.” He snapped off another bite of carrot and chewed it thoughtfully. “I guess it’ll just vanish from your stomach the moment I stop thinking about it. And even if you got magical energy from it, it’s not like it’s got the nutrients you need.”
“Yeah, yeah. I was joking. Kinda.” I smiled, but Discord only seemed awkward. Another mood swing. Poor guy. He just can’t seem to get comfortable.
He nudged a hand through his bag and pulled out one of the paper packages between two fingers. He turned away from me, and the road, to unpack it away from my eyes.
“Still not comfortable with that, Discord?”
“I don’t want to be.” There was a loud crackling of paper, and a soft sort of snapping sound. “Allowing myself to be content with it makes it okay. And I don’t want it to be okay.”
“A lot of animals eat meat, Discord.”
“Oh yeah, dumb lumbering beasts do.” He had balled up the paper and threw it away, but I could still see the outline of his jaw gnawing at something.
He glanced over at his bag and pulled it open with two fingers. “Yeah, this’ll last me the week. Then I’ll have to find something else... Uhg. I don’t think I have it in me to look, you know?”
I nodded quietly. Quickly pushed the rest of the cheesecake in my mouth, set aside the plate, and walked two steps over to his side. I got a brief glance of the brown meat chunk before he stuffed it into the shadows. I gave him a one-leg hug, hoping to reassure him, but… He flinched as I touched him, tried to draw away.
Still not comfortable with me either.
“What?” I joked, smirking up at him, “Afraid you’re going to hurt me?”
His face went blank. No, his face went to awkward town. Oh geez, really?
“Really Discord?” I laughed, “You think one day you’re going to wake up and bite my head off?”
“No! Well.” He snorted, folding his arms, “What if I transform into a Nightmare?”
As I friend, I gave him a slap on the shoulder. “Why worry about a future crazy you that may or may not happen?”
“Will I become like the other adults? The other Draconequus, I mean.” He frowned at his hands. “Will I become violent, slave to my body and impulses? Will I kill and do horrible things just for the fun of it?”
I rolled my eyes, and with hardly a moment’s concentration, I let my Element’s light wash over him.
“Well then. Let me help you stay sane, Discord.”
He shivered under my hooves, laughed nervously, and yanked out from under my hooves. He drew away, awkward with that strange little liar’s grin on his face.
“You’ll drive me crazy with talk like that, Luna!”
I gave him a wild grin. “Why?”
I thought. Maybe now! Maybe this is it! Honesty, Discord! The virtue we’re pursuing! Be honest with me. You’ve already told me so much, come so far from that old liar in you. Now, can you tell me the whole truth!
“Because!” he laughed. “You’re supposed to say it way sappier than that! Like, like ‘friends don’t let friends go nuts.’ Or better! ‘Friendship friendship mcFriendly Friend! Yeah?”
Dammit!
“Sorry about all that... whining. Really. You got me a little worked up about nutritional things. Doesn’t that sound stupid? I should’ve really dealt with these fears ages ago. So uh...” he looked around. “Lunch done? Packing up?”
Discord was a terrible liar, but damned if he didn’t try his very hardest to keep secrets.
~Θ~
When things got quiet is when things got weird. As long as Discord was chatting away with me, he could be all fine and normal. But talk to him about certain topic, or leave him to the quiet of him own mind for long enough, then he’d get squirrely. He’d start walking ahead of me, pointedly looking up at the sky or at a weird tree. Sometimes he’d fidget and shoot forward, spinning and casting illusions. We’d have a laugh about how bored he was, and maybe that was true. Maybe he was bored.
Or maybe he was also finding it really awkward to be alone with me for so many hours of a day. Truly alone. Hardly a cart in sight, no town for miles, and nothing but the wind in the trees. I wondered what exactly was going through his head. I mean, if he liked me, now was the time to tell me, right? Nobody was around to spy on us or spread weird rumors around a gossipy court.
Then again…
Maybe he thought I’d say no. And I’ll admit, that would be preeeetty awkward. If I rejected him. For one, we’d still have to travel together. Still have to be friends and get along, not just for a few hours at a time, but for 24 hours every day of the week. And with the weight of a rejection hanging between us… Yeah. He probably logic’d that out pretty quick. That’s probably why he’s not saying anything about it.
You know.
If he had a crush on me.
But oooh, please just say something Discord! It’s driving me nuts wondering what you’re thinking! Just give me a hint, please! If you even give me the tiniest hint that my guess was true, then it would be on me what happened next! And I would be like to be the only variable here, please!
So I don’t know if it was boredom or a little mean streak that made me do it. But on our second day of Discord the Squirrely Draconequus, I decided to kick things forward. I walked right up to the base of his tree, because he did so enjoy sleeping in trees, and I called up to him:
“Hey Discord! You wanna sleep with me tonight?!”
From up above I heard the strangest squeal. Like Discord’s brain had ground to a halt or something. I half expected him to fall from the tree, bedding and all. No such luck. But his head did pop from around his little blanket-bed-nest, tense and at wit’s end.
He squeaked, “What?! Excuse me?!”
Oh my gosh, Discord’s voice can still go that high? But geez, talk about the least revealing answer!
“You know, I used to always sleep with my sister beside me,” I explained calmly. “You joked that I was her pillow, right? Well last night I got pretty lonely, you know, sleeping down here. All alone.”
“Oh!” he seemed instantly relieved. “I thought you meant… “
I leaned up closer, eagerly awaiting the end of his sentance. Thought I meant whaaaat…?
“Nevermind.”
Darnit!
With a snapping sound, Discord’s little nest of blankets vanished. He dropped out of the tree with a heavy whump.
“I’m sorry for um… leaving you alone down here.” He laughed nervously. Uhg. I was getting pretty sick of that laugh. “So uh… bed! Bedding. Is it comfortable enough?”
He waved at the pallet he had summoned, actually a little ridiculous and out of place on the forest floor. It was pretty close to my bed and blankets back at Canterlot, and just as soft. Though it had a tendency to become less like a bed and more like a blob pre-dawn. He even decorated the edges of the creation with complicated blue lace and silver moons. I’d say the attention to detail meant something special, but I knew Discord too well for that. He just never let go of an excuse to “test his powers” and “show off.”
“Yep. Bed’s comfy! So!” I sat on the left side of the bed and patted the space next to me. “Come on! Sit next to me.”
Oh I do love having night vision. Discord just turned beet red!
“S’not big enough,” he mumbled. With another click of his claws, a second mattress spun from the ground and formed beside mine, just as complicated, just as comfy, and just as decorated. But with red six-pointed stars instead of moons. He crawled under the covers on the far side of it, nearly falling off in his effort to be distanced from me.
“So!” I poke at one of the decorative stars, but my hoof just passes right through. “Oh, it’s not solid.”
“Cheaper,” he mumbled from under his covers.
“Why the red stars though?”
He was silent for a bit, then poked his head out, blanket hanging off his horns.
“Um.” He started scratching at the mattress, little lines of color floating up from his claws. “It stands for magic, I think. S’important to me.”
“Really?” I squeaked. “Why?!”
“Um…”
I think maybe my efforts have backfired. Now he’s just uncomfortable. And an uncomfortable Discord is a squirrely Discord, the absolute worst kind of Discord.
“Discord, please!” I cried.
He recoiled from me, staring. “Please what?”
“Can’t you be honest with me?! I’m worried about you!”
“What?” he babbled, “What have I done?”
“Nothing! You’re lying to me!”
He frowned, “I am not!”
“This is just like last time! When you’d rather let yourself starve than admit you have a problem!”
“I don’t have a—“
“Yes you do!”
He frowned, “Don’t jump to conclusions here—“
“You’ve been acting so squirrely lately Discord! What is wrong?!”
He opened his mouth, closed it, frowned at me.
“I… really don’t like fighting with you, Luna,” he huffed.
“I don’t like fighting for how you feel,” I moaned, “It’s an everyday struggle with you, Discord!”
“Well sorry,” he mumbled into his pillow.
“Discord,” I said firmly. I leaned over to his bed, not touching him, but making sure I was close. “Nothing can drive me away from you, okay?”
“Well, I’m not worried about that, but…” With a wince, he said, “It’s just my problem, you know? I can deal with it.”
“And,” I said pointedly, “I can help you deal with it.”
I had gotten so close to the truth, I could freaking taste it. And finally, finally, finally, he looked prepared to give me a tiny kernel of truth. I swelled inside, prepared to take whatever he had to say to me.
With a loud sigh, he said, “I’m a Draconequus…”
My insides instantly deflated. I snorted. “Yeah, I know.”
“Let me finish!” He half laughed. “As a Draconequus, the physical differences extend further than the diet. You see, I’m entering my adolescence, so…”
“Ponies have puberty too!”
He grunted and waved my comment away, “But for a Draconequus, puberty makes us more violent, short-tempered, and pretty much a hundred percent stupider as well. Pony puberty, well…” He stopped, blushed, and I cried inside. Just say it Discord! “You seem to be taking it much more uh… elegantly than me?”
“My knees hurt,” I laughed, more out of frustration than joy. “Look at them! They’re like somebody stuck a rubber ball between my leg bones!”
He maybe glanced at them for a second before he quickly looked away and chuckled throatily.
“So,” he said, “I hope you excuse how weird I’m acting. I’m just dealing with a lot of weird personal stuff. Because, you know, when am I not dealing with stupid stuff like that?”
Okay, the cuteness of this was wearing thin. I’m serious, I should be annoyed, and for a while I kind’ve was annoyed. Now I’m just… I feel really small inside. Like I’m getting smaller and smaller and smaller...
Please.
Just say you l-like me, Discord…
You gotta tell me that you like me first…
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Woah...
Nice ship you have there, Grey.
Ohh.
Why do i feel like that would be me, unable to tell someone that i like her?
Kiss the girl already dammit! Ugh! Discord stop being a loser!
Anyway, loved this chapter, it was cute but also sad :(
The length and quality of this story can only mean one thing
*takes out virtual sword* Grey Potter, with all the power invested in me as a fantasy fan I hereby dub thee the J.R.R Tolkien of the Bronydom!
Seriously, you could already publish 2 books with this thing (after a read check to get out ome minor grammar mistakes and typo's) And hey, you throw in a good ship too.
2462164
But the sentiment is much appreciated, and I hope you continue to read and enjoy my works~ 
Pffft, I'm sure that title has already gone to like, half a dozen authors way crazier talented, influential, and word-vomiting than me
2462220 you give yourself way too little credit. I have read a lot of fimfics and only 3 got me invested enough to keep reading: Vinyl and Octavia - University Days, The return of Princess Nightmare Moon and the Steadfast Sky. Other stories missed a very essessential balance between story progression and style. The fact that I keep reading your fic is because it has this balance. I even read the whole Stringhalt bit in one go!
2461861
Mother, Area 7, Matthew Reilly
This is Australia...
wait, did they meet a Bookends? I can't...I can't remember! AAAAARRGH!!!!
2461861 Actually, the problem here is Luna. She knows Discord's crush, and apparently reciprocates, but can't bring herself to spare herself lots of frustration and Discord lots of pressure, embarrassment, etc. by just biting the bullet and going first. If this goes on long enough, she could potentially reveal that she's been putting him in all those awkward situations and do so in a way awkward enough that it causes a fight (if he gets the idea she was doing it to mock him).
Hopefully not.
D'awwww....
This ship is going to go places ^.^
pretty different having it be Luna and Discord rather than Celestia. Also, why doe it have to be him to say it first little princess?
2463622
Chapter "XXXV : Luna"
And could someone please explain to me this
?
It's just as far as i know
Chapter "XXXVI : Discord"
Luna, if he won't say it, you say it. Simple fix.
2470338
Both characters learned what they learned, and both have drawn conclusions based on what they've read. I can't really explain it without spoiling future events, and I will explain it eventually, but all I can say now is this:
Both are truth obscured by assumption.
GOD i love Luna x Discord more and more! you better pull through for us dammit!!! (dreading the eventual discord corruption and imprisonment, DAMN YOU CANON!!!)
I really love the outcomes of leaving canterlot for celestia and the concequences of Luna Discord being alone. Go discord and Luna!!
as sweetie bell said in one chapter "AWWW COME ON" confess already Luna, grab that crazy Draconequus by his mismatched horns and kiss the sh
out of him
also, prankster Luna is best Luna
Dramatic plot twist, Luna likes him to!
Nuuu! Luna, you can go first.
Row row your boat merrily down the stream, life is everlasting for yall. I don't think Luna has a crush on him, I think she's just willing to give it a try if it'll make discord less squirrely. But goddan discord drop them balls son, she wants you next to her. Smh.
This lie screams one thing: Luna likes Discord too.