Sun's Fire

by Discordia5

Names and Questions

Names and Questions

Solaris lifted another book to his muzzle and puzzled over it. As soon as he had reached the castle he had scoured the library and the reading room for books, scrolls, and anything else that might have given him some kind of clue as to what 'she' could've been. Her form was different and odd, but Solaris couldn't help thinking that he had seen it somewhere. He scratched his head with a hoof and slammed the book shut. His ear twitched at the sound of hoofsteps, but he didn't pay them any mind. Artemis stepped lightly down the marble steps and into the reading room. He yawned widely and shook his head to wake himself up. "Still awake?" he asked.

Solaris nodded. "Good morning, Arty," he said and gave a reassuring smile.

"Afternoon by now," Artemis pointed out.

Indeed the sun had long ago risen and was sitting proudly in the middle of the sky. Solaris nodded and continued onto the next book. Artemis looked over at the pile of books he had already gone through. He knew his big brother was a persistent pony and wouldn't give up his search until he actually found what he was looking for. However, at the rate he was going he would fill up the entire room with all the discarded books that didn't have what he was looking for. "I take it you found the cause of all the unique weather?" Artemis asked and trotted over to read over Solaris' shoulder.

"Hmm, sort of," Solaris said thoughtfully and shut that book as well.

"So, what is it?" Artemis asked.

"It is a she and I don't know."

"Well, does she have a name?"

"Apparently not.

Artemis tilted his head in confusion. Solaris sighed and started to scour the nearby shelves. "I have to find that too," he grumbled just loud enough for Artemis to hear.

"Wait, you have to give her a name?" he asked.

Solaris frowned as Arty started to chuckle. "Do you have to name her species too!" he snorted.

Solaris rolled his eyes. "No!" he said simply. "Her appearance is odd, but it seemed familiar to me. I was hoping one of Milky Way's journals would have an explanation."

Artemis watched his brother pace the room trying to find what he was looking for. Finally a title on the top shelf stuck out to Soly and he floated it down to his eye level. After skimming a few pages he finally stopped on something of interest. "Aha!" he said and smiled as he set the book down so that Artemis could see. "That's what she is! She's a Draconneques."

"Draca-who-now?" Artemis asked.

Solaris' hoof pointed down at a crude sketch of what could've been one of 'her' relatives. There were a few differences in appearance, but otherwise it seemed to be a perfect match. "A drac-con-eh-quis," he pronounced slowly. "A creature comprised of many animals, but highly intelligent."

Artemis turned the book more towards him to read it better. "Mostly having the traits of a griffin, a lion, and a dragon, other traits may vary," Solatis continued. "Though possessing slightly higher intelligence than ponies, very few actually excel in magic."

"So, it's rare for them to know magic," Artemis mused. "So, she's special."

Solaris smirked and kept going. "Those that do possess such talent have seemed to have tapped into a reservoir of very primal and raw power making their magical limits near non-existent," he said. "Their numbers are unknown, but are supposedly very few and family groups are dispersed throughout the land."

"So, if she is a rarity then, that makes her very special," Artemis said. "Is that all?"

While it was a good amount of information it wasn't that welcoming. 'She' might very well be the last of her kind. Solaris wondered how she would take that. "Now for a name," he said and started searching through different types of books, ones that told of ancient mythologies long since forgotten.

"This whole naming thing is kind of strange," Artemis said as he laid down completely. "Like she's a new pet or something."

"Well, I can't keep calling her, 'her', or 'she', or 'you' anymore, can I?" Solaris pointed out.

Artemis shrugged. Solaris snorted and went back to reading. "Besides how can you be sure she'll like the name that you give her?" Arty asked. "What if it'll be like that fairytale? You're just gonna name hunt for eternity!"

Solaris rolled his eyes. "You've been sleeping too long, Arty," he said.

"And you don't know when to quit, Soly," Arty quipped back.

It took awhile of scanning the page when finally he landed on a name. His hoof slammed down on the page in triumph. "Aha!"

It was perfect!

"Eris," Solaris said confidently. "Your name will be, Eris."

Eris sat across from him her serpentine body hunched over with her head in her hands until she started to tilt her head and kept tilting until it made a complete three-sixty. She tilted again in the opposite direction to make her neck crack. Solaris scrunched up his face in mild horror and surprise. He wasn't used to this kind of behavior. The way she flaunted her magic as if it was second nature. Her personality was also a bit sporadic, bouncing from bored to excited to thoughtful and then back to bored, and he had only spent a few minutes with her. When he had actually arrived he had found her sitting cross-legged on the ceiling. She looked down at him and smiled. "Well, well, if it isn't the little princey come for another visit." She was rather blunt and direct about her feelings though and that was a little refreshing. Since she also wasn't accustomed to being around royalty she didn't see the need to keep being courteous and polite around him either. "What does it mean?" she asked, not really looking all that interested.

"Well, it's from a legend, Eris was called the goddess of chaos and discord," Solaris explained.

Eris hummed thoughtfully and stood up before looking at her reflection in a puddle nearby. She turned her body this way and that before she said anything else. "Hmmm, Eris," she said softly, trying out the name. "Goddess of chaos."

Her tail swished in the dust and suddenly she spun around on him and was a few inches from his face. "I love it!" she said and beamed brightly.

Her eyes shone happily and her tail moved excitedly. The smile she wore stretched from ear to ear. Soon enough she started to hop and prance around like a young filly. "Yay, you named me!" she cried. "I have a name!"

Solaris watched as she bounced around him and smiled at her filly-ish behavior. Finally she stopped and turned back around to Solaris with a big smile on her face. "I'm glad you like it," Solaris said with a smile of his own. "I thought it would be perfect for you considering how much you love to uumm... have fun."

Eris smiled even brighter and her tail swished again. "Now I have some questions for you," Solaris said. "I'm not sure if you're prepared to answer, but I would like to know anyway."

Eris tilted her head in curiosity. "Questions?" she asked. "Yeesh, princey, if I wanted a quiz I would've gone to a sphinx."

Solaris smirked at her. "Solaris, please," he said.

Eris' eyes narrowed, but she said nothing. "Alright, well, first I want to know, where did you come from?" Solaris asked.

"Hmmm, how shall I explain this?" she said. "When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much-."

"Not what I meant!" Solaris barked and blushed a slight shade of pink.

Eris laughed heartily. "Aw come on, you set me up for that!" she said. "Ok, in all honesty, I don't really know."

Now it was Solaris' turn to tilt his head. Eris frowned and furrowed her brow, trying to remember. "All I can really remember is this cave, I know that I was pretty young maybe a few years old, but as for parents or family I can't recall anything," she said.

Solaris frowned at that. It sounded like a pretty lonely existence and a hard one at that. He couldn't imagine life without his brother, never mind being completely alone in the world. "How did you survive then?" he asked.

Eris shrugged. "I got plants to feed off of, fresh streams, and all the animals around here too," she said. "I just hunted alone."

Solaris scrunched up his face in slight disgust. "You eat other animals?" he asked.

"Oh yes, especially rabbits, they're delicious!" she said proudly and her tail swished again.

So she was omnivorous like an Ursa. "Ok so if you've lived up here all alone how did you learn to speak or do magic or any of your skills?" he asked.

Eris started to float off the ground and she crossed her legs in mid-air. "Well, I've always just kind of known how to do magic, but back then it was pretty small stuff like teleporting and floating," she explained. "So I teleported into your little pony city down there and observed other young ones like me and learned how to speak."

"I'm guessing you don't know how to read or write," Solaris mused aloud.

Eris shook her head. "Hmmm, interesting," he said.

Eris blinked a few times and waited for his next question. It didn't come for a while so she decided to speak up. "Well, there's one other thing you haven't told me," she said.

Solaris gave her a confused look. "What am I?" she asked.

"Oh, uummm," Solaris said scratching his head with his hoof.

He started to pace back and forth wondering how best to present his findings to her. He decided to go with the honest answer. "Well, your species is called the Draconneques," he said.

"Draco-what-now?" she asked.

Solaris smiled at the almost near identical answer that Artemis gave him. "Drac-con-eh-quis," he pronounced. "Not much is known about your kind, but from what I found, your species was rare at the time the book was written and is probably near extinct now."

He was facing away from her, so he didn't see her expression. He couldn't imagine what it would feel like to probably be the last of a species, knowing you were truly alone in the world. No, he knew what that felt like, it wasn't a good feeling. "Hmmm, so I'm special?" she asked.

Solaris turned around and saw that Eris was still smiling, she didn't seem at all deterred by the fact that she might be the last one. "Heh, I suppose," he said.

She grinned toothily and gave a kind of squeal of joy. "I didn't think I was special!" she said and started to rock in mid-air. "I've never felt special before!"

Solaris found this to be a very odd observation. How could she not feel special? As far as she could've known she had been the only one to look the way she did and act the way she did. He wondered how that simple thought never entered her mind. "Well, I think I'm out of questions for now," he said. "I'll leave you to whatever it is you do."

Eris stopped rocking around in the air for a second and watched him trot away. "Wait a sec!" she called.

Solaris stopped and turned back to her. "Hmmm, this doesn't seem fair," she said and crawled on all fours to him.

Solaris quirked an eyebrow at her and watched her approach. "I mean, you've named me, but I haven't given you a name," she said.

Solaris smiled nervously. "I already have a name," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's not MY name!" Eris insisted.

Solaris watched as she scrunched up her face in thought and started to mumble to herself. "Hmmm, let's see... Sunny? No. Sunbright? No. Hmmmm, oh I know!" she said. "Your name is Shiny!"

Solaris backed up a few steps in surprise. The nickname sounded foal-ish, absolutely ridiculous. "Yep, your name is Shiny, because the sun is shiny!" she said and grinned up at him.

It was such a hopeful and happy look, he couldn't stand to tell her how he really felt about the name. Well, he supposed it wasn't that bad, much better than Soly anyway. He chuckled and smiled back at her. "Alright, Shiny it is," he agreed.

"Yay!" Eris said and bounced back up to the ceiling where she started to hop upside down.

Solaris continued on his way out of the cave when he heard her speak up again. "Hey!" she called. "Are you coming back, will I see you again?"

Solaris smiled and turned back to Eris who was still hanging upside down. "Of course," he said. "I still have to teach you how to read and write."

Eris made a kind of cringing smirk that could've been a try at a smile, but was failing at it. Solaris only chuckled and left the cave.

So now she knew what she was and she had a name. It had been a big day. However, she wasn't really sure if she liked being a rare species. After all she had been alone for the majority of her life with no memory of parents or even friends to speak of. Looking back on the years of spending her life in the cave she couldn't even really remember if she had even felt loneliness. Then Solaris had walked in and now that's all she seemed to feel. Sure she had spurts of it every time she watched the ponies in Canterlot and she always had questions that she couldn't answer, but now it was a constant feeling of just being the only one in a large cave. No company to have except her own reflection and the echo of her voice. Slowly she started to float her way back down to the ground, still staring at the cave entrance where Solaris had disappeared. Then she turned and looked at her reflection again. "You are Eris," she said to it. "Goddess of Discord... and you are special."

Author's Note:

Something that I forgot to mention in the other note is that I love criticism! I don't mean criticizing for the sake of being mean, but constructive criticism. If there's something you think I need to improve on, please let me know in a civil manner. Also the perspective might change up from here and be more centered around Eris, just so you're aware. Otherwise, enjoy!

Comments

[Evilhumour]

I suggest looking for editor, as it is a bit rough. It is good though

[Moongaze14]

This chapter is cute,

[alarajrogers]

This has nothing to do with your story, but the cover art irritates me because Eris is shown as smaller than Solaris. Discord is huge in comparison to a pony; his size differential to even Celestia suggests that, even if Celestia were a little bigger because male, and Discord a little smaller because female, they should at least be the same size, or Eris should be bigger. However since your story hasn't mentioned sizes, I'm only nitpicking here because I'm hoping you don't make the same mistake later in the story. :-)

This is a pretty good Eris origin. I've seen a lot of Discord origins, and a few Eris stories, but I don't think I've ever seen an Eris origin before. I like it.

[Discordia5]

4858490 I have noticed this as well. And while I just think it's a cute picture (although not entirely accurate to what my story is about) I agree that they should be the same size and they are about the same size in my fic. Except Eris is just a liiiiittle bit shorter, just by inches or so. Glad you enjoy it!

[Discordia5]

4858490 Also take into account that she is on all fours right now. If Discord was on all fours he would be at least the same height as Celestia.