A Life Long-lived

by Night Music

Chapter 2: Technicality

Author's Note:

(1) Imagine the text being similar to any Eastern-Asian texts. Just the style, not an exact copy.

"Stop right there, Tirek!" Twilight shouted as she galloped to the fallen centaur. It all made sense. Discord's old family friend, it couldn't be nopony else, since nopony is even close his age, besides the Princesses. The group of mares formed a semi-circle around the centaur. besides Fluttershy, who was busy hiding behind a battle ready Rainbow Dash. Discord floating above them with a smile on his face as laughter threataned to burst from him.

"That really smarts," Diamond said from underneath the cloak, his voice in a harsh whisper. The friend's eyes widened, why did Tirek sound as if he had been living in Canterlot? Nobody said a thing and silence filled the air, that was until a child's crying began to resonate from the cloak. Diamond unhitched his pack from his body and rolled out of the fur, the ponies choked on their own breath at the sight. This wasn't Tirek. The creature may have been tall, but he was scrawny compared to Tirek.

"No no no," Diamond said with worry in his voice. "It's okay little one, please do not cry." Opening the cloak he spotted Aphid lying on the inside, thankfully unharmed but the bed was, unfortunately, broken. He lifted the Changeling into his arms and stood to his full height. "Mother doesn't like it when you cry, and neither do I," he cooed, rocking the baby back and forth as he did so.

"Mister are you okay?" Applejack asked she stepped out from behind her stall. Looking to her right she spotted her friends. "Girls? What are you doin' here?" They were silent, befuddlement written across all of their faces as they didn't know what to say.

"Why, Diamond, I didn't think you'd be the one to have a child!" Discord said, his laughter finally free as he slapped his knee in a fit of chuckles.

With the cries of Aphid having calmed down, and said foal asleep, Diamond turned and looked to Discord. "Ah, Discord, I didn't think I'd see you there, how goes it?" He asked, continuing to rock Aphid in his arms. And ignoring the girls.

"Hey!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "What the hay are you and why do did you bring a changeling here?" Diamond looked down to her.

"Hm, You will be quiet when Aphid is asleep," he said sternly but in a hushed tone.

Her eyebrows raised. "But what about Discord?!" The draconequus having been laughing not a minute ago.

"Then if he wakes her up, he shall help me, but I don't want a flighty pegasus handling my daughter."

"Why you—" But she was blocked by a purple hoof. Rainbow Dash looked to Twilight, her friend wearing a stern look on her face. Flattening her ears but grinding her teeth, Rainbow Dash backed off.

Twilight stepped forward. "So sorry sir, my friend didn't mean to harm you or your... foal." Twilight looked to Aphid.

How could that thing be his?

Looking back up to Diamond. "I mistook you for somepony else and that's why Rainbow Dash tackled you," Twilight said before bowing her head.

Diamond was silent for a moment. "Ah, okay then, I forgive her." Diamond turned to Applejack as she decided to speak up.

"Just like that? I'm grateful for you forgivin' my friend there but, why? Why just like that?"

"I am capable of many things, but holding a grudge isn't one of them. Aphid is okay. No harm, no foul as they say," Diamond said, peering down at the sleeping figure of Aphid in his arms.

Twilight sighed with relief. Looking at Diamond she looked over his form. He may be tall, taller than anypony that she knew, maybe even Celestia. But compared to a Minotaur, the closest thing she could think of that he resembled, he was lanky. His claws were a shiny silver, almost reflective. Plates of the shiny material stuck outward like scales on a dragon. She squinted and realized. They weren't claws at all, they were gauntlets. Looking down at his... whatever he called them. She spotted the same thing, shiny metal with plates that seemed like dragon scales. The material under them was a pitch black cloth, giving no detail to it whatsoever, as if it was absorbing the light that shined on it.

"Aphid is her name?" Discord asked, floating over to Diamond and looking down at Aphid. "Hopefully she doesn't grow up to look like her father," Discord snickered.

"Yes yes, more-so that if she grew up to look like you, that would be problematic," he quipped.

Discord chuckled some more, stopping to talk once again. "So, what brings you to town? Surely it wasn't the grand sights."

"I've come back to live here, settle down, just as you have done."

"You used to live here?!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "How didn't I hear about this? I would have thrown you a party!"

The rest of the mares murmured in agreement, having never heard about him at all.

"This was a long time ago, Ponyville as a town was just starting out. And I didn't stay long, if my memory serves me, I stayed only a week at most before continuing my journey."

Twilight raised any eyebrow at this. Ponyville itself was fairly young when it was compared to the other cities and towns of Equestria, but its lifetime spanned nearly four generations. "Just how old are you? If you don't mind my asking."

Diamond hummed as his brows furrowed in thought. Looking up at Discord, he spoke. "I stumbled upon your home at the age of thirty," Discord nodded at this. "Hm, would one of you mind holding Aphid, I have just the thing."

Everyone turned their heads to the still cowering Fluttershy, if anypony was going to handle a child, it was going to be her. She could feel their stares and began to shake. "Oh why me?" She asked softly.

"Come now, dear Fluttershy," Discord patted her back. "You're great with foals," Discord beamed. Fluttershy raised her head to look Aphid.

Turning to Diamond he extended his arms, stretching them almost as if he were in a cartoon. Diamond handed over Aphid and bent over to rummage through his belongings. As Diamond muttered intelligible gibberish, Discord held Aphid out in front of Fluttershy. Aphid slowly awoke as she was no longer in the embrace of her father. As Aphid slowly opened her eyes, Fluttershy stared at the slightly chubby hatchling and her shiny sky-blue oceans that were her eyes.

"Aww," Fluttershy cooed. "She so adorable... in a scary kind of way." Taking Aphid in her hooves, she rocked her back and forth as she would any other foal.

"Aha! Here it is," Diamond said as he flipped through a journal. The pages written in Ancient Griffin. A type of text that relied on sharp but short brush strokes.(1)

"Dated," he began to murmur. "Ah yes, just after the dawn of civilization itself. So," he began to count on his fingers. "I am at the very least eleven-thousand and forty-two years old." He nodded to himself while the ponies stared at him with shock and disbelief.

"How are you that old!?" Twilight nearly shrieked. He had to be at least a couple of centuries older than Celestia herself! How was that even possible?! Twilight wracked her brain with a question every second, her thoughts turning into a jumbled mess not long after.

"Well darling, I can say this without a doubt, you do look well for your age," Rarity said with a smile, finally deciding to speak. Her accent not that different from Diamond's.

Diamond bowed in response. "Thank you miss, the years have been so lenient with me,"

"I must ask about your accent though, are you from Canterlot?"

"Oh no ma'am, perish the thought," Diamond said, causing Rarity's muzzle to crinkle as her face contorted in annoyed confusion.

"What's wrong with Canterlot?" Twilight spoke up, her home being the target of ridicule.

"Never been, but the stories my family tells after their visits do not sound pleasant. Pony elitists with their ideals stuck in the dark ages. The ruler being only a figure-head and not actually enforcing anything, the rules being made behind closed doors and with bags of bits as the nobles themselves band together and make things work in their favor," Diamond grunted and nodded to himself. "Not a place for civilized folk."

Both Twilight and Rarity ground their teeth at the words of Diamond. How dare he. Not a place for civilized folk?! Rarity internally shrieked. All the while Twilight herself seethed over the fact that he had called Celestia a figure-head with no real power.

"That is why I chose to live here, no elitists, only ponies who value hard work above all else, no hatred based on race," he said, causing most of them to chuckle bashfully, not wanting to tell him what happened not two years prior. A story involving a certain Zebra. A one named Zecora.

Applejack cleared her throat, trying not to let Rarity or Twilight a chance to speak their mind. "So, you decided to live here? You gonna buy a house?"

"Ah, actually no, I own land here," this answer caused all of the girls to raise any eyebrow. Making even Rarity and Twilight forget their anger.

"Girls? Discord?" Everyone turned to their heads to the left and spotted the young drake known as Spike. Bags in his arms, most likely filled with groceries. "What are you doing here?" He turned to look to Diamond. "And what are you?"

"Aah, young one!" Diamond called out, extending his arms to the sky. "Vir los hin sul? Naako naan sogaal ol do spein?"(How is your day? Eaten any gems as of late?) Diamond spoke in the tongue of dragons in a deep and commanding tone.

The only response Spike gave was a raised eyebrow and one question. "What?"

Diamond frowned. "Hi dreh ni mindok vun do hin meyar joriin?" (You do not know the tongue of your own people?)

Again. "What?"

Diamond became saddened for some reason that was unknown to them. "You don't speak dragon?" He asked speaking Equestrian once more.

"You speak dragon?" Twilight asked, stepping into the conversation. Not aware until now that Dragon's had their own language.

Ignoring her, Diamond asked Spike, "Where are you parents?" Spike raised an eyebrow pointed to Twilight with a single claw. Diamond looked to her and his face contorted into worry and disgust.

"How you survived coitus with a dragon is beyond even me, I'm am sorry for the pain you endured in the sake love," bowing once more, Twilight's face burned bright red, blushing even past her purple fur. Extending her wings and shaking them in the air to get his attention she hurriedly spoke.

"Nononono, that doesn't mean what you think it means! I didn't do anything with a dragon, I just hatched his egg with my magic!" She said with a nervous sweat dripping down her forehead.

"Oh!" Diamond coughed into his armored hand. "My apologies, but where are the ones that birthed him?"

"No clue, I was hatched from an egg in Canterlot,"

"Hm, disappointing. I would have had some choice words into the ones who birthed you." Walking towards Fluttershy, who was trying to keep Aphid from chewing on her mane with her single fang, Diamond lifted Aphid back into his arms. Aphid settled for chewing on the dark fabric that made up his clothing.

"Now then, how about we continue or conversation in my new home."

The mares looked at each other, shrugged and wanted to know where the new... thing in Ponyville lived. With a spark as metal scrapped against metal. Diamond snapped his fingers as best as he could, with a flash all of his stuff was strapped onto his back, the cloak rolled and wrapped with a rope as it hung off of the pack.

"Now if memory serves, it should be this way," Diamond said as he turned and walked to the center of Ponyville.

---

"Huh, I could've sworn there was building here," Diamond said as he stared at the stump that used to be the Ponyville public library.

"I thought we were going to your home?" Twilight asked, her ears pressed back in a show of how much she was uncomfortable.

"This is my land, I heard there was a building here, a library. Someone was living in it at the time and I thought nothing of it."

Twilight looked to the ground, unable to look at Diamond. She looked up and opened her mouth to say something, but Diamond interrupted her.

"No matter, I'll just bring it back." Diamond turned back to Discord and gave Aphid to him. Turning back, he stared the the ruins, flexing his fingers, metal plates colliding as he did so. Inhaling, he closed his and a flash of emerald green light shined from his gauntlets, exhaling the moment after. Everyone watched in silence, wanting to see the creature's magic.

As his gauntlets shined with a duller color of green. Some kind of liquid began to drip out of them, moistening the ground with a clear gelatin. It built up around his feet, a small pool that rose barely an inch off of the ground. Once it stopped dripping from his hands, it began to roll towards the destroyed tree, rolling over the grass with audible sloshes. As it reached the stump, it began to seep into the charred wood. A moment of silence before a sapling shot up from the ruined wood. A single green leaf popping out of thin sapling's base.

"That was it?" Rainbow Dash asked, dropping to the ground and laughing. "That was so lame, Twilight why don't you show him how it's done?" She asked, continuing her jovial laughter.

"Rainbow!" Twilight shouted, embarrassed at her friend. She looked up to Diamond who still faced the tree, his breathing obviously labored as his upper body raised and lowered. "Mr. Diamond, if you—" But she was cut off as Diamond raised his hands to the sky, as if holding something up. His head tilted back. She looked up to where he was looking, only to be blinded by the sun. What was he doing? She looked back down and peered at his armor. The gauntlets he wore were gone, replaced with a light that made her shield her eyes. Staying there for a good minute before his body began to visibly shake. The boots shortly following suit and turning to blinding lights that seemed to rival the sun.

In one quick motion, he brought his right hand to the ground, the lights disappearing as ash fell from where his armor had been.

Twilight stared on at Diamond, her head snapping to the sky as the once blue sky turned to a darker shade, the sun itself seemingly dimmed. What did he do!? The words never left her as a column of light blasted down from the sky, hitting the tree with a loud explosion, shaking the ground around them. Diamond turned around and began to walk back to them, the column of light still beaming down with a loud roar. The tree erupting from the ground behind him, replacing the beam. The windows, leaves, everything seemed to just pop back into existence.

He began to speak just before the sound died down. "—ia, eat your heart out."

No one said a thing, what could they say? They could only stare with wide eyes as the creature who called upon the power of the sun itself walked over to them, his brow shining with a thing layer of sweat in the now returning sunlight.

Taking Aphid back into one hand and using the other to levitate his stuff alongside him with a blue aura, he walked towards the now replenished library. "Come now, I'll put on some rock tea."

---

"Ah, so nice to relax once in a while," Celestia said, taking a sip of her tea. The cup itself was enveloped in her golden magic. Bringing the cup back to her mouth, her magic flickered and died, dropping the cup and shattering it on the marble floor.

"I will find a maid right away, Princess," a guard said before moving from his place next to the door and leaving the room.

Staring down at the broken cup, Celestia tried to pick it up with her magic, only to be met with failure as the magic died on her horn. Craning her neck to the left, she stared out the window, the sun shining over the country side.

"Odd," was all she said before a maid and the guard from before entered the room.

Comments

[Loli4Real]

Great story I can't wait for the next chapter

[Fireeaters]

I thought Applejack's grandmother founded ponyville as a child with her parents. I can't remember for sure, but I think it was in the episode with the jam and applebloom bringing her granny to school.