Hate Me

by Vynce

Chapter 3: Keeping Secrets

Discord watched as Celestia rummaged through the library books. She had abandoned her gentle demeanor and was instead flying through the pages in frantic search. The air in the library had become thick with dust that had been loosed from the pages of books. If they didn’t find what they were looking for soon, they may have to give up just so that the air could settle back into a breathable state.

They had searched almost every book by now, with only a few shelves remaining on the last wall of the library. They were dangling on the last threads of hope having not found anything that could possibly-

“Found it!” Celestia called out, suddenly giddy and practically dancing in place.

Discord moved over her, doing his best to hide the fact that he was equally excited about finding what they were looking for. He stopped just in front of Celestia, her eyes were filled with so much glee.

“Allow me to take a look?” he asked, grabbing the book from her magic before she could even respond. It was only a few pages long, more like a magazine with a hard cover. His brow furled as he read the title aloud, “How to cure Twilight Sparkle.”

That’s... ridiculous. Why hadn’t they thought to just find this book immediately?

He opened to the first page, finding just a simple list of ingredients. He actually remembered all of them to be conveniently located in the kitchen from when he was making breakfast. They already had all of what it would take to cure her, and the directions for assembly were easy as well.

“Well, let’s get cooking!” He announced theatrically, already snaking his way to the kitchen.

He was throwing his arms about in the cupboard, gathering all the ingredients they required and setting them on the countertops. Celestia was sitting at the table behind him watching with a smile, for some reason she was completely trusting of him. He finished grabbing the last of what they needed, and a large pot from one of the cupboards beneath the counters.

On the stove he mixed all of the ingredients into the pot, and began boiling them. It was a terrible stench that wafted from the strange concoction, nearly eliciting gags from both of them. The thick gray substance in the pan bubbled slowly, each pop creating another steamy trail of stink as it floated up towards Discord’s burning nostrils.

“All done,” he stated with an animated tone, turning off the burner beneath the cauldron-like pot.

From the drawer near the stove he retrieved a soup ladle, and a bowl from the cupboards near the sink. He put a large serving of the disgusting slime into the bowl and turned to Celestia. She returned his smile, and they both began up the stairs towards Twilight’s room.

They pushed the door open, a tiny and prolonged creaking noise filled the otherwise silent room. Twilight was sitting up on her bed, just staring at nothing in particular. The alicorn and draconequus slowly and carefully tiptoed their way toward her, as though she would bite if she were startled. She didn’t seem to notice them, or she just didn’t care.

Discord sat on the bed next to her and lifted her face to look into her eyes. They were unfocused and dilated, devoid of any emotion. He was almost lost in her uncaring gaze, her reflected nothing. It was like staring at the embodiment of emptiness. The world seemed to fade to a lonely black, but only just for a moment.

“Drink this,” he started, and lifted the bowl to offer it to her. “It’s going to fix you up.”

Who is this person talking? This isn’t me. This isn’t fun.

Discord lifted the spoon and made some whooshing noises as he spiralled it towards Twilight’s mouth.

That’s a little better.

Twilight ate it reluctantly, and nearly threw it up immediately afterward. She coughed and gagged for a moment, spraying little specks of ‘soup’ on the blanket in front of her. It obviously didn’t taste any better than it smelled, but the effects were immediately noticeable.

Discord watched in amazement as her coat began to illuminate in a soft golden glow. Harps and vocal harmonies filled the air in an angelic musical piece as Twilight slowly hovered up over the bed. It was the second most beautiful thing Discord had ever seen.

Speaking of most beautiful...

Discord turned to see Celestia smiling and tearing up as she watched the unicorn float above the bed. She hadn’t spoken much that day, but it would seem words weren’t necessary. She gave her message in her face, and the message right now was one of pure joy. Discord just smiled, he couldn’t help it.

“Thank you.” The voice snapped Discord from his daze. It hadn’t come from him or Celestia.

He turned to see Twilight, lowering from her glowy floating onto the bed. She was colored again, and she had a huge grin stretching across her face. “Thank you so much for curing me!” She almost squeaked it out, and she gave Discord an unexpected hug.

He returned the hug, and she sat back down on the bed still smiling. He smiled back and turned to Celestia to see that she was walking towards them, her movements slow but confident. She was smiling, an expression seemingly impossible to avoid with the given circumstances. But her smile was different, Discord had never seen her smiling that way before. Something seemed off.

Before he could make anything more of her strange expression she had completely closed the distance between them, standing so close that he could feel her breath in his fur. “Thank you,” she said, almost a whisper between them.

He barely had time to open his mouth to voice his response when she leaned in and kissed him. The shock cut off his breathing for a moment, but he soon relaxed and gave her the attention she deserved. He forgot the world around him for a moment, just relishing in the feeling of her lips being locked with his.

Warm. Soft. Almost magical. No, it is magical. Hot burning magic, why am I-!?

His eyes shot open and darted around the room. It was dark, he was laying near a fireplace, the fireplace he had been laying on the night before. He’d been dreaming. After he realized what had happened he looked around him in a much calmer manner, able to take in the reality of the layout in front of him.

He looked around for the source of the magical burning, and saw Celestia standing near a window a few paces from the end of his tail. Her horn was glowing brightly and her eyes were clamped shut as she channeled her powerful spell. She was raising the sun, that must have been the magical burn Discord was feeling.

The sun was cresting over the mountains now, peeking just above the white slopes on the horizon. The bright orange light began filling the room, casting long shadows that stretched across the floor. Discord was forced to watch many sunrises during his time trapped in stone, but none were so beautiful as this. None were so beautiful as her.

After a few moments of staring at her, the alicorn stopped casting her magic and turned to walk toward the kitchen area, not noticing Discord still sitting up on his cushions. She trotted with a certain bounce in her step, and Discord knew this to come from her raising the sun. She had once told him how her contact with the sun each morning never failed to fill her with energy.

Discord could smell the food as she prepared it, the dry scent of hay and oats. Quite a simple breakfast, but of course a librarian wouldn’t have much extravagant food in her kitchen. Even the most mundane of breakfast would be welcome at this point, though, as Discord hadn’t eaten in months. He continued to watch Celestia as she prepared the food.

“You should take a photograph, the effects will last a great deal longer,” She stated, so confident in her ignorance that she had almost completely butchered the phrase.

Discord couldn’t help but laugh, her failed jokes were always funny to hear. He turned his head away from her and glanced at the floor for a moment before standing from his cushions. As he did the entire setup that he had conjured the night before began to swirl into a vapor of color. Even the still burning fire was swept up into an orange mist that soon faded and vanished.

He yawned and stretched his limbs before he walked toward the kitchen to join Celestia. He noticed she was smiling as he sat in a chair on the opposite side of the island counter. “What’s got you so happy?” he inquired, meaning to sound playful but slightly failing. His first night of sleep in hundreds of years had only left him yearning more, so it was needless to say he didn’t want to be awake.

“Nothing in particular, just feeling well,” she responded with a smile before turning back to continue working on breakfast.

She shouldn’t be happy right now.

Oh great, you’re awake.

Discord had decided to treat his little voice as another creature entirely, refusing to accept it as a part of himself.

I am, but that’s not the point. Don’t worry, I’ll handle this situation.

“You shouldn’t be,” Discord let out while simultaneously cursing the side of him that willed him to say it. He didn’t bother asking Animos how he had done it this time. Instead he focused on some way to rebound from his outburst.

Celestia turned and gave Discord a look he couldn’t decipher. “I’m aware of that,” she began, and Discord now recognized the face she had adorned, it was defeat. He swallowed his guilt as she continued. “I suppose your optimism is just contagious.”

The stabbing pain of guilt multiplied. She was happy because of me. Discord shook his head and settled his stare back on Celestia’s face. She seemed nervous, yet content. A strange side-effect of her recent confession, he supposed. “I’m not that optimistic, you know. In fact I-”

Discord’s mini-lecture was cut short as the door to the library was kicked open, swinging so wide that it collided with the wall in a huge thud. Standing in the door appeared to be a large stack of boxes with two tiny purple feet. The boxes swayed for a moment before advancing through the door.

“Hey Twi, I’m back from Rarity’s. She asked me to drop these off,” the purple-footed boxes stated before collapsing to the floor, revealing the tiny dragon underneath them. “She said that they’re just a bunch of-” he started before noticing Discord watching him curiously from the kitchen. He froze for a moment, not even noticing the alicorn next to him and focusing on his current object of terror before the baby dragon vanished.

He had turned and left so quickly that a blink of an eye would have missed his departure. He ran with speed that would make a teleporting unicorn jealous, leaving the two god-figures to sit and stare at the spot the baby dragon was standing not a full second prior.

“Well,” Discord decided to break the stunned silence. “I think that went rather well, don’t you?” He joked as he turned back to Celestia, happy to see that she was back to smiling.

Don’t feel so lucky. You know this isn’t what you need.

“Quite.” she chuckled softly, still watching the spot as if expecting the baby dragon to re-appear there.

Another moment of contented silence passed between before Celestia turned back to grab the two plates of food she had finished preparing. She levitated one over in front of Discord, and sat the other plate in front of herself. Discord eyed his meal, both grateful and confused. He thought she was preparing food for herself and Twilight, she had never made anything for him before.

His stare lasted only a few moments before Celestia took notice. “I know you’re hungry, is there something wrong with it?” she questioned.

Discord’s stomach gave an audible growl before he responded. “Starving.” he simply smiled, then grabbed a fork and knife from the thin air and went to spear his simple two-ingredient breakfast.

Destiny had other plans for him, however, and filling his obnoxiously loud stomach wasn’t on the to-do list. Discord had his food half raised from his plate, mouth open in anticipation when the room was suddenly flooded by a flurry of ponies who all seemed to be shouting some form of incoherent war cry.

“Oh, come on!” whined Discord as breakfast was interrupted yet again.

You deserve it.

The ponies seemed to take no notice of Celestia, as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash sprinted behind Discord and held his arms behind his back. Discord attempted to appear disinterested, but was struggling to restrain his mirth as he played along with the ponies’ detainment attempt.

Applejack was swinging a lasso above her head before she tossed it forth and it caught Discord around his arms, pinning them to his sides. Celestia watched the events unfolding, stifling back her own laughter at the ponies that had seemed not to notice her while they trapped Discord.

The five ponies were nearly finished with their smash and grab, and Pinkie Pie hastily began her own particular brand of interrogation. She stomped forward and bounced up onto a chair to become eye-level with the restrained draconequus. She leaned in close and glared at him before shouting “What did you do to Twilight!” and jabbing him in the chest thrice to emphasize her seriousness.

Celestia was done playing passive, and stepped forward to make her apparently subtle presence a little more known. “Have you no faith in my abilities, my little ponies?” she asked in an almost playful tone.

All five of them immediately snapped their attention toward her, stammering about before retreating to a bow. Pinkie Pie fell off of her chair flailing before joining the rest of the group in bowing to the princess that seemed to appear from nowhere.

“Princess,” Rarity spoke first, hiding the shock in her voice and avoiding any un-marelike stutters. “I must apologize, we hadn’t known you were here,” she lifted her head to look at Celestia before she continued. “of course we have absolute faith in your abilities, it’s just that when our friend Spike here came to get us, he told us Discord was back!” she bobbed her head in Discord’s direction to emphasize her point. “He never told us anything about you being here, I do apologize again.” She lowered her head back into a bow when she finished.

“Rise.” Celestia stated, motioning for the ponies to stand. “I understand your commotion, unnecessary as it may be.”

The ponies all stood from their bows and looked at her in unified confusion. The princess took the hint, and decided to elaborate. “Believe it or not, Discord is free on friendly terms,” she began, then glanced towards Discord gave him a smirk. “for now.”

Discord stood from his seat, his restrains maintaining the shape they had previously held as his body seemed to just flow through them. Once he was standing, the now free floating ropes dropped to the floor. “That’s right, I’ve agreed to play along until a certain matter is resolved, but...” he started out, then leaned forward close to the five mare’s faces before he continued “there’s no telling what I might do once I’ve finished.” a smile stretched across his face before he winked.

You shouldn’t even make it that far. Keep in line or I’ll be giving you another gentle push. Discord was becoming exceedingly efficient at ignoring this new monster, and paid it no heed when it spoke.

Celestia rolled her eyes, confident that he was simply playing up on the five mare’s fears. “Anyway,” she started to get the ponies’ attention back, “we’re here because there’s been an incident with Twilight. She’s under the effects of a spell that Discord had cast on her during your last encounter. If any of you know anything, I implore that you speak immediately.”

Discord studied the ponies as they all began to shuffle their hooves nervously. The orange one had a particularly rough looking time, and sweat began to visibly form on her forehead as her eyes darted around the room. Discord took note of her behavior and smiled. “Alright, I understand.” Celestia stated before she turned and began pacing.

“Really, Celestia?” Discord asked as she walked back and forth across the floor. “You haven’t noticed what is so obvious in front of you? Your powers of observation seem to be failing, your highness. I think we have everything we need...” he started circling the ponies slowly, eyeing them pensively. “right...” He stopped behind a particularly sweaty orange mare, then reached out and poked her lightly on the back. She yelped and jumped shortly into the air before Discord reached his lion’s paw beneath the airborne pony, catching her before she could fall. “here.” he finally finished.

Celestia halted her pacing and was staring at the nervous mare sitting on Discord’s paw. “Applejack, do you know something you’re not telling us?”

Applejack just hung her head, “I can’t tell you that, Princess. I promised- I, uh... I just can’t.”

“You’re really going to keep secrets when one of your best friends could be in danger?!” Celestia rapidly elevated to a shocked anger. “I expected much more from the element of honesty!” She dropped all modest and regal behavior as she shouted, almost as if she were getting ready to throw a filly tantrum. “You must tell me, or I-”

“Now now, Celestia. Leave the threats to me, best not get your hooves dirty. Besides, there are much much simpler ways to do this, watch and learn.” Discord laughed as he turned his paw to face Applejack toward him. With his other arm he reached out and pulled on a small chain that appeared to dangle from nowhere.

Applejack looked around her as everything faded to black, there was nothing in the room anymore save for herself and Discord. The draconequus leaned in and whispered into her ear, “You’re meant to be honest, Applejack. There’s something you need to tell me, who did you promise to keep secrets for?”

Applejack bit her lip in fear, not only for Discord but for fear she may slip and ruin everything. “I can’t tell you, Discord. You can do what you want, but I told Twilight that I wouldn’t tell anyone!” She slapped her hooves to her mouth and gasped, she really just said that? Discord just chuckled at her. He had used his interrogation room on ponies before, they can’t keep secrets from him under his magic, and they usually don’t even know they’re spilling all the beans until they’re done. So getting the truth from a compulsive truth-teller is going to be so easy it may not even be fun.

“Thank you, Applejack. Now if you don’t mind, why are you keeping a secret for Twilight? What is it she needs hidden so well that you’re willing to lie to your princess?”

She lied to your princess.

Oh, so suddenly you’re on my side? How does that work?

I’ve always been on your side, you’re just too blind to see it.

“She’s got...” she twisted her head about, fighting now not only against her own inability to lie, but Discord’s spell that makes it impossible. “She did it on purpose!” she blurted out, finally losing the battle against her own will.

Discord raised his brow inquisitively, “She did what on purpose?”

Applejack had stopped resisting, and just let everything out. Discord listened intently as the honest orange mare told him about how Twilight’s condition was self-inflicted. She told him about a discovery that Twilight had made, how she did it for her princess, and how she had only wanted everyone to be happy.

His eyes flew wide in realization of what was happening. Twilight had meddled in affairs beyond her comprehension, and Discord still had trouble believing it. Not because it was unbelievable, no it was perfectly like that strange purple unicorn to do what she had done. He couldn’t believe it because of how much it complicates things. Applejack wasn’t the only one with a secret, now...

Celestia must never know.

Comments

[Vynce]

Finally! Feel like this chapter took all of multiple eternities. Damn life getting in the way of my writing!

Anyway, I hope you guys like(d) this chapter.

[M E]

so, uh...what did she do?

[Vynce]

945044

It's a surprise, and I hope I don't disappoint.

[M E]

945080

when's the next chapter coming out?

[Vynce]

945095

Soon as I can get it written out, I'm posting these as I go along. Probably won't take as long as this one did because I'm far less busy than I was when I wrote this one. Fingers crossed?

[M E]

945109

dang. I was hoping for a set date to enter into my cryo-stasis tube

[Vynce]

945115

I'm taking this anticipation as a good sign

[M E]

945117

sure is

[Vynce]

945121

I'm really happy to have a fan. Even if there's only one of you I feel like a celebrity

[M E]

945128

you'll be having more than one creepy person documenting your every move and stealing your hair in no time

not that i do that

you have nice hair

[Vynce]

945147

I'm happy you enjoy my work (and my hair). I'll consider you my first fan out of however many I may someday accumulate. First fans get special privileges, such as saying they're my first fan.

[M E]

945163

i am so proud of myself right now

[Iamsorry]

WAIT! what happend!? XD
more details!
i hope to see more to this! :3

[Dan50]

Awwww she did that so Dissy and Tia can get back together.

[Delusional Brony]

This is so good it's driving me crazy!

[Vynce]

951728

I'm happy you're enjoying it. You should be pleased to know that chapter 4 should be out sometime before I die. No promises for chapter 5, though...