Darling

by Pickleless

Laughter

“You know, she acts all grumpy and mean, but she has to have a soft side. There’s simply no other reason why she would save me! Wouldn’t you agree,” Discord asked.

He paced back and forth. “Why, I’m her only friend! We’ve already been through so much together. She used me as a shovel, I helped her eat an apple, we broke out of the caves, we’re practically brother and sister!

“It’s her loss really, why would she head out there where all the other boring ponies are, when she could be spending time with us?” Discord grinned. “Clearly you and I are a cut above the rest, wouldn’t you agree?” Discord asked a mound of dirt.

The mound didn’t respond.

“That is why, my little mound, I know she’s gonna return no matter what. Frost did claim that she didn’t care what happened to me after this point, but I know she’ll be back for me. Who could resist this charming face?” He kicked a leg up in air, pushing his hands to his cheeks.

Discord patted the mound of dirt with care. Buried within the ground was a seed he snagged from the prismatic pit. It just seemed too special not to plant. One day, it would grow into a big crystal pillar, or he supposed a tree, just like the one in the caves. He thought of trees made of diamonds, delicious, delicious diamonds Discord thought, a trail of saliva dripping down his chin. He had to get another taste of it, they were the best meals he ever had. He wiped the drool off his mouth and tried to think of something else to say to the seed. He heard speaking to plants made them grow better, although he wasn’t really sure if the seed had to sprout first or not. He also wondered if that worked for a diamond tree.

“Diamond tree...” Discord stared off into the sunset. “ Let me tell you diamond seed, I sure do love gazing at the sky. After being underground all the time, you grow to appreciate the little things in life…” He glanced down at the dirt mound. “Don’t worry,” he said, tenderly patting the soil. You’re gonna grow up in a better place than those caves. Right here! In this place! Wherever here is!” He smiled, eyes welling with pride, only to be interrupted by his growling stomach. He gazed off in the distance. “I would appreciate if Loving gets back soon.”

Discord sighed and laid down next to where the seed was buried.

“Hey friend, want to hear a joke? What did the gas cloud say to sheep that was on fire? ‘Make like a tree and hurry your ASS back Loving!” Discord dragged a claw down his face. “Uuuuuuuuuuugh...”

Discord rolled around in discontent until he was thoroughly covered in dirt. Then, he brushed the dirt off him, gathered it in a pile, and dumped it on his head. He repeated this process several times before groaning again and rolling around more.

“I’m bored, and hungry, and bored, and lost, and bored, and...” He curled tight into a ball. “I miss Mom and Dad.”

Despite being Discord’s only friend and conversation partner, the mound still refused to respond.

“You need a name,” Discord declared, “one that’s elegant, and unique, the best name! How about Dirty Littlewood?”

Discord drew a frowny face on dirt mound.

“Yes, I know, the lesser minded wouldn’t appreciate the true value of it... What to call you, my darling diamond tree?”

He rubbed out the frown and drew a smile.

“What’s that? Darling? Why yes, it is fitting! You are going to be the most regal of trees, made of diamond and all.”

He added blush marks to the mound’s cheeks.

“Oh, don’t get any ideas Darling, I’m afraid I’m too much of a free spirit for commitment. I am flattered though.”

“Are you flirting with dirt?” He heard a voice montone behind him.

Discord scrambled to his feet and turned around, Loving Frost had returned with multiple sacks tied together, hanging off her back.

“Lovely! You came back for me!” Discord quickly turned around and drew angry eyebrows on the dirt mound. “There’s no need for jealousy dear! I already told you I don’t commit, you knew what this was.”

“I was worried over nothing then,” Frost stated in a flat tone. “And it’s Loving. Not ‘Lovely’”

Seeing her turn to leave, Discord jumped up and grabbed her leg. “Now, now, now, don’t be so hasty Lovely, come and stay a while! Now, you wouldn’t have happened to have a gem or two in that bag of yours would you?”

Discord exaggerated his smiled as he stared into her draconic red eyes. Frost always seemed to ignore his compliments toward them. Those eyes reminded him of himself, of his family. Besides, as uncomfortable as she seemed about it, if she didn't have those wonderful half-dragon, half-pony powers then both of them would still be stuck in those awful caves.

"Your eyes are as pretty as ever, dear." Discord smiled.

"...They're strange," she said, looking away, "I’m not part dragon."

"Ohhhh?" Discord cocked an eyebrow. "Then how are you here?"

Frost stared at the ground.

"So you're a pony with dragon eyes, pray tell, why exactly is this a bad thing, hmm?" Discord laid a reassuring claw on her back.

"They don't make sense, none of this makes any sense!" She blurted out, sounding far more nervous than she looked.

"Oh puh-leeeaze, what fun is there in making sense? Better to be a free spirited mystery than a caged ordinary pony," he declared.

"I suppose..."

Discord sighed and turned towards the bags she brought. "So what delectable palette of gems did you bring for us this time?

Frost's expression assumed it's default position of a scowl as she pulled out a clear, see-through mineral.

"Do you know what this is?" She asked.

"Food?"

She huffed, "it's a diamond."

"Frost dear, I do believe we both know diamonds are pure white with a rainbow glow. We both spent a good while collecting them. That is clearly not a diamond."

"And you clearly don't know what you're talking about," she snarled. "When I went my own way, I found a village that was selling different types of rocks. I ended up performing some manual labor in exchange for foodstuffs and water. I also asked for diamonds, worried you'd be sitting here starving like an idiot."

"Rude." He sniffed.

"Well you were, so you're lucky I did. That clear see-through mineral was what they gave me. At first I thought they were trying to cheat me, but after visiting another village, I confirmed that these are actually diamonds."

"Well, that begs the question of what we were collecting then." Discord mused.

"Eat up, we're leaving soon."

"So soon? Why, we just got here!" Discord pouted.

"And you have good reason to stay?" She glared at him.

"Why, because of Darling of course!" Discord made a grandiose wave towards the ground.

Frost looked at Discord, then at the ground, then back at him again.

"I think that fruit and the shards of it's pillar are driving us mentally insane."

"Well if sanity means being as uptight as you are, I'd rather be insane!" He grinned. "Come now Lovely, what are you so afraid of? All the creatures in these woods are far too afraid to approach us. The only ones here are you and I!"

"That's what I'm afraid of," Frost whispered.

Discord took one of satchels of water Frost had in the bags, and poured it on the dirt.

Frost blinked.

"Discord, Tell me why I shouldn't hurt you."

"Why, Darling needs water too of course!"

Deep in the ground, a seed released a small aura of joy, glowing in delight.

Meanwhile a blood-lusting pony chased a manically laughing baby dragon around the ground it was planted in.

---

Darling exhaled out an aura of peace, calming the creatures of the forest. Herbivores would graze and scavenge, and predators would hunt them. This is concerning, and even scary, but the tree pushed forward the notion this was alright. After all, a heart with no fear is simply an organ, but a heart brave when pressed by fear was the picture of beauty.

Speaking of beauty...

"Well hello Darling, is it just me or did you grow another inch?"

She swelled with pride. Drawing from the warm feelings Discord was sending her, she made a small breeze to caress him on the cheek.

"There's been quite the unusual breeze around here lately..."

The tree laughed in a coy manner, or at least it would've laughed in a coy manner if it could. It imagined it would've looked very cute while doing so, too— fluttering its eyelashes, and he would blush. She's absolutely sure that's how that would've gone down. Probably. Maybe. Totally. Without a doubt...

"Frost set off again, she didn't say where, it's been about two weeks."

Darling touched her friend’s mind. He felt concern over his friend, anger over the lack of communication, bitterness from the lack of respect, but strongest of all, self loathing over feelings of worthlessness. Darling coaxed a small sliver of faith within him. A being with a weaker heart would've let it drown in their negative feelings.

"I'm sure she'll come back, she always does. She's not my keeper, it wouldn't really be fair for me to take her kindness for granted now would it? Even if she doesn't come back it is not her fault. Besides, I suppose this just gives me more time to talk to you, Darling~."

She swooned. Darling was certain there wasn't a baby dragon more charming or handsome than Discord. Then again he was the only baby dragon she knew; she also didn't have eyes. If she did have eyes though, she was certain she'd have a hard time looking away from his undoubtedly handsome face. Then again, it wasn't really the face she cared about, but he would've preferred her to comment on that more than his spirit, he was shy like that.

She felt Loving Frost approach, and made a warm breeze pass by to welcome her.

"Still talking to that plant?" Frost grumbled.

Darling reached out to her, anxiety, self loathing, the desire to be kind, the fear of failing. The motherly feelings to protect Discord, the irrational hatred to destroy a sapling. Darling always had a lot to work with when Frost was around. She never blamed her, after all, she was horribly sick. Darling pressed onto Frost to try and talk about her feelings. Problems always become lighter when they're shared with others.

"Welcome back Lovely, doing fine as usual?" Discord smiled.

He was putting on a light hearted front in order to get his friend to relax; he was terribly worried about her. Darling relinquished a happy sigh—

"Of course." Frost averted her eyes.

—and then a sad one. Frost was infected with a parasite. It took Darling a while to recognize it, but after interacting with Frost enough times, she realized this was the same illness that plagued her mother. Darling was at a bit of a loss on what to do, it made Frost distrust all those around her, she suspected the reason she hated Darling so much was because the Parasite recognized her as a threat.

"Anything interesting happen while you were out there?" Discord asked, teetering back and forth on his toes.

"Not really."

Darling knew helping Frost was a losing battle. Lucky for Frost, friendship and loyalty isn't about picking battles you know you'll win all the time, and Darling was determined to not lose her.

"Well, I'll go fetch us some water, do be a dear and watch over Darling for me?"

Darling felt what little good mood of Frost's leave with Discord. She hated Darling; she never tried to hide that, and Darling was proud of her for being honest about that. She supposed feelings she thought were irrational were easier to confess than ones she could justify. It made sense to Darling, if only she would open up, Darling would love to prove to her that Frost was far better than she thought she was. Sadly the chances of that happening was-

"I went back to see the caves today," Frost whispered.

Darling exerted a bit power and softened the soil at Frost's hooves. She wanted her to sit and relax. Complying, the mare laid down next to the sapling instead. Darling felt so proud of her right now.

"They're killing and catching slaves like crazy. I think at first they thought that all the slaves got lazy, but now they're afraid there are no more of those strange rocks. I saw a couple slaves bring out blackened parts of that magical pillar, and they were beaten in frustration. I... I wanted to kill those slave captors so much,” she said, shaking in anger, muscles tensing. She took a deep breath to calm herself. “It scares me…” she started,” I feel like I've grown to hate everything now. It's hard for me to relax, even around Discord. That place is horrible, and now it's for no reason. I'm going to rid this world of those caves. I'll break the foundation of all the tunnels and kill everypony there." Frost spat.

Darling backpedaled the encouragement and replaced it with a dousing dose of peace. No, no, no, no mass murder, freeing slaves is good, killing everypony is bad.

"STOP THAT!" Frost screamed at the tree. "Stop doing that! I know you're doing something! You-y-you're in my head, you and that damn pillar are why I'm going crazy!!"

Darling wasn't sure how to exactly convey the thought, but she pushed the feeling she very much loved Frost and wanted her to be okay.

"Stop that! Stop that, stop that, stop that!" Frost began to whimper. "Get out of my head, please just get out of my head... I should crush you. No, I will-"

"Frost, what's wrong?!" Discord cried out.

There was her dashing little rogue to the rescue.

"This scrawny little tree is what's wrong! I'm burning it!"

Darling shivered in pain as she felt dark magic pool towards one concrete location. For the first time in Darling's life, she felt she could see. Where everything around her has been a faint pulse of magical energy, a very strong outline of a mare's head now took shape near her. Darling had never seen a pony before, and yet somehow she knew this was Frost's head, just like she somehow knew many things. It horrified her what she knew was about to happen next.

Darling tried to soothe Frost's screams of rage. Her anger turned into pain as her forehead split open, pushing out a long, elegant horn. She tore at back, trying to rip it open as she her bones grow and reposition themselves. Large bat like wings splattered burning hot blood all around her as she took towards the sky. For a second, Darling swore she heard the echoes of very familiar voice cackled.

"Frost, what happened to you?!" Discord cried out in fear.

"Move!" She snarled.

Darling felt Frost charge up a magical blast pointed towards her. Discord jumped in front of her and held up his arms.

"Frost, no!"

Darling felt Frost's very core was filled with such madness and hatred that nothing could shake it. No amount of love or help from others could quell the paranoia driven into her brain, telling her to lash out at everything around here. Yet, Darling had little respect for the core of an individual. It's not what we started as that Darling loved, but the choices to go against feelings of greed, of fear, of overwhelming anger, to rise above such impurities and to love instead that she cherished. Darling put everything she had into sending one simple message towards Frost:

I trust you.

Frost snarled with hate as Discord stood between her and that disgusting sapling. Everything in her screamed to toss a fireball at the two and put an end to this miserable situation.

Instead, she flew away, loathing herself for her cowardice.

Comments

[Karakorum]

Very interesting! I wonder what Frost has become.

[Ice Star]

This is both eerie and fascinating, with the right touch of mystery. I always did love a crack ship done seriously.

And just so you know, the first bold text in the chapter is broken.

[Pickleless]

8344108
*Spend a week editing this from sleeping till wake.*
*Find a leftover period from when I replaced it with a comma, and other mistakes on glance.*
Screams.

[DawnOfsnow]

Fascinating. I can easily said I’ve never read anything like this - it’s quite enjoyable and (like that super old comment from Ice Star says) has a good touch of mystery. Well done so far.