The Time Thief

by Reading4HalfMyLife

Loop 71

"What was the war like?"

Discord pauses in his creation of the weird glittery banana to stare at her blankly.

Shit, backtrack.

"I mean" Astral said quickly "why did you all go to war with each other?"

The God looked at her like she was an absolute idiot. "Ebony was taking our power" he spoke like Astral was a particularly dense child, and her down fluffed up, agitated.

"Yeah, but why?"

Here, Discord deflated, literally, lolling uselessly to the grassy floor at Astral's hooves, before sucking on his thumb and inflating once more. "Is that really important?"

"Yes. Why did she take your powers?"

He shifted nervously, detaching his lions paw to scratch behind an ear. "Funny thing about that . . ."

"I'm listening . . ."

"Okay, so, here's the thing. You're not allowed to kill me" he made the Pinkie Promise gestures with a very serious expression.

Astral snorted. "As if I could actually kill you" he didn't look reassured so she relented "okay, fine, whatever."

Discord sighed, looking almost . . . weary. "Look, you have to understand that when we first created you lot, we didn't really know what we were doing. This was completely new to all of us, so for the first ten thousand millennia or so, ponykind, as well as any other species, were very different than they are now."

"The three races have been evolving and crossbreeding for a long while now" Astral recalled. "Back then, Pegasi didn't have tailfeathers, and their wings were so small they couldn't even glide. Earth Ponies were bigger, and Unicorns were smaller, and skinnier, and couldn't share spells from others or spellbook. They had to make their own up."

"Yes" Discord seemed almost impressed at how well she had remembered. "Well, one thing that isn't in the history books is that all those creatures-pony,griffon,dragon,clouds etc,etc- didn't have free will."

Astral's jaw dropped, eyes shrinking to pinpricks. "B-but- I don't-" she struggled to speak.

Discord nodded his head. "Yeah, I know, right? Pretty dickish of us, right?" He shrugged. "But, eventually, the creatures began to evolve. Pegasi grew tail feathers for turning. Earth Ponies became smaller and their magic became a lot less strength based. Unicorns could share spells by writing them down in spellbooks. But- and most importantly- they eventually evolved into having free will."

"And Ebony didn't like that?"

"No. No she did not" he waved a claw in faux indifference "so she tried to kill off everything and start again. Except you need all Gods powers to be sure nobody would just undo it, so" he shrugged and Astral nodded.

Just as she turned to go, it occurred to her to ask. "Wait, would it be possible for us to lose our free will?"

"Well, it would take incredibly mental strain- that's why I had to mess with the gal pals in the maze. But yes, technically. I've done it a couple of times- usually for spying purposes. Connect your magic to their fragmented mind and boom, you have control of their body. It's a lot easier to use smaller animals, birds may I recommend?"

"Oh, uh, no thanks."

He shrugged. "Your choice, free will and all that."

Comments

[Twilight Connor]

That's actually really fucked up. More so that Discord still knows and exploits it, than the ponies having none to start with.

[Reading4HalfMyLife]

9582742
Yup! He doesn't do it anymore, reformed and that shtick, but, yeah, it's extremely messed up.

There's a lot of debate among the Gods if Harmonia gave the ponies Cutie Marks to give them free will, or lessen it