Avatar: Legend of Diamond Tiara. Book 4: Immortals

by Jeweled Pen

Chapter 12: Tainted Foal

Diamond gulped and slowly shifted around to the right, away from him.

Discord’s eyes definitely tracked her for a moment. She did NOT like that.

“He… can’t see me, can he? He doesn’t, I mean, this is just a memory. Right?” Diamond asked.

“Don’t be ridiculous, of course I can’t,” Discord said, making her yelp.

“W-what?” Diamond said.

“If I had the answers you need, I would be the Avatar, wouldn’t I?” Discord asked.

Diamond blinked a few times and then realized that he was talking to Icemane. Still, that was uncanny.

“But… I…” Icemane said.

“If you ask me,” Discord said. “These other ponies of yours are just being greedy. No wonder benders are fading away. Just imagine. You could be the last Avatar! Wouldn’t that be quite the show stopper?”

“The last?” Icemane asked.

“Indeed. After all, it’s total chaos and anarchy out there. A water bender and a fire bender having a child is just the tip of the iceberg compared to what else is going around out there. And trust me, I know chaos,” Discord said with a laugh.

“Who… are you, anyway?” Icemane asked.

“Oh, I have many names,” Discord said. “Spirit, Clown, Silver,” when he said that one Diamond SWORE he looked RIGHT AT HER! “But you may call me Disarray.”

“Disarray?” Icemane asked. “So you’re a part of this? You--”

“I am a symptom of this,” Discord said, making a tut tut sound. “You can hardly blame me if you ponies are forgetting what’s important.”

“And what’s that?” Icemane asked.

“Purity, obviously,” Discord said. “What happens when you start to mix fire benders and water benders? You get neither. Look around at all of your ponies. How many small little arguments and fights because they’re all together? Earth bender problems just… aren’t the same as water bender problems, now are they?”

Icemane stared at him for a while before, slowly, shaking his head and storming off.

“That was the first time I met ‘Disarray’, though I tried to shove his words out of my mind,” Icemane said. “It wasn’t the last. I tried to solve this problem myself… but I didn’t know how. The longer the tainted pony lived, the more ponies began to panic… until we had a second. Then a third. Children of benders who could not bend themselves. So I returned to Disarray. Once every few moons. Then once per moon. Eventually once a week… until finally his words began to enter my heart.”

Diamond blinked and stared over Icemane’s shoulder, where Discord was sitting on the platform and reading a book. The only thing still moving in the vision. The book was titled ‘How to Train your Avatar’.

“Over and over I returned to him,” Icemane said. “I should have ignored him. Eventually, I listened to him. I divided our people. Our home. As terrible as our situation was, I made it worse.”

Once more they were hovering over the city. Then massive walls of stone rose up between it, sectioning them off from each other.

“It started simple,” Icemane said. “Ponies were only allowed to be with their kind. Cross marriage became outlawed. After all, the Avatar had spoken. To many, my word was law and this… disaster was horrible. Most even agreed. But then it kept escalating and soon ponies weren’t even allowed to talk with those who weren’t like them. Fights were becoming commonplace. There was even a talk of war. Then the unthinkable happened.”

“Unthinkable?” Diamond asked.

“My foal was born,” Icemane said. “The child of the Avatar and a water bender. An innocent little filly… who couldn’t bend at all.”

Diamond felt a chill go down her heart. “You… didn’t…”

“I told you I couldn’t kill any foal, let alone my own,” Icemane said. “But… there was even more panic now. I felt I had no choice. I divided all of the ponies. Forcefully. I moved them away from each other. Four nations. Separated… forever.”

Diamond blinked a few times, staring as the city far below was soon more than just divided by rock. The city was forcefully hauled apart.

“I traveled the lands,” Icemane said. “Gathering every pony, every settlement, every city, every town. One by one I gathered them all and I sent them to where I believed they belonged. I tore homes apart in my quest to ensure that there would be no more… dilution. In my desperation… I doomed us all.”

“Doomed us?” Diamond asked.

“I had done Discord’s work for him,” Icemane said. “I was supposed to help unite ponies everywhere. Stop bending from falling apart. Instead I did the opposite. In separating us, I accelerated the process. More and more non-benders were born. Each nation soon only had their own benders and the non-benders. Earth ponies without earth bending, pegasi without air bending. It continued and--”

“Just because they didn’t have bending didn’t mean they were doomed,” Diamond said.

“They might as well have been,” Icemane said. “What good is a pony without bending?”

“Lots of ponies without bending do all kinds of amazing things!” Diamond said quickly. “And lots of ponies with bending do terrible things or useless things! Just because a pony didn’t have bending didn’t mean they were bad or broken.”

Icemane blinked a few times, staring at her as if she was mad. “How can you say that? My own child was tainted by this--”

“Then you were a terrible father,” Diamond said. “If you treated your daughter like they were some kind of, some kind of taint!”

“How dare you! I--”

“Screwed up,” Diamond said before glancing down at the separated nations. “You separated the ponies because rather than accepting that, maybe, things were changing, you instead gave in and decided they were different so they were wrong.”

“And you feel that way was better?” Icemane asked. “Non-benders and benders--”

“Living in harmony,” Diamond said. “Yes. Like Twilight tried. Yes, bending is awesome. I know. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned in all of this it’s that bending is not everything. And just because a pony is born or isn’t born with bending doesn’t make them any better or worse.”

“Bending was the sign of our harmony,” Icemane said. “It was what united all of us. When we lost it, Discord grew more powerful than ever.”

“Maybe that’s what it meant before,” Diamond said. “But it doesn’t mean that anymore. Benders and non-benders have just as much right to this world. It’s great to know that from the very beginning, though, that this discussion was still happening. I swear it’s like talking with Silver’s grandparents again. What, are you going to blame the first non-benders on Discord as well? Say it was all part of his master plan?”

“Perhaps it was,” Icemane said. “I was the first that he met. By my time, Discord had been nothing more than an ancient fairy tale told to keep ponies from sneaking into the woods at night. I never truly believed he could exist. Maybe he was responsible for the first tainted child. Or maybe he saw the start of the divide and drove it further. If he--”

“Then I’ll go further,” Diamond said.

“Further?” Icemane asked.

“Further,” Diamond said. “I need to know who and what Discord is.”

“He’s the divider, the taint, the--”

“Perhaps he is,” Diamond said. “Or maybe he really is just a symptom. I don’t know. You don’t either. But you know what? I intend to find out.”

“How far do you intend to dig? How far will you go?”

“As long as it takes!” Diamond yelled, stomping her hooves. “I’ll keep digging until I get my answers! Until I know!”

“Know what? Discord is an evil monster,” Icemane said. “He will lie, trick, deceive you. He will tear you and everything you care about apart if you give him the chance. The more rope you give him, the more he’ll use it to hang you with. Perhaps if I had struck him down, then none of this would have happened.”

“Struck him down, or that first foal?” Diamond asked.

“Excuse me?” Icemane asked.

“The first non-bender,” Diamond said. “Would you have struck them down? Do you think you should have?”

Icemane was silent then, lightly poking at the ground.

“Then maybe that’s why you were the avatar,” Diamond said before she started to trot away. Okay. She SWORE she saw Discord off somewhere waving at her. Just for a second. That was creepy. “Even if you bucked up everywhere else.”

“You can’t save her,” Icemane said.

“… Maybe I can’t,” Diamond said. “But I will know who she is. What Discord is. Even if I have to dig all the way back to the first Avatar. I owe her that much at least.”

“And if you fail?”

“I’ve failed plenty,” Diamond said. “One more added to the list won’t make things any worse.

The world around her vanished and, once more, she was on the altar she had found. To imagine, so long ago Discord had laid on it. She collapsed onto her back and let out a groan. She was so, so tired. Worse, despite her words she didn’t truly feel any closer. “Just another waste of time. Discord helped separate the nations. Big woop dee doo,” Diamond said with annoyance.

“I thought it was interesting,” Twilight said.

“Annnnd you’re back. Also, a nerd,” Diamond said.

“Still interesting,” Twilight said.

“Doesn’t help, though,” Diamond said before giving a soft sigh. “Why is this so hard?”

“Hmm, why is it difficult for one pony to go through the lives of hundreds of other lifetimes? I can’t imagine,” Twilight said.

“… That was sarcasm,” Diamond said. “Am I a bad influence on you?”

“Possibly,” Twilight said. “You should rest, though. Pushing yourself too hard, especially in this state, will just hurt you in the end.”

“I was gonna take a nap anyway…” Diamond said softly before rolling off the rock and onto the slightly softer ground with a grunt. “What if I am wrong?”

“I don’t know, Diamond,” Twilight said.

“Were you ever wrong about your friends?” Diamond asked.

“All the time,” Twilight said. Diamond gave another soft sigh. She really didn’t like hearing that. “They always proved me wrong. That the power of friendship could help us find our way through everything.”

“So… do you think…?”

“I still don’t know,” Twilight said. “I suppose it depends on how much of Discord is in her.”

“And how much Silver there is,” Diamond muttered before closing her eyes and letting the world drift away. Wherever Silver was… she hoped she at least wasn’t doing anything she’d regret.

Author's Note:

And here it is. The finale of the Diamond section. A bit quick and short, but well... she's learning a bit more. When Discord's influence began to be felt. What drove the nations apart...

That she still has a long, long way to go. That there is still even more to uncover. To unbury. Also, apparently she's a bad influence on Twilight. Still, Diamond is as stubborn as ever. Must be the earth pony in her.

Comments

[Eurvos Morgenbrise]

It wouldn't surprise me if Past Discord knew Diamond would be watching from the future.

[Angel_Bunny]

11493830
Well, when you can read the script it allows many possibilities.