Stone's Embrace
He sighed mentally as he thought to himself. You know, you would think that being turned into a statue would mean that you wouldn’t feel anything. It should be that if you get turned to stone, you feel as if you were asleep the whole time. I am disappointed that it isn’t like that. Being awake all this time, without changing, is starting to become tiring. Discord heaved another mental sigh. I mean come on, would it kill the elements to give me something to do in here? I can’t even move around a little. Unable to change facial expression, Discord put on a mental pouty-face. It’s just not fair. I mean, Luna got a whole moon after she was blasted. What happened to me? I get turned to stone, unable to move a muscle. And then she gets out, and gets blasted again by the Elements, and then she just gets turned back into a princess. What happens when I bust out again? I get turned into stone again!
Discord did notice something new in his garden today, a large orange sign, coated with some reflective material that flashed in the sunlight. Of course, it was probably just some grand sign announcing his presence to the world. Celestia would do that sort of thing, placing a sign where nopony would want to go. She was always doing small things to try and annoy the Spirit of Chaos, but she had no idea how pitiful her attempts were. Luna had a lot more variety in how she annoyed him.
As if she were called, Luna, in all her haughty glory, trotted towards him. There was pity in her eyes as she gazed upwards into his eyes. She began to walk around him, looking over his vine-ridden statue. He kept his “eyes” on her as she studied him in his petrified state. That was a strange thing about being petrified; you can look in any direction you want. Discord wasn't one to complain though, Being able to look around has helped keep me sane all these years. Of course, there had been nopony else in this garden for a long time, and vines threatened to overtake every statue. As his mental state declined, he was saved by Luna’s visiting him. He remembered the first visit with a certain fondness, recalling the first painful conversation.
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Luna had been snooping around this same garden, looking downtrodden. Discord watched her from his stone prison, wanting to reach out and pour a bit of chocolate milk on her. Of course, that wouldn’t make her happy, but it would stop that pitiful sad face and only make her angry. Unfortunately, the spirit’s prison prevented him from doing this, so he contented himself to thinking gleefully about it. Luna had walked slowly down the pathway, sighing occasionally as she thought of her problems.
That poor little Luna, left alone to cry all by her lonesome. She is SO unfortunate. The spite in his thoughts had surprised him, but he did nothing to halt the thoughts. Look at her, able to walk around and have fun again. She is able to eat, and sleep, and go to the bathroom! She does what she is meant to do, raise the moon. Do I get to raise the moon or cause any chaos? That’s a big N and a big O. Discord’s tirade in his mind silenced itself as he watched Luna drop to the ground in front of him.
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Discord was drawn out of the memory by a sharp poke in his side. That was another funny thing about being petrified; you can still feel everything as if it were touching your skin. So when it got freezing cold or boiling hot, Discord was always in misery. He felt the familiar shock course through his body as Luna cast the spell on his statue, which was glowing with a blue light. Discord felt Luna’s presence in his stone cage, slightly sad as usual.
Luna’s small sad voice rang out in the quiet garden. “Hello, you vine-eaten statue. We have come to visit the prisoner again.” The slightly sad voice’s taunt had made Discord chuckle mentally.
“Hello you little moon muncher! How are you today?” Discord yelped in his mind as he felt a sharp pain on his leg. He looked down to see Luna biting on his calf. Another effect of the spell, besides giving a mage power to talk to petrified creatures, was that it made his stone skin as soft as his normal flesh. “Ouch! Biting hurts you know! If you don’t stop, I’ll turn that precious moon of yours into cheese! Don’t make me…” He trailed off threateningly, knowing his threat would be ignored.
Luna pulled away, but not before biting him again. “And what is it that you could possibly do, Statue? You know very well that you cannot move a single part of your being. You cannot use magic in that prison of stone. We know these kinds of things, especially after being the ones to visit you for a few cycles of the moon.” Discord sighed mentally again, and Luna’s face lit up in a smile at his huffy attitude. He still couldn’t figure out why she was always so happy to see him. Maybe it was because she was like him, in a way, defeated by the Elements of Harmony and given a painful punishment by them.
Her presence in his mind was sickening, always being so cheerful at being with him. He hated it, that another pony actually liked him. Of course, if he had his way, he would have sent her right back to the moon, but made of cheese instead of rocks. I bet everypony would love that! I mean, what’s not to like about a cheese moon? He felt another nip as Luna flew up behind his ears, giggling as she nibbled on his ears. She enjoyed taking advantage of his inability to move, torturing him in different ways every visit. Discord wondered if she researched different methods of torment, because she always had something new for him. His mind jumped as he felt another pinch at the base of his skull. Luna smiled at his mental jump, and pushed her hoof in harder, waiting for the words of submission. Discord stubbornly refused, clamping a mental hand over his mouth.
Luna, now laughing outright, placed her horn where her hooves had been and began digging even harder into his “skin”. It was all Discord could do from crying out the words she sought, but he would hold out a little longer to her pressure. Then he felt her teeth grip his ear again. “Uncle! UNCLE I SAY! Pleeeease stop it Luna!” She ceased her digging immediately, flying around to face him again with a smile on her face.
“I win again statue.” The laughter in her voice was still there, but she lay down in front of him, suddenly serious. “Thank you Discord, for everything.” Discord mentally gagged, but his heart had swelled at her heartfelt thanks. She detected his happiness, and she snuggled in closer to him. Soon, her breathing fell into a steady rhythm; The Princess of the Night had fallen asleep next to the Statue of Chaos. Unable to sleep, Discord fell back into his memories.
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Discord’s mind was blank, dumbstruck as she cried in front of him, all of her sadness unleashing itself in one flood of tears. He was surprised at the lack of his usual urge to dump something on her, or to make her mad in some way. Her tears began to pool around her, sparkling in the light of the sun and running through the many different tracks that the animals of the garden had made. None of them were present in this garden, thanks to a spell Celestia had cast over this particular part of the garden. She didn’t want her precious menagerie to get “attacked” by the mean old stone statue.
Discord watched as she wiped away her tears, looking up at him with sad eyes. “Why didn’t you get a second chance like we did?” She nuzzled him on the leg, and he shivered at her cold touch. He felt her tears begin to slide slowly down his leg, and he had the sudden urge to give her a comforting touch on her mane. He attempted to move away from that thought. That kind of mushiness was against his very nature. He loved seeing ponies sad, and yet Luna’s sadness brought him nothing but pain. Discord wanted nothing more than to hum a lullaby for her, so that she could fall into the world of dreams, but the stone prevented him from speaking.
Suddenly, Luna looked up at him with resolve in her eyes. She leaned closer to him, and nuzzled his cheek. She flapped her deep-blue wings and launched herself into the air, heading towards the royal library. Discord watched her as she flew away, her tears shining like drops of liquid moonlight in the sun.
She returned shortly, an ancient-looking spell book held in her magical blue grip. Discord couldn’t make out the title’s name through the blue sparkling haze, and he tried to move away from Luna. She began chanting a spell, her horn throwing off sparks of magical energy as she channeled the energy needed for the spell. He forced himself to look in the other direction, and he felt a sharp horn jab into his side and shivered as he felt Luna’s sad presence in his mind.
Her voice sounded throughout the quiet garden, “Discord? Art thou present?”
“Yes Luna, I’m here.”
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Luna was the cause of his resurfacing to the world of reality. She stirred in her sleep, sighing contentedly at his feet. She had no idea how adorable she looked when she slept. Of course, Discord always felt the urge to wake her up by pouring chocolate milk all over her, but he couldn’t achieve that in his stoned state. He wheezed with mental laughter at his own joke. Oh that’s a good one! I guess I’m “stoned” eh? Oh Celestia that’s hilarious!
As if his mental laughter had been voiced, Luna opened her eyes slowly. Blinking the sleep from her eyes, she looked into the sky, and saw her sister’s sun begin to descend from the sky. Shaking off the last vestiges of her rest, she shot up into the sky, flying towards the Royal court to relieve her sister of her duties. Discord sighed in his thoughts as he watched her fly away. Not even a goodbye! Hmph, she comes in MY garden, TORTURES me, then goes to SLEEP under me, and THEN she flies off without a simple goodbye. I’ll get her back for that one day. He lapsed into his normal thoughts of chaos as he devised a way to get back at the rude princess.
The night passed quickly, almost as if Luna had tried to speed the moon across the sky to end her duty and hurry to be back in the garden to torture him again. The sun had broke through the darkness, and washed over his statue with rays of warmth. He didn’t particularly like the way the sister’s did everything by a timetable, always raising the sun or moon at exactly the same moments every single time. I mean, what pony doesn’t like to have a little variety in their lives? He mentally shook his head. It just doesn’t make sense to me. He made a mental note to ask Luna today about what she thought of it. He knew Luna didn’t always share her older sister’s views of the world all of the time, and she might have a different opinion. Of course, if I had asked Celestia, she would tell me “If we didn’t keep our schedules, everypony would be distressed and blah blah blah,” or something like that. Discord shook his head inside his stone prison again, sighing at Celestia’s formal attitude. That pony needs to lighten up. Seriously.
As day continued on, Discord searched for Luna. She had a habit of springing on him suddenly when he had least expected it. She always kept changing, just like her celestial body, changing every day to be something different. Once the sun was directly overhead, Discord grew worried. Luna did say that she would visit every day. I wonder where she could be. Probably off eating bananas with her sister or something. Even though Discord laughed in his head, he was still eaten with worry. Once the sun dropped a little lower in the sky, Discord could hear stallion voices, calling out to one another. He could also see flashes of orange through the hedges, moving closer and closer to his private part of the garden. The construction ponies rounded the corner that led to his part of the garden, and looked around appraisingly. They nodded and walked into the garden, and Discord noted with shock the wrecking ball they drew between the largest stallions of the group.
“This looks like the place,” The lead stallion said to the others. “Let’s get wrecking eh? The faster we do this, the faster we can go back to Donut Joe’s for some of those donuts.”
“Sure does boss, just remember who’s paying this time eh?” One of the other stallions nudged him and laughed.
“All right all right, enough jokes at my expense. I forget my wallet ONE time and you all never let it go. Let’s start over there, on that side. This big statue over here creeps me out a little.”
After the first statue fell, Discord was given a shock as he realized what was happening. Discord used the last of his reserved magic to inscribe words into his stone prison walls, so that Luna would discover them if she sought him out. His “writing” became frantic as he saw the stallions throw the iron ball at the other statues of the clearing, starting at the opposite edge from Discord and moving down the line. Statue after statue was reduced to dust, and the crashing noises were getting ever so closer. The worker ponies took a break, setting down the wrecking ball and walking off to eat sandwiches from tin boxes. Discord's writing became slower and slower as he lost more and more of his magical energy. As the last of it disappeared from his body, he sealed the "letter" with a final blast of magic, sending a small shock wave across the clearing and knocking dust from the tree's in the garden.
Discord looked up towards the sky, thinking about his life that he had lived. He recalled the times that he had irritated Luna and Celestia to no end, always pouring chocolate milk on them, or changing their manes to cotton candy. Of course, they blasted him with their magic after he did those things, but he just chuckled and kept causing the chaos. He never really wanted to be hated, he just hated the strict on-time attitude of the entire world. Nopony ever did things randomly anymore, always following a normal pattern of life, day after day. Now, the only pony he knew that didn't was Pinkie Pie, but even she had a pattern for that blasted "Pinkie Sense" and all her other antics. Of course, she was the pony Discord hated the least, or at least until Luna had come along for her visits. Her sister, Celestia, was the pony that topped the list of "most hated ponies" in Discord's life.
He remembered when he had first approached Celestia with his "love". He had always thought that he loved her, and that she loved him back. When he had first given her those flowers, she looked at him with disgust. All she could see was a monster, and a fiend. Well, I was more than that Celestia! You were the cause of all my pain! He had cursed her name more times than he could count, so much that it had become somewhat boring to insult her now. You saw a monster, so that's what I became. Luna didn't see me as a monster, she saw a misunderstood being. I was given a chance to love again, and now it seems that is being taken away from me as well. Mental tears began to spring from his "eyes" and his sobs ripped across his mind.
He watched as the workers smashed the wrecking ball into the statue next to him, sending chips of stone flying into Discord. He winced mentally as he watched them dust off the ball, now coated white with its use. As they turned to him, he started to think random thoughts, no doubt a product of anxiety. I wonder if there’s cotton candy in the next life. Oooh, and I can’t forget about the chocolate milk either! And the tall bunnies! And all the other things that are chaotic! I hope that- His thoughts stopped as the wrecking ball smashed into him, sending his head onto the ground next to his statue’s disembodied feet.
With his last bout of consciousness, he looked to his side. There, on the ground next to him, was a blue-black feather, glistening with dew in the setting sun. He sighed sadly and thought one last thought.
Goodbye my sweet moon, forever this time.