Canterlot Castle three years after the recovery of Princess Luna.

Royal duties were honestly the most boring things on the planet in Celestia's opinion. She had to hand one thing to Discord, he knew how to party; watching the aristocrats fend off carnivorous muffins with oversized silverware had been quite hilarious to watch. She sighed, inwardly chastising herself for delighting in the memory of their panic. She turned to her sister who was sitting beside her as she always did those last few hours of the day before Celestia took to her chambers for the rather addictive indulgence of sleeping.

Luna used to give her a hard time over this when they were children, until she herself had tried it and decided that she couldn't do without it either. They were currently in a tax meeting which consisted mostly of living through the mind numbingly boring speeches and then convince the speakers that they had no intention of bleeding the proletariat for more money to give to the upper class.

"Oh!" Luna jumped up suddenly at attention. "May I have a moment alone with Celestia?" Everypony in the room knew this was not a request, she was just being nice. They looked to Celestia who nodded and they quickly filed out of the room. Once they were alone Luna spoke again. "I just realized that I never told you the voice of the armors name. It's name was Taron." Celestia's normally alabaster face turned a pale green. She promptly fainted.

"Not him, Please Faust not him.
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Fun fact about being turned into stone, ponies say when you die your life flashes before your eyes. They're right you see your entire life in that moment only for that moment, but when your turned to stone it gets put on a loop. Discord has been turned to stone twice and he's just plain sick of watching his own life.

"Ug, this bit again." He grumbled watching himself be blasted by Twilight and her friends for the hundredth time. He braced himself for the only memory that truly scared him, his first.

Blackness was his world until he felt something clamp around his neck and lift him up. Discord emerged from the black water sputtering and choking, he was blinded for a moment by his first light.
"Another failure." A deep, measured voice spoke beside him. Discord looked down the clamp around his neck to a purple alicorn holding it with his magic. The current Discord was screaming but the one that had emerged was just staring at it. "I know just what to do wi-" The world froze and Discord relaxed, this had only happened once before. His eyes opened to see a brick wall. Not as nice a view as last time but it was better than the cavern he was born in.

He physically relaxed letting his now aching muscles loosen up.
"Feels good to be free." He was still looking at the wall. "Who was it this time? A cultist, please let it be a cultist." He turned around smiling maliciously, only to be disappointed to the seventh degree. "Oh it's you." He turned his back on the single most beautiful creature he had ever met, not that he would tell her that; anymore... "I didn't know you'd become the gloating type Celestia."

"I'm not." Celestia walked around where he stood so that she could see his face again.
"Then have you finally seen how much more fun my lifestyle is?" He almost grinned but managed to keep his face blank.
"This is an issue that only you and me can know about." Now Discord found himself interested. "He might be back." all color drained from Discord's body.
"If you're messing with me it's not funny." Celestia shook her head. "How? What? Where?" Discord started tying his body into a knot in panic. "Wait!" He straitened himself out. "You said 'might'. Is he or is he not?"
"I'm not sure."
"How can you not be sure?" Discord scratched his head.
"A being has appeared bearing his name."
"How is this a big deal?"
"It appeared through one of his old projects."

"Fine then. how do you expect us to find out?" He crossed his arms.
"A memory dive." Discord glared at Celestia, upset that she would suggest that when he had been watching his memories for the last... however long he was trapped in stone.
"May I ask, which project?"
"Beforeskin."
"In that case my memories are clean. You're the one that got into his stuff all the time. I've been watching my memories for how long now?"
"Three years."
"That's nowhere near as long as last time. I guess your memories are the ones in question."
"Oh, you're not getting out of it that easily I may have been the one getting into his experiments but you were the one stealing them." Discord huffed before he was enveloped in white light.
"No! Wait, I'm not ready!" He tried to get away but in a flash they were both gone.
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"Impatient as always I see." Discord sniffed looking around at the cave Celestia's magic brought upon them. "Uuuuggg, I'd rather spend all eternity trapped in stone than deal with Teron again."
"Keep your eyes peeled for any scraps of paper."
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The memory dive is a quite interesting spell. It takes all of the memory's of the subjects mind and projects them onto the area around them in a third person perspective which is then fed into the mind of the subject at lightning fast speeds although to them everything seems to be happening in real time. Unfortunately this only works in the place where the subject was brought into existence as that spot has a permanent connection with them as it was the spot where they had their first thought. Normally this means that in order to use the spell your mother (or her body) must be present. This can prove gruesome as most that find themselves in need of the spell are very old. A curious fact about the memory dive is that it shows things with perfect accuracy even things the subject did not commit to memory thus it is more like looking though time than looking into a being's mind. Unfortunately when there are two beings using the spell on only one of them the being that the memories belong to experiences them in first person but can still communicate with the other observer almost as if the one remembering has grown a second head from the future.
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Their world was blackness random thoughts could be heard every now and again and things bubbled almost constantly. Footsteps muffled by the black water were suddenly heard and an aura of dark purple magic lit the water outlining a small pink alicorn, Celestia was being born. Drawn out of the water she sputtered and coughed as her little lungs adjusted from the oxygen rich water to the open air she opened her eyes momentarily blinded by the low light of the cave. The future Celestia watching it all from an unexpected viewpoint looked on her father and shuddered seeing the only creature to have ever existed that she truly hated.

"Finally a success, a little bit of myself really was all it took. I'll try adding a feather next time." The young Celestia was deposited on the cave floor still blinking at the creature she would come to know as father. Teron stood taller than future Celestia. He had a dark purple coat and black tail but no mane, the mark on his flank was a double helix. He regarded the filly that had been growing in the black water with cold eyes for a moment before his entire face along with his voice softened and he smiled. "Hello there little one."