I remember when we were young.

When Celestia’s mane didn’t ripple in the air as it came to do and when she was merely a fraction of her final size. When Luna wasn’t as brooding or as dark or as deadpan as she’d end up being. When the sun itself just seemed so much brighter than it had any right to be. When days flew by as fast as single eye blinks and you’d wish you could somehow hold on to each and every one of them to enjoy for eternity. When each one of us was stupid and naïve and completely oblivious to how our relationship would eventually conclude.

Myself most of all.

What a joyous sight those two alicorns were on that first day we met. So new. So refreshing. So interesting and fascinating. So breakable and weak, I foolishly thought, only to be proven wrong on so many levels later on. I wonder what they must’ve thought of me on that first day. As large as Celestia’s and Luna’s eyes were, I can’t imagine they weren’t left sore by the simple sight of me. I’ve come to forgiven them, though. It’s easy to categorize draconequi as just plain weird looking at first glance.

“Is that it?” Celestia asked the terrified pegasus huddled behind her—furrowing her brows as she took me in. Every odd inch and part. “Or is it a… he? I think? What do you think, Luna?”

The childish Celestia with the curving pink mane turned to her sister. Luna was only a tiny bit smaller than Celestia at the time—light blue coat with bright purple mane and tail. At the moment, they both seemed more curious than angry at me. I knew I’d need to change that soon to keep things interesting.

“Well, it’s definitely not a pony,” Luna eventually answered, taking a hesitant step toward me. “I think it may be one of those dragon-hybrids we read about during our studies. You know… part this and part that and part whatever animal they had leftover.”

Less than a minute ago, they’d found me napping on a flat smooth rock in the middle of a clearing in the woods. I don’t recall how I came to exist exactly, but I do know I hadn’t been around for all that long by that point. A scant few years at best and with most of that time spent alone.

Not to say I didn’t like company. I loved company, in fact. The trouble came with trying to keep company close while keeping things fun. Most ponies didn’t share the same interests as myself back when I was young. Such as the pegasus I “played” with earlier that day.

On my warm rock, I looked up at the three of them and rolled my eyes in an exaggerated motion. “I’m called a draconequus! Get your facts straight, little pony. I haven’t read a single page out of a single book and even I know that.”

Not taking her eyes off of me, Celestia leaned to her sister. “Sounds like a ‘he’ to me. What do you think we should do? I heard ‘draconequi’ are very powerful and clever creatures. Should we tell on him?”

Luna stubbornly shook her head. “We can handle this on our own, Celestia. Perhaps he only needs to understand how much discord he is causing because of his actions.” She took another step towards me. “Draconequus? What is your name? And speak the truth.”

I grumbled under my breath. How boring this was hurriedly becoming.

“I’m Mint Berry the Destroyer—ruler of all words that start with the letter ‘T’. So that means if you want to use a word that starts with ‘T’, you need my permission first.”

“So be it!” the young Luna spoke sternly. “Today you have gone too far, Mint Berry the Dest—”

I pointed a sharp claw in her direction. “You said it! You said ‘today’ and that starts with a ‘T’! Now you either have to stand on your head for a full minute or give me a kiss!”

“I will do no such thing!” Luna spat back at me.

Gingerly, Celestia approached her sister to lay a hoof on her heated skin. “I think he’s only kidding, Luna. ‘Mint Berry the Destroyer’ isn’t really a name.” She looked up at me for a moment, cocking her head to the side as if studying something relevant to her interests. “So what is your real name? It might help for us to know if you’re going to be causing more trouble for ponies around here.”

“How ‘bout you go first,” I answered snidely. “Then I’ll make sure to forget all your names in less than ten seconds from now.”

Celestia nodded. “I’m Celestia and this is my sister Luna. Pleased to meet you.”

I couldn’t help but laugh in her face. Such manners. It was weird. Just how formal this mare was making this.

“Charmed,” I told her dryly. “You can call me… Discord. Sure, Discord. You used that word before. Let’s go with that.”

“Okay… Discord.” Celestia took a moment to steel herself. “This pegasus today—Frequent Flier—told my sister and I that you turned her mane and tail into cotton candy for no good reason at all. And after having tasted and verified that claim, we have come to ask that you change it back and apologize to her at once.”

I narrowed my venomous eyes at her. “And why should I do that?”

“Because it’s the correct and polite thing to do.”

Now I more than laughed in her face. Now I stretched out and rolled around on my large warm rock while hundreds of smalls giggles and guffaws erupted from my shaking jaws. Eventually, it got so bad my stomach began to hurt and I was forced to wipe away the tears that began staining my face.

“Oh!” I screamed between my shrieking laughs. “You’re good! You’re very good! My, oh, my I think I’ll keep you!” Like a snake, I slithered off my rock and inched towards them on the grass. “And just what are you gonna do when I refuse and instead eat that pony’s tasty mane and tail?”

That last statement made Frequent Flier, still huddled behind Luna, lower closer to the ground. When I looked her way, Luna extended a wing to block my view of her before she came to stand beside her sister. Both of them frowned down at me as if it was somehow intimidating.

How cute.

“Then my sister and I will make you change it back!” Luna declared noisily. “We are both alicorns and therefore it is our duty to halt evil creatures such as yourself.”

In mock interest, I tapped a claw on my chin. “And just how many ‘evil creatures’ have you stopped thus far, pray tell?”

“Umm…” Celestia glanced away from me for a moment. “Technically, you would be the first. Although we have helped locate lost items for ponies before: hats, scarves, someone’s coin purse once.”

“In the past, we have also shown several ponies the errors of their ways,” Luna added helpfully. “We have been very successful in using the power of words to solve most of pony’s problems.”

“Too bad,” I replied from the grass, “because words are rather boring. And actions always speak louder than words. Haven’t you noticed? You used the word ‘alicorn’ before. What does that mean?”

Luna lifted her chin up a bit. “It is the term given to a pony that has both a horn and wings. They also have great magical gifts and responsibilities, as well as the ability to live for thousands of years.”

All at once, several things suddenly clicked into place in my head and the overwhelming urge to leap into the air and start tap dancing on some clouds became as strong as a hurricane. But I couldn’t let them know of that, could I? Of course not. Instead, I yawned and played with a blade of grass as my mind continued to whirl around in a blaring symphony of exciting thoughts and possibilities.

My life up until that point had been plain stinking boring—one of the scariest words known to draconequi everywhere. Once a normal pony understood my games, they rarely stayed close to me for long. At best, I could gather fifteen minutes worth of good-natured chaos during an entire day by tricking and confusing ponies. Of course, this wasn’t nearly as much as I would’ve liked.

Correction: needed.

The inexplicable arrival of this “Celestia” and “Luna” could change all that.

Ponies that could live forever? Destined to be around me whenever a new storm of chaos should happen to appear and force them to halt?

My mouth actually salivated from the notion alone.

New playmates. Ageless playmates. Unbreakable playmates, perhaps?

Now if I could only not screw it up before the day was through.

While I was still lying prone on the grass, Luna shared a look with her sister. “Do you think we might’ve talked this odd creature to death? I heard draconequi love having fun. Do you believe they could actual starve to death from a complete lack of it?”

“We’ve been talking to him for less than five minutes, Luna,” Celestia replied, gently nudging my shoulder with a hoof. “Maybe he’s just pondering his options? We don’t want to fight him, do we? I’d much rather solve this matter without resorting to violence.”

“I did learn that spark spell the other day,” Luna informed her brightly. “It couldn’t hurt giving it a try. Practice makes perfect and all.”

“Luna…” Celestia began sharply. “We’ve been told to use magic only if it becomes absolutely necessary. We’re still in the ‘discussion’ stage of problem solving, remember?”

Luna gave her the smallest of nods. “Noted. I’ll leave my spark spell on standby, then.”

“Celestia! Luna! Help!” Frequent Flier shrieked, causing them both to whirl around and flap out their wings.

While the two alicorns had been bickering overtop of me, I’d quietly snapped my claws together to breath life into a nearby bush—a rather prickly and affectionate one. Tearing its own roots out from the dirt, the sapient bush had snuck up behind Frequent Flier to wrap her up in an uncomfortably tight embrace.

“Stand aside!” Luna shouted, angling her charging horn in the direction of the wriggling bush. “I’ll show this nefarious lawn ornament what is what!”

“Luna! Stop before you—” was all Celestia got out, before Luna’s horn erupted in a series of loud snaps and crackles. The next moment, a thin beam no thicker than a string zoomed towards the buzzing bush to singe a single one of its leaves. Still, it was evidently enough to cause it to surrender the pegasus and retreat back into the woods.

Once free, Frequent Flier collapsed to the ground and Celestia and Luna went to see that she was all right. Back on her hooves, Frequent Flier threw herself into Luna for a hug. “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, Luna! That bush was so weird and it just—”

Gingerly, Luna patted her on the head while blowing on the tip of her own smoldering horn. “Everything’s okay. It’s fine now. You are safe.”

“Luna… that was…” Celestia told her sister breathlessly. “That was amazing! Your spark spell worked and it didn’t waver at all! Have you been practicing your spells without me? That’s fantastic! And you didn’t even pause for a moment—you just acted! I’m so proud of you.”

Luna gave her sister a wide smile. “It was odd. Usually, I’d need to think about a spell for a few moments before it works like it should. This time… this time I just knew it had to work! It was like casting magic without even thinking about it.”

“Reflexes,” Celestia replied. “That must be the difference between practicing magic and using magic in order to help others.” Her eyes popped open as another thought came to her. “That also means we took down our first foe!”

“A tiny bush?” Luna questioned with a grimace.

“Still counts!” Celestia argued in return. “Monsters come in all shapes and sizes; even bushes that only want a hug. But if anyone should ask, we could always tell them it was eight feet tall with sharp wooden fangs.”

Frequent Flier nodded energetically. “Sure it was! I’ll go along with that! Anything!”

Only when I sat up on my rock again and began clapping my hands together did they finally pay attention to me again. At the time, my hope was that my slow clap would only sound condescending at best. Turned out it didn’t.

“Why, thank you,” Luna replied evenly. “It was nothing, honestly.”

I smiled. “You’re right. It was nothing. You tried to set my bush on fire. That wasn’t very nice of you, you know. What did Gilbert ever do to you? All he wanted was some love!” Using my claws, I pitched the bridge of my nose with a weary sigh. “What selfish ponies we have here. I only hope most ponies don’t end up taking after you two.”

It seemed my latest outburst had finally done the trick. In a quick stride, Celestia marched towards me until her hooves grazed the edges of my rock throne.

“You need to stop it right now, Discord!” Celestia warned me in that squeaky voice she used to have. “Luna was only proud of performing her spell so well. That’s no reason to say nasty things about it. So now this means you owe us…” She blinked a few times as she counted in her head. “Three apologies! One for turning that mare’s mane and tail into cotton candy. Another for sending that mean bush after her. And a third for saying those terrible and nasty things to Luna.”

To accentuate her point, Celestia slammed her two small hooves on my rock. “So are you going to apologize or not?”

I cocked a brow. “What do you think?”

She answered with a small smile. “We’ll be your friends if you apologize.”

“What else you got?”

“Stand aside, Celestia!” Luna declared, storming over to us. “Let’s see how this ‘Discord’ creature enjoys a face full of sparks!”

Again, Luna charged up her horn—this time pointing it squarely in my direction. In retaliation, I merely gave her a tight grin and waited to get properly blasted. No pony had ever tried to hurt me before. It sounded rather interesting.

“Take that!” Luna shot out the same-sized ray of sparks she had before and I was momentarily blinded by thousands of hot bits of light. It did hurt a little bit, so I wisely sent all thoughts of pain to another part of my body to deal with later when I was alone again.

“More, please!” I opened my mouth to try and eat some of her sparks. I even left my eyes open to be showered with—all to let Luna know she could do very little to affect me.

Once I ate enough of her sparks, I loudly belched in her face.

“Ew! Gross!” Luna retreated a step and held a hoof to her muzzle. “That’s not playing fair, Discord!”

“Get used to it!” I roughly informed her, before I was tackled from behind by Celestia and shoved off my rock throne.

When I opened my eyes again, Celestia was overtop of me—a thin and wavering pink shield the only thing separating us. Celestia had to visibly concentrate to keep the shield whole and intact.

“Now either apologize for what you’ve done or I’ll make you stay inside this bubble for the rest of the day!” She had to furrow her brows and flatten her ears to sustain the shield between us.

I rolled my eyes at her. How tempting it was to simply reach up and poke her “bubble” with a single claw and have it all come crashing down on her. How much glee I’d get from seeing her pained and disappointed. But was that truly the way to play this game of ours? Didn’t I want to keep them around for years to come?

Even in the scant few minutes that I’d known them, they’d already advanced and learned a small fraction. Perhaps one day they could even become an actual challenge for me.

I quietly snickered inside of Celestia’s thin bubble prison.

Okay. Maybe not a full-blown challenge, but something interesting at least.

On the grass, I relaxed my body and appeared downcast. “Fine! You have won the day Celestia and Luna! I shall apologize at once!” I turned my head to find Frequent Flier again hidden behind Luna. I snapped my claws and returned her mane and tail back to normal. “There. No more tasty hair for you. Sorry about that. And here I thought ponies around here liked cotton candy.”

My added emphasis on the word ‘sorry’ only made Luna grumble under her breath.

“Sorry, Luna, about that whole bush thing. Next time, I’ll try something less frightening—maybe a cactus asking for water or something.”

Finally, I turned back to Celestia and stared directly into her eyes.

“Sorry, Celestia. I promise it’ll never happen again.”

***

The next time the three of us clashed was exactly three days later. For seventy-two hours, all I could do was anxiously float around the woods and pace on the tips of mountaintops, nibbling at my fingers until they bled. I wanted to see them again—spar with them again. I just had to.

But I didn’t want to come off as needy, did I?

It was easy to get their attentions again. All I had to do was flip a house on the edge of Canterlot upside-down and spin it around like a top. Twenty minutes later, both Celestia and Luna arrived on the scene in a huff. The mixture of reactions was simply delicious.

“You? Again?” Luna had to use a hoof to hide her thin grin.

Celestia had a completely different reaction for me. “I swear, Discord! If you’ve hurt any ponies by doing this!”

“You’ll what?” I asked her bluntly, seated inside the upside-down house on a couch attached to the ceiling. “Throw me in some dungeon and make me think about what I’ve done? Of course, to do that, you’d have to catch me first!”

And that was how our second official battle began. Once again, I only led them on as much as I thought they could take. Ultimately, I was overall pleased by their progress. Since our last encounter, Celestia had learned a new spell that could shut things in a snap. As the three of us ran around that upside-down house, she kept on trying to trap me inside different rooms by slamming doors shut and locking them on me. Of course that proved useless when I quickly turned all the doors in the house into marshmallows and sticky toffee. Following that trick, all I had to do to exit a locked room was eat my way out.

My favorite moment came when Celestia shot that same spell right at me—causing my mouth to seal shut for an entire minute. Having been taunting the two alicorns the entire time up until that point, they both stopped to point and laugh as I stumbled around the room with my lips sealed tight. That still didn’t stop me from trying my best to insult them with only my hands and facial expressions as tools.

The two of them surprised me that day. Working together, they’d managed to lift an entire couch into the air and hurl it at me. I was almost proud of them by that. Such teamwork from the pair!

I took the hit in stride and afterwards found myself stuck in a hole in the wall. Granted, I could’ve dodged the puffy projectile most easily, but by that point I was already winded. And it always helped when I proved to them just how indestructible I truly was.

“And you promise not to do something like this again, Discord?” Celestia questioned me sharply, after I returned the house to its original state and did my usual mock apology for everyone around.

Again, I promised her that would be the last time they’d see of me.

Again, I lied right to her adorable little face.

How could I not come back after that? When each encounter only got more and more tasty and delicious and chaos filled?

To celebrate the completion of our second epic battle, I snapped the three of us giant bowls of chocolate pudding to enjoy. Celestia, undoubtedly, was hesitant at first, before Luna shrugged away any suspicion and ate her dessert with visible glee. As Luna would go on to put it: “What? All that running around made me hungry.”

***

Years passed, but our dance remained the same. For long periods of time, I’d explore the world and test out my abilities alone—creating small batches of chaos to enjoy and feast upon. But in the back of my mind, I always knew I’d eventually return to Celestia and Luna to do battle once more. It was like an urge. An addiction I could never properly put into words.

I felt I had to test them. And that they would test me in turn.

Sadly, none of us were as young as we used to be. As my powers grew, so did theirs. That only meant I had to try harder than before—make things bigger than before. If I wasn’t a threat to them, they wouldn’t feel compelled to come stop me, right? Be near me? Be close to me?

Again and again, I had to show them that I was worth their time and energy. If an upside-down house wasn’t big enough for their talents, then what about an entire town teleported to the lip of an active volcano? If that wasn’t enough, then what about the kidnapping of a royal dignitary? The theft of Canterlot’s priceless magical artifacts? The removal of all cutie marks in the land? The inability for any pony in Equestria to stop laughing or feel sad anymore?

The repercussions of my grander and grander schemes did not go unnoticed on me. Long gone were the days when Celestia, Luna, and I used to laugh while we sparred. Long gone were the days of mock apologies and celebratory bowls of pudding.

Yes. We would still banter back and forth. An old tradition. But I could feel the levity between us mostly dead. Even Luna, the one that seemed to enjoy our battles the most, seemed dispirited as time went on and my appearances became less and less frequent, but more nasty in tone.

But could I stop? Could I really?

We’d come too far to stop now. And, by that point, hadn’t I become as big a part of their lives as they’d become in mine? Did they not realize that none of us would exist without the other? That none of us would have come so far without the other? Did they not rely on me to routinely test them and in turn show to all of Equestria that they deserved to be their unshakable rulers?

And, underneath it all, did that not somehow make us all the oddest of friends?

It had never been my intention to cause them pain. I only wanted to have a little fun and get a reaction out of beings seemingly as powerful as me. Ageless, too. And could you even blame me? I thought we were made for each other.

I… thought.

“Playtime is over for you, Discord!” Celestia told me on that fateful day.

Celestia stood next to her sister—much older than before. Both of their manes glittered and rippled in the air; expressions hard and unyielding. I should’ve known this would be much different than usual.

“Oh, I doubt that,” I playfully responded, perched on my garish new throne. It had been many years since my simple warm rock in the middle of the woods. “Hungry?” I tried to gauge their current mood by lobbying a few seeds at their faces. Their total lack of response made me feel something I rarely did.

Worry.

“Oh, what have you got there?” I questioned them curiously.

Celestia had retrieved a group of jewels from her bag—ones that quickly surrounded them both in a large bubble of whirling colors. I briefly remembered Celestia’s first shield spell. How far she’d come. How much she’d learned since our first day together.

“The Elements of Harmony,” Celestia informed me helpfully.

“With them, we shall defeat you!” Luna then clarified.

My level of worry remained the same. New tactics and artifacts had become standard fare during our countless battles together. What made them think this would be the end of me when nothing in the past had done so?

I laughed—thrashing around on my tall throne chair. It had become my usual way of responding to their latest threats. “You should see yourselves right now! The expressions on your faces! So intense! So sure of yourselves!”

Celestia and Luna touched their horns together, creating a giant beam of rainbow that circled into the sky. How droll, I thought. How horrifically plain.

I rose from my throne to greet this latest threat in spite. In all the years we’d known each other, I always found it best to show them just how powerless they were to stop me. I found it only added to their heated fervor and ferocity when dealing with me.

“Hilarious!” became the last word I spoke for quite some time.

The beam of solid rainbow crashed into me and instead of propelling me in any direction, it instead grounded me where I stood. My sense of worry increased with every passing moment.

It hurt.

It hurt worse than anything I’d ever felt before, but I couldn’t even scream to let them know of it. I couldn’t even store that pain somewhere else to deal with later on. I was stuck. I was trapped. And inch by inch, I felt my flesh harden and grow numb. I couldn’t stop any of it even if I wanted to.

My worry turned to fear and then swiftly towards confusion.

What did I do wrong? was all I could think—again and again. What did I do wrong?

Hadn’t it always been like this? Celestia? Luna? What did I do wrong?

One last thought came to me as the tips of my horns turned to stone and my feeling of confusion flipped to ones of sadness mixed with rage.

I will never forget about this.