Edited: April 2023.
I have different plans for Discord, relating to the Q.
Author's Note:
Illusion is a Next Generation Character, belonging to Kilalaaa, on Deviant Art.
I took a few creative liberties, so consider this version AU to Kilalaaa's timeline.
Celestia's Sun.
2 months after the Terraforming project is complete (Which took a year).
Luna sighed as she tried to process this, "He's a celestial," she observed the small... thing, in the crib.
The little white colt, with his mismatched claws and hooves, a fluffy black wool around his shoulders and chest, A red serpent tail with white fur at the tip, and a pair of Discord like horns on his head.
The little colt lay in his crib, as divine lights danced around him.
"How is this possible?" Luna demanded, "None of our other children, were born with the Celestial gene. I didn't think it could be passed on to mortals."
Celestia smiled, overwhelmed with joy for her newborn son. Not just for his birth, but for what he is. He was a demi celestial. His life force was connected to her own. As long as her star shined, he was just as immortal as herself... she would never have to watch this child die. "That's just it, he's not mortal."
Luna looked back at the child's horns and bizarre features. "I suppose I can see, why you didn't want to tell me who the father is."
"Discord's changed," Celestia insisted.
"I meant more along the lines, that he is basically our brother," Luna snarked. "Even by your standards, that's a whole new level of kinky."
Celestia blushed, before defending with the lamest excuse of. "It just happen!" Before looking back at the little babe. "He is cute though."
"He looks as if some predator threw up the animal kingdom," Luna muttered.
Celestia glared, "I meant my son."
"Oh..." Luna blushed looking at the colt. "Yes... yes, he is very cute... but he might scare the staff. Remember how they reacted to Screwball, and all she had was abnormal eyes."
"Ponies have gotten more used to other creatures, since then," Celestia insisted.
Millions of Ponies had immigrated to her sun, given it was more like a desert (with plasma Volcanoes) then a real star. The heat up here was actually livable... and millions of different kinds of dragons moved up here as well, and were living in peace with the ponies. They were even coupling and having children together. To the point the Dragon ponies were so common, they had been acknowledged as a knew race call "Drakehooves".
Regardless, of how many creatures, were now living on her. Celestia wasn't interested in ruling over them. She had enough of that. So she was largely a figure head, more a spiritual symbol.
She had organized a more independent parliament, to rule over the creatures on her sun. However, she also set up, that she could step in, if they were doing something she genuinely didn't agree with.
She still held court, to hear the concerns of the Ponies, Dragons, and Drakehooves, and continued to do what she could to ease them... however, that was more her own thing, helping the "Peasants" and leaving the nobles to take their complaints to parliament (unless it was a personal matter).
The point was, there were more then ponies living on her star. "Draconequus have even set up colonies all over our System." Celestia insisted.
"And how many ponies live in those colonies?" Luna had to be blunt, "How many Draconequus ever even leave them?"
Celestia didn't answer.
Luna sighed, "Does Discord know?"
Celestia scoffed, "Of course he knows, what kind of mare do you take me for?"
Luna smirked, "You really don't want me to answer that."
Celestia playfully huffed, and a comfortable silence embraced them, as they looked at the babe.
Luna reached into the crib, and the baby instinctively grabbed her hoof. A warm glow touched the Princess of the night's heart, as the babe cooed at her.
"A Draconequus with the Celestial gene," Luna commented as she absentmindedly played with the babe. Who giggled with delight, and bit the hard hoof with his teeth. However sharp, they couldn't pierce through the carotene.
Celestia sighed, "He's going to be a nightmare until he learns control. As if baby magic wasn't unpredictable enough... what am I going to do?" She muttered, as it finally hit her. "Your right, the staff will freak when they see him... they would never accept him."
"Discord might be able to look after him," Luna suggested.
"I'm not going to abandon my son," Celestia glared.
Luna scoffed, "You must think so little of me, to believe I would suggest such a thing. I meant have Discord come here."
Celestia looked down, shamed faced. "He isn't here now, because he is taking care of Screwball... I sort of told him I don't want his help."
Luna groaned, "And why would you do that?"
"He wanted to take the boy, into the chaos dimension... I had less then kind words at the thought."
"You need to apologize for that," Luna eyed. "Discord is rather sensitive, and yelling at him for wanting to protect his child, would hurt even the most thick skinned Stallion."
Celestia sighed back, "I know... Discord is good with Screwball. He probably just wanted to give her a playmate... but I can't part with him. I have cared for all my children... I didn't like hearing I wasn't capable of handling the newest addition to my family tree..."
"That's not how I meant it," A voice spoke from behind them. The sisters turned to see Discord standing awkwardly... Almost sheepishly. "I was... inviting you to come with me."
Celestia blinked.
Luna made her usual snide comment, to break the tension. "Should have known you would be spying on us."
Discord shamelessly shrugged, "As if I would miss the birth of my son."
Luna took her hoof out of the crib, before asking. "Is Screwball by herself?"
Discord waved off, "I have her in my sights. Draconequus just like to give the illusion of independence to their children. We are never far as they explore the realm. Being able to be in multiple places, at once, does come in handy."
Luna nodded, satisfied, and things quickly developed into a more awkward silence.
After several moments Celestia finally spoke up, "I can't leave The Equus System. I have too many responsibilities. They aren't ready yet, to be rid of me... and I want to keep him by my side."
Discord nodded. He walked over to the crib, and waved his paw. The adorable little oddity, suddenly transformed into a plain, in every sense of the word, gray Unicorn. "It's something I must insist on, if he is to stay in this realm. It's the only way he will fit in. As soon as he is old enough, I will teach him how to cast the illusion himself."
"Illusion..." Celestia noted. "As good a name as any," She nuzzled the little colt. She looked back at Discord, and found a middle aged stallion standing in his stead. A brown unicorn, with a gray mane and goatee, and a scroll for a cutie mark. "I take it you will be staying as well?"
"You don't have a say in the matter," Discord insisted.
Celestia actually smiled, at his lack of social niceties. She doubted he even understood, how this would be considered pushy, "I'll just tell ponies you're my newest consort... but I want you, and him, in your normal forms when we are alone. I don't want him to be in the dark about his nature."
Discord-Pony rolled his eyes, "Just had to add your own conditions to help you feel in control."
Celestia gave an eye roll of her own. "And you had to make some snide comment to ruin the moment. I swear, you're as bad as Luna."
The two other 'adults' stuck out their tongues, as the baby peed himself with far more dignity.
3 years later.
"Daddy?" Illusion got his father's attention, as he laid on the grass in his pony form.
Daddy looked up from his book, well wearing his own disguise. They were just reading together in the royal garden. Well Discord was reading, the little colt was listening eagerly to the story of the noble dragon, who defended a princess from an evil knight (the dragons response to common pony fairytales). Various members of the castle staff wandered about, tending the animals and plants. However they kept their distance, to not disturb the royal family.
Illusion bit his lip and forced himself to ask, "How come we have to hide... how we really look?"
Discord, or rather Professor "Wuss-Heer" as he called himself in this form, let out a sigh. "Ponies are... easily scared by things they don't understand, and that can cause them to lash out."
"Huh?"
Discord sighed again, "When I was a child, growing up in Starswirls castle."
"Why'd Starswirl have a castle?"
Discord smiled, not minding the little abomination's habit, of interrupting with questions, how else was he supposed to learn. "He was a lord of the Unicorn tribe. Deep, in what is now the Ever Free Forest, was a small farming village he ruled over. He was actually one of the few male rulers back then, even if it was only over a small village. His castle doubled as a magical university, where he taught sorcery and the occasional odd magical superpower. The other Pillars later helped him with that."
Illusion smiled, "Cool!"
"Indeed, I lived there with hundreds of different students, of varying ages. We were separated into different dorms, but I attended classes with ponies as young as you, just learning to read, to ponies in their hundreds, working on their magical mastery courses,"
"Did you use magical text books?" Illusion asked. "Auntie Twilight told me Starswirl invented those."
Discord chuckled, "Oh yes I remember those things. The text books weren't self grading back then, but they were enchanted to hold tens of thousands of pages, in one small book. Everything Equestria understood about how the universe works in one book... it's amazing how accurate those were back then, compared to other races in the medieval stage of development... where was I?"
"You were explaining why we had to be in these forms," Illusion helpfully supplied.
"Oh... yes..." Discord gave yet another sigh. "Well... you see... The ponies... weren't very nice to me. I was very powerful, and combined with my appearance... it made them very scared of me."
"How come?" Illusion pressed.
"Well I looked different, and at the time different was viewed as scary. I was a convenient scapegoat."
"Huh?"
"It means they blamed me for things I didn't do, simply because it was dangerous to direct their anger at the actual source... The other students would pick on me, and yell at me, each time something went wrong... sometimes they would blame me, when they did something bad, so they wouldn't get in trouble... and Starswirl believed them. Since I was going to be blamed anyway I... started acting out.
"When Starswirl disappeared, the students made it clear, I wasn't welcome there anymore, and none of the villagers took me in. I left our island world for a little while, travelled the others. Met Sleipnir, the creator of this Rift in space...
"I eventually took my own pocket dimension, and created the Draconequus race, so I wouldn't be alone. However, they were only as powerful as a Unicorn, with a Cutie Mark in magic... but they rejected me to... and I didn't take it well... After that, I basically turned my dimension into a hell realm, to punish them for the perceived insult.
"Inevitably, I got bored of torturing them, and left. I decided to return to Equestria and... wasn't very nice... I did very bad things, and am responsible for why the world has to be controlled by ponies... I was not a good pony, in my youth."
"... What changed?" Illusion asked.
"Well... your Auntie Fluttershy accepting me, helped a great deal, giving me my first real friend, but what really did it, was your sister Screwball... I was open to change... for her sake... so she wouldn't go down my path... creating her saved me..."
"... Can I meet her?"
Illusion looked around the chaos Dimension, at the swirling purple fog and floating islands. Illusion was having the time of his life, walking in public in his real form, of mismatched parts. The Draconequus didn't really bat an eye at him. It was Mom they were giving odd looks.
Illusion yelped, as a basketball suddenly hit him in the head, and got stuck in between his horns.
Three little Draconequus children, about Illusion's age, quickly floated over. One had a Griffin tail, another two mismatched tails, and the third a purple serpent tail with streaks of wool.
They weren't as long as Discord, in fact they had the same body type as foals, with mixed matched parts of all kinds of things. They were just as cute as Illusion, and hinted the Draconequus get longer as they age.
"Sorry!" two tail blushed well wool hesitantly poked Celestia.
"You look weird," Said the adorable wool tailed little abomination, as Discord calls young Draconequus.
The last of the little abominations whacked the other upside his head, with his Griffin tail, while two tail observed, "You don't feel like a pony,"
"Like you would know what a pony's aura feels like," wooled serpent commented.
Celestia chuckled, "Actually he's right. I'm a Celestial. I just chose the form of a pony, as they are the ones I interact with the most."
"COOL!" The abominations excitedly screamed, and started talking at once. "A real Celestial!" "Can you make me a new Power Ponies shirt? my old one ripped," "You met a god and you ask her to stitch your shirt!?" "Make it rain Ice cream!" "YAY!" "what's rain?" before they could get their answers, the children suddenly screamed and ran away.
Celestia turned her head, and spotted Discord floating over, in his natural form.
Discord greeted, "It was good of you to come by. Screwball is excited to have visitors," without waiting for a response Discord snapped his fingers.
They appeared in front of a small pink house, on a floating island. Discord calmly knocked on the door and waited patiently. A few moments later, it opened revealing another Discord, and a little purple filly just a few years older then Illusion himself.
The Discord beside the filly gave a predatory grin, but Illusion was pretty sure his daddy didn't know how to smile any other way. "Welcome, we've been expecting you," he opened the door wider and let them in.
Celestia smiled and asked the Discords. "You mind if only one of you stays for dinner. I just have a feeling this will get very confusing, very quickly."
The Discords huffed, and quickly played a game of rock paper scissors, to see who had to leave. They both chose nuke and exploded into confetti, while a third, and now lone, Discord walked out of the kitchen. The children both giggled, at their father's antics, before Discord told them to go upstairs to play.
One Hour Later, plus or minus 3 days, who can really tell here.
"Ahhhhhhhh!" a boot screamed in fear, as it hopped into the room, and fled behind Discord.
"Illusion?" Discord blinked at the screaming boot.
"She's CRAZY!" Insisted the boot.
Screwball huffed, as she calmly walked into the room. "He wasn't playing hide and seek right, so I helped him."
The boot started crying, which thankfully made Screwball flinch. At least she was capable of empathy, even if she didn't understand what was wrong. Discord snapped his fingers, and the boot turned back into Illusion. The 'young' god picked up his still crying son and hugged him tight, giving him comforting pats on his back.
Celestia sighed, "Screwball, we talked about this. You don't turn creatures into things without their permission."
"But he wasn't playing right!" Screwball insisted. "He kept just hiding in obvious places, and wasn't turning into anything!"
Discord rolled his eyes, "He's 3, Screwball. He doesn't know how to shapeshift yet."
Screwball blinked, "Oh... well then he shouldn't have insisted we play hide and seek."
Discord glared at his daughter, "We went over this, mortals play games differently then Draconequus, and Illusion grew up in the mortal world."
"I'm sorry daddy," Screwball insisted, and she actually meant it. She hated that she made her little brother cry.
"I'm afraid sorry isn't good enough," He handed his little abomination over to Celestia and a paddle appeared in his paw. Screwballs eyes turned into literal saucers. "To your room young lady," he ordered and floated behind his nervous daughter.
Screwball was never more relieved in her life, that the paddle was just her daddy's usual over exaggerating nature... but he had used his paw, much too her dismay, lecturing all the while about being mindful about others limitations. Wasn't it enough she felt bad for making her brother cry. Did she really need a spanking to make her feel worse! Her little flank was so sore right now.
She sniffled as she laid in bed. Daddy just left, after giving her the usual post spank snuggles. Then, almost immediately, Illusion floated inside her room, enjoying the lack of gravity, as he hadn't learned to fly yet on his own. He went to his sister. However she just ignored him, refusing to look at him. So she wouldn't see the look of fear on his face, that the other Draconequus children had.
"You okay?"
Screwball blinked at the concerned tone, and dared to look over. There was no fear in her brother's eyes, just worry, "You're not... scared of me?"
Illusion blinked, clearly not understanding why she would even ask that. He shook his head 'no', "Daddy said you were just trying to play big kid games with me, that I'm just too little for. If we play again I promise I won't cry this time!"
Screwball scrunched up her nose, "Maybe you should just teach me the rules to mortal games." The little abomination pouted, but agreed. As Screwball got out of bed, she asked. "So you really aren't scared or mad or anything."
"Daddy says everything is forgiven after a spanking, so there is nothing to be mad about," Illusion insisted.
Screwball smiled, loving her new brother.
"Daddy says I can come play on the Weekends!" Illusion cheered, and Screwball found herself cheering right with him.
However, this sibling bliss didn't last long, as Screwball quickly got annoyed of her little brother constantly following wherever, and always trying to mimic her. It only got worse as they got older.
Well, as Illusion got older. Draconequus don't age like ponies. Even if Celestia really wasn't a pony, her body shared most genetics with a proper Alicorn. So Illusion was half pony, which made him age like a pony.
So it wasn't long before Screwball's little brother, was as old as her, but still following her around and acting like an annoying little brother. He didn't even seem to notice Screwball wasn't aging as fast as himself... which just made Screwball resent him all the more.
She loved her brother's kindness... but really, would it kill him to give her some privacy!