Author's Note:
( Undergoing Rewrite )
5 Years, into the Space Age.
"You know, you could help," Commented Celestia as she walked over the barren world.
Thanks to the nature of their universe, there was already a Healthy atmosphere, surrounding all of space. However, that didn't mean the massive islands, floating in space, was habitable.
The Clockworks had done their part, making lightyear sized worlds, suitable for life. Now they just needed to alter the landscape, to make it more comfortable. Members of all pony tribes were busy using their unique gifts, to bring life to the planet.
"According to Twilight's calculations," Celestia informed, "it will take nearly a full year, for the terraforming teams to finish their work. Whereas you can just snap your fingers, and poof, all worlds suitable for life,"
Discord rolled his eyes, "Deities are bound by rules and laws, even myself. After all, what is chaos without a hint of order. You False Celestials, may do as you please, but real gods are forbidden from assisting space fairing civilizations. We can interact with individuals, just not interfere with a society's development."
Celestia sighed, "We are busy terraforming these worlds, so the other races will be less dependent on us. So that they can finally start growing their own food, without having to fight against all the chaos magic, that pollutes the soil. They have a harder struggle, without my little ponies raw magical power. Seeing how all that is your fault, you would think you would be more inclined to fix the problem,"
"And strangely I'm not," Discord smugly smiled.
Celestia huffed, "The Equestrian Interplanetary Fleet, is stretched far too thin across the system. I had to issue an emergency order, for all branches of the military, to assist in the Terraforming process. I even had to pull the apprentices out of the military academies, and just give them a quick crash course boot camp, as we are so understaffed.
"You'd think a being, that is millions of years old, would have better patience," Discord waved off.
Celestia sighed, "We cannot risk showing favoritism, or prioritizing one Kingdom above another. They would take it as an insult. We need to have all the islands, completed at the same time. That means having a Terraforming team, on each world."
Discord just shrugged. Then patted Celestia on the head, patronizingly.
"What's a celestial?" Scootaloo asked as she walked over. She had overheard the conversation, but wanted to wait until they were done talking before asking.
Celestia smiled at the young apprentice, not her apprentice, but the teen was working on the Terraforming project, with the rest of Equestria's military. Scootaloo joined Ponyville's space program as soon as she got her cutie mark, much to the pride of her adoptive family. Rainbow was always boasting about her little sister, the space cadet.
Discord waved off, "There are actually 2 kinds of celestials. The real ones, which are lower gods or 'Angels' as some cultures call them. And the Living Planets, that mortals mistake for gods, though they hold no true divinity."
Looking at the older foal Celestia explained, "Think of a brain, the size of a house, floating in space, with the power to control the elements and convert energy into matter. Not the reality warping illusions Discord does, but masters of Alchemy straight from birth. They use that to build themselves a physical shell, usually resembling a large stone ball in space. They continue building layer after layer and after millions of years, that body becomes more and more planet or star like. The oldest of us, sometimes like to change our appearance further, to look like a giant floating head, but regardless of our appearance we are, at our core, one and the same,"
"A huge floating brain?" Scootaloo raised her eyebrow.
"Exactly," Celestia smiled, "That is what I am. I do not control Equestria's sun. I AM the sun. The same as how my sister is the moon. That is why Unicorns once had to manually move me across the sky. I was very stubborn, and liked to stay in one place. So I could watch the ponies of Equus. I didn't understand, why a star, needed to give even amounts of light, across the entire surface of a world. Not until I actually came down here, and realized the problem."
Scootaloo awed before bluntly asking, "If you're some all powerful star... then how come you get your flank kicked so much."
Celestia actually laughed. She really did love being around youths. They had absolutely no filter. "You see, the longer I stay away from my star, the weaker this body gets. Eventually, in about another thousand years or so, this body will die and I will not be able to build another one for a long time."
"Why don't you just go back to your star every now and then?" Scootaloo asked, "You could always come back,"
"No, I couldn't," Celestia informed. "I would have to stay on my star for several years, at a time, to regain my strength. In the beginning I was too fascinated by ponies, and didn't understand my limitations. When I did figure it out, Equestria needed me too much. The three tribes were still recovering, from the war with the Alicorns, and then a flood of enemies kept attacking, one after the other. They believed an opportunity had arrived, now that the Alicorns were gone. I had to stay to fend them off. When things finally settled down, I had inadvertently set myself up, as Equestria's new protector. I knew it would start up all over again, if I left.
"That's why I helped Twilight and Cadence reach their potential, as Alicorns. Why I guided the Mane 6, to prove themselves worthy to the elements of harmony, and become champions to our Equus. I did all this, so that I can one day leave, knowing my beloved ponies would be looked after until I can return... but even after I retired, I found it hard to resist interacting with my little ponies... So I tend to leave my Celestial body, far more often then I should."
Scootaloo gaped, "Seriously!? You mean you don't just hand out wings to ponies!? You actually had a plan!?"
Celestia chuckled, "I couldn't just give anypony wings, even if I wanted to. I mean... I guess I could, but then they would just have wings, and not the powers of an Alicorn.
"Cadence became an Alicorn, through her own merit, and I realized I could guide her. So she could become a much more just ruler, then those of the first Alicorn Dynasty. Then I met Twilight, and saw such raw power and potential.
"I guided her to a place of self enlightenment, but in the end all I did was give her the tools and experience, she needed to earn it. At it's core, all I did was provide her the opportunity, she ascended on her own merits. Neither of them will ever have the raw power of myself or Discord, but they will live a good 2500 years. Ff nothing bad happens. That's a nearly 5 times as long as you ponies live,"
Scootaloo blushed and defended, "I'm an apprentice now! I know basic math!"
"SCOOTALOO!" The filly flinched as she looked over at the Commander of her unit. The Clockwork mare stomped over, looking all kinds of furious. The little screen on her chest showing an Angry emoji. "Stop bothering the Princess, and get back to work."
"I'm not bothering her," Scootaloo insisted only to receive a solid SMACK to her flank and a "Get," The older filly ran off to rejoin her team of cloud manufacturers.
The screen changed to a disapproving emoji, as the Clockwork stared at Celestia, "Your majesty, I appreciate your help in overseeing the work force, but PLEASE stop distracting the apprentices. Kindly wait until their breaks before playing with them,"
"Forgive an old mare," Celestia smiled.
The Commander sighed, before going back to work herself.
Discord smiled, watching on in amusement, at all of this. "You're a celestial and a former matriarch. Why you encourage them to speak to you so, I will never know."
Celestia eyed him, "I think you already do. I act as a guide to my ponies, not a dictator. It's the very reason I created the Senate to keep me in check. I love them and want them to love me in return. You long since realized you can't act selfishly if you expect them to love you back."
Discord sighed, "You always were better at understanding mortals then I."
"... How's Screwball?" Celestia dared to asked.
Discord sighed, "Fine as she ever is. Running around, trying to play with the other Draconequus, only for them to run in fear of her, but that's better then her running in fear of mortals... I worry about her. That little journal you gave her and Spike, is probably her only link to a friend, and they have never actually met each other in person. They are nothing more then interdimensional penpals."
"What exactly are you worried about?" Celestia asked.
Discord sighed, but stayed quiet for several moments. He usually didn't open up to anyone, outside Fluttershy. "That she'll turn out exactly like me..."
Celestia didn't say anything back, just looked at the ancient Draconequus expectantly... so he continued, "I see so much of myself in her: Angry... scared, but covering it all up in an air of false confidence with a dash of a superiority complex... all to hide her loneliness...
"She even has a similar Origin to my own... created as a tool more then a person, not given a second's hesitation about the implications... I was no better then Starswirl when I created her... Father like daughter I suppose..."
"I try to be a supportive parent, now, but she needs more then that... I fear that... she will fall into the same traps I did... Spike is her only safeguard from that... and she is still too terrified, to put a hoof into the mortal plane to visit him.
"I always invite her, to come with me to play Ogres and Ooblets, with the guys. You know, give her a safe place where she can express her powers without fear of judgment, but she refuses. The Draconequus won't play with her. They fear her too much, again my fault.
"I created the Draconequus, for no other reason then to ease my loneliness and cap my boredom... same reason I created her... but I didn't actually give a damn about any of them... they were playthings..." Discord slumped in shame. "It was through watching her in the garden, when I was once again trapped in that stone body, that I got to see her as more. Her coming to me every day. Talking to me... telling me about her day... seeing the looks of hate and fear your castle staff had for her... I saw my life playing out all over again, I doomed her to that... at least I had you and Luna growing up... no matter how it ended."
Discord was a young god, a physical representation of chaos itself, crafted out of the void by Starswirl. He was given life trillions of years ago, although it had only been a little over a thousand from the ponies perspective. Time really was irrelevant to a god.
Starswirl gave sentience to a concept, and through that Discord was born. The old Stallion proceeded to raise him, along side the Celestial sisters, when they finally figured out how to project themselves, beyond their orbs in the sky.
Their first bodies, the three of them ever built, were small and childlike. They grewup eventually, of course, but it took a few extra decades. Starswirl saw what they all were, and educated them, trained them. They were his champions for the light... his weapons...
The ponies loved Celestia, if she had not chosen to become a star, then her heat never would have brought life to their planet... they tolerated Luna, as she was just kinda there in the eyes of Starswirl's castle staff... Discord... they outright hated.
He was a freak to look at and an annoying prankster... admittedly he didn't know the difference between a playful prank and a malicious one. He always had trouble connecting to mortals. He was an entity, a physical manifestation of one of nature's concepts. He didn't think, or even feel, the way mortals do, and still had trouble understanding them. They were just more accepting of that now.
"Have you spoken with Starswirl?" Celestia asked, "He's just been idly roaming Equestria since his return... I'm sure he would like to see you,"
"No... he wouldn't," Discord sighed. "We were just weapons to him. Tools to help him defeat the Alicorn Dynasty... he never cared for any of us."
"That's not true," Celestia insisted. "He loved us, in his own way." She put a caring hoof on the first of the Draconequus, "He loved you to. He would be proud to see how far you've come."
Discord looked away, "And horrified by what I did in his absence."
Celestia nervously bit her lip, but managed to build up the courage, to say what she wanted to for years, "Discord... I realize it might be too late but... I am truly sorry for what I did."
"You had no choice, I nearly destroyed your island world. I did destroy it, if you count corrupting it to the point it became frozen in place. As you said, your ponies have to manually control nature itself just for it to function... I understand why you had to-"
"That isn't what I'm apologizing for," Celestia backtracked. "It's not like being turned to stone, was anything more then an inconvenience for you."
Discord smirked in acknowledgment.
Celestia sighed, "What I mean to say is... I... I never should have rejected you. You were a child like me. Maybe not exactly like me, but you understood better then anypony, what it was like being a lonely entity among mortals. I should have stood beside you, defended you against the foals that threw stones at you."
"You were never one of them," Discord dismissed.
"But I am at fault for why you felt so isolated. All I had to do was invite you to play with me... I'm sorry... It really was all my fault. I was so wrapped up in myself that I didn't see... no I saw... I just didn't care. After losing you... and then Luna... I realized the problem was me, and strived to be better."
"I think you succeeded," assured Discord.
"I think we both did."