The Captive of Discord

      End of the day. The sun is going down. In its crimson rays, a large tree rustles its leaves, surrounded by a large lattice fence. At the very roots, covered with a small canopy, lay a photograph of a beautiful woman, a vase with buttercups and a small rag doll. In front of all these objects stood our familiar circus performers: Smooze, on whose face there was no longer that sweet smile, and Discord, with an even more gloomy face than usual. The magician was holding his hat in his hands, leaving his horns open, which, as are aware, he usually hides. Smooze looked at his friend nervously and anxiously. "She was dear to you." "Yes," Discord replied after a couple of seconds of silence. "And she treasured you, too. "Yes..." "And she would deffinetely not be proud of you if she found out." "...yes." "She'd think you were overreacting. I think so too...," Discord looked at Smooze so frowningly that he fell silent from fright. "She saw too much," the magician turned his head back, "Mom tried her best to keep my secret so that I would be happy. Shutterfly could ruin all her hard work." "Fluttershy." "Ah, whatever." "Tho you know... she could hardly tell anyone. Especially after what she saw." "You're too naive, old friend. All humans are the same. And my mother wasn't human," Discord got down on one knee and touched the frame of the photo with his hand, "She was an angel. The best angel ever..." "Even so, friend. She'd like you to give that poor girl a second chance. And apologize," Smoothie added sternly. Discord shuddered. "You sound just like him." "You think it is my fault?" "Kind of," Discord got up, putting on his hat again, "Let's go. It's time for us to go home. Bye, Mom..."       Our duo was about to leave, when suddenly puffy noticed Twilight walking in their direction. Discord was just closing the gate behind him. "Erm. Bro?" "What have I told you?" "Ahem! Bro-ther." "Gah, what is it this time?"       Discord turned around and also saw Twilight. The mood instantly zeroed out. Twi quickly walked towards him and stopped at a distance of half a meter. "There you are, buckface!" "Language, young lady." "It's not up to that now! I know you're lying. I saw you talking to that green bun! And I know who you were talking about!" "His name is Smooze, just so you know," Dee snorted, annoyed, "And I've been telling you for the umpteenth time, I had nothing to do with it. I haven't seen her since that day and may never see her aga-..." "Again we've met!" it was suddenly heard from the side. Everyone turned around. It was a rather tall, muscular man with dark red skin, a white, pointed beard, wearing a black tank top and black wide trousers that seemed tight on him. On his head was a shock of hair combed up, at the same time resembling a mohawk, in the septum of the nose there was a huge metal ring, and on his face there was a nasty grin. "Discord! Long time no seen!" "Tirek," Discord said grimly, "Why are you here?" "Come on, Dee, you're hurting me," Tirek "lightly" tapped the magician on the shoulder, from which the magician's face was distorted from obvious pain, "As if you don't want to see an old friend anymore." "We're not friends. And we never were." "Come on. You understand it yourself I'm was not in that business," the giant grinned, "You're voluntarily. Agreed. To all of this." "Do you know him??" Twilight's surprised voice was heard, to which both men paid attention. The jock grinned. "Is that one yours? Or was she adopted by you and this fat junk?" He poked Smooze right in the belly. "First of all," Discord took Tirek's hand away from Smooze, "it's none of your bucking business. And secondly, you're the one to talk, you hell of a conqueror, dating bug-Lilith who adopted an impling."       Unexpectedly for Twi and Smoothie, Tirek grabbed Discord by the collar, pulling him slightly towards him, making them very nervous. On the magician's face, not a single vein twitched. "I see you haven't been beaten for a long time. Do you want me to remind you what it's like, hmm? I actualy can remind ya." "Do it," Discord said confidently. "Wait, what?" "Do it, hit me. But keep in mind, if you touch Smooze or this girl after that, I will send you to the very depths of Tartarus with only a wave of my hand. Believe me. I can still do that," on the last sentence, his eyes glittered angrily. The giant was clearly uncomfortable. Hesitating for about another minute, he released the magician and silently left. The trio stared after him for a long time. "So... do you know him?" Twi asked. "This is Tirek. The son of an old friend of my father. Bfh! Terribly vulgar type. He's dating a non-native woman, Chrysalis, if I remember correctly. And they have an adopted daughter, Cozy Glow. Little devil in the flesh." "Have you been like this with him for a long time..?" "Like what?" "Well, fighting." "Every time we see each other. But it all happened because of him," Discord looked at the sun setting over the horizon, "I was still completely dependent on life with my father at that time. Tirek persuaded me to break into a shop nearby and steal something "not valuable" from there. As you could understand, I was caught and taken to my father. And then..."       Discord was silent for a while. At that moment, all the memories of the very day that became decisive in his relationship with Tirek were rushing through his head. "Although... forget it. You must not be interested in listening to the old magician's rant, especially since it's time for you to go home." "No, no! It... It's alright. Sorry about that. I treated you.. too biased. " "Still, it's getting late. The night is coming," the magician remarked, "You can't go home alone at such a late time, especially when Tirek is in the vicinity. Let me walk you home."       For the next few minutes, Twilight and Discord, along with Smooze, walked together to her house and chatted. They shared some of their interests, were surprised by some facts about each other. The girl has already discarded all her suspicions about him during this time, even the magician himself promised to add "something that she will definitely like" to his performance the next day. Dusk has come. So, they walked together to a building that strongly resembled a tree. In truth, it was a tree, arranged as a building. "Oh, the Golden Oak Library! It's a great place, my mom and I used to come here from time to time. Is this your home?" "Yes," Twilight nodded, "I live here. By the way, before I leave. That day, not only my friend disappeared, but also something... valuable for one of them. I'm not hinting at anything, but maybe you've seen it? A necklace," Twi ran her fingers along the lines at her neck, as if showing a chain. "The necklace? Shiny one?" "Um, what else could a necklace be?" "Smooooze?" Discord slowly turned his head to Smoothie, in a creepy way, and stared at him as if demanding to return the stolen. Puffy hesitated, pointing his index fingers at each other. Attention, this scene can cause terrible disgust and a gag reflex. Put your food away immediately! But then he exhaled, tapped himself several times on the chest, coughed(well, like, really hard) and then the necklace that we were talking about came out of his mouth. Discord jumped away from his friend in disgust. "Smooze, damn it!" "Sorry," Smoothie said sheepishly, handing Twilight the necklace after wrapping it in a napkin. "Sweet Faust, you will bring me to my grave ahead of time. And it's too early for me, the fiftieth year, the peak of youth!" when he said that, Twi could barely contain her laughter, "Forgive him, he has a weird craving for shiny things. Well, you see how weird it is." "It's okay, I'm aware of such phenomena. Well. I have to go. See you, heehee, great magician Strife," the girl opened the door to her house. The magician smiled. "See you later, future princess. Smoothie, bro, let's go."       The two "brothers" are gone. Twilight closed the door behind her and went to bed, but she managed to take only a couple of steps up to her bedroom, when suddenly she stopped. "Wait a minute... His name is Discord?!"

***

      Discord and Smuz have just returned home. As always, Dee ordered him to get ready for bed, and he went to his room with a large trunk. When he got there, he looked around and his gaze fell on the very glass orb on the bedside table, because of which there was that very commotion. The orb that contained his memories. Memories of why he became the way he is now. And those that you and Fluttershy have seen are not all that is inside this sphere.       Speaking of Fluttershy. Discord, after making sure that the orb was safe and sound, opened the chest and went down to the basement. By the way, it seemed to him that it was somehow suspiciously quiet there. Here's the door. Opening it, he found Fluttershy sitting on her lap, with a tear-stained face and a phone in her hand. The magician came closer. "I'm back. Haven't had time to do anything bad yet?"       In response, silence. "Do you hear me? I'm talking to you," Discord sat down on the mattress behind her. His gaze fell on the phone screen and, to his surprise, he found there a photo of two adults - a man and a woman - and two children - a little boy and a not so little girl. The woman was wearing a light dress with flowers and a pink shawl on her shoulders. Her face was adorned with green, square-shaped glasses, yellow pearl beads on her neck and round yellow pearl earrings on her earlobes. The man was wearing a blue sweater and dark green pants, and had a funny mustache on his face. The boy didn't go far from his father and he was wearing a similar sweater, which was obviously too big for him, and the boy himself was held by a girl in a yellow dress, whose long bangs hid her right eye. In the photo, everyone looked so happy. Discord immediately recognized Fluttershy in that little girl. He looked at her in surprise. "That's... your family?"       Flutty didn't say anything. Her hand was shaking, and tears were dripping onto the phone screen. "Hey, hey, calm down," Dee took her by the shoulders, "Don't cry..."       The girl suddenly, sobbing, turned to him and cuddled him, burying her face in his chest. Discord flinched at this turn, still looking at her in surprise. Fluttershy sobbed intermittently, throwing all her emotions out. For some reason, the only one who could help her cope with these emotions was Discord, who came just in time. He looked at the poor thing in bewilderment before his hands slowly closed on her back in an embrace. "For some reason," he thought, "I still remember how to hug. How so?" He gently pressed the sobbing girl to him, trying to calm her down as best he could. All these emotions and tears greatly exhausted Fluttershy, so she soon fell asleep, not letting go of her only support. There was silence. Discord stared at the sleeping Flutty, not saying a word. After about a minute, he wiped the remaining tears from her face and stood up, holding her in his arms. "You deserve more than a life in thit basement in tears, sweetheart..."