The Rise Of Discord

Chapter 1: Rock Slide

Tumble looked over the cliff edge, down at the natural 'slide'. He gulped.

"Tumble no..." he paused, thinking. "Tumble not... Tumble doesn't like."

Bay laughed, but it wasn't a cruel sound. "'I don't like this'."

"'I don't like this.'" Tumble repeated carefully. He backed away from the edge, standing up on his tail. "I don't like this!"

"Come on, Tumble!" Bay levitated two large, flat stones, holding them right at the top of the slope. "It'll be fun."

"Said same last time." Tumble muttered, reluctantly balancing on one of the stones and Bay did the same with the other. "Still finding thorns in fur..."

"1... 2... 3..." Bay grinned, releasing his magic hold on their makeshift sleds. "Go!"

Tumble screamed, but he couldn't decide whether it was fear or excitement, as he zoomed down the Ricky ground. Bay was easily steering his stone, twisting his whole body one way then another, and Tumble did his best to copy him.

It was harder than it looked. He went careening into the woods, tree branches hitting his face and leaving things in his mane, before shooting off a much steeper cliff.

He could feel himself tumbling through the air, too fast to get his wings open, little good they would've done at this point. He crashed into a river, his heavy stone sled crashing on top of him and pinning him to the riverbed.

He stayed like that for hours, waiting for Bay to find a safe way down and get to him, watching fish swim around him. It was peaceful, really.

"Tumble? Tu- Oh by Sol!" Bay's voice, half-garbled by the river, broke Tumble out of his calm daze. Mint green magic lifted the stone slab out of the water, allowing Tumble to swim back to shore.

"Tank you." Tumble remembered the manners Ms Grace had taught him, shaking the water and mud out of his fur. He found Bay staring at him. "Wha?"

"How long were you even down there? How did you not drown?" Bay looked over his friend critically,focusing mostly on his eyes and neck. "Why do you look all... Fishy?"

Tumble blinked, the thin film that had protected his eyes already gone, and felt around his neck for gills that had almost entirely retreated. He shrugged, webs disappearing from his hands. "Magic not controlled, still nice to Tumble. Make I not drown, or freeze, or all burned."

"So your magic just changes you so you don't die, whether you tell it to or not?" Bay shook his head, chuckling. "T, that's soo cool! I wish mine would do that."

Tumble shrugged again, though he was a little confused. That's just what magic did when it liked you, and surely Bay's magic liked him? How could anything not like Bay, after all? He grabbed his stone slab with his tail, starting to drag it back up the mountain.

"W-what are you doing?!" Bay yelled, trotting to keep up with him- oh, did he teleport a little? Oops. "You want to go again?"

"Yesssss." Tumble stuck out his not-previously-forked-but-was-right-then tongue, tilting his head. "Bay doesn't?"

"'You don't?'." The young unicorn corrected absently. "And I sorta do, but how can you? You were stuck for who-knows-how-long!"

Tumble hummed, thinking through his reasons,though it was difficult. He never used to need an explanation for his whims, not even to himself, but he'd try for his friend. "It... Fun. Tum- I had fun. Want go again, play with Bay. You. Fun."

There, fun was a good reason, right? But something occured to him, and he quickly added, "But ride together. If I falls, fine and safe. If you falls, not fine unless I there to helping."

"I... That's really sweet." Bay chuckled, levitating his own slab and following his friend up the mountain. "But first, we are fixing that sentence. Okay, it's 'fall', not 'falls', because you're talking about..."

Tumble nodded along, only hearing about half of what the other said, and understanding even less. It was a nice day, too nice to really think about things like grammar or safety or getting up the mountain without blowing anything up.

But for Bay? He'd just have to try.