Discord's Reflection
Summary: Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity follow Discord towards the Tree of Harmony and learn of the pain in his heart from his betrayal. The song is the deleted extension from Disney's Mulan, which I don't own but rewritten to fit into the story. I also do not own My Little Pony. If I'm lucky, this songfic might inspire someone to make a video of Discord with the song on Youtube.
DR*~*RD
Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack stayed quiet as they stealthily followed Discord through the Everfree Forest. They had noticed him going into it looking rather down instead of his cheerful/mischievous self and sensed something wrong. Sure, he looked that way when he almost lost his friendship with Fluttershy because of the flood at Sweet Apple Acres…and when Tirek betrayed him and stole his powers…but this time is different. This sort of sadness he's showing looks as though he's about to cry. Something must be up.
It wasn't long before the four Ponies followed Discord to Everfree Castle (their name for the Two Royal Sisters' old castle) and watched him look up at said ruins. He then sighed sadly before looking down into the gorge where the Tree of Harmony stands safely within its cave.
"Twilight and Fluttershy may have forgiven me and accepted me as their friend," he muttered to himself, "but the others never will…not after what I have done." The girls then watched with sudden concern and hurt as he then started singing, still completely unaware of their presence.
(Due to some copyright rule, I had to remove the song. To listen to it while reading this fanfic, please use this address: watch?v=MQR898rb1k8)
Discord then floated slowly down into the gorge, and the four Ponies followed after him via steps, careful not to alarm him. As they did, they couldn't help but feel pain for him. He tried so hard to prove himself as a friend, and all they did was push him away as the enemy. Even Fluttershy, who's like a sister to him as well as his best friend, was ashamed of them. Would things have been different if they had accepted his friendship sooner?
They then followed him as he entered the cave solemnly, stopping at the entrance so as not to alarm the sad Draconequus. In the meantime, he knelt before the Tree of Harmony and gazed grimly at his reflection in its crystalline bark. They can tell because he touched his cheek with a paw before looking away with tears in his eyes shut tightly.
The four Ponies tensed at first when he stood up, afraid that he has sensed their presence. But they relaxed when they saw that he summoned forth a cotton candy cloud. Alongside Discord, they watched a vision on the cloud of Discord flying over Ponyville, and the Ponies below looked up at him with smiles and waved at him like a loving friend. The vision's Discord then landed on the balcony of Twilight's castle and waved happily to the Ponies below before turning to Spike, Twilight, and the other five Bearers of Harmony, who smiled at him and embraced him as he were part of their family.
The cloud then split into more clouds with visions and floated around, forcing him to watch with tears staining his face. Rarity held a dismayed hoof to her trembling lips at the vision of his memory of her rudeness/snobbishness towards his offering to help with her dresses or gem-hunting. Pinkie felt her curls deflate at the vision of his vision of his memory of her telling him to stay away from the twins, even though they were only laughing at the silly faces she was making at them. Rainbow didn't even fight back her tears at the vision of her flying away instead of helping when he was "sick" with the Blue Flu. And Applejack looked away with a wince of pain at the vision of his memory of her ungratefulness to him when he helped her family out with its apple-bucking. They all feel like such disgraces to their Elements.
The clouds then floated around Discord faster, and more tears flowed down his face like a broken faucet. And the more he cried, the more the girls' hearts broke.
The clouds then dissipated into golden dust that slowly floated downward as he fell to his knees once more before turning to his reflection in the Tree of Harmony once again. He can see the tear streaks staining the fur on his face but didn't wipe them away. All he did was look down and let more crestfallen tears fall and splash onto the roots.
When he had finished singing, Discord looked up at the Elements, his frown never leaving his facial features.
"No matter what I do, I only make things worse to make them hate me more," he said to himself out loud for the girls to hear. "Maybe their lives will be a lot better if I were back in stone again. I'm sure the Elements will return to their Tree again once I'm done." As he started to float up to the Element of Magic, fear shot through the girls' hearts like arrows of ice-cold iron. He's going to use the Elements to turn himself into stone!
"NOOOO!" Rainbow shot forward and flew in front of Discord, blocking him from the Elements and catching him by surprise.
"Rainbow? What are you—" He was cut off with a grunt when the speedy Pegasus tackled him to the ground. Discord got up quickly with fear that she's going to pommel him but stopped when he looked down at her. To his surprise, he saw that she's crying into his chest while hugging him tightly.
"Don't do it, Discord!" she sobbed loudly. "Don't turn yourself back into stone! I'm so sorry; your betrayal was all my fault! I should've helped you out when you were 'sick'! Sure, you were faking it, but still! I could've asked Zecora for a remedy to make you better quickly! I should've asked if you wanna hang out! Have an aerial race! Find out who can clear out the most clouds! Pull some funny pranks! Read some Daring Do books! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! Please don't go back to stone!"
Discord would've asked Rainbow to calm down but was cut off by another hug, this time at his side. He turned and saw that it was Pinkie, who's crying like a water fountain.
"I'm sorry too! You weren't doing anything wrong with Pound and Pumpkin; you were just make funny faces to make them laugh! I shouldn't have gotten jealous just because it was my job first!"
"I'm sorry too," Applejack said, coming up to his other side and hugging him with a soft sob. "You were only tryin' to help out at the farm; I should've been grateful."
"So should I when you freely offered to help with my dresses and gems!" Rarity cried, throwing herself onto him next to Rainbow and crying the loudest.
Discord just laid there, frozen in shock at the four Ponies hugging him and crying on him…especially Rainbow Dash. This is the first time he ever saw her cry like this. But now watching her cry…watching all four of them cry like this…It just breaks his heart more then theirs are put together. Wiping away his own tears, he coiled his body around them and wrapped his arms around them to return their hug.
"Shhhh…shhshhshhshh…It's okay, girls. It's okay. I won't turn myself to stone if you don't want me to. Just don't cry anymore…Don't cry…"
The girls kept on crying, but he let them. He knows they'll calm down soon. And he now has no reason to go back to stone since he now knows that they really do love him back.
DR*~*RD
Fluttershy entered her cottage to find her best friend lying on the couch reading while Angel Bunny reclined on his soft, furry lap.
"Discord!" The Draconequus looked up from his book and turned to her with a smile.
"Hey, Fluttershy," he said. "How's it going?" The yellow Pony timidly looked down and traced little circles on the floor with the tip of her front hoof.
"Alright, I guess…except…" She then looked up at him with concern. "Lyra and Bon Bon told me that you were really sad, and I got worried." Discord frowned with concern before smiling at her reassuringly.
"Yeah, I was, but I'm as right as chocolate rain now." He then held a glass under a cotton candy cloud floating beside his head, and it rained chocolate milk into it. Fluttershy smiled with relief as he then took a drink of it, happy too see that he's usual cheerful self.
"That's good to hear; I just want to make sure. Oh, by the way, Rarity wanted you to join us for our little spa date tomorrow afternoon. Um, do you want to come?" Discord was surprised at first at this sudden invitation. But then he remembered her and the other girls' emotional breakdown back at the cave and gave Fluttershy a soft smile.
"Sure, sounds like fun. I've always wanted to try out their sauna and massage special." The little Pegasus' face lit up before she clapped her hooves with delight.
"Wonderful! The spa Ponies always wanted to know how soft your—" She stopped and blinked with confusion when she got a second look at him. "Discord, where did you get those wet spots on you?" Confused, he turned to the four wet spots on his body from where the girls cried on him.
Uh-oh! I forgot to dry them off!
"Uh, I was, uh…working out! Yeah, they're from the sweat I've been working up."
"But only on your chest and sides?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"I, uh…tend to sweat mostly at certain areas when working out."
"Oh," she replied, a sign that she bought it. "Well, you're more than welcome to use my shower if you want, but I'm going to need to take mine first. Is that alright?"
"Oh, yeah, that's fine," Discord replied, holding up his book. "I feel like finishing this chapter in this Daring Do novel at the moment; Rainbow said it's a really good one." Fluttershy smiled in reply before heading upstairs for the bathroom. Once she was gone, he sighed with relief before turning to Angel, who crossed his arms and gave him a disapproving glare.
"Oh, don't look at me like that," he said to him in annoyance. "The last thing I wanna do is upset her again by telling her what really happened! Besides, Rainbow will never forgive me for telling Fluttershy that she was crying like Drama Queen Rarity."
DR*~*RD
"Achoo!" Startled by his owner's sudden sneeze, Tank quickly ducked into his shell.
"Oh, sorry about that, Tank," she sniffed, turning to her tortoise as she rubbed her nose. "I think I got allergies…that, or somepony's gossiping about me."