Challenges
It had been a hectic time over Ponyville ever since Discord was 'willingly' released from his spell by the Mane Six, under Celestia's orders, in order to be reformed by none other than Fluttershy.
During this time, Discord tried to manipulate Fluttershy like a fool. He bullied her pet, ate contents of books from Twilight's library home, spun Fluttershy's cottage off the ground, made everyone (yes, everyone. Including Fluttershy's own pet rabbit, whatever the annoying furball was called-yes, Angel) question Fluttershy's capability to follow the princess' orders, tried to turn Fluttershy against her own friends, and eventually made beavers flood Sweet Apple Acres, which he later later froze in a showdown against the Mane Six, particularly against Fluttershy.
Eventually, though, Fluttershy and her never-failing display of kindness and friendship to Discord got the better of the Master of Chaos. After returning everything that he had altered to normal, Discord finally agreed to use his magic for good, in front of everypony at Ponyville, including Princess Celestia.
Celestia smiled as she looked at the Mane Six. "Congratulations on your success, ponies. I definitely sense a big change in Discord." Don't think I will not take precautions, though, Discord.
She leaned closer to Twilight to cautiously whisper her instructions. "I'll leave the Elements of Harmony with you, Twilight. Just in case."
Twilight nodded with a serious expression. She was actually thinking of pretty much the same thing, but was glad the Princess spoke before her.
Discord blinked and frowned a bit as he stared forward. Well, I'll be. Even now-
Twilight smiled confidently as she proceeded to explain what she had learned from the whole eventful assignment. "You were right when you said Fluttershy would be the one to find the way to reform Discord. By treating Discord as a friend, she got him to realize that friendship was actually important to him. And something that, once he had, he didn't want to lose."
Celestia nodded as her student spoke. She felt a sting in her heart as she remembered how Discord had finally been defeated, apparently once and for all. It had been the ultimatum that he was confronted with by Fluttershy, the one friend he'd ever had.
She sighed almost imperceptibly and set the thought aside, as well as her slight resentment at the idea that she and her sister were apparently not good enough back then to reform Discord themselves.
She gave Fluttershy a happy smile as the timid pegasus walked over to Discord.
Fluttershy looked at the draconequus encouragingly. "Go on. Say it."
Discord sighed and responded unwillingly. "Oh, alright... Friendship is magic" He muttered quickly, feeling embarrassed as he glanced around.
Fluttershy smiled with satisfaction and held his lion paw. "He can be such a sweetheart once you get to know him."
The others simply stood awkwardly for a while as they witnessed the unlikely and unsettling scene before them. It was still quite a bit to take in, despite Discord's public, and seemingly sincere, reformation.
After a few minutes of required conversation with the ponies of Ponyville, Celestia was finally able to get back to the Mane Six and Discord. My, it sure took a while to reassure them all... But I can't blame them. Even with Fluttershy's success, I have a feeling Discord will be...
She watched as Discord appeared a cloud of cotton candy over Pinkie Pie. Upon her request, and Fluttershy's approval, Discord snapped his fingers and made chocolate milk rain over the pink earth pony.
To everypony's surprise, Pinkie Pie was suddenly covered in all kinds of pies that also fell from the cotton candy cloud. It made them all gasp as they stared at the scene with alarm.
However, after a few seconds, Pinkie Pie popped out of the pile of pies, licking herself with joy. "That was great! Discord, Discord, you gotta make it rain pies more often!"
Discord then laughed along with Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and everypony else that dared laugh with them.
...Discord. Celestia shook her head and looked down at Twilight. "Well, Twilight, this will be it for me. I best be making my way back to Canterlot. I do wish you all the best of luck."
Twilight smiled and bowed her head. "Thank you, Princess, for giving us this chance."
Celestia shook her head and kindly put her hoof on the unicorn's shoulder. "Not at all. Thank you all for your efforts. I knew I could count on you to do a greater good for all of Equestria."
She walked away from them, towards her chariot. And for us... For us all. She boarded her chariot to get back to the palace as she stared down at the town one last time. I wasn't wrong, Master Starswirl. Thank you for your wise words. My kingdom is safe once again... Perhaps things will be better than they ever will... With time indeed. I look forward to it very much.
A few days after his public reformation announcement, Discord made his way over to Ponyville again. He didn't have anywhere else to be, and he did have plenty of things bothering him. He wanted to speak to Celestia, but he wasn't sure how. The... incident, of a couple days back had not left him much hopes of handling things on his own well.
He sighed and scratched his head. "Well, it's hardly my fault things ended up so badly, is it...? She's just too stubborn, she'sthe one who refused. And boy, did she..." Discord muttered as he rubbed his still sore neck. He winced when his headache picked up again.
~~~
He had appeared at the castle, as if nothing had happened at all. Not in a thousand years, not a few years ago, not a few days ago. He wanted to make things right, and he believed that paying a friendly, unannounced visit to the princesses would do just that. He had no idea why he kept getting an odd, uncomfortable feeling of deja vu. However, he disregarded it, as he did everything else that might be reason.
He smirked as he floated over the castle and managed to scare every servant that caught sight of him. Ah, how he loved doing that still. It brought some of the good, old fun back. The kind of fun that wasn't considered 'inappropriate', though, of course. No harm in giving a pony or two a scare, was there?
He sighed and looked up at the doors of the room that he had headed for. It was a room that he had seen plenty of times in the past. He was about to knock on the door, but figured the occasion did not call for it. He was never one to consider such awfully burdensome manners, anyway. If he wanted to enter someplace, he just went ahead and did it. None of that would change, it had no reason to.
Discord opened the room and peered in. His chaotic, unpredictable nature grimaced at the sight of the tidy, welcoming room that had most likely remained like this for centuries on end. It had barely changed one bit since he had been in there, more than a thousand years ago, in order to put a weakened Celestia to bed after a gruesome battle with King Sombra and Queen Chrysalis.
His heart ached just a bit as he reminisced at the memories, but he quickly pushed them out of his mind. He didn't want an excuse to fail in his goal. He would talk to Celestia and set things right in his good, usual, humorous way. Things would end up dandy, he was sure of it.
Celestia jumped a bit at the popping sound of Discord's all too familiar apparition abilities. "Discord." She rolled her eyes and put away the scrolls that she was working on to give him her undivided attention.
She raised an eyebrow as he floated in the air. He looked downright comfortable, like he properly belonged in the room, and was 'just paying a quaint visit to an old pal'. "What are you doing here?"
Discord smiled at her as he turned over in the air. "Oh, just paying a quaint visit to an old pal, is all."
Celestia sighed at the response that he had given her, predictable for once. She had a great urge to turn away from him, but she convinced herself that Discord was no longer the same mocking, cutting creature he was before. He had changed. No thanks to her, but he had changed.
That made him deserving of her whole attention, apparently. But, did it count if he popped into the princess' room like it was already his in the first place? She would lose no opportunity to use this against him and rid herself of the task of dealing with him, thus end up trying in vain to fix the rest of her ruined afternoon.
She gave him a look as she tilted her head aside. "You know, it's not proper to just appear in the princess' room. The guards would get you for this. You must request for an audience, like everypony else. Or at the very least wait downstairs until I go down to meet you."
"Ah, well, I'm not like anypony else, am I? You can definitely make an exception for me, right?" Discord smiled as he watched her pace uncomfortably around the room.
"Wrong." Celestia answered as-a-matter-of-factly. Suddenly she really wanted to get back to those boring inventory stocks...
Discord let out an unamused sigh at the princess' boring disposition. But he was actually far from discouraged. He smirked and floated around her. "I wanted to have a little talk with you, Celestia. About something important."
"Oh, Discord, no. Not that."
Discord shrugged. "What?"
"The last time we talked about 'something important', it didn't do well to either of our prides. Let's just drop things when they're still at a level where they can be dropped and forget we saw each other here-"
"But don't you know? I just love challenges, and this is a perfect one!" He tried to hide his nervousness behind the very cockiness that he knew annoyed Celestia. He knew it annoyed her because, deep inside, she still loved it. That had to be the reason, and that in itself gave him a good deal of confidence.
She gave him a look. "If you're not going to speak seriously, I'm through. I have a lot of work to get to." Forget giving him undivided attention, she grumbled in her mind.
Okay, where was that scroll thing she had to get through? She wanted it now, like some precious, cherished medicine that was sure to ward off a terrible, most unwanted migraine. She was absolutely sure that was what the conversation would turn into, sooner or later.
Discord held her close by the shoulders. Now it was leaning more towards the 'sooner'. "Listen, what I want to talk about isimportant and probably plenty of work in itself, you know. Surely you can set those things aside for a minute or two. It would be nice of you to spare a bit of time and dedicate your attention to..."
Celestia raised an eyebrow and let out a weary sigh before she turned back to him. "Discord, just what do you want already...?"
"Nngh..." He stretched in the air. "Well... I want to discuss the things that I will be partaking in, given my apparent stay in Equestria. What I will be assigned and tasked with, from now on."
For my sun, this will be more tedious than I thought. "Seriously?"
"Oh, yes, there's one important part of my query that I simply must get to."
"Well, if it's about where you will be staying, I can already tell you, it will be anywhere but here. The castle is still off limits to you."
Discord pouted and spoke with sarcastic disappointment. "Aww, that's not fair! It sure doesn't seem off limits to basically anypony else that decides to come here whenever they want."
"You know better than anypony what your current situation is." She didn't look at him as she answered him. Instead, she ordered a stack of papers that he had pushed all over her desk. "Now, if you're finished-"
"Oh, now you're going to limit my progress in my already difficult journey of change by throwing my 'situation' right on my face? Such frustration for my kind-hearted efforts. You know, that's not very nice of you, Celestia. How can I advance in my reformation if you will deny me the chance to prove I have changed for the better?"
He raised an eyebrow and smiled a little. "Instead, you continuously deny and remind me of how I did this horrible thing and that awful spat... I can't handle that, princess. I need something to work here that are not your bitter accusations and resentful reminders. A bitter soul helps no one, so don't harbor dark feelings. Let all be forgiven, allow me to prove Fluttershy's help did help."
"There will be plenty of opportunities for you to prove your change. Just not here. Not now. Not with me. I'm not interested in dealing with that yet."
"But that's not even what I wanted to talk about! If there's one thing I don't need to worry about, it's a place to stay. You need to be more attentive. For a princess, you don't know how to listen very well."
She gave him a 'just get it over with' look. She sat down on one of the pillows on the floor to listen..
He grinned once she was comfortable. He cleared his throat and took on a solemn expression. "Celestia, I want to be direct and absolutely frank with you. I came to talk about us."
Sweet alicorn twilight. That was what she had been dreading all along. She knew it would come to that. Just why in the name of everything that touched her beloved sunlight did he of all have talk to her about that?
She just would not have it, she definitely knew it was not going to end well for either of them. It certainly hadn't last time. She did not want to ruin her afternoon and pleasant sunshine with another argument.
That last argument between them had been terribly exhausting and draining, and not because she had sent so many hundreds of letters consecutively before, while, and after their... conversation (if one could call emotionally cutting one another a 'conversation') occurred.
She tried to start a reasonable plea, to talk him out of his insane occurrence. "Discord... Listen..."
"I now know that the things that I did were not right. But I'm willing to make up for them, see. I want to do something nice once in awhile. To bring just minor chaos. I want to behave well, just like I said earlier. Most of the time, of course. That would more than make up for the situation I put myself in all that time ago!"
As Discord floated around her, Celestia gave her a suspicious look.
"Trust me, you being as adorably easy to tease as you are certainly does make up for the situation YOU put yourself in with me." He continued to annoy her by continuously appearing everywhere she turned to in order to not face him. He spoke in the most casual of manners.
Celestia let out an irritated sigh. "What situation?"
"Oh, you know, just a bit of a trifle, nothing much. Turning me to stone, maybe? Twice, perhaps? For a total of... I'd say... one thousand, three-hundred and one years, to be exact? Not much, really."
"Discord, you know very well that you brought that up on yourself."
"Which brings us back to my original subject, my dear! Putting all that past behind us, letting bygones be bygones. I certainly am willing to do so. C'mon, surely you want to give this a try?" He sat on her table as he looked at her expectantly.
She stepped back from him. "Why would I?"
"Oh, because I know you felt the same thing I felt those many years ago, Tia, that's why. Things like that just can't be pushed away, can they? No, absolutely not. You obviously have not. Have you, Tia?"
She tried her hardest to speak patiently as he smirked at her. "Discord. I've asked you many times before to not call me that. I don't like to repeat myself eith-"
"But, Tia, it's just a fond nickname that I have for you! Rather lovely, so memorable!"
Memorable her gold-plated, well-cared for hoof. "Well, I don't like it."
"Come on... Why won't you even consider giving this a chance? I turned... Well, what you would call good, you know. Perhaps..." He muttered the last part as he looked away before he hesitated. It was his pause that made her look back at him.
He smiled and appeared underneath her, right on the carpet. He nearly made her jump and fly in the air as he spoke again. "Maybe I did it for you."
Celestia shook her head as she stepped off the carpet. "Please don't insult my intelligence, Discord. I know for a fact you didn't do it for me. You did it for Fluttershy. The one friend you've ever had."
"Well, she was completely friendly, what did you want me to say? That pony could be the brightest one I've ever met! Who knew she could whip up something like that?" Discord let out an annoyed sigh as he grumbled. "Element of Manipulation, that's what she ought to be..."
He looked aside and smiled as he saw the solid gold perch that rested in a corner of her room. "I see you still have the lovely phoenix."
"What else do you want?"
"I came to acquire your agreement and consent."
She raised an eyebrow. "Have you, now?"
Discord smirked as he followed Celestia around the room. He waved his claw and showed her a bouquet of flowers. "I've brought flowers."
She didn't look at him as she ordered things in her room. "Are you bartering?"
Discord smiled casually. "The lady likes flowers."
"I don't barter."
"Snacks for your phoenix?"
"Her name is Philomina. And no."
"Massage?"
She stepped away from him before he even got a chance to touch her. "No."
"Royal paperwork to get done?"
Celestia rubbed her head with her hoof. He's getting tiresome. "Are you done now, Discord? You're starting to give me a headache."
"Oh, I'm far from done! And you know what? I'm not leaving until you and I have made up." He appeared on her sofa and folded his arms.
She lowered her head a bit as she tried to calm down and remain level-headed. "We already made up. As a citizen, you have my full forgiveness, respect and support. There. It's done. Now, can you please, kindly-"
He gave her a look. "Don't play with words, Celestia, that's one of my favorite games. And certainly don't mock us, you know that's not what I meant."
"Discord! I really don't want to talk about this!"
"Ah, there you go. There it is, your denial, once again..."
He really was getting to her. Again. "What?!"
"You're in denial, my dear. You just can't accept the fact that these are the perfect circumstances for you and I to finally end up together and finish what we started all those years ago." He stood up from the couch and looked at her quite smugly.
"And just what did we start, exactly?!"
He answered quite casually. "Our beautiful, interesting relationship, of course."
Beautiful... Interesting-what?! Oh no, he didn't. She glared at him as she blushed a bit. "Discord!"
"I know it's shocking, since I have come to claim what is rightfully mine so soon. But dear, I kind of sealed that fate for myself the moment I kissed you right before you turned me to stone. I put it on 'layaway', is all. I was bound to claim my treasure sooner or later. Your little pony Elements just didn't give me a chance to do it sooner, and neither did you." He held her face with his paw. "Maybe you were afraid."
She glared at him warningly. "Whatever nonsense it is you're talking about, you better stop it and get out right now! I'm not joking!"
"Oh, Tia, I didn't know that you could be so dense!" He lowered his hands in front of him in a cautious manner. "I came in peace, to take you as a partner, and to have this... Seeing as the last one didn't leave quite a satisfactory feeling."
"What are you...!"
He held her face in his claw and paw, then kissed her, much to her shocked surprise.
She opened her eyes wide and blushed a bright red. She then stepped aside after he finally allowed her to get away from him. "D-Discord..."
Discord's following statement was really the last straw for her patience. "Oh, that was so much better!" He leaned in front of her. "So I take it you and I are fine now, nothing happened, it's alright and-" He couldn't finish as Celestia's horn started to glow.
"OUT!" Celestia screamed as her magic surrounded Discord and propelled him out of the room.
He landed right against and into the opposite end of the hall, in a manner that would have made Pinkie Pie burst out in laughter, had she been there.
As a matter of fact, Luna could barely keep herself from chuckling after she was startled by the comical expulsion Discord was subjected to. She raised an eyebrow and approached her former best friend, whom she found herself slowly warming up to, despite herself. "Well... That definitely was not the best approach..." She looked at the cracked wall.
"...You think?" Discord muttered with a muffled voice, as his head was still buried in the marble wall.
Discord shook his head to free himself of the memory of that awful attempt. 'Awful' didn't cover it. It had all gone catastrophically wrong. But it was Discord. Obviously he would not admit that he was in the wrong.
"My attempt had been perfect! That uptight, bitter Celestia. My conversation topics were awful in the positive end of the word! They were so chaotic that I was completely impressed myself! She just doesn't know how to have a good deal of fun, and read well into messages and words."
He looked around and sighed as he looked at the place of Ponyville where he ended up after much wandering in the air. "Hmm..."
A tree library, home to a certain pale mulberry-colored unicorn that he loved to annoy, but wasn't sure how to talk to in any other kind of way. He took a deep breath and got it over with, appearing inside of the tree. Apparently he had not learned from his mistakes.
Twilight looked up as she was startled from her reading. She immediately sighed with annoyance when she saw him floating above her. "...Hello, Discord."
"Why, hello, Twilight! Just the unicorn I wanted to see." Discord spoke cheerfully, though he muttered to himself afterwards."Not really."
Twilight turned her attention to some books as she sorted through them. "What do you want, Discord? I have a lot of work to do."
"Geez, unbelievable! Everypony everywhere has a lot of work to do! So boring." Discord folded his arms as he complained.
"Well, yeah, we're productive, unlike somepony here" Twilight muttered and turned around. "I really do have a lot of things to do, Discord. Mainly reorder and sort books which important contents you ate." She glanced over at him with an accusing glare.
"Ah, yes, those pages were absolutely delicious! I'm sure it was the intricate reformation spells recorded down in them that put the exquisite flavor. Such a treat." He licked his lips and raised his paw to levitate some of the books off the shelves.
Twilight grabbed them with her magic before he could shred them. "DON'T even think about it."
"Since you won't be needing any of those reforming spellbooks anymore, do you think you could send me the treats every so often, Twilight, dear? They were just delightful. Though I must say, Angel's carrots also put the icing on the cake quite nicely. Or, in this case, the carrot on the shredded pages!" He started laughing, which annoyed Twilight further.
Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. "Is that all?" She pushed a pile of books out of the way with her magic. "Or am I really going to have to concentrate on ignoring you while I attempt to get work done around here?"
"I'm here because I need to ask a favor of you, Twilight Sparkle. Friend to friend." Discord appeared beside Twilight. He immediately hung upside down.
"Of course you-hey, who ever said you and I were friends?!" She looked at him as he sat on the air, in front of her.
"Well, you're friends with Fluttershy, aren't you?" He pointed at himself. "I'm friends with Fluttershy. That makes us friends. It means we are together in the most fascinating journey of friendship-"
She gave him an annoyed look. "No, that just means we have a mutual friend. That's it."
She ordered some books... which were quickly thrown back into a messy pile before she could even move them one inch further. She watched in horror as some even started dancing and wrestling other books, if that made any sense. "Discord! Stop it!"
"Who, me? It's just the tedious old books looking for a way to entertain themselves, is all, Twilight. For many eons they have 'entertained' others. Now it's their turn."
Twilight growled as her temper flared. "What is it going to take for me to get you out of here?!"
"I can put on quite a show, this whole tree has materials for my masterpiece. And I will continue indulging myself, Twilight, unless you listen to me for once. You leave me no choice, my dear, I didn't want to resort to these measures." His serious tone betrayed by the very amused grin on his face. Then his laughter. "N-Never mind, I did! I was looking forward to it, the slightest chance! Oh, just look at them! At you!"
She groaned and hopped a bit with anger as she screamed at him. "Fine! I'll hear whatever you have to say, just stop this!" She tried her best to restore things to order, but knew it would be of absolutely no use, until Discord felt otherwise.
Which he did, as soon as she complied to his request. He snapped his claw fingers, turning everything back to normal. Or, at least returning the stuff to their inanimate state. They still remained in quite a mess. "There. Was that so hard?"
"Just get it over with..." Twilight muttered as she rubbed her frustrated head.
"I need you to help me with something regarding Celestia. See, I tried to talk to her, a few days ago..." Discord muttered. Then he sighed. "It didn't end well."
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "You tried to talk to Princess Celestia?" She stared at him suspiciously.
"Um... Yes. But, things didn't go quite as I had expected, actually..." He looked up nervously and fidgeted with the fingers of his claw and paw.
Twilight stepped closer towards him. "Well, what's that supposed to mean?"
"She just blew things out of proportion with her hysterical seriousness, that's all!" He shook his head and appeared at Twilight's other side. "Listen, I came here to you, embarrassing and bothersome as it may be-"
"Thank you, I'm flattered." She gave him a look after her sarcastic comment.
He brightened up for a second. "You're welcome! Because thanks to Celestia's gossipy little mouth, you're now the only one who knows about our whole... Um... history..."
"Yeah, I pretty much know all about it, Discord. I wouldn't like to bring it up, it's not nice." She walked away from him. "And, it happens to NOT be my business. Take it up with the Princess."
He threw himself at her hooves to keep her from moving, weighing her down as he started his dramatic act. "Oh, Twilight, you have to help me with this! You're the one that pretty much knows Celestia best besides Luna! I don't really want to talk about this with Luna, you're the one outsider that's in on the whole deal! Who better than you to help?!"
Twilight glared down at him. "And why should I? I know everything, Discord. Everything you did to the princesses. And contrary to your irresponsible, shameless behavior, it DID mean a lot. I mean, really? Betraying their trust and friendship? Destroying their beloved, starting kingdom? Manipulating Princess Celestia to attack her own sister with the use of her love for you?"
"Actually, Twilight, it-"
"One just doesn't warm up to that, especially after you pop in to cynically demand that things be as if you never did that in the first place."
Discord looked up. "W-Well... When you put it... that way..." He chuckled nervously.
"I see no reason to help you, Discord. You're not even sorry for what you've done."
He chortled as he tried to defend himself. "Oh, but it was all in good fun, Twilight! I certainly had plenty while doing them little mischiefs, at least. The princesses, everypony, just needed to get into the spirit of things!"
Twilight gave him a glare and he immediately shut up, but not for long. He shook his head and raised his paw. "Fine. If you won't help me, you leave me no choice! Again." He stood over in the air and moved his fingers around. He gave her an amused smile. "How will your precious library look upside-down, I wonder?"
Twilight shook her head as she ran in front of him. "No way, Discord! Y-You can't do that, it would upset Princess Celestia and Fluttershy!"
"I would tell them you failed to help and lend a hoof to me when I was in need. They wouldn't approve of it as much as they wouldn't approve of me causing chaos in your library, would they?"
Twilight growled with frustration, then let it all out to him. "You need to understand that not EVERYTHING is for you to control! Not the princess' heart, not her decision to ignore the past, not my decision to help you, and certainly NOT MY LIBRARY! Now get out before I tell Fluttershy how you really haven't changed at all!" She was practically fuming with rage.
It would have been hilarious to see, under different circumstances. Discord would have been rolling in the air, laughing at the studious unicorn's rage, much more than he did when he caused chaos in Ponyville. But, at that very moment, something heavy seemed to weigh down on the Chaos Master after Twilight raged on him. He looked at her with a surprised, baffled face as he allowed her words to sink in.
Not everything is in my control...? B-But, how, I... I'm Discord. Even reformed, I can control anything! ...Can't I? There is no challenge that I don't overcome and enjoy overcoming.
As he looked at Twilight and actually lowered down to the ground from the weight of his realization, he began to think that the unicorn's harsh words and facts might just be the one challenge he did not want to get into and overcome.
He suddenly realized that maybe, just maybe... If those things weren't under his control... Then the princesses might never, ever forgive him. He feared that he would never be able to make them forgive him, as he had lated planned.
He thought of his past actions... and began to feel more and more stupid for thinking that he could ever actually make them forgive and forget those horrible things, even if he had the power to control everything.
"Y-You're right, Twilight... I... I hadn't thought of that before... I can control chaos, yes, but... I suppose... Celestia really isn't chaos, is she...? No, not at all... There's just no way that I..." He shook his head and held it as he thought. He felt very confused, disappointed, and shocked.
His sudden change in attitude made Twilight even more confused.
He turned around and looked at the ground as he spoke. "I'm sorry I took so much of your time. I'll be going now." He snapped his fingers. The library turned back to its ordered form... somewhat. Books were shelved everywhere, obviously in their wrong places, even upside-down or backwards, while other supplies were piled all over the library.
Twilight raised an eyebrow as she watched him leave and not turn back. She had half expected him to bolt right in towards her, laughing his tail off on her face after getting her with such a brilliantly acted prank. She actually waited for a good half minute after the door of the library shut itself with his magic.
But nothing happened. He never returned in those thirty seconds. Nothing changed, and it was awfully quiet for a bit longer as she tried to think and figure everything out.
"What just happened...?" She muttered as she paced around the library floor. She couldn't help it. She immediately started going over the entire confrontation. She thought everything, every word and detail, through. "Just what came over Discord back then? He looked totally different... Not to mention how he acted, it was... quite unlike him..."
She looked up as she thought. After a bit more, she frowned and put a hoof on her chin. "He couldn't have actually beenserious, could he? About the whole 'make up' thing? He seemed so shameless about it!"
She turned around to look at the mirror on the wall. Gazing upon her reflection while contemplating something always helped her think. "Well..."
She sighed and looked aside. "He does have a lot to learn... Maybe the fact of realizing the consequences and seriousness of his past, present, and future actions, and that not everything was for him to control, was one of those things... Maybe he learned that just now, the..." She remembered his baffled face after she screamed at him. She sighed and shook her head while holding her face with her hoof. "The hard way... Oh, what am I thinking...?"
She turned away from the mirror only to pace again. "What if I'm right, though? What am I supposed to do...? I can't do anything, I'd be supporting the way he acted! I'd be supporting the fact that he's completely ignorant and careless of everypony else's feelings! He's as dishonest as he can be, as anything can get, I just can't help anyone that leads a life of no trust, like the one he has!"
She turned around again as she tried to get rid of the idea of helping Discord. Her efforts didn't amount to much, though. She sighed and groaned as she lost against herself.
"But if I ignore him just so that I have nothing to do with his indifferent nature... It would be even worse... He's right. I'm the only outsider that knows, I'm the only one that can give him unbiased opinions. As, unbiased, as my sense of justice can allow, anyway..."
She shook her head and stepped out of the library. "He may have done terrible things, but that's all behind us now. His actions may not be forgiven for what he plans to do, but I can show him the way to at least approach the princess and not get utterly rejected. I can teach him to do so with humility. I can teach him things that will enable his forgiveness." She narrowed her eyes as she looked around. "That's just what I'm going to do. I'll give him the steps for him to try on his own, that's all."
She looked around the streets of Ponyville, hoping that he hadn't teleported anywhere far. "Discord!" She called out to him as she began her way into a mighty challenge. A challenge that she sure had not wanted to try in her right mind, and was not even certain that would overcome.
Continuation to Chaos Origin, the Dislestia story I've been writing so devotedly! Yay!
Geez! That was another eleven-pager (of course it had to be, first chapter of the second series). I hadn't planned it to be this long... It actually seemed much shorter in the beginning, when it first popped into my mind. Yes, it certainly seemed much shorter in my head.
But then I reminded myself, 'Celestia throwing Discord into the wall is just a flashback. The chapter doesn't end there. It moves on to Discord asking Twilight for help.' And I was like, 'oh, no wonder it seemed short. Of course that was just a flashback, what are you talking about, Creative Brain? I knew that already.'
So I start working on the stuff after the flashback, and it just gets so hilarious, working with these two (or three) that it gets out of hand and turns into eleven pages. I wasn't sure how to wrap it up, and then I had the brilliant idea of Discord getting a guilt-ridden epiphany that would finally get him off his childish 'I didn't do anything wrong' cloud, to confront the seriousness of his actions.
I really loved Discord's and Twilight's interaction. I think even the end was kept quite in character, if I do say so myself (all down to Twilight's kind of burdensome, dutiful, long monologues... Ugh. Blast you Twilight and your talking to yourself about your responsibilities and what you MUST do).
I think I wrapped it up nicely. Thank you for reading so devotedly! Please do follow my series from the beginning! I'd be honored to have your feedback and dedication.
