Chapter 4
"I swear, nobody appreciates my chaos, I could probably save their lives, twice, and they still would find a reason to hate me!" continued Discord, sitting back on the sofa he summoned, he honestly felt like he was in therapy right now, "sorry, I'm not usually such a downer, these ponies are going to be the end of me."
"I find your tale quiet amusing, telling them to another can be quiet soothing, you claim nobody appreciates you, surely that is not true" said Zecora, sipping some of her tea. Discord sat up, how could he forget the one pony who actually enjoys his presence, he snapped his fingers and sent a note to Fluttershy so she wouldn't go out looking for him again, or if she did, she'd know where he was. Zecora didn't seem to notice Discord use his magic.
"There is the Element of Kindness Fluttershy" he said, once again laying on his floating sofa, "and I guess I could count both Sunbutt and LuLu, but Fluttershy is the only one who wouldn't mind me around," Discord finished drinking his tea and placed the cup on the table, then Zecora grabbed the cup and examined it, earning a confused look from Discord, "I didn't drink the cup that time," he told her.
"It is the cup I'm looking for, I look for help for your inner war," she stated, looking deeply into the cup.
"War?" he asked, he could already imagine it, Luna rebelling against her sister, summoning an army to help her take Equestria. It wasn't his favorite chaos, but at this point, any chaos is good for him.
"Inner war is what I said, it's all the problems in your head, if you keep your friend happy, it'll result in you being unhappy," she said, looking up at Discord.
"You rhymed happy with unhappy, does that count?" he asked.
"All I ask is that you stay on task" said Zecora.
"I already fixed my problem anyway," Discord claimed, summoning sunglasses for him to wear, "I'm surprised I haven't done this sooner actually, day one of my new life and I meet a zebra who doesn't want to turn me into stone."
"I do not wish to cause you pain, but would you kindly explain?" Zecora asked, making Discord sit up.
"Well it's simple actually" he started.
"Discord has quit" Luna told her sister. Celestia responded with a look of utter shock.
"He wouldn't quit, he has had the role of keeping balance for thousands of years" stated Celestia, Luna then used her magic to summon the scroll she had received from Discord.
"Discord used his magic to send us this" Luna said, Celestia took the scroll and read it thoroughly, her face (somehow) turning paler through her white coat.
"This is truly trouble, without Discord, Equestria, no, the entire world will be drown out of balance" said Celestia as she folded the note back up, "I must send a copy to Cadence and Twilight immediately."
"We will… look for somepony too…" she started but couldn't continue. Celestia looked at her sister who was looking sadly at the floor, she embraced Luna in a hug.
"Do not worry sister, I'm sure we can convince Discord to rethink his decision, we shouldn't look for someone to take his place just yet" said Celestia, Luna wiped her face a bit, the cruel memories returning to her.
"We don't have much time before the balance starts to fall apart, we must do something beforehand" said Luna. They both knew what they needed to do and they didn't have much time.
The fireworks had long since ended and everypony was walking home together, but none of the 6 walking back could say they enjoyed the night.
"I still can't believe Fluttershy left before the fireworks started" said Applejack.
"I can't believe she blamed us for that, he could've just told us he didn't do it" Rainbow added.
"We shouldn't blame ourselves, knowing that ruffian, he probably planned this to get Fluttershy on his side and to make us look bad" Rarity claimed.
"I don't think so Rarity, he looked mad, when Discord plans anything, he is usually calm" Twilight said, looking down.
"Don't feel bad Twilight, I'm sure this will all work out" Spike told her, somehow he managed to stay awake.
"I'm not sure Spike, when Discord teleported away, he didn't do it because he was tired of us, he did it because he didn't want to hurt us" Twilight said, making everypony look at her.
"Yeah right, like he would care about hurting us" Rainbow said harshly.
"I think Twilight is right, did you see Discords face, he looked about ready to blow up" said Applejack, "you think the guards got Celestia because Discord was causing trouble?" she then asked.
"I don't think so, they would've brought all of us along" said Twilight, it wasn't very strange that Celestia had to leave, she did rule over a kingdom, it's only expected that she was usually busy.
"What are you doing Pinkie" Spike asked her, she had been unusually quiet after Fluttershy left, she kept staring at the floor not in a sad way, but as if she was lost in thought. Somehow she still manages to follow them, as if she was still paying attention, must be her Pinkie senses.
"GAH! I can't do this!" suddenly yelled Pinkie, making Spike jump and everypony turn to her.
"What's the matter" asked Twilight.
"I can't figure out how I'm going to apologize to Discord!" yelled Pinkie as she softly hit her head as if trying to get her brain to work better.
"Apologize?" repeated everypony.
"What do I do? I don't know what he'd like better, an 'I'm sorry' party, a 'please forgive me' card, an apology cake, I GOT NOTHING TO WORK WITH!" yelled Pinkie, throwing her hooves up in the air in defeat. Just as Twilight was about to say something, Pinkie's eyes grew wide and she smiled. "I got it! I don't have much time! I need to catch up to Fluttershy!" Pinkie quickly said as she took off.
"…what just happened?" asked Rainbow.
Zecora's door suddenly flew open, making both Discord and Zecora jump and turn. None of them expected to see Fluttershy but there she was, panting as if she ran the whole way there, the surprised Discord got off his floating sofa.
"Fluttershy?" both Discord and Zecora said in unison, but then Discord looked at Zecora with a confused look, "come to say hi?" she added to finish her rhyme.
Fluttershy didn't respond, she just stared at Discord, still breathing heavily, it looked like she was trying to avoid blinking too.
"Is there something on my fa-" started Discord but was interrupted by Fluttershy pouncing on him, knocking him over, "Fluttershy, what's the big idea!" asked Discord. Fluttershy had Discord in a tight hug lock, he could barely breath.
"Fluttershy! You suffocating me!" yelled Discord, then he noticed Fluttershy was shaking, as if she was cold.
"I'm so sorry!" she suddenly shouted tightening her grip, her sudden outburst surprising Discord. "I should have defended you but I started to believe you did take the fireworks! I should have never doubted you! I'm such a horrible friend! You must hate me!" she shouted, tears rolling down her eyes. Discord was speechless, which was rare for him.
"I'll always trust you, I'll never let them talk down on you again. Just please, forgive me" she said more calmly this time, continuing her sobbing. Discord honestly didn't know what to do, he looked up at Zecora in panic but saw she was smiling.
"Um... don't' cry, you know I could never hate you" he said, awkwardly patting her head, he never was the one to comfort anyone but when he saw her shaking was slowing down, he continued, "it's not your fault your friends are so nasty, just stop crying and I'll forgive you."
Fluttershy looked up at him and sniffed, "that's no excuse for not defending you, you're my friend so I'm supposed to believe in you" she said, looking like she was on the verge of crying again. Discord then summoned tissue to wipe her face with.
"Crying won't solve anything Fluttershy, let's just forget that whole thing ever happened, you'll have plenty of time to make it up to me" Discord said after wiping her tears away. Her shaking finally stopped but she kept sniffing.
"How could you be sure I'll be able to make this up to you?" Fluttershy asked quietly. She couldn't see how she could make it up to him.
"You're my friend Fluttershy, I believe in you" he said, he hated how cheesy he sounded and he rarely uses the word friend. Fluttershy finally smiled and softened her hold on him.
"Thank you" she whispered. Discord thought she would cry again if he pushed her off him but she didn't let go of him, she was just hugging him with her eyes closed, she was probably lost in her thought. Discord looked at Zecora once again, she was still smiling but wiping her eyes.
"You're probably getting a good laugh out of this huh?" Discord thought to himself, he begged in his mind for something to make Fluttershy let go of him, anything at all.
"Am I interrupting something?" a familiar voice said, making Fluttershy break from her thoughts to look at the door. It was Pinkie Pie.
"What a night" said Twilight, finally arriving home, "I'm going straight to bed to clear my mind."
As if on cue, she heard Spike hiccup, meaning Spike just received a letter, oh great just what she needed, something too keep her awake. She turned and saw Spike was holding 2 letters, Spike then picked one of them and opened it, he then yawned, it was well passed his bedtime. "It's from the princess" said Spike.
"It must be urgent" Twilight said
"-Ahem- My faithful student," read Spike, "I need you to come to Canterlot tomorrow morning, we need to discuss the meaning behind Discords letter, it is urgent and threatens the balance maintained in Equestria. Please bring the other 5 and Discord, we will need everypony here to resolve this. Princess Celestia." Spike paused then looked at the other letter, "I guess I was supposed to read this one first."
Twilight just sighed, he always somehow managed to pick the wrong letter to read first. Spike opened up the other letter and begun reading.
"Dear Sunbutt and Lulu" started Spike but giggled a bit at the nicknames, when he received a look of annoyance from Twilight he continued, "it is with great pleasure that I announce my retirement as the spirit of Chaos, have fun finding another sucker to fill the job, Discord." Spike looked at Twilight confused, "what does that mean?"
"Retire? I thought Spirit of Chaos was just a self-proclaimed title." Twilight said, Spike had no idea what self-proclaimed meant.
"Wait, if Discord retired, doesn't that mean there will be no more Chaos?" asked Spike.
"I'm not sure Spike, if Celestia wants to discuss this with us then it must be important, I need a full night rest, we might have a long day ahead of us tomorrow" said Twilight. She had no clue what was in store for tomorrow, but she knew if Celestia needed all of them, it wasn't good news.
I don't think I'll be shipping Discord with any of them, I've seen Discord shipped with a lot of them and I just can't decide between Fluttershy or Pinkie, maybe I will later on. ^_^
