Chapter 9

Twilight stood there on her four hooves, staring down the draconequus, as if waiting for him to attack or speak up. Discord however had a look of enjoyment on his face, like he was watching a movie and the fight scene was about to begin. Just as Discord was about to say something, Fluttershy stopped him by walking over to him with a mad expression.

"Discord, I thought you wanted to be reformed" Fluttershy (somewhat) yelled, she didn't look like she was talking to the spirit of chaos, she looked like she was talking to a child who misbehaved.

"Fluttershy it's obvious he lied" Twilight said as she grabbed Fluttershy's tail and pulled her back incase Discord decided to do something.

"Alas, it's true. Honestly I had no intention of befriending any of you." Discord harshly joked with a satisfied look on his face.

"Discord, you'll pay for putting a spell on my friends!" Twilight declared as her horn began to glow, Discord responded by joyfully laughing.

"Finally, something entertaining" Discord laughed as Twilight shot her magic beam at Discord, to which he easily dodged by floating slightly to the right. Twilight was about to shoot another beam at Discord but Fluttershy stood in front of her.

"Twilight don't hurt him" Fluttershy pleaded, earning a confused look from both Twilight and Discord.

"What?" Both Twilight and Discord asked, Twilight sounded confused but Discord sounded annoyed, like she was interrupting his fun. Fluttershy again turned to Discord and without hesitation walked over to the draconequus.

"Discord, I am upset that you placed that spell on us, but if you undo all the spells I'll give you another chance" Fluttershy said, as if she was talking to some stubborn kid. Discord laughed at this, what was with this pony?

"Yeah right! Undo the spells! That's a laugh! Why would I do that?" Discord playfully asked as his paw began gathering chaos magic resulting in a dark glow making Twilight gasp, but Fluttershy didn't even flinch. One shot from this blast would be enough to send this pony to the moon, or the human dimension if we wanted.

"Fluttershy get out of the way!" Twilight yelled in vain to try to get her friend out of there, but Fluttershy didn't flinch.

"No Twilight" Fluttershy said, still staring down Discord.

"Why are you so calm!? He's going to blast you! Why won't you let me fight!?" Twilight yelled, both in frustration and in fear. Fluttershy flew up lightly to meet eye-to-eye with the draconequus.

"Because that's what friends do" Fluttershy said with a calm yet stern smile. Discord arched an eyebrow but his stance didn't change, he had lifted his paw up in preparation for using the magic he was accumulating.

"Friend?" Discord asked.

"Yes Discord, I really want to be friends with you. It was wrong of me to try a spell when Princess Celestia had asked me to do it. I should've had patience with you. I'm sorry." Fluttershy said as her ears dropped. Discord and Twilight both had a look of pure astonishment on their faces, Discord didn't even realize he had lowered his paw and his chaos magic had depleted from his paw.

"Wait, I'm the one who tricked you, tried to take over Equestria, basically abused your kindness, and YOU'RE apologizing to ME?" Discord asked in disbelief.

"I think we were both wrong, and as friends we should try to apologize for our actions. I really want to be you friend Discord." Fluttershy sweetly said, as she smiled with her ears still dropped.

"You… want me to… be your friend?" Discord asked, he had a small look of fear in his eyes, as if he was worried something would happen when she answered.

"I am your friend Discord" Fluttershy said. Twilight couldn't believe what she was hearing, and neither could Discord.

"What do you expect to gain from this? Why would you want to be my friend? No living thing would ever want to be MY friend! There's no way! You're… You're tricking me!" Discord accused as he lifted his paw again, the magic seemed to gather up more quickly this time.

"Discord I mean it!" Fluttershy (somewhat) yelled.

"No you don't!" Discord accused, the magic in his paw was ready. Although Fluttershy didn't flinch at all, she did look worried. She wasn't worried that Discord was going to attack her, she was worried that Discord really believed what he said himself.

"Discord… I want to be your friend" Fluttershy said, her worried expression not withering in the slightest.

"Sh… SHUT UP!" Discord yelled as a dark ball of chaos energy formed above his paw.

"Fluttershy!" Twilight yelled as she ran as quickly as she could to her friend. Just before Fluttershy could say anything Discord decided to silence her, he quickly flashed higher up and thrusted his arms down, sending the dark ball of energy down to them. Right before it made contact with Fluttershy, Twilight swooped in and summoned her strongest shield.

"Split into two?" Discord asked, looking a bit unamused as if they were trying to fool him or something. Even though he knew it wasn't true, he couldn't help but be skeptical.

"Allow me to explain. Reformation spells are meant to force the pony it was casted on to think and act the way the caster feels appropriate, but reformation spells have long since been… outdated." Celestia started.

"Outdated?" Screwball asked. Screwball knew very well that spells could be outdated, but they were usually because another version of the spell arises, not a whole genre of spells would be discontinued like that.

"Indeed. The way reformation spells were made usually caused the victim extreme side effect to the point that pony doctors didn't see the need to use them anymore. In short, reformation spells usually cause more harm than good." Luna conclude, looking down to the ground because of memories of her own reformation spell.

"Side effects? Like what?" Discord asked, being genuinely curious about this subject.

"Internal conflicts, anxiety, self-harm, insanity, depression, and the list continues" Celestia said. Screwball, although she'd never admit it, didn't really like dealing with these types of subjects so she decided to not look into reformation spells.

"Do side-effects include being split into two?" Discord asked sarcastically.

"Ponies with intense magic have had multi-personality disorder, some extreme cases like yours" Celestia said, looking at Discord but referring to Luna.

"Great, thanks for the history lesson, so how do we fix this?" Screwball asked, she just wanted her dad to be back to normal so they could have some fun spreading chaos. Celestia turned to Screwball with a slightly confused look on her face.

"I recall you stealing the counter-scroll from Twilight and I" Celestia said.

"Oh right. Hahaha! I memorized it too!" Screwball laughed, she couldn't believe she forgot she memorized it, it was like the most crucial detail.

"Wait, what will the spell do to me?" Discord quickly asked when he saw Screwball lightly glowing, he almost looked frightened.

"Well in theory it should undo the spell by bringing both your halves together" Luna said.

"Speaking of which, where is the other half?" Screwball asked to Discord's relief as her glow disappeared.

"No doubt causing trouble elsewhere" Luna said with a frown.

"Should we go look for him?" Discord asked.

"Yes, the spell won't work unless both halves are present. Where did you last see the other Discord that placed the spell on you?" Celestia asked as she turned to Screwball.

"He told me once we caught our targets to wait here" Screwball said with a shrug.

"So if we wait, he'll come to us" Discord agreed. Celestia knew they had time, and she also knew that this might be the only time she could get certain information out of the draconequus.

"So Discord, mind explaining who Screwball is exactly?" Celestia asked, it's not like Discord adopted a pony, or had a special somepony. Right?

"Well… how do I put this…" Discord trailed off with a slightly sheepish smile on his face, as if he was worried about how they'll react.

"Well Sunbutt, looks like we need to have a chat about the birds and the bees" Screwball joked as she summoned literal birds and bees that flew in circles around her. Celestia didn't look amused.

"Alright… So here is how it went…" Discord began.

"Twilight! Are you ok!?" Fluttershy asked when Twilight collapsed after the massive explosion. She smiled weakly at Fluttershy.

"I'm fine, I'm not used to summoning shields that strong" Twilight admitted with a hint of pain in her voice and some sweat going down her face. Discord on the other hand was flying right above them, he was gasping for air also but he didn't look like he used a lot of energy on that attack, why did he feel so worn out? Was it that Fluttershy?

"I… doubt you'll be able to do that again!" Discord yelled, holding up a paw again and yet another dark ball formed above him. Before Twilight could summon another shield, Fluttershy flew straight up and met Discord face to face.

"I can't believe you" Fluttershy began.

"Fluttershy! Come back here!" Twilight yelled up but Fluttershy continued to frown at Discord, as if she didn't even hear her.

"Discord you may lie to me, trick me, put a spell on me, and even try to attack me. But you can't. You CAN NOT. Hurt my friends!" Fluttershy (somewhat) yelled with frustration in her voice. Discord was taken back from this and unknowingly stopped forming the ball and it disappeared.

"I… Um…" Discord stuttered, why was he speechless? What was this yellow pegasus doing to him?

"You aren't being a good friend Discord. I'm very disappointed." Fluttershy said as she folded her arms and continued to frown at him. The word 'friend' rang in Discords ears. What is this? Why was he letting this blasted pony speak to him like that? He's had it!

"I'm not your friend!" Discord yelled back but immediately regret it as Fluttershy stared into his eyes, they were full off so many emotions. He found himself immobilized as she continued to stare into him, he wanted it to stop.

"Stop… it…!" Discord tried to yell but it came out as a whisper. Twilight couldn't believe it, Fluttershy was using 'the stare' on Discord… and it was working! Why was it working now? Why didn't it work last time?

"Say you're sorry" Fluttershy said, not letting up on her stare. It felt as if bolts of electricity were shooting through Discord's spine, was this guilt? No, it couldn't be, she was using somekind of magic on him obviously! Discord needed to get away!

"Stay… Away from me!" Discord yelled as he mustered up enough energy to snap his tail, instantly making him teleport away. Fluttershy sighed at this, she had expected for him to be so stubborn.

"Fluttershy… how… WHAT?" Twilight stuttered. Did Fluttershy just… scare away Discord? Fluttershy then flew down to Twilight with a disappointed look on her face.

"I hope I wasn't too hard on him" Fluttershy thought out loud. Twilight was dazed for a few seconds, even after all he did to her, she was still focusing on reforming him? Twilight shook her head and cleared her throat.

"Fluttershy, you said he placed a spell on the others right?" Twilight asked. Fluttershy's ears perked up at this.

"Oh right! We need to help them!" Fluttershy (somewhat) yelled as she remembered what Discord had done to them. Their friends were in trouble!

"C'mon, they might be in Ponyville" Twilight said as they took off.

"Curse that pony. Curse that stare. For chaos sake, how could I let a little pegasus get the better of me?" Discord mumbled to himself as he continued to fly towards the spot he told them to go to when they captured their targets. He doubted any of them would finish their fights by now, but he just wanted to wait there for them. Hopefully Fluttershy wouldn't remember where it was.

"Anybody return yet?" Discord called out as he finally reached the spot. To his delight, he saw both Celestia and Screwball turning to him in surprise. Looks like Screwball had won their fight.

"Ahh, good work Scre-" Discord began but then realized something. Celestia didn't look hurt at all, and Screwball only had one cut on her. Did they even fight at all?

"Discord?" Another voice asked. Discord then noticed Luna, why was she here? He originally planned on dealing with her personally, but he was dying to see how Twilight Sparkle would handle fighting Fluttershy.

"Well well well, if it isn't LuLu. What a pleasure it is to see yo-" Discord suddenly stopped when he saw something else right next to Luna. The figure emerged just as surprised as he was, same shocked expression, same paws, same horns, same everything!

"What the…!" Both Discords exclaimed.

I figured out how to make it obvious which Discord was speaking, but for now take your guess. xD
On another note, I was having trouble deciding if Evil Discord would become friends with Fluttershy or not, but I decided that he should just be in denial the whole time. xD