Sunset Shimmer kept running and fighting the tears until her hooves finally tired out. She collapsed onto the ground just outside the Canterlot Sculpture Garden but found she was too exhausted to keep crying.
“Another brilliant idea as usual, Sunset Shimmer,” she said spitefully to herself. “What were you thinking? These ponies… These wonderful ponies are too good for you! Twilight’s already got enough problems being a princess without you adding more drama into her life.” Turns out she was wrong, there were a few tears left over. “I’m sorry, Twilight. I can’t drag you into this, you don’t deserve it… maybe I should just–”
SCREEEEEEEEECH!
Before Sunset could finish her thought, a loud screech was heard right above her head. She wiped her eyes, peered up, and gasped in awe. For right above her head, flew a majestic and beautiful red and yellow phoenix. Its feathers rivaled even Celestia’s shining sun as it flew through the air with grace and ease.
Sunset immediately recognized this phoenix. “Philomena?” Philomena took one look at Sunset below and smiled widely. She swooped downward towards Sunset, who by instinct held out her hoof as Philomena landed on it. “H-Hey, old girl. I was hoping I’d get to see you,” Sunset cooed, giving the phoenix an affectionate nuzzle. Philomena chirped in delight. “Aww, I missed you too, Philomena. I owe you a lot for what you did for me,” Sunset sighed happily as she looked at her cutie mark. Then she sighed sadly, “Just wish the old me could’ve been nicer to you when she had the chance.” Philomena didn’t like seeing one of her old friends so sad, so she used her wings to wipe Sunset’s eyes. Sunset couldn’t stay sad in front of Philomena, and just gave another affectionate nuzzle.
Then Sunset noticed something, “Hey, Philomena, you’ve got something on your back.” Philomena looked on her back, and sure enough, there were two strange gray round objects on her back.
Then suddenly, the gray objects opened up, revealing two big yellow eyes. Sunset screamed in terror as the two eyeballs rolled off Philomena’s back. In a bright flash of light, the eyeballs disappeared; in their place stood a very familiar draconequus; the master of chaos himself, Discord. Sunset couldn’t believe her eyes! Twilight wrote to her about how Fluttershy had reformed Discord, but what was he doing here?
Discord chuckled heartily, “Oh-ho-ho, look at that! I win again, Philomena! I told you I was the hide and seek master!” Philomena pouted and chirped angrily, “Oh, don’t give me that sour beak, Philly.” Philomena chirped accusingly, “Cheat? How dare you, little Miss! I never cheat at hide and seek!” To prove a point, Discord literally pulled his eyes right out of his head, “I never peaked while my eyes were following you!” Philomena chirped again, Discord gasped, “Does your mother FEED that beak, young lady?!” Philomena only pouted again, “Oh fine. Don’t get your feathers in a bunch.” As a joke, Discord snapped his eagle claw, causing Philomena’s feathers to disappear. “Next time we play, I’LL hide and you’ll seek. And I won’t cheat.” This time, Discord grew three extra sets of arms, “See? Not a claw, talon, paw, or tail crossed.” One of the extra hands snapped again, giving Philomena her feathers back. She simply turned her back and blew a raspberry at Discord.
Sunset’s jaw simply dropped in awe and her lip quivered. “You’re D-D-Discord,” was all she managed to say.
Discord’s extra arms disappeared and he sighed, “Oh joy, another pony to introduce myself to.” Discord then stuck his claw in his ‘pockets’ and felt around until he pulled out some flashcards. He started reading from one.
“Hello, [insert name of pony here]; my name is Discord, also known as the Master of Chaos,” he demonstrated by holding an inside-out umbrella under a cotton candy raincloud, “And the newest bestest friend of Princess Twilight Sparkle and company,” he used his magic to summon plush toys of Twilight and her friends and gave them a big hug.
Discord then snapped his fingers, turning the plush toys all into Fluttershy plush toys, “Just between the two of us, I’m mostly Fluttershy’s friend,” He hugged the Fluttershy plushes tightly.
Sunset couldn’t help but smile at Discord’s antics, as random as they were, “Um… hi, Discord. I’m-“
“Ooh, don’t tell me,” Discord interrupted, conjuring a magnifying glass, “I love guessing games.” He looked all over Sunset Shimmer with his magnifying glass. He looked from side-to-side, underneath, in her mouth, he even shrunk down and snaked his way into her ear, popping out on the other side. She really didn’t like that one. “A-ha! I knew I recognized you,” Discord announced at last. “You’re Sunset Shimmer; Celestia’s little pupil who took off. Oooh, I haven’t seen you in years.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow, “Wait, you knew me before? But last time I saw you, you were–”
“Yes, yes, I was forced to trade in my free reign for stone prison cuffs,” Discord locked his hands into stone blocks to emphasize his point. “But, fun fact, being turned to stone doesn’t take away my ability to see and hear everything around me. I’ll never forget the time Celestia showed a certain adorable filly to my part of the garden. She took one look at me and said I was a ‘hideously beastly mess!’” Discord shot a mock glare at Sunset, not knowing how much it hurt her.
“Oh… now I remember that. I’m sorry, Discord… I’ll just go, I won’t bother you anymore,” she said with her head lowered. But before she could trot away–
“What? Oh-ho, don’t be silly,” chuckled Discord, “I’m way over that. I just said it to remind myself of how much you’ve changed and became an inspiration!”
This made Sunset stop in her tracks, “Wait, an inspiration?”
“Of course, after Twilight told me about you, I’ve been positively BURSTING to meet you!” Discord snapped his claw, and Sunset appeared in his arm. Then he snapped his paw and a camera floated right in front of them. “Ooh, say ‘friendship!’” He grabbed onto Sunset’s lips to force them into a smile while he pouted his lips, the camera flashed, and printed a picture of the two. “Another perfect picture,” he cackled, “I can’t wait to show this to Fluttershy, we’re making a scrapbook!”
Sunset wiggled free out of Discord’s grasp, “Ok, just back up for a second; I’M an inspiration for YOU?”
“Well of course! Don’t tell me you don’t remember; you went from a bossy, manipulative, conniving, raging she-demon into a heroic young rock star,” Discord leaped into the air and landed on his knees, strumming the air like an air guitar.
Sunset giggled again, “Well, I wouldn’t really say rock star…”
“Are you kidding? The way you took down those sirens! Ingenious!” Discord praised, “Good thing too; I’m not really into pop music. I prefer show tunes.” Discord snapped his claw again, and he gained a barbershop singer’s outfit and cane. He then danced and spun the cane giddily to an old-timey tune; Sunset clapped her hooves as he took his bow.
Sunset felt a little better, but not by much. “Yeah, it was fun being able to restore friendships… Instead of always breaking them.”
“Tell me about it,” Discord scoffed. “I can’t even remember why I wanted to drive a wedge in ponies! All it did was make them all grumpy and pouty… and in Pinkie Pie’s case, a little scary too. And what’s fun about any of that?”
Sunset sighed sadly. “I don’t know, why don’t you ask my old me?” Philomena only nuzzled Sunset again.
The wheels turned in Discord’s head and he got the message; something was wrong with her. He snapped his claw again, and the two of them disappeared, only to re-appear inside a brightly lit office with a large couch, a table, and a chair. Sunset found herself lying on the couch, while Discord sat in the chair with a clipboard, wearing a grey suit. Philomena sat on the table, and Discord grabbed onto one of her feathers and plucked it right out. Philomena didn’t like that one bit.
Discord started writing on his clipboard with Philomena’s feather. “Now, Miss Shimmer, I’m sensing you have some emotional problems that are buried deep in that fiery head of yours.”
“Was it that obvious?”
“Not really, but Fluttershy’s taught me a thing or two,” Discord smirked proudly. “So tell me, what has you down?”
Sunset had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to escape Discord anytime soon, so she just sighed. “I don’t know… it just feels like every time I try to remind myself that I’m in a better place now, something from my past just comes back to haunt me!” Discord listened with interest… while playing tic-tac-toe on the clipboard. “I keep talking about wanting to make up for it, to prove that I’m finally in a better place! But look at me, my one shot to finally talk to Celestia and make everything right… And I blew it! I was too scared to even make it a few feet to the door and I just ran away from my past… Again!
“I owe everything to my friends, especially Twilight, I wouldn’t have had the courage to come back here without them… but they make it sound like this is easy for me to do, and the last thing I want to do is let them down… Tartarus knows I’ve done enough of that as it is.”
Discord raised an eyebrow, “I see… Well who exactly have you let down?”
“I ultimately failed Celestia as a student, remember?” Sunset didn’t mean to sound cruel to Discord. “Sorry.”
Discord shrugged, “Meh, I’ve heard worse. Anyways, don’t let the jacket fool you, I am NOT a therapist-“
“Gee. I never would have guessed.” Sunset rolled her eyes.
Discord snapped his paw and the room and chairs disappeared, placing the three back outside. “But I’d say that you’re afraid Celestia’s going to take your apology and stomp it into the ground.”
“Well, can you blame me?!” Sunset burst out. “I wouldn’t blame her if she did, I’ve been nothing but horrible to her even after all she’s done for me! After how awful I’ve been, how can I expect anypony to forgive me like that?”
“Maybe the same way your friends forgave you?”
“And that’s the other thing,” Sunset continued, “Twilight… even after everything I did to her, after I set her up for a fall, the minute she and the others blast the magic of friendship into me, she offered me friendship and told the others to look out for me. It took a little longer for the others to forgive me, but they didn’t give up on me once, and were there for me when no one else was. Why would they keep me around?”
“Same reason they kept me around when I had a major fall,” Discord answered solemnly. Sunset stared in shock when he said that. “Look, I’m not gonna pretend any of that makes sense… because face it, what fun is there in making sense? But some ponies, or bodies, or whatever they call your friends in the other world, are more forgiving than others. And the only pony who still can’t forgive you, is you.” Discord snapped his tail and a mirror appeared in front of Sunset.
Sunset recoiled in fright. “No, please, I don’t want to look in another mirror! The last one only showed the old me… Making fun of me!” Sunset shielded her eyes.
Discord was confused by this… Then something clicked, “Oops… I uh… I think that might have been my fault.”
“How is it your fault my old self won’t leave me alone?”
“Well… When I was helping Twilight decorate her castle… I might have accidentally given her one of my trick mirrors.”
“Trick mirrors?”
“Eeyup, it shows anypony it reflects what they’re most afraid of… Uh, oopsies?” Discord smiled sheepishly.
Sunset’s eyes couldn’t grow any larger at this point. That terrifying reflection that mocked her, all those worries from last night, all of that was because of Discord?! Sunset breathed heavily trying harder and harder to keep herself from snapping and yelling right at Discord’s face. She forced one eye open and saw how sorry Discord looked, and how he literally shrunk under her gaze. Her inner anger subsided and she sighed calmly.
“No; it’s okay, Discord. I know you didn’t mean to do that. It was an accident,” she said calmly, and she meant every word.
Discord beamed happily and returned to his normal size, “Aha! I knew it! You just proved my point!”
Sunset was confused, “What point?”
“That you’re no different from Twilight, Fluttershy, OR Celestia! Even after I epically screwed up, you still forgave me! Congratulations, Sunset Shimmer,” he snapped his paw causing a scroll to appear, “You just made my friends list!” He then conjured a sticker in the shape of Sunset’s head, and stuck it onto the list right next to Twilight and her friends. “I’m still working on expanding this list. But anywho, looks like the only one you have to forgive is yourself. And don’t pretend you don’t know how to do it.”
“I do know,” Sunset sighed. “But–”
“It’s your choice, Sunny. You could go back in there, apologize to Celestia, let it sting for a brief moment, have a tear-jerking moment only to get interrupted by one of Twilight’s friendship speeches, and finally get some closure,” Discord snapped his tail, and Sunset was transformed back into her form from the other world, “or you could run back to the other world, and let it eat away at you that you were too scared to finally face that horrible past that’s been haunting you for years.”
In his own blunt way… Discord did have a lot of good points. Sunset looked at her other worldly reflection and thought about her friends. She thought about her friends back at Canterlot High, she thought of her new friends here in Equestria, but most of all she thought of Twilight and Celestia, the first mares who ever offered her friendship. She knew what she had to do… and so did Discord, who smiled knowingly and turned her back into her pony form.
Sunset smiled again. “You know, you have a weird way of helping ponies.”
Discord smirked. “Not what ponies expect, but it gets the job done. Anyways, just wait right here, I’ll be right back,” Discord snapped both his hands, and popped like a party balloon, leaving behind some confetti.
“Wait, Discord, what are you…?” Sunset just grew nervous. “Why do I get the feeling I’m going to get what I asked for?”