Ponyville Hospital- ‘Twinkleshine’s' room- Shiny Whistle
I watched as Chryssy trotted out into the hallway, the door closing behind her. Maybe I should just join her in Twinkleshine’s room now, let Fire and Lucky have their privacy? Looking back to the two of them, now that the word was out they seemed comfortable enough to be going at it. Both held the other in one hoof, eyes closed as they kissed. Lucky tucked himself against Fire’s uninjured side, running his kisses down Fire’s neck. Ooookay that is my sign to get out of here, I gulped, cheeks burning red as I trotted toward the door. Hearing a moan behind me as I opened the door, I hurried out, closing the door behind me.
The hallway was mostly empty. A bluish-grey pegasus mare with bubbles for her cutie mark walked by, bandages covering most of her grey-green mane and forehead. Turning to the right, I knocked on the door to Twinkleshine’s room only to hear a ‘meep’ like sound come from somepony inside. “It’s okay it is just me,” I called out, opening the door. “Oh.” I paused just inside the door, blinking at what I saw.
Discord was standing next to the bed, his long tail wrapped around one of the bed's legs, sipping on some drink in a half a pineapple grasped in his lion’s paw as he smirked at Twinkleshine. She was as far from him as she could get, having somehow jumped up to the ceiling, her hooves clasped tightly around a ceiling fan’s base. “Shiny!” she yelped, looking down as I walked in. “Please tell this… this… ugh… tell him to leave my room!”
“Aw, but Twinkleshine, I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Discord grinned, taking another sip from his drink. “You sure you don’t want some?” He asked, holding the drink out. “I know you just delight in a fresh dose of-”
“Shut up!” she yelled, which just made him chuckle more.
“What are you really up to Discord?” I asked, stepping forward. “Can’t you see she’s terrified?”
“I-I am not!” Twinkleshine huffed, grabbing all the tighter to the fan.
“What, can’t I check on my favorite ponies? Besides Fluttershy of course,” he chuckled. “I hear you finally had your first little fight Shiny,” he grinned, tossing the drink from his paw where it popped away with a snap of his fingers. “And neither of you even thought of inviting me!”
“Actually it is the second, I fought those fiends in Hoofville too,” I said.
“Well then, it is obvious I must accompany you through the rest of your journey then.” Discord grinned, I jumped as he snapped his fingers and appeared around my neck as a scarf. “Maybe as a scarf to keep you warm hmm? No, it’s summer you don’t need a scarf.” He snapped his fingers again and I felt a weight on my head. Looking up I saw he had appeared as a hat, a fancy fedora with an antler on one side and a horn on the other, his little goatee hanging over in front of my nose. “Or perhaps a hat? No, too fancy for the road.” He snapped his fingers once more, and I jumped as I felt something moving around in my saddlebag. It poked its head out, a fluffy kitten with a dark brown body and grey head, two huge fluffy eyebrows outlining big yellow eyes with a red pupil. “How about as a pet? I can be travel size for your convenience! Or,” his kitten self gave a big fangy grin and snapped the fingers of one paw.
He disappeared to reappear between Twinkleshine and me, in the shape of a changeling drone, only the color of chocolate milk with a white frill and backplate instead of black and blue. “How about I go as a changeling?” He crowed and clapped his hooves together.
“NO!” Twinkleshine and I said together. Discord just frowned and changed back to his normal self.
“Well! It would seem someponies have no sense of humor.” He huffed, folding his front paw and claw together.
I looked up at her for a moment. Why was she so against his disguise? Did changelings scare her even more than Discord seemed to? Well then, if she came with us she was in for quite the surprise!
“If he goes, then I’m not!” Twinkleshine snorted, glaring at Discord.
“Oh, but where would the fun in that be? You must join us!” Discord chuckled. “After all, don’t they deserve to know-“
“Shut up about that!” Twinkleshine snapped, grasping tighter to the fan base.
The door creaked open behind us. I looked away from Discord and Twinkleshine to see Chryssy and Cadence walk into the room. They looked up at Twinkleshine clinging to the fan base, and both narrowed their eyes. “Are you teasing that poor mare Discord?” Cadence scolded. “You let her down from there at once!”
“I’m not the one who put her up there,” he chuckled.
“Well it sure wasn’t my brother,” Chryssy said. She tried to sound firm, but I swear I saw a flicker of a smile cross her face.
“Not him at all my dear,” Discord crooned, leaving Twinkleshine to come over to Chryssy. “Hmmm, I like what you have done with your mane and coat. Thought you hated pink though?”
“Discord,” she growled softly, glaring at him. “Why are you here?”
“Why, as I just told little Shiny here,” he said, ruffling my mane, “I want to join you for the rest of your journey. Been so long since I last visited with KayKay,” he sighed, rubbing his paw down his goatee. “And I MUST meet this little Ironhoof of yours!” He picked Chryssy up and hugged her to him. “When did you get so grown up?”
“Hng, Discord,” she groaned, struggling in his grip. “Let go!”
“Fine, spoilsport,” he huffed and sat her back down.
“I’m not sure if Auntie is… prepared right now for a visit from you, Discord,” Cadence said. “Perhaps another time?”
“Well if I can’t go, then I still must relay some information to little… Dew… here. We’ll be right baaaack!” He grabbed Chryssy up in his arms again and teleported out of the room.
“Finally!” Twinkleshine yelled, teleporting back down to the ground by Cadence and me. She shook herself, then looked to the two of us. “Don’t let him come, we’ve had enough chaos for one day.”
I couldn’t help agreeing with her, especially as I felt the pain in my ribs. “We’ll just see what he wants with my sister.”
Cadence just sighed, lowering her ears with a slight scowl on her face. “Maybe I should find Fluttershy to talk to him.”
Ponyville Hospital- Empty Bedroom- Queen Chrysalis
I let out a gasp as Discord and I appeared in an empty bedroom. “Ugh, I think I’m going to be sick.” I moaned, holding a hoof to my mouth. Teleporting twice in such a short time? Not easy on the stomach.
“Don’t worry dearie, you’ll be fine. We actually can’t puke. Kind of an equine thing. We’ll just feel sick for a while.” Chrys chuckled.
“Great that makes me feel SO much better!” I grumbled, trotting over to a chair and sitting down. “So what is it you wanted to tell me?” Blinking, I turned to Discord who was just chuckling at me.
“I see you haven’t found your teleportation legs yet,” he said. “But very well if you want to get to the important news first.” He shook a paw at me at the idea, rolling his eyes. “Some of your changelings are on their way here. After hearing about Hoofville they are so worried about their little Queenie.” He sat down on the armrest, pinching one of my cheeks and shaking it.
“I figured they would, when our casting emerald broke,” Chrys sighed. “Probably bringing us a new one.”
“And they sent you to tell me?”
“Do I need a reason to visit my favorite Queen?”
“As far as I know I’m the only Queen,” I grumbled, flicking his paw away from my cheek. “Since those princesses refuse to take such a title.”
“Any better reason for you to be my favorite?” He mussed up my mane again. “But I am glad to see you adjusting well. Not all the Queens have done so as well as you.”
“Hey, that reminds me,” I said, turning to look at him. “It was around five hundred years ago that you brought Chrys to this world right?”
“Five hundred and ten, but yes?”
“How did you do so? If I remember the show correctly, and they have the times right, didn’t Princess Luna and Celestia trap you in stone one thousand years ago? And then you weren’t released until just a few years ago?” I glared at him as he started laughing. “What’s so funny?”
“That even you believe that prank!” he howled, falling off the armrest and rolling on the ground in laughter.
“Prank?”
Discord nodded, taking a deep breath and smiling at me. “My best prank yet! Even better than those silly ones that Rainbow Dash tries to pull.”
“Well, will you please explain?” I sighed, holding a hoof to my head.
“Of course, of course, I assume Chrys didn’t tell you because I tell the story better?”
“He is correct,” Chrys said softly.
I nodded, and he snorted. “She’s probably just too embarrassed about it, even if it was previous Chrysalis’s bet.” He took a deep breath, still chuckling, and stood. “A little over one thousand years ago, might have been four or five Chrysalis’s ago? I forget which one but anyway… a little over a thousand years ago, the two of us were dining together. What we ate is not important, but we both drank way too much cherry cordial – it was the drink to have back then before the Apple family made their cider famous,” he said rolling his eyes.
“We liked to give each other dares of things to do. With these long lives of ours, things can get boring without a little chaos,” he winked. “After she accomplished a dare I set for her, impersonating a solar guard and stealing away one of Princess Celestia’s extra crowns, it was her turn to dare me and she sure picked a humdinger!”
“She dared him that he couldn’t pretend to be a statue for one thousand years, exempting the need to help us if and when the time came,” Chrys grumbled.
“That she did old girl that she did!” Discord beamed, hugging us to him. Right, forgot he could hear Chrys too.
“Of course, if I was to take a dare like that I had to make it believable to everypony. To ‘go out with a bang’ if you will. So I let Lulu and KayKay use those little elements on me, then disguised myself to look like they turned me to stone. It was torturous at first, standing in one position night and day!” He moaned, holding a claw to his head. “But I persevered! I watched from my spot in the gardens as KayKay fought Nightmare Moon, and suffered through the cold of winter and heat of summer! My nose didn’t even twitch when those stupid pigeons made a nest on my head, year after year.”
“But then, what about when Twilight and her friends-”
“Became the bearers of the elements and turned me back to stone after a little chaos? More pretending! Aren’t I just the best at playing statues?” he chuckled. “I only ever moved when my little queenie needed me. Which wasn’t often.”
“Could have been more often, he left our entire hive trapped in a volcano for almost two hundred years! We barely survived off of the love the little creatures that lived in the volcano provided.”
“You didn’t really need me then Chrys, or well, the Chrysalis before you didn’t. I was only allowed to move if you were close to dying and needed to use the spell.” He frowned.
“Well we did come close right after we escaped the dragon!” Chrys yelled. “That’s actually when I came into the picture dearie. The hive might have survived that horrid volcano for two hundred years, but the previous Chrysalis couldn’t take anymore.”
I leaned back in the chair, thinking. “Does that mean the elements don’t affect you?”
“To an extent. I think they are part of what made me fall for my dear Fluttershy. But that is one thing I do not regret!” He stood stretching out his upper body to reach the ceiling. “Ahhh feels good to stretch. Come on, let’s go see if your little Shiny was able to convince Meep to come with us!”
“Meep? You mean Twinkleshine?”
“Of course!” He grinned, winking. “Meep is what I call her because she always ‘Meeps’ when she sees me,” he chuckles, and grabbing me again teleports us out of the room.