The duo were back at Sugarcube corner, ice cream instead of cupcakes this time. They had their favorite flavors again, but looked miserable.
“We went all over solving problems, and that dumb map still won’t let us off the hook!” complained Discord very audibly.
“Well, yeah, it’s a bummer...” said Sunset. “I can’t even try to think about what the map wants us to do anymore, my brain hurts.”
Discord crossed his arms. “I say we take a break from talking or even thinking about it!”
“Agreed.”
“Agreed!”
They sat there enjoying their respective ice cream cones, neither of them thinking of anything to say for almost two minutes. Discord was the first to break the silence.
“So what was so important that you see the Princess of Friendship immediately?” he prodded. “Must be quite the urgent--”
“Whoa, buddy. I abhor you less than I did an hour ago, but we’re not quite that far yet.” Sunset said. “A girl’s gotta have her secrets.”
“I guess it is unreasonable for me to expect you to divulge that private info so easily,” said Discord, shrugging. “Just thought it’d be an interesting story.”
They sat awkwardly again for a minute. Sunset sighed and spoke.
“I breached someone’s trust. About as hard as you can.”
Discord stopped eating his ice cream through his ears, wiped his nose and looked at Sunset intently. There was no mockery or condescending aura in his eyes or voice.
“Go on.”
“Back home...I have a geode I wear around my neck. It allows me to see into a person’s mind, their thoughts, their feelings, their experiences, when I make physical contact.”
“Now you’ve really got me hooked in whatever story you’re about to tell!” Discord said with excitement.
“Heh,” Sunset chuckled. “I had just gotten to school, and saw that my friend Rarity--”
Discord looked confused.
“Er, not the one you know,” said Sunset. “Different Rarity, but similar. It’s--never mind. Anyways, I saw that she seemed down...unusually down. Usually when she’s down, she’s ready to get dramatic and tell everyone her woes in glorious fashion; But instead she had...closed herself off. It was so unlike her.... I wasn’t thinking, and...I touched her arm to see what was wrong. I saw...something I wasn’t really supposed to see.” she said, getting sad all of a sudden. “Something really personal.”
“Ooh, tell me!” squealed Discord.
“I’m not going to tell you. It had to do with her family, and...she was distraught over it. Not the ‘Darlings I’m simply distraught and must eat ice cream!’ kind of distraught...it was deeper than that. When I looked into her mind, saw what it was...she immediately screamed and pulled her arm away and got...mad. Like really mad. I realized immediately I messed up, and started to tell her I was sorry, but she didn’t even let me finish. She just...left. I tried apologizing, asking her to wait, but she just stormed off...she gave me one last look before she turned the hall, and it wasn’t a good look at all. It was…”
Sunset was anxious and couldn’t find the words. Discord finished her thought.
“...the sort of look that says, ‘I’ll never trust you again.’,” suggested Discord.
“Yes,” Sunset confirmed with grief.
“I’ve gotten that look before. From my closest friend. It hurt.”
“What did you do?” asked Sunset.
“Oh, I betrayed her and her friends to a magic-stealing villain. Put them in a cage so their magic could be taken away. Was responsible for them being imprisoned and used as leverage against Princess Twilight.”
“...oh.”
“Yeahhh, not my greatest moment…” Discord admitted. “She was willing to forgive me. It took time for us to be on full ‘tea date’ terms again, but...Fluttershy has a special kind of compassion in her heart. Something truly special, so mystifying, so...nonsensical, even to a creature like me who gets the things that don’t make sense.” said Discord with a bit of a laugh, and wonder in his eyes. “Any creature who has that in their heart...that spark of...you know..”
“Love?”
“Eeuulcchhh!! Yes, that!!” said Discord disgusted. “Didn’t think you’d actually say it… but Fluttershy gives it away so unconditionally. I don’t get it, but...I’m willing to fight for it, to keep it nearby.” Discord said. “See here, that look you got may have been the worst, and you may think it’s impossible for them to forgive you…”
“But you’re saying she’ll forgive me and still be my friend?” Sunset asked with hope.
“Who knows. May keep hating your guts,” said Discord casually. Sunset looked shocked. Discord rolled his eyes and said:
“Look, I don’t know this ‘Rarity’ who’s not Rarity! I can’t tell you if she’ll forgive you, and it’s not like you can force out true forgiveness. The only thing that can tell you...is time.” Discord said. “Time...reveals all, and heals all too, if healing is there to be found.”
Sunset mulled on this for a moment. She looked up at Discord, deep in thought. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and said:
“I’m sorry.”
“Hm? Sorry for what?”
“I’m...sorry for those harsh things I said at you, back at Princess Twilight’s castle,” Sunset elaborated. “I told you some pretty mean things, when you were trying to be helpful to Twilight.”
“Oh, forget about that.” Discord waved his claw dismissively. “Had I truly been selfless like you said, I would have asked Twilight long before trying to put in security.”
“You aren’t the first to try and help her with that,” said Sunset with a chuckle. “I guess we both need to be sure we’re not crossing boundaries, even with good intentions.”
“I’ll slurp to that,” Discord said, raising his ice cream cone and guzzling the chaos-flavored treat. Sunset giggled. Suddenly, a flashing caught her eye. It was her cutie mark! She looked up and saw that Discord’s horns were flashing in a similar way!
“Discord, your horns! My cutie mark!” Sunset exclaimed.
“We...did it?”
“We did it, we solved the friendship problem!”
“Friendship problem? What friendship problem?!? There isn’t anypony here but us!”
“I...wait, you’re right,” Sunset affirmed. “That is odd....unless…”
“What is it?” Discord inquired.
Sunset’s eyes widened in realization, then she chuckled a bit, putting a hoof to her forehead, shaking her noggin slightly.
“Well don’t leave me in suspense over here!”
“Discord…” she opened her eyes, smiling at him. “We were the friendship problem.”
“Uh...what?”
“We were getting mad at each other, refusing to give the other a fair chance.” said Sunset. “The map wanted us to reconcile.”
“Well, the map could be a bit less cryptic! All it did was say we needed to solve a friendship problem in Ponyville!”
“Exactly. If the map had just told us what to do…” Sunset thought out loud. “We would have just apologized, and never would have spoken again, most likely.”
“Okay, you’re right, that’s exactly what I would have done,” confirmed Discord shamelessly.
“But sending us on a friendship mission here in Ponyville...we were forced to understand other ponies together, solve their problems, see the way we solve problems in action...we started to understand one another, and once we did, we were able to accomplish something neither of us probably could have accomplished alone. We were able to get to where we could freely forgive each other without somepony telling us to.”
“Okay, seriously...how are you so different from Twilight, and basically her at the same time? That sounded like a Twilight speech, but more...you. Wait, what am I even saying!?”
Sunset laughed and shrugged. “I guess we’re on a similar level like that. Still our own ponies, though,” she remarked pleasantly.
“Speaking of Twilight, I have--”
Time passed, and Discord and Sunset had returned themselves to Twilight’s castle.
“--some choice things to say to you, princess!”
Princess Twilight sipped her tea smugly, relaxed in a chair. “The two of you worked together, and accomplished your mission, yes?”
“Twilight, I saw you look at the map in a weird way when we were called...you knew exactly what the map was trying to do, didn’t you?” asked Sunset with a knowing smirk.
“Princess of Friendship,” she said pointing to herself with a hoof. “I had a pretty good guess...but the map clearly didn’t want me involved, so all I could do was get you to follow its instructions. Sounds like I did my job."
“So you purposely withheld information to accomplish an objective?” asked Discord, slightly in awe, and aghast. “I...that’s usually what I do! I’m a bit mad and proud at the same time, Twilight!”
“I did send you both to Sugarcube Corner first,” Twilight pointed out. “You had the chance to genuinely make up and befriend each other then. Did you?”
Discord and Sunset both averted their eyes awkwardly.
“That’s what I thought,” Twilight said, confident. “But you two are friends now, right?”
Sunset and Discord looked at one another. Discord extended his lion’s paw.
“Sorry. Shouldn’t have messed with Twilight’s stuff like that, and gassed you and what not.”
Sunset met the paw with her hoof and they shook.
“Sorry for getting all mad and saying all that stuff about you.” said Sunset. “All said and done, I actually...kind of enjoyed myself today.”
“As did I...but don’t think you’ll see me in judge’s robes again anytime soon.”
“Judge’s robes?” Twilight asked, clearly confused but wanting more details.
Sunset giggled. “I’ll let him explain it to you. I’ve gotta get home and...hope that Rarity will forgive me.”
Princess Twilight smirked and said, “Sunset, I don’t know what you did, but...Rarity has forgiven you for probably much worse. I think she’ll find it in her to forgive you again, for whatever it was. If you need to talk about it, don’t be afraid to use the journal.”
“Of course! And...I think she’ll forgive me too...” said Sunset with glowing optimism. She turned her attention to the tall draconequus that looked so different from her and Twilight, yet somehow did not look out of place. “Discord...it was…”
“A weird and crazy time?” Discord asked.
“Weird and interesting,” Sunset said. “But...not unenjoyable. I guess...we are kind of friends now?”
Discord sighed with a weird comfort and gave a sheepish grin.
“That sounds about right.”
Sunset turned to go through the mirror, but then turned around, went up to Discord and hugged him with one arm. “What you said was really….wise. I’ll remember it. Thank you.”
“Eh, no big deal.”
Sunset skipped over to the mirror portal, giving Discord and Princess Twilight a big friendly smile and a wave before stepping through. The draconequus and alicorn looked on with pleased expressions, then looked at each other.
“So…” Discord began. “Eh heh, about--”
“Get whatever you put into my castle out of it right now, Discord,” Twilight said, almost a bit too cheerfully and calmly.
“You got it.”
The End