One day later,
The Changeling's Hive, home of the reformed changelings with its leaders King Thorax and Queen Twilight. It's has been over a year since Twilight married Thorax. And ever since then, Twilight doesn't leave the hive very often. But that doesn't mean that her friends can't come to visit her. Which is what Fluttershy is doing. She got the idea about seeing Twilight when Pinkie mentioned her yesterday. If anypony has an idea of getting somepony's attention from another species to like them, it would be her.
"Queen Twilight," A Guard Changeling said,
Queen Twilight or Twilight Sparkles to her friends. She wasn't always a changeling, but that all changed when she fell in love with the changeling King Thorax. Now she sits by his side, ruling the changeling hive. Twilight was in her bed chambers when the guard came to greet her. She lifts her head from her bed, annoyed at her title change. She just got used to being called a princess, "It is just Twilight. And yes?"
"One of your friends from Pony Ville wishes to see you."
"Oh! Send her in," Twilight was excited to see one of her friends again. Ever since she had her first batch of eggs, she hasn't moved from her bed in days. Her chambermaids said that this was very common for the Queen's first batch of eggs, so they didn't expect her to be moving around very much. They attend to her every need, so she didn't need to worry about starving or cleanliness. And during times that need her presence in the throne room or elsewhere, she would use a magic orb to talk to through and to ponies or creatures that the guards deemed unsafe for the Queen and the next generation of changelings.
The door opens to reveal Fluttershy, "Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, "it's so good to see you."
"It is good to see you too, Twilight. I mean, your highness." Fluttershy said, taking a bow.
"Please don't," She says, shaking her head, "it is just Twilight. I am not going to go with your highness stuff anytime soon."
"Okay, you- I mean Twilight," She corrects herself and then moves next to Twilight to see larva changelings crawling all over her. They were small things, as big as a mouse. They were mostly white with different color faces. She can see some of them are sticking to the one large egg in the middle of the bed where Twilight is shielding it with her legs.
Fluttershy moves in close to let one crawl onto her muzzle. She loves nature, so she is not the least bit scared or disgust with the larva crawling on the side of her face. "Oh, they all hatched."
"Most of them except for this one," Twilight said, showing her a large egg, the other changeling larvae are crawling over.
Fluttershy puts the larva down on Twilight and moves to look closely at this one egg. "Oh, is it a dud?" She asks, pointing at it. Fluttershy may be an expert in animals, but the changeling's lifestyle and lifecycle are still new.
Twilight glares a little as she moves her friends' hoof away from the egg, "No Fluttershy, quite the opposite. She is just sleeping; she is not ready to come out yet."
"I don't remember seeing this one the last I saw you. Was this laid recently?"
"Yes, she was. And Fluttershy, what the others have been telling me is that this one is a princess egg."
Fluttershy's eyes widened with glee, "A princess!"
"That is right. Soon I will have a little daughter of my own."
Fluttershy looks confused and sad at her friend's choice of words, "But what about all these little ones. Aren't they also your children too?"
Realizing what she was talking about, Twilight quickly corrected herself, "Oh, No Fluttershy! I didn't mean it like that! These little ones are my children, my little girls. But this one is special," She moves her head to cover it from the side, "I could feel it the moment she was laid."
"What? No boys? Is that normal?"
She nods at this, "Actually, the changelings' lifestyle follows the same idea of a termite colony where the workers are genderless, and only royal changelings can have offspring. But I like the idea of them being girls, so I am calling them girls."
Fluttershy looks up in thought, "I guess that makes sense."
The girls watch as the larvae crawl around the bed and each other. Occasional, one of the larvae would stop moving and sleep on Fluttershy's mane. Once more of the larvae started to go to sleep; Twilight used her magic to gather them together and bring them to her. Fluttershy smiles as she sees them yawn before closing their eyes and snuggles up to their mother. Talking in a low voice Twilight continues the conversation, "So how are things going?"
"Good,"
She nods at her friend with a smile, "And what brings you here today?"
Fluttershy rubs her forelegs together, embarrass, "Oh, I wanted your option on something."
"Okay, what is it?"
Fluttershy looks down to think about her words very carefully, "Do you think I am attractive?"
Twilight moves a little back away from her friend at this and gives her a blank stare, "Okay, Fluttershy, two things wrong with that. One I am a married mare and two, I don't swing that way."
She quickly shakes her head, "Oh my. That not what I meant."
"Oh, you mean in general?" Fluttershy nodded. Twilight puts a hoof to her chin in thought, "Well yes. I believe you are a beautiful mare. Is there a problem?"
Fluttershy looks away, "Well, I am not sure."
Twilight gives her friends a flat stare, "Did you tell Discord that you like him?"
She looks back at her friend, shocked, "WHAT!" She covers her mouth before looking that the babies hoping that she didn’t wake them up. Luckly they were sound asleep. Fluttershy lets out a sigh of relief before Twilight continue the conversation.
"Did you tell your crush that you like him?"
"I never said anything about him!"
"After that question, you asked me. There is not much information I could up with unless it involves the world of romance."
"Oh." She looks away in embarrassment,
"So, what is the problem?"
Meanwhile,
"You got this," Discord said to himself, pacing in front of Fluttershy little house.
He has been at this for the past hour. But then again, who can blame him? Everyone has to go through something like this when you are going to talk to somepony you like. He stops in front of the door to knock but stops halfway.
"Just get on with it!" a voice said,
"Huh?"
A small Discord with red horns and a pitchfork pops out of nowhere on to his shoulder. "How long are you going to wait here for, before you knock? Until the sun turns red. Just knock!"
"Who are you?"
"I am your subconscious. It has been a while, so you probably don't remember me."
Discord picks up his subconscious and holds him on top of his lion, paw, "You don't look the part."
"What are you talking about- oh this," He said, looking over himself, "I was in a hurry and grabbed the first outfit in the closet. I mean sure I could have shown up au naturel, but I didn't want to be here without something."
"But why is it the shoulder devil outfit?"
He put a claw to his eyes, shaking his head, "You have no idea how long that guy has been waiting to come out. We barely got him to relax and not get ready to pop out of nowhere. The moment you sneeze."
"Huh," he looks away, "I guess even the entity of chaos has a battle inside himself." He looks back at him, "So what is even your outfit anyway?"
"Hold that thought. You got some company." He said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Hi, Discord." A voice behind him said, startling him. He turns around to see the party pony of Pony Ville.
"Pinkie Pie." He said with a big fake smile, "What a surprise to see you here."
She can tell that his smile is a fake a mile away, but she has more important things to deal with at the moment, "I came to see if Fluttershy is home. Is she?"
"I don't know that."
"Well, I guess pacing in front of someponies house for over an hour without knocking and talking to your subconscious will do that."
"What?"
"Nothing." She said, dismissing the idea and walking inside the house with Discord following her,
Meanwhile, in Canterlot,
A pony was being thrown out of the throne room very fast by a sleepy-looking Princess Luna shouting after him.
"And the next time you try to court me in the throne room. I will haunt your dreams with nightmares until the day you die!"
"Sister." Celestia said, stopping the poor stallion from hitting the wall with her magic, "What are you still doing up?" she let's go of the stallion who leaves the scene as fast as possible.
"Oh, hello, sister." Luna then drinks from a cup using her magic and immediately perks up, "Did you know that you can stay awake for days with this new wonderful black liquid I found in the staff lounge room?!" Luna than runs back into the throne room, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. Celestia moves inside of the throne room to see ponies of different factions everywhere, with Luna going to each one of them, talking to them at speed similar to Pinkie Pie, and then moving on to the next.
Celestia must have been seeing things. There is no way that Luna has found out about coffee, could she? Not after the last time, she almost destroyed their castle and terrorized the ponies. I mean sure it was one of the cleanest courts around, but after seeing her sister like that. She now knows that there is such a thing as too much clean. Slowly Celestia tried to walk to her sister and reason with her hoping that Cafina hadn't returned. "Luna, how many cups did you have?"
Instead of answering, Cafina starts talking about something completely different while not looking at her sister, "I feel like I can solve all Equestria’s problems in one go. I feel like cliff jumping. Do you feel like cliff jumps? I want to run to Manehatten and back." She then stops in front of her sister momentarily, "Oh, and the staff tells me that we require something called coffee." She then moves back to the scared ponies.
"But we had over thirty boxes worth- LUNA!" Celestia screamed as she sees her sister finishing a pot of coffee in one go.
"I can see the future! Hahahahaha!" Cafina was promptly knock out when her sister hit her with the back of a guard's spear.
"Not going through that again," She then motions for two guards to take Luna to her chambers. “Well, now I know how my sister stayed up during my shift.”
Once they were gone, Celestia turns to addresses the remaining ponies in the room, "From now on, my sister is forbidden to have a drop of coffee. And anypony that mentions the word coffee in her sister's presents will be banished to the moon. Understand?" Everypony shook their heads in agreement.
"Good. Now, what hasn't my sister destroy in her caffeine state?" I hope everypony will be okay with the lack of coffee for a while.
"Hum, I guess she not here." Pinkie said, coming down from the upstairs, “Maybe she is hiding,”
"That is odd." Discord said as Angel Bunny glares at him from the couch. But then again, I could teleport to her, but that would be rude. Especially since the last time I did that without her knowledge, I caught her in the tub. He blushes at the memory, before shaking his head, "So, I can understand why I wanted to meet Fluttershy, but why are you here, Pinkie?"
Pinkie was lifting the couch above her head when she heard him, "Hum?” She looks back at him realizing that she was talking to somepony, “Oh.” She drops the couch back where it was scaring away some mice and one frighten Angel Bunny hanging onto for dear life, “Well we didn't finish our conversation yesterday,”
“I guess that makes sense, but this house doesn’t,” He said looking around the house. Everything was still a mess the last time Pinkie Pie was here.
“Maybe Fluttershy forgot to clean up here before she left,” Pinkie suggested,
“And that what is making me worried. I may not have been Fluttershy’s friend as long as you girls, but even I know that even she has a tidy home,” He snaps his fingers to return the house to a more friendly and familiar atmosphere, “Much better.” He uses his magic again to restock Fluttershy’s pantry and fridge, “So what were you two talking about?”
Pinkie wasn’t told to keep a secret of Fluttershy’s crush on Discord. After all, all their friends have already shipped them together. But even she knows that telling Discord any hints would be a bad idea, “Can’t say.”
Discord stopped mid-act of giving Angel Bunny a carrot the size of a couch causing the poor bunny to jump in vain for his meal. He looks back at Pinkie confused, “As in the conversation didn’t make any sense. Or that you can’t tell me?”
“Both.”
“Come on Pinkie,” He drops the carrot as every animal in the house rushes in to eat it whole, “It’s me. Discord. Lord of Chaos,” he moves in close trying to pry the secret loss, “And the inventor of chocolate rain.” He said making the object of Pinkie’s dream appear before her eyes as she gulps.
She stares intensely at the pink cotton candy cloud and licks her chops. She looks back at Discord and his gift several time with a crazy look grow in her eyes as a battle rage on in her head. If she tells him then he will know that Fluttershy likes him, but if she doesn’t she will lose the cotton candy cloud. And who knows when will be the next time she will ever see it again. But her friendship with Fluttershy! But Cotton Candy Cloud!
Discord smiles smugly at her knowing that he got her, “Well?” Pinkie then start shaking causing Discord to back up, “Uh, Pinkie?”
Pinkie the jumps into the air shouting, “I can’t Choose, don’t make me choose! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” she bolts out of the house in a blur of pink as the door slams behind her.
Discord’s subconscious pop into existence wearing the shoulder angel outfit, "Are you sure you didn't create her by accident?"
Discord looks at his subconscious, "I have done many things in my time, but I think I would have remembered if I made a pony basic off myself. Oh well, I wonder how Celestia is doing?" In a flash of light, he was gone.
Meanwhile, back with Fluttershy and Twilight,
Fluttershy had told Twilight everything. Form her crush on Discord (which she already knew) to finding the list of mares he was interested in. "That is a big problem, Fluttershy."
"I know, but I don't know what to do." She falls to the ground resting her head on her hooves,
Twilight looks over the side of her bed before using her magic to pick up her friend, "Well, the answer is simple; get him to notice you,” Fluttershy was about to say something, but Twilight interrupted her, “And before you say anything, it means you are going to have to be the one who makes the first move."
Fluttershy starts to panic, "But I don't know how to do that."
"But that is how most ponies feel when they want to start a relationship. Look, Fluttershy, I didn't know what I was doing when I was dating Thorax, and I am one of the smartest ponies you have ever meet, and yet here I am.” She gestured around her. Fluttershy looks around the room to see what Twilight was talking about, and then her eyes settle on Twilight’s family. They look so happy and peaceful, which causes the mare to smile a little before Twilight continues.
“Just do what you feel is right. No pony ever said you have to tell him how you feel about him at the end of the week or somepony else is going to snatch him away from you." As soon as she said this, Twilight thinks to herself. Now that I think about it, why was I only given a week? In hindsight, that seems like a small time frame. What would have happened if we only were given one date instead? As Twilight was lost in thought, Fluttershy spoke out loud.
"And if that happens?"
Twilight snapped out of it and said the first thing on her mind, "Oh, then you have to tell him, or it is game over, and you will never have his heart."
Fluttershy eyes widen She is right. If I don’t do anything that shows Discord that I like him, he might fall for one of the mares on his list. He already said that he is making friends on his own. What if he has already made friends with one of those mares! She starts to hyperventilate. And what if she tells him that she likes him before I even get a chance to tell him how I feel!
Twilight looks at her friend with worried, “Ah Fluttershy, are you okay?”
Without saying anything, Fluttershy runs out of the room, shouting behind her, "I got to go!" As she did, Twilight called out to her,
"Wait, come back here and linger. I haven't had a decent conversation in days!" And just like that, the larvae wake up crying, "Ah nuts. Thorax!"
Meanwhile, in one of canterlot’s meeting rooms,
Celestia had finished apologies to the ponies that had the unfortunate to meet her sister high on caffeine. And now, she is having a meeting discussing the current national problems that their kingdom is facing. The recent disappearance of Tirek and Cozy Glow from Tartarus.
"There has been no news about the criminals still at large, your highness-" a secretary pony said before Discord pop up next to the pony startling him.
"Hello." Discord said before he was caught in Celestia's magic.
"Discord, I am in the middle of a meeting." He was going to say something, but Celestia stops him, "No, buts, sir. Unless you know where Tirek and Cozy Glow are currently at, it can wait." She then puts him outside the throne room and closes the doors behind her. Not seeing the look of nervous on his face. He shakes his head out of it before leaning against the door.
"Spoilsport, you never seem to change, huh, Tia?" His statement gave himself a moment of pause, When was the last time I ever called her that? Well, ponies say that you never forget your first. He shrugs to himself, "I will just wait here and see what happens." He floats in the air before settling on the back of a guard pony who didn't notice that he was on top of him. Discord looks to his left to see a painting. It was a picture of a lake with some logs nearby it. He chuckles to himself, "That takes me back." He looks backs at the painting to see a younger version of himself sleeping inside of a painting, fishing with an angry-looking Celestia staring at him from outside the painting.
"Discord, come out of that painting this instant, you hear me!"
"No, can do, Tia." He waves a claw at her, "I am in the middle of catching some z's"
"And My name is not TIA! It's Celestia! Princess Celestia!"
"Whatever, Tia. HAY!"
Celestia has grabbed the painting in her magic and was shaking, making Discord flying around the canvas, hitting the sides. "You will address me as my title, Princess!" Discord came out of the picture before boobing her on the nose with his paw. She stops her outburst and blushes.
"Not going to happen, Tia." He smiles and flies down the hall with an enrage Celestia chasing him.
Discord sighs, "Yeah, good times."