It was beginning to get late at Twilight Sparkle’s castle as the moon was shining brightly through one of the crystal castle’s windows, reflecting on to the cutie map table that was once being used for Ogres and Oubliettes. Spike was currently packing everything away after a long guys night and wished his two friends Big Macintosh and Discord a wonderful rest of their evening as they exited out of the castle into the night.
Big Mac and Discord paused for a moment to say goodbye to each other as well as the large red stallion went separate ways, trotting back to his farm. Discord watched him leave as he let out a sigh. Not of exhaustion but satisfied with how his night went. He had fun tonight and it was always great to get together with his friends. It was better than spending all his nights alone like he used to. Better than being alone at all actually.
A small smile formed on his face as he lifted his claw, preparing to teleport himself back to his dimension-
“Hey, Discord!”
He jumped a little, a bit startled by hearing his name being shouted so suddenly since it was so quiet right now and everypony was asleep. He turned around and looked upwards, searching for whoever called his name and saw Starlight Glimmer resting herself on her bedroom window sill and looking down at him.
“Ah, if it isn’t Miss Glimmer. Watching someone without their consent especially at this hour is a little creepy, don’t you think?” Discord said, crossing his arms as a mischievous grin appeared on his face.
“Standing outside of Twilight’s castle doing nothing is even creepier, don’t you think?” Starlight smiled playfully back.
“Well, if you put it that way, fair enough. However, I was just leaving from my guys night to go home so if you would excuse me.” Discord replied, raising his claw again to snap.
“Wait! Before you go, I wanted to ask if you would do me a favor.”
“A favor? If this favor turns into me being your personal slave in the future, I want no part in it. I’ve already had enough ponies abuse my wonderful powers in the past.”
“If you think I’m going to pull what I did at my old village, you’re terribly mistaken. In fact, that’s a rather low thought coming from you.” Starlight said, seeming a bit offended now.
“Well, as long as you’re not slapping an equal cutie mark on me and telling me I’m the same as everypony else then what’s the little favor?” Discord asked, teleporting up to Starlight and levitating in the air a few inches from her window.
Starlight only rolled her eyes as she turned around and shifted through a few things in her room before she levitated a purple wizard hat with light blue and yellow stars on it towards Discord. Discord could have sworn he had seen this hat before..
“I think Trixie accidentally dropped her hat the last time she was here. I picked it up on the ground outside before I headed up here to go to bed which is kind of weird because she treasures this thing. I would return it to her myself but I have to get up early tomorrow to assist Twilight at the School of Friendship so I was kind of hoping you would be open to returning it to her?..” Starlight said, smiling sheepishly as she levitated the wizard hat in front of Discord’s face now.
“Glimmer, I think you’re just being lazy at this point.” Discord replied with an unamused look. “Besides, she’s probably already asleep at this point.”
“No, really! I do need to sleep right now. And..If she is asleep, you could always just leave her hat at her wagon. She’ll see it in the morning when she gets up.”
Discord sighed and yanked the wizard hat out of Starlight’s magic, holding it in his lion paw now. “Where’s her wagon..” Discord asked in a monotone voice.
“Over there to the left.” Starlight answered, pointing to a purple and blue wagon to the left of Twilight’s castle.
“Doesn’t she have a real house?..”
“I asked her but she said no. She prefers living in a home she can move around with rather than staying put. Which, I suppose makes sense since she’s a traveling magician.” Starlight explained.
“Right..” The draconequus sighed, floating down to the ground. “Goodnight, good evening, whatever.”
Discord could hear Starlight’s small voice in the distance as he teleported closer to Trixie’s wagon but couldn’t hear exactly what she was saying. From the tone, she sounded rather annoyed by his sort of rude exit but he didn’t really care. He just wanted to be done with this silly little ‘chore’ as fast as he could and head straight home.
The grass crunched underneath him as he reached the door to Trixie’s wagon. The door was locked shut while the windows were closed as well. He would have been able to see inside through the window if she didn’t have purple curtains in the way blocking his view. He could just knock on the door or perhaps open the lock himself with his magic but why would he put so much effort into that? He didn’t really care for Trixie. She was another pony in his life that meant nothing to him. Why try and interact with somepony who he was nothing to.
He stood there outside her door for a moment, just holding the wizard hat in his paw. He felt a small twinge of guilt for thinking like that as he placed her hat down on the ground at her door. Hopefully she wouldn’t step on it in the morning. He turned around and went to go leave when he suddenly heard something like glass shatter inside her wagon.
“Huh?..” He turned around, looking at her wagon confused.
He suddenly heard sobbing inside the wagon. It was obviously none other than Trixie’s sobbing. His ears lowered a bit upon hearing her cry as he sneakily ducked behind her wagon and pressed his ear against it, trying to listen in further. He heard something drop and the sound of paper being ripped to pieces, along with Trixie’s continued sobbing. This didn’t seem normal for the show pony at all..Since when was she so emotional like this?
He stood up now and walked to the door again, squeezing his paw tightly into a fist. He couldn’t believe what he was about to do..
He knocked on her door. “Trixie, are you alright? I’m just asking because um..I mean..It sounds like there’s a cat in there knocking all your stuff over and tearing something to shreds. Not like I uh..Care at all or anything.”
The noise and Trixie’s crying suddenly stopped after that as there was a moment of silence.
“Trixie?..I can get rid of the cat if you want me to. I have magic you know. Those pesky things certainly do make a mess wherever they go.” He laughed awkwardly.
“Go away.” Trixie’s voice suddenly came out of the wagon.
“Go away? Now, is that anyway to treat a-”
“GO AWAY!”
Discord jumped a bit as he stared at her wagon with a bit of a concerned look. His ears lowered as he decided to just sit on the grass beside her wagon instead, holding her hat. She may have wanted him to leave but he had a feeling that wasn’t entirely true. Besides, he had some time to spare. He could at least try to talk to Trixie.
“Look, I know you want me to leave but..I’m just going to sit beside your wagon instead. No harm in doing that, right?”
There was no response.
“Well um, your annoying friend, Starlight gave me your hat because she found it or something. Apparently it means a lot to you?”
There was no response again.
“Wow, I was hoping you would leave your wagon to come get it or something. I’m guessing you don’t want it anymore?”
And as predicted, no response. Discord put the wizard hat on his head. It barely fit him because of his large horns but it rested on his head slightly.
“I guess I have to be the new Trixie now since you don’t want it.” Discord said, standing up and doing a dramatic pose. “I am the new Great and Powerful Trixie!” He said, in a girly voice as fireworks set off out of nowhere into the sky, exploding into beautiful colors.
Discord adjusted the hat on his head as it almost fell off from one of his horns. “Oh right, I forgot to talk in third person when I was doing that. I guess I’m not a great Trixie after all. But I know who isss--”
“Just keep the hat. I don’t want it anymore.” Trixie suddenly said, her voice breaking slightly as she said that.
“What? What an odd thing for you to say. You were talking normally when you said that as well. What happened to my great and powerful rival?”
“Why do you even care? You shouldn’t care. All you do is make jokes and have fun and act like nothing matters to you. I’m sure me crying like this is entertainment to you..Maybe that’s why you’re here. Go ahead, laugh at me all you want and say I’m a joke..Everypony else thinks so too.”
“Why would anypony say you’re a joke? The only real joke here is me.” Discord replied, grinning to himself.
There was a silence again as Trixie stopped responding. Discord sighed, knowing that if he kept doing this, she most likely wouldn’t talk to him. He had to be serious, at least just this once.
“Look..If anypony is telling you that you’re a joke and purposely laughing at you to make you feel bad then you shouldn’t pay much attention to it. Ponies like that aren’t worth your time and shouldn’t be acknowledged.”
“That’s easy for you to say, it seems like nothing bothers you at all. And if it does, you get over it really fast. Somepony could scream in your face and you would just laugh. I don’t know how you do it..”
Discord sighed. “If it makes you feel better..I’ll admit something I don’t really like to say. I..Well..Things do bother me..On the inside. It's easy for me to smile and play around and pretend everything’s fine because that’s what I do on a regular basis. But..Things do still hurt me like they hurt you. I just would rather show that pony that their little comment did nothing to me and that they were pathetic for thinking it would.”
“And you’re really good at that..Me, Thorax, Starlight..We never would have known that until you said it now.”
“Well, now you do. And from my experience from living for thousands of years, there hasn’t been one pony I met that didn’t have a breaking point. I learned this from Fluttershy that it's rather unhealthy for a pony to suppress their emotions. So..It’s not bad to break down. It just means you’re letting go of something you held in for so long.”
“I suppose that’s true..” Trixie said.
There was a pause as Discord suddenly heard Trixie’s door unlock and open. The blue unicorn stepped outside with puffy red eyes and a messy mane as she sat down beside Discord.
“Comment on my horrible appearance all you want. You’ve earned it I guess.”
“Nah, I don’t feel like it. Not really joke worthy.”
“Wow, that’s surprising coming from you.”
Discord only laughed as him and Trixie sat on the grass, staring up at the moon in silence.
“So..What happened that caused you to be so..’Bleh’..”
Trixie sighed. “I had a magic show recently in Appleloosa. I guess the country folk aren’t very fond of magic tricks because they laughed at me and threw apples at me. I ran off stage and hid in my wagon for the rest of the night. That was the last straw for me..I’m done being a traveling magician from now on.”
“Why would you give up something you’re so passionate about? It’s literally a part of your personality.”
“Because I don’t want to do something that only makes other ponies hate me and insult me.”
“But not everypony hates it. Starlight likes it..At least..I think so? I mean, she’s your friend so I’m sure she likes you for who you are.”
“Starlight’s only one pony..My job is reaching out to thousands of ponies at one time and bringing them entertainment that they enjoy. They’re not enjoying it..”
Trixie suddenly felt Discord place his claw and paw on her shoulders as she looked up, seeing him in front of her.
“It shouldn’t matter if other ponies are enjoying it or not. It’s something you like to do. A little magic show isn’t harming anyone so why should it matter what they say or think. There’s a lot of ponies who hate me for who I am, but do I care? No, I don’t. The only ponies who matter to me are the ones who like me for me. That’s all who should matter to you too. Starlight likes you, Thorax likes you...I like you.”
“What?..” Trixie’s eyes widened.
“So stop making me get all sappy here because we all know that this is who you are and this is who you should be. Don’t change yourself for anypony else!”
Trixie just stared up at him in shock. Discord seemed to be getting rather emotional as he wiped a few tears from his eyes and sat back down beside her.
“Sorry..That just reminded me of myself from the past a little bit. I uh..Didn’t mean to go full ‘Twilight mode’ on you there.” Discord said, dabbing at his eyes a bit and trying to hide his tears.
Trixie suddenly threw her arms around Discord and started sobbing into his chest. This was a new side of Trixie that Discord would have never expected to see. Neither did he ever think he would find himself in this situation ever. But..He was here. As much as he didn’t like being sappy and crying, there was a time and place for everything and perhaps now was the time for him to let go of that.
He hugged Trixie tightly to himself and sighed, placing his lion paw in her mane and gently stroking it.
“I-I’m..S-Sorry..You don’t..K-Know how much..I-I needed to hear that.” Trixie said, continuing to cry into him.
“It's fine..I understand. These kinds of things aren’t really easy to deal with and I get that. Just know that you aren’t the first one who’s dealt with the disapproval of others..”
Trixie continued to cry for a little while longer before she calmed down a bit, resting on him now with her head on his chest. She didn’t really realize how close she was now with the creature who used to annoy her the most and compete against her constantly. She still didn’t really get why he was being so nice to her..Or..Maybe she did know why and just didn’t really piece it together just yet. All she knew was she enjoyed being like this for some odd reason.
“Are you feeling any better now after that?..”
“Yeah..I think a lot better now.”
“Good because my chest is soaked. If you just asked for a tissue, I could have snapped you up one but noooo, Discord’s chest is a better substitute.” Discord complained as he began ringing his chest fur out like a wet towel, a waterfall of water came out onto the grass as flowers bloomed out of the grass where the water was poured onto.
Trixie snorted and suddenly burst out laughing and Discord smiled a bit.
“Laughing is a good medicine for sadness.” He said, grinning.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie agrees.”
“Ahh, there’s my Trixie. I was starting to wonder where you went.” He said as he placed her wizard hat on her head now.
“Trixie was taking a short break but Trixie feels much better now. She is now ready to plan for her next magic show!”
“And where’s that magic show going to be?”
“In Ponyville of course. Trixie has great supporters there such as her friend Starlight along with the great Lord of Chaos, Discord.” She smiled at him.
“My, my, you say my name with great honor. Discord would be pleased to attend. Perhaps even help.”
“Trixie will make sure to give you the special backstage pass.”
“And what sort of benefits does the backstage pass give?”
“This.”
Trixie suddenly kissed him on the cheek quickly and pranced off into her wagon, shutting the door. Discord’s wings suddenly poofed out at his sides and his face turned a slight pink color.
“Hey, you can’t just do that and run off! That’s not fair!” Discord complained.
“If you liked it so much, you have the backstage pass. After Trixie’s magic show tomorrow, Trixie would be happy to give you more~”
“Yeah well Discord is pretty mad that he has to wait until then.” Discord pouted, crossing his arms.
“Fineeee..Trixie will give you one more.”
Her wagon opened as Discord was now waiting outside of it. Trixie stood on a stool from her wagon to get to his height as she leaned over and gave him a long kiss on the lips. Trixie could have swore she heard a cat purr come from the draconequus as they kissed. She then stopped, smiling up at him.
“That’s enough for now. See you tomorrow, Discord.”
She shut her door as Discord sighed, his heart still beating fast from the wonderful moment they just shared. As he returned home, he couldn’t stop thinking about what he just did and how he felt. Never in a million years would he think of kissing that mare and liking it..A lot. Trixie and him now had a new kind of relationship together that would surely change things between them forever. But he enjoyed this new change. He was now in love with the pony he called his rival, Trixie Lulamoon.