"Wait, you're telling me that you actually befriended the spirit of chaos and disharmony?" Starlight blinked in surprise as she paused in what had previously been a gentle stroll up to Fluttershy's cottage. Hearing Twilight of all ponies mention someone Starlight had assumed was just an old legend was, needless to say, quite a shock to her system.
Twilight somewhat nervously replied. "Well, I don't know if 'befriended' is really the word I would use. Fluttershy's the one who did the most work into getting him to actually want to be nice. And he hasn't always been exactly 'friendly'."
"I fail to see where you're going with this, Twilight." Starlight replied to the alicorn.
The young princess gave off a giggle that did nothing to mask her continued nervousness. "Well, I just sort of figured you should know about it just in case Discord so happens to drop by. It's not a Tuesday, so that helps."
The unicorn mare paused in her tracks and blinked anew as she reluctantly inquired. "Why? Does he hate Tuesdays or something? I mean, I know a lot of ponies don't like Mondays but I guess Tuesdays aren't always better."
Twilight immediately (and perhaps more urgently than she intended) responded by saying. "Oh no no no, it's got nothing at all to do with that. The thing is, Discord and Fluttershy tend to have Tuesdays reserved for teas. They even call 'em Tuesdays Teas, and all our friends know about it. Also, Discord isn't exactly a pony. He's a draconequus."
"A what now?" Starlight questioned as she rubbed her ears, wondering if perhaps she had misheard Twilight.
"A draconequus," Twilight answered, confirming to her new student that she had not in fact misspoken. "It's a creature made up of parts of a lot of other creatures: An eagle's paw as well as a lion's one, a snake's tail, a pony head and bat and manticore wings. You really can't miss him, especially since he's the only one of his kind as far as I know. Probably should consider asking him if there are others out there, for research purposes only of course."
The unicorn mare with a light grayish-purple coat forced back a gulp, sweating just a tiny bit. "Why would you tell me about him now if he's not supposed to show up? As if Fluttershy didn't give me enough reasons to be afraid of her with her stare and her being the one who exposed me back at my old village. Now she's friends with some freakish mismatch of a creature?" She all but exclaimed.
The young alicorn opted to immediately shush her new student. "Easy, Starlight. You don't wanna risk offending him if he's around. With him, you never can tell," And she then explained her motivation for mentioning the aforementioned chaos maker. "I told you all this specifically so you can be ready. You two are going to have to meet someday."
Starlight then firmly declared as she gestured a hoof. "Yeah? Well I hope that someday is far, far away! In fact, I now have half a mind to just turn around and go back to the castle. Fluttershy can come there to see me. I don't wanna go anywhere near her cottage if there's a chance some crazy spirit is gonna show up unexpectedly!"
As if the very universe itself had heard that statement and the cosmic forces decided to intervene against Starlight for making such a statement, at that moment there came a sudden gust of wind and a clap of thunder (despite there not being a cloud in the sky)! The ground began to shake rather violently as a huge cloud of smoke seemed to materialize from out of nowhere!
Starlight instinctively dove for cover! "What in the wide world of Equestria's going on?!" She thought to herself while shaking with fright.
Twilight was not as disturbed as her student. In fact, had said student been looking she might have seen her new mentor wearing a sort of half smile/half frown on her face. She had a pretty good idea of what or rather who was behind this sudden interruption to what had been a normal fair weather day in Ponyville.
A wacky and goofy sounding voice suddenly spoke up from the smoke. "Ooh, definitely came in a bit too hot with that landing! Gonna need to fix that for next time. And there will be a next time."
"Discord, how unexpected of you to drop by," Twilight commented as her half smile morphed into a full frown. "And by unexpected I mean completely expected. It's just like you to show up like this," And without waiting for a reply she turned to Starlight, instructing to the mare. "It's okay, Starlight. It's just Discord, the very creature I was just telling you about."
Reluctantly, Starlight opened her eyes and lifted her hooves from her face. "You sure it's safe?" She inquired of her fellow mare. As she rose up, she could see that "Discord" was exactly as Twilight had described him, and then some: His fur was light brown at the top, dark brown near the bottom and red on the tail except for the tip (which was white). His eyes were extremely light yellow but had crimson colored pupils. Suffice it to say, he cut quite a figure.
"Of course it's safe." Twilight replied.
"Yeah," Discord chimed in. "I don't bite! Obviously, Twilight has left a few 'important' details about me out. Leave it to the princess to do that. But I don't blame her, there's a lot of me to take in!" He promptly snapped his talons, making himself be surrounded by copies of himself that had cameras focusing on him not unlike a celebrity.
Starlight Glimmer hesitantly forced herself to summon the courage to speak up. "So, you're... Discord was it? I guess that means I should introduce myself," She cleared her throat. "I'm Starlight Glimmer, and uh... I'm... well, I guess I'm the official student of Princess Twilight. Of course, she insists I just call her Twilight in these situations, gotta get used to that."
The draconequus rubbed his eyes, eyeballs and all. "Ah, good. For a moment there I actually kind of mistook you for Twilight without her wings. You two do look identical at first glance. No offense."
The young alicorn quickly gave the response. "None taken, Discord. This is your first time meeting Starlight, after all."
"Oh, I know," Discord answered with a nod, promptly bowing his head. "Any friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine. I mean, that's what I'm supposed to say. I'm kind of still getting used to this whole 'friendship' business. It's oh so complicated. And I'm the spirit of chaos and disharmony, I thrive on making things complicated!" He proceeded to literally make his body go to pieces, and then literally pull itself back together all in the blink of an eye.
Starlight hesitantly questioned. "Wait, you're still the spirit of chaos and disharmony?! How are you friends with Twilight and the others?! Aren't you supposed to want to take Equestria all for yourself or something? I mean, that's what the legends all say. I didn't actually think they were real."
Immediately, Discord declared in dramatic fashion! "Whoa, whoa! Hold your horses, girl, or whatever it is you ponies like to hold," He proceeded to snort, a few puffs of steam escaping his nostrils when he did so. Once he was certain Starlight had more or less calmed down, he went on speaking. "Obviously, you haven't heard yet. I'm not a bad guy anymore. That was then and this is now. Now I'm 'reformed'," Under his breath he then added. "More or less, anyway."
"Discord!" Twilight glared, having overheard the intended silent remark.
The chaos maker whined. "Okay, fine, I'm completely reformed. After all, I suppose I have helped save Equestria at least once. And I've come to realize that there are benefits to using my magic for good instead of evil."
"Wait, you're reformed?" Starlight blinked in surprise.
"Yes, I'm reformed! Did I stutter?! Is there an echo in here?!" The witty spirit questioned while adjusting his ears, producing a cotton swab out of what seemed to be nowhere and discarding it just as mysteriously as he had produced it.
The unicorn mare swallowed hard, preparing to take a big leap forward with her next statement. "Well, I'm sort of reformed myself. Obviously not for as long as you though, I only started about a week or two ago. Can't believe it's been that long already."
Discord responded by having his mouth quite literally drop open in shock and surprise! "You're kidding me! You're reformed too?! I'm not the only one anymore?!"
Now it was Starlight's turn to ask the questions. "Uh, I guess so. I mean, I wasn't speaking a foreign language or something, was I? You heard what I said, right?"
"Please, don't try to turn my words back on me! It's not as funny the second time around," Discord complained as he closed up his mouth and cleared his throat. "Yes, I heard you quite clearly. But it's still definitely a surprise to learn that there's someone else who's in the 'Used to bad but now I'm good' camp. It's actually kind of nice."
"The feeling's mutual, I think." The mare uncertainly responded. Her uncertainty not going unnoticed by either Twilight or Discord.
Naturally, Discord being... well, Discord, he decided that there was only one thing to do. And to him that meant directly pressing on the subject. "Hey, what's with the whole 'I think' attitude? Why are you so uncertain and down in the dumps?"
Twilight tried her best to intervene before a problem could occur. "Discord, it's none of your concern so stay out of it!"
Alas, the chaos maker was never one to take "no" for an answer when he sensed he was onto something. He just kept on pressing. "So, Starlight Glimmer, am I gonna get an answer sometime soon?"
In response, Starlight tensed up before blurting out all at once. "I'm not sure because I've only been reformed for about two weeks at most, and before then I was trying to get revenge on Twilight by going back in time, but she beat me and offered to teach me about friendship, so there! You happy now?!" She didn't even wait for a reply as she did the only thing she could think of and ran away, tears being visible in her eyes for the brief second it was possible to see her face!
As soon as Starlight had run off, Twilight turned her disapproving glare onto Discord. "I tried to warn you, Discord," She had to resist the urge to groan. "But of course, you didn't listen to me. You never do, it seems. Now you've gone and made a mess of everything. This is exactly why I was hoping to wait and introduce Starlight to you much further down the road. She's only just started learning about friendship."
"Well, in my defense," Discord replied as he made himself appear behind a wooden stand, doing his best to look innocent. "You didn't exactly tell me ahead of time about any of this. How was I to know your new 'student' as it were didn't like talking about her past?"
Twilight was not amused for even a second. "Do you like talking about your past?" She pointed out.
The witty spirit forced back a gulp as he reluctantly confessed. "No, I don't actually. It gives ponies the wrong idea about me," And then a realization seemed to strike him square in the face. "Oh dear, it seems I've gone and made quite a mess of things again, haven't I? Oh poo, I hate when that happens," He slouched and made his posture look rather small as the draconequus seemed to know what he had to do. "I suppose now it's up to me to apologize and set everything right again, isn't it?"
"Yes, Discord. That would be most appreciated," Twilight firmly nodded. "That is, assuming you know what has to be put right. Do you?"
"I believe I do," Discord quickly replied as he got up. "And with my powers it shouldn't take long at all to track down your new pupil. What was her name again? Oh, Starlight Glimmer, right?" And with a snap of his talons he disappeared.
It wasn't long before the witty spirit was able to indeed locate his target, Starlight Glimmer. She hadn't run very far and had left a visible trail of tears in her wake.
Starlight still heard when the spirit appeared before her in all his chaotic glory. And she was still not in the best mood. "What do you want now, Discord?" She bitterly inquired of him. "Come to twist the knife in some more? Well go ahead, do whatever you want. At this point, I don't care."
But Discord insisted as he not so secretly pulled the unicorn close. "Come on now, cheer up. There's no reason to wear a long face, even if you are a pony."
Starlight only frowned, turning away from the spirit. "Just go away. Haven't you caused enough chaos already by reminding me of my past? It seems like no matter where I go or what I do, my past still haunts me. I should've known I can't escape it, not even for one day."
A reluctant and long, drawn-out sigh escaped the chaos maker's lips as he went on to say. "Oh, I'm no good at these emotional pep talks. That's one thing about being reformed I just can't seem to get the hang of. What I'm trying to say is, I really do feel about what I said and did to you earlier. I kind of forget that being nosy and invasive isn't always a good thing when you're supposed to be one of the good guys."
"I... fail to see where you're going with this, Discord." Starlight Glimmer inquired.
"Just hear me out if you can," Discord tried to insist in uncertainty. "The past is such a tricky thing for former baddies like us. Ponies hear about what we used to be like and make all kinds of assumptions. And that makes it harder for us to prove that we've changed, that we're better than what we used to be. But it's our past, it's a part of who we are whether we admit it or not."
Starlight turned around, locking eyes with the spirit. "So what you're trying to say is..."
"Well, it's up to us to use our past to better ourselves in the future and the present," Discord explained as best he could. "Though it's not always a good thing to bring up our past since it can be a very delicate and sensitive issue. That just makes us two of a kind in our own way, almost like we're twinsies or something. So, as long as we agree to leave the past in the past, we can be friends, right?"
The unicorn mare reluctantly answered after a bit of inner contemplation. "Sure, I guess. I get the feeling Twilight would want that. Besides, it's kind of nice to have a friend that I have something in common with, even if it's a vague connection."
"I feel much the same way," Discord replied with a smile. "And now I don't have to worry so much about Twilight and Fluttershy getting on my case for messing up. That's another thing about friends, you can always count on them to tell you when you did something wrong."
Starlight giggled. "Tell me about it. Twilight in particular seems to take friendship very seriously." And soon, she and Discord were both sharing a laugh.
"So, how did your first unplanned meeting with Discord turn out?" Twilight asked her student later that day as both mares returned to Twilight's crystal castle.
Starlight Glimmer reluctantly replied. "As far as unplanned encounters go, I think it went about as well as it could've. I can see why you wanted to warn me about Discord ahead of time. Now I don't think I'll ever be able to forget about him."
Twilight couldn't help but giggle a bit. "Yeah, that's Discord for you. He doesn't tend to show up often, but when he does he tends to desire to make sure you know he's there. And don't get me started on his idea of 'helping'."
"Sounds like you have quite a history with him." Starlight noticed.
Twilight just replied by simply saying to Starlight. "Trust me, you have no idea. I've got stories I could tell. But I don't feel like boring you."
Starlight just inquired of her fellow mare. "I'm all ears if you wanna tell me."
Sensing the intrigue in her still relatively new pupil's tone of voice, Twilight decided to relent on her earlier objection. Far it be from her to deny a request for more knowledge. "Well, if you really want to know, I suppose there's no harm in telling you. But don't I say I didn't warn you about how long they can get."
The unicorn mare just locked eyes with her teacher, eager for more knowledge. "I'm sure I can take it. Any knowledge you can provide me on Discord would be most appreciated. After all, if we're going to be friends now I need to know everything there possibly is to know about him."
Twilight suspected nothing by this sudden intrigue and decided to just begin her little lecture of sorts. "Okay, if you're sure," She took a deep breath, recalling her experiences with the chaos maker. "Well, the first time I can recall him being 'helpful' was during this one time where Ponyville got overrun by these things called plunder seeds."
And as Twilight began to talk on and on about Discord, Starlight listened as best she could. At least this would help her avoid having to deal with any other friendship related things for today, hopefully.