//------------------------------// // The Pageant // Story: Discord's First Hearth's Warming // by ZeroMonkey //------------------------------// It was Hearth’s Warming Eve and Ponyville’s town hall was packed to bursting with ponies and holiday spirit. Cheerilee ducked and weaved through the crowd, looking for an open space to sit. She was late and what had been intended to be orderly rows had already been stretched and squished in many places as ponies clumped together and snuggled for warmth. She saw an open spot and slid into it without a second thought. She found herself sitting next to an elderly green mare in a rocking chair which she reasoned Big Macintosh must have carried all the way from Sweet Apple Acres. “Granny Smith? I thought you’d be reprising your role as narrator for, what is this? The tenth year in a row?” Cheerilee asked, not overly concerned about the matter, but certainly curious. “Not this year, dear.” “Then who?” Granny Smith chuckled dryly. “Oh, you’ll see.” A few more minutes passed in amicable silence and then Mayor Mare slipped through the curtains to address the crowd. “Ponies of Ponyville! Your friends and family have been hard at work practicing for the pageant this year and we will be giving them each their due credit at the end of the show. However, before we begin, I’d like to introduce a special guest who will be our narrator this year,” At this, the Mayor seemed a little uneasy, Cheerilee noted, “Many of you have heard of him. May I present the reformed spirit of chaos: Discord!” Cheerilee thought that she might have felt her jaw hit the floor when the draconequus appeared on stage instantly and without so much as a noise. Some Time Later... Discord floated near the entrance to town hall, basking in praise from the townsponies as they left for their homes. As three fillies left the building chattering about how cool the special effects were, he turned to regard Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy who were conversing not too far away. “At the risk of agreeing with Celestia,” Discord shuddered at the thought, “It is certainly a fair bit more pleasant to be loved than to be feared.” Fluttershy chuckled politely and Twilight rolled her eyes. As Pinkie Pie bounced by, having taken off the hat of her Chancellor Puddinghead costume and begun to eat the pudding out of the hat, Twilight fixed Discord with an unamused look. “Chancellor Puddinghead’s hat was not actually a cup of pudding, you know. It was rather the prevailing fashion among Earth Ponies at the time to…” Before Twilight could fully enter into lecture mode, Pinkie Pie interrupted with a morsel of wisdom. “Yeah, but pudding is delicious!” Twilight rolled her eyes again and shortly thereafter, Rainbow Dash flew up to them, still half-clad in Commander Hurricane’s armor. “I had my doubts, but that was totally awesome! Especially those windigoes; they looked so real!” “Well I should hope they looked real. It would kind of defeat the purpose of summoning real windigoes otherwise,” Discord replied, nonchalantly. “Y-you summoned real windigoes into town hall!? Thats... T-thats...” Twilight stammered and was quickly interrupted by Rainbow Dash. “Awesome!” While Twilight’s brain rebooted, Rarity and Applejack joined the group and after not too much longer, Mayor Mare. Applejack nudged Twilight gently and quietly told her, “Everypony’s here,” which served to break Twilight out of her stupor. Twilight spared one last reproachful look to Discord, then nodded at the Mayor, who looked to Discord. “The Elements of Harmony, that is Twilight Sparkle and her friends, have persuaded me to grant you a plot of land in Ponyville,” the Mayor produced a scroll of paper from her saddlebags, “You just need to sign the deed and its all yours.” At Discord’s questioning glance, Fluttershy explained, “It was Rarity’s idea. We realized that now that you aren’t causing chaos all over Equestria, you didn’t really have anywhere where you could still exercise your powers and express yourself. But on this plot of land, you’ll be able to build whatever you want and do whatever you please. It can be your little slice of chaos or whatever you want it to be.” Discord couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he manifested a flamingo feather quill and signed the parchment. He looked to the Fluttershy and her friends and said, quietly enough that he almost could have been mistaken for Fluttershy herself, “Thank you.” A few more moments of pleasant silence were interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s stomach growling loudly. Applejack started to shepherd her friends out the doors. “Alright partners, let’s get some food in you. You’d better believe that there’s no Hearth’s Warming dinner in Equestria like an Apple family Hearth’s Warming dinner.” As everypony got moving, Applejack turned to look at Discord. “Are ya coming?” Discord, finally remembering that he had an image to maintain, did his best to look aloof and uninterested. “I suppose.” The draconequus floated lazily after the ponies into the snowy winter night, trying and failing to hide the smile on his face.