Discord went to Flutterhy's house to convince Angel of helping him annoy Tamer. He wasn't there so Discord assumed he was in the animal sanctuary with Fluttershy, he'd have to think of a way to talk to him without her realizing it.
He appeared in the sanctuary and looked around searching for the bunny, the place was bigger than it seemed.
Just then, he heard a voice behind him, it wasn't Fluttershy, but he instantly recognized it as the owner had a very particular way of speaking.
“Oh, hiii. Are you, like, looking for something?”
Discord turned around to look at the owner of the voice, Tree Hugger. Fluttershy had told him she was helping her to take care of the animals in the sanctuary, with something she called “auditory therapy”, whatever that was.
“I have the feeling that we've seen each other before, maybe in another life?” she said.
Here we go again, he thought. How could she never recognize him? He literally was the most unique creature in all of Equestria!
“Discord? Spirit of chaos and disharmony? Fluttershy's best friend? I almost sent you to another dimension, remember?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said with a lazy smile, remaining silent for a moment staring at the infinity. “You're looking for Fluttershy, I assume,” she finally said.
“Actually, I’m looking for the fur- uh… I mean Angel. You do know who he is, right?”
“Of course! He's over there,” she said pointing in the bunny's direction.
Discord look to where she was pointing and there he was next to some trees with wooden platforms, Fluttershy was near to where he stood, on one of the platforms, but she wasn't alone.
“What's he doing here again?” he said to himself when he saw Tamer talking to her.
“His name is Tamer Whispering, he just moved here from Filliedephia,” Tree Hugger said when she saw him staring at the orange unicorn.
Oh, so she does remember him.
“They spent a lot of time together lately,” she added.
Tell me about it, he thought, his gaze still focused on them. They where brightly chatting as if they'd know each other for years.
“Since when are they so close?” he asked out lout without expecting an answer.
“I think since that train ride from Canterlot a few days ago,” Tree Hugger answered anyways. “Their spiritual energies have been vibing attuned ever since.”
Discord slapped his forehead with his lion paw, cursing himself for his decision of not going on that train, then he looked back at the two ponies. They seemed to be having the time of their lives.
What are they talking about that's so funny? he wondered, his red pupils started glowing dangerously and turned green.
“Uh… dude, it seems like your chakras are, like, a little bit disturbed,” Tree Hugger said when she saw it.
“I’M PERFCTLY FINE!” he yelled turning to look at her, his pupils were back to red but still glowing.
He realized to late that he had raised his voice too much and they had heard him. He disappeared before they looked in his direction, luckily they didn't see him.
He reappeared on top of a nearby tree he looked down and saw Angel, his ears had perked and he was looking around, he probably had heard him too. Then, he looked at Fluttershy, she seemed confused as well, she was looking to where now only stood a confused looking Tree Hugger. This was his chance. He teleported himself with Angel a few meters from their position.
At first he was scared to suddenly find himself in a different location, but when he saw the draconequus he realized what was going on. What did he want now?
Discord pretended to be surprised to find him. “Oh! If it isn't my favorite bunny. How’s it going?”
Now it was clear to Angel that he wanted to ask for a favor and, judging by the excess of flattery, it must be something big.
Not buying his charade, Angel crossed his front paws and asked him what did he want and, even though Discord couldn't understand what he was saying, he got the memo.
“Ok, here's the deal,” he then said going to the point. “I want you to go bother that Taker guy so that he looses his temper and Fluttershy sees he’s not that goody two-shoes he pretends to be, but a liar trying to take advantage of her kindness, and she seizes to be vaguely interested in him.”
Now he understood what was going on, Discord was jealous and wanted him to help him get rid of the competition and he respected that. But if he wanted his help, he'd have to offer him something in exchange.
And Angel was an expert on getting what he wanted, and he didn’t need to talk for that. He pretended he didn't want to help him knowing Discord would try to convince him. And he did.
“Come on! I'm sure you too want to get rid of him, he’s spending a lot of time with Fluttershy and I know you don't like to share her attention,” Discord said.
Angel shrugged to show him he didn't mind.
“Aren't you worried of what he might be up to?”
Angel just looked at him with a poker face. He did care about Fluttershy's safety, but he was sure that all that stuff about Tamer being evil was just an excuse he had made up not to admit his jealousy.
That's when Discord realized it, the little bunny was trying to negotiate. He actually didn't mind as long as he did what he wanted him to.
“Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?” he joked dressing with a snap of his talon with a blue shirt under a white sweater, an orange ascot and a blond wig, a box of what seemed dog treats hovering next to him.
Angel looked at him with a confused look.
“Just kidding,” he snapped his fingers again making the costume disappear and replacing the box with a carrot. “Now for real, if you help me, I'll give you a carrot.”
Angel raised an eyebrow, as if he would do it for so little.
“Two carrots? Three? Four?” Discord asked as he made them appear.
Angel pretended to think about it and then shook his head.
“How about a bucket full of carrots?”
That was actually tempting to accept, but Angel new he could get a better deal out of him, he gestured upwards with his paw in order to tell him to improve his offer.
Discord growled in annoyance, he was starting to get fed up with the demands of that little tyrant, he had no idea of how Fluttershy put up with him. Then, he remembered a story she had told him about the time Angel tried to sneak into the supply room from the sanctuary.
“And what about some concentrated carrot extract?” he said materializing a jar of said substance.
Angel smiled, that's where he wanted to go.
“So? Do we have a deal?” he asked holding out his lion paw which lit up with blue fire.
Ignoring the visual effects, Angel shook it, then jumped to grab the jar which hung in the air not far above. Afterwards, Discord teleported them back to where Fluttershy and Tamer stood, far enough for them to remain unseen.
“Now's your turn to fulfill your end of the bargain. Go there and act like the annoying bunny you are. And don't let Fluttershy find out I asked you to.”
Angel nodded and ran towards them as Discord teleported himself to the top of a nearby tree with a mischievous grin. Now, he just had to wait for the cat to be out of the bag.
And so he did, for a while. But everything seemed to be very calm down there, so he decided to peek through the foliage and see why hadn't the unicorn snapped yet. When he did, he couldn't believe what he saw, Tamer was petting Angel who was tapping the ground with his paw in delight. That traitor.
“He seems to like you,” he heard Fluttershy say.
Great! Now she liked him even more thanks to that traitorous little furball.
He waited for Angel to separate from them to have a little talk with him.
“What was all that about?” he asked angrily leaning out from the top of the tree. “You where supposed to make him look bad in front of Fluttershy and you’ve done the opposite thing.”
Angel shrugged, he was going to do it, but it turned out the stallion new the perfect spot to scratch him behind his ears and he decided to let it go. Besides Discord, had already given him what he wanted, it wasn't his fault that he was so bad at deal making. And in his opinion, Tamer was way better match for Fluttershy than Discord. Then, he hopped away ignoring the complains of the angry draconequus.
Scammed by a bunny, unbelievable. The only reason why he hadn't turned him into fluff was out of respect for Fluttershy, but he would not let that go.
He had wasted his time negotiating with that ungrateful furball all for nothing, but Discord wasn't going to give up so easily. Angel wasn't the only annoying creature he knew.
“‘The Great and Powerful Trrrixie! Student Counselor’… no not that.”
Trixie was in her school’s counselor office, she had changed the decoration for it to look ‘more great and powerful’. The place was full of magic items; interlocking colored handkerchiefs hanging from the ceiling, decks of cards, boxes filled with smoke bombs and other magician items, and the walls were lined with posters from her past performances. The room in it's whole looked a bit too ornate.
At the moment, there wasn't any student in need for her advice, so she was spending her free time thinking of an official title.
“‘Trixie, The Great and Powerful Student Counselor’ or perhaps ‘The Great and Powerful Student Counselor Trixie'? Which one would be more…?”
Her trail of thought was interrupted by the sound of somepony teleporting behind her.
At first, she thought it could be Starlight or Sunburst, that was until she heard him speak.
“How about ‘Trixie, The Egocentric and Self-centered Student Counselor’?”
She winced “Oh, no,” she said.
Trixie knew that voice all too well. She turned around and, sure enough, Discord was there snooping through her stuff.
“I love what you've done with this place, it sure captures your essence,” he commented looking one of the posters in which Trixie appeared with some fireworks in the background and a sentence saying ‘I'm better than you'.
“With your face being all over the place, if you left, I doubt anypony could tell the difference,” he joked.
“Uh-huh,” she said with an unimpressed look on her face. “Why are you here again?”
“You are without any doubt the most annoying pony I know.”
“I don't know if I should take that as a compliment coming from you,” she said sarcastically.
“Yeah, well, the point is that I want you to use that natural annoyance of yours with Chatter Twistering.”
“With who?” she asked.
“That pony who just moved from I don't know where and spends glued to Fluttershy all the time.”
“Tamer Whispering?”
“Whatever. Will you do it?”
Trixie looked at him with suspicion. “Why?”
“I want you to make him angry so that he exposes himself as the manipulative liar he is,” his casual tone dropped an octave in the last part and he narrowed his eyes as if he was in front of him.
“Ooooh, now I get it,” she gave him a mocking grin. “You're jealous.”
“I'm not jealous! Why does everypony say that?”
“Cause it's so obvious, everypony knows that you're obsessed with that mare.”
“I’m not obsessed!”
“Come on, you can't even keep a conversation without mentioning her name.”
“That's ridiculous,” Discord replied crossing his arms like a child that's loosing an argument.
Trixie ignored it and continued. “In my opinion, you shouldn't pick on that pony just because Fluttershy likes him. Not like you had a chance anyway.”
“I haven't picked on him! I'm telling you he's bad news,” he protested raising his voice.
“Uh-huh,” she just said not buying it.
“You know what? Forget it. You're even worst than that bunny,” he said angrily before disappearing with a gust of wind leaving a mess in the office.
Trixie rolled her eyes and frowned. As if somepony could be more annoying than him.
Later that afternoon, somewhere else in Ponyville, Fluttershy had finished her chore list from the sanctuary and decided to go to the market to buy some supplies that they had almost ran out of. Tamer had gone home because he had things to do, so she was alone, which Discord would had though was a miracle.
There weren't many ponies shopping so soon she was done. She was about to return to the sanctuary when she stumbled upon Rarity and Pinkie Pie.
Turns out Rarity was out looking for inspiration. On her way, she had met Pinkie, who was bored because Cheese had gone to Baltimare guided by his Cheesy Sense to light up a party celebrated there, “This is something I have to do on my own,” he had told her before leaving. He always got dramatic when he was going somewhere, that was one of the things she loved about him.
Naturally, Fluttershy joined them and the three of them kept walking while chatting. Well, Fluttershy and Rarity walked and Pinkie jumped next to them.
“We just came across Tamer Whispering, he seemed to be on a hurry,” Rarity said.
“Oh, yes. He said he had something to do,” Fluttershy recalled. “He's been helping me in the sanctuary this morning. He's very kind,” she smiled.
Rarity gave her a knowing smile. “I see you two have become pretty close.”
“Yes, we…” Fluttershy paused when she saw her two friends sharing a smile and then looking back at her. “Why are looking at me like that?”
“Do you like him?” Rarity inquired.
“Of course I do, he’s very nice,” Fluttershy answered oblivious to what Rarity had actually meant.
“What she meant was if you have a crush on him,” Pinkie explained.
“I think he's nice, that's all…” she answered with a mumble, she didn’t seem very sure though.
“You can tell us. You do have a crush on him don't you?” Rarity insisted approaching the yellow pegasus who instinctively recoiled.
“No… I…”
“Come on! You two would make a great couple,” Rarity said.
“Yes! You have a lot in common, like Cheese and me,” Pinkie corroborated. “You both love animals, you're both kind…” she started naming stuff they had in common.
They both where too excited to notice her friend’s discomfort.
“Don't be shy, darling.”
“Tell us!”
Fluttershy didn't know how to answer to her friends' insistence.
“I don't know!” she finally yelled, she then lowered her tone and hid behind her mane. “Sorry. I just… I don't know.”
They both exchanged a look realizing they had been too pushy.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” Rarity said putting a hoof on her shoulder. “We are sorry. Pinkie and I got carried away, we shouldn't had insisted so much.”
“We got so excited that we didn't notice we were making you uncomfortable with our questions,” Pinkie added.
“But we shouldn't have pressured you like that. Can you forgive us?”
“Of course I do,” Fluttershy said hugging them.
“And from now on, we won't ask you about your love life,” Rarity promised. “Unless you ask for advise,” she added with a wink.
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” they both said at the same time doing the gestures from the Pinkie Promise.
They remained silent for a while until Rarity spoke changing subject
“Say, Pinkie. How's the construction of that party shop of yours going?”
“Parties and gags shop,” Pinkie corrected her. “And well, not long ago we met with Hard Hat to see the plans and he said he had to finish another project before starting the construction,” she seemed to think about something for a moment. “He also said something about having to erase all the nonsense from the plans. I don't know what he was talking about.”
Fluttershy and Rarity, knowing of Pinkie's crazy ideas, exchanged a smile.
“Have you thought of a name yet?” Fluttershy asked.
“Not yet. I was thinking of Cheesepie's Super Bombastic and Wonderful Party Planning and Gags Shop. Get it? Cheese Sandwich and Pinkie Pie, Cheesepie.”
They spend the rest of the walk discussing possible names for the shop, until they had to separate, Rarity had to go to her boutique out of a sudden wave of inspiration, Pinkie went to the Sugarcube Corner and Fluttershy returned to the sanctuary with the supplies she'd previously bought.
None of them mentioned the previous subject again, but despite that, Fluttershy couldn't help thinking about what they had told her. They had a point, she and Tamer had a lot in common, it would just make sense for them to be a couple and, to be honest, she did feel something for him. Even so, there was something that kept her hesitant, but she didn't know what.
On the other hoof, Discord was back in his dimension. His plan to annoy Tamer Whispering had ended up annoying him instead.
Neither Angel nor Trixie had been of any help and he couldn't think of anypony else, which was weird because there were a lot of ponies he considered annoying, although most of them were Fluttershy's friends and a lot of them were just annoying to him so he didn't even bother asking for their help. From what he had heard of him, Fluttershy's brother seemed to have the natural talent of drive others nuts, but he didn't know him and, even if he did, he doubted he would want to help him with his plan.
He had ran out of ideas when it occurred to him: if he couldn't make Tamer show his true nature, he'd find out what he was planning and expose him to everypony, specially Fluttershy. Until then though, he'd have to make sure he didn't make any move on Fluttershy. He'd also have to make sure Tamer didn't find out about his suspicions.
Piece of cake, or so he thought…