//------------------------------//
// Friend Making Activities 
// Story: Within You 
// by Boopy Doopy 
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“I’m kind of confused about what we’re doing here,” Lightning Dust announced, looking bored as she lay on a cloud lazily above the bright green grass of Ponyville. “How do we make friends with an inanimate object? And a pretty ugly looking one at that?”
“It’s not ugly,” Twilight defended as she stood close to the tall white statue that was her current assignment from her teacher. “And it’s only inanimate right now. I’m gonna cast a spell to free him from stone once we’re all ready.”
“I must say, I quite disagree, Twilight,” Rarity spoke up. “This thing is quite unsightly. Its body features are not coherent in the slightest. It looks like something out of a fashion designer’s nightmare.”
“Eeyup,” Big Mac agreed.
“Well I say he’s a very handsome draconequus,” Fluttershy told the group. “And I think that you should all be a little nicer before making fun of his looks again.”
“It’s not my fault he looks ugly,” Lightning Dust brushed her off. “But whatever. Let’s get this over with. Twilight, do your thing.”
Twilight sent a look her way, and then proceeded to do her thing. She light up her horn, casting a spell on the statute that caused it to shake and glow brightly. A second later, the statue was no more, the draconequus Discord now standing in front of the group of six ponies. He yawned and stretched his limbs, scratching his back like he’d just woken up from a long nap. After that, he bent down to squint at the ponies before him.
“Wow, what an odd group of ponies you are,” he said, sticking his tongue out. “I must say, I didn’t quite expect to see the light of day once again, but now, after a thousand years, I’m free to create chaos and havoc throughout Equestria once again!”
“Oh, no you don’t!” Twilight called before he could snap his fingers and do something. He froze his body in her magic, and stared up at him with a little scowl on her face like she was a disappointed teacher. 
“We know all about you, Discord,” she started. “We know about how you caused one thousand years of chaos before you were imprisoned, and know that you’re going to be just as evil now as you were before!”
“Me? Evil?” He put a hand on his chest like he was taken aback by the accusation. “I must say, that’s a fairly harsh word for you to use on me. Downright offensive even. Me? Evil? No, I would never engage in such repugnant behavior. I’m quite the upstanding citizen, you’ll see.”
“Yeah, right,” Lightning Dust said, flying up and pushing her nose right into his face. “We’re watching you, and we’re gonna make sure you stay the way you say you are. If you take even one step out of line, we’re putting you right back in that stone statue!”
“Ah, I see. You’re supposed to be the stand in for– wait, I can’t reveal that. A certain somepony is sure to have my head if I freely speak my mind. In any case however, what an odd assortment of characters you are! Unique that things still lined up closely enough to resemble what should have been, but it seems without the exact setup, the Elements of Harmony aren’t tools you have at your disposal.”
“How do you know about that?”
“Oh, I know lots of things. A being as old as I am sure  means you had to have accumulated a lot of knowledge, although I will admit, I do tend to roll my eyes when your revered princess speaks to me.” Discord took his eyes out of his head and shook them for effect. “She thinks she’s high and mighty, and believes she can control me? We shall see about that!”
“Well, we don’t need the Elements of Harmony to contain you, Discord! And even if we did, Princess Celestia does have them, so there’s nothing you can do that we won’t stop!”
“Ah, I’m trembling in fear,” he said, putting a paw up to his mouth and pretending to be afraid. “You girls certainly have me quite ‘shook’, as they say in other places. Oh, wait, I spoke incorrectly. Give me a moment.” He snapped his fingers, changing the stallion of the group into a smaller, similarly colored mare, declaring, “There. Now I can accurately refer to you all as girls.”
“Discord!”
“Ah, my apologies. Let me fix things. Is this more acceptable?” Another snap of his fingers came, and now instead of six mares, there were five stallions and one mare, Twilight sending a scowling glare up at the draconequus. Two minutes into their task, and Discord was turning out to be a hassle to deal with. Not that she didn’t expect it based on what she knew about him.
“Awww, why are you so angry? Wouldn’t it be more interesting if every mare were a stallion and every stallion were a mare? I’m sure some ponies in this little rinky dink town would enjoy it.”
“Fix us back now!”
“Fine, since you insist. Although I hope you know, though, that your way is significantly less fun than my way.” Another snap of his fingers came, one where they were changed back, all except Big Mac, who was still staring up at the draconequus with a glare in his eye. Discord stuck out his tongue, and this time Fluttershy spoke up.
“Discord, please,” she started gently, but assertively. “Our task from Princess Celestia is to make friends with you. We can’t do that if you’re acting out like this. Change him back, please?”
“Ah, of course. I wouldn’t want to act out for our dear, sweet Fluttershy, now would I?” he got out sarcastically. He snapped a finger, and when nothing seemed to change, let out a little laugh. “Oh, you didn’t mean that him, did you? I apologize.” Another snap, and Big Mac was changed back, looking himself over for a second before sighing in relief. “Although you have to admit, it would be quite a bit more fun if we turned every stallion into a mare and every mare into a stallion. What interesting shenanigans would ensue, I wonder.”
“Thank you for listening, Discord,” the yellow pegasus replied. “I’m sure this is why Celestia wants us to be friends with you. Because she probably knows how wonderful a creature you can be when you put your heart into it.”
“Either that, or she simply wishes to use me for her own power over this world, but that’s probably a conspiracy theory, I’m sure. Some might agree with me though. But I must say, thank you for asking so kindly, Fluttershy. And I appreciate the compliment you gave me about my looks. Some of your friends would do well to stop acting so superior and uptight when I can hide all of their Starswirl the Bearded fanfiction in the blink of an eye.”
“How do you know about that!”
"Being imprisoned in stone doesn't mean one can't see and hear everything around them. I stayed in your treehouse yesterday, and can tell that-"
“I’m sure Discord is going to be nice to us as long as we’re nice to him, right Discord?” the yellow pegasus interrupted. Fluttershy gave him a look, one that made him raise his eyebrow before he playfully pretended to just remember what they were talking about.
“Oh, yes, of course, I would never do anything to ever harm you or any one of your friends,” he said, his voice dripping with joking sarcasm. “You know me, already! I’m an upstanding citizen, one who would never go against the wishes of the ponies before me. Speaking of wishes though…” He snapped his fingers, and suddenly there was a bed on the ground outside that he was laying in, pretending to sleep. “Being trapped in stone for a thousand years leaves one quite exhausted. I understand I’m supposed to be making friends with you, but how about a brief rest before we continue? I’m sure Twilight Sparkle can spare the room, can’t she?”
“No, I can’t! I already have someone staying in my treehouse already, and even if I didn’t, I wouldn’t want to stay with you!”
“I’m sure I have room at my cottage, Discord,” Fluttershy told him gently, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “Why don’t you stay with me for the time being, until you get situated?”
“Oh, no, no, no! I would never want to burden some creature as kind as you’ve been thus far, Fluttershy,” he insisted. “It’s much better if I stay with Twilight, I believe. After all, I’m supposed to be learning about friendship or something from her, and what better way to do that than to hit it up with the book horse at her library?”
Twilight stomped a hoof and frowned. There was no getting out of this, was there? This was gonna be quite a long task Celestia wanted her to undertake, she knew that much already.