Sweet Apple Acres was the busiest Twilight had ever seen it, and the most well-attended to since the previous Applebuck Season when AJ had needed help harvesting the crops after Big Mac hurt himself.
The earth pony members of the guard that had come along with Shining Armor – as well as several earth pony residents of their town – were all busy at work tending to the various crops of corn, wheat, grass, and, of course, apples that the Apple family grew to sell in Ponyville.
The unicorn searched for the cowboy hat-adorned Element of Honesty, but traveling from field to field could not find hide nor hoof of her. She did see Big Macintosh with several of the earth pony stallions pulling carts full of food to keep in their cellar, and Apple Bloom and her fellow Cutie Mark Crusaders whizzing by on Scootaloo’s scooter, but no sign of Applejack.
When she finally reached the Apple family house, Twilight could see even more earth ponies going in and out of the barn with food, and a long assembly line of mares performing the various stages of pickling and preserving foods.
Granny Smith was overseeing the group of ponies as they busily did their work, all humming a dreary but catchy work song to help pass the time.
“Make sure ya git them thar jars in line!” Granny Smith scolded the pony at the start of the line surrounded by jars. “Them thare need a firm hoof when dealin’ with them.”
The pony yelped and nodded, which Granny Smith seemed satisfied with and continued down the line.
Checking inside the barn, she finally found Applejack in the midsts of arranging the various dry goods so they would have maximum floor space used. Twilight had taught her well.
“AJ,” she called to the work pony, who turned to her while still checking over the piles of bundled wheat that separated them.
The orange pony smiled to her friend once she was finished inspecting. “Hey there Twi, sorry about my preoccupation, I’m a might busy as ya can see.”
“Perfectly understandable,” Twilight answered as she recognized the similarities in her own all-business demeanor. “I just wanted to check in on you to see how things are going.”
“We’re harvesting and preserving as fast as we can,” AJ said. “But we’re not sure if we’ll be able ta have enough to save iffin there’s a real evacuation of both towns.”
“I’m really hoping that it will not come to that,” Twilight said. “But I’m glad you are being so thorough in your preparations, just in case.”
“No problem, Twi. Whatever me and my kin can do for this town we wanna do it. Our family helped found Ponyville after all.”
Twilight tried not to let the growing worry about what Rainbow Dash said show on her face here as she thought back on it. She knew that she had just moved here, but between meeting her very best friends and all the wonderful ponies who welcomed her, not to mention having her job as the Ponyville librarian, Twilight truly felt like this was her home.
The fact that most of her friends not only lived here, but had been born in these towns was not lost on her either. As worried as Twilight was, she knew that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Rarity were even more concerned about their hometowns.
That was just one of the reasons why she felt so adamant on being there for all of them, and being the one to organize it all.
AJ seemed to be doing a great job keeping things organized on her family’s farm, and it really did seem like Shiny was keeping his promise to keep things running smoothly with the magic shifts.
After she left Applejack she took another walk around the parameter and saw a mixture of Ponyville and Royal Guard unicorns all around the border, horns aglow and looking in far better condition than she had seen them just a day ago.
She was assured that Ponyville would be fine, at least for the moment. After deciding that she shouldn’t put it off any longer, the unicorn made her way for the Everfree forest. She could only hope that her visit with Discord wouldn’t add any more to her long list of worries.
It was an almost familiar site now for Twilight, the refurbished ruins of the old alicorn castle, hidden deep in the forest outside of Ponyville. The added touches to the décor had all been Discord’s doing, he had made efforts to make himself more at home in the parts of Equestria he occupied.
If only he would put that same effort into learning about how pony relationships worked, the unicorn thought as she entered the fun house castle. Or even to try and change his image so the pony folk might actually understand what he does for them. She sighed with frustration. It was something they had been going ‘round about for a while now. They would have to get back to it sooner or later, but today there were more pressing matters.
Discord didn’t seem to be doing anything important. Like the other times she would enter, he acknowledged her as if he knew she was coming. Although in the past he had known, and had been expecting her. This was the first time in a while that she had come without warning.
“Oh my, look who finally decided to pay me a visit. You know, dropping me a line might have been a good idea. I was starting to think you’d given up on our little visits.”
Twilight sighed. So he was going to go the sarcastic route today. She supposed she couldn’t blame him. “You’re right Discord. I’m sorry about that,” she said. Twilight found it a bit irksome whenever she had to admit that he was right about something. Wasn’t she supposed to be teaching him after all? “If I ever have to be away for an extended period like that again, I’ll make sure you know.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that you still care,” he slinked out of his perch atop absolutely nothing to land back in front of her. His tone was joking, but as so often happened with their meetings, Twilight had to wonder how much of what he said was sincere. He was quite good at masking whatever might be really going on behind his jovial manner.
She might have been getting better at reading him though, the unicorn had the vague suspicion that might have been ‘Discord’ for ‘Where have you been?’ and possibly even ‘I missed you.”
Another tiny bout of guilt as she pondered that idea. She tried to ignore it, for she was here now. No more need to feel guilty.
“I do still care,” she assured him firmly. “You’re still on probation, and I want to make sure that you are sticking to your restrictions. I don’t think either of us want to see you put back in stone.”
“And out of every pony in Equestria that gives us a grand total of…two.”
“That’s not true, I’m sure that my friends – most of them, at least – would prefer this method of restriction for you, especially now that they know what you told me. They wouldn’t want to subject some pony to such a lonely and isolating fate.”
“Oh, I’m sure most of them still would,”
Twilight rolled her eyes (which she was getting very good at since spending time with Discord) “Do you have to keep up that attitude? Remember, the only way to get the ponies to believe and trust you is to try, and that doesn’t sound to me like you want to try.”
Discord did a good job of pretending to listen, he almost had Twilight convinced. It was the same lecture that she had been attempting to hammer into his mind since their first few meetings, nearly day one.
This was the part when he would try to change the subject, usually to something that interested him, or something that he thought he could tempt her with.
“Have you been to visit any of my other lovely little prisons?” he asked in a way that sounded like an invitation.
“You shouldn’t call them that. How about, ‘reserved areas’ or something?” she said, trying to put a more positive spin on his situation.
“Oh whatever they are, I only have four of them. But the desert one is coming along very nicely, starting to feel quite homey if I do say so myself.”
This was usually the time when she would indulge him for a bit, as a show of good faith. Today however, with the weight of Ponyville’s and Cloudsdale’s problem heavy on her thoughts, she wasn’t feeling quite as accommodating towards his dancing around the big issues.
“That’s very nice, Discord. But no, I haven’t been to see it in a while. Not since Princess Celestia asked me to bring her there, in fact. I’ve had a bit more on my mind lately, I don’t know if you have noticed, but Ponyville---“
There was a popping noise and a great white flash, and suddenly Twilight found herself finishing her sentence in the middle of the great desert in the south-west of Equestria, far from the Everfree Forest in which she had been standing just a moment ago.
“---has been under a state of emergency.” She paused after completing her statement to look around, the frustration welling up inside her as she took in the multi-colored sand and the large mansion-sized fun house structure in the distance. When her eyes found Discord’s again, she saw that he was – as he for some reason really enjoyed doing – standing far too close to her, his nose almost in danger of touching hers as her head turned.
He still had his feigned look of concentration, and Twilight backed away from him with a groan. It was most likely that the only reason he did that because he knew it bothered her.
“Discord, were you even listening? I need to get back to Ponyville to oversee the big big problem that I was talking about. Take me home. Now.”
Discord smirked and shook his head, snapping the talons of his eagle claw hand to manifest a blanket and several squishy pillows at her hooves, and then into his hands popped a familiar book that caused her to sigh again. ‘The Complete Works of Bluish Carroll’
The draconequus had taken to pulling out his collection of queer and crazy nonsense poems whenever he felt like things were getting too serious during their discussions. It also seemed like every time Twilight was about to leave, he’d call her back for a reading of The Hunting of the Snark, or – if he was in a particularly dramatic mood – something vaguely creepy like The Raven by Midnight Dreary.
“Discord…” she softly said in an oddly regretful way, for she knew what he was doing. He was stalling like he usually did. The way he kept doing this, it was almost like he didn’t want her to go… or at least, that was what Twilight had begun to suspect. “Not today. I’m sorry I’ve been away for so long, but I need to go home.”
“Then you just go on ahead,” Discord shrugged. Though he said it flippantly, Twilight could definitely see through that one. “You can teleport yourself back home, can you not?”
It was true, she could. It would tire her out exponentially, but she could do it. The purple pony wouldn’t though, and he knew that. What was worse, she knew that he knew it too.
He chuckled at her hesitance, taking this opportunity to drape his paw around her shoulder.
“Yup, just as I thought, that wouldn’t be the polite thing to do and you know it. Face it, you owe me Ms. Sparky. You can’t deny me some fun after leaving me all alone for weeks without so much as a letter or smoke signal. Or might that be the same thing for your little dragon friend?”
“I thought I asked you not to call me that,” Twilight deadpanned, ignoring his other ramblings. “It sounds like a dog’s name.”
“I added the ‘Ms.’,” he pointed out. “Doesn’t that make it better? It sounds like you’re a grade school teacher or something. That’s fitting, right?”
“But there are much more pressing matters than your entertainment.”
Leading her over to the pillows, Discord suddenly flashed into the air just in front of the blanket, legs crossed and giant book in his mismatched hands.
“Come now, Twilight. It’s practically the only fun I get to have lately,” Discord coaxed her as he opened the large tome. “Plus you have to admit, you enjoy my readings. I am quite the storyteller.”
The unicorn didn’t want to admit it – at least, not out loud – but she did enjoy them. He was a talented narrator, and his voice had a rhythmic, immersive quality that lent itself well to the poems he read. More than once Twilight had found herself being swept away in his words, only to catch herself gazing up at him for a bit longer than was proper, and she would quickly flick her eyes away to focus on something else.
She hoped very much that he never actually caught her doing that. It would probably make him unbearably smug, almost like the time he found out about how she had omitted a fairly important bit of that fateful meeting some months ago when he broke from his prison the last time. It had been the one part that – had she been brave enough to mention it to her friends – would have saved her from being without magic for most of that trip to see him. Every now and then he brought it up again, just to see her go red.
With an outward reluctance - and an inward anticipation - Twilight resigned herself to the blanket, making herself comfy with her front hooves curled up beneath her on top of a pillow.
“Fine,” she agreed. “Just one, though. Then we need to talk about what’s been going on in Ponyville.”
Discord waved a hand to silence her. “Yes yes, we’ll get to that Twilight dear, but first, I think it’s time for the Jabberwocky.”
Well, at least it’s a shorter one, Twilight thought.
“Funny thing about Carroll, the pony seemed fairly adept at chronicling tales of such ancient creatures. It’s almost as if he’d met them in the flesh, although it isn’t as though he could have even if he lived a hundred years ago. The Bandersnatch and the Jabberwocky have been in Tartarus for centuries.”
Twilight cocked her head and waited for this newest little rambling distraction to end.
“Gone the way of beings such as Tirek, the Vashta Nerada, the Smooze, really anything that Harmony deemed unfit to be.”
She thought Discord might have been making some of those up, although knowing him it was hard to tell.
“Just proceed, Discord,” the pony said wanting to get this over with, even if she enjoyed how much fun he seemed to have reciting Carroll’s various nonsense words.
Twilight had shifted to rest her head on her hooves, almost mesmerized by how effortlessly he was able to say aloud those words that would have tied any pony else’s tongue up in knots. His choice of poems may not have been her cup of tea, but he navigated the catchy phrases with a certain kind of grace, and it left her feeling actually impressed.
He continued on at his fluid pace, seeming to put so much concentration into this that he seemed to be barely glancing up from the book. Twilight wasn’t sure if he was merely floating a bit closer to her, or if she had been subconsciously scooting her pillow forwards towards him. In either case, the pony hadn’t realized that she had been listening that intently. When she noticed Twilight sheepishly scooted back to the other side of the blanket. Still attentive but reluctant to look at him now, for fear that he had noticed.
As he concluded the poem with a flourish and silence settled over them again, Twilight gave an involuntary sigh. It had been a very different sigh than the ones she had been giving him since her arrival, one more of satisfaction than of consternation, and she shook herself with embarrassment while simultaneously attempting to turn it into a cough.
This had been a bad idea. She needed to get back to business, but at the same time a weaker part of herself felt a twinge of longing to hear just a bit more.
She quickly stood out of her comfortable position and walked up to where Discord was floating; tugging his tail to signal that he should land.
He reluctantly complied, shutting the book as well.
“Oh my, it seems that you cannot be deterred today, Twilight dear,” he said, but his smirk was still prevalent. “Though I do think that you enjoyed that little distraction at the very least.”
The unicorn gave a non-committal head bob, neither a nod nor a shake. She rubbed the back of her head and cleared her throat, and perhaps hoping to clear her mind of the cloudiness that had rolled in while listening to his voice.
“Ahem… as I was trying to say earlier, Ponyville is currently under a state of emergency. Well, to be more specific, both Ponyville and Cloudsdale. We don’t know why, but for some reason the clouds that form the city have been losing altitude, and it just so happens to be floating nearly directly above us.”
“And you think I have something to do with it?” Discord assumed. Twilight had figured he’d be a bit on the offensive when she was at last able to bring this up, and the pony had not been wrong.
She shook her head and scratched one hoof with another. “No…well, I don’t. Some of the others have brought up the idea, though.”
“Typical ponies. Something’s going wrong, and you always need to find some pony to blame,” Discord tutted.
“Come on Discord. I know – or at least I have enough belief in that promise you made – that you aren’t involved. But you have to give every pony else a little bit of understanding. Look at it from their point of view. It’s something strange happening that they don’t understand, and so they’re afraid. You have to admit that does sound like your handiwork.”
Discord hmmed and then gave a shrug, finally making the book vanish from his hands now that he knew there was no possibility of an encore. “I’ll give you that; it does sound like something I might do. Although trying to see the world from their point of view does not.”
“Well, I think that’s something that should really start considering, like I keep trying to tell you—“ Twilight halted herself before she went on another little speech about getting him to ‘try’.
“Though, that’s a lecture for another time. The point is that I don’t believe that it’s you behind what is happening, but since it is something random, chaotic, and dangerous, that it was similar enough to you that you might have some idea about how to fix it.”
While she was speaking, Discord lifted the blanket and pillows up into the air for him to rest on. Twilight had hopped off just as it had begun to rise; she still wanted to retain the seriousness she had recovered.
He gave a gesture for her to continue, and she obliged.
“The clouds that form the city don’t seem to be dissipating or anything, they remain as solid as ever, but the entire formation is just sinking for some reason. It was slow at first, but it seems to be dropping another meter nearly every day. The rate of these drops has been increasing as well, despite our best efforts to try and slow its progress.”
“Hmm, now dropping something slowly doesn’t sound like me. If this was my doing, it would have already landed, or crashed, I suppose. Doing it slowly would just take too long.”
“That’s not really the point, Discord. I would like to know why it’s happening, but for the most part I just need to find a better solution than what we have right now.”
“But, they are clouds; can’t you just lift them up? They can’t weigh that much.”
“These aren’t normal clouds. They’re clouds that have been formed for the purpose of holding up an entire city. They’re tougher, stronger, and more resistant to damage than your average cumulous. The pegasi have been trying, but it would be like all of us in Ponyville trying to pick up our town and move it somewhere else,” she caught him before he could make the joke suggestion. “And no Discord, we can’t do that either.
“That’s why the unicorns have been trying to help every pony in Cloudsdale by taking it in turns to try and magically push against the city from below. It hasn’t stopped the city from dropping, but it’s at least slowing it down.”
“That’s the only thing you could come up with?” he asked, and Twilight frowned, her tone taking on much offense.
“Yes, Discord. It’s not like we had a whole lot of ideas at our disposal, and I’ve been beating my brain out trying to look for a better way. So unless you can think of something that could help, don’t scoff at what I had to come up with on the spot.”
Discord raised his arms in a kind of surrender, to somehow shield himself from her growing anger.
“Hey, hey, I meant no offense,” he said with an ease he apparently hoped she would catch. “Clearly I touched a nerve. So you want me to think of something you could do? Well can’t say I’ve been asked to help some pony very often…or at all.”
Twilight tried to calm herself. She wasn’t really mad at Discord, but he wasn’t exactly helping her mood since the whole story telling thing. He was unfortunate enough to be there as some more of that stress the unicorn was feeling broke through.
“I know that your restriction spell prevents you from approaching a populated pony area, and after you gave me a portion of your chaos magic your ability to affect the minds of ponies is hindered, but does any of that restrict your ability to manipulate the landscape?”
She considered her surroundings, then clarified. “What I mean is, since the last time the elements were used on you, have you been able to affect the landscape of the areas you are not allowed in?”
Discord’s eyebrows rose and he sat a little straighter. “Thought you didn’t believe I had anything to do with this,” he said with a hint of presumption.
“I don’t,” Twilight repeated. “But I wondered – or sort of hoped – that even if you couldn’t think of anything we could do, that you might be able to help us fix it even if you can’t be there yourself.”
Now Discord really did look like he was listening, even pondering what she was asking. His floating blanket landed softly in front of her, and Twilight had to wait as he seemed to mull it over.
“You know, I have no idea. Never really tried. I was having so much fun decorating my new little containment areas to bother messing with anywhere outside of them. I’d also been…hesitant to approach the borders. That is where I’d assume I’d need to be if I were even able to do such a thing. I’d most likely need to see it for myself.”
“But, you managed to mess up Ponyville while we were all still in Canterlot in the labyrinth.”
“Yes, you all were there,” he agreed. “But how do you know where I was that entire time? Do you think I stuck around to watch all of your every twists and turns?” Discord gave a chuckle at his own reference. “No no, I had other things to do, as you mentioned. It was a cinch for me to pop from here to there.”
He shrugged at her confused expression, although she didn’t know why she was so surprised.
“I had to have something else to do, anyway. I’d already hidden the elements, and not everything you did in that maze was that entertaining. I simply skipped the boring parts.”
This was new information to Twilight, but she supposed it didn’t really matter anymore.
“But, that was then, and this is now,” Discord said with a dramatic sigh. “Those are two places I can’t just pop in and out of anymore. I don’t think I’ve ever tried manipulating an area I couldn’t see – even if I were able to go there – unless you count when I was out there.” The draconequus gave a sort of gesture in the general vicinity of outward. “Wherever you would say it is in relation to this plane of existence… of course, I could always see those places I affected from there.”
The unicorn’s stance sank at those words. Amazingly Twilight discovered that she had been getting her hopes up a tad. “So, you’re saying that you can’t do anything, and that you don’t know how?”
“I’m saying that it’s something I’ve never been asked to do. I can’t say for sure that I can, or that I’ll try, but I’ll think about trying.”
Another sigh escaped her. “That will have to do,” she said lamely. “And we’ll get back to the other type of ‘trying’ you should be doing soon enough.”
She turned from him, still feeling wilted that this too had come up fruitless. She thought about preparing to teleport home, but now all of that anger and then disappointment seemed to have sapped her energy, and all she could do was droop her ears at the prospect.
Knowing that he probably would protest, Twilight turned back to Discord to ask him to take her back so she could go home. When her eyes met his again however, his expression puzzled her. He looked…awkward, like whatever he was thinking was causing him a great deal of consternation. Her puzzlement turned to concern, because the way he was grimacing it looked like he might give himself a headache.
“Discord, everything alright?” she inquired. He hadn’t really been looking at her, but her voice seemed to break his concentration, and his answer was oddly short and fast.
“No, just fine.”
“Uh huh,” Twilight said, not very convinced. “Um, do you think you might be up to taking me back now? I did tell you that I had other things I needed to do.”
The sun was beginning to set, and the shadows along the desert sand had begun to stretch out as if trying to escape from it as it sank lower, before they disappeared for another night.
He was slowly recovering from whatever that had been, but the unicorn still was curious as to what he had been thinking.
She was given a glimpse after he’d cleared his throat and stood to comply, but not yet going through with her request. “This big problem of yours, it’s—it’s causing you stress,” Discord’s voice was stilted, and it gave Twilight pause.
Twilight gave a small, humorless laugh. “You think?” This was yet another instance where she felt it was something obvious.
Discord was getting back to his usual demeanor again. “Well, it isn’t as if you haven’t faced things such as this before. I’ve seen how collected you can be in a real crisis, but you seem to have such trouble with the more everyday worries.”
This was kind of true, Twilight had to admit. “But this is something that any pony would be stressed about. Two populations are depending on us – my friends and I – to try and fix this.”
It wasn’t something she really expected Discord to understand in full. She knew he had the potential, but the concept of caring about ponies one doesn’t even know that well was probably a stretch to conceive at this point.
“So you have a sense of duty towards them, you shouldn’t let it cause you so much stress. It isn’t as if you’re doing this alone. Aren’t your friends helping as well, isn’t the whole point of the Elements your friendship?”
It was a little scary how similarly what Discord said mirrored the words of her own brother. She didn’t bring it up, however.
“Says the one who thrives on other ponies’ stress, but never seems to experience it himself,” Twilight said, ignoring the fact that he seemed to actually be trying to make her feel better.
“Oh, I have my own stresses. Stress is a form of chaos, and so it’s not always so un-enjoyable for me. But I can always find the funny slant, the irony in having my own messes.” Discord’s usual smirk was returning, evidently pleased that he’d pulled her back into a debate. “Incidentally, I don’t thrive on your stress.”
Twilight cocked her head to one side in confusion. “You don’t? Then what about all those times when you kept trying to get me to argue with you?” she asked, adding ‘like now’ in her head.
Settling back on a newly-formed comfy chair, Discord pulled his tail towards him and started fiddling with the end in his eagle hand.
“Dear Twilight, I only do that to rile you up. You should accept by now that that’s just what I do. I especially enjoy arguing with you because it’s so much fun. I haven’t had a really good debate partner in well…ever. Plus you are my first friend, aren’t you? I value your thoughts, but I don’t mean to cause you stress.”
She rolled her eyes, but found herself smiling in an exasperated sort of way. Yes, she should have known that, he pulled her into a lively discussion almost every time they met. He always knew what to say that would ruffle her just enough.
“Well, thank you for that, so glad to be a source of so much entertainment.”
“It is entertaining, is it not? When I’m out enjoying my limited freedoms I find ways to entertain myself, but it just doesn’t compare with getting you all flustered. Giving cows roller skates and a ramp to try and jump over the moon is almost dull in comparison.”
“You did what now?” her head snapped up, suddenly back in business mode.
Discord just shrugged and turned to face her again. “Eh, they’re fine. No harm done, and it’s not like it was in a pony-centric area.”
She sighed, knowing he wasn’t going to consider that worthy of discussing. “But how do you know that these little debates of ours don’t cause me stress?”
“Because if they did, you could try much harder to keep things more formal between us, or you could stop coming altogether. Well, that odd sense of duty you have might prevent you from skipping, but you know you get something out of this too.”
It irked her that she was actually giving Discord what he wanted, because she was getting flustered. He just did that to her, no matter what they talked about. She didn’t want to admit it though, that on some level she did enjoy these visits. These talks with him were some of the most intelligent ones she’d had since leaving the academy. His viewpoints were so different from hers; it was intriguing to hear his thoughts.
Then of course, there was also his story telling.
“Thank you, for your concern,” Twilight said honestly. He didn’t really seem to want a thank you, and he might not even admit that he was really attempting to show concern, but she appreciated it all the same.
She looked over to the sunset, taking a moment to admire the affect the fading golds, oranges, and pinks had on the desert landscape as the sun sank in the horizon.
Strangely enough, Discord had actually managed to help ease her frustrations. First with his trying to distract/entertain her…and now by – in his own ‘Discord’ way – showing that he did care about her well-being. These were probably the first times she hadn’t felt as stressed during this whole debacle.
It didn’t fix everything, or change what still needed to be done, but Twilight was grateful for this small moment in time, where she could see some actual progress from him. It made her feel like she was doing something right, and it even strengthened the feeling that she had made the right decision in giving her new friend a chance.
She didn’t really want it to be over just yet.
“Discord,” she said after a moment of watching the sun as it disappeared below the horizon line, the stars were now beginning to appear overhead.
“It looks like it’s too late for me to get anything else done today; perhaps I have time to hear another of your weird readings.”
She nearly jumped when she turned from the sunset to find his face right up next to hers again, that smirk he was so fond of back in full force.
“I knew you liked listening to them,” he smugly replied. She tried to smile as she backed away yet again. He didn’t go far, however. This time, the giant book came into being close to her, and Discord floated over it, both unicorn and book back on the blanket.
A new blanket was also draped over Twilight’s back, but she made no mention of it, though she found it an oddly thoughtful addition.
So she settled in to hear Discord give her another little narrative show. The stars shimmered overhead as she listened, curling up cozily in her blanket. It might have been a combination of the dark yet lovely starry night and Discord’s smooth, rhythmic reading, but as Twilight rested her head on her hooves merely to get comfortable, she found her eyelids drooping, and then finally closing as she was carried off by his oddly gentle voice to sleep.
It was only after Discord had completed his recitation that he noticed Twilight was no longer listening. He had been enjoying – as he usually did – observing her reactions when he looked up from the pages, but as the last sentence ended and the book was closed, Discord was surprised to see that the unicorn had instead closed her eyes and was now quite asleep.
Twilight was curled up into a ball, the blanket wrapped tightly around her to fend off the dropping temperature of the desert night air. He was not entirely sure of what he should do about it - no pony typically allowed themselves to sleep in his presence (for good reason) - should he wake her so she could make her way back? Most likely if Twilight was so tired that she’d go to sleep during one of his brilliant reading performances she would not have the energy to teleport herself back to her home.
He supposed he could flash them back to the forest and then… then what? Discord couldn’t exactly take her all the way to her home, and he definitely was not in a hurry to repeat his attempts to pop into Ponyville as he had done.
She gave a little involuntary shiver but still did not wake. It wasn’t getting that cold, was it? Of course Discord had to bear in mind that ponies were more sensitive to things like the climate and such.
He flashed back into his ruin/castle home in the forest, taking Twilight along with him, blankets and all. At least she wasn’t shivering now. He tried to give her a little shake or a prod to coax her into waking, but she resisted. The unicorn merely flicked a hoof at him and turned over with a soft, tired mumble.
As she continued to snooze on the floor of his main room, her chest rising and falling slowly all bundled up; Discord had to admit she looked quite peaceful. Much more peaceful than he had seen her of-late and certainly looking more content than when she was giving him lectures about learning to trust others or whatever it was. Watching as Twilight’s chest moved rhythmically as she breathed - even giving a small sigh as she nuzzled into her pillow - He didn’t really feel like he wanted to wake her up and spoil it.
There was that awkward feeling again, something that Discord still couldn’t quite get a handle on, it was as if the name were just beyond his reach, but it made him consider that the floor might not be the most comfortable place for her to be sleeping.
Making an adjustment to her book chair – stretching it out into a book couch – he snapped his claws and the unicorn appeared on top of it, still wrapped in her cozy burrito.
He looked around the room for something else he could do, but as he had left the realm of situations he was familiar with back in the desert Discord had no idea. It wasn’t as if he’d ever had some pony as a guest sleeping over before.
He would leave her here and go to bed on his own, he figured. She could walk back on her own in the morning. This might provide her a nice little breather from all that stressing in any case.
It wasn’t a bad feeling, he observed as he glanced one last time back at Twilight Sparkle’s dozing form. Doing something like this for her had actually sort of felt almost good. Though he wouldn’t make a big deal of it when she awoke, and he hoped she wouldn’t either.
This was a pony that have done so much for him already, and for some reason continued to be in his corner. He had almost expected Twilight to give up on him eventually - after her absence he had almost been waiting for it. Maybe that was what made him so anxious… he was still waiting for it.
He flashed to his floating water bed – a bed made of floating water – but before he could really settle down for himself, Discord noticed something appear at the head with a small magical pop.
It was a tiny scroll with the Equestrian coat of arms on the seal. He didn’t need to open it and read to know what it meant. It was a royal summons direct from the desk of Princess Celestia. Oh boy, what did she want now?
Discord found himself both curious and trepidatious at the prospect. It was a little insulting to be called to see her instead of her having the good manners to come to him. Hadn’t she done so before?
Breaking the seal in one quick motion, the draconequus found that he was - of course - correct in his assumptions. He only skimmed the letter, but he did see the words ‘urgent’ and ‘your presence is requested’. If he ignored it Discord knew they’d just keep sending these, although if he did choose to, it might make Celestia peeved enough to come to him instead, and who wouldn’t want to see that?
Discord thought about doing just that, when he remembered the young purple unicorn asleep in the other room. Even if the sound of a pissed-off Celestia arriving in his chambers didn’t wake her, there was the chance that the princess might discover her, and questions would be raised. It wasn‘t as if Discord would be embarrassed or anything of the kind, but it was tiresome to have to answer tedious questions of his every decision to Celestia.
After a good amount of weighing his options, he reluctantly decided it wouldn’t be the end of the world to come when called this one time… although he didn’t like being able to compare himself to that of a dog.
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