//------------------------------//
// The Draconequus Has Landed 
// Story: Accepting Harmony 
// by Flim Skim the Spinner 
//------------------------------//

"Are you sure you wouldn't prefer that I go with you?"

"Yes, Celestia. I'm quite sure."

"The citizens of Ponyville would react much more positively if I was there."

"Oh, you're afraid the sight of me will start a riot, is that it?"

"Well… yes, I am."

"Don't worry your pretty little horseshoes over it, my dear. All of Equestria will love the new and improved Discord!"

The Draconequus struck a heroic pose, looking rather ludicrous with his goat leg perched upon the edge of the chariot, lion paw clenched over his puffed-out chest. The guards who would be pulling the sleigh exchanged glances, unsure whether Princess Celestia was being wise in allowing Discord to take a vacation to Ponyville.

"You making a spectacle of yourself is exactly what I'm afraid of," said the Princess, who was already beginning to regret letting Luna talk her into this.

"Oh, really?" Discord wheeled around to cast a bemused glare at Celestia. "I thought you were afraid I'd turn the whole town into mindless puppets and have them storm the gates of Canterlot."

In a flash of light, he appeared at her side, his arm draped around her neck. "Or are you finally ready to put our past behind us and move on?"

One of the Pegasus guards took an angry step towards Discord, flaring his nostrils. Holding up his hands in a posture of peace, he responded with, "Whoa, whoa, easy there, pony boy. The princess and I… we go way back." He traced a talon along the curve of her jaw, and chuckled when he saw a vein bulge in the guard's forehead. Even if he was now finding pleasure in friendship, Discord would always savor the little, harmless moments of fun like this.

Celestia, it seemed, was less amused by his antics, shrugging his arm off and adopting her most serious tone. "Now listen, Discord, I agreed to allow this little quest of yours because Luna strongly believes that it will improve your moral outlook on things. But if I hear so much as a whisper of any unusual events-"

"Yes, yes, you'll have me back in stone before I have time to plead my innocence, very typical of you, Celestia. Goodness, you're wound so tight, I'll never know how you manage to hide your age so well." Leaning in close, he added, in a more somber tone, "but, of course there are going to be whispers, even false ones. Ponies are a skittish bunch after all, and of course you know not to trust everything you hear."

"Besides," he continued, adopting his playful attitude once more, "I'll be right down the street from your little student Twilight Sparkle the whole time. I pull any funny business, and you know she'll be the first to tell you all about it."

He returned to the seat of the chariot with a flash, suddenly dressed in tourist's garb, complete with a camera around his neck and a map stuffed into his pocket. "Hi-ho, Ponyville, away!" he shouted, pointing into the distance and wearing a ridiculous grin on his face. The guards glanced back to the princess, who gave a curt nod, and began their ascent as Discord shook with mock enthusiasm.

Celestia watched them head off, hoping that she wouldn't need to resort to having Twilight use the Elements of Harmony. She believed Discord when he said that he wanted to make new friends, but wasn't sure how his volatile personality would react around so many ponies. Sighing, she turned and strolled back into the castle. She had important events to prepare for, and would simply have to wait and see whether Luna had been right about their former enemy.



"Can't this guy teleport wherever he wants?" whispered one of the Pegasi to his companion. "Why do we have to fly him around?"

"Because," Discord cut in, his tourist attire having vanished, "I'm practically one of the royal family now, so it's about time I started getting some royal treatment. The last time I was on one of these things, it was awfully hard for me to enjoy myself, given that I couldn't move a single muscle."

He returned to lounging himself out on his seat, leaving the guards no choice but to keep flying, despite the fact that Discord could practically hear them sizzling.



After several more minutes of what the guards considered to be blissful silence, Ponyville began to come into shape clearly, and they began their decent. As instructed, the Pegasi took the chariot in the direction of Twilight Sparkle's library, where Discord had decided to make his first stop, figuring it would be wise to make his peaceful intentions known to the only pony in Equestria who could spell out his doom.

Spike, who was dusting the balcony of their residence, called excitedly to Twilight when he saw the carriage coming from the distance. "Twilight! There's a chariot coming! It looks like Princess Celestia!"

The eager Unicorn was out the door almost before Spike had finished speaking, the book she was reading completely forgotten. "Oh my gosh, a surprise visit from the Princess!" she gasped, suddenly very conscious of how untidy she thought her mane looked. "Spike, bring me a brush, quick. Spike? Spiiiike!"

"Calm down," said the young dragon, joining her in front of their residence, "You look fine. Besides, you know she's not that critical." Every time, Twilight got herself all worked up over nothing, and Spike would have to pick up the pieces when she inevitably overdid things.

"Ooh, what could this be about?" she mused mostly to herself, seeming not to hear Spike's comment. "Maybe she wants to invite me to the annual Canterlot Royal Summit!" Twilight gave a happy squeal, then suddenly turned dour. "Or maybe she's coming to tell me that they had to cancel the Royal Summit…" She gasped as she began to imagine all sorts of unfortunate and wholly unlikely scenarios.

She was visibly shaking with anticipation as the chariot began its final descent into the streets of Ponyville. As it touched down, she squeezed her eyes shut out of nervousness, and when she cracked one open several seconds later, was surprised to see that the carriage, which the guards had brought to a halt several feet in front of her, appeared to be completely empty.

"Um… there's nopony there," Spike pointed out, rather unnecessarily. Alarmed, both of the guards quickly turned back, saw that the chariot was, indeed, without a passenger, and exchanged a worried glance. It certainly wouldn't look good if they had allowed Discord to slip away while he had been right under their noses.

They had no reason to worry, however, as the spirit suddenly emerged from behind Twilight and uttered a very loud, "Helloooooo, everypony!," causing the young student to jump so violently that a puff of sparks sprang from the tip of her horn.

Before she had a chance to compose herself, Discord pulled her into a bear hug that squeezed the breath from her. "Oh, it's so good to see your friends again, isn't it? The past week has been so dreadfully droll, I've thought of nothing but coming to see all my pony pals!"

Spike looked rather awkward, not sure whether he should be shouting for help. A quick look at the bemused expressions of the guards told him that Discord had most likely gotten clearance from Celestia to be here, though that didn't necessarily make him feel better about the way he was constricting Twilight, whose face was beginning to turn blue.

He set her down after giving her mane an affectionate ruffle, leaving her gasping and sputtering as her brain struggled to process all the information it had just received. Discord grinned at her patiently, clearly expecting some sort of tirade, and was surprised when she forced herself to return his smile.

"Oh, it's you Discord!" she said, straining to make her voice sound as cheerful as possible. "Princess Celestia… didn't tell me you were coming."

"Yes, well, I asked her not to," he replied. "For the express reason of seeing that face riiight…" as he tapped her on the nose, her composure broke, and a look of shock spread over her. "…there."

"It's… not that I… don't want to see you, Discord… I just have so much work that needs to be done…" She was struggling to find words that wouldn't seem offensive; she was glad that Celestia's old enemy had been able to embrace the magic of friendship, and wanted him to continue improving, but it seemed that his old sense of humor was there to stay.

"You don't have to lie to me, Twilight Sparkle," he said nonchalantly, "I'm not here to see you, anyways."

This caught her by surprise, and only increased her confusion. "Oh? Well, then… why are you here?"

"Well, I've decided that it would be fun to have even more ponies as my friends-" he smiled inwardly as Twilight cringed, "-and this seems like the best place to start looking, since I already have a few friends here."

If Discord's visit was truly about making friends, Twilight saw no reason to stop him, though she was concerned about his methods, not to mention the fact that his presence was likely to stir up quite a commotion amongst the townsfolk. But, she reminded herself, it had been Princess Celestia who had decided that Discord should be reformed, and if this would help him be a more likeable fellow, then she was willing to lend a hoof… for Celestia's sake.

Discord gave a dismissive wave to the chariot guards. "You're here is done, gentlemen. I won't be needing a ride back, so you two can head on back to Canterlot." More quietly, he added, "I'm sure Celestia could use you to fetch her newspaper."

Twilight assured the guards that she was more than capable of handling the spirit, at which point they ascended into the sky once more, glad to be rid of Discord but at the same time feeling slightly guilty about dumping him on the poor Unicorn.

"Well, if you want to make more friends," said Twilight, "the first thing we need to do is work on the way you introduce yourself. Nothing tells a person more about you than your first impression, and-"

"Wait, wait," he cut her off, "I think you misunderstood me. It's not your help I'm looking for on this. From what I know about you, you're not exactly an expert on social interaction."

Considering who she was talking to, Twilight decided to pretend that this comment wasn't slightly offensive. "I just thought I'd better see you first, to let you know that I'll be around Ponyville." Looking around, he added, "I'll also be needing some directions. It's hard to tell where I am when everything's so… orderly. Do you know where I might find our friend Pinkie Pie?"



To say that Discord drew a lot of attention was an understatement. Everypony he and Twilight passed on their way gawked at him as if in disbelief. Twilight would occasionally call out, "It's okay everypony, just a special guest of Princess Celestia, nothing to worry about," when they passed by a group of ponies that looked particularly panicked.

As for Discord himself, he seemed rather amused by the reactions his mere appearance was capable of creating. At one point, he went so far as to stop and bow to Daisy and Golden Harvest, saying, in his most noble voice, "Good morning, ladies." While Golden Harvest simply looked dumbstruck, Daisy had promptly fainted on the spot, earning Discord an irritated glance from Twilight.

By the time they arrived at the entrance to Sugarcube Corner, Twilight found herself wishing she'd thought of something a bit more inconspicuous than simply parading the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony down Ponyville's main road. "Maybe you'd better let me try a quick transformation spell," she said, "just to make you fit in a little better."

"Oh, I can disguise myself if I want, Twilight Sparkle, but that would defeat the point." He made a sweeping motion with his claw and exclaimed a bit more loudly than Twilight would've preferred, "These ponies need to know that Discord is ready for their friendship!"

Of all the things Twilight had been certain she would never hear, that particular combination of words was quite high on the list. Struggling not to think too hard about what her actions here were likely to mean for the future of her own sanity, she pushed the door to the bakery open and trotted inside, Discord forced to duck down in order to follow her.

There was nopony at the front counter or any of the tables when they entered, though the ringing of the bell on the door was shortly followed by Mr. Carrot Cake's voice from the kitchen. "Be right with you, just taking this batch of muffins out of the oven."

"Please go easy on him," Twilight whispered in a tone that bordered on begging. "Mr. Cake is jumpy at the best of times."

Her warning came too late, as Carrot Cake had already halfway entered the room, tray of baked goods in his mouth, when he spotted the ominous figure of the Draconequus and came to an abrupt halt, the muffins falling to the ground as his jaw went slack.

Acting quickly, Discord snapped the tray onto the counter before it could hit the ground. He had hoped that this would help make a good first impression with the baker, though unfortunately, Mr. Cake seemed not to notice, as he continued to stare blankly at the creature whose head nearly reached the roof of his building.

"Mr. Cake," began Twilight, hoping to snap him out of his stupor in the most gentle way possible, "I'd like you to meet a friend of mine. His name's Discord, and he's here to see Pinkie Pie. Is she around here?"

"Pinkie Pie?" mumbled Carrot Cake, wobbling slightly, "Sh-she's, uh… she's upstairs…"

Twilight exchanged a quick glance with Discord, who silently agreed that they should be on their way before the sight of his intimidating figure drove the unfortunate stallion to hysterics. Discord looked rather awkward as he stepped gingerly around Carrot, following Twilight up the stairs to the second floor. He'd seen ponies go to all sorts of extremes upon the sight of him, but this was the first time his appearance had stunned somepony into what appeared to be a complete daze. He certainly hoped he'd recovered by the time they left; he didn't look forward to explaining to Celestia that his sight was apparently enough to put ponies into comas.

Pinkie's room was easily identified by the blue-and-yellow balloons adorning the door, synonymous with her cutie mark. As she was going to knock, Twilight suddenly became aware of the fact that she was about to leave Ponyville in the wake of the two wildest individuals she had ever come into contact with, and began to question whether the town was likely to survive such a situation. Glancing back over her shoulder, her concerned eyes met with Discord's cheerfully expectant ones, striking her with a strong sense of sympathy she hadn't ever expected to associate with someone like him. Bracing herself for what would surely be a hectic series of events, she rapped her hoof against the door.

The response was instant and explosive, as Twilight had predicted. Less than a second after knocking, the door was thrown open and a blur of pink darted directly into Twilight, knocking her on her back. "Twilight!" Pinkie exclaimed excitedly, as if she had been eagerly anticipating their meeting. Standing over Twilight's prone form, their noses almost touching, she proceeded to rattle off more words per minute than the Unicorn had thought possible prior to their first meeting.

"It's so great of you to come and see me, you must have known how lonely I was feeling and came to cheer me up, that's so nice of you, and now we can go and get Applejack and Fluttershy and Rarity and-"

"Pinkie-"

"Now, why would we need to get me, silly? I'm already here! Unless you mean you think we should go get more Pinkies, but that didn't work out so well the last time, remember? Unless maybe you thought up a spell that can calm them down and then we could have tons of fun without them running all over the place and it would be a great big Pinkie Pie party and then I could dance with everyone all at once and it would be like I was at a bunch of different parties all at the same time and it would be sooo much fun-"

"Pinkie, I-"

"Oooh, I'm just so happy that you cared enough to come all by yourself when usually it's me who goes out and gets you but today you beat me to it because you were just that excited to see me and now we can go out and hmmmmffmfmmfmm-"

It took Pinkie a moment to realize that Twilight was holding her mouth shut with magic, at which point she gave her a questioning look. "Actually, Pinkie, I didn't come by myself. I brought someone with me who came all the way from Canterlot to see you again."

At this point, Pinkie seemed to finally notice Discord, who had been silently observing their mostly one-sided exchange with a look of delight. He was thrilled to see that Pinkie Pie had remained the same fun-loving pony he had admittedly become rather attached to during their previous encounters, and wondered now how she would react to the sight of him.

He found himself holding his breath as he waited for her reaction, having not fully realized until this moment how badly he craved Pinkie Pie's acceptance; if the friendliest mare in Equestria wanted nothing to do with him, then what hope was there?

For several seconds, she said nothing, making his heart skip a beat. Twilight began to look panicky at the prospect of bearing the full brunt of Discord's disappointment, when Pinkie broke into a wide smile, giving the Draconequus a surge of elation, followed by a sudden weight as she pounced upon him. Her excited charge managed to toss him to the ground as it had Twilight, who took this opportunity to right herself into a standing position and began straightening her mane, which had become rather frazzled by Pinkie's playful assault.

"I knew you'd be back!" she exclaimed, as Discord found himself in much the same situation as he had been observing before. "I just knew it! When you told everypony how you wanted to start being friendly, I knew you'd have to come back to Ponyville, because that's where we all are, and we were the first friends you'd ever made, and first friends are best friends, right? At least most of the time, but that's not to say that you're not one of my best friends Twilight, even though I didn't meet you until later, but you-"

As she rambled on, Discord became a bit flustered by the fact that she seemed to have already forgotten him, even though she currently had her hooves pressed against his chest, when suddenly her attention snapped back to its previous target.

"Anyways, nopony can stay away from their best friends for long, even somepony who isn't a pony at all, even a dracona-whatchamacallit like you Discord, especially since you just made friends, and you must still be amazed by how awesome it is!"

She paused, leading Discord to believe she had finished her tangent, before she took a large, dramatic inhale and continued to spout off her mind at what could only be called breakneck speed.

"Soooo, now that you're back and being friendly and all that I can give you my official welcoming tour of Ponyville, and then later I can throw you a great big party, because I always throw parties for my new friends, only it would've been a little weird to do that last time because everyone would've been scared of you, only I guess everyone would still be scared of you…"

Placing a hoof to her chin, she began to ponder how to overcome this significant obstacle in her plan, and Discord promptly took advantage of the opportunity to speak.

"Well, that's exactly why I came to see you, my dear," he said, flashing himself out from underneath her, then catching her before she could fall to the ground and holding her gently in front of him. "I know that nopony else in the world knows how to make friends better than you, and I hoped that you would share some of that knowledge with me."

"Oooh, oooh, that'll be so much fun! I just know everpony's gonna love you once they get to know you! So, what are we waiting for? Let's get out there and show you around the town already!"

Pinkie flailed her legs in midair as if to begin running, though of course she went nowhere as Discord still held her a considerable distance off the ground.

Twilight chose this moment to speak up. "Pinkie, remember that this is Discord we're talking about. Even if he's reformed now, everypony still remembers him as the spirit who turned Ponyville into the chaos capital of Equestria. If he just starts wandering around, ponies are gonna freak out."

"Hmm, good point, Twilight," said Pinkie reflectively. "I guess spending all that time surrounded by books really does make you smarter."

Before she even had a chance to voice a retort to that statement, Pinkie had wriggled free of Discord's grasp and took him by the paw, pulling him back down the stairs. "We'll just have to be careful, then!" Twilight could only sigh and follow them, praying to Celestia they didn't find themselves with a crisis situation on their hooves.

As the trio descended the staircase, they caught sight of Mrs. Cup Cake, who was kneeling by her husband's side. Attentively patting his head with a damp cloth, she said, "Oh, what's happened to you, sweetie? You look like you've seen a-"

She stopped in mid-sentence as she caught sight of Discord, who gave her an apologetic smile. "Bye, Mrs. Cake! Said Pinkie, oblivious to the atmosphere of the room. "I'm gonna go show my friend Discord to everypony in Ponyville!"

The three of them departed the store, leaving Mrs. Cake to weakly collapse onto the floor beside the stunned Mr. Cake, mumbling to herself about spirits and disaster.