Twilight yawned and stretched her back. The morning rays were just peeking over the horizon and she felt sweetly, deliciously rested.
"I need to thank professor Discord properly," she said as she got out of bed and prepared for class. "I'd still be a complete wreck if it weren't for him. Things would also have gotten even more out of hoof."
She ran a brush through her spiky bed-head mane and couldn't stop a smile spreading from ear to ear. She was bursting with positive feelings: relief, thankfulness, and hope that the draconequus was starting to warm up to her. It all made her incredibly happy.
She had to do something with these feelings. But what?
When Discord arrived in class he found a large bottle of grade-A chocolate milk tied with a small purple bow on his desk. Twilight was reading quietly at her desk. She didn't say a word and she didn't look up. Discord's ears flattened against his head and he silently placed the bottle in his desk just before the other students began filing in. He stared a while at Twilight, trying to read her. She never looked up from her book, but he could tell by the way she was sitting upright in her chair, the way her cheeks were stiff with a smile that she was trying to suppress, that she was very, very happy.
He tried very hard to figure out why for rest of the class period, but she didn't give up any other clues. She took the same massive amount of notes that she normally did. She answered questions in the same way. She sat at attention in the same way while the rest of the class dozed or doodled in their notes.
When class ended she was the last to leave, as usual. He watched her pack her things from behind his folded claw and paw. Twilight started to leave without saying anything, but as she reached the door she suddenly looked back at him, catching him staring at her. She flashed a huge smile.
"Thank you, sir!" she said in the most earnest tone Discord had heard in a long while. She didn't wait for his response and left. He was left alone and slightly dazed.
He shrugged, shaking it off.
Thanking me for last night, I suppose... His thoughts trailed away as he tried to figure out how that made him feel. Annoyed? Angry? If anything it made him feel odd, like something was out of place. It was an unfamiliar, uncomfortable feeling and he didn't like it.
He opened the drawer and looked a the decorated bottle of milk. No reason to let it go to waste.
Twilight hummed a happy tune as she completed an assignment that wasn't due for three more weeks. She glanced toward her window and smiled when she saw the sky was turning a deep reddish orange. She watched the sun sink below the horizon and savored the appearance of each star until the whole navy dome was riveted with light like a million jewels. She eagerly awaited the appearance of a familiar form, and sure enough, Discord appeared on the grounds.
He was far away and he floated around erratically. Twilight was beginning to lose patience with him until he finally chose a garden and settled down. Twilight abandoned her post at the window and rummaged through her books. She chose her Ancient Text and Scroll Studies textbook, a large tome that she'd been wanting to study more closely.
She carried the book on her back as she sneaked out. For a pony who was new to breaking the rules, she was surprisingly adept at sneaking around. Either that or the professors didn't care much about students breaking curfew. Twilight chose to entertain the former.
She pretended to be a ninja or master thief as she made her way towards Discord's garden, looking around every corner to make sure all was clear. When she finally reached him she emerged quietly from the bushes.
Discord heard her approach and only acknowledged her arrival with a partial movement of his head towards her direction.
"Good evening, sir," she said quietly.
"Mmm," he grunted. He glanced at her momentarily, then raised his eyebrow quizzically. "You really don't care about curfew, do you?"
"I do care," she said, sitting down. "I understand why the rule is there. But the university doesn't have to worry about me causing any trouble. I'm just here to read." She opened her book and started flipping through the pages using magic.
"You're going to read in the dark?"
"Sure. I'm used to reading at night, and the starlight is bright enough."
Discord didn't answer. He watched her look through the book in the dimness. He waited for her to say something else, but nothing came. Wasn't she going to say something about the milk? Ask him something about himself? Thank him again? He waited a few minutes, but it was clear that she wasn't going to say anything else at that moment.
She finally spoke when she opened to a page where a small flyer was being used as a bookmark.
"Oh yeah," she mumbled, reading the flyer. "There's a dance soon. This Friday night, it would seem."
"Ugh," Discord groaned. "Don't remind me."
"I'm not particularly keen about it either," she responded, laughing a bit at his discontent. "Do the faculty have to attend?"
"I was enlisted as a chaperone," he pressed the point between his eyebrows. "It's going to be awful."
"Maybe it won't be so bad," she said optimistically. "Music, snacks, shiny lights. It could be fun."
Discord made a doubtful noise and gazed off into some unknown distance.
Twilight shrugged and left him to his own thoughts. She observed the flyer a moment longer before setting it aside. Silence enveloped the pair for a long while, and Discord didn't particularly mind it. He glanced down every few minutes to always find her reading. He had thought about it long and hard all day, and he finally came to the conclusion that the reason her thankfulness and gift had made him feel so out of place was because what he did for her was the first nice thing he's done for anyone in years.
He hated nice. It was frilly, soft, gooey, and just made him gag. Niceness was weakness, and while he admitted to a vast amount of sleep deprivation, he refused to think himself as weak. He'd never been weak in his entire life. He decided that allowing Twilight Sparkle hang around him so often probably wasn't a good decision.
He needed her gone. He needed to be rid of her. She was screwing everything up in his head.
But Discord remained silent. He didn't say a word. He didn't force her to leave because having her next to him during his nighttime vigils felt like something he didn't entirely dislike. He had sat alone at the fountains. Feeling another presence beside him made him think that the hundreds of nights had in fact been lonely ones without him realizing it.
No, he thought, clapping his claw over his face. Stop thinking. Stop thinking those ridiculous things.
He glanced down at Twilight again and found that she had fallen asleep on top of her book. She was entirely ungraceful, her mouth wide open with a good amount of drool spilling over the pages. Discord rolled his eyes and groaned.
Well great. Now I'm just jealous.
He sighed and scowled down at the sleeping pony. This place was certainly no place for her.
Discord swept his tail around and danced the fluffy tip against Twilight's nose. She awoke with loud sneeze and a yawn.
"Sorry sir," she yawned again.
"Go home, Sparkle," he said. "It's late."
"Yessir," she mumbled. She gathered her book up and carefully replaced the flyer between the pages. "Good night, sir."
"Good morning."
"Oh. Ha. Right. 'Morning." She sauntered off, and Discord was alone again at the fountain.
His nighttime vigil was restored to it's usual state.
And that was a good thing. Right?
Twilight did her best to keep the draconequus company the rest of the week. She knew that he didn't like to talk much and liked his space, so she decided not to go every night and not to stay for too long. When she did visit she tried to keep conversation to a minimum, usually greeting him when she arrived and bidding him farewell when she left.
It was impossible for her to tell if he enjoyed her company or not, but he never sent her away so she took it as a sign that he was at least tolerant of her.
And that was a fantastic start.
Discord continued to juggle with two decisions: get rid of Twilight or keep her. He gave up when the whole conflict reminded him of a child's decision to give up on having an imaginary friend or not.
When Friday rolled around Twilight knew that Discord wouldn't be at the fountain that night. Twilight walked home after her last class and observed all the excited ponies running about. She'd heard chatter all week about dresses, makeup, dates, and other things leading up to the dance. Twilight had never understood ponies' fascination with school dances. Sure, she loved dressing up in fancy clothes and such, but the idea of the dance itself didn't appeal to her at all. She had made the decision not to attend this dance. Delving into her new library book seemed like much more fun.
But as she lay on the floor with said book sitting in front of her, she just stared at the cover. She glanced up at the dress she'd hung up to get the wrinkles out. It was the only dress she owned. It was a ruffly design of red and yellow that she was almost certain was ugly, but it would have to do. She looked back down at the book. It looked so inviting, and the dance seemed so...unnecessary.
Come on, Twilight, she thought. Remember what you said? It could be fun, and you can't leave the professor to battle the hordes alone.
She sighed and pushed the book away. She had stalled for far too long; the dance had already started.
The grand hall was streaming with multicolored beams and chips of white light that were thrown about by a disco ball attached to the chandelier. In between the light was a thick dimness that made it hard to see who was who. The edges of the room were crowded with tables and small snack and punch tables. The bulk of the space was bustling with students wearing too much makeup and sparkles dancing to what Discord would hardly call music.
He had settled himself into a table in the farthest corner of the room and wasn't paying attention to the students at all. He was busy ripping the edges of the paper tablecloth when Luna appeared.
"Discord," she said. "What are you doing? You're supposed to be chaperoning."
"You all seem to be doing just fine without me."
"Fine," she said curtly. "Stay here. Just pretend you're watching, at least. "
He grumbled a nondescript response and the princess left him.
He sighed and was about to go back to tearing at the paper when something appeared in the corner of his eye. He looked up to see Twilight Sparkle smiling at him.
"Good evening, professor!" She called above the music.
Discord looked at her quizzically. "Sparkle, what are you wearing?"
She had tried very hard make herself look presentable. Her hair was clean and brushed straight with a subtle sweep in the bangs, but it screamed an ignorance of any styling techniques that all the other mares in the room were proficient in. She wasn't wearing any nice shoes or makeup. Her dress was probably one of the ugliest ever made. The red and yellow colors clashed with her lavender and navy scheme. The cut was frilly and unflattering with puffy sleeves and overly poofy ruffles. Discord even spotted a couple of loosening buttons.
"I know, I know," she said. "But it's all I had."
Discord narrowed his eyes at her. "I thought you said you weren't going to come."
"When did I say that? I said it could be fun. Truthfully I was looking forward to starting a new book I got from the library, but I had a sudden craving for punch. So if you'll excuse me, I see a bowl over there."
She trotted off to the snack table and Discord watched her request punch from the attendant. She returned with a glass floating next to her in an orb of purple magic. She stood nearby and took periodic sips while observing the crowd.
Discord scowled at her. "You didn't come all the way here for punch," he said.
"Nope," she chirped.
"Then what are doing here?"
"I'm certain you already know." She took another drink from her glass and Discord remained silent. She finished her drink and said, "I'm going to get another. You want one?"
He was silent a moment longer, then he grumbled, "no."
"Suit yourself!" She cantered off to retrieve another glass.
The rest of the night proceeded in this manner. Twilight downed four glasses of punch and stood by Discord's table. He never asked her to sit and she never tried to. They remained silent with a comfortable distance between them.
An hour or so into the dance Twilight left to survey the snack table. She was deciding amongst different flavors of miniature pies when the music was turned down and a group of ponies took the stage.
"Good evening, everypony!" the announcer said. It was a unicorn mare with golden mane and an ivory coat. her dress was red and made of a sparkly fabric that almost blinded Twilight when she looked at it. The mare was flanked by two other unicorns in short, shimmery dresses.
"I hope you all are having a good time!" the mare cried. Here were a significant amount of clops and cheers in response. "Good! We'll get back to the music shortly, but as is tradition with dances organized by the Student Event Committee, we're taking a break to choose a winner for the raffle!"
The crowd cheered politely and waited as one of the other unicorns brought the announcer a large bowl.
The golden-maned mare dug around the bowl a moment and drew out a piece of paper.
"And the winner is..." She paused for dramatic effect. Twilight rolled her eyes and bit into a mini chocolate pie. "Twilight Sparkle!"
Twilight almost choked. That was her name. They can't have just said her name. As in, Twilight Sparkle Twilight Sparkle?
"Where are you, Twilight?" the mare called, peering into the crowd. Someone controlling a spotlight saw it fit to shine the thing on her, revealing her position."There you are!" Everyone clopped and cheered, but she didn't want to move. "What are you waiting for? Come up on stage?"
Not sure of what else to do, Twilight did so. She made her way through the crowd and climbed the stairs to the stage.
"You don't look very excited," the mare joked upon seeing Twilight's confused expression.
"I never entered any raffle," she said.
"You didn't have to, all students were entered automatically."
"I still don't understand...what did I-"
"You're secret prize is..." The mare reached into another bowl and pulled out another slip of paper. "A...tiara!"
Before Twilight could respond one of the other mares dug a tiara out of large box of prizes and placed it on Twilight's head. The gold-mane mare stepped back to allow some pictures to be taken of the winner by some photographer for the student-run paper.
The whole ordeal had taken Twilight completely off guard and instead of being happy at winning something like she knew she should she was just confused. However, as the as the photographer snapped a picture she couldn't help but enjoy her little bit of limelight and a small smile appeared on her lips.
Then something suddenly struck the top of her head with a metallic clang and she felt something cold and wet drench her face and back.
She looked down and saw a bucket at her feet along with a puddle of red that was being fed by a steady stream dripping from her mane and shoulders. It was spaghetti sauce. Three-week old, rotting tomato sauce. Worse still was the meat.
Twilight had understood the need for some creatures to eat meat. The school had to provide for the meat-eating inhabitants of the school, like the griffons, and Twilight had no problems with that.
She understood, but that didn't prevent it from making her gag. Just like most ponies, the thought of eating meat disgusted her. Not only were ponies herbivores, but the things that the griffons were eating used to be living creatures. Meat repelled her, as it should, and she always did her best to ignore the "Griffon Only" line in the cafeteria.
But now she was covered in it. It was touching her. It was slipping down her face and passing way too close to her lips before hitting the ground with a sickening plop. It violated her senses, it's scent clogging her nose and making her stomach turn.
It was beyond disgusting. It was revolting. It was horrifying. She would have screamed, but shock had rendered her silent. She could only hear a nondescript dull roar and expected that everyone else was screaming for her.
But when she finally focused her senses outward again she could heard the truth. They weren't screaming.
They were laughing.
They were laughing harder than Twilight had seen anyone laugh before. He filled her ears with a deafening roar and she felt her body begin to betray her. Somewhere deep in the marrow of her bones was slight tremor that grew into a shiver. Soon her whole body was trembling and the laughter only got louder.
She never thought she'd hear something so terrible.
All this happened in but a moment and Twilight ran away before any of the chaperones could do anything. She had disappeared but the laughter persisted. Ruby emerged from behind stage with her group of friends, also laughing.
Discord had watched the whole event intently. It was the funniest thing he'd seen in years. Ruby's prank was comedy gold. He should have been writhing on the floor with laughter.
But he wasn't. Discord felt no joy at all. There wasn't a single flutter of laughter in chest. In it's place was anger. He was furious. His face was as unreadable as ever yet he felt ready to set the whole room on fire.
He didn't want to think about why. He was sick of asking why. He lit from his chair and appeared on stage so fast that Ruby choked on her own breath in surprise.
He stared down at her with is usual icy gaze, but said nothing. Ruby and her friends weren't sure how to respond and were frozen until Luna suddenly appeared in front of Discord. Her eyes were glowing white in fury and her voice boomed with unnatural volume.
"RUBY SPICE!" She yelled. "THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!" The mares jumped back in surprise. The room fell silent at the god-like roar.
Ruby recovered and said, "But Miss Luna, we didn't do anything. We were back there helping out with the raffle. Just ask Goldie."
"ENOUGH! ALL OF YOU ARE COMING WITH ME RIGHT NOW," The unicorns jumped again in fear and followed Luna as she led them off stage. She was on the stairs when the princess suddenly noticed that Discord was gone.
It didn't take him long to find her. There was a bathroom with showers near the grand hall where the dance was taking place. Discord ignored any signs that denied entry to members of the male gender and floated through the door. Everyone was at the dance and the place was empty. Except, of course, for a little purple unicorn hunching over the linoleum tiles, picking tomato and meat out of her mane and dropping the pieces over the drain.
Discord sat in an invisible chair against the wall but didn't say anything. Twilight saw him and sighed. She was silent for a while as she continued to pick the rubbish from her mane.
Finally she said quietly, "Was the tie Princess Celestia's idea, or Luna's?"
Discord blinked at the random question and touched the fancy black silk bow tie he was wearing. He didn't respond.
"You're a draconequus, but I also know what you really are. I know you're the spirit of Chaos. I know you were an enemy to Celestia. I know you used to have immense magical power before Celestia cursed you. I know the spell prevents you from sleeping. I know it makes you miserable. I thought I could help. Somehow...I don't know..."
She dared not look at him, but he didn't respond. The silence stretched out and every second applied an extra pound of pressure to Twilight's frame.
She couldn't bear the tension and explained "That day Celestia came to visit I was at the door and I overheard your conversation. I know it was wrong. I know I shouldn't know these things but I just thought I could..." Her voice grew smaller and smaller until it trailed away completely.
Still no answer. Twilight chanced a look at his face. He was looking down on her with an expression she couldn't place. It wasn't anger, but it certainly wasn't happiness. His brow was tense and his eyes were narrowed; he was deeply considering something. Twilight's gaze darted back to the drain in front of her.
She flinched when the shadow of his tail swept over her head. She braced herself, and with a loud squeak, he turned on the water faucet. Twilight was drenched head to hoof in warm water, and all the horrible red started to flow away. She nearly collapsed as every fiber in her body loosened in relief, and a melancholic fluttering feeling flared up in her stomach.
She glanced up at him. He seemed completely calm, but he still wasn't saying anything. Twilight ran a hoof through her bangs to dislodge some stubborn clumps while she waited.
Finally he said, "You've haven't told anyone, have you?"
"No," she responded.
"Good."
Twilight waited for him to say something else, but his silence stretched on. "What, that's it?" She said. "No angry outbursts? No scolding? Not even a detention?"
He looked away. "You understand the nature of that information. You understand the consequences if it became common knowledge, or even a rumor."
"Why would you take that chance? You could cast a memory suppression spell on me."
"There are strict rules against that sort of thing. And what makes you think I could, in this state?"
"You could ask Luna. She could do it."
He scowled at her. "All you have to do is stay quiet. Is that really so hard?"
She sighed. "No, of course not." She paused. "Thank you professor." When he raised an eyebrow at the gratitude she explained, "For trusting me."
Before he could say anything in return Luna suddenly burst into the bathroom.
"Twilight Sparkle?" she called urgently. "Are you in here?"
"In here," Twilight called back.
"Oh, there you are Twilight." Luna's normally stony expression melted into motherly concern. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she smiled unconvincingly and Luna gave her doubting expression. "I am, really. I'm fine."
'Fine?' Discord thought. How could she possibly be fine? She had been drenched in meat, after all. Discord could imagine how horrifying that must be to a vegetarian creature, and yet here she was, smiling, saying he was fine. Impossible little pony. He felt annoyance flare up and let it out in a scowl before it could infect his voice.
Luna noticed Discord floating in the room and gave him a suspicious look. "Discord?" she said. "What are you doing here?"
He merely shrugged and Luna didn't feel like prying answers out of him. She turned back to Twilight. "Miss Sparkle, are you sure you're alright?"
Twilight nodded, "Yes, ma'am. Thank you for your concern. I'm just going to clean up and go to bed now. I planned a long study day for tomorrow."
Luna sighed. She was unconvinced, but the little unicorn was insistent. She escorted her out of the bathroom and watched her go. The Dean of Students wanted more than anything to comfort Twilight Sparkle, and she would have done everything in her power to do so if another matter wasn't pressing on her mind.
She stopped Discord as he came drifting out the door.
"Discord," she said. "A word?"
"I wasn't doing anything wrong," he insisted.
"Discord," she stopped him before any quips could come to his mind. "Everyone was so distracted during Ruby's prank we..." Luna glanced up and down the hallway, making absolute certain no one was within earshot. She whispered, "Discord. There's been another incident."
"Mm hm." he grumbled.
"Did you see anything? Anything at all?"
"No, princess. I did not. I was preoccupied."
"Very well." She sighed heavily. "I don't know how much longer we can put up with this. If only the cruelty of school girls was all we had to worry about."
"It's a magic school for gifted unicorns. Face it, it was never that simple."
"Maybe you're right." She began to walk away. "But that doesn't stop me from wishing it so."