Princess Celestia was dressed in an itchy, uncomfortable gown sewn of gold and silk. She hated it. She hated all of it- the boring, fancy party guests; the annoyingly slow whine of the cellos; everything about this party was so dull! She'd only come to the stupid Grand Galloping Gala because her tutor promised her mother, the queen, would be there. But, like always, she was too busy to pay any attention to her bored daughter; so Celestia sulked in the corner, imagining turning all of the guests into slimy frogs. She could do it, if she wanted, but her tutor would scold her. The princess wished she had realized her mother would ignore like this, and brought some form of entertainment. Sure, her tutor would scold her for being "unladylike" for neglecting her guests, but her sister Luna had gotten away with bringing a book. Although, it wasn't like the tutor cared if Lulu brought something to the party. He payed much more attention to Celestia and her advanced magic. In fact, most people did. Luna was just a quiet wallflower.
A commotion at the entrance broke her train of thought. A small crowd had gathered at the giant, elaborately decorated doorway. Wondering if some foreign hoity-toity prince had arrived, she raised her elegant ivory head to see the strangest sight. A young draconequus stood regally by a well- groomed stallion. This interested Celestia greatly, as she'd only heard about them during her studies. They were supposedly extinct, but had wielded great magic. As she observed the draconequus, she noticed the he had the head of a pony- but the physical resemblance stopped there. Two mismatched horns rose from his sleek head; one a deer's and the other- some sort of wobbly dragon horn? One of his hands was a lion's paw, and the other, a talon, was waving politely to the "sophisticated" ponies, who seemed in awe of his grace and posture. He strutted on a dragon foot and a deer foot, and his reptilian tail swept across the ballroom floor. Celestia was greatly intrigued by him, but didn't understand how he could be so charming with these incredibly empty-headed ponies. Perhaps he was nothing but another foolish sop like them. But even as he pulled a bouquet of roses for the nearest lady, who swooned, she caught the mischievous twinkle in his eye; and only Celestia realized that one of the petals had transformed a slug and slimed its way into her tea. The mare sipped at her tea daintily, not noticing the prank he’d pulled. Smiling inwardly, she turned around and accidentally bumped into her tutor, Silver Lining.
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "I apologize, princess! Are you hurt?" Celestia rolled her eyes at the idea of a little thump causing her pain. But before she could reply, the same gentlecolt who had escorted the draconequus inside pushed his way through the crowd up to us and coughed gently.
"Lord Moneypenny!" the startled unicorn exclaimed, and bowed his head in acknowledgement.
"Ah, Sir Silver Lining," The Lord smiled and lowered his head as well, but not as low. "How nice to see you again! And this, I presume, is the royal princess herself?"
"Yes, of course! In fact, she is very skilled with magic- very much above anypony her age!"
"Is that so? My son is adept at such things as well- may I introduce my adopted son, Discord!" Moneypenny proudly motioned to the draconequus, who had appeared at the mention of his name. Celestia eyed him curiously. He seemed about her age, and up close was even more extraordinary. As the two adults chatted, she approached him.
"Princess!" he exclaimed charmingly, bowing deeply and handing her a single carnation flower. "How pleased I am to meet you at last." Determined not to be fooled, she turned flower into a pale pink butterfly that flapped away, landing on somepony’s wig and causing him or her to yelp in surprise.
"Well," Discord slipped her a smile, "Guess you aren't such a nit wit."
"I'm offended that you made such an assumption! I'm NOT a snooty stuck up like them," she gestured at everypony else.
"Glad someone here isn't prancing around like a snob, then," the strange creature replied.
"How do you even talk to them? I can't stand one second around those ponies. That's why I always coop myself up in the palace."
"Act like them. Then you can do more things without them suspecting you and trying to ruin the fun."
"Oh, sir Discord," Celestia mocked their silly accent, "How can I ever live? I have lost my most prized doily because I couldn't possibly lower my status by *gasp* kneeling onto the ground to reach it? WhatEVER shall I do?"
"Lady Celestia- that is such a tragedy! If ONLY there were some way to... levitate it? But that's impossible, as it might stress your horn the slightest! Such a horrible dilemma!" Discord smirked.
"Oh, shut up! I was pretending to be an earth pony!"
"I'm sure," he snickered. Celestia slammed into him playfully. Unfortunately, her tutor realized she was missing from the conversation and dragged her away to meet some dignitary of someplace she didn’t care about and the mayor of Manehattan, who continued endlessly on about a new style of lampshades and whether it was 'in' or not. Trying Discord's tactic, she flashed a winning smile at the dull ponies and murmured politely,
"Excuse me for a moment, I am ever so thirsty. I should like to grab- um, obtain some refreshments for my parched throat." To her surprise, it worked, and the trio went back to discussing lampshades. Scouring the large ballroom for Discord, but failing, led her to the conclusion that he must have left already with his adopted father. The rest of the gala was extremely boring, and all Celestia could think about was the extremely interesting draconequus.