"That's complicated magic," Twilight Sparkle said, looking at the spell book in front of her. "I don't know if I could concentrate on that while still using the Elements of Harmony."
"No need," Levi List said, making her look up to him. "I was rather high in my magic class, thanks to my attention to detail. All you would need to do is channel what you know about her personality."
"Well...alright," the alicorn reluctantly agreed. "But remember, this is only a last resort. First we have to see if Fluttershy will use it of her own free will."
Rainbow Dash flew through the open door at top speed and nearly rammed into Levi List, though she screeched to a stop before that happened. "I can't find Fluttershy anywhere in the sky," the mare reported as the rest of their friends ran into the Golden Oaks Library.
"I checked the inside of Ponyville," Rarity said. "What's left, anyway. I didn't see her at all."
"Ah looked all around the outer parts o' Ponyville," Applejack added. "She ain't anywhere."
"I talked to everypony I could find. A few said they saw her fly over to Discord's maze, but after that NOPONY saw her!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed, making Twilight bite her lower lip with the complexity of the matter at hand.
"If I may?" Levi List asked, making the ponies turn to him. "I don't think we have another moment to waste."
"He's right!" Rainbow Dash agreed. "We need to stop Discord before he starts using that hypno-nonsense on ponies and making them act all wacko!"
Twilight Sparkle put a hoof to her forehead and sighed. "You're right girls. I hope Fluttershy will understand. Do you still have that feather, Mr. List?"
The speckled unicorn nodded, pulling a yellow feather out of his bag.
Fluttershy paced just inside the Everfree Forest. Normally she wouldn't even go near the spooky area, but she wasn't ready to go back to her friends just yet.
Discord was the only one with nearly enough magic to make such a mess out of Ponyville, she knew this very well. And he had lied to her about Princess Celestia allowing him to come. All reasonable evidence pointed to the fact he was playing her for a fool. But still...the change from rage to that other emotion wasn't lost on her. She just couldn't put a hoof on what emotion it had been. That's what she was dwelling on. What was that expression he'd had? She didn't remember ever seeing that face on the draconequus before, though something about him in that moment did seem familiar. She ran back all the times she'd interacted with Discord in her mind, trying to filter out what that expression had been. It hadn't been that moment of explosive rage when she didn't fall willingly under his hypnosis, and it wasn't the joy at her and her friend's misfortune when they were all arguing with each other. So that left...
Suddenly it hit her. And she felt like she wanted to cry.
Trotting out of the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy wildly looked around to see if her friends were anywhere nearby. A large flash of light caught her eye to the left, and she couldn't believe what she was seeing. Putting as much speed into her legs and wings as she possibly could, she started dashing towards it.
Twilight Sparkle looked around, spotting the draconequus in question sitting with his back against the hedge maze, looking like he was napping. She turned to her friends (all wearing their respective Elements of Harmony) and Levi List, who was holding the Element of Kindness and a light yellow feather.
"Again, this only works for a short time," Levi List warned them, placing the feather on the ground but keeping the Element around his neck for the time being. "But it might just be enough time to get it done."
His horn began to glow a light grey color, encircling the feather. Twilight added her own, magenta glow to the mix, and the feather started to stretch and bulge. After a few tense and strenuous seconds, there was a small "Pop!" and suddenly standing in front of them was a perfect copy of Fluttershy. Twilight Sparkle let her magic subside, but Levi List kept his horn glowing to sustain the spell as long as possible. He took the Element off of his neck and put it around the yellow pegasus'.
"Alright," Rainbow Dash said, hitting one front hoof in the other. "Let's do this."
All six mares stepped out of their small hiding space behind a row of bushes, Levi List remaining in the bush so as to concentrate his magic into the fake Fluttershy. They stepped up in their formation, ready to use the Elements of Harmony to turn their target into stone.
"Discord!" Twilight Sparkle growled, making the draconequus lazily open one eye. "We're going to give you one chance; turn Ponyville back to normal!"
The spirit of chaos growled. "As I told your friend Fluttershy, I didn't do this! And since I'm not responsible, I don't feel I should have to fix it."
"Suit yourself," Rainbow Dash growled as the Elements of Harmony began to glow. Very soon they began shooting energy shaped like their central gem at the draconequus, making him duck and weave to avoid them. The energy blasts corralled him into one space, and a rainbow shot out from Twilight's tiara, arching upwards before slamming down onto him. Discord yowled in surprise and possibly pain as his lower body began to be encased in stone, freezing it in place. The effect rapidly climbed upwards, across his wings and arms and up his neck. Just a few more seconds and his head would be -
CRASH!
A loud thump came from the bush Levi List had been hiding in, causing the unicorn's magic to fail. Fake Fluttershy's Element stopped glowing, making the rainbow suddenly fizzle out. Discord looked as if he was straining, and cracks appeared all over his frozen body. The stone shell shattered, sending pieces everywhere and letting the draconequus move again. With a growl, he snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light. At the same time, the hedge maze behind him grew much taller, thorns protruding from branches as the leaves turned dark and prickly, grey clouds covering the area as a final touch.
"What in tarnation?!" Applejack asked, looking around. The fake Fluttershy was on the ground, fading out of existence a moment later and only leaving her necklace. Much to everyone's shock, the real Fluttershy exploded out of the bush Levi List had been in, landing next to a shattered piece of stone.
What had just happened?! Fluttershy was sure she had to be there to make the Elements of Harmony actually work, so how come this had happened?
A speckled hoof touching her shoulder distracted the Pegasus. She turned to its owner, who was looking at her sadly.
"I'm sorry. This is just how it has to be."
Fluttershy did something very uncharacteristic of herself; she tackled the unicorn to the ground.
"Just the way it has to be?!" she demanded. "Discord had changed! He'd been good! I don't know what's going on with Ponyville right now but he said he didn't do it and I...I believe him!"
"Believe him?" Rarity asked. "Sweetheart, why would anyone else do this? HOW could anyone else do this?"
"I don't know," Fluttershy admitted, getting off of the very surprised Levi List. "But I know for a fact Discord has changed! He's good now, he's - "
"He's the embodiment of Chaos!" Levi List exclaimed. "I'm sorry Fluttershy, but he CAN'T change! It's not possible! That's like saying you can tame a timberwolf and make it a pet! He can move the moon and sun, for Celestia's sake!"
"Wait a minute!" Fluttershy abruptly realized, eyes widening. "If Discord had done this, why is the sun still following its normal course?"
All the ponies present stared at the pegasus. That oddly made sense. Last time Discord had decided to make Ponyville a living cartoon, the sun and moon had been abruptly and randomly changing their positions.
"Come to think of it, why would Discord make Ponyville exactly the same as before?" Pinkie Pie asked. "He never does the same thing twice!"
"But who could do this besides Discord?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Somepony with a whole lot of magic," Twilight Sparkle mused. She turned to Levi List, who awkwardly looked away.
"Mr. List...that spell you pulled off was extremely complicated, and requires a lot of magic power. It takes years of hard study to do something that advanced. With that much experience...you could pull off many manipulation spells at once." The alicorn narrowed her eyes at him. "And you've been reading a whole lot about Discord's last visit here. Enough you might learn how to make Ponyville the Chaos Capitol of the world. But a regular pony can't move the sun or moon, now can they?"
"A-are you accusing me?" the speckled unicorn asked. "I despise anything that's not orderly! Why would I make Ponyville so chaotic? Besides, I've had nearly no experience with any draconequus."
"You said you had been to Canterlot," Rarity mused. "Perhaps you moved here from there? Where Discord had been?"
Fluttershy gasped. "Are you trying to frame Discord?!"
"I have to!" the unicorn burst out, jumping to his hooves and surprising everyone. "It's only a matter of time before he tries to take over Equestria again! The country's only safe with that menace in stone! I can't sit idly while that happens! I can't move at all when I think of what he'll do! I curse his name! He's the one behind all things chaotic! He's DISCORD!"
"We don't own that song either, but I don't think we'll get sued for it," Pinkie Pie babbled. "But still, YOU MEANY-PANTS! Framing ponies isn't nice!"
"He's not a pony!" Levi List growled. "He's a...a...a tyrant! He can't change his ways, it's simply not possible!"
Twilight Sparkle growled at Levi List. "I'm going to give you a chance to fix Ponyville yourself. If you don't, I'll change it back with my failsafe spell and then tell Princess Celestia EXACTLY what you did!"
"Your failsafe spell won't work, I've put a magical force field around Ponyville so any magic that isn't mine will either not work or simply cause more havoc."
"I'll make sure to mention that, then," the purple alicorn threatened.
The unicorn in front of her scowled before his horn flashed brightly. Once they got their vision back, Ponyville looked utterly normal. The hedge maze still looked evil and looming, seeing as that was Discord's doing, but the grass was green again, the roads were dirt and not soap, the animals were back to normal, etcetera. Twilight Sparkle sighed with relief.
"Girls, we need to go find Discord and apologize," she said as the Cutie Mark Crusaders began to trot over. "I'll bet he's in the maze, so we'd better see if we can find him."
"You're going in the maze?" Scootaloo asked, drawing attention to her and her friends.
"If y'all are, don't go left!" Apple Bloom piped up.
"Yeah, we took a left from the entrance, and we ran into a big three-headed dog!" Sweetie Belle added.
Fluttershy's eyes bulged slightly. Could that...?
"Girls, I have to run back to my house really quickly, please don't start without me!" she said, beginning to run off. Her friends were left staring at each other in confusion, but the pegasus came back in a very short time, a scroll in her mouth.
"What's that?" Rainbow Dash asked as her friend unrolled the paper. Her friends could see the letter Princess Celestia had written, but Fluttershy was studying the other side.
"I send two-sided letters to Princess Celestia," Fluttershy explained, scrutinizing the paper. "One side is for Princess Celestia, and one is for Discord. He takes her letters before she sends them and writes his own on the back to me. This one had a maze under it, and when I took a left, I ran into a Cerberus!"
"So that maze might be a map through this maze!" Rarity concluded.
"Awesome! We'll get through here in record time!" Rainbow Dash said.
"But that's like cheating!" Apple Bloom piped up, making the ponies turn to her.
"Sugar cube, we ain't playin' a game," Applejack told her little sister. "We need to find Discord and say we're sorry for somethin'."
"We were being meany-mean-mean pants," Pinkie Pie said.
"We made him upset," Twilight Sparkle admitted. "And that reminds me, girls, he's hard to read when he's angry. Keep your Elements on at all times, just in case we end up needing a little extra protection."
All the girls nodded, Fluttershy fixing her necklace around her neck. She didn't think she'd need to use it, but Discord had a nasty temper at times. Better to be safe than sorry.
"Alright girls, let's follow Fluttershy," the alicorn said. The yellow pegasus nodded and stepped into the entrance of the hedge maze. As soon as all the girls were inside, the opening behind them was closed off and their wings and horns disappeared.
"Hoo boy," Applejack groaned. "Here we go again."
"Seems some ponies have come to play again," Discord's voice echoed. There was something more malicious about his tone than last time they'd been in a similar situation. "Trying to imprison me in stone again? Don't think it'll be easy!"
"He sounds furious," Rarity quietly whispered.
"Well, we kind sorta said we didn't trust him when we really shoulda," Pinkie Pie pointed out, smiling awkwardly.
"No time for that, girls," Twilight said, looking over Fluttershy's shoulder. "We need to reach the center."
"Alright, follow me," the yellow pegasus said, starting off down the right corridor. There were more monsters in the actual maze than were marked on the paper, most likely because of the draconequus' increased rage. The girls were forced to dodge around a small pack of timberwolves, a patch of Poison Joke flowers, and even a parasprite swarm.
"Are we THERE yet?" Rainbow Dash asked, thinking their pace was obscenely slow.
"Almost," Fluttershy assured them, looking at the hedge walls. "We have to take a left."
"Uh...what left?" Applejack asked, not seeing anything but a straight corridor that led to a right hand turn at its end. "There ain't any lefts 'round here."
"Exactly," Fluttershy nodded. The ponies looked at each other, confused, before Fluttershy gasped in delight and trotted over to a spot in the wall. When her friends followed, they saw there was a small gap, just barely large enough for a pony to crawl through.
"You must be joking!" Rarity exclaimed. Her answer was Fluttershy getting down on her stomach and wriggling through the tiny gap, getting scratched everywhere with the thorns. Rainobw Dash went next, pushing the branches aside and getting a few gashes as a result.
"Don't worry, sugar cube," Applejack offered as Twilight made her way through the gap, hissing in pain. "If ya go last, it'll be bigger for ya to get through."
"I suppose," Rarity groaned as Pinkie Pie did a somersault through the hole, getting her mane and tail tangled. Applejack crawled through next, her hat getting stuck in the brambles but not much else. Rarity pushed the hat through when she delicately squeezed herself through the gap, appearing no worse for wear on the other side, though her friends had varying about of scratches and tangled manes. Fluttershy had the most and worst gouges, but she continued to concentrate on the task at hand.
"Okay...we'll go straight until we see a hammock on our left, then take the next right," the yellow pegasus said, looking at the map again.
"A hammock?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Why not a trampoline? Or a pool?"
"Maybe the hammock's to tempt us to take a rest," Twilight offered. "It might transport us back outside, or we might just not wake up."
"If it's a cloud hammock," Rainbow Dash growled, not having great memories of cloud hammocks in the maze, "I'm kicking it to next Tuesday."
"That's tomorrow!" Pinkie Pie said with a smile and a bounce. Rainbow Dash put a hoof to her forehead and shook her head. Sure enough, they soon found a hammock, but it wasn't a cloud. The girls kept going, turning right and avoiding waking an ursa minor.
"One more turn and we're there, girls," Fluttershy said, taking the next left but stopping abruptly. When her friends caught up to her, they saw why; a small army of black, pony-like creatures was standing in front of them. With flashes, they all took the appearance of one of the six mares.
"Changelings?!" Twilight asked, looking at the morphed forms.
"I count 18 of them," Rainbow Dash said, getting in a fighting stance. "This oughta be a piece of cake!"
The changelings jumped at the ponies, and confusion began to run rampant. The girls could only kick and punch for attacks, and sometimes they hit their friend instead of an enemy. At one point, all the changelings took the form of Fluttershy, causing many of them to be defeated, but earing Fluttershy a few new wounds. One of the changelings kicked Fluttershy hard enough to send her out of the hallway and into a clearing.
"Fluttershy, ya okay?!" Applejack called, bucking one of the last two enemies as Pinkie Pie somehow grabbed her party cannon out of thin air and blasted the other.
"Well, bravo, bravo," a voice sarcastically crooned, clapping punctuating the words. Fluttershy's ears shot straight up and she tried to jump to her feet, but one of her legs buckled and sent her face-first into the ground. "Seems you found the center."
"Hiya, Discord!" Pinkie Pie called, smiling widely. The chaos spirit didn't seem amused. If anything, that made him even angrier.
"Discord, we came to - "
"I know exactly what you came here for!" he yelled, cutting of Twilight and actually sending her back a few steps with the volume of his shout. "You're trying to finish what you started outside!"
"You're wrong!" Rarity tried. "We came here to apologize!"
"Pfft!" the draconequus hissed. "Don't make me laugh. You don't seem to trust me, so why should I trust you?!"
"Look, would you just - "
Rainbow Dash never got to finish her thought. Discord sent out a blast of energy that knocked all the ponies back a good three steps. Fluttershy's friends were forced back into the corridor before a force field came up, trapping them out of the courtyard and her in it.
"Discord! What're you doing?" the pegasus asked, managing to stand on three hooves as her friends began to pound on the barrier, trying to yell into the clearing but their words getting muffled.
"Cheating, of course," he said with a malicious grin as Fluttershy's necklace gem began to glow. She was dragged along the ground by it and up into the air before it flipped so the gold part was pressing against her throat, making her feel like she was being strangled. "So I can deal with YOU! Any last words?"
Fluttershy gasped for air, struggling to somehow relieve the stress the unbreakable item was placing on her neck. She managed a look at the furious draconequus. His rage was burning like an inferno in her eyes, but behind it something else was there. The same emotion she hadn't been able to place before, but knew what it was now. Sorrow.
"N-no," she managed, still fighting for air. "B-because...n-nothing will...s-set it...r-right."
Her friends stopped pounding on the barrier, as if they could hear her and Discord clearly even though she couldn't hear them. The shock factor of that statement was enough to make even Discord loose his concentration and drop her. She hit the ground on her bad hoof and it buckled under her again, this time feeling like it snapped. She grit her teeth and tried to shift her weight off of it.
"...What?" Discord finally managed. The yellow pegasus at his feet began to tear up. Not from pain, but from genuine sadness.
"Nothing I say to you will fix what's happened," she repeated, sniffling. "I broke my promise to you; I said my Element of Harmony would never be used against you, but it was. I said friends cut each other slack, but I didn't give you any. I just jumped to the first conclusion, that you were playing innocent with me. But I was wrong."
"What's she talking about?" Applejack asked her friends. "She didn't use her Element, Levi List's phony pony did!"
"I'm not sure," Rarity confessed.
Discord was left staring stupidly down at Fluttershy, not sure what to say or do. He'd been absolutely furious he was almost turned to stone again for no apparent reason, but now he was just plain lost.
"Mr. Discord!" a filly's voice boomed, sounding like it was coming out of a gigantic megaphone and penetrating the barrier. "Can you hear us?!"
"Sweetie Belle?!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Mr. Discord, if ya can hear us, we just wanna ask a question!" Apple Bloom's voice came in the same manner. "We know our sistahs are in there right now, and ya closed off the maze! But we wanna know if we can keep playing too!"
"You said we could pick up where we left off!" Scootaloo called. "It was a couple days ago, so if you don't remember, we were near that cloud hammock, with the box that had my wings in it! When I turned them down because of what Rainbow Dash said, you said you weren't surprised, remember?!"
Rainbow Dash felt her eyes bulge slightly. Discord'd had the perfect opportunity to crush Scootaloo's perception of the blue Pegasus by telling her the truth, that Rainbow Dash had abandoned her friends. Even though that sort of thing was in his nature, he hadn't.
"We really had fun going through the maze!" Sweetie Belle yelled. "But we're sorry if us saying we wanted to 'defeat you' made you upset! We'd thought you were bad, because other ponies had said you were the spirit of chaos, but you're not bad at all! And by the end of the day, we were just playing when we said that!"
"We're sorry!" all three girls called out as loud as they could. Then there was a crash and slight commotion, as if their giant megaphone had fallen over.
Fluttershy struggled to her feet, necklace still on backwards as Discord kept staring the direction the three voices had come from. "Discord," she panted, making him turn to her. "Those girls...I think they say it...best." The pegasus faltered on her feet and collapsed back to the floor.
"You...you're supposed to be chaos in a body," she continued, starting to feel dizzy from a combination of blood loss from the scratches she had thanks to the thorns, and the pain her broken foreleg. "You're not suppose to...be able to change. But...you...you did. You...w-wanted to...spend time...with your friends. You were f...furious and...sad when...we doubted you. You sh...shouldn't be able...to feel like that. Th-that friendship...is like magic. You've ch-changed...dr-drastically. You found...s-something...fantastic."
"That song was meant for them," Pinkie Pie said with a smile. "Too bad we don't own that either." Her friends rolled their eyes at the nonsense she was spouting before turning back to what was going on.
"D-Discord..." Fluttershy struggled to speak, eyes trying to close. "I d-don't...expect...you to...f-forgive me, but...I-I'm...sorry..."
Twilight began pounding her hooves against the barrier again, seeing Fluttershy fading fast. "DISCORD!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "FLUTTERSHY NEEDS HELP! LET US IN!"
The scream of the purple pony seemed to knock Discord to his senses. He quickly snapped his fingers, and in a bright white flash the ponies found themselves at the hospital with their wings and horns back. The nurse present was quite surprised by their sudden appearance, especially that of a very beat up yellow pegasus.
"No time to explain!" Rainbow Dash said before the nurse could ask any awkward questions. "Broken leg, blood loss, go!"
The nurse nodded and called over another nurse with a gurney. They lowered it almost to the floor before picking Fluttershy up and gingerly placing her on it. They raised it up again and went into the operating room, recruiting a doctor on the way who had fixed Rainbow Dash's wing once when she broke it.
"Poor dearie," Rarity groaned in sympathy. "She got positively pummeled!"
"And pounded, and pushed, and-and...are there any other words that start with 'P'?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I just hope what she and the little ponies said brings Discord to his senses," Twilight mused.
"Oh yeah! The girls!" Rainbow Dash remembered. "We better go see if they're still there."
"Smart call, Rainbow," Applejack said, charging out of the hospital. All five girls ran back to where the hedge maze was, but the pony that first caught their eye wasn't one of the fillies.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed, making the white alicorn with flowing, rainbow hair and a sun on her flank turn to the five.
"There you are, girls!" the princess exclaimed, making Levi List turn from where he had been sitting next to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here, but it seems like you got it under control in the meantime."
"When did you arrive?" Rarity asked.
"She came down right after our giant megaphone fell on us," Apple Bloom said, pointing to the crumpled cone of several sheets of construction paper laying on the grass a few paces away.
"Did you turn Discord into stone, like Princess Celestia thinks?!" Scootaloo asked. "Was he really being bad?"
"He'd been so nice to us!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, looking like she might cry.
"Uh, well, no," Applejack admitted. "He's still in the middle o' that maze."
"And he wasn't being bad," Rainbow Dash said, landing next to the fillies. "We just thought he was."
"Oh?" Princess Celestia asked. "How did that come about?"
"Because someone was being a meany-mean-mean pants and making it look like Discord make everything go all wibbly-wobbly timey-whimy crazy-daisy!" Pinkie Pie explained.
"Um, yes," Twilight admitted, trying to think of a way to get around the fact the culprit was sitting right there. "You see, a unicorn - "
"I'm sorry, Princess Celestia," Levi List spoke, bowing his head. "I had thought Discord came here to put up a good image so the bearers of the Elements of Harmony would think he was good. I thought the only way to convince them otherwise was to make it seem as if he changed the entirety of Ponyville to be nonsense."
The princess' eyes widened slightly. "Oh my. I knew you had been top of your year at my school for gifted unicorns, but I didn't expect that. Especially since you had a nearly obsessive need to keep everything ordered."
"I thought disorder was a necessary evil at this point," the speckled unicorn sheepishly replied, scraping his hoof against the ground awkwardly. "And I'm very sorry."
"Hm, seems a great deal of miscommunication led to a rather large series of problems," the white alicorn observed.
"Yeah," Twilight Sparkle reluctantly admitted. "Fluttershy managed to apologize, but none of the rest of us had the chance."
"Speaking of which, where is Fluttershy?" Celestia asked. The ponies awkwardly glanced at each other.
"Um...the hospital," Rainbow Dash muttered.
"We went inta the maze ta apologize," Applejack explained, making the princess turn to her, "and Fluttershy was leadin' the way. She got scratched up with the thorns when we had ta crawl through a small gap ta reach the center, and then when we found Discord, he got in a bit o' a spat with her. Ended up gettin' a busted leg."
"After the girls used their big cool megaphone to talk to Discord, Fluttershy apologized and passed out! Twilight started pounding on the crazy force field Discord set up and gave a yell LIIIIIKE THIIIIIIS!" Pinkie Pie continued, nearly breaking everyone's eardrums. "And then he poofed us all out of the maze and into the hospital!"
"Well, in that case," Celestia said, turning to the three fillies, "girls? Can the older ponies use your megaphone?"
"If ya can fix it," Apple Bloom pointed out. The princess smiled and used her magic to levitate it off the ground and straighten out the folds and creases. She floated the giant craft over to the five ponies. The girls glanced at each other, but Pinkie Pie bounced right over and tapped the opening she was supposed to speak into before starting.
"Hello? Testing! One two three seven! Hehe! Don't worry, I know seven doesn't come after three!" The pink pony giggled before growing serious. "Just like I know we were being really meany-mean-mean pants to you, Discord! You didn't do anything wrong, and we should've made sure of that before doing anything! I wouldn't blame you if you never ever ever ever ever wanted to be friends with us again! That's like, four 'ever's! Never forever!"
"We shoulda listened to Fluttershy," Applejack said into the funnel, knowing Pinkie Pie would keep talking until someone took her spot. "She told us that ya'd changed. She even showed us! We watched when you were playin' catch with Screwball and her friend, and we saw exactly what she was talkin' about."
"And my darling little sister knew you were nice too," Rarity added, seeming uncomfortable with the idea of looking silly in public but brushing it aside. "She came home so happy after she and her friends had decided to try to conquer your maze. She told me that you opened up a path for her to get to Apple Bloom, and that's something the old Discord would never do."
"Speaking of things old Discord would never do," Rainbow Dash said, almost shoving Rarity out of the way, "the old Discord wouldn't think twice about what he said to a little filly that looks up to somepony. He would've just outright told the ugly truth." The blue pegasus looked at Scootaloo (who cocked her head in confusion) then smiled and turned back to the megaphone. "Instead, you encouraged her after she made the right choice. I owe you one for that."
"When Ponyville looked the way it did, we didn't even consider other possibilities," Twilight confessed, making her way to the megaphone. "Even though we'd been told you'd changed, and even though we saw it for ourselves, we couldn't see past the past. So...I guess what we're trying to say is..."
"We're sorry!" all five girls called into the megaphone. They tensely waited for some form of recondition, but the thorny hedges stayed exactly the same.
"Maybe he didn't hear us," Pinkie Pie said. She grabbed a different megaphone out of thin air and turned it on, yelling into it.
"TESTING! ONE TWO - " Rainbow Dash knocked the electronic megaphone out of her hoof, sparing everyone around her from becoming deaf.
Celestia chuckled and walked over to the giant paper megaphone herself. "Discord, I do believe you heard these five," she spoke into it. "I realize you might need some time to decide whether you accept the apology or not, but at least let them know you heard them."
After a moment, a white flash appeared inside the megaphone. Twilight used her magic to withdraw the piece of paper left there, and turned it over to see it simply had "Heard you" written on one side.
"Well, at least I don't have to repeat everything you all said again!" Pinkie Pie chirped. "I'm sure the readers would get pretty annoyed!"
Applejack just shook her head at the peppy pony. "Y'all think we should check on Fluttershy while we wait ta see if he forgives us?" she asked.
"I think that's the best course of action," Rarity agreed.
"You coming?" Rainbow Dash asked the three fillies still on the ground. They looked at each other and shook their heads.
"We want to stay here until Discord either lets us in, or comes out," Scootaloo said.
"We wanna give him a big ol' hug!" Apple Bloom nodded.
"Yeah, because being picked on, even by accident, is no fun at all," Sweetie Belle concluded. The blue pegasus smiled and nodded, then rushed off to the hospital, friends following. Princess Celestia stood up and began to follow them, but stopped and turned back to Levi List.
"I hope you realize you didn't only hurt Discord, but those fine ponies as well," she berated.
"I know," the unicorn said, ears falling. "I'll try to make it up to all seven of them...someday."
Fluttershy groaned quietly as she began to regain consciousness. Slowly opening her eyes, she saw her friends and Princess Celestia standing around her bed. She gasped and bolted upright.
"You didn't turn him to stone, did you?! Or send him - " the yellow pegasus broke herself off when the suddenness of her movement caught up to her brain, making her head swim and nearly black out again. She blearily registered a light blue glow encasing her and gently laying her back down.
"Discord hasn't been punished in any way," Celestia said, glowing horn fading after Fluttershy's head was safely on her pillow again.
"We actually just finished apologizing to him with the Cutie Mark Crusaders' ridiculous megaphone," Twilight Sparkle said. "But are you alright?"
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy nodded. "It was just a few scratches and a sprained hoof."
"Just a few - ! Darling, you're covered head to hoof in bandages!" Rarity pointed out. Fluttershy looked down past her now forwards Element of Harmony, noticing she had small white pads secured to her fur with medical tape nearly everywhere, many of them stained red with the bleeding. One of her forelegs was also in a stiff cast.
"Oh...I guess it's a little more than I thought."
"'A little'?" Rainbow Dash asked. "I've never seen so many bandages on a pony! Well, besides my roommate when I broke my wing."
"Are ya sure you're alright, sugar cube?" Applejack asked. "Ya don't pass out lightly, ya know."
"I'm fine," Fluttershy said. "I'm sorry you had to carry be all back through the maze."
"Actually, Discord did his little snappy dooda and magically put you back here!" Pinkie Pie smiled. "Us too! That's how we got to use that cool gigantic megaphone!"
Fluttershy blinked then smiled. "That's wonderful," she said.
"I hate to ask, but Fluttershy needs her rest," a doctor said, having been awkwardly standing in the doorway for a few minutes.
"Of course," Celestia nodded, beginning to walk out.
"We'll come see you soon, Fluttershy," Twilight Sparkle promised. Her friends all began affirming and calling back farewells as they exited the room. The yellow pegasus looked out the window, noting the sun was nearly ready to set. Quite a day. She watched as the giant ball of light slipped below the horizon, the moon and stars rising to take their place. She closed her eyes, snuggling further down into the blankets before falling asleep.
The yellow mare woke up to the sound of someone smashing their head against the ceiling. There was a quiet "Ow" as Fluttershy groggily opened her eyes. It was still dark out, though it wouldn't be for long, seeing as the moon was nearing the opposite horizon it had been on when she fell asleep. She rubbed her eyes and lifted her head, spotting who made the noise.
"Oh, I didn't mean to, uh..." Discord awkwardly trailed off, looking around the room as if to avoid eye contact. "I'll just come back some other time."
"Don't be silly," Fluttershy smiled, sitting up. "I told you, I always appreciate your company."
The draconequus' eyes roamed the bandages across the mare's body. "Even though it's my fault you were hurt?"
"It's not your fault at all," Fluttershy replied, shaking her head. "It's my fault I didn't push aside the thorns, and landing on my leg the way I did was a complete accident."
Discord managed a small smile before it fell again. "Well, I... it's..." he took a breath and closed his eyes. "I was thinking about what you said and... you said friends cut each other slack, and you were sorry you didn't do that. Well...I didn't do that either. Could you forgive me?"
"I already have," she assured him. He opened his eyes again and managed that same small smile. The mare gestured for him to come closer, making him move his head over to her. Fluttershy reached out her good hoof and hugged him as best she could, making the draconequus' smile widen.
"I hope you can forgive my friends, too," she said, letting go of him, "even if you can't forgive me."
"I think I will forgive them," he mused, putting his hand in his paw as if he had to seriously consider it. "I suppose that's another lesson in friendship, hm?"
Fluttershy giggled. "I suppose."
Discord chuckled as well. "And while I'm at it, I may as well forgive you too."
The yellow pegasus smiled. "You don't know how happy that makes me."
Once morning actually started, Princess Celestia went to the hedge maze looking for Discord, saying she thought it was time for him to return to Canterlot. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo rose a mighty protest, wanting to finish their run through the maze before it disappeared. The alicorn chuckled and agreed, and right before her eyes the fillies were transported inside the maze. Pinkie Pie had been bouncing by at the time, and passed her knowledge on to her friends, including Fluttershy. She began to beg and plead with the doctors to let her out just to say goodbye, but that amounted to nothing. Once the fillies "defeated" Discord, he snapped to give the girls their wings and horns back, as well as making the entire hedge maze disappear.
"Ready to go?" Celestia asked the draconequus.
"I suppose so," he said, getting out from under the dogpile the Cutie Mark Crusaders made on top of him. The princess nodded as five of the six bearers of the Elements of Harmony trotted up.
"I'm sorry Discord, but the doctors aren't letting Fluttershy out of the hospital," Twilight Sparkle apologetically announced.
"Ah suppose that's for the better, but it's still mighty sad," Applejack admitted.
"I'll bet she sends her best, though," Rainbow Dash offered. Discord nodded, seeming a little disgruntled.
"It was an interesting few days," Rarity said. "And while at first I was skeptical, it was delightful to see you again."
"And tons of fun, too!" Pinkie Pie laughed with a bounce. "Hedge mazes, those yummy clouds, it was great!"
Discord smirked mischievously and snapped, causing a Pinkie Pie-shapped cotton candy chocolate rain cloud to appear close to the ground. She licked her lips and tried to chow down, but it bounced away from her, making her bite on thin air. She giggled and turned to the draconequus.
"Thanks!" she said. "I'll chase it down later."
Celestia chuckled and nodded, spreading her wings as if to take off -
"Wait!" a small voice called. "Please don't leave yet!"
"Fluttershy?!" Twilight asked as the pegasus flew over to them, panting before landing on her three good legs. "I thought the doctors wouldn't let you leave."
"They didn't, I snuck out the window," she admitted. Rainbow Dash smirked as Fluttershy turned to Discord.
"I'm sorry your visit to Ponyville wasn't all that great," the mare apologized. "But I'm still really glad you came. I hope you can come again, sometime."
"Oh, that reminds me," Celestia said, tucking her wings back in. "Did any of you learn a new lesson in friendship because of this?"
Fluttershy smiled and glanced back at Discord, who awkwardly averted his eyes. She giggled.
"Well, I know one of us learned that forgiving your friends is a big part of friendship. After all, everyone makes mistakes." The yellow mare winked at the princess and gestured with her head towards Discord. Celestia chuckled and winked back.
"And I'm sure we all learned that just because some pony...or rather, some draconequus," Twilight corrected with a smile, making Discord turn to her, "wasn't necessarily a friend the first time you met, that doesn't mean they can't change and become one. Everyone deserves a second chance."
All the girls next to Twilight nodded, adding in phrases of agreement.
"And I learned that since this is a fanfiction, copyrights don't matter all that much!" Pinkie Pie chirped. Everyone stared at her before collectively shrugging. Pinkie Pie would always be Pinkie Pie. They didn't have time to dwell on that, however, as a baseball came spiraling through the group a high speeds, making them jump and duck out of the way. The ball nearly collided with Princess Celestia's forehead, but it abruptly stopped in mid air, then jumped back to its source; a pink earth pony and a grey pegasus.
"I'm really sorry, Princess Celestia!" Screwball called out, catching the ball in the propeller on her hat. "But thanks for the save, Mister! Did I do good?"
Discord produced a sign that said "Grand Slam!" out of mid air, making the two mares laugh and hop away. Celesita chuckled as well.
"Thank you, girls. It's time for us to be going, however. I hope to hear from you soon."
The white alicorn spread her wings and flew upwards, Discord following on his own mismatched pair. The girls below shouted farewells and waved, Pinkie Pie taking off after her cotton candy look alike just before they went out of sight behind the clouds.
"Oh, Discord?" Celestia said, making the draconequus turn to her. "Next time you want to visit those six, all you have to do is ask."
The chaos spirit rolled his eyes with a grin. "Oh, but what fun is that?" he asked. The princess chuckled, turning her eyes back to Canterlot.