//------------------------------//
// More 
// Story: More Than a Friend 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

Discord glided through the air away from the latest task he'd done for Celestia, lost in thought.  His tasks were rather simple, requiring nothing more than for him to be himself.  Celestia often engaged in complex negotiations over various trade rights to certain regions outside her actual national boundaries.  If negotiations dragged on too long or weren't entirely going her way, she'd 'suggest' the location in question to Discord as a vacation spot.  Once the negotiations were concluded, he'd return the area to how he found it and find something else to do.  While this didn't exactly endear him to the locals, he chose not to think of such things.  Besides, recently he had something else on his mind.  Or, more accurately, somepony else.

"I don't understand it," he said once again, as he floated along, startling a flock of birds.  "I can't stop thinking about her.  I know she's my friend - my...my only friend - but why am I thinking about her so much?  The last time I couldn't get someone out of my mind like this, unable to distract myself at all, it was...him.  My purpose."  He blinked.  "But that doesn't make any more sense.  How can she be my purpose?  That wouldn't make sense, and not the fun kind of not making sense."  He clutched his head, growling.  "How can I make sense of my head?  Who can I talk to about this?  I can't go to Fluttershy."  He conjured an image of Fluttershy in the air.  "Say, Fluttershy, I just can't stop thinking about you.  You're in my mind every waking moment, and haunt my dreams when I sleep.  Can you tell me-"  The image of Fluttershy dove into a cloud, shivering.  With a snap of his fingers, the image vanished.  "Yeah, that won't go well."

He sighed.  "I can't go to Celestia.  Nothing to do with her thinking I've gone back to my old ways, whatever I told Fluttershy.  There's...too much history there."  He closed his eyes, a pained memory returning.  

A young Celestia shouting at him.  "Then why didn't you do it sooner, when you could have saved her?!"

He shook his head, scattering the memory.  "No, I don't want to think about that.  And I can't go to Luna either.  Celestia doesn't like me being around Luna."  He frowned.  "And...that is the full extent of everyone I know well enough to talk to about this.  And talking to myself certainly isn't helping.  And it's not like I can't-" he snapped his talons "-snap my fingers and conjure another me to talk to."

"Ah don't zee vhy not, my boy."

Discord turned.  Sitting on a chair that hung from the underside of a cloud was another him, wearing glasses and a thick mustache and holding a notepad and quill.  A couch hung from the cloud beside him.  "Come, come," the other Discord said.  "Let us speak of your problemz, shall ve?"

Discord chuckled.  "Forgot who I was for a minute there."  He lay down on the upside down couch.  "Well, how do we start this."

DisFrued - as Discord chose to think of the psychological manifestation of his inner psychologist - chuckled.  "Vell, ve could staht by talkink about your childhood."

Discord frowned.  "We both know why I won't be doing that, considering we're both me."

DisFrued shook his head.  "If you do not talk, zen I kannot chelp you."

Discord sighed.  "I was born alone, I watched my mother die, my sister swore eternal hatred against me, and then I went crazy.  Next question, please."

DisFrued frowned.  "It seemz you haff deeper issuez than I was led to belief."

"Whatever gave you that idea?" Discord asked, sarcasm heavy in his voice.  "Can we get to why I actually summoned you?"

DisFrued sighed.  "Alright.  Tell me about ze girl."

"Girl?" Discord asked in anger.  "She's not just a girl!  She's the first friend I've had in my entire life.  She knows what I've been, what I've done, even to her...and still she offered me friendship and trusted me.  And...she's made me so happy, just spending time with her.  It's...it's almost painful to be away from her.  I just...I just don't know what's happening to me.  Why can't I stop thinking about her?"

DisFrued jotted something down on the notepad.  "Go on.  Keep talking.  You are doing wonderfully."

Discord shook his head angrily.  "I mean, I can understand wanting to spend time with friends.  Fluttershy's always so happy when her friends come to visit.  But...it's not the same for me.  I see how she feels when friends visit.  While there's joy there...it's not as total as it is for me when I see her.  Before, Chaos was something I did for fun.  But, when I'm with her, it's because I want to see her smile...just for me."  Discord rubbed his brow between his horns.  "I've read Twilight's letters about friendship, and know how it works and how it's supposed to feel.  There's something like that with me for Fluttershy, but...it feels like there's something more."  Discord blinked.  "More...than friendship?"

DisFrued made a few more notes.  "Yes, go on.  You're getting zere."

Discord looked down at his mismatched hands.  "More than friendship...I know this one.  Ponies start as friends, and when feelings move beyond friendship, if it's mutual, they become...special someponies..."  His hands shook.  "They find...love.  Am...am I falling in love...with Fluttershy?  I...I didn't know I could even feel love that way."

DisFrued jotted something down, then looked up.  "Falling?  Or Fallen?"

Discord's head snapped up so fast it popped off his neck, flipped once through the air, and then reattached to his neck.  "What do you..."  He paused, thinking about what was said.  "I...love Fluttershy?"

DisFrued made another mark on his pad.  "It does seem zat way.  Tell me, when it comes to zings between you two, what do you zink of first?"

Discord nodded.  "Her, always.  That's why I didn't accept her offer to stay at her place every night, for the sake of her reputation, and thus her future."  Discord paused, then hung his head.  "Her future...I need to think of that, don't I?  She...she doesn't have one with me, really.  I'm Discord, spirit of Chaos and Disharmony.  The original bogeyman of modern Equestrian fable.  I can't act on this...for her sake."  He closed his eyes, a tear leaking out.  "I...can't pursue this.  Because I love her, I can't love her.  I can't make her happy.  I can't give her a future."  He sighed.  "I think I was happier when I didn't know what made me tick.  I was right.  There's no fun in making sense."  Turning, he flew off.

DisFrued made one last mark on his notepad as he began to fade.  The top page had a five by five grid labeled "Psychological Plot Clichés".  With one last sigh as he vanished, he whispered, "Bingo."