It took more times than Applejack thought necessary to get the attention of one multicolored pegasus. Heck, she thought, her friend was being even more non-attentive than she usually was when taking a nap back at the orchard and ignoring the complaints about using Apple trees without offering any help around the farm.
When Rainbow Dash finally did look down from her cloud she was paddling slowly around on, her face held a frown. She made the whole thing drift down to a range more tolerant of talking volume. “No need to shout at me like I'm some criminal, AJ.”
“I did call you right and proper the first fifty times you didn't hear me,” Applejack sniped right back. “So what's the poutin' for?”
“I'm not pouting!” the rainbow mare crossed her arms indignantly as she flapped nonchalantly from her cloud of perch. The poor puff was vaporized after the wind kicked it into a nearby house. “I'm...thinking!”
“About what exactly?” the Earth pony questioned, wondering if perhaps this had something to do with Twilight and Fluttershy.
“Uh,” Rainbow halted as she realized it was probably not a good idea to voice her thoughts. She actually dropped and set hoof to the ground in contrast to how she normally fluttered about with her bias to flight. “Nothing,” she covered up dumbly. “What are you doing here anyways? Don't you have...like...apples to harvest or something?”
“When do I not?” the Element of Honesty mumbled more to herself than her friend. “I'll get back to it when I know nothin's goin' pear-shaped over here. So? Any disasters I should know about?”
Rainbow's frown and moody air changed to one of a mare lacking of crucial context. “Huh?” she cocked a brow. “Why would you ask? If you're talking about the weather then-”
“No, not the weather,” Applejack corrected without reserve. “I mean Element of Harmony kind of disasters. I heard Twilight and Fluttershy were out and about like there was somethin' goin' on. I checked Fluttershy's on the way over and she wasn't home. Twilight's missin' from the library and the guard wouldn't give me one word about it. At the very least, I'd expect that changeling to answer the door!”
Rainbow Dash tapped a hoof to her chin as she listened. “Her name's Chrysalis,” she commented off-hoof before making for a real reply. “Yeah, no. There's nothing going on as far as I know. Twilight might just be out to Canterlot for one of Princess Celestia's summons. She gets those every now and then.”
“How would you know?” Applejack asked as honest as her reputation gave her credit for. There was no slight in her words.
The blue mare froze again. She just let something slip again, didn't she? “Uh, yeah,” she started slow until she assembled an excuse in her head. “I see her taking the train to Canterlot every now and then. I guess I just assumed it was because she'd get a summons. Yeah.”
For her credit, Rainbow Dash was a better liar than her orange friend. But it still came out weak, Applejack's eyes narrowing just enough to suggest she was onto it. But the Earth pony had work waiting and, nevermind an excuse for Twilight, what about Fluttershy? She asked as much.
“Oh,” Rainbow drooped. “I don't know,” she shrugged without any further ideas.
“I guess I've seen her go around leadin' her animals and such,” Applejack wondered aloud. “I just got a funny feelin' is all.”
“Like anything ever happens around here,” Rainbow remarked as she rolled her eyes. The rolling stopped halfway and she instead locked them instantly with her wingless friend.
“Heh, that's funny,” Applejack giggled dumbly as the pegasus grinned.
“Yeah, maybe you're not being paranoid,” Rainbow Dash scratched a spot behind her head with a forehoof. “But we have some dead weeks every now and then. It's not always save-Equestria-from-destruction.”
“I'd agree with you if I actually believed it,” Applejack's mouth jackknifed. “You tryin' to keep me out of the loop on somethin'? Because I-”
“C'mon, AJ!” Rainbow flapped into a hover with her wings as she stuck her forehooves to her sides in an expression of being offended and finally out of patience. “I don't know anything you don't. I'm just trying to be logical here.”
“Logical?” the orange mare doubted. “Since when is a stunt-pegasus like you ever concerned with logic?”
Now Rainbow really did feel offended. “What?!” she exhaled all in one angry huff. “I'm just going about minding my own business and you want to start something?”
It was times like these that made it too obvious that the friends had a tendency to clash. Perhaps that was simply for the fact that both were headstrong and competitive. “I'm not startin' nothin',” Applejack denied. “And why you makin' such a big deal of it? It's the truth. And I never said it was a bad thing.”
Rainbow opened her mouth again, ready to defend herself, when nothing came out. She closed it again before talking at a more normal volume compared to her rising tone from before. “You mean...that was a compliment?”
“You really need to know the difference, RD,” Applejack sighed.
“Heh,” Rainbow pipped as she felt a bit foalish for getting worked up so quick. “Sorry.”
“Now I can't be standin' around for any more chit chat. Got work to do,” the Earth pony turned back towards the farm. “Just tell me if somethin' happens and I'm needed.”
“Sure,” the blue mare gave her confirmation slowly as her friend walked off to return to her farm. Maybe she should try to find the apparently missing Elements. But AJ's interruption of her cloudy thoughts hadn't been enough to snap her out of it. She was still feeling kind of moody.
There was one solution that rarely failed on days like this. It was the one thing that never followed any rules and therefore could solve even the most terrifying of life's roadblocks. For some reason this solution could be described using many a word starting with the letter “P.” Going to Rarity's would just have her end up another boring froufrou modeling pony and Applejack's was clearly out of the question. With her two other friends gone and Scootaloo in school, she found herself in a rare spot of having only one pony she could go hang out with on the fly.
Thus did Rainbow Dash find herself flying over to Sugar Cube Corner. Or perhaps it was really more of a glide since it took barely any effort on her very athletic part to reach the sweets shop. She only touched the ground after she hovered before the door and entered through it, ringing the shop's bell as she did so.
However, her expectation to be assaulted by a flying pink blur was not met with fulfillment either before she entered the door or after it. The place of desserts was deserted. When she trotted up to the order counter and rang the service bell, it was Mrs. Cake and not Pinkie Pie that eventually came around out of the kitchen.
“Oh, Rainbow Dash,” the older mare identified the potential customer merely by the frequency to which Pinkie Pie talked about her and not necessarily by the way she and her friends would all eat there together from time to time. “Haven't seen you in a while. I'm sorry I couldn't answer you sooner. We've got a storm to bake up in the back. See something you like?”
“Uh,” Rainbow glanced down at the glass counter's display of delights it held within. Some of them really did look good and she'd feel bad stopping by without getting so much as a single doughnut. “Yeah,” she droned out as if her vocal cords were on molasses. She had been talking slow quite a bit today. Probably an effect of her discontentment. “But, first, is Pinkie Pie in the back?”
“No,” the chubby baker tilted her head. “Did you want to see her?”
“Oh, um...it's no big deal,” the pegasus disclaimed a little discouraged. Did this mean that Pinkie Pie had gone along with the other two?
Thankfully, Mrs. Cake was a mare with a sharp eye. Maybe it was because she specialized in the nuances of baking, which were very exact. It could also have been for the fact that she was now a mother and mothers were known to be telepathic in certain regards. “How about you just go take a seat at that table over there,” she pointed to one of the Corner's customer tables. “I can get you something to eat and look to see if Pinkie left a memo. She sometimes does that to let us know where she's gone off to.”
Rainbow nodded wordlessly and picked out a few treats after the Earth pony prodded her for her preferences. She took a seat still wondering why the day hadn't a bit of cheer to it. Was it because she didn't have what she really wanted in life? Was it because she had to make sure other ponies didn't find out what she really wanted? Was it because she had this bizarre desire to be with somepony in a way that could never be? That was getting a little too close to home and so she decided to stop thinking at all. She propped her head against a hoof and propped that, in turn, against the table. A sigh puffed out as if it had some meaning in life other than to be heard once and then spend eternity in that special Tartarus that was maintained especially for it.
“She left a note,” Mrs. Cake exclaimed as she trotted back over in short order. If anything could be said of her then it was that she was quick as a whip. “It said 'Going to save Twi, Chry, and Shy from a lack of frosting and accidentally rhyming nicknames.' Whatever that means. I rarely find her notes to be very helpful when she doesn't give places or times.”
Rainbow Dash slammed her head down on the table. That really was, as Mrs. Cake so aptly put, not very helpful at all. They were all gone somewhere and only Celestia knew where that was. After all, she hadn't seen any of them in Ponyville and her skyward view was pretty inclusive. She might have had a clue if she had looked for them earlier, but she had been busy messing around on that cloud. They could be anywhere in Equestria by now because they all had wings minus Pinkie Pie who didn't need any. That pony could defy physics all she wanted to save on train expenses. Actually, it was rather funny that she didn't as far as Rainbow knew.
“I added a cream-filled one for you, on the house. You look like you could use a little pick-me-up,” the light-crimson-maned pony smiled warmly and made her way back to the kitchen. Rainbow had just enough time to offer a thank you to her before she was gone and the pegasus was once again left to the quietness between her and the three doughnuts now in front of her.
As the Element of Loyalty prodded the plain glazed with a forehoof, she noticed that the cream-filled long doughnut had been adorned with rainbow-colored sprinkles. The Cakes really were as sweet a family as their shop suggested. A sweet family...
Rainbow sighed for the millionth time that day, this particular sigh being cooked in Tartarus in that unique way that made one laugh and cry at the same time. The doughnuts were a nice if rare treat for her to get all on her own but the day had still been rather a downer. Scratch that, she decided. “Today sucks.”
That was normally the microsecond in which Pinkie Pie would have burst forth impossibly from one of the doughnuts but, as the rambunctious mare was presumably absent from town, there was nothing but the unbroken reality around her. Maybe it was for the best. After all, Rainbow had a lot to think about. Twilight being a princess now was something that had made its way into her hidden thoughts. What was it going to be like between them now that Twilight wanted her help in flying? Did that mean they would get more time together?
Rainbow was now biting her way through the first victim on the plate before her. Did Twilight like the same kind of treats that she did? She noticed that the bookworm wasn't big on spicy foods so maybe she preferred sweeter stuff like that creme-filled doughnut that sat a myriad of colors against the gray-blue of the dish. Maybe she...?
“Gah,” the pegasus growled lowly as she finished off her first edible item. Why was she thinking about Twilight so much? It was true that she enjoyed her time around the unicorn-now-alicorn but when had that started? Rainbow Dash was an athlete to the core and Twilight Sparkle was an egghead princess. Was that why she enjoyed having her as a friend and newly-christened flying buddy? Because opposites gave each other the spice of life?
So many questions. But, right now, Rainbow Dash decided that only one needed answering. Where was Twilight Sparkle?
Change was something often talked about and it was this way for good reason. It was everywhere all the time and it was impossible to avoid, though many tried to do so. This thing had been around since the beginning of time and some might argue that that is was the very definition of “the beginning.” Some of those sentient beings even embraced change whole-heartedly because they thrived on improvement.
Now, change was not necessarily the bearer of improvement. Some change could even be the bringer of devolution for strength, morals, and other aspects of character. Some changes in genetics could bring about the end or, in some cases, the very salvation of an entire species. The word “some” was everywhere as far as change was concerned. This was purely for the fact that change didn't care about anypony or anything and thus saw to throw its effects randomly upon the masses.
What it all came down to was a very simple concept. Change was not good or bad. It existed neutrally and will continue to exist regardless of any love or hate anything ever holds for it. There was one sentient being, however, that was caught in the chaotic grasp of this thing without truly knowing or understanding how deep he had fallen into its uncaring and seemingly flippant plan for the universe.
But there had to be some greater force at work because it was quite clear that this thing called “change” didn't give a flying feather about anything, much akin to that other thing called “chaos.” Perhaps they were brothers or sisters. It didn't matter because, after all, Discord gave just as much a flying feather about it.
“Let's see something really happen,” the former president of chaos and disharmony commented enthusiastically from his suspension in the dark expanse around him. “I'm tired of the same old stuff.”
Yes, the mismatch of animal parts that made up Discord was currently floating in a great space of nothing populated only by a few window-like screens that rotated around him. This was his special place that he had in no way ripped off from Princess Celestia's own magical knowledge of the “alicorn dimension” or whatever the heck it was she called that freaky place she used to spy on her prized pupil.
No, he was not like Celestia in that he secretly ached for some relationship so badly that he wound up spying on random ponies. He was Discord, king of Chaos, and he did whatever he wanted! Well, perhaps that didn't make much sense in the context of his current situation and thoughts, but when did he ever make sense? There was never any fun in making sense.
He was not spying on Princess Twilight Sparkle. He was not even spying on that curious changeling creature. He had been spying on Fluttershy, his one and only friend. Because everypony knew that friends spied on each other. Or was that enemies? He still had a hard time making those kind of distinctions in his head. It would probably take quite the better half of an eon for him to fully grasp it.
Actually, he had been spying on Fluttershy because he was perplexed and this was not something that happened often. What he had felt in that moment that Fluttershy had thrown down those ice skates...it still tugged at his heart. Why did that one thing effect his innards so much? He had never felt any kind of remorse before.
After spending weeks on this fascinating thing, he thought he might have finally arrived at a conclusion. Fluttershy was so unlike all of her so-called “friends” in that she was the only one that even wanted to maybe give him a chance. She was kind. She was considerate. She was hopeful. She was all of these things when he had not been her friend. He had been her enemy.
Discord felt his heart tug gently now like a skilled musician playing upon the key-stroked strings of a grand piano. This being Discord, his heart actually was a grand piano at the moment with a miniature version of himself decked out in a fancy black tailcoat tux and playing away with that almost weepy face that such pianists tended to play with. A screen rotated in front of him and stopped to force an intermission into the majestic show.
“How am I supposed to give you that?” Twilight Sparkle asked to some creature off-screen. It was funny how naive she was about this topic she was drowning in. She was sitting smack-dab in the middle of two others that loved her to the point of it being questionably contained within the realm of mere friendship.
“Get on with it,” Discord sat his head on his lion's law. Literally. “I'm getting bored.”
What an injustice it would be to say he orchestrated all of this. For as much as ponies pegged him as some master of pulling strings and as much as he might have really been that in the past, he was now bound to his promise to be friendly. That didn't mean he had to sit around bored day after day. He found he could still play a bit of mischief and get away with it without getting caught by Celestia, Luna, Twilight, or anypony else who might choose to lock him up for it.
A screen behind him was playing his own recent past with vivid animation and colorful depictions of the various ways he manipulated his own body for casual amusement. This screen was showing a Discord not a week younger and already in the planning for his next big move. It was when he decided to make his first glorious act of friendship that would exemplify his ability to be as considerate as his friend Fluttershy and as bold as that little blue brat named Rainbow Dash.
He had decided to do something nice for his one and only friend. Yes, it had made him gag at first but the potential for fun and mischief had gotten him past that. What he had actually orchestrated at first was a few random but key events around Fluttershy's cottage. A misplaced book on relationship starters. A picture of her old home in some seedy-looking city, mysteriously out of the box she had long refused to reopen. A dusty diary of hers opened to a page that she had stopped writing in whilst leaving the last entry only half written. An embarrassing letter from Rarity left unfolded to display her friend's concerns about her being alone so much with nopony but her animals. Finally, a dream about one purple princess.
Now that last one had actually been a workout for the draconequus. He dabbled with dreams only on occasion for the fact that he always twisted reality rather than mere dreams. After all, why mess with a fake world when one could mess with the real one? Luna gave him the third-degree the few times he had tried it as a means to vent his desire for a little “harmless” fun.
And why Twilight Sparkle? It was just an easy out as far as Discord was concerned. Fluttershy was as shy as her name let on and she was actually more introverted than she appeared from the outside. That was saying a lot considering how that outside did indeed appear reclusive twenty-four seven. She would never in a billion years open herself up completely to somepony else. Not after what she had gone through in her past.
The newly winged alicorn was the only one of Fluttershy's five close friends that was capable of reigning in her eccentric personality enough for a deep enough level of connection to occur. Not that Discord was ever eccentric. He believed he was in a perfectly positioned judge's seat to determine whether a pony qualified as eccentric or not. Discord was normal. It was everpony else who was off their rocker.
Rainbow Dash was too headstrong. Same for Applejack. Sure, some argued that opposites attracted but that still hadn't encouraged Fluttershy to open up to either of them. Pinkie Pie was too aloof and Rarity too focused on the higher echelon of society for Fluttershy to chance letting her know about some grim broken-home past. Twilight Sparkle was an A-student perfect-princess poster-pony that, if not for those first big marks, had plenty of other aspects that discouraged Fluttershy from considering her.
Screen number three to Discord's right was playing a scene that occurred before his release and redemption at the hooves of the sweet sunny pegasus. The black marks that separated Kindness from Magic all changed after Twilight had taken in Chrysalis as a rescue case. That was the precise moment that everything changed and, oh, did it change sharply. It might be said that a rift in space-time occurred. The world they now lived in was strange and new, the old world lost or perhaps continuing on with its own disparate events and developments.
This world they now lived in was the only one that mattered to Discord, though. With Twilight's risky act of love towards the broken and dying changeling, her own fate had been altered and sealed forever. Much like Discord's own. What would he be doing now if Fluttershy had not risked her own safety on his account? Would he be trapped in stone again? Free? Or...dead?
Who could answer such impossible questions about futures that had long been shot out of the picture. In Discord's case, this was a literal figure of speech since the screens floating around him very much depicted the pictures of life. He learned from them what he could not see and hear when in stone, no doubts to how much a cheat the whole thing was. If anypony had complaints then they would have to be directed against the white mare of the sun and not him, which was ironic considering that most complaints could honestly be directed towards his own flippant regard for stable reality.
As for his plan in motion, he wanted to do something nice for Fluttershy. Something that would portray that he really did have a heart somewhere inside that massive piano. Not that anypony was listening, but his miniature self was just getting to the grand finale.
“Love,” Discord repeated Chrysalis' word that she had voiced seconds ago on the main screen. He curled one side of his lip downward, one tooth poking out as it always did. “So much for the magic of friendship. But I suppose Princess Sun-Butt would say that friendship is an important part of love. Who cares?”
He was about to gag again but the next progression on the screen halted him before his clawed hand could come up all the way.
“Twi!” cried the voice of Fluttershy. A shout for her was really a loud whisper but Twilight heard it all the same. One more kudos to her for being one of the few ponies that could.
The screen had shot to the pegasus momentarily and then switched to the alicorn before doing a few camera tricks that only a cheap reality show would be lame enough to try. “Shy?” she asked worriedly, knowing that her friend would rarely try to get attention like that. “Is something wrong?”
Discord leaned toward the screen as he popped his head back onto his neck. Was his plan working?
“Would,” the mare stuttered, her gears grinding painfully to grasp courage she had never dared touch before. “Would you be willing to treat me like you treat Chrysalis?”
“What do you mean?” Twilight asked taken aback and very confused.
“There's been talk,” Fluttershy pronounced more boldly as she leaned forward towards her purple friend. “Changelings need love to survive. The others all think that maybe you...”
Thankfully Twilight didn't have a doctorate in naivety. She finally got it. “Oh,” she brought a hoof to her mouth in surprise. “No, no, no, no,” she denied. “I haven't...I don't...I...”
Discord's screen shot just long enough to the shape shifter to make sure the viewers were aware of the changeling's own reaction to Twilight's reply. There was a dark glare, as if she had just been denied access to something she had dire need of.
“Then you're...” Fluttershy picked up when Twilight failed to gather her thoughts properly into a plausible denial. The yellow mare herself had not petered off as the other did. The last word was spoken and simply lost in the female's ability to voice words so quietly that they devolved into squeaks and chirps. This particular squeak had sounded like the hope of a sailor fighting long and hard against destructive ocean storms only to finally see the illumination of a lighthouse and safe harbor of a protected bay. In some funny little way, that might be exactly what this seemed to Fluttershy.
Discord laughed a different laugh than the hearty mischievous ones he usually did. Yes, this wasn't as much fun but it did give him this unusual sense of fulfillment that he had never experienced before. It was a feeling like one tiny fish jumping into a group of sharks, saving another fish from their merciless plans for a meal, and then proceeding to successfully make it to safety with said rescue only to make a delicious dinner out of the saved friend. Pointless and twisted analogy aside, Discord felt like he had done something that really mattered. Something that made somepony happy in a way they had never been happy before.
If this next part pulled off then Discord had done something nice for once. Now it might just be for certain that the world had changed.