~ diaries move to different ponies ~ apples become pears ~ pony-mech battle ~ streets are bubble bath rivers ~ apples become bears ~ Cadence is princess of awkward friend-zoning ~ Luna Luna ~
He tuned out the never-ending stream of ideas that bombarded his mind.
~ Applebloom Applebloom ~
Well, mostly tuned out. It was easy to do when he had such an important appointment to keep with such an important pony. He smiled his wide smile and snapped his fingers, reappearing in front of a mossy-roofed cottage surrounded by birdhouses. He rapped on the red wooden door and awaited the sound of hooves on floorboards. He could of course have appeared right next to her, but she appreciated him coming to her door and knocking.
~ Applebloom ~
An uncomfortable amount of time passed. She never failed to know when someone was at her door. Even if she didn't hear, her menagerie of critters would inform her. Well, she must be elsewhere. Now she couldn't blame him for appearing directly next to her! He snapped his fingers again.
Appearing in a well-manicured garden, he smiled at the yellow and pink pegasus. "My dear Fluttershy! What a surprise to see you in the Royal Gardens. No matter, I'm here for lunch as planned. And with a little surprise!"
Discord smiled and snapped his fingers at a nearby tree. Nothing happened. His smile faltered. "Well this is odd." He snapped his fingers a few more times, and the tree suddenly grew and shaped itself into a lovingly detailed gazebo. His smile returned, "Ah, there we are! A lovely location for lunch with a lovely pony." He snapped his fingers again to place lunch for two within his creation. He turned back to Fluttershy, eager to bask in her gratitude.
But she sat there looking glum. "I'm sorry Discord, it's nice, but I'm just not in the mood for lunch. Even being in the garden hasn't made me feel any better."
Hiding his thorough disappointment at not putting a smile on her face, he swept a hand at the tree, returning the food to wherever it came from and shrinking the tree to normal. "Whatever is the matter my dear? Is it anything your friend Discord can help with?"
This seemed to cheer her somewhat. "Maybe you can. We should go see my friends."
"Of course. And please do explain what's the matter while we fly."
~ Applebloom ~
It seemed that Applebloom's little Crusader friends had tried to wake her up for Crusader business. When they couldn't, they told Applejack, who told the rest of her friends, who agreed the lot of them should rush to Canterlot to seek Luna's help. Surely the Princess of the Night could do something. But of course she was similarly unable to awaken. At the end of the story, Discord simply commented "Well isn't that strange that those two are in trouble. I haven't been able to get them out of my mind all day."
They arrived in the guest bedroom where both the sleeping ponies had been moved. The moment his hooves touched the floor, Rainbow Dash burst toward him. He conjured something soft for her to slam into, rather than himself. "How predictable. I assume you're going to blame me for this?"
"Darn right I am!" shouted the hot-headed pegasus "This nonsense has Discord written all over it! Twilight thinks it's her fault 'cause of some book, but I know she couldn't hurt anypony!"
Fluttershy, bless her heart, stepped between them. "Rainbow Dash! Just because something bad happens doesn't mean it's Discord's fault! Now you be nice while we wait for Twilight to come back from the library!"
"Thank you Fluttershy. And since I'm such a nice guy, you can keep that pillow you ran into."
Rainbow dash looked at the body-length pillow she hadn't noticed she was holding. It had a picture of herself spread out as if in bed. "Wha-"
"No need to thank me, just being a good friend." He looked around the room. Now that he was no longer under attack, he could see that Applejack, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were keeping watch over the two sleeping ponies. They all looked similarly distrustful of him. That's to be expected. He always did enjoy playing his little games, making them unsure whether he really was their friend. Not with Fluttershy of course, but with the others. He approached the two sleepers (or as close as these ponies would allow). He reached out and snapped his fingers. "Wakey wakey, eggs and ba- oh wait, you don't eat that around here do you?" He used the joke to hide the sudden pain in his head. For some reason, trying to wake them was giving him a headache.
Applejack stepped forward, chest puffed out like she posed a real threat to him. "Alright, that didn't work. Maybe you go sit in the corner while we wait for Twily to figure somethin' out."
Not having anything better to do, he swept a hand and turned the corner of the room into a little scene out of an Italian restaurant. "I'll just be here then. Anypony who's hungry feel free to join me."
It wasn't too long before Twilight returned. With Spike, Rarity and Pinkie Pie in tow, she slammed the doors open. Flaring her wings dramatically, she shouted "Discord! You let our friends go right now!"
Rainbow Dash and Applejack were immediately on guard again, ready to tackle him if he moved.
Discord slurped up a noodle. "Whatever are you talking about? Don't you go throwing accusations about too."
"I found a whole book on sleep and dream magic. I found a spell to locate them. I know exactly where they are, and they're trapped in your dreams!"
The draconequus laughed "Oh my, that's quite the idea you've got there!" He summoned a cup of coffee into his hand. "Would it make a difference in your theory to tell you I don't sleep? Ever?"
Twilight's confidence dimmed "But... you have to sleep, everypony has to sleep."
"Yes yes, everypony has to sleep. I have much to much thinking to do to sleep. Ideas running through my head all day and night. I've got to let some of them out of course," he explained, causing a nearby table to come to life and scurry out the door. "Why, if my head hadn't been made of stone those thousand years, it would have burst from the pressure of not using my magic!" He punctuated this point by having his head explode into coloured smoke and confetti.
"Hooray!" shouted Pinkie Pie before remembering that this was serious.
Twilight was insistent, "Well maybe you're sleepwalking, because those two are definitely in there. My book says so."
Popping a new head out of his neck with a sleeping cap on, he gave that some thought. "Well well. I suppose that's not impossible. Kudos to you Princess, for (perhaps) knowing something I didn't!" Ignoring Twilight's frown, he continued, "Supposing I am asleep and they are in my dream, what do we do about it, oh wise Princess of Libraries?"
"That's simple. I go in and lead them out."
"What? In there? I don't think I much like the idea of you rooting about in my brain. It's very private you know. No, I think not."
A soft voice spoke next to him, "Um, Discord... What if I went too? You trust me, right?"
Looking down at Fluttershy, his resistance wavered. What am I going to do, say I don't trust her? "All right, but no harm better come to Fluttershy because of this!" he coughed uncomfortably, trying to hide his outburst of emotion, "Because it would be quite inconvenient if Angel blamed me and came for vengeance. So what do we do?"