Discord, Pinkie and Crusader were all rolling around on top of a grassy hill in Ponyville's park in a circle, laughing like life-long best friends. “Oh! Friendship! Is so magical!” Discord gushed, as he stood up and looked at Pinkie and Crusader, who were still giggling at the nonsensical game of tag they had just gotten through. “I haven't this much fun in...well, ever!”
“See Dissy? You might've learned of the magic of friendship, but now you see the true magic! The Spark!” Pinkie then exploded into a cloud of confetti, only to whirl about them and reform hugging him and Crusader together in a group hug. “The Magic of Friendship is only achieved by being with your friends.”
“Yeah! Like us for instance! We were so alone before we met each other, and even though we're still blank-flanks...we have so much fun together that, even after we do get our marks, we're not about to stop being friends.” Crusader then perked up and looked at her flank, and then sulked at seeing it was still blank. “Aw dang...we were hoping that this fusion provided some sort of hint at our talents....”
“Oh Crusader, you silly fillies, not even I can interfere with the power of the Mark. Sure, I could swap them for a day, but it wouldn't have any effect beyond the appearance. A pony's talent is their talent; nothing can change that.” Discord mussed Crusader's mane comfortingly, making them giggle and shake his paw off. “But you girls...I just know you'll realize your talents soon. Maybe my gift to you will help with that, but it alone is not a talent; just a means of realizing it.” Discord hinted, as he looked and saw a slight fade-in of a purple triangle on her flank, being cradled by great wings protectively. 'I wonder who of the three that belongs to?' Discord thought slyly.
“Discord!” Suddenly, without warning or preamble; it seemed that the entirety of the Celestial and Lunar Guard had the trio of friends surrounded with spears and horns aimed at them. “You are to remain here whilst the Elements arrive! By Order of Princess Twilight Sparkle!”
Discord, Pinkie, and Crusader looked at each other in bafflement. “Gosh...Twilight must be REALLY angry to actually use her princess privileges like this....” Pinkie nervously mused.
“Uh...well...I think you all might have pushed her buttons a bit too much.” Crusader commented, and then smiled. “Hey! We're being detained by the Guard! This is such a good story to tell!” Crusader then internally debated on the matter, and blushed. “Oh...yeah this isn't good!”
“Now, now; let's not be hasty in our assessments. This still works; it just means we'll have less legwork to do getting things set up.” Discord was suddenly wearing a tux, and a top hat with monocle. “My good sirs, and madams.” Discord added upon noticing several mares mixed in with the usual stallions. 'It is good to see some mares getting interested in taking more active roles in generally male positions.' “We will await her highness and her companions with patience. There is no need for such hostility.”
They all then smirked and holstered their weapons and ceased charging their spells. “We know.” The likely CO stepped forwards with a sheepish grin. “But we just really wanted to do that.”
Discord, Pinkie, Crusader, and a good number of the guard all snickered at this. “A guard with a sense of humor? It is good to see some progress being made in today's military. Might I ask why there is such a blend of the Celestial and Lunar Guard however?”
“We're all being transferred to Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle; to garrison it properly and eventually form her own personal branch of the guard: the Twilight Guard.” He then shrugged. “Ostentatious, naming us directly after the princess, but it fit the theme that the other Guard regiments had, aside from the Crystal Guard, but I digress.”
“Oh~ so she gets her own toy soldiers now? I'm so proud of Twilight! Moving up in the world!” Discord then leaned in close to the CO, and whispered conspiratorially. “Tell me, are the rumors of what Tia and Luna do with their guards in private true?”
The CO blushed scarlet, turning his illusionary white coat bright red. “I-I...cannot confirm, nor deny such allegations....” Discord then contained an explosion of laughter, knowing what the stallion really meant.
“Oh~ ho, ho, ho~! I'm going to tease the color out of Twilight for this!”
“Oh? With what Discord?” Twilight asked, as she and all her friends arrived through a parting in the guards, including the giant Applejack and the Duchess Rainbow Dash, who was now wearing a full Wonderbolts uniform, but without any dressings to indicate her as a member.
“Oh Rainbow! Haven't seen you in a while. Please tell me you didn't....” Discord pleaded, hoping Dash didn't join yet before she thought it through.
“Naw! I'm too fast now. Really. I have to actually learn to tone it down before I can be part of a stunt team. Nothing really visually impressive when I just pop in and out of the visible spectrum.” Rainbow then grabbed the chest of the outfit, stretched it, and snapped it back. “But I just LOVE the latex uniform!” She then snapped her head back, smiling cheekily and shaking her plot, causing a huge section of the guards to blush and look away. “Yeah~...love it.”
“Discord, listen.” Twilight brought attention back to herself, and trotted up to Discord. “I know you're helping us, I know you're having fun doing it. But what is your ultimate objective? Why are you bringing such...Disharmony to everything like this?” Twilight asked, and Discord wore a patient and understanding expression.
“I have many reasons Twilight. We're friends, for one. I had ways to improve your lives.” Discord swept his arm from her, and across all her friends from Applejack, to even Zecora who had been contacted earlier. “And sought to make it so.”
“But why like this? You could've just asked, arranged things, or-.” Discord looked down on her with a raised eyebrow, and his arms crossed. “Spirit of Chaos, right, you don't do organized.”
“Exactly! But that wasn't the only reason. I had to create a scenario where Disharmony and Harmony equalized.” Everyone was confused, and he smirked. “Let me explain. You see, Twilight, Chaos and Order, Disharmony and Harmony; go hoof-in-hoof. While I prefer an abundance of Chaos, some Order mixed in makes the residual magic in the very air more potent, more malleable and controllable one could say, at the same time as well. Chaos is potency, Order is control.”
“And your plan for...Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, coming to a realization. “What could you need so much residual magic to do to her, that you couldn't do with your usual powers? You would've done it before now when you didn't have your limiter on if you could, so you're doing it indirectly, injecting just the right amount of Chaos into all of this.”
“Correct! The reason being because...of this.” Discord reached into his chest, pulled out a plain tan sack, making Fluttershy gasp and he unceremoniously dropped it, spilling yellow, bloody feathers onto the grass. Making everypony gasp, and the pegasi in particular to shiver and then look at the yellow pegasus in horror, making her whimper and cower from the attention. “You thought I wouldn't find out Fluttershy?”
“....” Fluttershy began to cry silently, too cowed to speak as she sniffled.
“Fluttershy....” Rainbow was impacted the worst, and quickly landed to hug her. “Why didn't you tell anypony?”
“What? That I'm...I'm....” Fluttershy hiccuped, and then bawled. “DYING?!” Fluttershy hugged Rainbow back, and her friends all gathered around, as they all felt their very beings shudder in terror.
“She has a degenerating birth defect, that will kill her from weakening her body drastically to the point of eventual failure. Obviously it wasn't apparent enough or doctors would've been able to take the proper measures when she was a filly.” Discord informed everypony, as he held up an open medical textbook. “It is so rare that it is unnamed, but occasionally, a pegasus with mixed parental heritage will be born weak, and have weak flying muscles, bones, and feathers. This isn't much of a problem, as if treated early on and properly, the pegasus will grow up to be normal, and live a normal life. But for Fluttershy, the doctors that treated her did not catch it because she was only slightly weaker than an average newborn when her mother gave birth to her.” Discord closed the textbook.
“I know all of this, because when I noticed the bleeding feathers, I did some digging, I investigated, asked her doctors...invasively, and gathered all the information I could. I would have acted sooner, but now was the best time, with everypony in town, with my own powers restricted, and the balance of Disharmony and Harmony at the very closest center; I had to take my chance.” Discord then pulled out another sack, and then took a large mirror, half silver, half gold, with a chrome reflective surface, that was as tall as him and as wide as three pony's abreast. He set it at the top of the hill, and gestured for Fluttershy to step forward. “Come Fluttershy...I can save you...I won't let my dearest, closest, first true friend to die like this.”
“W-what will it do to me?” Fluttershy asked through her sobs, seeing hope in her friend's promise.
“It will awaken your father's genes in you, bring them forth. The reason you are so weak, is because you were born with all of your father's genes being recessive, and you were incomplete because of it. Did you know who your father was?” Discord asked, as Fluttershy shook her head; her mom never told her more than he was a handsome heartthrob of a stallion. “Well through some effort, I tracked him down. And...well...look in the mirror my dear. The sight may surprise you.”
Fluttershy approached tentatively, looked back at her friends, who nodded and urged her forward, and she finally approached and looked into it, and gasped. It was her as a vampire bat-pony again! Only, instead of her red, angry eyes and her feral demeanor, she was just like her, with gentle blue eyes, and her fur well kept. “My...father was a Thestral?”
“Yes, my dear. Ultimately it is your choice. You can stay as you are and die in a couple years time...or you can touch the mirror, and become complete. The Mirror of Truth reveals who you are, but it is only under the most perfect conditions that it can bring what is true to light. I couldn't think of any other way to save you. My other artifacts would have only delayed the inevitable, but this will cure you.” Discord looked at her pleadingly. “Please....”
Fluttershy looked at her reflection, and then nervously opened her mouth and prodded the fang her once-thought-temporary transformation had left behind. “I...I want to live. I don't want to leave you all so soon.” She looked back into the mirror, and placed her hoof upon it. The reflection smiled as their hooves met, and then wavered, before it then mimicked her movements perfectly. Instantly she gasped she could feel it. “I...I'm not in pain anymore!”
Fluttershy examined herself, and opened her new yellow feathery bat wings in amazement. Now that she was fully aware of herself, she felt so alive! So strong even. Not weak, tired and in pain all the time. She started crying, weeping tears of joy as she leaped at Discord and hugged him so hard he started gagging. “THANK YOU-HO-HO~!”
“Ga-Flutter-can't-!” She released him, and kissed him full on the mouth, making everypony's eyes bug out, and Pinkie to literally blow her top with steam.
“Hey!” Pinkie then popped up between them, and separated them. “He's MINE!” Pinkie then started kissing him instead, making everypony gape while Fluttershy blushed and squeaked cutely in embarrassment at her joyful outburst. They were really kissing deeply, and when they pulled apart, they were panting. “Wow...um...sorry?”
Discord was dazed slightly with a stupid grin on his face. “Don't be.” Discord dipped her, making her squeak, before they started kissing again, and then started making out as they fell to the ground in an embrace.
“Hey, hey, hey!” Twilight pulled them apart with her magic, and was blushing madly as she also had a silly smirk. “Get a room!” Everyone laughed, and with a few orders, the guards dispersed. “So Discord...is this it?”
“Yes. My dear friend Fluttershy is now healthy and well. The rest of you are better off...save AJ. I'll get right on that if you would just....” Discord tapped his collar, making Twilight roll her eyes before she flew up to it and tapped her horn on it, making it snap open and fall off. “Yes! FREEDOM!” Discord shouted as suddenly the sky began to rain Fluttershy's clean, former feathers, making the mare blush in embarrassment.
“Oh my....” She then looked at her new wings and ran a hoof on the inside, relishing the feel of her new wing's downy feathers beings they didn't need full proper ones anymore. “I could get used to this.”
“I could too.” Fluttershy squealed when she felt a spank on her flank, and looked back in surprise at Dash who smirked cheekily. “You do realize you've gotten some muscle with that new form of yours, right?” Dash wagged her eyebrows, making Fluttershy turn red.
“Ee-ee-ee....” She squeaked in nervousness, and then bolted off into the sky like a rocket.
“You can't escape me now butter-flanks!” Dash flashed away, and somewhere off in the clouds, they heard Fluttershy's signature squeak as if it came from a bullhorn.
“Ah knew those two was crushin' on each other. What especially with Dash tellin' me bout her bisexual fantasies.” AJ snickered and then tapped the horn. “Well? Git to it!”
“Right away!” Discord flew around the horn, turning the spirals into a rainbow of spiraling colors, and then snapped his talons, making the fruits the horn formerly produced into different colored granola bars. “Done~! Each bar does something different, as told by it's color. For instance; red will make you grow like so.” He gestured to her. “Blue will shrink you down.”
AJ then looked at the other colors...and couldn't resist. “What would orange do?” She tossed an orange one into her mouth, and suddenly, her frame grew slightly taller, and thinner. “Huh?”
“Orange makes you taller and thinner, purple will make you shorter and stouter of frame. There are also...other~ effects the other bars can give you.” Discord wagged his eyebrows, and AJ blushed. “It isn't just the colors and different bars however. The amount of change they instill is also affected by your will.”
“Wait...so it should only take one blue one to get down to size?” AJ then grabbed both an orange and a blue bar, and ate them both at the same time. She and the horn rapidly reduced size until she was of acceptably average height. Only.... “Well...yee-haw.” She was tall and lithe like most model-worthy mares, but retained plenty of her muscle tone. “Ah am SO goin' to have fun with this.”
“Wow! Can I have some?” Crusader asked, and, FINALLY, everypony looked at her in confusion, but quickly connected the dots from her appearance. “What?”
“Sweetie?!”
“Applebloom?!”
“Scootaloo?!”
Rarity, AJ and Spike all asked in shock and worry, making Crusader jolt back with her ears folded. “Hey! Don't scare us! Yeah, we're all here, but while we're in this form; we go by Crusader.” Crusader then flipped her mismatched mane and flared her wings. “We look good don't we?”
“Oh~ no ya don't! Ya'll separate this minute, or yer grounded Applebloom!” AJ demanded, making Crusader glare at her.
“We're not a little filly anymore Applejack! We're over thirty!” This made everyone balk, including Discord who started to sweat a bit. “Wait...what? No we're three fillies fused together whose collective ages are around thirty or over...uh...wait....” She looked around, and spotted a random stallion performing gardening duties, and suddenly flared her wings. “Whoa....” The others all looked at him, sweating, flexing his muscles as the green earth pony stallion ripped a particularly stubborn weed from the path. “...He's hot....”
This made everypony else whip around to glare at Discord, to see he had vacated the area with Pinkie, and a sign that read, “Sorry about this, but you'll adjust to the new alicorn princess.”
“DISCORD!”