One particularly odd morning dawned the day that Discord entered the normal half of the cottage upon waking, expecting to find a wide-awake Fluttershy sitting down to breakfast, and instead finding a haggard-looking Rainbow Dash passed out on Fluttershy’s couch without a trace of Fluttershy anywhere. Luckily, he managed to transform into a small squirrel before she woke up and… started trying to care for the animals?
‘What in the name of all things chaotic is going on here!?’ Discord wondered. It was then that he noticed something exceedingly odd- Rainbow Dash had Fluttershy’s cutie mark. He scampered outside; he had to find Fluttershy and get everything sorted out. As wonderfully chaotic as it was, in no universe ever was he going to accept Rainbow Dash as a replacement for Fluttershy.
He was just getting into town when he noticed the checkerboard-pattern in the sky. ‘Looks like something I would do,’ he mused, taking notes on a conjured notepad. He saw Rarity, with Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark, trying desperately to control the clouds. He face-palmed. So this wasn’t a localized event. Another day in the life of an Element, he supposed. Just then he saw Twilight, with the same cutie mark she always had, discovering Rarity and setting out on a spontaneous musical adventure to fix it.
‘Well I suppose Miss Know-It-All can be trusted to fix things,’ he thought with a bit of relief. ‘But I’ll keep an eye on her just in case...’
While seeing the six friends trying to do each other’s jobs was decidedly amusing, he was plenty glad when they were all set straight again- mostly because it meant Fluttershy would be returning home. He followed the group to Twilight’s library, where he waited outside the window. He jumped in shock when the Elements seemed to activate of their own accord and seemed to vaporize Twilight. He panicked. ‘Fluttershy will be devastated if anything happens to Twilight!’ Thinking fast, he teleported to Canterlot, appearing directly in front of a surprised Celestia.
“Celestia, something’s happened to Twilight!” Discord said quickly. She raised an eyebrow.
“Calm down, Discord,” Celestia said. “What’s happened?”
“Fluttershy had Pinkie Pie’s cutie mark, and then there was a song and everything was fixed, but the Elements vaporized Twilight! You have to do something!” ‘Or Fluttershy may never get over her depression!’
“Ah. It’s time,” Celestia said, nodded sagely and unnaturally calm, Discord thought, given the situation. “Everything will be fine. Go back to Ponyville. I’ll be there soon to explain everything.” With that, she faded out of existence. Discord rubbed his head. Who knew that there’d be a day when Celestia gave him a headache?
Well, since she was so unconcerned, he supposed it couldn’t be anything to worry about too much. He popped back to the outside of the library and looked in the window to see the distressed friends bawling or otherwise freaking out over the scorch mark on the floor that used to be Twilight. If Celestia was going to come to explain everything, they might as well be outside to greet her, right? He decided to cause a little… distraction.
Summoning up several loud instruments like tubas, cymbals, etc., he blasted a huge sound outside the library and hurriedly ducked into the bushes.
“What was that?” he heard Rainbow Dash ask worriedly.
“Maybe Twilight teleported out of the way and landed in an orchestra pit!” Pinkie exclaimed dramatically. Discord could practically hear the odd looks from the others.
“Well, I guess we best be checkin’ it out,” Applejack said. “I’m sure Twilight’ll be fine… wherever she is.” ‘You sound really sure about that. NOT! And they call her the Element of Honesty? Pfft.’
The five remaining friends headed outside, and moments later there was a bright pink six-pointed explosion in the sky, which Discord knew for a fact he was not responsible for.
A second later, the star descended to the ground and disappeared, leaving Twilight behind.
“Twilight, is that you?” Applejack asked cautiously. Twilight stood up straight and opened her eyes. And her… wings?
‘Well that’s new,’ Discord thought in surprise. He watched as the friends fawned over Twilight’s new appendages in confused glee, wondering when exactly Celestia was planning to come and explain what the heck had just happened.
“Wow, you look just like a princess!” Fluttershy said in awe.
“That’s because she is a Princess,” Celestia said, coming out of nowhere behind the group. ‘Well, it’s about time she got here. Wait, what did she say!? Princess!?’
One overly-emotional and sappy explanation of how Twilight had become a princess because of her understanding of friendship- a qualification that Discord felt was a bit low considering all of the important political things that princesses had to do- Celestia took her leave, inviting the friends to come to Canterlot the next day for the coronation ceremony. After some more excited chatter, the friends parted ways for the night. Discord stayed out of sight until Fluttershy was far enough away from everypony else that he could avoid detection, then slithered out of the shadows and started flying beside her.
“I must say, it’s good to have you back, Fluttershy,” he said, causing her to start a little and turn to see him beside her. “You can’t imagine how emotionally scarring it was to come in for breakfast and see Rainbow Dash passed out on your sofa.”
“Oh, goodness!” Fluttershy gasped. “I hadn’t even thought about- oh I’m such a terrible friend! I should’ve been more concerned-”
“It’s quite alright, Fluttershy,” Discord assured. “You’ve had enough to worry about today. I must say, now that it’s all in the past, it was quite entertaining.”
“Oh, um, thanks?” Fluttershy said uncertainly.
“So dear young Twilight is a princess now,” Discord mused. “I can’t say I saw that coming.”
“It is surprising,” Fluttershy agreed. “But if anypony deserves it, it’s Twilight.”
“Nngh, I suppose,” Discord said noncommittally. “It was about time for something odd to happen, though. Your little pony lives have been entirely too normal, lately.”
“Things have been oddly quiet around here lately,” Fluttershy agreed. “Although our day-to-day normal is not that same as everypony else’s.”
“True,” Discord said. “But chaos that I don’t have to create is ten times as satisfying to watch.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” Fluttershy laughed softly. They reached the cottage. “So… this morning… with Rainbow Dash… she didn’t, you know, see you, did she?”
“Nah,” Discord scoffed. “She sleeps like a brick, so I had plenty of time to camouflage myself. Our little secret is safe. Why, ashamed of my presence here?”
The comment was, of course, intended to cause Fluttershy to freak out. Discord would never in a thousand years admit it out loud, but she was simply adorable when she was panicking. His comment did, in fact, receive the desired result.
“Oh, no no no!” Fluttershy protested frantically, waving her hoofs frantically. “I would never- that’s not- I mean- ooh!” Discord laughed at her panicked look.
“I’m only fooling, dear,” Discord informed her. She crumpled in relief. “It’s just that you’re simply adorable when you’re panicking.” ‘Well, a thousand years passed faster than I thought. So much for never saying it out loud...’ Fluttershy blushed and tucked her face a bit further behind her hair.
“Oh, goodness… um, thank you,” Fluttershy said timidly, extremely embarrassed. “Well, um, it’s late and I should get the animals and myself to bed, so… I’ll see you tomorrow morning?”
“Bright and early,” Discord affirmed. “I’ll see you off at the train station for the coronation. I’ll be… discreet.” Fluttershy nodded once and fled into her house. Once she’d closed the door Discord opened it the other way and retreated into his haven. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was fighting to calm her heart and get rid of her blush. ‘He thinks I’m adorable?’ The thought made her oddly giddy. ‘Well, he is my friend, and it’s normal to be happy about something like that… right? It’s just a normal compliment, and I should be happy that Discord considers us close enough to say something like that.’
She distractedly put the animals to bed and retreated to her bedroom, where she spent at least an hour or two tossing and turning before she finally drifted off.