A few weeks later, the Breezies that Fluttershy had studied were on their way to migrate through town. Discord couldn’t stay for it, but Fluttershy was plenty busy getting things ready, so she didn’t have time to miss him too much. Besides, the Breezies were just so adorable!
When Discord got home, it wasn’t quite what he expected.
“I wasn’t supposed to already know these things would be here, was I?” Discord asked when he walked in an saw the huge group of Breezies, trying to remember if she’d said anything. The Breezies all squeaked at the sight of him and huddled behind Fluttershy.
“Oh, um, no,” Fluttershy said. “There was a problem with their breeze, and I’m letting them stay here to recuperate.” She turned back to the Breezies. “It’s alright, my little Breezies. Discord is a friend.” The Breezies cautiously left her back and went back to their posts around the room. “I should be getting them on their ways soon, though, or they may not make it home in time. The problem is, they’ve all come down with colds, and I don’t know if they’ll be better in time…” Discord looked around at the cheerful Breezies.
“Yes, they look really sick,” he said sarcastically. “But, if they’re going to be here, may as well make them welcome. Who wants to party!?” He summoned up a party with his claws, feeling like Pinkie Pie, and the Breezies began excitedly zooming about the room and drinking punch.
It was going great until a little blue and pink one grabbed one of the tiny instruments that Discord had summoned and smashed it on the ground.
“Why are you spending your time on this!?” he demanded in a tiny squeaky voice. “I will never get home!” Fluttershy frowned.
“Breezies, I must say, Seabreeze has a point. I think it’s time for me to get Rainbow Dash and her friends so they can create the breeze for you to get home,” Fluttershy said. The Breezies all protested. “Oh… you’re all awfully anxious. I don’t want you to feel abandoned, or that I wasn’t the most kind host I could possibly be.” One of the Breezies said something. “Oh, yes, that does make sense. Seabreeze, do you think you could wait just a couple more hou-” she turned to face him, but he was gone. “Seabreeze? Seabreeze? Has anypony seen Seabreeze?” One of the Breezies shrugged. Discord pointed at the door, and Fluttershy turned and saw that the eyehole was open. She ran to it and saw Seabreeze on the other side flying away. She gasped.
“Where’s he going!?” she asked. “There’s no way he can handle being out there on his own! I have to go after him!” She dashed out of the door and came back a few minutes later with an uncharacteristically determined look on her face and Seabreeze in tow.
“My dear Breezies,” she started. “I had to rescue Seabreeze from serious harm, and now I know more than ever that you must leave before it’s too late. You would never survive in Ponyville.” All the Breezies flocked her ankles and protested, whining at her. ‘How does she put up with those annoying little squeaky voices?’ “I can’t help you anymore. In fact, I wasn’t helping you at all by being nice.” She sighed. “But the truth of that matter is that I must be firm. You must go. Now.” She opened the door and gestured for them to leave. The Breezies wilted disappointedly, but gradually floated outside. Seabreeze gave her a grateful look, and she closed the door behind her, crying.
“What’s wrong!?” Discord asked worriedly, flying over. “I thought making them go was a good thing.”
“I know,” Fluttershy agreed. “But their little heartbroken faces… I can’t stand it!”
“Oh, Fluttershy, you care too much,” Discord scolded. “You knew they were going to have to leave.”
“I can’t help it,” Fluttershy said. “I get attached to any creature that I care for.” Discord wondered internally if that included him. “I suppose I’d best see them off. Are you going to come along?”
“Might as well,” he shrugged, and took up his spot in her hair.
“I’ve been studying an old spell book from the Castle of the Two Sisters,” Twilight said when they realized there was no breeze that would get a group that small home without ripping them apart. “There’s a spell that I think could help us. This is probably going to feel a little funny at first, but you’re gonna have to trust me.”
“I love new ideas that make me feel funny at first!” Pinkie exclaimed happily. Twilight engaged her magic and shot it at her friends, creating a bridge between them and the Breezies. When the light cleared, the friends had all shrunk down to the size and shape of Breezies… And Discord, his tiny form curled up in Fluttershy’s hair, became a tiny gnat-sized Breezie.
“Well that was unexpected,” he said, looking himself over. Fluttershy glanced at him, sticking out of her hair a bit, and giggled softly. She flew forward while an embarrassed Discord hid himself again.
“Marfo phla-i barten do,” Fluttershy chattered. Her friends stared at her. “Um, I mean, let’s go!” With the added support of six more Breezies, they were able to get on their way. Discord flew out of Fluttershy’s hair for just long enough to take some pictures while her friends were occupied. No way this wasn’t going in the scrapbook, even if it would probably be in the Scrapbook of Harmony, too.
They got through the portal with just enough time. Discord watched boredly as the Breezies all embraced each other and a bunch of other mushy stuff like kissing babies and the like. Finally Rarity pointed out that it was time to go, and Fluttershy reluctantly turned to go before Seabreeze handed her a flower. Discord fought down the irrational jealousy- first of all, Seabreeze was clearly married, and second of all Discord had no claim on her, anyway.
“To remember us by,” Seabreeze said gratefully. He put the flower in Fluttershy’s hair. It probably would have fallen out if left on its own, since the stem was so short, so Discord grabbed it and held it in place.
“Thank you. I’ll miss you,” Fluttershy said quickly. “I’ll miss all of you!” The portal was almost closing, so Fluttershy hurriedly swooped through just as it closed behind her. Twilight turned them all back to ponies, or in Discord’s case a draconequus. They all started walking.
“Let’s try to get back home by nightfall,” Twilight said.
“We have to walk all the way back!?” Rarity exclaimed, horrified. Twilight paused a moment and face-hoofed. Her friends gave her an odd look.
“I can just teleport us,” Twilight said.
“Oh, right,” Rarity sighed, relieved. The others smiled, and in a flash of light they were back home and walking off to their own beds.
“Why couldn’t you have done that with the Breezies?” Discord pointed out, rolling his eyes. “This whole mess could have been solved ages ago.” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she realized he was right. She laughed.
“I suppose that would have made more sense than turning ourselves into Breezies,” she mused.
“Sense? Never mind, this way was better,” Discord said, sounding disgusted. “There’s no fun in making sense. Besides, we got some good pictures out of it.” Fluttershy giggled. “It’s your turn to make a scrapbook page. Hop to it. I’ll grab snacks.”
A few days past and Fluttershy informed Discord that Pinkie’s sister was coming to town.
“There’s more of them?” Discord asked, amused. “First there was that… what was his name, Grilled Cheese?”
“Cheese Sandwich,” Fluttershy corrected.
“Whatever. First him and now a sister. How many of them can there be?” he asked with a chuckle. Discord was too busy to stay home and see Pinkie’s sister for himself, and when he did get home it was too late for things like that, but when he got home Fluttershy told him how very, very different Maud was from how they’d imagined her.
“Really? No expression at all?” Discord asked, bemused. Fluttershy nodded miserably.
“And Pinkie’s expecting us to become the best of friends,” Fluttershy sighed. “We really are trying, but Maud is just so different from all of us…”
“Maybe she just needs to get used to you first?” Discord suggested. “I mean, I’m about as ‘different’ as you can get, and I still somehow managed to make friends with you.” Fluttershy grinned.
“Best friends,” she reminded. He returned the grin. Both sighed inwardly. “I suppose you might be right, though. I can’t give up on being her friend, yet.”
The next day Fluttershy came home looking even more dejected.
“No luck?” Discord asked, conjuring some chocolate milk and offering it to her. She took it and shook her head, taking a sip.
“We all tried,” Fluttershy said. “But all she thinks about is rocks, so I don’t even think she noticed we were trying.”
“Sounds dreadful. Reminds me of the situation of a certain close friend of mine. Oh, here he is!” Discord said, splitting himself into two and pointing at himself before recombining. “Although I suppose my attempts are a bit too chaotic for them to work on anyone but you, my budding chaos master.” Fluttershy shook her head with a laugh. “Glad to cheer you up!”
“You usually do,” Fluttershy murmured to herself, blushing slightly. Discord didn’t catch it because he was busy conjuring his own glass of chocolate milk.
The next day Maud left, the girls went after her, and everything was resolved, before Discord even had a chance to get a glimpse of her.
“Ah, well,” he sighed. “I was going to try and make the visit a little more interesting to help you all bond, but I suppose you sorted it out on your own. Although I find the double-standard insulting.”
“Double standard?” Fluttershy asked, confused.
“Of course!” Discord humphed. “They’ll bond with an emotionless rock because of a shared friendship, but they still hold onto a petty grudge with me! Even Celestia’s stopped mistrusting me!”
“I know,” Fluttershy said. “You should ask Celestia if you can spend more time in Ponyville. I’m sure we could come up with excuses for you to be here, and maybe spending more time with you will help them understand you.”
“Maybe when things get a bit less busy,” he sighed. “There’ve been some natural disasters on the east coast that she’s been having me clear up, and it’ll take some time.”
“Well, until then, you’ll still have me,” Fluttershy said caringly. Discord smiled and nodded.