//------------------------------//
// Caring for Twilight 
// Story: My Little Maleficent 
// by KidatHeart5 
//------------------------------//

	The three Breezies grunted as they lifted the infant Twilight Sparkle from the wagon. Scootaloo grunted, “This is ridiculous. Why do we have to take care of the Princess?” Apple Bloom agreed, “Yeah, it’s not we can get big or something.” Sweetie Belle reminded them, “Uh, girls? Are you forgetting that we can turn into regular fillies?” Apple Bloom cried, “Oh, right!” 
As soon as they set Twilight down on a stump, they transformed into regular fillies. Sweetie Belle smiled as she looked at herself, “Woo! We are good-looking!” Scootaloo pointed out, “Yeah, but we don’t have our cutie marks.” She pointed to her blank flank and Apple Bloom asked, “Ooh. Is that gonna be a problem?” 
Sweetie Belle suggested, “Well, we can always wear skirts, can we?” Apple Bloom agreed, “I guess we could.” Scootaloo scowled, “Yeah, if we want to look like old ladies!” The fillies went inside as they quarreled about this. In the midst of their arguing, they forgot that they left the princess on the stump. Twilight looked at the owl that swooped in and glanced at the filly. 
After it left, Twilight fussed and Apple Bloom came back outside. She grabbed the princess and said, “Oh! Now, princess, you know you’re not supposed to be by yourself.” She looked all around and continued, “Especially if the meanie who cursed you in the first place is looking for you.” She closed the door behind her, unaware that a certain owl had gathered information for his master.
“So, they’ve taken the young princess to a woodcutter’s cottage in hopes of getting away from the curse?” Discord asked amusedly. He chuckled, “How charming that they’d go so far as to keep her from me. That’s where they are wrong.” He stood up and ordered the owl, “Spike, take me to the cottage. I want to get a good look at their little ‘hiding place’.”
Before night fell, Discord arrived at the cottage. He had to rush back deep in the woods before he could laugh hysterically at the quaint little abode. He had a few more laughing episodes when he saw the house again. After he had his fill of laughter, he walked up to the cottage and looked into the window. He saw the princess looking at him and gagged, “It’s so ugly…could almost feel sorry for it.” 
Twilight only smiled at him; Discord was surprised by this. He was determined to scare her, so he hissed at her. Twilight looked surprised, but again smiled. Discord tried again by making strange faces. Nothing was happening, so he resorted to making scary sounds. He noticed that the fillies were hearing him and they wanted to check it out. He ducked beneath the window and heard Apple Bloom say, “There’s nothing out here.” 
He sighed and only made his eyes and the top of his head visible to Twilight. She only smiled at him and he grumbled, “I hate you.” 


That night, the three fillies slept on a bed together. However, only one occupant of the house was awake. Twilight cried and cried in her little crib. Spike, as an owl, was close by and had to cover his ears. Discord, who was with him, also put his hands to his ears. He snarled, “Seriously, can’t a guy get a little rest around here?!” 
He conjured up earmuffs and sighed at the silence they provided. However, cries from the infant filly cut through the silence of the earmuffs and Discord groaned. He noticed the flowers with the pulpy center and they gave him an idea. He ordered to Spike, “Here, take this to her noisy Highness.” Spike fell backwards when the flower hit him hard. He got up and gave Discord an irked look.
Spike delivered the flower and put it on Twilight’s mouth. As she was sucking on it, the owl used his feet to rock the crib. Spike didn’t need to tell Discord that the princess was calmed down; Discord knew by the silence that the owl had done a job well done. He sighed as he collapsed on the forest floor, “Finally.” 
Soon afterwards, he started visiting the cottage more. Spike suspected that Discord had a soft spot for the princess; the latter always denied it by saying that he wanted to see the fillies make fools of themselves. Once, Twilight was crying incessantly. The fillies were trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Apple Bloom cried, “I know! She’s hungry! Let’s give her some food!” 
Scootaloo pulled some carrots from the ground and put them on the foal. She said, “Here you go, Princess. Eat up!” Twilight blinked at the carrots and her guardians. She began to cry again and the fillies resorted to finding food in the cottage. As they went inside, Discord tsked, “Don’t they know anything about raising foals? Honestly, Their Highnesses should’ve picked somepony experienced in this.” 
He snapped up a bottle of milk and gave it to Spike saying, “I want you to give this to the filly.” Spike, in his owl form, looked at him as if he was smirking. Discord said, “What? I’m only doing this because I can’t stand the noise.” Spike flew off and gave Twilight the bottle. After he left, the three fillies came out and were astonished to find Twilight drinking from a bottle. Sweetie Belle suggested, “Maybe she conjured it from thin air.” Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at her in disbelief.
When the fillies got the hang of raising the foal, Discord thought it was getting boring watching them. As a remedy to that, he raised the bar of craziness just to have fun. He even stooped so low as to pull pranks on them. One time, the fillies were playing a game in their cottage when suddenly, Sweetie Belle felt some drops on her. “Scootaloo, stop that!” she scolded her friend. Scootaloo denied, “It wasn’t me! It must’ve been Apple Bloom!”
Apple Bloom shook her head, “I didn’t do anything!” Sweetie Belle was still feeling drops falling on her, so she warned, “If either of you don’t stop it right now, I’m gonna…” Just then, it started pouring on the girls and they started shrieking and running around. Outside, Discord manipulated the weather inside the cottage and was laughing hysterically. “Oh, this is so funny!” he remarked. “I should do this more often.”
Though he didn’t care much about Twilight, he watched her and her “aunts” for the next few years. One day, the fillies were having a picnic. Discord, watching from afar, decided to start a little quarrel among them. With a wave of his finger, he pulled Sweetie Belle’s mane and flung a cream pie on Scootaloo’s face. The latter said, “Oh, it is on!” As the three fillies started fighting, a 5-year-old Twilight Sparkle started chasing a butterfly. She was so distracted that she didn’t see she was about to run off the cliff.
Discord pointed out amusedly, “Oh, look. The little pony is about to fall of the cliff.” Spike, as a dragon, sputtered, “Do something! Save her!” Discord contemplated this and Spike shouted again, “Discord!” The draconequus held out his paw to him and said, “Oh, hold on. Hold on.” 
Just then, Twilight screamed as she fell off the cliff. Fortunately, though, roots from the side of the ledge and ground caught her and carried her to safety. Spike sighed of relief and Discord remarked, “What? I was going to save her, anyway. I just wanted to wait till the last second…for dramatic effect, of course.” Spike looked at him with irritation.
Later, Discord was about to depart for the Everfree Forest when he heard a small voice saying, “Hello.” He turned, but he saw no pony there. In confusion, he looked down and saw the young Twilight looking up at him. He replied in a flat voice, “Oh, it’s you. Listen, I’ve no time for fillies like you, so why don’t you trot back to wherever you came from and…” Before he could finish his sentence, the filly was nudging upwards and urging, “Up! Up!”
Discord rolled his eyes and groaned, “All right.” He grabbed the filly and lifted her up to his head. When she began poking and looking at his horn and antler, he grunted, “No, no! Bad Twilight! This is why I don’t like fillies! Ouch! Don’t do that!” 
He had just about enough of this and set her down. He pointed her to the direction in front of him and told her, “Now go home and don’t bother anypony else.” She trotted off while saying, “Bye-bye.” When she was gone, he leaned against the tree trunk and groaned, “How did I ever come to this?”