Ch 2: The Journey Begins
Discord paced back and forth in Twilight’s library. He was debating with himself on whether or not he should eavesdrop on the discussion that was just about to happen with Twilight and the rest her friends.
He wanted to avoid the blame game, and hoof pointing from them. He already felt bad, he did not want rub even more salt in the wound. Although Discord knew it would probably not happen, he wanted to avoid it all the same.
Except he don’t know how long they would take and he hated waiting. Discord pouted as he made a desk chair appear in the middle of the room. He sat on it making it float in the air while rocking it back and forth waiting for the result.
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Twilight had set up a light picnic on a hill. It was the same hill where she and her friends would sometimes have picnics together. The picnic only had; boiled egg and cucumber tea sandwiches, which were already placed on separate plates, tea, and a pitcher of lemonade. Twilight checked the picnic basket again to make sure she didn’t leave anything, and only saw the gems that she had for Spike. Twilight decided to chomp on a sandwich,while she waited for Spike to bring the rest of her friends.
Twilight grimaced as she criticized herself on the sandwich she was eating. Then,she reminded herself that she made it with whatever food she happened to have in her new home,and she was also in a rush.
'Not everything has be perfect all the time Twilight' Twilight scolded herself
Twilight smiled as Spike brought all her friends just like she asked. Although, Fluttershy was missing amongst the group. It was quickly by noticed by everypony who showed up. There were looks of worry on their faces as they all settled down.
“Fluttershy needs some alone time right now, she took the betrayal harshly” Applejack calmly stated
‘Poor Fluttershy’ Twilight thought with concern, watching Spike pour out the pitcher of lemonade, for everypony and sticking straws in each glass. When he was done Twilight pointed at the basket with her eyes. Spike smiled with glee understanding the hint, and soon began crunching on gems.
“Speaking of the betrayal, that’s why I called everypony here” Twilight said.
“Discord came to me with a proposal, and it involves all of us”
Pinkie cocked her head on the side in confusion and then jerked it back quickly as if she understood.
“Discord asked to you to marry him?!” asked Pinkie excitedly
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes as said “Pinkie, I'm sure she doesn't mean... ”
Pinkie Pie interpreted by talking way too fast to comprehend what she was saying.
“IhadahutchthatTwilightlikedsomeoneelsebutwowheproposed?Didyousayessohbutifyoudon’tlikehiminthatwaypleaselethimdowngently”
Pinkie Pie rapidly inhaled air to say something else when everypony yelled her name at the top of their lungs, which stopped more of her incoherent babbling.
“It’s not that kind of proposal!” everypony explained in an slightly annoyed tone.
“Ooo… why didn’t you say so in the first place?” Pinkie Pie said with a giggle
Twilight double facehoofed, then dragged her hoofs down her face as she let a huge groan.
“It’s not one of his schemes is it?” Rainbow Dash asked while chewing on a sandwich.
"How could you say such a thing? After all he did help us with opening that box, Tirek would have won if we didn't open it" Rarity elegantly said but then she muttered through her teeth "though he did end up betraying in process..." "We forgave him all the same" Rarity said.
"Yeah, I guess you're right" Rainbow Dash said sounding a bit guilty about it
"Anywayyss, what did Discord ask ya Twi?" Applejack asked.
"Well, he wants us to give him trials to help him learn to be a better... well a better him I guess."
"He suggested that it could tie in to the elements we represent" Twilight finished
Everypony expect for Spike and Twilight, completely stopped whatever they doing and spent time in total shock
There was a complete silence for a while, until Applejack broke it by laughing, it was as if somepony told her a really funny joke.
Everyone there looked at Applejack thinking that she finally lost her mind.
"So that's what he came up with huh? Of course it is"
"What the hay are you talking about AJ?" Rainbow asked confused.
"He came ta me for advice"
"He...he what?!" everypony including Spike said at once sounding genuinely surprised
"He came ta me for advice, he told me about Fluttershy not taking the betrayal well, and he asked how ta get her trust back"
"I told him she needs space, I also said that trust it has ta be earned and I finished by telling him for now try ta be good" Applejack said finishing her story
"It's all fitting together now, so he doing this to earn Fluttershy's trust, so to do that he wants us to give him trials that will teach him to be good, which will help him earn her trust and depending on how well he does on the trial, it will earn everypony's else trust in the process, that's ....actually quite brilliant." Twilight deduced feeling a little admiration towards Discord because he came up the plan.
"So then, what do all of you want to do?" Twilight asked addressing everypony.
Everypony looked at each other. Rainbow Dash being the first to speak up
"I agree, I want in"
"I second it, I say we do this to help our new friend Discord..." Pinkie chimed in
"Or would he be our old friend since we were friends before?" Pinkie questioned
Pinkie thought about it for a while, when she came up a solution "He's an old friend who became new"
"Well shot, count me in" Applejack said.
"It looks like we're all in agreement then" Rarity said "However what we do about Fluttershy dear?"
Twilight begin to ponder about this when Applejack came up a suggestion
"I think we should wait for Discord ta finish the first trial ta try tell her, and if she's not ready we'll tell her after another trial, that way she can see that he's making the effort and we have our word ta back it up"
Everypony agreed on that
"So then what about the trials? Which one should be first? Should we all come up with them together or separately?" Rainbow Dash inquired
"Well, I think he should choose which order he wants to do them, as for the trials we could come up with them separately so he can learn something from each of us" Twilight suggested
"But we could brainstorm a little to give each other some ideas" she added
"Alright let's start" Rarity said.
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Normally, Spike would have stayed until the end the picnic, so he could help clean up. However he knew would be left out the conversation, so he figured he might as well go home. Spike sighed, he brushed off the gem crumbs he had all over him and left the group of ponies. Maybe he would reread that Power Ponies comic Princess Celestia gave Twilight along with some other books, or maybe he would take a nap. Spike thought that he would decide when he got there.
Twilight saw Spike leave "Hang on a minute mares" said Twilight. Twilight teleported in front of him, she was still in a sitting position "Wait, Spike" Twilight called, he looked at her in response.
"Would you like to be a part of the trials?" she asked
"Really?" Spike asked in surprise
"Yeah really, listen I recently noticed that you are left out most of the time and I'm sorry for that, that's why this time I want to include you..."
Then Twilight unintentionally imitated Fluttershy by saying "If you want to that is"
"I would like some time to think about I'll let you know what I decide"
"Alright If that's what you want Spike,I'll see ya later then" with that Twilight went back to her friends.
So then Spike was deep in thought about what to do on way to the crystal castle tree.
'So do I want to give Discord a trial? What kind of trial?'
'but then...'
Spike stopped on his tracks when he came to epiphany 'Maybe, since I'll been on a quest before, I could have the experience to help him, I could write about his experiences as he does each trial.'
Spike finally made it back to the castle hearing loud groans of boredom coming from the library as soon he went inside.
Spike went to check out where the sound was coming from, finding Discord doing an upside down head stand on a desk chair. He was glancing at a book, not really reading it at all. Spike spotted many books tossed half-haphazardly all over the place.
Spike grumbled under his breath when he saw this, after all he knew it would take forever to clean that up
Discord look up from the book he was looking at and said in a slight annoyed tone "Oh it's you Spic"
"Spike" Spike angrily corrected
"Whatever, please tell me they're almost done"
"Oh you mean....no they're not done they're going be while"
"Arg! But I can't wait anymore"
"Well, I don't know what to tell you"
"Fine, maybe I'll go do something else"
"Then go"
"I will" Discord said almost childishly "Goodbye Spoke" he said then vanished.
"It's Spike" he mumbled as he closed the door to the library
"I could change my mind, I could give him a really, really hard trial" Spike told himself
Spike sighed and said "Even if Discord is being a jerk; I already made up my mind"
"But I'll be lying if I said it wasn't temping though"