Chapter 4
“The Golden Oak Chandelier”
In the days that followed, Rarity, Fluttershy and Discord worked round the clock to remake all of Twilight’s dresses from her unicorn days. Thanks to Discord continuously screwing up, they were set back a couple of times. However, they managed to continue getting the dresses done without any further interruptions. Soon, they finished remaking Twilight’s birthday dress from the Canterlot Garden Party and were just getting started on remaking Twilight’s gala dress when Discord suddenly interrupted the activity.
“You know, I was thinking,” he said, admiring the work on Twilight’s gala dress. “Perhaps maybe we could you know, jazz it up a little bit.”
To prove it, Discord transformed himself into a tailor and was measuring the dress form, treating it like a real pony.
“I say Twilight,” remarked Discord, talking to the form. “Wouldn’t you want your gala dress to be a little…modern, to be precise?”
Rarity was starting to lose her patience with Discord and let out a strained growl under her breath. This caused her to glare at Discord with angry eyes.
“Discord,” she growled, fully annoyed. “Either you stick with the plan or disappear. Stop talking to the dress form and get back to work!”
“Oh, you’re no fun, Rarity,” pouted Discord, letting out a raspberry at her. “I was only trying to rehearse what I would say to Twilight when we give her these dresses.”
Rarity just rolled her eyes and focused on getting the dress done. After all, these weren’t dresses that Twilight was going to wear. These were just to help Twilight give a piece of her life back and nothing more. However, Rarity could see that Discord was treating it like a game and not like helping a suffering friend.
“Um, Rarity,” asked Fluttershy, who was working on remaking Twilight’s Starswirl costume. “Can you take a look at these hoof stitches?”
Rarity walked over to Fluttershy and examined the work that was being done on the costume. Fluttershy was doing a good job for the most part, but noticed that some of the stitches were off.
“Not bad, Fluttershy,” she said. “However, some of the stitches are a little off. Try to see if you can stich them again.”
“If you say so,” replied the timid Pegasus.
Meanwhile, Discord had finished getting the top of Twilight’s gala dress done and was now working on getting more material for the bottom of it. Just then, he suddenly began hearing voices in his head again as the sounds of Shining Armor were ringing through his brain once again, talking about Twilight’s best mare dress that was also destroyed.
“If I’m going to get back on Shining Armor’s good side,” he thought to himself. “Then I have to be the one to remake Twilight’s best mare dress. But what does it look like?”
Discord quickly went into another room in the boutique and snapped his fingers, disappearing in a flash of white light.
“Did you hear that, Fluttershy?” asked Rarity, as continued sewing away on the gala dress.
“Discord must have disappeared for a second,” she replied, still trying to hoof stitch the Starswirl costume. “I’m sure he will be back, eventually.”
A few moments later, Discord brought himself back to Twilight’s castle and was now finding himself in the throne room looking up at the Golden Oak Chandelier. He knew that there had to be a picture of Twilight at her brother’s wedding on one of the ornaments. It was really the first time that Discord had seen the chandelier that he had heard Fluttershy continuously speak about. Staring up at the chandelier had gotten Discord thinking of the gravity that his actions had caused.
However, he couldn’t stay unfocused for very long as he had to return to the Boutique before Twilight would appear. After a few moments, he came across an ornament that had a picture of Twilight singing to Cadence and Shining Armor at their wedding reception. Seeing Twilight singing had caused a tender cord to be pulled inside of Discord.
“No wonder Shining Armor was so angry at me,” Discord said to himself. “This was more than a dress, it’s a piece of not just Twilight’s life, but his life as well.”
Discord knew that even though he had been imprisoned in stone, he had heard the wedding that had gone on in Canterlot that day. He remembered hearing of the changeling invasion and the real wedding that was held after they were defeated. Discord was also thinking back to when he was restoring the stained glass windows in Canterlot. One of the windows he restored was a depiction of Cadence and Shining Armor defeating the changelings, which was an important moment in Shining Armor’s life.
“I’ve got to fix this,” Discord thought, using his powers to take a picture of the ornament that held the memory of the royal wedding. “I’ve just got to if Shining Armor will ever forgive me.”
Soon, Discord disappeared and quickly returned to the Boutique where Rarity and Fluttershy were putting the finishing touches on Twilight’s gala dress, now fully restored to its original design.
“There you are, Discord,” said Fluttershy, happily. “What do you think?”
“Very impressive, Fluttershy,” replied Discord, transforming into a photographer. “This is worthy of a photo shoot.”
Discord continued to take photos until a glare by Rarity caused him to stop and drop the photographer disguise.
“Where have you been anyway, Discord?” asked Rarity. “We were wondering where you were and we really could have used your help on the Starswirl costume. Fluttershy was struggling with the hoof stitches, I’ll have you know.”
To prove what she was saying to Discord, Rarity handed Discord the costume which continued to show the futile attempts of Fluttershy trying to hoof stitch the costume. Although Discord had wanted to personally remake Twilight’s best mare dress in an effort to get back on Shining Armor’s side, he was forced to work on the costume.
“But, Rarity…?” Discord started to ask, but Rarity interrupted him.
“Don’t argue Discord, do as you’re told,” Rarity interrupted bluntly, turning her attention to the finished gala dress. “Now, hurry you two, I want to get this done soon.”
So they went back to the task at hand and Fluttershy set out to start work on remaking Twilight’s best mare dress. Discord wanted to pitch in and offer to help, but he didn’t know how to ask.
However, little did they know at that moment that Twilight was about to be visited by Shining Armor...