Chapter 2: An Unpleasant Prospect
In a place which was really no place, in a time which was no particular time, Discord brooded.
His home was a pocket dimension he had formed out of the raw stuff of Chaos, held together by a minor but continuing exercise of his power. He had shaped this place out of his dreams and memories, and it was always a soothing place to which he might return, especially to think.
It was not as bizarre a realm as one might have supposed from the nature of its master. Discord needed a contrast against which to shine, and Discord's Domain seemed deceptively normal toward the center. There was a house on a grassy plateau overlooking a river, and all around rose low, tree-covered mountains. Sometimes it could be a very strange place indeed, at Discord's whim, but right now Discord really didn't feel like being at all creative.
If one looked carefully, of course, one would notice that the visual horizon really was the end of the world, and that the details diminished as one moved away from the central house -- a pleasant little walled mansion compound, whose structures ranged in height from one to two stories. Its architecture was alien to modern Equestria, but thosands of years ago, in two separate eras, the place on which Discord had modeled it -- after he had destroyed its original -- had been the center of what civilization survived upon the Earth.
The two Royal Pony Sisters would have recognized this place immediately, for they had spent their earliest years in their current incarnations here, learned there the lost lore of the Reclamation and of the Age of Wonders They had not had the heart to rebuild it, but had built their first great castle near its ruins, the better to watch the Nexus which made this place special.
Discord had formed for his domain the land of his own childhood, which he had spent with them here. Oh, he remodeled it, destroyed it, warped it into all sorts of fantastic and interesting shapes. But always he restored it to this form, because it was the last place in which he had ever known any real, sustained happiness
He had recreated Paradise Estate in the Void.
Now, the master of Discord Estate had returned home.
He stood before his house, brooding a while.
Then with frightening swiftness the sky was riven by impossibly vast lightning bolts. The mountains quivered like jelly, wobbling before the thunder of these detonations. The trees upon them launched themselves, blazing, to crisscross overhead like fireworks. The air itself became as thick as gelatin, assumed various improbable and in some cases impossible chemical compositions, then spontaneously generated what looked like a fantastic ecology that blossomed and died around him Then the hills melted into jelly, into lava, became fire-fountains.
Only Discord, and his Estate, remained untouched by these changes.
With a look of exasperation and one casual wave of his lion's paw, Discord banished them, and the valley returned to its default state. Pointless, he thought. Utterly pointless.
He made another gesture and suddenly the lawn was full of Ponies, of all three Kinds and various hues, though all of them were mares. They frolicked about happily, conversing about nothing. Discord smiled to see them. He'd killed their originals, of course, but he still terribly missed them from time to time. Back then he'd been in the first flush of his power -- he hadn't yet realized that if one broke one's toys, one limited one's opportunities for further play.
Two new mares wandered onto the scene. They were Alicorns, with both horns and wings, powerful and graceful. The first was white of coat and pink of mane, with a subtle color gradation that had would in time, Discord knew, become a pastel rainbow. She was larger than the others -- though nowhere near as much larger as she would one day become, and in mid-adolescence. Her build was still fillyish, but graceful. Especially when she walked, she was heart-breakingly beautiful.
Impossibly beautiful, incredibly good, he thought. I should have known just by looking at her What she really was. What we all were. But I was spared that. When she was that age, I was no older, and I knew nothing. And was the happier for it.
The second, her sister, had a dark blue coat and light-blue mane. She was younger -- in early adolescence -- and smaller -- the size of the other Ponies, though there was a certain gawkiness about her and size to her feet that made it obvious that she had a lot of growing left to do. She seemed more awkward than her older sister -- but it was a subtle and purely social thing, for she moved with extreme efficiency, as if her body was were a fine musical instrument for her to play.
Or a weapon for her to wield. But she didn't think much in those terms, yet. Discord remembered. That came later. After we all found out the truth.
They looked in some ways not very unlike the way they would look twenty-five centuries later. The difference was in the eyes. Their real models, today, bore the strain and melancholy of all those weary years on the Earth, fighting for their little Ponies, too often failing. Oh, they'd been awesomely intelligent, even back then, but they hadn't yet learned the cruelties of the world. The eyes of Discord's ghosts, recalled out of his fond memories, held nothing but kindness -- love -- innocence.
Discord smiled with unfeigned warmth at their beauty. For a moment his heart was touched by the shadow of the joy it had once known in the presence of their originals.
Shall I make them a companion? Discord thought. Someone else unusual, like them, though not as pretty? A best friend, with whom to play? The thought briefly appealed to him.
Then he realized why it would be just too sad to watch. Especially the way he felt right now.
He banished the ghosts. Alicorns and normal Ponies, they simply shimmered and vanished.
Discord sighed and a bizarrely-shaped tree, with a reddish-purple bole, an incredibly-simple dual branch structure like something a child would doodle, and purple tuftlike masses of leaves on the end of its main bole and two branches grew up out of nowhere. Its original had come, copied many times over, from a set of children's books, some of the ones which an alien visitor had given to this place, a visitor who had seen a shattered species, a race about to perish under the pressure of impossibly-vicious predation. She'd come to love that race, and decided to make it her business to save them. And she'd succeeded, beyond what must have been her wildest dreams.
It had not been one of the more practical books, not one of the ones on technology or warfare, or even ethics or law, but it had been one of his own favorites growing up. The author of those books had called herself (Discord assumed her to be female, for she must have been a leader of her kind) Dr. Seuss.
Discord sometimes wished he'd met Dr. Seuss. Or Megan. He was pretty sure that they were interesting beings. Though, on reflection, he might not have enjoyed an encounter with Megan. By repute she'd been a fearless and frighteningly-capable slayer of monsters.
Monsters like himself.
He coiled his way up onto the largest branch of his thinking tree. Gripping the branch to hold on was easy, automatic. He could fall asleep in this position, and awake still firmly grasping the living wood. He'd done so many times.
He didn't feel sleepy right now.
He was furious at Fluttershy. She's the one that betrayed me, he reminded himself. Pretending to be my friend, to care about me, to love me -- only to gallop right into the embrace of that stupid stallion! He almost started another Chaos Storm just from thinking about it, then remembered that doing so wouldn't solve anything -- wouldn't even really make him feel any better.
She's just like Celly, he thought. Celly told me she loved me, only to betray me and turn against me when -- oh wait, no, I was the one who betrayed and turned on her. Well, I destroyed Paradise Estate and killed almost everyone she'd known. That would count as betrayal, right? Yes, I suppose so, if one looks at it a certain way. I can see why she's still mad at me over that.
And if we're going to get technical, I then proceeded to subject the Earth to a thousand years of chaos (an improvement, I thought, but most of the Ponies didn't appreciate it much). Which I guess Celly didn't like, given how much time and effort Celly and Lulu put into fighting me. It did slow down the multi-millennial plan to raise Ponykind back up to the heights of the Age of Wonders, I suppose. Which was kind of important to them. So yes, they have a bit of a grudge against me there.
And, hmm, the Sun's been getting a little wobbly these last few centuries. Worse since I had that really wild day when I was first free again. Sundreamer's little clockwork geocentric Solar System may have been damaged a bit. I guess she's probably annoyed by that too. Not that I meant to do that ...
But Fluttershy? What did I ever do to Fluttershy to make her hate me? Or at least make her not want to come to me, first, if she was looking for wild passionate love? Which amounts to the same thing, doesn't it? He pondered this conundrum.
It's true that the first time I met her, I took over her mind and raped her soul and accidentally fathered an immaculately-conceived child on her who is now sleeping inside her in another dimension. But these things happen. I didn't really know her then -- I'd never treat her like this now. Well, I probably wouldn't, because I don't think she'd like to be treated like that.
Anyway, Fluttershy doesn't even know Fluttercruel exists. Does she? And who expects everything to go swimmingly on a first date?
He thought a bit more.
It's not about the sex, he thought virtuously, a halo briefly appearing over his head. I can get plenty of that from my imagination. This was especially the case, since his imagination could produce temporary but real physical objects, including living beings. All I want from her is her eternal adoration. Is that so much to ask?
He squirmed his body around into a more comfortable position. Or at least a different one.
I should hate her for this. But I can't hate her. I can't even harm her. What in the name of the Gap is wrong with me?
He grinned savagely.
I can hate him, though. I can hurt him, when her geas wears off. Which it will, because she's not going to remember to keep renewing it. She'll think that I forgave him -- because forgiving is what she does, but I can hold my anger in, pretend to be all sweet and nice and tolerant, until the moment when I strike and ...
He saw the flaw in his plan. His face fell.
... and she finds out that I've done this and she hates me forever, and it'll be just like with Celly, I won't have a friend, just another on my depressingly-long list of immortal enemies, starting with all my closest kin, both Family and Cousins, and working its way down to a whole roster call of lesser Cosmic beings and sub-Cosmic spirits.
For Discord had long since realized what Fluttershy really was, smelled the tell-tale traces of Gaia where she lay curled up impossibly small within his friend. He knew that Fluttershy was a nascent Alicorn. Part of his great joy at having won her friendship was the hope that they could have a very, very long time together.
A hope now turned to ashes.
Discord sighed. What can I do? he wondered. Do I pretend that this never happened? But she'll probably keep sleeping with that -- barely sapient creature -- and it'll hurt me every time she rubs my nose in it. The fact that Fluttershy wouldn't actually be trying to hurt him, that she would probably be trying to reconcile two males, both of whom she loved. made it all the worse, because among other things it put himself on the same level as a depressingly ordinary Pony. Or do I seek my revenge -- and get everypony mad at me?
Depending on just what he did by way of revenge, this might range from Fluttershy refusing to speak to him, to Celestia and Luna coming against him in full battle array. And though he'd easily overcome the Sisters the last time, he knew they probably by now had a backup plan for if -- or, knowing Luna's ungenerous but depressingly-cunning little mind, when he betrayed them.
Anyway, Fluttershy refusing to speak to him was bad enough. Beacause of who she was. And what she was.
Even killing her wouldn't stop her being mad at me, Discord realized. She'd just respawn in a few centuries, even less inclined to want to cuddle.
Unless I consumed her. And f I did that, she'd be inside me, being mad at me, forever.
What can I do? he asked himself again. Himself didn't have any good answers.
Oh no, wait, there is a "myself" who always has good answers. Though she doesn't like me very much. What is it about some mares that makes them hold grudges against you for more than twenty-five hundred years?
But she has to listen to me. She doesn't really have much of a choice. And she loves to solve problems. And she's very smart. Discord smiled at the prospect of finding an answer to his dilemma.
Then he frowned. He was remembering just why he didn't like to talk to her.
She's so sarcastic! He shuddered to himself at certain memories. And judgemental! And hostile! I hate talking to her!
But then, there was nopony better if he wanted wise counsel.
No, he had to speak to her. His own personal Voice of Reason.
Swallowing his pride (it tasted like honeyed almonds), he took a firm grip on the branch. He rolled his eyes back into his head, went into a trance ...
And dived headlong into himself.
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I'm in the process of reading that series. It's good, but thus far, I prefer your work.
In any case, Discord's thought process is quite enlightening. No wonder he's so petulant; he hasn't emotionally matured at all since his betrayal. He hasn't had to. Everything's been easy, and as you've noted before, Discord is fundamentally lazy. He's only going to do something if it amuses him, and growing up certainly won't. He's Peter Pan without a Hook. He's frittered away all his lost boys and massacred the Indians, and now he's alone in Never-Never Land. So, bereft of options, it's time to talk to Tinkerbell.
Looking forward to more.
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I completely agree. Bulk's totally innocent in this scenario. The heartbreaking thing is that there is nothing a stallion could do in this situation but run. I don't actually blame Fluttershy, either, because sometimes things move more quickly than you think they will, and besides, she doesn't need Discord's permission. Usually she wants everypony to be ok with everything, but that's a really awkward conversation to have, anyway. Besides:
Amen. It's like listening in on a conversation, only more so. It's your own fault if you don't like what you hear. I think that with the cider day situation, Fluttershy expected Rainbow Dash to come and get her--just not that early, not through the window, and not to yank the covers off her.
You know, I was wondering about this. Aside from the more lurid possibilities, there's also the possibility that Discord might think that since Rainbow is another mare, it "doesn't really count."
EDIT: Also, on Pinkie's basic neotany: personal headcanon time, but I think Cheese is very aware of her emotional youth and very careful about hurting her for that reason. The irony being, of course, that both chronologically and emotionally, he's not much older himself! I always thought that the deep "Cheese. Cheese Sandwich," and the "little fillies" stuff is the voice he puts on to sound like a very mature and very masculine pony, whereas the tone you hear in "If you wanna be the life of the party" is his natural voice--a tenor.
4474531
Yep. He's not even exploiting Fluttershy. He's treated her with love, friendship and respect. I'm not saying he's perfect -- he has various flaws -- but none of them involve any sort of cruelty or contempt for Fluttershy. Quite the contrary.
Yes. All he could become by staying in the situation would be a victim -- or hostage. And his continued presence might either enrage Discord into a rash attack or -- worse -- tempt him into a cunning one.
Look at it from Fluttershy's point of view. When she was sixteen, her encounter with Nosey convinced her that she was both immoral and unlovable. Starting around four years later, she began slowly recovering from this, gaining confidence both in her own basic decency and her likeability.
She's spent most of this time in a sort of will-they-won't-they half-sexual lesbian romantic relationship with Rainbow Dash, which between her own shyness and Rainbow's combination of protectiveness and romantic obliviousness has never gotten beyond, basically, making out. And Rainbow has a very weak sex drive.
Fluttershy actually has a strong sex drive and relatively few inhibitions once she decides to trust somepony enough that way. She's just never been anything but frustrated by this combination, because Nosey made her afraid of stallions and the only mare she's ever really been interested in that way is Rainbow, who doesn't really want to make love to her that badly, but rather simply be a very physically-affectionate friend.
The next thing that happens to her is that Celestia tells her, essentially, that it's vital to the security of the Realm and the whole world to be Discord's, well, assigned friend. Being Fluttershy, she's actually charismatic and nice enough to pull this off. She finds herself loving him, maybe being on the brink of falling in love with him -- but Discord is also utterly terrifying.
We are talking about the being who twisted and tormented her whole paternal race, who used to be the Flutter Ponies. He's what the Changelings are hiding from, even though they've half-forgotten this after 1500 years of his imprisonment and have mostly just become terrified of everything not a 'ling of their own Hive. He's a genocidal maniac, even if his alignment has been starting to drift toward good -- lately.
And while Fluttershy almost always gets her own way, with everypony and everything (it's part of her larger Talent) she's not sure what she really wants here. So what she does with Discord, basically, is show him her cutest and nicest side, save when he behaves badly -- and he wants to make her happy so he behaves better and better when he's around her.
So they've been starting to get a little bit cuddly and sometimes she'll fall asleep with him, and he's utterly entranced by her. But she's not going to make the first move, and Discord is terrified that if he does that she'll hate him, because there's a side of Discord that actually wants to be loved but doesn't have the first notion of how to get love by any means other than threatening others -- which doesn't actually work all that well, as his Voice of Reason is about to (contemptuously and sarcastically) point out to him.
What Fluttershy has done is make herself what amounts to Celestia's G- (or PG-) rated Honey Trap for Discord. And in a way that constantly teases her with intimacy, but she's not sure if making an explicitly-sexual approach to him would mean that he'd love her forever or go mad and turn her into something horrible
So here's Fluttershy, whose sexual desire has been growing as her fear of stallions has been waning, and she finds herself teamed up with Bulk in the Equestria Games relay race. And he's a stallion. And at first he's kind of annoying because he seems like a noisy jerk and he keeps literally falling on her, but she's nice to him because she has a job to do and kindness is one of Fluttershy's central personality traits.
And she finds out as she gets to know him that he's not really a jerk, just really nervous about competing in an athletic field that may not be his strong suit. She gets to talking to him and gets to know him as an individual, and she realizes that he's actually a pretty sweet guy. In some ways the inverse of her but from similar motives -- he gets nervous in social situations, doesn't know what to say, so he just shouts enthusiastically and hopes that other ponies will accept that as a response.
So to her surprise -- her and a stallion find themselves becoming friends. She finds out that he's not so scary, he doesn't want to hurt her or pretend to be her friend just to have sex with her then disappear, he genuinely seems to like her for who she is. Admire her, in fact. And a hope that she gave up on eight years ago rekindles in her heart.
The time scale (by my chronology) is relevant here. The teams are picked sometime around "Flight to the Finish" (July 1504). She first makes friends with Bulk about a month later, in "Rainbow Falls" (August 1504). "Equestria Games" takes place around three months later (November 1504).
Now, in "Rainbow Falls," she makes friends with Bulk. You can plainly see that -- at the start of the episode she finds him annoying but is trying not to let on to avoid hurting his feelings, while by the end she is behaving solicitously to him, being silly with him, even mildly flirting with him.
And in "Equestria Games," she's very clearly interested in him sexually. Look at that first scene with them on the train. She's sitting on his barbell in a position where he cannot help but notice certain of her physical attributes, and she can do the same thing regarding him.
Now, nudity is normal in Equestria, and it's clothing that they find erotic (semi-canon, the show won't talk about this but notice some of the fashion designs and how they are worn). But there seems to be a general social rule that you don't flaunt yourself that way at another Pony unless you are pretty seriously flirting. Note the tail positions in some scenes. Note in particular the (much subtler) flirting Rarity engages in when she's recruiting male help for some project.
So, sometime between August and November 1504 Fluttershy cements her friendship with Bulk, and maybe they start going a bit beyond just being friends. I don't know when they actually start having sex (my story of course assumes that they do at some point) but the time Discord discovers what's happening was probably not their first time together. One likely possibility is that they do so either soon before or soon after the Equestria Games, because Fluttershy is heavily flirting with Bulk in public on that train care, and OOC Is Serious Business.
Though it's actually not implausible. Fluttershy is outrageously flirting with Bulk on that train in utter exuberant joy at the fact that she finally has a special somepony, that a stallion finally really cares for her, something she's probably imagined to be impossible (*). Look at the look on her face as she rides that barbell. She is utterly happy. And Fluttershy can be quite extroverted in the rare moments in which she is that happy. (This is why I think they may have consummated their love before that train ride).
So it's not actually that sudden. Sudden by Fluttershy's normal incredibly-shy standards, sure. But then, when a dam breaks, it tends to break all at once.
Precisely. As the Voice of Reason is going to point out to him. In her usual cold and intellectual manner.
Exactly.
Fluttershy's mistake was not remembering that Discord does this sort of thing, and realizing the implication that her cottage was about the worst place for a tryst with Bulk.
But then she's still relatively young (24) in love with a stallion who loves her back for the first time in her life, and she's really disconnected from most Equestrian social norms, Pegasus or otherwise, because she's been living as a semi-hermit for half her life. As I said, she's fairly inexperienced in every sense of the word, sexually and socially.
(*nods*) That too. Plus, he sort of likes Rainbow Dash, as he sort of likes all the other members of the Mane Six. They're fun to play with. And he also knows that Fluttershy's romantic friendship / semi love affair thing dates back to long before he met Fluttershy, let alone became her friend. So he doesn't perceive her as an "intruder."
Yes -- I noticed that in your Cheese Pie stories, they kind of come off as two kids in their early teens falling in love with each other, though they're obviously more in their early twenties chronologically speaking. And I think that this makes perfect sense.
Pinkie in my fanon is attracted to two males in particular -- Big Mac and Cheese Sandwich. But Big Mac she relates to as sort of a younger version of her (step) father's emotional type, which means she really likes him but it's not all that romantic/sexual (though it could have become that in time). Cheese Sandwich she sees as her soul-mate, and barring the discovery of some terrible tanit in his character or the occurrence of some awful tragedy, she's very likely to marry him. Which means that Big Mac will wind up being her good friend, which is okay since that's basically what Big Mac sees himself as regarding her anyway.
Oh and yes -- Ponies who notice Pinkie's neoteny tend to feel protective toward her, unless they are rather nasty Ponies indeed.
===
(*) Yes, she's incredibly beautiful in canon. But being beautiful is no guarantee that one really believes one is beautiful.
4474810 I'm not sure that Bulk and Fluttershy are at quite that level on the train, but she is clearly comfortable with him. Even much earlier, in Rainbow Falls, she's giggling at the muscle thing and running after him when he gets a hoof to the face. A viewer doesn't have to see this with shipping goggles, but since usually my response to a Ship Tease is "oh, gah" and not squeals of delight, when I see it at all, it's probably deliberate. And I definitely agree that:
That's kind of what I meant by "things move more quickly than you think they will." If a romance has been at a slow boil for months, where the parties are becoming friends and not really sure of the other's romantic interest, the line can be scary to cross--BUT when it's done, the acceleration can happen seemingly suddenly, because most of the reasons for delay don't apply, if that makes sense. And I didn't get the impression from the story that this was the first time they'd been together.
Oh, and on Pinkie and Cheese: Yeah, that's about right. There's a lot of naivete going on. It makes them fun to write. In EG, where I do have to nail down an age, I place them at about 16-17 years old--but the creators of that have engaged in a bit of age shenanigans there, including making Fluttershy the same age as Pinkie, and Babs Seed older than Applejack!
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It could have started in the Crystal City (exotic and romantic setting, they'd just gotten a Silver together and were really happy about that). Or after they got back. They're already obviously feeling emotionally very close on the ride in to the Games, though.
Actually, thinking about this makes me want to do a romance fic about how they courted. It's probably a really warm and fuzzy story, mostly. But I really shouldn't start anything like that until I finish Divine Jealousy and the Voice of Reason and Dragonshyness.
Oh yes. I didn't have the heart to inflict that on Fluttershy.
"Yay! I've finally found love! What could go wrong now?"
POOF!
"Discord?"
Nope, nope, nope. Too cruel.
Yes, plus they're all high school age in that world, while we know that the Mane Six would all by now be too old, and the CMC are really more like junior high school age at the most.
Given the time frame you've set this, I wonder if you're envisioning this as kind of a setup for the betrayal in Twilight's Kingdom. I mean, if you're following canon, we know that Discord won't annihilate Bulk, he won't do anything that will make Fluttershy hate him forever... but that he will, in the near future, decide he wants to trade Fluttershy's friendship for a "friendship" that makes him feel powerful and dangerous and free to do what he wants, rather than a friendship that constantly involves compromising his own desires. And feeling as if Fluttershy has betrayed him, even though they reconciled and resumed their friendship, might be the kind of motive that would lead him to do that.
It would also explain why the Mane 6 were ready to forgive him so easily. If Discord out of nowhere decides, la la la, hey Tirek has a good offer!, the way it looks in canon... how could they possibly ever really trust him again? But if they know that he was hurt by Fluttershy's relationship with Bulk and that it did damage to their friendship... it makes it a lot less likely that, after a true reconciliation once Discord has seen what real betrayal looks like, Discord would ever make that decision again. It puts it into a context that makes it more understandable, though not acceptable, and if they can understand his motives as something that are not likely to reoccur, they can more easily begin to trust him again afterward.
4474531
Is Cheese older than Pinkie at all? She inspired him to get his cutie mark, which means he was markless when she was in Ponyville already setting up parties. I thought Cheese is actually younger than Pinkie, for that reason. Just better at faking maturity. :-)
4476858 Actually, that works, too. You'd be amazed at how many writers conceive him as considerably older and more sophisticated than Pinkie, which breaks my brain. I suspect that because people see Pinkie as the youngest or the second-youngest of the Mane Six, they look at a seemingly fully adult itinerant pony and assume "oh, he's older than she is." But since he's a colt when he meets her, he can't be a lot older, if he's older at all. She's still a filly. It puts them in the same age bracket, which is the important bit. I tend to think of him as a late bloomer: a short pudgy little blank flank who is about to have one heck of a growth spurt in more ways than one.
It only really matters at all in an EG fic, I think, where age is a thing. It's convenient for me to write it so that he is a senior and she's a junior, for my own purposes. As far as I know, I'm the only one writing EG Cheese, because if any character could jazz that up, it would have to be Cheese. But it wouldn't worry me to see it written differently.
4476847
You hit the nail on the head. This is meant as canon filler to explain some aspects of Twilight's Kingdom -- Discord's Face-Heel Turn (he's miffed at Fluttershy), his subsequent regrets (just because he's mad at her doesn't mean he's actually stopped loving her), and his forgiveness by the Mane Six (they are pissed at him for what he did, but are also aware that it was more like a temper tantrum than a calculated betrayal).
I got the idea when I realized that "Equestria Games" implied Bulk and Fluttershy were either lovers or close to consummating their love, and that the episode right after that is the one in which Discord betrays them. So I put two and two together and got five, because that's what Discord set it to today.
And yes ... our comments crossed.
4476932
Cheese Sandwich has probably been in many more routinely dangerous situations, with much less power and support, than has Pinkie. By which I mean that I doubt that Cheese has ever wound up fighting Dragons or insane gods or tyrants to save the world, but he's probably had to deal with hazards on the road. And without five super-powered friends backing him up. Though he has, basically, his own version of Pinkie's powers -- but not Granny Pie's training -- he's had to learn how to use his powers on his own.
4476932
Another interesting thing about Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich is that they are recapitulating the Pony culture of the Time of Extermination six thousand years ago, in microcosm. Pinkie's the sedentary mare, while Cheese might as well be her one-stallion Big Brother Herd.
*double space
"Swallowing his pride (it tasted like honeyed almonds)"
Huh. Pride is poisonous, I suppose.
Fluttercruel EXISTS IN THIS REALITY?! 0-0 :-( Oh boy. He just going to keep her in a coma forever?
Ironically in the pony pov verse, his cousin Nyarlathotrot is still on good terms with him.
I LOVE Discord struggling with his own brand of logic and his newfound sense of caring for others.