The Sum of Her Parts

by IsabellaAmoreSirenix

Happiness is a Flower Watered by Tears

"She's not happy."

Discord looked up at the distant speck of gold in the sky that was the chariot bringing the princess back to Canterlot. One would think that such an important figure would always stay in the center stage of life's opera, but like all things in this world, she gradually became smaller and smaller, until the rest of the big, empty world poofed her out of sight, out of existence all together.

"Who, the princess? And… why are you staring at the sky with Rarity's opera glasses?"

Without even turning around to address the speaker, Discord expertly tossed the glasses over his shoulder and into a rabbit hole precisely on the opposite side of town from Carousel Boutique.

"Note to self," Discord thought, "ask Celestia for opera tickets. Don't phrase it like a date, though. That's important. Also, remember to not say thoughts out loud in front of ponies…" It was then that Discord had the remarkable spur of inspiration to down at Fluttershy.

Ponyfeathers.

"Umm, operas aren't very well known for making ponies happier," Fluttershy said. "But why would the princess be unhappy in the first?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Discord said dismissively. "Pretend you didn't hear anything."

His request only caused Fluttershy's doe-like eyes to widen further. "Discord, we're friends now," she reminded him, her voice soft and gentle. "You can tell me anything that's bothering you."

The draconequus squirmed under the intense power of Fluttershy's adorable expression. "Some other time, maybe, but not now. Please?" A small, dark part of him scowled. Here he was, justifying himself to a filly! Oh, how the mighty fall!

But perhaps some of the most valuable lessons can only be learned on earth.

Fluttershy gave him one last glance before turning around. "Alright. I don't expect you to trust me with everything right away. Why don't we go back to the cottage? The princess said it would take a day or two to prepare a room for you at the castle, so you can stay with me the night. Um, if that's okay with you, of course."

Discord shrugged. No reason to be fussy. He fell into step behind the pegasus, all the while trying to ignore the sideways glances the citizens of Ponyville were currently throwing him.

What, is it a crime to walk in this town? With a snap of his tail, he conjured up a chocolate milk puddle, causing an unsuspecting couple to slip and fall face-first in the dirt. Their limbs flailed about wildly like fish out of water as they tried to regain their bearings with little success.

Discord snickered. Sweet Eris, their faces!

"Stop laughing at me!" A voice from ages past echoed in his mind. "That wasn't funny!"

The mistrustful looks continued.

Crestfallen, Discord glanced at Fluttershy. Her eyes looked back at the struggling couple as she walked. Her mouth was turned down, yet she didn't say anything about it. Instead, she said, "Do you mind if we take a little detour before heading back? I need to help the animals by the beaver dam. The poor things are still terrified about what happened earlier."

Discord nodded. Anything to get away from these ponies.

The spirit of Chaos let his mind go on autopilot as they walked towards the outskirts of Ponyville. After all, there wasn't much to capture his interest anyway. House, garden, road, house, garden, road. Wash, rinse, repeat. All around him, ponies were walking to the bakery, to the market, to the theater, just as they would tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. He could see their hoofprints permanently indented in the road, mementos of their endless journey back and forth along life. Always moving yet never getting anywhere. Caged hamsters running on a spinning wheel. How boring.

"I didn't think a spirit of Chaos would find anything complex about a creature like me. I'm amazed that you don't find me mind-numbingly dull, always doing the same thing every day."

But she's different, Discord thought. She didn't mind some Chaos. Everypony else just goes along with what they're told to do, and they're… happy about it.

He turned to look at Fluttershy. Are you really happy with your life, Fluttershy? Surely you can't be happy with having to resolve the problems of stupid animals?

"Of course I'm not, Discord," Celestia said as she stretched beneath the broad oak tree. "I'd prefer it if there weren't any problems to resolve at all so I could be happy here with you, but life doesn't work that way. But when I help them, it's not really happiness I feel, more like…" She tossed her head back and smiled at the few drops of sunlight dripping through the canopy. "Oh, it's hard to describe. It's a wonderful feeling though. I'll have to bring you to Day Court one day, so you can see for yourself. Sometime after my coronation, yes, I think that would be lovely…"

Discord studied Fluttershy carefully. There was a drag, a reluctance to her hooves, right? No, that was just the muddy road. Her head was hung low, surely, wondering if she could turn back? Yes, but the timid creature always had her head down.

Confound these ponies, Discord fumed. He could dismantle them, observe all their parts in isolation, but nowhere among that paltry sum would he find the force that moved them, that drove them, that compelled them.

"Discord, could you please stop?" Fluttershy asked. "You're making it rain lemonade."

Discord looked up to see that his idle magic had created a little entourage of yellow clouds floating around his head. Instead of making them disappear, however, he had them coalesce into one cloud, which floated into the already overcast sky above the woodland. A little surprise for a certain lazy pegasus once she stopped napping during cloud duty, Discord thought with glee.

He watched as lemonade spilled onto a meadow of copy-and-paste white daises. Like paint, each drop turned the drab petals bright orange or gaudy purple or shimmering rainbow or glittery glitter. No two flowers were the same anymore. Discord smiled.

Would Fluttershy notice if he pushed the cloud back to Ponyville? Nothing harmful, just an extreme makeover! Everypony liked those! Maybe the animals would like one as well…

"Discord?" Fluttershy spoke up. "We're here."

The draconequus hadn't even realized it. He usually expected forests to be alive with chirps and growls. Now, it was as silent as it was when he lived in the Everfree. The déjà vu made him shudder.

"Where are the animals?" Discord asked.

"Oh, they're hiding," Fluttershy answered as she flew up to a hole in the nearest tree. "Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel?" she called. "You can come out now. It's safe, I promise."

"Do they always behave like this?"

"Oh, no, not at all! They've handled Ponyville's disasters quite well, actually. In fact, the last time I can remember this happening was…" She bowed her head, shielding her face under a curtain of pink hair. "Well, when you were last here."

Discord remained silent and watched as she repeated the same procedure in other little hidey-holes, until her persistent coaxing had reaped its rewards in the form of a group of small woodland critters all huddled together and trembling.

And all had their eyes on him.

"Now, I know that what happened with Mr. Beaverton Beaverteeth and his family was upsetting to you all," Fluttershy said, "but I assure you, nothing like that is going to happen again. Discord's our friend now, and he's promised to not hurt anypony or any animal ever again. Isn't that wonderful, my little friends?"

A bird flew off to find the hiding family of crickets.

"Well fine, be that way," Discord said, sticking his tongue out at them. "I don't need you anyway."

"Now Discord, don't be like that," said Fluttershy. "Don't you want to get along? Please, just a nice little apology, and this can all be over."

The spirit of chaos scoffed. "Apology? Apology for what?"

The quivering sea of animals parted to reveal a group of beavers swimming to shore.

"Oh."

"Discord," Fluttershy said, "these are the beavers you controlled. Don't you have anything to say to them?"

Discord thought. He pondered, mused, and cogitated. He placed his claw to his chin and scrutinized the angry little water rodents. He could see the words coming together masterfully, ones that could fix this entire situation, as muses from the sky rained down a deluge of inspiration upon him.

Then he drenched them in lemonade rain.

"Haha, surprise!" he shouted gleefully. "Come now, don't be such sourpusses! Let's let bygones be bygones!"

A mother beaver covered her son's ears as the beavers screeched.

"Well!" Discord exclaimed, aghast, placing his paw to his chest. "Someone's certainly under a dark cloud today!"

"Discord…" Fluttershy warned.

"What? Who doesn't like lemonade, for crying out loud! Those beavers are just being stubborn, I tell you, stubborn!"

"Oh honestly," she muttered, a dark look passing over her sweet face. Then she turned to the beavers. "Please, you must understand that Discord's still working on how to interact nicely with other creatures. But I promise, he doesn't mean any harm! Won't you just accept him and give him a chance?"

This time, all the other animals joined in squabbling their complaints about the draconequus to Fluttershy. It would have been a wonderful sort of chaos, Discord thought, if it weren't too screechy. And honestly, were they really not going to let the golf course incident go? Come to think of it, he wondered if that bunny had ever been able to cough up that tomato…

Finally, Fluttershy had had enough. "Quiet!" she shouted, her little voice magically soaring over the din, which dribbled down to some scattered murmuring as they all turned to the pegasus. "All of you! I can't believe this. Is that any way to treat a new friend? You trust me, don't you? Well, I trust Discord. So can you all please just try to get along with him? He… he can be really funny! You know, sometimes…"

When the angry chattering started up again, Discord conjured up a floating park bench to lounge on, along with a generous helping of popcorn. Their squabble was quite the entertaining show, but it could easily grow stale. How did Fluttershy manage to do this day in and day out?

Yet as he listened further, he noticed a shift in the animals' voices. With what little of squirrel and rabbit language he had bothered to pick up for a thousand years (the extent of his vocabulary being, "Granite tastes terrible!" and "What's wrong with its face?" all in a terribly pitched Canterlot accent), Discord had been able to follow the babble for only so long. However, with a few repeated phrases, he was able to realize that the animals weren't complaining about him anymore. They were complaining about Fluttershy!

The tears in her eyes confirmed his suspicions. A surge of defense for the mare rose up within him like a wave crashing on the shore. The nerve of them! After all she put up with from them, they were just going to turn on her?

Without even thinking, Discord gently prodded Fluttershy with his tail, moving her behind him. "Just forget them, Fluttershy," he said. She squeaked in fright at the ferocity of his voice. "If they're going to be like that, then just leave them. They don't deserve your help."

The pegasus slightly shook her head. "Discord, it's fine. Just let them get their frustration out."

But he wasn't listening to her anymore. Rounding on the animals, he said, "You know, she doesn't have to be this nice to you! In fact, she doesn't need to do anything for you! You'd be alone, and then where would you be, hmm? You lazy things probably couldn't even manage gathering food for yourselves!"

"Please stop…" she whispered.

"You could at least make her burden easier! Because of a stupid picture on her flank, she's stuck with you for the rest of her life!"

"I'm not stuck with them, and they're not a burden," Fluttershy objected. "They're my friends, and I enjoy being with them."

"Why?" he demanded. "What is it about going through the same ordeal every single day could possibly bring you enjoyment? Why can't they leave you alone, so you can live your life in peace?"

By this point, Discord had let his powers run haywire. Tree trunks were turned to blueberry pie, leaves became neon glowsticks, and grass was transformed to quills. All around, the woodland had become a world of chaos.

One by one, some of the younger critters began to scurry away, tripping over rock candy in their haste.

"Wait!" cried Fluttershy as she stretched out her hoof to them. "Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"

Crushed under the weight of their confused gazes, Fluttershy collapsed to the ground and started sobbing, a quiet but heart-jerking sobbing. Not because of the animals, Discord realized. Because of him.

"Fluttershy?" He reached out to touch her shoulder, only to have her jerk away and bury her face in her hooves. "I… I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry, I truly didn't."

When she didn't respond, he turned to face the animals, their overall mood a cocktail of anger, pity, guilt, and bewilderment. They huddled closer together, as if the discordant wilderness were closing in on them like walls. There was no laughter, no smiling. No happiness.

Drowning in that sea of wide-eyed faces, Discord had never felt so alone.

"Look, Mr. Beaver What's-Your-Face, I'm… I'm… I'm s-sorry, okay?" Discord said, the apology sour in his mouth. "I didn't mean to turn you and your family into a mob of raging sociopaths. Okay, well, I did at the time, but I don't want to do it again."

Fluttershy's ears perked up.

"I know you don't trust me," he continued, "but for now, can we at least try to get along? I don't like seeing that pegasus cry any more than you do."

Mr. Beaverton Beaverteeth glanced first at the draconequus, then at Fluttershy's beseeching eyes, and back again. Motioning for a path to be cleared, he, with the rest of his family following close behind, waddled ever so slowly and cautiously up to Discord. There he deliberated for a moment, unsure of whether to take Discord's paw, but one more watery-eyed stare from Fluttershy won him over. The two shook hands.

"Excellent!" Discord exclaimed. With a snap, the woodland returned to normal, a floating handkerchief wiped Fluttershy's eyes, and a bouquet of rainbow flowers appeared in his paw.

"My sincerest apologies," he said, holding out the flowers to the beavers. Before the parents could accept, the youngest child, entranced by the vibrant hues, reached out and took it.

Then a tulip spat a jet of water in her face.

There was a moment of silence, in which all the critters watched the young beaver in terror, waiting for the moment when she would keel over or scream in fright.

Instead, she laughed.

The grin on her face was infectious as Discord smiled right along with her. "You like that, don't you?" he said, half to amuse her, and half to confirm it himself. A playful spark in his eyes, he turned the water dripping from her face into bubbles, which the tulip slurped up and exhaled into a single large one. The bubble engulfed the beaver entirely, only to burst into an explosion of rainbow-colored water.

By that point, her uncontrollable laughter touched the animals, whose worries were finally soothed. Excited chattering filled the air as some of them scurried by Discord to watch the spectacle. The rest crowded around Fluttershy to voice apologies for their behavior and showers of reassurances, so much so that she could help but giggle.

"Oh, it's alright, I forgive you all," she said, looking down on them all with the fondness of a mother. "We're all friends now, and that what matters. Everything's back in order."

Order, huh? Discord thought to himself. As he watched the laughing beaver, a warm, buttery emotion stirred in his heart. So this is what it's like. It's far less lonely than I imagined.

He glanced over at Fluttershy, and the beautiful smile on her face, glowing all the more radiant from the smiles of the animals around her. So that's what she does this for. The smiles. All those tears seem like an awfully big fuss though, but... perhaps it's worth it, to gain a friend.

Animals as friends? Check. Ponies as friends? Well, one had been willing to change her mind about him, and Discord liked to see the glass of chocolate milk half air-filled. And Celestia? Well… perhaps she could change too.

As he thought those words, a team of weather pegasi began busting the clouds overhead, allowing Celestia's sun to break through. As her healing sunbeams fell to the earth, Discord witnessed the orderly light purging the chaotically colored field of daisies, like paint being washed away in the rain. Soon, all that remained was a sea of pure white.

Except for one. There, in the meadow's heart.

A single, sunset pink daisy.

The little beaver plucked up the flower and offered it to the draconequus with shining eyes and a warm smile. Discord took the present gratefully. Far more gratefully than he should have.

As the spirit of chaos let a blissful contentedness sink into him, a single yet persistent thought nagged at him. Celestia's sunbeam shower made his smile drip off his face, and he absentmindedly began to pluck the petals, all the while murmuring:

"She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves me not. She loves me, she loves…"

---

Another?

"You took another lover? From an alternate dimension?" Discord repeated. It sounded too crazy, even by his standards. It was a prank; it had to be! Yet as he let the stack of whipped cream pies fall from his paw and splatter onto Celestia's bedroom floor, he knew there would be no pranking today.

Celestia nodded as she rubbed her puffy red eyes. "I was perfectly within my rights to," she snapped, "after what happened between us."

"And Constance let you keep that up for a thousand years?" The draconequus raised an eyebrow in skepticism.

"Yes, because despite whatever lies you were fed in Eris, Order is not cruel!" the princess screamed, before glancing towards the bedroom door where her guards were stationed. She dropped the volume, but not the anger. "Constance is only obligated to preserve order in this dimension; she was more than willing to allow me my freedom in another."

"So it was you who loved him," Discord said slowly, "not her?"

"Yes," she said, glaring up at him. "And unlike a certain spirit of chaos, that King Sombra accepted me for who I was and didn't try to change me. I found a stable love. One that would last."

Discord felt his hands clench into fists, his nails imprinting crescent moons in his palms. "And I'm sure it was the perfect romance for you," he said, anger seeping into his voice. "Perfectly orderly, perfectly righteous, perfectly kind."

"He was everything I could have dreamed of," Celestia declared coldly.

"And is that the kind of love you want?" Discord asked her. "Somepony who never argues with you, who only tells you what you want to hear? If you do, then you're even more of a fool than I thought, Celestia. If you want that kind of love, go look at a mirror and talk to yourself."

"You know what? I would love to do that, except that mirror's gone!" Celestia rose from her vulnerable position on her bed to her full height, wings extended with the wrath of the sun as she screamed, not caring if all of Equestria heard her. "He's been gone for months, lost himself to darkness and despair, all because of my mistakes and foolishness! And still, he sacrificed everything he had to save me, because by Faust he loved me a thousand times more than you ever could!"

Then she levitated a vase of multicolored flowers from her nightstand and with a pained howl, smashed it on the ground in front of her, sending glass flying.

Discord slowly backed away, shocked numbing every movement, even the pain as he tread upon the glass shards. "Celestia…" he said as the water from the vase gushed forth, drowning the bent flowers and widening into an endless river that separated her from the draconequus.

"But now I know the truth," she whispered. "Love is a curse. No matter what joy you or he brought me, it was never worth this."

Celestia smirked ruefully at his horrified expression. "Not laughing now, are you? I'm done with your games, Discord. I won't let you control me anymore. To think I thought you would treat me as anything other than your puppet. You never cared for me. Tirek proved that. I was a fool to trust you, to love you. My mother was right."

Discord didn't say anything in his defense. There was no taking back those words he said. It was too late. He just closed his eyes in resignation. Even when he felt the literal heat of Celestia burning magenta orbs glaring at him, he didn't open them. He didn't want his last memory of those gorgeous eyes to be filled with loathing. He loathed himself enough. There was no need to hurt himself anymore.

But then her words hurt even more.

"Get out of my life, you monster."

Discord learned an important lesson that day: ponies never really changed.

"Goodbye to you too, Celestia."

Celestia winced as she heard the door softly swung shut, leaving her alone. But as the saying goes, when one door closes, another door opens.

"You have questions, don't you, poor child?" asked a voice behind the princess. "Then lend me your ear, crooked flower. I have answers."

---

~~~

Present Day

~~~

Discord watched with empty eyes as mundane chamomile tea was poured into a normal china cup. "We were always rough like that, even after a thousand years," he concluded. He sagged in his chair, as if the serene ambiance of the pasture were draining his spirits. He contemplated the tea in front of him for a brief moment, but when no chaotic whimsy inspired him, he decided to just guzzle it down normally. How terribly boring.

Though there should have been nothing but sweetness, Discord grimaced. Everything tasted bitter now.

Fluttershy placed a thoughtful hoof to her chin as she set the teapot down and passed him the sugar. "But what about when the princess wanted you to be reformed?" she asked.

"Oh, Celestia's always been too merciful for her own good," Discord said with a dismissive wave of his paw. "She still hoped there could have been a chance with us again."

Discord remembered how those lonely eyes following him through the castle had gradually become more hopeful, a subtle shift that only those closest to her could see. And he too had experienced a change in himself as he spent more and more time in the castle. A thousand years ago, Discord had believed Celestia's princess duties were nothing but tedious rituals, but watching her in action was another thing entirely.

Her dignified airs did not interfere with her inherent compassion as she tended to Equestria's needs. Princess Celestia, he had realized, was not a different mare from the Celestia he had loved more than any other pony. Nor was she a slave to her subjects' demands as he had feared. Her care for her ponies was genuine, her joy in their joy just as true, and Discord had started to understand why Celestia had been willing to sacrifice herself for a thousand years to ensure their wellbeing.

"There was never any romantic love between us though, not after I broke out of my stone prison and almost disbanded your friends," he said. No, never love, even as his no longer antagonistic role towards her ponies had caused Celestia to open up more. Smiles in the hallways were more genuine, and responses towards his pranks were less annoyed. She had slowly lost the tense, brusque demeanor around him, had lowered her guard enough to let him in at times. He had even been able to make her laugh once, a bittersweet laughter that sent a tear rolling down her cheek.

'Friends' was not an apt word for them. There was too much distance between them for friendship, even though they had crossed that gap and much more long ago. Even though Discord had gained her trust…

Just like that, a pang of guilt struck Discord in the chest. "Maybe there could have been love again," he said, his head bent in shame, "if I hadn't betrayed her first."

Fluttershy's eyes softened, and she placed a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. "It's alright, Discord," she said. "We forgave you, remember? I'm sure the princess would like to as well, if she didn't have to appeal to the ponies in Canterlot."

Discord gave the kind pegasus a feeble smile. "Yes, you're right, Fluttershy. Better to kick one draconequus out of the city rather than have a full-scale riot against her and Lulu, no matter how wonderfully chaotic it would be."

"But it's only temporary, you know. Ponies just need to calm down about Tirek; Princess Celestia said you would be welcome back to the castle in a few months."

Discord gave her a pointed look. Even though what Celestia said was right, they both knew he wouldn't be returning to live with her again. "Fluttershy, there's no need to pity me. If I was really upset, I would have stolen Rarity's drama couch by now."

To prove his point, he transformed his chair into an exact replica of the couch, then lounged upon it casually while wearing a pair of shades. "See? I'm cool with it. I needed to get away from her anyway. The past few days were far too awkward for both of us."

Awkward didn't even cover it. Imagine bursting into somepony's bed chambers, ready to prank them with an arsenal of whipped cream pies, only to find them sobbing on the bed because… well, he didn't even want to think about it. He squeezed his eyes shut, as if to quell the rising memories, even as his gut twisted and his cheeks burned.

Discord opened his eyes as he felt a hoof brush against his shoulder. In the time he had spent reminiscing, Fluttershy had gotten up and was now sitting on the edge of the drama couch. "Discord… I'm so sorry. I'm sorry things had to end for you two like that."

"Mares. What can you do about them?" Discord shrugged off with a weak smile. Then he tenderly placed her hoof in his paw. "That's why I'm thankful for all you've done for me, Fluttershy. It's in times of struggle that I need a pony to rely on, and I'm grateful I can always turn to you. You really are a true friend."

Silence.

"…Wow, that does sound incredibly cheesy."

Fluttershy giggled at his remark. "You'll get used to saying it like the rest of us."

Discord conjured up a towering stack of pancakes. "It's amazing you ponies haven't destroyed the maple syrup business with your sappiness." He tilted his head to the side, examined the pancakes, then turned them alternating colors of Celestia's mane before digging into them with an alarming ferociousness.

Fluttershy's eyes softened in pity as he wolfed them down. "Discord…"

"What?" he asked, briefly looking up at her. "Rarity can eat tubs of ice cream as comfort food, so why can't I have my own coping preferences?"

Discord rolled his eyes as Fluttershy held her gaze. "Really, Fluttershy, I'll be fine. I've lived for a thousand years; I can cope with this. This is probably the best for both of us anyway. We could never have been together, not now." He set his fork down and looked at it with a strange melancholy. "You'd think immortality would mean eternal love, but that's not the way life works. We've changed too much for it to happen."

"You know, you remind me of her in some ways," he remarked. "Well, before all the craziness of other worlds caught up to us, that is."

"It's the mane, isn't it?" she asked, embarrassed, as she brushed a lock of it out of her eyes.

"Maybe that's part of it, but it goes a bit deeper. You have her same kindness, her openness. Both of you were willing to accept me when nopony else would. You cared for me like you do for your animals, just like she does for all of Equestria. That kind of all-encompassing love is hard to find. Maybe it would have worked out better for us if she had even an ounce of your bravery."

"What? No, but I'm not brave at all, especially not braver than the Princess! She's fought in battles over the fate of Equestria, while I'm still afraid of my own shadow."

The draconequus paused for a moment, tapping a talon thoughtfully against his chin. "Fluttershy, do you remember the day we first met?"

"Um, I don't know if that's the best way you want to start off with whatever you're going to say…"

Discord was suddenly all too aware of a certain warmness in his cheeks, coincidentally tinged the precise color of Fluttershy's mane. "What? No! Uh, Celestia, remember? Anyway, I'm talking about in the hedge maze, when I used my hypnosis on you and your friends. Fluttershy, you were the only one who wasn't swayed by my tricks and taunting, because I couldn't get to your weaknesses. Not to say that there weren't any, but that you knew about all of your flaws and accepted them as a part of who you are. Not many ponies can do that."

"Celestia certainly can't," he added with a snort. "She's too focused on being perfect, and for her, Order is perfection. She feels secure with it, knowing she'll never make a mistake or let anypony down. She's too scared to let go of the spirit of Order because she doesn't know who she'd be without it. That's the worst kind of control it can have, because it means she'll never fight back. She'll be a slave for the rest of her life, all because she's too scared to give herself control over her own destiny. She's afraid of her very self.

"Not to say she's a bad pony, though. It's just what she's been taught her whole life. She doesn't know any other way to live."

"Oh my," Fluttershy said, her eyes wide. "That's very sad."

"It is," Discord agreed as he ate a purple pancake, "but there's nothing I can do about it. If she doesn't want to fight it, if she wants to stay a puppet of Order, then nothing I can say will change it. The only pony who can set herself free is herself."

Fluttershy's eyes slightly narrowed. "It sounds like you're giving up on her."

"Hmm? What makes you think that?"

"Well, you told her goodbye," she said, "then you walked out on her. She knows you never want to see her again."

"Neither does she!" Discord said, growing defensive. "What else was I supposed to do? It's not my fault if she wants to be stubborn."

"But you could still be there for her," Fluttershy reasoned. "She needs you, even if she won't admit it, just like you need her."

"Sorry, but that's not happening. Even though her contract's over, she's not the Celestia I loved, and probably never will be. So why should I need her? I've had enough trouble dealing with her problems. No, I'm going to live a simple life as a spirit of chaos, mark my words. Everything I'll ever want is right here with me."

"Oh Discord…" Fluttershy sighed.

"Nope!" he said, brandishing a fork. "Not doing it! For once in my life I've made up my mind. All I need is you, a little chaotic freedom, and these pancakes. Ooh, there's even some parchment at the bottom. Yum!"

Fluttershy cocked her head to the side. "Why is there parchment?"

"Hmm?" Discord asked mid-chew. He looked down at his plate and found three half-eaten scrolls, all bearing the insignia of a six-pointed lavender star.

The royal seal of Princess Twilight Sparkle.

"That's funny," Discord said. "When did those get here?" They were mostly illegible now, but as Discord unrolled them, he was able to read through the bite marks and syrup splotches and make out a few key phrases from the very perturbed alicorn.

…Discord, Princess Celestia… out in three days. She's coming towards the Everfree. Can you and Flutter…

…going on, Discord? She said you would know. Can you please come to Canterlot and…

…me use the summoning spell if you… I'll have to teleport to…

And finally, the one that had appeared a few seconds ago:

I swear to the sun and the moon, if I find you singing in the shower again…

Discord didn't have time to finish reading the sentence when a burst of white light appeared above the table. It crackled and fizzled, giving off random sparks of energy, until it condensed into the form of one irritated Twilight Sparkle.

"Discord, I—!" At a great loss to ponykind, Discord was sure, those two words of her rant were all she managed to berate him with before she toppled over and crashed onto Fluttershy's tea set, sending china flying in every direction.

"Oh my goodness," Fluttershy said as she held out a hoof to steady Twilight. "Are you alright?"

The princess sighed. "No, Fluttershy, I'm not," she said before snapping at Discord. "Though I'd be a little bit better if a certain somepony were courteous enough to reply to my scrolls."

"Oh hello, Twilight Sparkle!" he waved cheerfully. "Didn't know you'd be the type who would crash parties! Care for some tea?"

Twilight's right eye twitched. "Discord," she began as she clambered down from the table in a most un-princessly fashion, "I'm not in the mood for games today."

The draconequus pouted. "I was trying to be friendly. Honestly, no need to sound like Celestia."

"Sorry," Twilight said, actually genuine. "It's just that I'm at the end of my rope here; there's not much more I can take."

"Oh, poor thing," Fluttershy sympathized. She held out a chair for Twilight, then proceeded to smooth out her frazzled mane like a doting mother. "What happened to you? Why didn't you come back from Canterlot?"

Twilight buried her face in her hooves. Fluttershy brushed her bangs from her eyes, revealing the dark bags under them, weighed down with tiredness. Yet her body trembled with a shaky energy, causing minor tremors that would make it impossible to rest. To keep from sobbing, she took uneven, ragged breaths that reeked of coffee. Twilight wasn't at the end of her rope; she was at the last atom of the last strand that was just about to come unwound from the last rope as it dangled from the highest spire of Canterlot Castle.

"There's no way I could have left Canterlot!" Twilight cried, her voice high-pitched in distress. "Not with what's been happening in the castle!"

"Shh, there, there," cooed Fluttershy, draping a wing around her. "Breathe, okay? Deep breaths, sweetie. Just tell us what's happened."

After a minute or so, Twilight sighed, her breathing now somewhat calmer. "Princess Celestia hasn't left her room in three days," she said. "She cancelled Day Court, and she wouldn't let anypony inside her chambers. She wouldn't even take food or water from the servants. At first everypony thought it was because something had happened with you, Discord, but that's definitely not it. She started muttering things in this weird language, one that doesn't exist according to my knowledge."

Discord's ears perked up. "Melodic, right? The language. It has this light, airy sound to it, right?"

"Yeah." Twilight cast him a confused look. "But occasionally there's a strange, guttural word that slips in."

His eyes popped out wide against his blanched face. "Th-This is all while she's in Canterlot, right?"

"Yes, it was, but she's not there now." Twilight chewed on her lip, and emotion plucked her vocal chords and made them tremble. "She left the city early this morning, just after raising the sun. She didn't take any of her guards with her; she warned them that anypony who tried to follow her would be charged with high treason against the crown. And when I tried to stop her, she…" Twilight took another deep breath. "She gave me this really sad look said she was going to the Everfree Forest to 'make things right again.' She said that Discord was right all along. Then she told me she would tr-trust me with looking after Luna because she l-loves her 'too d-deeply to let destiny h-hurt her even more.'"

The young princess let out a rattling sigh. "I'm scared for her, I really am, but I can't do anything about it. With Princess Celestia gone, I've had to keep Canterlot running. Ponies are panicking, rumors are flying, and I can't do anything about it, not when I don't know the truth myself. And Princess Luna isn't helping either; she's more freaked out than I am. She's cut short her meetings with the Saddle Arabian rulers to head back to Canterlot, but she won't be back for another few days—"

Discord, who had been listening with silent but growing horror, now leapt from his drama couch and incinerated his shades with his flaming eyes. "Wait, so Luna's not with her?!"

Something about Discord's livid red stare made Twilight scoot her chair back a good six inches. "No, she's not," she answered slowly, cautiously, gauging the rising anger and alarm in his crazed eyes. "Discord, do you know what's going—?"

"So, let me get this straight. Celestia is babbling in High Accordis and in Bedlam, has gone into the Everfree Forest, and Luna's not with her?"

Fluttershy placed a hoof on his arm. "Discord, just calm down—"

Discord shrugged her off and began pacing around the drama couch. In his distress, his chaos magic started acting up, making candy canes and bow ties spring up wherever he walked. "No, she can't be," he told himself. "There are rules to that deal, she knows that. She'd never be so stupid to think… unless…"

He turned his attention back to the two confused ponies. "Fluttershy, try to make Twilight less of a nervous wreck while I'm gone. Equestria can't have her like this, and if Celestia really is stupid enough to go through with this plan of hers, we'll most likely need Twilight more than ever."

"Stop it, Discord!" Twilight yelled as the light of Discord's teleportation started to glow around him. "What's happening to the princess?"

Discord looked down at her and said very, very seriously, "Your princess is about to get herself killed."