The Haven

by Original Usermane

Ickle Twilight's Pretty Princess Party

When Celestia raised the sun the next morning bright and early, Discord was, oddly enough, already up. Or, more accurately, he’d never gotten to sleep. He didn’t actually need sleep as often as normal ponies, and his sleeping schedule was chaotic to say the least, but it was still odd that he hadn’t slept at all. He’d spent the whole night telling himself off for letting that one awkward little comment slip. Hopefully she wouldn’t over-think it.

Fluttershy had, incidentally, decided to overlook it. It obviously didn’t mean anything, and it was a waste of time and energy to worry about it too much. So, when Discord came in to eat with her, she was acting completely normally, to both of their relief, and everything went back to normal. True to his word, Discord saw her off at the train station, blending in with a crowd of her critters that had all come along, as well. As soon as she and her friends were off, he saw the critters safely back to the cottage and then teleported to Canterlot, himself, since he wasn’t sure whether Celestia wanted him to report for work or not.

“Ah, Discord,” Celestia greeted. “I was hoping you’d come. The coronation is a bit last-minute, so I was wondering if you would help decorating the ball room.”

“Ooh, I’ve always wanted to-”

“You know what I meant,” Celestia said warningly. Discord sighed.

“Killjoy,” he muttered, but put up some decorations with a snap of his fingers.

“Thank you, Discord,” Celestia said, glancing around and nodding appreciatively.

“Am I supposed to stick around for the coronation, or should I make myself scarce?” Discord asked boredly, picking at his claws boredly.

“You’re welcome to stay, as long as you can avoid causing trouble,” Celestia warned.

“Who, me?” Discord asked, conjuring himself a halo. “I’ll be the epitome of good behavior. I’ll even put on a clever disguise so my sheer spectacularosity won’t frighten any of your little subjects.”

With an overly dramatic flash of light and poof of smoke, he shrank down into a pony disguise, with his eyes, horns, wings, and tooth as the only indications of who he actually was. He summoned a mirror and gazed at his reflection admiringly.

“Who knew I’d make such a handsome stallion?” he purred, striking a pose and winking at his reflection. Celestia made a face and held back a bit of bile. “I suppose I’ll have to cover the wings and horn, though. They’re a bit of a giveaway…” He summoned a top hat and tailcoat that covered his oddness nicely. “There, now I’m all dressed up for ickle Twilight’s pretty princess party.”

“We’ll take the day off from work for the coronation, but we’re going to fall behind if we keep doing this, so I’ll expect you tomorrow to get back on track,” Celestia said.

“How you always manage to have such a long list of menial tasks for me, Celestia, I’ll never know,” Discord sighed. “Are simple construction tasks really the best thing you can think of to do with my abundant supply of magic? Seriously, why am I not fixing a hunger epidemic or creating shelter for the homeless or something?”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Well, as much as you know I hate leaving you alone in the castle, I have to leave to greet Twilight and her friends at the train station,” Celestia said, turning to leave. “Don’t break anything.”

“Forget that, I’m coming with you!” Discord said, trotting to catch up. “I can’t wait to see the look on Fluttershy’s face when she sees me. I saw her off at the station in Ponyville, so I doubt she was expecting me to come.”

“Don’t let the others notice you, though. Your disguise is good enough that you won’t attract attention to yourself, but these ponies will be able to recognize your eyes and tooth if they get a good look at you,” Celestia warned.

“I don’t see why it matters. I doubt they’ll piece together that I’m living with Fluttershy if they see me at a train station in Canterlot with you supervising. They do all know that you’ve been exploiting my magic, you know, even if you haven’t told them the details. Or at least they should know, if they remember anything from what you told them when you asked them to reform me,” Discord reminded.

“I want this coronation to go off without a hitch, Discord. And as well as you get along with Fluttershy, you do not have that same relationship with the others, and your presence would only cause problems.”

“Well it’s nice to know what you think of me,” Discord sniffed in mock hurt. Celestia rolled her eyes, too used to his antics to take him seriously.

Within minutes of their arrival at the train station, the train from Ponyville pulled in and the six mares disembarked. Discord hung back to avoid their gaze, but he used his chaos magic to create a little butterfly version of himself, something he knew Fluttershy would recognize from the hedge maze debacle, and had it fly unobtrusively in front of her face. It was too quick of a glimpse for her to see his face on the creature, but her love of the natural world prevailed and she followed it with her eyes. She had just noticed the odd features of the insect in question when it landed on the brim of pony-Discord’s hat and he winked at her. She shot him a confused and curious look, but he only grinned at her, since there wasn’t any way to explain without her friends noticing.

The girls were all whisked away to be dressed up for the ceremony, so Discord left and waited in the grand hall, watching the other ponies slowly trickle into the room and mill about. Finally, Princess Celestia led her sister, niece, student, and student’s friends up to the front of the room. Discord watched boredly until he caught sight of Fluttershy, at which point he became much more interested in the proceedings. ‘She’s… beautiful...’ He was glad that Fluttershy was too busy watching the coronation to look for him in the crowd, because he was unabashedly staring. He supposed he’d always known that she was attractive for a pony. She still had pictures lying around from her brief stint as a model (which he had most certainly not duplicated and kept in his room), but seeing it first-hand was… different.

He hadn’t even noticed that the ceremony was over until the mare he’d been staring at followed the others out to mingle with the crowd and was lost from view. The ponies in the room filtered outside, but Discord stayed behind, lurking in a corner to wait for the others to come back in.

The Ponyville girls passed without even glancing in his direction, but Celestia hung back and looked over her shoulder at him.

“And here I was worried you would cause trouble,” she said with a smirk. “You really should learn to keep your daydreaming under wraps, Discord.”

“Stop reading my thoughts!” Discord demanded heatedly. “Is nothing sacred!?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell her,” Celestia said, grinning. Since she’d grown accustomed to the draconequus’s presence, she’d discovered the joys of messing with him. “Are you going to see them off?”

“I suppose. Keep up tradition. I may even take the train back with them,” Discord mused. “If I shrunk down I could hide in Fluttershy’s mane. Her critters do it all the time.”

“Then I’ll say farewell. I’ll see you tomorrow, Discord,” Celestia said, and left.

“Yeah, yeah,” Discord said, rolling his eyes. He turned into his normal self again and teleported the hallway outside Fluttershy’s changing room. She came out a few minutes later, out of the dress and ready to head home.

“Discord!” she exclaimed. “I was wondering where you’d gone off to! Did you come to the coronation?”

“I did. I disguised myself as a pony, as you saw,” Discord said, turning back for an instant with a bow. “I thought I’d take the train back with you, though.” He shrunk himself down and burrowed into her hair. She gasped. “It’s cozier in here than I expected,” he mused, poking his head out. “Very roomy. You should consider renting it out, make a nice little side business out of it.” Fluttershy giggled.

“What’s funny?” Rainbow Dash’s voice came from behind. Discord hurriedly ducked back into Fluttershy’s mane as the timid mare turned around.

“Oh… um, nothing,” Fluttershy said lamely.

“Well, come on, then! We’ve gotta catch the train back home so that Pinkie can throw that alicorn party that she was so excited about,” Rainbow instructed.

“Oh, okay,” Fluttershy agreed.

Comments

[Water Lilly]

D'awww... *boom!*

Dammit! Not again!

[taterforlife]

This chapter was nothing but cuuuuuute and I loved every bit of it, enough that I googled Fluttershy's coronation dress. So cute! I like the development of whatever friendship it is Tia and Discord have (as I friendship him with her, but ship him with Fluttershy). You and I seem to like him in the same way! :D
Favorite Discord Lines:

“I’ll be the epitome of good behavior. I’ll even put on a clever disguise so my sheer spectacularosity won’t frighten any of your little subjects.”

“Is nothing sacred!?”

HAHAHA! Love it. He'd totally say those things.

[samstermlp]

If anyone reads this chapter and does not explode from cuteness, there is something seriously wrong with them!!!!