Friendship is Shining: Discord Days

by Hopeful_Ink_Hoof

Twilight Dreams

Twilight Sparkle -- fully grown mare, hero of Equestria, world-famous treasure hunter, and former apprentice of the Daring Do -- made her way through the ancient temple of Abtenauer. The walls glistened with moisture and were covered with thick patches of moss, some of which even glowed. Most of the light came from Twilight's own horn.

It had been a lot of hard work. Hours had been spent in numerous libraries, searching through books, tomes, and ancient manuscripts. Dozens of places -- cities, towns, villages, even remote little places that seemed to be nowhere -- were visited, seeking out clues and lesser artifacts that would help. Hundreds of ponies, griffons, minotaurs, and even zebras were interviewed, collecting direct experience and family tales.

Yes, Twilight had put a lot of work into it, but now it was going to be worthwhile. She had made her way to the ancient forests of The Gelderlands and towards the mountains. After hours of searching, she had found a cave entrance that looked far from naturally made. She had found the entrance to The Temple of Abtenauer.

Inside the subterranean temple, had managed to evade traps, solve puzzles, and make her way through labyrinthine tunnels. After hours, she had done it, Twilight Sparkle had found her way to the entrance of the temple proper.

Standing there, she let her gaze study the main room. Her horn continued to glow with magic, not only giving off light to see, but spreading out to search for runes or spells waiting for use. Finding no indication of either magical or mundane traps, Twilight made her way forward. She moved as quick as she could, leaping from stone to stone and holding a shield spell at the ready in case she was mistaken and set off a trap.

Excitement filled the young mare as she reached the base of the steps. Grinning widely, virtually buzzing with excitement, she started to climb. This was it. She was about to find The Idol of Abtenauer. An artifact that not only pre-date the founding of Equestria, but supposedly the first meetings of the three tribes. All but forgotten with little more than a few legends and rumors surrounding it. Whether or not the legends were true did not matter, at least not entirely. What mattered to Twilight was that something lost and forgotten was about to be recovered. She could just imagine what kind of information of pre-Equestrian history could be unlocked. Her first solo mission was about to be a success.

Twilight's excitement faded as soon as she reached the top of the pedestal. What she had found was most assuredly not The Idol of Abtenauer.

"Really?" asked a tiny golden Discord that was sitting on the pedestal. "This is what you dream about? Sneaking around some musty old ruins to find shiny trinkets."

"They're not trinkets," Twilight retorted. "They are ancient artifacts of historical and possibly magical significance. Besides, why do you care what I dream..."

Twilight paused a moment. Her face scrunched up as she thought.

"Wait a minute." She blinked and looked at the tiny Discord again. "This is a dream."

Discord's eyes went wide. He let out a gasp as he brought his forelimbs up to slap against his cheeks.

"What?" he cried out. "I had no idea."

"Except I know it's a dream," Twilight continued, "which normally doesn't happen. I don't realize I was dreaming until I wake up." Her eyes narrowed. "So that means that something is different about this dream than most."

Leaning forward, she brought her nose close to the tiny Discord. For his part, Discord simply sat there, watching her.

"And I didn't know it was dream until you pointed it out to me. So that means that you probably aren't a part of the dream. Which means that somehow, you are actually here, aren't you?"

With a smile, Discord started clapping.

"Oh, bravo," he cried out, "bravo. You really are a clever little filly, aren't you?" He gave a snap of his fingers, turning the pith into a graduation cap. The grin on his face vanished as he suddenly sagged.

"You know," he sighed, "being able to break the laws of reality is far less impressive when they don't apply to begin with."

Twilight let out a snort of frustration as her pith helmet was now gone. Grabbing the cap, she tossed it aside. Twilight then turned her attention back to the tiny Discord.

"What are you doing here?" she asked. "I thought my brother and his friends turned you back into a statue."

Discord vanished only to reappear beside Twilight. He had reverted to his normal size and color. Reaching down with his talon, he ruffled the mare's mane, reverting her back to her filly self.

"Oh, don't worry Twinkie Sauce. Glittery Arcade and the others were able to defeat me." He let out a sigh. "Once more, I am stuck in stone, unable to move. Unable to spread my glorious chaos." He sniffed at this last part, making his eyes as wide as he could and tearing up.

"So...how are you here?"

The wide eyes and tears vanished, replaced by a giant grin. He picked up Twilight and held her up to his eye level.

"Well now," he said with a grin, "I can't take all the credit for that. It seems that somepony" -- he tapped her on the nose -- "ate one of my cotton candy clouds during her 'studies.'" He let Twilight go, allowing her to drop to the floor. "Since I made those clouds, they were pretty much pure chaos energy. When you ate it, you absorbed that portion of my power. So I was able to use that to come here before it faded away and I was stuck completely."

"Completely?" Twilight asked as she got back up. "You mean that after tonight, you'll be gone forever?"

"Well I wouldn't say 'forever," Discord replied.

He gave a snap of his paw and the temple disappeared to be replaced by a classroom. Twilight found herself sitting at one of the desks with an open notebook and a pen in front of her. Standing at the front of the room was Discord, wearing glasses, a dress shirt, tweed jacket, and tie. In his eagle talon he held some held the controls to a projector that shined onto a screen behind him. With a press of a button from Discord, the projector clicked as a giant number three appeared on the screen.

"There are about three ways that you could see me again," Professor Discord explained. With another click the three was replaced by a one "First" -- he gave another click to change the picture to one of him as a statue -- "would be if I managed to get free again." The picture changed to one of Discord surrounded by look like an explosion. "Then I would be able to travel around, see ponies and spread chaos once again.

"Unfortunately," he growled, "it would also mean having to come up with another way to keep them -- " the picture changed to Shining Armor and his friends with The Elements of Harmony " -- from stopping me again." He glared at the image before moving on, bringing up a giant number two.

"Second, would be you coming to visit me in Canterlot." He clicked to show the image of him as a statue, with a crudely drawn picture of Twilight at the base. "Which would mean that we would get to see each other, but only you would be able to talk." The picture became animated, the crudely drawn Twilight moving back and forth as the word "blah" kept appearing around her.

With a roll of his eyes, Discord changed the image to the number three.

"Finally," Discord said, "a pony -- you -- can allow me to continue to come visit them in their dreams." He moved to the image, showing Twilight sleeping in her bed. Above her head was a thought bubble with a picture of Discord in it. "Unfortunately, the last one has to be..." he let out a gagging noise, "...willing by the pony in question. Plus, it also means that a certain moonbutt" -- he clicked to a picture of Princess Luna -- "is more likely to find out about it."

"Why are you doing this?" Twilight asked.

The question gave Discord pause. The projector and screen vanished with a poof. Taking off his glasses, he stuck them into a pocket of his tweed jacket.

"What do you mean?"

"You're acting..." Twilight paused, considering. "Well... 'nice' isn't quite the right word, but you're not exactly being mean either. What are you up to? Why are you acting like this?"

"Would you rather I spent the little time I had trying to frighten or intimidate you?" he asked. With another snap of his fingers, the classroom and his teaching outfit vanished. Instead they were in the royal gardens at Canterlot. A picnic blanket was spread out underneath them as they sat beneath the statue of Discord. The living version of him sat at the base of it, the shadow of the statue falling over him.

"I lost, Twilight. Nothing I do while in your dream is going to change that. Scaring you, messing with you, in here it won't get me anything. All I can do is enjoy what little freedom I have left before it vanishes, and then plan for what I'm going to do next time I'm free." He let out a sigh. "Plus, I am pretty worn out. Everything has taken a lot out of me."

Twilight stood there, looking at Discord. Right now, he did not look scary, or mean. He really did not seem like some sort of monster that wanted to harm ponies. Twilight knew he was and that he could, but it really did not seem like it at the moment. He looked... small... sad... tired... and most of all, lonely. It kind of made Twilight feel bad for him.

"It... it doesn't have to end like that," Twilight said. She watched as Discord tilted his head and raised an eyebrow at her. "I mean... you don't seem completely mean." She moved closer to him. "If you promise to behave, you and I could hang out in the dreams from time to time. Not every night, but some times."

Discord shifted, looking at Twilight fully. His lips twitched as he started to smile. His chest rose and fell as a snicker escaped him. The snicker became a chuckle, then a full guffaw. Shortly, Discord was lying on the ground, forelimbs on his chest as he laughed at the top of his lungs. Rolling around, his hind legs kicked and tail lashed.

While Discord seemed to find something utterly hilarous, Twilight not so much. In fact, she did not seem to find anything funny at all. Ears pinning back, her face turned a bright shade of red as she narrowed her gaze. With a huff, she turned to look away from him. Her head slouched down as her back grew tense with anger.

A loud bang made Twilight jump and turn around. Discord was still there, lying on the ground and panting. There was a giant hole in his side that she could see all the way through. Fortunately there were no signs of blood or organs.

"Oh my," Discord panted as he sat back up. "Would you look at that?" He stuck his paw through the hole. "I laughed so hard, I busted a gut."

"Oh, please," Twilight huffed, rolling her eyes.

"Your offer was very nice," he said as he brushed the hole close, "but very naive and foolish. Really, you should worry less about me and more about your brother. He may not do so well against whoever he faces next."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Come now. Just think about it." He held up his front limbs and spread them out. Three empty bubbles appeared.

"The Elements of Harmony" -- Shining Armor's helmet appeared in the first bubble -- "are back in play and able to be used again. It has been a thousand years since they were last used. They were brought back after Nightmare Moon" -- who appeared in the second -- "returned also after a thousand years. Then I" -- he appeared in the third bubble -- "was able to get free once again. Also after about a thousand years." The bubbles popped, suddenly vanishing from sight.

"So tell me, Twilight, do you honestly believe that in over a thousand years, Nightmare Moon and I were the only dangers Equestria ever faced?"

Before Twilight could answer, a giant rooster appeared out of nowhere between them. It let out a massive crowing noise, the very sound seeming to make the ground shake.

"Oh," Discord said, "look at that. My alarm cock is going off." Reaching out, he pressed a paw against its beak to make it stop. "It seems my time here is now up." With a snap of his fingers, the statue version of himself vanished from its pedestal. Discord climbed up onto it, brushing himself off. His feet and the tip of his tail started to turn into stone.

"Before I go, two last things. First, other dangers do exist and they are going to come for your brother. After all, he is now a hero and bears one of The Elements. So he needs to be ready and so do you." The stone continued to travel up along his body, having now reached what would possibly be the bottom of his rib cage if he had some sort of proper anatomical skeleton.

"Second," he continued, "I have left a little something behind. It will take a while to be ready, but should create a little bit of fun." He gave her one last grin before the transformation reached his face.

Twilight sat there, looking at the statue of Discord before hearing a loud snap and having everything vanish.

Comments

[SageBrony07]

Wow. Never saw that coming. Great job.

[SuperPinkBrony12]

I'm going to guess Discord is either foreshadowing "Lesson Zero" or the Season 4 premiere if this fic series ever gets that far.

[sakuralovelight]

LOVE IT hope to read more if a sequel comes out

[Starguy135]

5597491 He might also be foreshadowing his variation on Keep Calm and Flutter On with Twilight taking Fluttershys place.

[Firemind]

Interesting conclusion. Twily can't be the only pony who consumed some of his weather treats, though. Glad to see her offer a hoof of friendship to Discord - that made me smile, though I'm wondering if he's going to corrupt her (or somepony else) in their dreams, or if he just needs a lot more social interaction. His "Be ready" speech reminded me of Q's warning to Picard in "Q Who" ... the one shortly before he introduced them to the Borg.

Now I'm wondering what exactly he's warning of - there's at least three major threats that pop up in the next few seasons, plus relatively minor ones like his "Surprise". How many of them does he know of? Are there others out there (Such as Grognar or the Smooze)?

[CrowMagnon]

Filly Twilight, potential Disciple of Chaos! I like it. That's certainly an interesting wrinkle, forming a connection between them like that.

[khatre]

5599046
Celestia has her Faithful Student so Discord deserves his own Disciple to learn his ways...
I guess the other CMC could join in ... IF they can keep up ...

[ShadowLDrago]

Wow, guess even here Discord has an ace up his sleeve.

[Firemind]

6101775 Might be useful against other foes with mind-manipulation powers too.

[defender2222]

So I am finally getting around to reading these (I know, I know, bad defender2222) and I love Discord and Twiley chatting. Just too cute.

[SWEETOLEBOB18]

"Oh, don't worry Twinkie Sauce. Glittery Arcade and the others were able to defeat me." He let out a sigh. "Once more, I ........stuck in stone, unable to move. Unable to spread my glorious chaos." He sniffed at this last part, making his eyes as wide as he could and tearing up.

am

"Unfortunately," he growled, "it would also mean having to come up with another way to keep them -- " the picture changed to Shining Armor and his friends with The Elements of Harmony " -- from stopping me again." He glared at the image before moving on, bringing up a giant number two.

https://www.fimfiction.net/story/21686/discordant

"Second," he continued, "I have left a little something behind. It will take a while to be ready, but should create a little bit of fun." He gave her one last grin before the transformation reached his face.

Hinting at the Plunder Vines from Princess Twilight?