Dealing in Harmony

by Ckat_Myla

3. Strange Magic

“... and while you were away you received several letters, I gave them to Madame Agate who has been helping with the daily affairs and she gave them to the prince, as per your request. There was one in particular that she wanted to---”

“Thank you, Smitty, for the very thorough recap of events since I've been gone” Cadance interrupted her assistant as he appeared to only be a little over halfway finished speaking. She turned around in front of the large, ornate gilded crystal doors at the end of the long hallway to face him with a gracious smile.

“But you do realize that you have been talking non-stop since I walked into the palace, and now we've arrived at my bedroom door. Clear on the other side from the main entrance. Up three flights of stairs.”

Smitty wilted sheepishly for a moment, “My apologies, your highness. I did not mean to just start rambling on when you'd only just arrived.”

“It's alright,” she softly laughed and waved her hoof good-naturedly. “I am pleased that you kept such a good record of all the things I missed, and I'll address them soon after I have a good rest.”

“Yes, princess,” he stammered, inclining his head. His ears then popped up suddenly, and his voice raised in volume as he shot his gaze to hers. “Oh, but to answer your original question; Prince Shining Armor is in your private chambers.” He then pointed hesitantly to the doors behind her. “Um... right there.”

“Thank you again,” she repeated in her same pleasant tone. Eventually Smitty received the hint and bade her a good rest, bowing and exiting if only slightly awkwardly.

Her large, sunlit bedroom was a welcome sight for Cadance after so long away, but not half is welcome as the sight of her husband, who rose as she entered and greeted her with a smile that mirrored hers almost perfectly.

“Cady, oh are you a sight for sore eyes,” Shining Armor caught her halfway across the room in a hug before Cadance could make it to the bed or at the very least the window seat. “How did everything go?”

“Oh, as well as could be hoped.” Cadance answered with a sigh after they broke their embrace. “The royal couple of Mist Haven only required some marriage counseling so thankfully not much was needed there, but the young prince from Fawnlin and his future bride needed a little – well – encouragement.”

By 'encouragement' Cadance of course meant magic.

Ever since her empire reappeared, she hadn't been called upon for this specific 'good will mission' very often, but before her ascent to the throne of the Crystal Empire every now and then Cadance would be called upon to utilize certain aspects of her special talent.

She was always good at seeing the contents of a pony's heart and enjoyed helping them to either better get in touch with those feelings or help them to convey them. She could even magically enhance those feelings if they were already present to help remind ponies about the bonds of love they may have forgotten or taken for granted. Cadance believed in love and the power it contained, but she also respected it. She would never manipulate a pony's emotions unless it was a dire situation. Which was why Cadance tried her best to mediate more often for ponies who were having trouble with their loved ones, to use her words rather than her magic.

Those Mist Haven royals had been on the verge of a civil war, and Cadance had managed to help them reconcile simply by helping them to listen to each other.

There were requests like that, and then there was the second one. It was a politically-arranged marriage, which Cadance was not entirely a fan of, but it was at the request of a country Equestria wanted to stay in good standing with, and at least the couple in question already had some attachment to one another. She wouldn't have agreed to do it if she hadn't been able to see that.

“Well, Agate and Smitty have been keeping things from falling apart here while you were gone, and your dear assistant has been up my tail today reminding me to make sure you look over all of your mail.” He indicated the bureau where someone (probably Smitty) had organized her letters into piles labeled 'important' and 'less important'. “That larger pile might need some attention soon.”

She sighed at the mention of the stack of other and more official looking scrolls and envelopes. “And I would love to get to those, Shiny. But I shall say to that what I told my aunts. I have been away from home for weeks dealing with other ponies' relationships and marriages, I'd like to spend some time on my own, if that's alright with you.”

Shining Armor had already been nearing the window seat that overlooked the home that Cadance had been so near to tears over missing, and as she spoke she grasped him by the foreleg and pulled him down onto its plush, rosy cushion, wrapping the appendage around her shoulders and leaning – almost melting really – into him.

Shiny all-too-willingly allowed her to move him about so, and he obliged by turning to lie on his back on the cushy seat, allowing her to rest her head on his chest, herself wrapping him up with her hooves as well. Her head faced outward so that she could still see through the window.

“Now that sounds like something I can get behind,” Shiny said, his breath blowing her mane slightly and tickling her ear. She closed her eyes to just enjoy for a moment this closeness with the husband she hadn't been able to see for so long, to just for a moment simply to be.

She heard his magic spring to life, and when she'd opened her eyes again another letter was floating across the room to her.

Cadance looked puzzled and a little bit miffed at the disturbance of her moment-savoring, first down to the letter now in her hooves, and then up towards Shiny's face, his smile expectant and highly adorable.

“There was one letter though that I thought you'd want to open,” he answered her questioning look. “It's from Ponyville, but it was addressed only to you so I didn't open it.”

If his face didn't give away that he wanted her to open it, his tone of voice did. There were only so many ponies in Ponyville that would be writing to them, and his sister was one of them.

Inspecting the ivory paper of the envelope, with its gold-accented corners and loopy calligraphy, Cadance assumed her husband was going to be disappointed.

“This doesn't look like Twilight's writing,” she said, looking again at the extra swirl made in the first C of the word 'Cadance'.

“Well, I know,” Shiny waffled, “It's just that we haven't heard from Twily or any of her friends in a while. Almost a month, actually. So when the first word from them after so long came and it was only addressed to you – not me, not both of us – I just thought that maybe you'd want to read it in case you were wondering how every pony was doing.”

She smirked at him, he could not be more transparent if he tried. “You know, I am curious,” she obliged with a bit of playful sass. “So I think I'll read it now while you're here so that I can tell you all about it.”

She opened it with her own magic and as she pulled the letter from its sheath she spotted the name in large fancy letters at the bottom.

“It's from Rarity,” her statement pulled into a question as she wondered why - of all of Twilight's friends - it was the stylish unicorn who would be writing to her. As she continued through the contents though, Cadance sat up a little straighter, moving slightly away from her husband to prevent him from reading over her head. It became clear quite early on in reading that Shiny might not be some pony who needed to know.

Rarity had written to Cadance about Twilight. Twilight and Discord.

“Well, what does it say?” Shining Armor asked and Cadance moved it a little farther from his reach.

If what Rarity said was true, then there was nothing else to be done. She would have to go and see her dear sister-in-law as soon as she could manage it.

She groaned a little at the prospect of having to depart again so soon after finally being back home, but she had made up her mind before reaching the end of the letter. If Twilight needed help in the romance department, who better than she to come to her aid?

She sighed resolutely and folded the letter back into the envelope, turning to Shining Armor's still confused face.

“Well Honey,” she chirped. “ this has been lovely, but I think I need to be taking another trip soon. I'm going to Ponyville.”

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Autumn had fallen across Equestria. The shorter days bringing forth colder winds to blow some of the dying leaves from their branches. The crispness of them beneath Twilight's hooves was always something she looked forward to every fall. The colors each deciduous tree displayed were all somehow completely unique, and blended with each other to make a kaleidoscope of warm and comforting hues.

It would soon be time for the Running of the Leaves, a tradition in Equestria that the unicorn had only begun to participate in a few years ago. It was another welcome part of the changing seasons, although that would come towards the end. The race to blow the leaves away always signaled the end of fall and the start of winter, and Twilight was in no hurry for the leaves to be gone just yet.

She noticed as she walked through the Whitetail Wood that amongst the expected colors typically found on the trees as they changed, every so often a leaf or two would stand out from the rest. Amid the canopy of browns, reds, and oranges she would spot the flicker of blue... or violet... or even sometimes pink polka dots.

The sight of these peculiar leaves would give any other pony reason to pause, and Twilight did linger on them, sometimes stopping her walk completely to gaze up at them. Other ponies though would wonder how they came to be, but Twilight was fairly certain she knew.

Each time she spied one of these odd leaves, it gave her this odd sense of surprise that was quickly covered up by this lingering sense of loss. She found herself smiling sadly as a purple-flecked magenta maple leaf broke away from its branch to float delicately down before her.

Honestly, she didn't know why it should make her feel sad. Sure she missed him, but--- it wasn't as if he wasn't coming back. He didn't really need her to check in on him every day anymore. Discord was off on some grand exploratory adventure, seeking out new areas that he had not before been able to reach. It was her own fault that she was not out there with him to enjoy it. She didn't want to blame herself entirely though, he could have at least said goodbye before leaving. With not a word from him in the near-month since she had last seen him.

Still though, she would notice something different or out of place – like these leaves – and that illogical pang would spring up again. Maybe it was that part of her that made Twilight wonder if this was just an easily-reversible side effect of Discord's influence on the area, or if possibly they might have been meant for her. Which was another ludicrous notion, because Discord wasn't allowed to play with any area he ventured through, not unless it was part of his old appointed places. The Everfree Forest would probably never look as it had before he took up residence there again.

But this wasn't one of this former homes, and the much-more sensible part of the unicorn always made a point of reminding her of that each time one of these leaves came into view.

She sighed at herself, she should be getting back now. She had another letter to send to the National Equestrian Library in Vanhoover about finding a way to distribute copies of Statera Equus, the book she found while researching in the Crystal Empire a few months ago. That would be if she ever managed to successfully make copies of the book. It was fairly ancient, and the language had to be translated and transcribed very carefully. Making one copy of it could possibly take her even more months, forget about multiple ones. She felt she needed to though. It was the only known copy as far as she knew in the whole world.

Discord didn't know she was doing it – he didn't actually even know she had it – but it was more than relevant to his situation among the ponies of this world. He had grown at least an appreciation for their lives, an understanding of their individuality and right to be. Now the task she faced would be the flip side, to get the ponies and other creatures of the world to more accurately understand Discord's purpose in their lives. After the last few months of trying to appeal to both sides, Twilight wasn't sure which would be the harder sell.

The magenta leaf scooted along the forest floor in front of her, caught by a tiny breeze. It was almost like it wanted her to take it, like a puppy wanting to get out of the cold.

She gave a thoughtful and very small laugh at the idea, re-arranging her thoughts on Discord back to where she knew they were safe, where they were understandable. Where she was helping her friend to be able to get along with her other friends. Where she continued to fight for everyone to be able to get what they wanted and be happy.

Picking up the leaf with her magic, she teleported herself back to her cozy warm library. Spike wasn't anywhere to be found, so very quietly she snuck up to her room. She tucked the leaf away gently inside the book that lay open on her nightstand, and she slid it back beneath the bed. Bluish Carrol was not what she needed right now. A cup of warm cider and another tome on transitioning text spells was what she needed. Missing him was silly, silly and unhelpful. What would help Discord would be to educate Equestria the way she'd tried to do with him. She then dove back into her work. Her well-worn, understandable work.

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He was fixing each leaf as he spotted them, and changing back each bunny that had grown extra eyes or deer that had lost its teeth. They were minor things, and Discord had them sorted out before any pony could notice, but the longer he stayed in each place, the larger the oddities became and the harder it was to hide them from others.

One of the stipulations of his little road trip was that he was not allowed to manipulate or harm any pony, place, or things in the areas he encountered. So really, no messing with nouns. Discord at first found it an unnecessarily arbitrary rule. He knew his four 'homes' were the only places allowed him to manipulate to his liking – and they were finally becoming really to his liking – so as much fun as it would be to put hellbender salamanders in Rivertail's wishing well, he had (quite commendably in his opinion) restrained himself. These things he was fixing as he went were not his fault.

Mostly not his fault. Maybe about twelve percent his fault. An argument could be make for fifteen. It was a convincing lie he told himself, but it was getting more difficult to believe the longer he traveled. And the longer this kept happening.
There were probably things going on in other parts of Equus that might or might not have been his doing even now... just not expressly done by him on purpose.

Ever since those stray cacti and the incident with the falling stars he'd been trying to deny it, but
Mort's words played again with every snap of his clawed fingers to set the things back in balance. He didn't want the spirit of Death to be right, but at the same time he'd made a point to avoid Ponyville as long as possible.

Discord knew – KNEW – Morty had to have been lying, or just misunderstanding. It wasn't like he'd ever stayed on this plane as long as Discord had. None of them had in fact. The only one who had ever even wanted to besides him had been Harmony. How could he possibly know Discord would harm this place just by being there? He was keeping balance – to his unbelievable annoyance – with the two Order mares. He kept his Chaos level down to balance theirs. Then why was this still happening?

'You're gonna wilt their world...'

There hadn't been any major calamities since Cloudsdale and Tartarus as far as he knew, but if there was even the slightest chance Morty was right about this... it wouldn't be long until the Harmony Twins found out. Then there were the ponies back in Ponyville, the beings he'd slowly begun to understand and even count some of them as friends. Well, it wasn't as if they really needed to know yet, Discord had this handled. If the two princesses absolutely had to find out, fine. It would be annoying, but fine. He found it less appealing for the rest of them to learn about it, especially some pony in particular.

The more things kept popping up along his travels, the more Discord figured it was fortunate that Twilight had declined his proposal to come along. As much fun as it would have been to have her with him, it would be too much to hope that she wouldn't notice these strange occurrences. He had tried to get her to ignore her own search for answers when he'd learned she had been analyzing the magical fields. It hadn't been because of anything to do with its importance, more so that it had been a subject he had wanted Twilight to avoid.

If she was still at it, then it would only be a matter of time before she discovered some sort of link between those anomalies and the path he had been taking around Equestria. He assumed (or hoped) that the longer he stayed away from Ponyville, perhaps those anomalies would disappear along with him, or at least long enough for him to find a way to spin this. A way that didn't seem like he'd been hiding things from her.

Discord hadn't told her about it when he'd given Twilight that choice after Tartarus, about whether or not he should return to his original plane of existence. He'd known that it was a possibility that stuff like this might start happening. But for some reason, when she had decided that he should stay – that she wanted him to stay – he had kept his mouth shut. Discord hadn't wanted to mess that decision up, for it had been just what he had wanted to hear.

He finally had proof that that brilliant, singular unicorn wanted him to stay with her – not merely out of duty or any responsibility for the world – but for her own sake. It was something he hadn't dared think or hope possible that he would find in any pony even earlier this year... a true friend. Some pony who would actually miss him, who would cry at his loss. Discord wasn't certain she would make the same choice again had she known what – maybe, possibly - might happen.

But again, Discord had this handled, there was really no need to worry her as long as he stayed away. If Celestia and Luna did find out somehow though, he'd need to get to her first, before Twilight could hear about it from them. They'd surely love to fill her in on anything that might be proof that she had made the wrong choice. He wanted to prove that she hadn't.

Of course, she might become suspicious on her own if he continued to avoid her and her home. If she wasn't still mad at him for her imagined slights against her work. Perhaps he should have met her again to say goodbye before he left. That might have smoothed things over. But at the time he was still stung by her stubborn refusal to leave the books aside for a while and join him.

He took a moment from searching for more strange things to take in his surroundings. The fireflies that were starting to appear in the dimming light were all blinking in unison, which only brought Discord back to the last time he had seen Twilight, and the brief moments of joy before that evening had imploded.

He thought about how she would have loved to see this and thought about taking a picture, but then the insects started changing colors and blinking out 'SOS' in Morse code. Sighing, he again snapped his claw before swatting them away. He didn't know how long he could keep this up, but Discord was willing to try for as long as he could.

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It wasn’t at all out of place for Spike to find Twilight buried behind stacks of books, furiously hunting an answer to whatever new question had struck her through each tome. He knew she enjoyed that chase, it was something for her to focus on when she wanted to think. Of course, she did this both when she was seeking refuge from her thoughts and when she just wanted a comfy fun reading night. It was hard to tell therefore which of these his friend was currently in the midst of.

It didn’t help matters that all of their other friends appeared to be busy lately. It was apple harvesting season for AJ, Fall Fashion season for Rarity, Fall hibernating schedule time for Fluttershy, and Pumpkin pastry season for Pinkie Pie. With Rainbow Dash off at the Wonderbolts Academy again, that left Twilight practically alone for the first time in some time. There was absolutely nothing to keep the unicorn from spending every waking minute in the library, and not one pony to coax her into venturing outside. As bad as things had been a few months ago with the towns, at least Twilight actually scheduled herself time to you know, go outside and walk around for a while. This behavior was reminding Spike more and more of how she had been back at Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.

He peeked around one of the stacks hiding her from view, seeing Twilight amid a semi circle of at least seven open books, sitting hunched with her tail wrapped around her for some extra padding on her knees. Spike noticed that her eyes were for once not furiously scanning each page with clear precision. Now she was just staring slightly between two of the open books at her hooves, not really looking at anything. He knew that look, that was her ‘deep contemplation, over analyzing’ expression. He could only assume that Twilight was weighing the merits of some spell matrix over the other, or looking over the listing of facts in her mind. Maybe she was just counting how many more books she had left to look through before the night was out.

She gave a very, very deep sigh and finally closed her eyes, as if wiping her mental chalk board clean for a new problem. It was harder for Spike to gauge from his hiding spot, but she seemed somehow… sadder than she typically did when in this mental formulaic state. Not like back when she was trying to fix the cloud problem, that sadness had been over powered by her panic to find a solution and her feelings of inadequacy. No, whatever she was thinking about, Spike figured it wasn’t the answer she was seeking here in the books that was causing her to sigh so forlornly.

Maybe she just missed her friends. That would make sense. He missed them too.

“Hey, Twilight,” the young dragon cautiously piped up, breaking Twilight’s slow return to the books. Deterred by his call, she lifted her head and blinked quizzically at him, as if only now remembering he was in the library at all.

“Oh, hi Spike,” she answered with a tired softness. He didn’t know how long she’d been up, but she must have been more tired than she wanted to let on.

“I’m gonna make some tea, do you want some?” he asked. “I’ll pull out my special dragon style spiced stuff.” There wasn’t much he could do to help if she didn’t tell him, besides his normal amount of help as her assistant. Spike wanted to give her some sort of a pick me up.

He was successful in coaxing a small smile out of the unicorn. “That would be great, thank you.”

She then returned to leafing through one of the books without another word. Spike let her, and left her alone while he made for the kitchen to make the tea.

The water was still boiling when a cold breeze brushed against Spike’s scales, hitting the back of his neck and causing him to give a light shudder from the chilly air. The wind must have blown the window open. He made to close it only to suddenly feel the weight of some other creature atop his head. Sudden surprise and then mild indignation crossed him when he looked up to see Twilight’s pet owl Owlyscious preening himself on Spike’s head.

“Well, look who it is,” Spike sarcastically eyed the bird without moving his head to dislodge him.

“Who?” answered Owlyscious.

“You know, you,” he rolled his eyes and then shut the window properly with the latch. The owl's response released a sealed envelope from his mouth which dropped to the floor at Spike’s feet.

When he bent to pick it up, Owlyscious finally decided to vacate the spines of his head to seek a more comfortable and less moving stationary object to perch upon.

The bird had left a feather on his head, which Spike brushed off without thought (though he hoped that was all he had left on his head). He bent down and picked up the envelope. The wax seal closing the flap bore the emblem of the Crystal Empire, something very close to Princess Cadance’s cutie mark. He flipped the ice blue paper over to see the name ‘Twilight Sparkle’ written on it in fancy cursive hoof writing.

After the water was ready to pour into the teacups, Spike set them on a tray with the letter and carried it back into the main area of the library. Twilight still sat, but now she appeared to be back to scanning. Times like this he was very glad to not be able to read her mind, all that thinking would keep him up all night.

He set her tea down next to her, not even getting a nod of thanks for his trouble. He would have felt a bit put out if he didn’t know that this was just how Twilight was when she was in the zone. He then placed the blue envelope next to the cup.

“Owlyscious came with a letter for you from Cadance,” he stated, only half wondering if this would get the unicorn to respond. Wondering and hoping a tad as well.

“Hmm?” she asked, peeling her eyes away to look over at him, and then back down to the steaming cup of tea and the ice blue envelope that held the letter in question.

“Oh, thanks Spike.” Apparently her curiosity was enough to allow for a tiny break, because she had already picked up the envelope with her magic and began to open it.

“I wonder what Cadance has to say. I didn’t send her anything, and I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

Spike observed her as she read quickly. He could tell she was pleased to be receiving word from her sister in law, but also wanting to get back to her task as quickly as possible.

She didn’t need to see Spike waiting expectantly to hear what it said, she would most likely summarize it for him when she finished.

“She wants to come and visit,” Twilight read off, eyes still on the letter.

“Well, that’s not a bad idea. I mean, all your friends have been busy of out of town recently, and you’ve been working pretty hard…” he trailed off a bit, uncertain if he should say how he felt about her keeping herself cloistered in the library. Instead he got an idea. “You know, why don't you go and visit her? Save her the trip.”

She looked at him like that had been an insult. “Spike, I can't leave now---”

“Hear me out. It might be a good way to you know… get out there and see some ponies. Plus Cadance and your brother, you haven’t seen them since the last time you went up to the Crystal Empire,” he felt a bit braver about stating it the longer he talked without an interruption from her about how important her research was. Maybe Twilight would say he was right.

“I-I-I guess so, you might be right, Spike.” She said with another sigh, halting for a moment before continuing. “Maybe I could go… for a bit.”

He felt relieved as well as excited for her. For her and for Cadance and Shining Armor too of course.

“I’ll have to write up a schedule for myself, and make a list of items to take with me,” she rose from her seat to find a quill. “Should I leave a to do list for you, or do you think you can remember what you should do?”

“Of course I can, look who you’re talking to,” Spike assured her, pointing to himself. “Number One assistant, remember.”

“I know but just… I trust you, but it doesn’t mean I can’t worry a little.”

Spike came closer to try and help her out, stepping lightly in an attempt to maneuver around the books and not disturb them and make Twilight lose her place. His foot accidentally bumped the one that she had been looking at when he’d entered, knocking it only a few centimeters off from where it had been. That can’t have been too bad.

His left foot now taking another step around the book, it met with a soft, crisp, crunching sound. Lifting his foot again, Spike saw that he’d stepped on something crackly. A dry, brittle, magenta something that had been tucked under the book and out of sight. Twilight seemed not to have noticed, but Spike raised an eyebrow at the thing.

He bent down and lifted the book a hair to nudge the brightly colored leaf back in its hiding place.

Making it to Twilight's side, he caught the tail end of a list she’d been making for him verbally.

“And I shouldn’t think you’d have to worry about feeding Owlyscious. He usually finds his own food when he leaves. Just remember to lay down some newspaper for him if he does decide to stay inside for a while.”

“No problem,” Spike answered.

Twilight lowered her quill and paper for a moment, biting her lip and glancing back up to Spike, though not really focusing on him. It was more like she was considering another task for him, but something she wasn’t sure she should ask of him.

“Uh, anything else?” he offered, knowing that there had to be something else if she was hesitating like this.

She tilted her head away for a moment, before apparently deciding to just go ahead and ask, her smile now awkward and a bit crooked.

“Just that, well… should Discord come back while I’m gone. I mean, I’m not sure if he will, and it shouldn’t really matter whether I’m here or not cause he can come and go as he pleases now. But if he does, just tell him where I am, and that I should be back soon.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head at her own words. “That is if he even does come back, and if he asks about me.”

“Oh, I got a feeling he will,” Spike mumbled making Twilight’s ear twitch.

“What was that?” she asked.

“I mean, yeah. Can do. I think we get along better now, Discord’s not so bad. That’s no problem either, Twilight,” he answered in a quick sentence. She seemed to buy it, still looking somewhat awkwardly as she returned to her preparations.

Awkward was definitely the word for it. He guess Twilight would want him to say something in the event that Discord came back, but he would have done that anyway. She didn’t need to be so adamant about it. He wondered what the spirit of chaos was doing at that moment, and thought back to another sufficiently awkward time he’s had in his company.

Seriously, were they this awkward around each other when he wasn’t there to see it? Was that like if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound? He just sipped his tea, half thinking that Discord should come back, at least so they could finish that talk Spike had tried to start a while back. Also Discord was one of the only beings he knew that could get Twilight to leave the library and her comfort zone at once. With the rest of them not available, he might be just what she needed too along with this family visit.

It was harder for Spike to really get a sense of Twilight’s possible feelings for Discord than the other way around. When it came to Discord, Spike had suspected there was something extra going on - at least on his end - since he risked getting a magical taser to his entire body multiple times just to see her.

At first he had been very much in the same way of thinking as Rainbow dash. He figured that Discord had only agreed to Twilight’s plan and given up that portion of his power as a selfish thing, something more to do with his own sense of self-preservation than any connection or fondness for the purple unicorn.

Now though, after all the visits, and the whole trying to teleport in to see her thing, and then there was what he’d observed and at least tried to talk about with him while he was a pony… Spike was forming a different conclusion.

This was why he’d said what he had said to Discord. Why he felt they were sorta alike in that way. In the way that they both had these feelings towards mares that they knew they couldn’t do anything about. Maybe they were never meant to be, and maybe neither Spike nor Discord would or should ever act on them, but they were in the same predicament. The draw those mares had was undeniable. Well, Rarity’s allure sure was, he had no idea about Twilight’s. Honestly he couldn’t see it - she being like a big sister and all to him - and he frankly didn’t want to get into too much detail thinking about it. But Discord must have some inclination, something similar to what it was that caused Spike’s knees to weaken and his face to morph into that dumb expression he always seemed to get whenever she was around, or even if he thought about her too hard.

Huh, did Discord ever feel like that? Did his knees ever weaken at Twilight’s presence, and did he ever have to smack the stupid grin off his face to keep Twilight from seeing that he had been staring at her? Yeah… this was the type of weirdness Spike probably should not be thinking too hard about. Weird enough that he knew these hypothetical feelings were directed at his live-in best friend, even weirder to think that he--- that a being like him could ever develop those same feelings.

His wonderings had carried him to the top of the stairs. He could still hear Twilight down below and she clip-clopped back and forth across the floor. It was then that he realized the sick feeling in his stomach hadn't been due to his train of thought about Discord's feelings, it was the familiar indigestion of an incoming message from the princesses.

With a small belch and a burst of green flame, sure enough a scroll appeared with the royal seal upon it.

Perhaps Spike had been thinking too much about his newest friend, and remembering what Discord had asked him to do should this occur. For a second he thought about taking it directly to Twilight, as was the proper thing to do.

But then again...

Guilt rising in his stomach in a completely different way than a message, he picked up the scroll and tucked it into his bed. Determined to give it to Twilight after doing something else first.

He snuck back downstairs past Twilight to find Owlyscious back in the kitchen staking out a small mouse hole in the corner.

“Psst,” he called up to the bird. “Owlyscious, come here for a minute.”

The owl obliged by soaring down from his perch to again land directly on Spike's head, tail feathers in his face.

Spike tried to blow them away. “You couldn't have landed just next to me or something? Well, whatever.” He groused, pulling out a quill and paper. He scribbled down a few sentences before folding it up and writing a single name on the front.

“I know you haven't seen much of him, but I need you to get this to Discord. I have no idea where he is, but I don't think the regular mail ponies would know either.” He then handed the paper for the owl to take in his beak.

Amazingly, Owlyscious looked like he understood, grasping the letter firmly and leaping off Spike's head with enough force to at least leave a scratch or two on his scales. The owl then flew straight for the window which Spike had to hurry and re-open for him.

He just hoped that Owlyscious understood as much as Spike thought he did, and that he would be able to find Discord quickly. Also that no pony else would find out he'd delayed a possibly-urgent message for this reason. If he didn't hear back within a day, Spike was giving it to her. He'd give it to her either way – his Dragon Code couldn't handle much more bending than that – but he would feel worse about it if he didn't at least hear from Discord first.

Comments

[Nerfyy]

yes yes yeees ^^ love it :D
great Chapter as always :3

[Fighter Phoenix]

Twilight and Discord both are not the brightest, I've read half the chapter and already figured out what to do to solve this mess and restore balance😎