An Alternate Ending to A Canterlot Wedding

by MeadowRosePony

Discord Explains

"Gah!" Twilight spluttered as she shot upright, drenched in ice water, snapping her out of her hysterical state. "Discord!" Twilight glared at the creature holding the pull bell that had led to her being soaked.

"What?" Discord asked, passing her a towel and then drying the floor with a snap of his claws. "Isn't one supposed to calm down hysterical mares with water?" He poofed up an etiquette book and started flipping through it.

"You're supposed to offer them water, Discord, not drench them in it!" Twilight said as she attempted to towel dry her mane, giving herself a splendid case of Pinkie Hair.

"Well, excuse me! I'm not used to calming down hyperventilating ponies, you know." Discord pouted and then smiled as a thought accorded to him. "Actually, I'm usually the one causing the hyperventilation. Ah... Fun times."

Twilight glared at him.

Discord sighed. "I do apologize, Twilight. I didn't mean to upset you, I was just trying to explain."

He smiled at her and offered her a cup of tea. And poofed up a surprisingly simple apology cake. "I'm sure that once the princesses understand the situation they will realize that it was really nopony's fault and we can all be friends again."

He cut a piece of the cake and passed it to Twilight. Who was looking slightly panicky again at the mention of the princesses. "We just need to figure out a way to explain before Princess Celestia gets the wrong idea."

Discord started to slurp the letters off the top of the cake like spaghetti as he made a show of pondering the problem. "If only there was a way to talk to her in private. Someplace we could explain without a bunch of guards running around and arresting innocent ponies like your brother."

Discord finished the letters and had moved onto slurping the rest of the frosting. "Maybe we could get your friends to help?" He paused from unraveling the cake to shake his head. "No...that wouldn't work. Even if we could convince them that this was an accident, how do we convince them not to go to Celestia right away? I mean they haven't been very trustful lately. I'm not too surprised though."

"Huh?" Twilight interrupted his musings.

"Well, think about it. They've been friends for years, ever since they were fillies. And you've only known them for what? A few months? That's hardly enough for an ironclad friendship."

Discord held up a paw to stop Twilight's protests. "Just look at how they acted about your brother's wedding. They all banded together, and when you didn't agree with them..." Discord was using puppets again. "They shut you out" The five puppets of her friends pushed her puppet aside.

"But what about Spike? He sided with them too and he's been with me his whole life!" Twilight said a little desperately.

"I know! You'd think practically raising someone would give them a little more trust in you but ehh..." Discord shrugged and threw all the puppets over his shoulder. Except for hers, which still had wings.

"Discord, I've been meaning to ask you something..." Twilight said looking at the stuffed version of her.

"Yes, Twilight?" Discord asked, smiling.

"How come my puppet has wings?"

Discord smiled. 'About time she asked. Now we can have some fun...'

Discord looked at the puppet, feigning surprise. "Why Twilight, I wanted these puppets to be realistic!" He grabbed the puppets he had thrown away earlier, "See? Appletrack has her hat, Pinkie Spy's mane is impossibly curly, look even little Spot has claws at the end of each finger." He grinned as he bowed, showcasing the puppets like they were national treasures.

"But Discord," Twilight said slowly. "I don't have wings. I'm a unicorn. This doll is an alicorn."

"You're not an alicorn yet?" Discord said in disbelief, floating Twilight in front of him and staring at her as if he expected wings to just pop out of her back.

"Why would I be an alicorn?" Twilight asked, becoming exasperated at Discord's antics. Discord just stared at her. "Are you sure you didn't bump your head? You seem to be a little slow." He asked, once again pulling out a doctors kit from nowhere. (or somewhere. It didn't really matter.)

"Discord! I didn't bump my head! And I'm not slow! You're the one who's not making any sense!" She shouted, pushing away his paw.

"Well, of course not!" Discord humphed "I'm the lord of chaos, remember?!" Twilight just glared at him. Again. "Alright, let me explain this to you slowly." He poofed a zipper over the furious mare's mouth and tied her back to the stool. "And no interrupting this time. Sheesh, how in Equestria were you able to learn anything if you constantly interrupted the teacher?"

If looks could kill, Discord would be a pile of rubble right now.

"Now pay attention. There are six Elements of Harmony: Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty and Magic. These Elements were locked away after Princess Luna threw her little temper tantrum and Princess Celestia banished her to a thousand year time out on the moon. After a thousand years Luna came back and threw another temper tantrum so you made some friends and collected the Elements to calm her down. When you got the first five together, the sixth one appeared. Luna got over her fit and Celestia showed up when all the fighting was done and they all lived happily ever after.

"Well these six Elements turned into pieces of golden jewelry so you and your friends could wear them. The first five , Laughter, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, and Honesty turned into necklaces for Pinkie High, Stutterfly, Rainbow Crash, Glarity, and Appleshack.

"The last one, Magic, turned into a crown for you, Twilight Sparkle. And who wears crowns and have powerful Magic? Princesses do. Well now you have a crown and not only is your special talent magic, you are also the Element of Magic. So the only thing that's different between those princesses and you is the fact that they have wings.

"Well, that just doesn't seem fair to me. Not with all the times you've saved Equestria while the official Princesses with titles and power just sat back and watched. I didn't even see Princess Luna at the wedding while the changelings were attacking."

Discord paused in his chalkboard doodles to think that over. "Anyway the point is that you deserve to be a princess and since they weren't giving you wings I decided the least I could do was give your puppet some." With a snap of his claws, Twilight was (once again) freed from her stool. And she promptly surprised Discord by giving him a hug.

"Thank you Discord. That's actually very sweet of you." Twilight said as she hugged him. "It made absolutely no sense at all, but it was still sweet."

Abruptly, Twilight pulled back from the frozen draconaquus and glared at him, pointing at the stool. "But you really need to stop tying me up!"

Discord mentally sighed in relief as he relaxed (Discord wasn't a huge fan of displays of affection; not really his style.) and grinned at the unicorn glaring up at him.

'Flattery. Works every time.' Discord's plan was coming along splendidly.

---

Meanwhile, in Canterlot:

They were just finishing up their meal when the doors flew open and a guard burst into the room. "Captain Armor! I-" The guard broke off abruptly as he noticed the princesses seated on either side of his captain. "My apologies, Princess Celestia, Princess Cadance, Captain Shining Armor and guests." He said, bowing low.

"That's quite alright, Lieutenant." Princess Celestia said, "What is your business?"

"I have urgent news for Captain Shining Armor, Your Majesty." The guard bowed again. Princess Celestia nodded for Shining Armor to take over.

"What is it, Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy?" Shining Armor asked, recognizing the guard as his old friend from the training academy.

Cherry Fizzy was technically on leave to be one of Shining Armor's groom-stallions in his wedding. But with the threat to Canterlot, he and the other groom-stallions had forgone their dress-uniforms for armor and told Shining Armor in no uncertain terms that he was to consider them part of his unit.

Shining Armor had then promptly tried to order them back on leave. Which had worked about as well as expected. So then he tried to invoke an ancient law and instate them as bride-knights to Cadance.

Who had promptly refused to have the number of guards following her around tripled. Again.

So their compromise was to have Cherry Fizzy, Silver Shield and Bronzewing become aide-de-camps. Which basically meant they wore armor, (albeit fancier than standard-issue) and split their time between guarding the couple and helping with the wedding. And now searching for Twilight.

However, that didn't explain why Cherry Fizzy had burst into dining room.

Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy looked around him. "Perhaps we should step outside."

Shining Armor frowned thoughtfully. He had known Cherry Fizzy for years, it wasn't like him to overreact. This must be serious.

Princess Celestia stepped next to Shining Armor.

"It's alright Lieutenant," Princess Celestia said, "These mares aren't bureaucrats, they are the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. They can be trusted."

Lieutenant Cherry Fizzy bowed again, "My apologies, I was unaware of who you were."

"Aw shucks! Don't worry about it." Applejack said, blushing.

"It's quite alright, Lieutenant! And we are perfectly fine with leaving." Rarity said, fluttering her eyelashes.

"We'd hate to intrude..." Fluttershy whispered as she backed towards the doors.

"Hey, I wanna know what's going on! You girls heard the princess, we can totally be trusted!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she blocked her friends' path.

"Yeah, we can have a super secret report super secret party!" Pinkie Pie bounced around putting up decorations and a 'Super Secret Report Super Secret Party' banner.

Cherry Fizzy looked slightly panicked as he tried to follow Pinkie Pie's movements, only to be really panicked when Pinkie pulled a cannon out of her mane. He rushed in front of the princesses to protect them.

"Look out!" Cherry Fizzy shouted as he attempted to push them out of the way. Everypony in the room face-hoofed as the party canon went off with confetti and a puff of pink smoke.

Princess Celestia started chuckling while Cherry Fizzy looked around with a slightly dazed look. His mane was standing on end from the force of he confetti cloud blown out of the cannon. Streamers hung down his face and confetti slowly drifted to the ground as his jaw hang open while he tried to figure out what just happened.

Shining Armor put his hoof on his friend's shoulder.

"It's alright, Fizzy. We've all done it at some point." Shining Armor whispered, trying (unsuccessfully) to smother a few chuckles himself.

Cherry Fizzy glared at his old friend for a few moments before shaking his head and chuckling. It was impossible to be offended in front of so many laughing ponies, when it was clear that none of it was spitefully intended. Especially since several of those ponies had collapsed to rolling around on the floor.

Except for Pinkie Pie, who was giggling from on top of a chandelier.

Comments

[Mystic Solstice]

You know, you did a good idea of a "what if the changeling invasion woke up Discord" story. After all, having a bunch of changelings buzzing around all over the place is a chaotic disaster, isn't it? Remember, Discord could either be freed from his stone prison with the elements of Harmony (as seen in "Keep Calm and Flutter On"), or from surrounding chaos (as seen in "The Return of Harmony, Part 1").

[MeadowRosePony]

6116201 Thank you! I'm glad you like the story so far. I hope it lives up to your expectations. I actually wasn't planning on using Discord originally, but as I was writing he just popped in and it seemed to fit so I kept going! I'm glad I did. It's a much better story this way.
(And Discord is really fun to write!)

[Mystic Solstice]

6116224 You don't have to worry about impressing me----just keep up the good work ;)

[MeadowRosePony]

6116252 Awww thanks! Happy tears

[Mystic Solstice]

6116267 You're welcome. :)

[Fwelin]

6116201
The chaos was only able to make the last push to free discord because the elements were no longer bonded to the ones who imprisoned him. If the main six hadn't freed him, he'd have stayed locked up until at least the main six were dead.

[Mystic Solstice]

6116389 What about the sad moment at the wedding reception? Wouldn't it symbolize the elements being torn apart? Surely, that would give Discord a good amount of energy to break out of his stone prison.

[Fwelin]

6116430
The mane six were still the bearers of the elements after the wedding, so no, they never lost their connection like Celestia and Luna did.

[Mystic Solstice]

Well, remember in the reception room, how those five acted like the exact opposites of the elements of harmony they're bearing? Rarity got greedy for the joy of helping put on a wedding, fluttershy was mean to twilight, pinkie made no effort to cheer twilight up, rainbow dash, when she chose to be loyal to Chrysalis, betrayed twilight at the same time, basically stabbing her in the back. As for applejack, who states herself as a supportive friend, proved that all that was a lie, considering that all she cared about was planning a wedding, instead of friendship. Don't forget the heartbreak twilight felt when her own brother and mentor turned their backs on her. That was a moment where DISHARMONY was shrouding the air. And the wickedness of chrysalis and the changelings lurking throughout canterlot added to it as well. All what happened during that fateful rehearsal night and the changeling invasion served as good foundations for Discord's release by the time this story started.

[MeadowRosePony]

6116564 To Lotrprincess21 and fwelin:
Whoa I didn't expect an argument over this! Should I be flattered or concerned? By the way my response is:
Twilight felt betrayed by her friends and family. She couldn't just forgive them. The trust was broken. Besides there was plenty of chaos all over Equestria. Love chaos, That's the best kind. Discord fed off of the chaos caused by the wedding and the betrayal and the final battle was the surge he needed to get free. Also - my story = my rules
Thanks for reading!

[MeadowRosePony]

6116564 You understand this story so well. Have an Applejack

[Mystic Solstice]

Sorry, MeadowRosePony, i didn't mean to make any trouble.

[Mystic Solstice]

6116465 fwelin, I'm sorry I gave you a hard time with my opinion on how discord got released. Tell you what, let's quit it with the discord-infested bickering and go back to being harmony loving bronies/pegasisters who love reading my little pony fanfiction. In other words, let's call it a truce and get back to enjoying the story.

[MeadowRosePony]

6116607 Don't worry. A little harmless debating never caused trouble. I actually enjoyed reading the comments. You both made really good points. I'm flattered that you enjoyed the story enough to take the time to debate about it!

[Mystic Solstice]

6117726 Thanks, MeadowRosePony

[Emperor]

You should probably cut some of Discord's paragraphs in half thirds quarter segments. They get really, ridiculously big.

I see Discord has names for the rest of the Mane 6, but nothing for Twilight, eh?