Why her?
"I don't understand," said the draconequus for what seemed like the umpteenth time.
Fluttershy sighed. Explaining the concept of friendship to Discord was difficult at the best of times, but it was even harder when he was emotionally distraught. She'd come to learn that about the draconequus; He seemed to ride on his emotions and when he did it was without reigns. He also seemed to be very paranoid, a fact he was unlikely to admit any time soon.
"I've explained it to you, Discord," she said in a soft tone that belied her seemingly infinite patience. "She didn't understand what true friendship meant. She was lonely, and hurting. Like you."
"She's nothing like me," he growled. "Do you really think I would make ponies even more boring that most of them already are?"
He had said "most ponies" instead of "all ponies" because he was including Fluttershy in that equation. And Pinkie Pie. And possibly Sparky when she wasn't being an insufferable know-it-all book worm. He had only just started to get to know the others. There had been one particular weekend where everyone had laughed at his jokes and the incident with the hose had brought everyone out of their shells and they had all ended up laying on haystacks at Sweet Apple Acres, their bellies and heads full of cider, looking up at the stars and laughing as Discord made the constellations into shapes, some very rude. Even the demure Rarity had snorted cider out of her nose at that one.
Then she had come along and ruined everything. And they had all accepted her instantly. She didn't have to learn anything. Instead it was open arms instantly.
This was different from Treehugger. This was the principle of the thing. Treehugger had been a friend he was jealous of for a silly reason. This other pony didn't deserve Fluttershy's kindness. He knew only too well how freely she offered it to all beings. Someone was bound to take advantage of it at some point.
"How do you know you can trust her?" he said.
"She seems genuinely sorry for what she's done."
"You thought I was genuinely sorry for what I'd done."
"Aren't you?"
"Of course I am! But...maybe I was unsure before. So how do you know she isn't unsure?"
"If anything I think we should have shown you more trust. It's clear that you needed it or you wouldn't have betrayed us."
He laughed at her. "That makes no sense you daft bird-horse!"
"I would have thought that would appeal to you."
"Touché. But...surely you see my point, Fluttershy? You can't let your guard down. She messed with time. I've only known of two other beings in history that can do that properly, and one of them is me. You didn't even see the versions of Equestria she put Twilight and Spike in. I went back and had a look at them. They aren't pretty. Except perhaps for the one with the unicycle."
"Unicycle?"
"The unicycle's not the point!" said Discord quickly. "The point is she's got a lot of power, and I don't want anyone getting the sharp end of that, especially not you." He had coiled his body around the pegasus as he said this.
"Discord, you're worrying too much."
"Oh, the irony! She tells me I'm worrying too much."
"But you are," said Fluttershy. "Starlight Glimmer was in a very similar position to Twilight once, but she was unlucky. She didn't have a good mentor like Twilight does with Celestia. She didn't have anyone to guide her and help her. She didn't have the education. In fact, she's self-taught. Do you know how hard it is to learn magic on your own?"
Discord cringed when he heard the pony's name. He didn't like hearing it on Fluttershy's sweet voice. "I wouldn't have a clue," he said, deadpan.
"Oh...sorry," said Fluttershy. "I didn't mean...It's just you make it look so easy that I forget."
That was enough to soothe his hackled feathers when it came to his magical skills, but everything else still felt up in the air. He began pacing across the room, up the wall, and across the ceiling of Fluttershy's cottage. "It's just..." he was saying, gesticulating his forelimbs wildly as he spoke, "...I know a lot Fluttershy. I'm not bragging, I just mean that over centuries I know what ponies that do bad things are capable of. A lot of them will even go so far as to seem completely normal; they'll put on a facade. Are you really sure she's a "nice" "normal" mare, Shy? That could just be to reel you in."
"I'm not being reeled in," she said firmly, looking up at him while he looked down at her from the ceiling.
"But you wouldn't realize it if you were being reeled in," Discord insisted. "That's part of it, and then when you have your guard down completely she'd probably try and take Twilight's throne or something. I mean, have you guys even discussed this?"
"We did deliberate for about an hour."
Discord laughed. He sounded even more unhinged than he usually did. "An hour? Is that all? How many hours have you deliberated about me? I mean, I know I am a truly fascinating specimen and entire books have and should be written about me, but that hardly seems fair, does it?"
"Fair?"
"Well, sure. How come she gets forgiveness right away and I had to have those...those...things threatening me for years?" He shuddered and she knew he was talking about the Elements of Harmony. They no longer needed them, and Discord no longer posed a threat anyway. She also realized why he was taking this so hard all of a sudden.
"Discord, it may not seem fair to you, but we're actually doing with Starlight Glimmer exactly what we should have done with you. We should have given you more of the benefit of the doubt. All of us should have."
"No! You are missing the point", he said. He was now swinging back and forth on the ceiling like an agitated bat. "I...I know kindness is what you are. It's your thing. But it's also very attractive to predators. At some point you're going to offer kindness to someone who will totally use it against you."
"I have my friends to support me if that happens."
"You think it's that easy to get over it? It isn't." He flipped down from the ceiling and landed in front of her. "It would leave a lasting mark."
He was speaking as if he'd had it done to him. "Besides, you're the one who exposed her at the village, so she'd probably go after you first. Especially you." His paw was on her shoulder now.
"Discord, I appreciate your concern, but I really don't think that's going to happen. I really think you should give her a chance."
His feathers rose again and he turned away from her, his tail swishing back and forth.
"You might find you actually have a lot in common..."
This was the wrong thing to say, and Discord reacted almost instantly. "I'm nothing like her! She's all about sameness and being static and boring! I would never make ponies all be the same. Do you know how messed up that is? When everyone has exactly the same ideas and nothing is ever challenged and everyone even tries to look the same. You may as well all be dead!"
He was shouting now and looked distraught.
"I didn't mean...and anyway she's changed. She's not like that anymore."
Discord laughed. "Ponies don't change, Fluttershy, not really. There's always something about them that will remain at their core. Something integral."
"But that wasn't really who she was. It was a coping mechanism she'd adopted to not allow herself to feel pain."
"It's pathetic, really," said Discord. He was suddenly wearing a wig that looked very much like Starlight Glimmer's hair. He spoke in a high pitched voice. "Boo hoo hoo. My friend got her cutie mark before me and left town so I adopted the path of evil and created a town that would have made the Bullsheviks proud and stole the thing that made everything creative and special because I wasn't special enough myself. Oh, pity me. Pity me, society." He dabbed his face with an orange hanky covered with pictures of Starlight Glimmer's face.
"It's not pity," said Fluttershy. She was beginning to feel extremely annoyed with him. "Discord, surely you of all people can relate to what it's like to be alone and friendless and have no one understand you? I really hope you don't think I'm your friend merely out of pity".
He sighed. "Of course not. But...Fluttershy." He hesitated.
"Yes?" she said softly.
"Nothing," he said. He wanted to ask her why it had taken so long for everyone to accept him. He wanted to ask her why even she had balked sometimes when he wanted to be included in something, why she seemed to think that he knew more about friendship that he actually did at times and she seemed to think this was all very easy. He wanted to ask her if she still found his chaos scary sometimes. How dare that upstart mare suddenly seem to have everything fall into place when he still felt like he was struggling with all of...all of...whatever this was! He liked having friends. He actually liked it more than turning the world upside down, which was the only reason it currently wasn't. But that didn't mean he still wasn't confused about a whole lot, especially with regards to his pegasus friend.
Instead he said: "I don't trust her."
"Of course you don't. But if you got to know her, maybe you could."
He looked down at the small pegasus, looking up at him with her hopeful and encouraging eyes.
"Mmmph!" he grunted, balling his fists. "Fine. I'll try," he said tersely. Though he made a mental note that he was only going to put in minimal effort. Why should he be the one to first extend the paw of friendship? Let her do all the work, like he had.
Fluttershy's arms snaked round his cylindrical form from behind and he felt her head resting on his back. "Thank you, Discord."
He patted her head with his paw. He really wanted to change the subject. "Can we have tea?"
"I'll get the cups and plates," she said.
He sat down on the couch, looking around at her living room. He really hoped Tuesday Tea would remain between him and Fluttershy. He wasn't sure what he would do if another pony came into that. If Starlight Glimmer started arriving at their tea parties it would destroy a special activity that he had only reserved for Fluttershy. What other special things would she destroy, with her need to make everything equal? His heart hurt just thinking about it, and he felt sick.
Fluttershy came through with the tea tray.
"Hope you like macaroons!" she said, cheerfully. Discord forced a smile. He would enjoy it while he could. The unicorn couldn't take that away from him, at least.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- GivingSpider · 1.4k words · 61 3 · 3.5k views
- atomicpuffin · 11k words · 109 5 · 4.5k views
- Hecallsmehischild · 4.6k words · 88 1 · 3k views
- GivingSpider · 1.1k words · 35 5 · 2k views
- taterforlife · 5.8k words · 52 3 · 2.2k views
- misskoifishpony · 4.8k words · 50 0 · 3k views
- Dixie Darlin · 4.1k words · 98 2 · 3.2k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
1,050 users online
1,893,041 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
10/10
Wat
6963371
Yeah, confirmed by John de Lancie.
This is basically perfect. Of course Discord would be mad that someone gets acceptance immediately from the Mane Six when he had to do a lot over the span of what, two years, to get it when
Taking all that into account, thinking that Discord wouldn't be at least a little angry over something like this wouldn't make sense. He'd probably think that if he had to do so much then she should receive equal treatment in the regards of trust and friendship. (Oh the irony
) As we've obviously seen with Tree Hugger, he's susceptible to get jealous and angry over silly things. In this case though, he's got pretty much every single reason to be feeling like this.
6963371
6963375
I only saw that there were two episodes featuring Discord, not that there was a two-parter for him. Not the point, I suppose.
As to the story, I think you hit Discord's feelings on Starlight quite nicely. He is right about her on multiple accounts. But I also see where Fluttershy is coming from here.
Discord and Starlight locking horns needs to happen. Like five minutes of them going back-and-forth before being broken up by Twilight and Fluttershy.
6963417
Well, to be fair, we don't know if he caused the death of any ponies in the past. In my headcanon he did, but indirectly. i.e. he wouldn't allow any organisation to happen, such as laws or community groups, so ponies would have gotten hurt or died because there was no protection. There was no war either, because this would have also involved organisation, but awful things did still happen like famine and widespread one-off crimes.
He is kind of being a hypocrite here, but at the same time I do kind of sympathize with him. I've been in his position and felt like it just wasn't FAIR that I was treated differently, dammit. However, as time passed I realize how petty it all was and how my paranoia and jealousy mainly caused problems for myself. Hindsight is a wonderful, wonderful thing. :P
6963444
He said: "Head's up two more Discord episodes coming up. I think one of them is a two-parter."
I would also love it if this happened. We shall see...
6963445 I can't prove or disprove it since it's headcanon so I don't have an argument against it or anything, but it does sort of make sense.
Though one thing is for sure. I feel really sorry for Discord. I don't feel sorry for Starlight whatsoever. That's not a good thing considering Starlight actually has a backstory and Discord really doesn't. (I say a lot that some of the best villains in animated history don't have backstories and are just evil for the sake of being evil. Try giving too much of a backstory to villains like that, and you get things like Maleficent) I've got legitimate reasons for not liking Starlight, but at the same time I can't help but feel like I'm just salty because MLP does redemption for the most part really badly when shows like Steven Universe and Avatar do it better, and at the same time, shows like Gravity Falls have a great recurring villain that's totally evil even until his very last words and is not shown mercy for the things he's done even when he's begging for his life.
Sorry for the rant about that, it's just whenever things about the finale and Starlight's redemption are brought up, I get super fucking analytical and triggered and junk because I hate the ending to the finale on so many levels. Seriously, you don't even know.
6963474
As someone who learnt the hard way that people don't merit immediate trust, I agree with you when it comes to redemption. In reality not everyone is deserving of forgiveness, so I actually feel a bit miffed when villians are forgiven so easily. When I first watched Keep Calm and Flutter on I was like "really? That's way too fast!" So I was glad when they brought Discord back he was mischievous and sneaky and his character arc developed across the 4th season.
There is only so much they can do with 20 minute episodes, and in the world of MLP perhaps everyone who is forgiven does merit it, but real life is another matter entirely.
Haha, it's all good! I think I stole that term myself from tumblr.
Loved this. I actually wondered the same thimg myself, why Starlight got such an easy acceptance with love and butterflies and cupcakes with little to no admonishment from anypony. Discord was not trusted nearly as fast when he was first released. So i think Fluttershy telling him trust was the key thing makes sense.
But the last part was the best part and here's why.
Discord: AHEM, sorry, newbie, but this is my special time with Fluttershy. Tuesday Tea does not include YOU.
Starlight: ...What? Tuesday Tea? But today is Sunday...?
XD He's such a needy baby.
Is this getting a sequel?
It's only natural Discord would feel jealous of Starlight Glimmer. Discord had to work for his redemption, and had to put up with not being trusted for at least the better half of a year. Starlight Glimmer on the other hoof, was automatically taken in and accepted with no ill feelings what so ever, and unlike Discord she didn't realize the error of her ways when presented with a chance to do the right thing. If Twilight hadn't talked her into submission, Starlight would've ripped up the spell and continued to mess with time forever.
6963417
I think it makes sense from a pony's perspective, even if not Discord's. Especially not Discord's because he doesn't really believe what he did was wrong - just that continuing to do it would make his friends angry with him again and that he should stop/hold back.
Where from a pony perspective, Starlight made a very equine mistake with FAR too much power at her command. Power which she is now cut off from. But at the end of the day she's still a pony. Discord is an ancient being of Chaos, unpredictable and too-often showing that he still has all of his power. It's harder to trust someone who makes a habit of showing you how scary they are and reminding you of all the bad things they've done simply from their displays.
From what we -know- of Discord he's done less than Starlight, even though I believe he's done much more than simply turn the world stupid and whimsical. His window in Canterlot Castle wouldn't have pony-puppets dancing over flames if it'd just been silly-wacky-hijinx. I digress. The point is she created a bunch of alternate timelines where there was a ton of death and suffering and nothing told us they no longer exist. While it might not affect the Alpha Timeline, she still has the bloodiest hooves of anyone in the MLP lore - and considering there's been dark gods aplenty, necromancers, and flesh-tearing critters in old MLP, her killcount standing at the highest is fairly impressive and ridiculous.
So, if we go entirely by what was shown and not what makes sense, Starlight has done more harm than Discord, even if she didn't mean to. Which does factor in to how we look at Discord and have to be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN that he's on the up and up, because he actually meant to do all the bad things he's done as opposed to an idiot mare's temper tantrum that spawned grimdark worlds of murder, war, and butch lesbian haircuts.
6964241
Not for the forseeable. I want to see if Discord does actually come to blows with Starlight in canon first.
I'm really into this idea. I didn't even give any thought to how Discord would react to the acceptance of Starlight glimmer but it makes perfect sense.
If anything this just made me more excited for season 6.
6965892
Since the Season 5 premiere, I've thought that the idea of Starlight Glimmer's village was Discord's worst nightmare come true, and after seeing the season finale, and how quickly she was accepted into the fold, yeah...you better believe that would grate on him.
Many predators nod, "We would totally eat her the moment her back is turned."
And Discord's two-parter will be... he betrays them again! But this time when things go south he's REALLY sorry! And he cries some and is instantly forgiven!
(I'm hoping it'll be backstory... a well thought-out backstory and not another Starlight Glimmer 'wut' backstory of lameness.)
6967228
I'd actually be happy if we never got too much of Discord's backstory. Or at least not too much of HOW he became the Spirit of Chaos.
JDL has said this episode will be a little darker than most and its message is geared more towards adults, so I wouldn't be surprised if it is about how Discord just can't deal with the fact that someone who has done similiar/worse things than him gets a seemingly free pass when he's not taking into account that he was making it difficult to trust him in the first place.
6968366 There's no reason he could not ALWAYS have been a spirit of chaos.
The real question is, how did he enter their world in the first place? If he'd always been present, he'd have taken over a very long time before he did as there was simply nothing powerful enough to oppose him.
But we know the ponies came together during Hearths Warming with no trace of him yet. So, where did a creature as powerful as a god come from?
I have always liked the idea that Discord and the changelings have a combined backstory... involving windigoes in Flutter Valley of the distant past.
As for the episode... frankly, I'm pissed they just forgave Starlight Glimmer like that. And primarily from a storytelling standpoint. That's just terrible tiny kiddie-level stuff right there and makes the assumption kids can't handle the consequences of bad decisions. It'd be like forgiving the White Witch if she cried and said she was sorry.
And yet this is the same series that gave us Discord's betrayal to Tirek and the DBZ action scene... and then Starlight and Twilight blasting at each other... it's so tonally inconsistent!
I heard that S6 finale involve both Discord and Chrysalis.
6972021 where's the info from just out of interest?
6972041 Theories based on Guardians of Harmony toyline and John De Lancie stating that Discord will appear in a two-parter which may be darker than other episodes. Equestria Daily noted that Discord toys will also appear in this toy set later this year. And Chrysalis with changelings is the only villain in that toyline.
Well, and mind controlling Discord instead of Shining Armor also seem like an obvious choice for Chrysalis.
I love this! You point out so many things I noticed in the show, good and bad!
Of course Discord would hate Starlight Glimmer's Our Town where everything is the same. In my WIP FiMfics, Discord goes with the Mane 6 in the season 5 premiere and he finds the town to be almost agonizing to his chaotic nature.
And I agree it's ridiculous how Discord had to wait several episodes before everyone really accepts him as a friend where Starlight Glimmer is right away! It looks racist that way.
And now, of course, we know the answer to your speculation in the end A/N! I read this before that happened in canon, but that doesn't really matter as I enjoyed this mainly for its fun, believable Discord.
I actually really like Starlight and Discord’s interaction in canon, but honesty I can 100% imagine this being his first reaction. It’s a fair point; Discord was treated with apprehension if not outright dislike by the mane cast for quite a while, but Starlight screwed reality in an arguably worse way and was forgiven immediately. I liked the acknowledgement that they’d treated Discord incorrectly, though. Also:
"She seems genuinely sorry for what she's done."
"You thought I was genuinely sorry for what I'd done."
"Aren't you?" 😂😂
I love this idea! It completely fits in with Discords character & I can imagine this being a problem with him at first
This was a little treat of show-like slice of life. Not a lot of stories really handle their friendship with quite the skill you have for Discord and Fluttershy's dialogue.