Chapter 1
It always rains at funerals.
Pegasi carted in dark clouds and kicked them just before the ceremony started, letting loose a downpour over that small, flower-covered hill. It must have been a miserable job, Discord mused to himself, to be a weather-pony on funeral duty. Most ponies only had to face death a handful of times in their lives, but for these pegasi, it was their job. Servicing the mourning and the bereaved, day in and day out. It must have been depressing to have to deal with death so often.
Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe, if you spent your whole life surrounding by the grieving and the knowledge of mortality, maybe you just...got used to it. Somehow, Discord decided, that was worse.
The funeral was...nice, in a word. Discord had never really known what made a funeral good. Flowers? A nice coffin? A heartfelt and moving eulogy? If it was the last one, Discord thought, then he had certainly failed his oldest and most cherished friend. He had wanted to say something meaningful, something to make her proud of him. But no matter how much he was wracked his brain he could not find the words to do justice to what he was really feeling. Anything he came up with seemed hollow and trite, and would certainly be forgotten in a week or two at the most. When the time came, he had only managed to put together three, little words to send his oldest friend off:
“I’ll miss you.”
Maybe she was disappointed in him for that. He hoped not. He hoped that, wherever she was, she knew what those words had meant to him. It may have been short, it may not have been original, but if nothing else, it had been the truth.
Discord felt the rain stop and he looked up to see a purple umbrella levitating over his head. He turned to look at the source of the magic, and saw a familiar, purple Alicorn standing next to him.
“Princess Twilight,” he said, closing his eyes and giving the smallest bow of his head. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“I wouldn’t miss this,” Twilight said. Discord knew that was true. She had been at every other funeral of her friends, there was no reason to believe that this one would be different. But it was different, to him. “How are you holding up?”
Discord sighed. “As well as could be expected,” he said. “I’ll never really understand funerals, you know? They don’t really serve any purpose, and they’re not fun. So, what’s the point?”
“Some ponies get closure from it,” Twilight said, taking a seat next to Discord. “It lets us say goodbye.”
Discord looked at Twilight, his eyes analyzing her still-young face. “Does it help you?” he asked. Twilight stared down at the ground, absentmindedly tracing a hoof in the mud.
“No,” she said. “Not really.” She turned back to look at Discord. “That’s a nice suit,” she said.
“Thank you,” Discord said. It was a simple exchange, the sort that, if it was between anyone else, would probably have been small talk. But Discord could hear the underlying, ‘I noticed that you’re not wearing a polka-dot bowtie and orange blazer’ beneath Twilight’s words. Discord may not have understood it, but apparently there was a proper way to say goodbye to a friend who had passed on, and that meant wearing a very traditional suit. He could bend this much for friendship, he told himself. “So…” he said, deciding that enough idle chatter had passed for him to get to the real reason why Twilight had approached him, “I take it you are here to see how I will react to Fluttershy’s death?”
Twilight’s head tilted, and her expression betrayed nothing. Years of mentorship under Princess Celestia had given her a rather unbreakable poker face, when she wanted it. To think that a few decades ago she had been so bad at lying…“I don’t know what you mean, Discord,” she said. “You’re my friend. Of course I want to know if you’re alright.”
“I’m sure you do,” Discord said, waving his hand and gently brushing aside a few storm clouds from the spot where he and Twilight were sitting. It needed to rain at funerals, but that did not mean he had to be completely soaked. “And I’m sure your concern is genuine. I really am. But you also want to know if Fluttershy was the only thing keeping me from taking Equestria back for myself. If, with her gone, I’m planning to return to my wicked ways and bring about a new age of chaos.” Again, Twilight’s face revealed nothing. “And I’m sure that, ever since that...unpleasantness with Tirek, you and the other princesses have been trying to find a way to reel me in, if I ever decide to go rogue again. For years you’ve probably been quietly working on something to contain me, just on the off chance that you ever needed it.” There it was, a tiny twitch on Twilight’s eyebrow, a small tell to be sure, but enough for Discord to notice. He had been at this game for far too long not to.
“I don’t blame you, Twilight. I would have done the same thing, in your position. It’s always good to have an ace up your sleeve.” With that, Discord pulled a playing card from under his claw and dropped it down to Twilight. It was, of course, an ace. “So, tell me Princess...did you succeed? Did you find something that could stop me if I decided that without Fluttershy this whole ‘friendship’ thing isn’t really worth it? The Rainbow Power, perhaps? Or maybe you managed to put back together the pieces of Chrysalis’ throne? Or did you and that apprentice of yours find a way to tap into the Tree of Harmony and turn me back into stone?”
Not a single tell. Not a facial twitch, not an extra blink, not even an averted glance to tell Discord whether or not she had succeeded. He had to commend her, she was really learning how to play her cards close to the chest. “Am I going to need something like that?” Twilight asked, simply. Her tone was neutral, conversational, like she was asking about the weather, or politely asking about his day. She was either sitting on a royal flush, just waiting for him to call her, or she was bluffing on a hand of mismatched cards she had desperately tried and failed to connect. And for the life of him, Discord could not tell which it was.
But, then again, it hardly mattered.
“No,” he said. “You don’t.”
Despite it all, a small smile made its way to Twilight’s face. “I knew I wouldn’t,” she said.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Discord said, “that was my plan, once. A pony’s life is short. When I first decided to ‘reform’, I told myself, ‘Okay, this pegasus girl is interesting. I like her, I like being her friend, but she won’t be my friend if I turn Equestria into my own personal playground of chaos. So, I’ll behave, for now. I have an eternity to do whatever I want, so why not spend a lifetime or so playing nice with this little pony?’ I really intended to go right back to The King of Chaos the moment she passed on, or got boring to me. She was...a distraction. A way to pass a few decades before getting back to some real chaos.”
Twilight gave an understanding nod, like she had worked all this out years before. “What changed?” she asked.
Discord sighed. “I think...I did. For a while, friendship was a burden with some nice perks. But the more time I spent with her, the more I started to value it for its own sake. Because of her, I made friends with Spike and Big Mac, you, Princess Celestia and Luna...it started to have value on its own. And I won’t disrespect her memory by going back to the way I used to be, just because she’s not here to disapprove of it.”
Twilight placed a hoof on Discord’s shoulder and gave him a warm look. “I’m proud of you, Discord,” she said. “And I’m sure she would be too.”
“I hope so,” he said, sighing. “I hope so…” He closed his eyes. “For whatever it’s worth, I tried to save her. And not just her, either. All of our friends. Pinkie Pie. Rarity. Rainbow Dash. Your brother. I did everything I could to stall their passing. But at a certain point...there wasn’t anything I could do anymore.”
“I know,” Twilight said. Discord gave a puzzled look. This he had not seen coming.
“You knew? How?”
“If you think I haven’t noticed that the average lifespan around here had gone up significantly since you arrived, you clearly don’t know me that well,” Twilight said, giving Discord a playful punch on the arm. “Plus...you haven’t been up to your usual antics for at least thirty years. Oh, occasionally you’ll put on a little show, but nowhere near on the scale that you used to. So, either you got bored of using chaos magic for your own amusement, which was...unlikely. Or, you were using it for something else. Something you thought was more important.”
There was a moment of silence. Twilight was the one to break it. “So, what’s next?” she asked. “Are you going to try to find another pony like her?”
Discord shook his head. “I don’t think that would be possible. And, even if it was...no. I won’t reduce her to an...archetype that way. No, this is what I’m going to do.” Discord stood up. “I am going to go home. And I am going to be sad that my friend is dead. Fluttershy wouldn’t want me to be sad, but I think she’d forgive me for mourning her a little longer.”
Twilight nodded. “I’m sure she would.”
“And then,” Discord said, turning to Twilight and throwing a handful of confetti and streamers from both hands, “I am going to throw this town the biggest party they’ve ever seen. At that animal shelter she loved so much. I’ll make sure that, even with her gone, ponies will still go there, and take care of the animals she cared about.”
“Pinkie Pie would be so proud,” Twilight said.
With that, Discord left. The life of a pony is short, and the life of a Draconequus is very long. They outlive friendships, and to many this may make the whole ordeal seem pointless. But maybe even an impermanent thing can have a permanent impact. Maybe the good a thing can do can outlive the thing itself.
Fluttershy was never one for ostentation. Discord did not hang her picture in the stars as a constellation or carve her face into a mountain, to ensure that no one would ever forget her. Many would not even know that she had existed. This is not a terrible fate, most ponies pass without the world knowing about them, and the impact that they made. And for a shy pony that shirked away from the spotlight, a peaceful, private rest was far more respectful than having her name echo throughout eternity. But she would be remembered, even if it was only by one, and the impact she had on him would follow him like a whisper. A conscience for a god.
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It's a very sweet take on this subject. It's the good kind of sad, so nicely done.
I think this is quite possibly the best "Discord deals with Fluttershy's death" story I've ever seen, because of how natural and real it feels. A lot of people assume some kind of Wagnerian opera behavior from Discord, whether it's setting the sky on fire, giving up his own immortality, or just crying hysterically, but over time, if he follows the trajectory he's been following, I expect him to change. Discord who's been living among ponies for many years would be very different than Discord as he is now. This is very powerful because it feels right.
7753822 Thank you so much
I'm glad you enjoyed it
That was surprisingly touching. Not over the top with the sadness, which was nice. It had a personal touch. I liked that.
7753841 That's very nice of you to say, thank you
I like Discord, to be honest, and I like to imagine that he's maturing emotionally as his friendship with Fluttershy and the others goes on. I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for reading!
7753848 Thank you! I really didn't want to write something too sad. And, honestly, Discord's response here is to a degree based off of my own experience with funerals, which tends to be more subdued. I'm glad you found it touching. Thanks for reading!
I didn't know what to expect when I clicked on this one...
Understated, well written, and the characterization was completely on point. I would love to see this story in the feature box. Bravo.
I liked it. I liked it very much.
It's good overall, but a few of the sentences were worded a bit oddly here and there among a few other minor issues.
Example:
I feel it could be changed to this just to make the flow better:
It's a minor change, but I think it improves the flow.
Nice story, and I hope to see more from you.
For some reason i want to punch twilight for not crying.......FOR FLUTTERSHY!!!!!!
Like come one you would have to be fucked up in the head
to not cry for her being ......'gone'.....just'gone'
You say that you want to write stories that make people smile, but were afraid this wouldn't be one? Sure, the subject matter of this story is sad, but the story itself had it's own little happy notes. And in the end, I smiled. A job well done.
bitter sweet
nice 
I liked it, and added it to my faves too
It was pretty touching, and a sad story is good in it's own way too. Dealing with greif is natural, don't be afraid to publish stories like this should you want to in the future.
I was a bit surprised to see a non-EqG story but the decision to give it a read was an easy one anyway since I didn't expect you would be a "one trick pony" so to say. Glad to find out I was right! Very nice and touching little scene. The absense of dramatics and the wise, quiet acceptance is very welcome. In this way I find this better than stuff like that "remembrance" video or other fanfics that exaggerate how broken everyone gets over someone dying. It kinda reflects the overly obsessed fans among us that try not to imagine life after this show ends (or the fandom creativity dies down, if that hypothtically goes on for a bit afterwards). I imagine even despite all the haters these characters we've grown so attached to over the years won't ever be forgotten and will have their little secure niche in the world's culture history.
By the way, have you ever read that one story from before season 3 where Discord was in his statue, and Celestia had assigned a pony to, like, visit him and talk to him or something like that, and then that pony eventually died, and Discord broke out (I don't remember why he was able to, though) but it turned out he'd gotten so attached to that pony that he was a changed person and I think he just went to live under a mountain or something? It was very early on in my fimfic life, I don't remember it too well. Man, if only we could go back in time and tell the people watching season two what they'd be seeing in a few years!
Right in the feels this is sad but good
Opposite of smiling?
Congratulations. I frowned throughout the story.
7753919
No, I think the first is better. Your suggestion makes it one overlong sentence. That's harder for most people to read.
Wow...that is a lot more feedback for this story than I was expecting!
Thank you, everyone, for your kind words!
7753864 I'm so glad you think so
I was a little worried about characterization, since this takes place so far in the future. It was tough not having Discord casually throwing chaos magic around, but I felt he wouldn't have the heart for it on any real scale at Fluttershy's funeral. I'm glad you think this deserves to be featured 
Thanks for reading, and for the fave!
7753899 I'm glad you did!
Thanks so much for reading!
7753919 I'm glad you liked it!
I'll be honest, I realize that sometimes my wording can be a little...off from most people's. I sort of feel more comfortable in a "train of thought"-style narrative, which is sort of what I'm going for here. Thank you for the feedback, and thank you for reading!
7753932 Thank you so much! I'm glad you found this one good enough to fave!
I was sort of worried that this concept had been done to death (no pun intended) and that I'd just be retreading old ground, so I'm glad that it didn't give that impression to you. Thanks for faving!
7753984 In all fairness to Twilight, people mourn in a lot of different ways, some not overtly sad. I'm not sure how well it came across here, but the impression I was trying to give was that both Twilight and Discord had, by this point, lived through the deaths of a lot of loved ones, and that Fluttershy's passing was far from unexpected for either of them. So, they were both prepared to manage their grief when the time finally did come. Thanks for reading!
7753986 Well, I'm glad that I could make you smile, even given the subject matter
I really wanted this to come across as optimistic, despite the situation. I'm glad you liked it, and thank you so much for the fave! 
7754096 Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
7754106 I'm glad that you liked it, and thank you for faving!
I may touch on subject matter like this again in the future, but I really feel more at home with comedy/romance. Don't get me wrong, there are some amazing dark fanfictions out there, but to me, this show is about spreading happiness, and that's, for the most part, what I'd like to try to emulate in my writing here. But, still, a change of pace every once in a while can't be bad, right? 
7754109 Hahaha, "one-trick pony"
I agree, I think the impact this series has had on the world is going to be long-lived...though, in this day and age, at this level of popularity, that's practically guaranteed. I'm going to be honest, I was scared that it might turn out that SunLight was actually the only thing in this series that I could write, so I'm glad that you enjoyed this completely unrelated and differently-toned piece 
I don't think I've read the story you're referring to...but, then again, I only got into the fandom relatively recently, so I could very easily have missed it if it wasn't particularly popular. Was it good? Do you happen to remember the name?
7754526 I made myself sad writing this one...but I'm glad you enjoyed it anyways!
Thanks for reading!
7754725 Aww, I'm sorry
I'm hoping that my next piece will be more positive. But, I'm glad you liked it enough to fave anyways!...assuming you didn't mis-click 
Thanks for reading!
7755058 I didn't remember the name at all but I searched with the Discord tag, ordered by views and completed stories only and it was literally second amongst the results. "Keepers of Discord" I definitely thought it was very good at the time, but then again my general understanding of story structure, writing and all that jazz (as well as some of my tastes) have shifted a lot since then. But it's definitely an interesting story and I recommend it heartily.
In the related stories I also found this which I also had read before and which I was somewhat reminded of when I saw your story (these two being the only ones I am familiar with that tackle the subject of Discord's immortality in relation to a pony or few). It's pretty short, I can recommend it too.
Speaking of getting into the fandom recently... Remembering "Keepers of Discord" reminded me what a wild place fanfics were for me back around season two. I guess you completely missed out on that stage. Now maybe it's just me, but back during that season the show felt incredibly uncertain and disjointed, even if many, many episodes were amazing. We had sort of minimal continuity and extremely minimal returning characters. Twilight's future and the direction everyone's destinies were going were completely murky. Heck, even I got into the show later than many, imagine not knowing what Princess Luna was supposed to be like for the entire first season. But the state of the show early on, while nothing negative, spawned so much more wild headcanons and crazy alterlate takes on stuff that merely remembering how all over the place people's ideas were makes me immensely uncomfortable. But only in the context of the show's current state which has invalidated most of those old ideas. Such a weird feeling, I only wish I could describe it better. Just, something like Coco Pommel, Maud Pie, current Discord or current Trixie or the Flim Flam bros' repeated appearances were completely unimaginable back then. And Twilight was more or less an eternal student without purpose in her life. *Shudder*
Had the same idea as you mate. But I guess you beat me to it....you wouldn't happen to mind me using some ideas from this story when I take this story and add my own personal flare to it, would you?
7755477 I'd be flattered
I hope you have fun! Would you mind letting me know when it's done, so I can read it?
Thanks for the fave!
7755487 Thanks. You deserve the fav ( just noticed that all my faves have Discord in it). I will make sure to tell you when it is done. But it won't be straight away. No point in putting it out right now, when this is already here. I will probably wait till I am done writing my current fic. Just hope I don't forget the main things i want to add......actually let me use this post to remember.
* Youtube video Remembrance
* Discord lonely stone prison.
* Discord world
* Pursuit of immortality
This is a beautiful way to deal with this topic. I'm glad that I read it.
I've always liked to think discord would start the tradition of a Dio de los Muertos-style festival in equestria. Remembering the dead by celebrating their lives.
7755875 I'm glad that you read it too!
And I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for faving!
7755894 That seems like a very positive approach to it
I'm sort of imagining here that Discord will be taking that sort of approach...after he's had a little time to settle down emotionally, of course. Thanks for reading, and for the fave!
7755058 uhhhh. Yeah....I uhhhh. ...wanted to see what that star thing did. Is that what it does? Well. Let me just...Un-click it
(I find it hard to do just that)
I really like seeing stories hundreds of years into the future. The mane five are dead. Twilight stands in her place with the other princesses and Discord. Spike is either gone or a full grown drake. Flurry heart's an adult.
I wonder what kind of path someone could take this down...
7755956 Yeah I've always liked the idea of celebrating the dead in addition to mourning. I wish we had something like that here in western culture. :/ I think it's healthier to incorporate death with life than to view it as a complete termination.
7757495
In Mexico they celebrate Día de Muertos (Day of the Dead), instead of Halloween. Day of the Dead is about celebrating and remembering the deceased as they are now the next life.
7756553 But... the Quote of Destiny! "Twilight will not outlive her friends..."
WHAT DID THAT MEAN?!
7756553 I'm glad you enjoyed it
I imagined this story taking place ~70 years later (putting the mortal cast in their nineties or so by the time they finally passed on). I'm honestly not sure if there's potential for a sequel here, I personally think it works better as a one-shot. Thanks for reading!
7759270 I took that one at pretty much face value, to mean that Twilight hadn't actually gotten immortality like Celestia and Luna as part of her ascension...I just decided to ignore that quote for this story, because I think it works better if Twilight is immortal as well (giving Discord someone to talk to who could relate with him). Thanks for reading!
7759200 ...yes? Isn't that what I said earlier? I know what the Day of the Dead celebration is. I'd have to if I were promoting it, yes?
7759387
Oh, I didn't see that, sorry about that.
But you did say in the WESTERN world, and Mexico is in the Western Hemisphere. So I assumed you meant Mexico too.
7759858 yeah, western culture not western hemisphere. I know it's kinda nonsensical, but culturally speaking, "western" doesn't include south or central america. It's all cool.
7759308 Or maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe it means Twilight is going to have to SACRIFICE HERSELF to save her friends from a mutant alien wizard!
Or nothing at all... since the writers are all new now and don't really seem to care about continuity all that much anyway.
7753864
I agree with Sparky Brony totally taking a word from him to read a beautiful story and boy was he right you EntityRelationship ahould be vary proud of this work of art.
7761338 That's very nice of you to say, thank you so much!
I'm glad that you enjoyed it so much! Thanks for reading!
7760324
I love geography, it's one of the few topics in school I'm really good at, but sometimes it confuses me because it doesn't make sense. The Mason Dixon Line (what supposedly divides the north and south United States) is the northern border of Missouri, which makes no geographical sense at all. That just my two cents.
Western culture just counts for American and Candian culture yet the Western Hemisphere includes more than 20 other countries... Damn politics.
wow a very nice and touching story :D Fav!
sad though xD hoped for a bit of romance at the end between Twi and Discord ^^
7770363 Thank you so much
I'm glad you liked it! I decided to leave shipping out of this one, a funeral didn't really seem like the place for it, and...well, honestly, I just don't ship Discord with anyone 
He just doesn't seem like the sort of person/pony/whatever that'd be interested in romance, seeing as he's just barely getting a handle on friendship.
Thanks for reading, and for the fave!
It was bittersweet...
But I still smiled.
Enjoy writing and making others smile. It's a good thing to do.
7844272 Well, I'm glad I was able to make you smile, then
Thank you for reading!
This is goodfic.
7850575 I'm glad you liked it!
Thanks for reading!
lovely little tragedy
7881333 Thank you so much!
I like it. Always imagined that this would happen if Fluttershy went away.
Twilight is probably the one person who can best understand what Discord is feeling. No, she didn't get turned from a villain to a good guy by the influence of her friends, but they definitely had an impact on her life just as profound as Fluttershy did on his.
As long as Twilight is around, Discord will always have a kindred spirit.
Simply beautiful, truly. "A conscience for a good." A magnificent line.
8760240
Thanks for the fave, and for watching!
I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
I think I have to go cry for a bit now,
This fic was great!