One Big Awkward Family

by PropMaster

Discombobulated

Discord lay draped across his polka-dot couch in his living room. The couch was on the ceiling, now, but that wasn't stopping him from draping himself across it. Gravity was his plaything in the realm of chaos. Technically, it was his plaything anywhere, because he was a god, but at that moment he didn't feel particularly godlike. No, at the moment, he felt all too mortal. All too frail. It would have been an exciting sensation, something new and chaotic, but he was too close to the situation at hand.

In his claws, he held a notebook and a pen, and he was furiously tapping it against the blank page. At the top were two words.

Dearest Fluttershy,

And that was as far as he'd gotten. He'd been trying to read up on the subject of apologies. He'd perused a few romantic novellas, and it seemed that ponies thought that letters were sincere ways of expressing emotion. Which felt incredibly stupid, to him, but he was determined to do things properly. He wanted to apologize to Fluttershy. He really, really wanted to. He just... had to do it properly. It was going to be the best apology, ever. An apology so incredible and fantastic that she'd forget his earlier faux pas and just... be something other than angry. Or sad. Or however she was feeling.

Discord hadn't been so anxious since the time Tirek had betrayed him and stolen his power. And this time, it was over some feelings. He was a god. He should be beyond such things, but Fluttershy had reminded him of the beauty of mortal emotion, of the complexity and depth of things beyond simple chaos. Chaos was just that much more chaotic with emotion behind it, after all. There was more than madness in his life, now, because of her.

But, how to say that? How to tell her that she was his other half, his Goddess of Order? He certainly could say that, but it seemed... simple. Insincere, perhaps. He snarled in frusturation, scribbling the pen across the paper in a chaotic whorl of ink and angst.

There was a flash of purple light in the middle of his living room, and Princess Twilight Sparkle materialized on the floor. She shook her head a few times, looking at the empty floor of the room, not bothering to look up. Discord blinked, staring down at her from the ceiling, and frowned. "Well, if it isn't Twilight Sparkle. Here to give me the business?"

Twilight spooked, her eyes widening as she looked up at the ceiling for the source of his voice, her wings flaring open. She glared. "Discord! What are you doing on the ceiling?"

"What are you doing on the floor? Or, rather, what are you doing on my floor?" Discord retorted, regarding her coolly.

Twilight frowned slightly, taking a few steps back from him so she wasn't craning her neck directly upward to address him. "I'm here to check on you. I know that something happened between you and Fluttershy, but you didn't tell anypony anything before you disappeared to... do whatever you're doing."

Discord stared at Twilight for a moment, processing this information, before he smirked slightly. "That's awfully nice of you, Princess, but I'm doing fine. Though, I certainly don't appreciate the intrusion. I'm rather busy at the moment, you see."

Twilight smirked right back, her horn glowing. She gave a quick flap of her wings as a spell flared around her. Discord was moderately impressed by the arcane weave that Twilight expertly worked onto herself, which reversed her own gravity and set his ceiling as 'down' for her orientation. She spun in midair and landed in front of him, now facing him properly. "I see that you're writing something. And I see that you've only got two words, and then a scribble and a bad doodle of me with a unibrow and bug eyes."

Discord chuckled. "A remarkable likeness, really. After all, you're bugging me at the moment."

Twilight stared at him, deadpan. "That was weak. You're obviously upset and off your game," she said with an annoyingly matter-of-fact cadence to her voice as she sat down in the overstuffed armchair across from him.

"I don't remember offering you a seat," Discord groused.

"Well, too bad!" Twilight replied, settling into the cushions and making it clear that she wasn't leaving. "You left my friend, your best friend, so upset that she didn't feed her animals last night because she was locked in her bedroom. Something is obviously wrong, and I'm the Princess of Friendship, so I'm here to help."

Discord shook his head, chuckling. "Oh, Twilight. Your concern is noted, and appreciated, but..." Discord trailed off, his eyes widening as what Twilight had said registered with him. "She... she didn't feed the animals last night?"

Twilight shook her head. "No. You did a good job, recruiting Scootaloo and her friends to help out just in case. You were obviously aware that she might be upset for a while."

Discord winced. "I... well, I took precautions, but I never thought..."

Twilight stared at him, something like worry on her face, before she spoke again. "What happened?"

Sighing heavily, Discord tore away the ruined page in front of him and began to fiddle with it, folding it with his nimble claw-paw hands as he spoke. "I'd taken Fluttershy out for a little... break. She'd had a stressful morning, and I wanted to do something nice for her, because she never gets time for herself. So I got Scootaloo to come and house-sit for a few hours and I took her to lunch out on the slopes of the Crystal Mountain Range. There's a nice spot, right at the edge of the mountains where you can see the Crystal Empire and look out over the snow plains, and..." he shook his head, "... and she told me she loved me."

Twilight's head jerked up in surprise, and she put a hoof over her mouth. "Oh!"

Discord smirked. "Surprised? I was, too. And... I may have overreacted the tiniest bit. Which, of course, is to say that I lost what little sanity I possess briefly as I panicked like some kind of child."

Twilight winced. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh. I was afraid, Twilight, because I didn't know what to do or how to react. I'm the god of chaos, but emotions are something that I'm still getting the hang of. Especially... love. I had all these stupid thoughts and fears and... well... I couldn't just accept what she'd said. So I took her home and told her I needed to think about things." He paused, collecting himself.

Twilight frowned, "So, you came here and you've been avoiding the issue?"

Discord laughed. "Oh, Princess, not even in the slightest. I'll have you know that, had this been a regular, run-of-the-mill friendship problem, I would have come right to you begging for some solution. But I know that you're about as inept at romance as I am."

Twilight blushed, nodding lightly. "That's actually a pretty fair assessment."

"I know," Discord said with a chuckle, "which is why I spoke to Celestia, first. She's a fellow immortal, so she'd understand my... unique concerns. Celestia told me some things I needed to hear, and then she sent me on my way to your dear sister-in-law, Cadance."

Twilight instantly relaxed. "Oh, good. I was going to say, this kind of problem is pretty far outside my scope of expertise. I'll bet Cadance helped."

Discord smiled. "You know? She really did. I know that we aren't the best of friends, Cadance and I, but she put aside all of her misgivings and gave me some very good advice."

"Well, then... what's the problem? Don't you know what you need to do?" Twilight prompted him, her eyes curious.

Discord gestured to the floor below. There were dozens of crumpled pieces of paper, balled up and covered in scrawled ink. "Twilight, give me a solid guess on the number of times I've tried to take responsibility for my actions. Then, give me a guess on the number of times I've apologized to anypony for anything I've done. And then, try to extrapolate from those conclusions how much I care about Fluttershy, how sorry I am, and how badly I want to make things right, and you'll understand my conundrum."

Twilight opened her mouth to respond, but Discord held up a paw. "That was a rhetorical question. I'm terrible at taking responsibility for my actions and apologizing, and I very badly want to do this properly. You see? This isn't easy, even for a god like me. Perhaps especially for a god like me. I'm a bad, nasty person, Twilight Sparkle, and I was bad for a very, very long time, but... for Fluttershy, I want to be better."

Twilight stared at him for a moment, and a slow, warm smile spread across her face. Discord could swear that some tears were gathering in the corner of her eyes, and he sighed. "Spare me the sentimentality. I know you're going to say something incredibly sappy, and I really can't handle anypony else's emotions at the moment beyond my own and Fluttershy's. So, if you please, let's cut to the chase of this conversation. Can you help me?"

Twilight swallowed and rubbed at her eyes, before nodding emphatically. "Yes."

Discord smiled. "Excellent, because this apology letter is killing me. I may have mastered the dirty limerick, but this is beyond even my poetic skill. Unless, of course, you think that I can make an apology that starts with 'There once was a mare from Nantucket'."

Twilight blushed and giggled, shaking her head as though he was ridiculous. Which, of course, he was aware he was, but at this point it was his best defense against his feelings. It simply wasn't in him to give Twilight a hug and cry it out, even though that option may have occurred to him briefly. Twilight spoke up after recovering. "That... that probably wouldn't be appropriate."

"I didn't think so," Discord said with a sigh, dropping the notepad and watching it fall upwards to the floor. "Well, then, help me write something better."

"Frankly," Twilight said, "I don't think you should write a letter at all."

Discord stared at her, raising one eyebrow slowly. "No? I assumed that this was the best way for a sincere apology to be made."

Twilight shook her head. "Well, maybe if I was the one apologizing, yeah. I'd write an apology out. I've done it before, actually, but that's my style. For you?" Twilight snorted. "You're obviously trying, and that's sweet of you, but you should apologize like you would, not like how I would."

Discord blinked. "How... I would apologize?"

Twilight nodded and stood up, approaching him as he contemplated what she'd said. "I think you know Fluttershy. I think you care a lot about her, and I'd even hazard a guess that you feel the same way about her that she does about you. There's no better way to say you're sorry than the way you feel you should. Not some preconcieved notion of this perfect apology. After all, Fluttershy... she loves you for you. So, be yourself."

Discord stared past Twilight as an epiphany exploded in his mind. The couch, chair, end table, and the rest of the furniture suddenly and spontaneously reversed itself, landing on the floor once more. Discord closed his eyes and slowly, deliberately placed the palms of his hands over his face. "Of course."

He laughed, then, leaping off the couch and cackling a madly. "Of course! Twilight Sparkle, you adorkable genius, you! I've been a fool! A boob! An absolute idiot!" He paused in his ecstatic self-criticism, looking briefly concerned. "Goodness, I've been an idiot several times, recently, haven't I? I should probably get myself checked for brain damage." The concern fled just as quickly as it came, though, and he was laughing again. "I just need to apologize, Discord Style, and Fluttershy won't be able to help but love it. After all, she loves me."

Discord froze, suddenly, and grabbed Twilight by the shoulders. "Fluttershy loves me, Twilight. She loves me! It's insane! I don't understand it, but she does, and it makes me so happy I could explode. Twice!" He cackled, mania glinting in his eyes. "Twilight Sparkle, you've done me another great service of friendship. I can't possibly ever repay you, so don't be terribly surprised if I don't! But, maybe, someday, I'll manage to find a way. Until then..." He struck a pose. "I've got an apology to make."

With a snap of his fingers, he disappeared, leaving a bewildered Twilight Sparkle to stand awkwardly in the middle of his living room. Twilight shook her head, slowly, and frowned. "I... feel like I've just unleashed something terrible on Equestria."

She shrugged. "Oh well. I suppose we'll manage!" And with that, she teleported home.

Comments

[kurusagi16]

Yeah, from the show we can easily see Discord having trouble trying to apologize (Dungeons and DIscords being a good example), so this chapter does that nicely. Though, it would've been a little funny to see him flub on a few of his letters, trying to write out an apology but each time he tries it sounds bad or stupid to him.

[taterforlife]

This just gets better and better. My brotp was written perfectly in a battle of wit and a nice little bonding moment! I love those two together, I swear. Brotp forever!

And then Discord's little moment of insane clarity (kind of an oxymoron, isn't it?), where he realizes that Twilight is right, and he's been going about it all the wrong ways. (Though, I'll admit, Discord reading romance novels for research is an amusing picture in my mind. I imagine him scoffing and snickering at the cheesy parts--which for him is probably at least every other sentence.) And he can FINALLY enjoy the fact that Fluttershy loves him and then acts even MORE maniacal.

And I didn't think we'd get an update this early in the day! Yay! Oh, and extra points for the chapter name. 'Discombobulated' is a fantastic word. I should use it more often myself.

[Hap]

Discord's voice really came through in this chapter. I'm looking forward to seeing this apology.

[MusicRocks807]

Discord smirked. "Surprised? I was, too. And... I may have overreacted the tiniest bit. Which, of course, is to say that I lost what little sanity I possess briefly as I panicked like some kind of child."

Your characterisation for everyone has been incredibly good throughout, but something about this scene is so purely Discord it’s wonderful to read.

[sunflowering]

Discord seeing things clearly for the first time since the confession chapter, with a manic edge to his eyes and voice and Everything, is perfect lol.

This is really truly my favorite "getting together" fluttercord fic

[Carnation83]

Excellent Discord and Twilight interaction