A matter of principals

by Melani-Nexus

Chapter I: The unloved

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--Ponyville, 17:15 PM—

-“Until today it’s still hard to believe how Rainbow Dash and Applejack got so competitive over being the Teacher of the month. I mean, if they wanted a trophy so, so badly, maybe I could have given one of mine? Not that they would’ve earned it, but at least if it prevented them from bickering…” – Fluttershy graciously puts a hand to her mouth, stifling an innocent giggle as she closed her eyes, before bringing her teacup to her lips once again and taking a sip of her spiced tea as her comfy chair bobbed up and down smoothly.

-“You know dearest, sometimes habits die hard. Just because you’ve known them for years, doesn’t mean they’re above trying to strangle each other now and then.” – With an amused tone to his deep and playful voice, Discord shot a toothy grin and closed an eye as he sipped from his cup as well; while being upside down.

The whole living room of Fluttershy’s cottage had been altered in every sense of the word. For starters, all of the lamps available had been turned into oversized glowing strawberries; gravity had been shifted only on half of the living room and large tree branches grew from the walls, supporting amiable Avgrundens Påfåglar as Discord dubbed them, or ”Abyss’ Peacocks”. The birds were relatively alike their terrestrial versions but possessed several light and sound based abilities, dragon-like features and a pride that was easy to wound. However, the list of changes didn’t end there, as from time to time a random window on the floor would open up and let heavy rain in for an uncertain quantity of seconds, pouring the water directly towards the ceiling of the room, as a skylight opened up to let the downpour through.

Fluttershy couldn’t quite get tired of Discord’s ”improvements” whenever he was around. It was just too much fun to meet him as every time he brought a batch of new ideas out in the open. – ”Well, that may be true... But I wished they kept from it when around our students. At the very least they learned with their teacher’s mistakes.” – Glancing around with a content smile, Fluttershy set her teacup down on the part of the table that still was affected by gravity. Looking up at the birds, the pegasus mare expressed a gentle smile, to which the birds corresponded with happy chirps and calls.

But despite all of this rather adorable scene and seeing the sheer satisfaction of his best friend’s smile and blessed features, Discord couldn’t help but feel some muscles in his face twitching at the subject. It’s not like he didn’t want to know about Fluttershy’s days as a teacher in the school of friendship; he cared a lot would love to know more about absolutely everything but, it still stung slightly that no one had called him to participate in several events. Surely he was evolved enough to let that pass by as a minor bother; it still didn’t change the fact that somewhere deeply within, he felt stung.

”Oh no, no no no no, do not pull a”Tree Slugger” on Fluttershy again. It doesn’t matter that you were left out of your friends' milestone in their lives. They just became teachers that preach the word of friendship and the lessons that allowed them to yield the weapons solely capable of saving this unprotected empire by dozens of centuries now, and they didn’t even bother to hit me up for the event. That’s no big deal... AT ALL.” – He thought in silence without noticing how badly he was staring at the horizon line.

A loud crunching sound was emitted as Discord instinctively ate his teacup; porcelain being crushed and dusted in his maw as the warm contents of his now destroyed cup flowed down his gullet. His mind whirled with negativity as his thoughts and inner voices just came and gone as they pleased.

And despite the local storm into his head, a soft voice broke through his deep reflections as the butter-colored mare leaned forward with a look of worry; her mouth moved for some silent moments before his focus could properly be pinned on her.

-”Discord..? Are you alright?” – The look of worry on Fluttershy’s gaze almost pierced through the chaos spirit. He lost a deliberately big chunk of his composure before he managed to bring a closed fist to the front of his lips and scoff.

-”W-why, yes Fluttershy, I’m feeling more than alright. Why you ask?” – With a motion of his talons he floated the kettle over to her and tipped it by her cup, but much to his surprise Fluttershy pushed the kettle up with a finger, preventing it from pouring more tea.

-”The last time I recall you eating a teacup instead of drinking the tea, was when you got jealous of Tree Hugger.” – Fluttershy’s expression shifted in a deadpan as she rose one eyebrow and her lips closed in a light pout. Discord felt seem through like a glass window. – ”So I wondered if you had anything bothering you? You know we can talk about it if you do.” - The deadpan lifted as fast as it came, and finally, she allowed the kettle to pour some more steaming delicious tea.

-”I-...Ahn, Well, you see- It’s not really bothering, no, bother is a bit of a strong word, it’s just...” – After swallowing dry, Discord badly stuttered in order to escape his fate. It was true that he had acquired quite a few more relationships, but despite his successful number of friends it was no easy task to expose his heart in front of any of them, even Fluttershy. The lord of chaos cared a lot about his appearance in front of those he estimated, so putting in the effort to reveal anything considered mushy or sentimental was stressful.

Still, he had to try eventually. Playing with his hands out of nervousness, he tapped his paw pads against the tip of his fingers before his talons, building up his nerves to explain as best as he could without embarrassing himself into oblivion. And as his lips parted and he dragged in air-

The door was knocked.

Instantly Discord frowned and his head snapped to the door’s direction, irises glowing faintly with a red light due to his mild irritation. The Peacocks also bobbed their heads, lifting their serrated beaks and looking down at the entrance of the cottage.

-”My, who could it be at this time?” – Fluttershy got up swiftly and used her wings to boost herself towards the door, avoiding the flying objects all through the border between the normal gravity and the inverted one. Once reaching the door, she let it open to greet Spike. –”Oh, hello Spike. It’s nice to see you; so what brings you here?” – Despite the gentle mare’s warm smile that could thaw even an iceberg, the dangerous glare the juvenile dragon was receiving from Discord for interrupting the tea party made him wince discreetly before smiling back at Fluttershy with confidence and shotting a smug look at the Lord of chaos. However, the playful expression fluttered off from his face as he recalled what he came to say and instantly his features turned a bit more serious and even slightly worried.

-”Uh-yeah, It’s nice to see you too but Twilight told me to call you to the Castle! It’s urgent she said, but she didn’t say much more than that.” – The dragon shrugged as he was indeed lost for any extra information.

-”Oh dear... I’ll go right away!” – Turning to face Discord, Fluttershy wore an apologetic expression. – ”I’m so so sorry to cut our tea-party shortly Discord, but I-”

-”Yeah, yeah, I’m capable of hearing 4 meters ahead of me; I’m not deaf, you know?” – for a short-lived moment there was a bit of anger sipping into his voice, but with a flap of his wings, the draconequus slithered through the air to the part of the room that was not altered. Landing his hind cloven hoof and claws on the floor, he stood upright and smiled reassuringly at Fluttershy. – ”I know you must go to your probable world-saving quest, now off you go my dear! I’ll clean up for you.” – Picking up a broom seemingly from nowhere, Discord held the very tip of it like a cane, resting his paw on the back of his talon and leaning forward with a warm smile and closing his eyes.

Fluttershy put both her hands to her heart and happily smiled back, nodding with satisfaction. – ”Thank you so much Dissy! I’ll make it up to you later! Oh, thanks for calling me Spike, I’ll go right away.” – True to her words, the pegasus walked right past the dragon and used her wings to spring to the air; although low to the floor, she was going much faster than her average speed on the ground.

As the pegasus swiftly flew away and towards Twilight’s castle, there was a moment of cold silence that was only filled by the chirps of animals and the rustling leaves of the garden and trees all around. A snap cut sharply through the quiet, the commotion of chaos and lack of physics being ceased immediately as the sound of hoovesteps echoed through the wooden floor.

-”So, let me guess... I interrupted something, didn’t I?” – Although Spike didn’t turn to face the draconequus, he felt his towering frame stop shy of him by 30 centimeters as he came to the door and stepped outside. But despite this, he held a bit of a smug smirk on his lips.

-”In fact, yes, you did. I won’t give you the satisfaction of knowing what; nonetheless, you have done your job... So what’s the commotion about this time? Recurring bitter villain? Tax evasion? Oh, wait, dear Purple Pony Prodige Princess is above the law I suppose.” – Emphasizing the ”P” in his words, Discord took full opportunity of his gravity-defying power as he floated upwards and constricted the young dragon with his scaly muscular tail. His ruby and golden eyes boring into Spike’s as he expected for an answer eagerly with an expression that was a mix between sheer curiosity and hidden temper. – ”I mean, it must have been something relevant for you to withhold information and interrupt us so rudely knowing exactly when we host this sort of meeting...” – rolling his eyes to the side he gave a brief empty laugh before crossing his arms above his chest and coming almost snout to snout with the young dragon, his expression coated in suspicion and clear temper now. – ”Right?” – he said through gritted teeth.

Squirming in the strong embrace of Discord’s tail, Spike slowly nudged his arms out of his coils and pushed himself upwards, quickly jumping off from the fellow draconian's tail and landing on the floor while dusting his scales with a slightly sour expression as he turned and pointed at the taller creature. –”HEY! Watch the scales! I just molted...” – Such a reprimand barely had any effects on the elder as he simply landed on his hooves again and uncoiled his tail, flicking the tip irritated and expecting an answer. Huffing two poufs of smoke, Spike’s features mellowed out a bit as he looked towards Twilight’s castle. – ”But I’m not withholding anything, I really don’t know for now why Twilight called the others, I just know that she told me to get Rarity and Fluttershy why she told Rainbow to bring Applejack. Besides... Can’t you just eavesdrop instead of asking me?” – Spike looked up at the spirit of chaos with a deadpan.

Raising an ear at his suggestion, Discord grew a smirk that didn’t quite reach his eyes but was sly enough. –”Are you incentivizing me to commit reprehensible actions?”

-”It’s not like you stopped after we told you to, did you?” – The dragon shot back with a sarcastic smile.

-”You’re still excusing your lack of moral reprehension towards me with my lack of boundaries, which still classifies as an incentive. Besides, it’s not like you don’t commit it either.” – Floating up and forward all of the sudden, Discord looked at the horizon as he put his hands together, tapping the tip of his fingers. – ”By the way, if I was you I would try and avoid the twitter mites.”

-”Hey! Even if you’re going to eavesdrop, don’t disturb them, at the very least, okay? I gotta get back to school to help Starlight finish the day!” – Spike frowned slightly as Discord dismissively waved his hand and nodded, pretending to hear everything he was talking about before he disappeared in a bright flash of white light.

-”... This is gonna be a long day, isn’t it? Wait did he say something about twitter mites-” – A buzzing sound was right on cue as Spike looked over his shoulder to the electrical buzzing tiny cloud of insects that struck him with a tiny discharge of electricity. Yelping and leaping forward while clutching his backside, Spike hissed and immediately looked at the place where he was hit... Luckily his scales were intact despite the discharge. Sighing heavily he set out to marching back to the school, expecting the electrical insects to dissipate by themselves. – ”I really interrupted something important huh? Still gonna get the truth out of you about Fluttershy, Discord.” – with renewed vigor, he set the thought aside feeling lucky that this was the only backlash he got from the chaos spirit for his little stunt.

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--Twilight’s Castle, 18:01 PM—

-”So let me see if Ah got that right...” – Applejack stood up with her arms crossed, closing an eye before using a hand to point at the other mares as she spoke up. –”Rainbow Dash gotta run an emergency errand for the Wonderbolts at mount Everhoof’s station.” – Pointing out to the cyan mare, she nodded with her arms crossed above her chest. – ”Rarity has to deal with rising problems at her shop in Manehattan and Fluttershy got unresolved problems with the shelter’s documentation to solve there too; Pinkie Pie got called out to plan out a fancy party at Canterlot; Ah gotta tend to this season of apple bucking, and we can’t really stop when we gotta do that, and you Twilight got called to resolve documentation of the school a bit far away from here...”

As she finished to condense the events that each one of them had to perform, Applejack bit her lower lip and frowned, looking aghast all of the sudden. – ” Do Y'all know what this means? There won't be any teachers left to run the school!” – All the other mares gasped briefly except for Applejack herself and Twilight, who tried to keep her cool and stepped forth towards the map table as she teleported a thick roll of scroll paper.

-”Should we send our students home?” – Fluttershy asked putting a hand to her lips in worry as she looked at the bigger farmer mare.

-”Ah’m not sure sugar cube. We don’t even know how long we’ll all be gone.” – Looking to everyone around, Applejack put a hand to the pegasus’ shoulder before Twilight turned around and finally spoke up.

-”Don’t worry, everypony. I already have a seventy-point plan in place for this very situation.” – Although the school had just opened up, everyone had their personal lives and jobs despite doing their best to teach the roots of friendship. Unfortunately, there was not nearly enough time to properly set her plan in motion, but at the very least Twilight had in mind who could aid her with that.

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--School of Friendship, Next morning 08:00 AM—

-”Come back soon! Please!” – Starlight waved to the group of mares as they departed towards the train station. Each one of them would have to handle their tasks individually but at the very least they could get on board together, except for Applejack who would wave them goodbye for the moment and head back to work at sweet apple acres.

Suddenly a sound that was something between a nose being blown and a ship’s horn honking hit Starlight and Spike’s eardrums as they turned around with a startle.

-”Huh?” – Starlight looked up at the towering familiar figured that cleaned tears from his eyes with a sappy weak smile and tearful voice. – ”I hate goodbyes, don’t you? I just got to pieces!” – And right on cue Discord’s body severed itself in several parts as they all fell to the floor. Given that he was mindful enough to seal each end with skin so it the visual gag would be funny instead of horrifying.

-“Discord! What a... heh... nice surprise!” – Starlight looked down at the disassembled body as it floated its paw up, giving her a thumbs up before she continued. – “This is your first time at our new school, isn't it?” – At this question, Spike cringed slightly despite his nervous grin, as he nodded towards the mare… He knew this may or may not be a sensitive topic for the chaos spirit.

-“Oh, was I not invited to the grand opening?” – Discord pieces had suddenly blinked out of existence despite his voice still chiming forth. Reappearing in a formal gray tuxedo, he pulled at his tie and looked down at Starlight and Spike with a mildly irritated expression.

-“Friends and Family Day?” – A clone of him joined the conversation seemingly from nowhere, wearing much brighter clothes that had a child-themed air to them.

-“Baccalaureate??” - And at that, a second clone came into the picture, but this time wearing a long black gown and a graduate’s hat on top of his head.

-“I hadn’t noticed.” – They all put a bit of venom in their words as they spoken in synchrony. Just as they finished, they blinked out of existence once again and Discord himself reappeared a few meters away from the unicorn and dragon duo, but this time holding a bit of a forceful smile despite the annoyance lingering in his features.

-“Well, at least you're here now. Um, why are you here now?” – Starlight and Spike had crossed quick glances as they had a feeling that this visit could go well or probably terribly wrong. Not that Starlight was expecting Discord to do something troublesome, but just like Trixie; sometimes it was just in his nature to do so. And with the mane six gone out of town, perhaps he would feel a bit more freedom to act than usual.

-“I couldn’t help but hear that our lovely friends are going to be busy for the next days up to a week. So since the girls are the most competent and perhaps the only qualified teachers and management staff of the school, I thought I could fill in as head-draconequus until they come back.” – He lifted a paw to the air and smiled in a sly way as he walked past the duo and towards the school doors. – “After all, a school can’t carry itself alone, can it?” – He turned around with a bit of a smug smile as he put his arms behind his back, holding his hands in each other while doing so.

-“Well, then you heard that Starlight is in charge in Twilight’s place, haven’t you?” – Spike now stood in front of the draconequus with crossed arms and looking directly upwards.

-“Oh, just Starlight? There must have been some mistake. Didn’t Twilight actually call anyone else? I know her logic isn’t very sound in a hurry but that’s a bit outrageous.” – He shamelessly patted Spike’s head with his talons, patronizing the young dragon.

Starlight felt slightly stung at his words, but putting up a bit of a front she raised a large scroll given by the purple Alicorn. – “Nope, Twilight put me in charge with Spike as my assistant and left pretty detailed instructions about it too.”- Much to her surprise, Discord snatched the plan and unrolled it, summoning a pair of round glasses with a golden rim and long strings attached to it, sitting neatly upon his muzzle as he read.

-“Well then, I believe Twilight wouldn’t mind that I’d add a few tiny suggestions now, would she?” – Snapping his fingers he also summoned a comically tiny writing quill and starting to add notes around the ones he saw flaws within as he mumbled to himself. – “Hire capacitated crew huh? Perhaps some species diversity could add to the classes… And as a second item, what about some fresh mangos, green tea, fish and perhaps some Limburger's cheese for the Teacher’s lounge? They surely need the incentive.” – Musing to himself he let a chuckle escape as a particular phrase caught his eye. – “Keep the hallways organized and clean huh? To take care of that-” – Saying out loud, he added another item. – “Gravity is optional.”

But as soon as he finished his thought, he looked around with a satisfied smirk as his chaos magic kicked in pushed by his own volition. Both Spike and Starlight started to float upwards just like several heavy rocks that made the school’s entrance path and several blobs of water.

Discord continued to go through the list despite this, but as Starlight shook the startle out of her system, she activated the spell that allowed her to levitate herself and snatched the scroll from the draconequus.

-“Eh, not happening. Twilight gave me precise instructions on how I should run the school, and I’ll go by them. Thank you but, no thank you.” – Floating away she raised an eyebrow at his notes as her expression twisted in exasperation and a bit of confusion.

Obviously, the lord of chaos didn’t take it well, letting a bit of venom sip into his voice as he held himself from snapping at the asinine planning they got. He had not even finished reading the damn thing, but he could point about a dozen flaws in the first three paragraphs. – “Oh, reeeeeally? Well, fine, do as you must... We will see if you change your mind.”- And with that said the spirit of chaos snarled slightly and snapped his fingers, disappearing in a strong flash of light.

As soon as he was gone, gravity turned back to its normal rules once again as every large blob of water and gigantic rock fell to its previous spot. Spike barely managed to evade a wave of water and Starlight deflected it skillfully with her magical aura.

-” Uh-oh. When we play Ogres & Oubliettes and he puts that many E's in "really", the things don't usually end well.” – Cringing at the bitter memories of almost losing his characters and having to make others, Spike held his fist with his other claw, looking up at Starlight with a worried gaze. Whatever Discord had in mind, he would follow through with it.

-“Don't worry, Spike. Discord and I are old "save Equestria" buddies. He'll be fine. Now, what's next on Twilight's list?” – Starlight asked waving a dismissive hand at the notion. After all, Discord could be powerful enough to handle an army, but power was not everything required to run a school. Leadership was.

-”Heh, I hope you’re right... I’ll fill you in, so let’s go back inside!” – Spike deeply hoped that she was correct. Discord was their friend but sometimes he was not above doing outlandish things if you somehow managed to get on his bad side, or if he wanted to teach you a lesson. Different from Twilight, his lessons weren’t exactly clear nor straightforward, even if he managed to get the message across.

-”Oh Glimmer, I’m just FINE. I wonder if you will be soon enough.” – A deep mischievous voice hummed dozens of meters above, as Discord observed them from the plushy softness of a cloud. With his chin supported on the back of his paw, the spirit of chaos unrolled a copy of Twilight’s list and quietly read through it; although he was getting more and more irritated at each passing line and minute.

Author's Note:

Nothing changed much in the first chapter other than a few plot points and how their conversation unfurls. It's very fun to rewrite their interactions how I wished they had gone down.

Hope you all enjoy it!