A Lovely Gift

by Alaborn

Checking It Twice

A Lovely Gift

By Alaborn

A Jinglemas gift for MOOSEWHISKER

Chapter 2: Checking It Twice

---

The day was over. Court was concluded, with some petitions addressed and others dismissed with varying levels of prejudice. She delivered a lecture to the eager students at her school. She had dined with a few nobles, listened to their bloviating, and maintained her Princess Smile™ the entire time. The sun was set and the moon raised. Her duties complete, Princess Twilight Sparkle could finally turn her attention to the one thing this day she was truly looking forward to experiencing.

She sat in her personal chambers with only a pot of herbal tea and one of her dearest friends. Fluttershy was humming happily as she sipped her tea.

“Did you have a good day, Fluttershy?” she asked.

“Oh, it was wonderful. We had a lovely time in the gardens, and tomorrow I’m showing him my animal sanctuary,” Fluttershy said. “I have to thank you for inviting Long Tusk to Equestria. You probably thought he looked terrifying, but he’s a gentle soul. You can see by how the animals react to him.”

“I found the hippos to be quite the gentle people,” Twilight Sparkle commented. “But it was hard getting used to being smaller than somepony else.”

“And those three oxpeckers are such cards. You should hear them carrying on.”

“I’ll have to take your word on that,” she replied. Twilight Sparkle still hadn’t found a spell that let her speak to animals the way Fluttershy could. “So he can communicate with animals like you can?”

“Yes. It’s so nice to see somepony, or somecreature, with the same gift.”

“And do you know he does it? Is it in the same manner as you?” Twilight Sparkle almost summoned a scroll and quill to take notes, by reflex, but stopped herself just in time.

“I don’t know. We both just, you know, talk.”

It was a fascinating subject. Twilight Sparkle knew only that hippos had nothing like pony magic, but Long Tusk showed they had special talents, and they could work just the same as ponies. But that was a topic for another day. Right now, another question was on her mind.

“Discord popped in for a visit today,” she commented.

“Oh. He did say something about needing to do his good deed for the month. Did he help you with something?”

“Discord never helps me with anything,” Twilight Sparkle said. “But in his own irritating way, he did make me think about something.”

She paused, prompting Fluttershy to ask “About what?”

“You’ve been Discord’s closest friend for more than twenty years. But would you call your relationship... love?”

Fluttershy took a long, slow sip from her teacup before responding. “If you live as long as Princess Celestia, you still will not hear Discord use the word ‘love’. But it is.”

“How do you know?”

“I see how Discord acts. And I just know. In a way, it is similar to my special talent,” Fluttershy stated.

“How so?”

“Do you remember our first long night together, when we encountered that manticore in the Everfree Forest?”

“I remember it clearly,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“My special talent doesn’t let me understand manticores. But I listen to the animals I do understand. My bear friends can only communicate with a roar, and when they can only roar, you have to listen to how they roar. A hurt roar sounds different from an angry roar. And when that manticore roared at us, I could hear the hurt hidden inside.”

“You were that certain, that you put yourself in danger?”

“It was a risk, but I’ve always believed we all need to be shown a little kindness.”

Twilight Sparkle paused. “I’m not sure what that has to do with Discord.”

“Discord is the spirit of chaos....”

“The better term is avatar of chaos,” Twilight Sparkle interrupted.

Fluttershy glared at her.

“Sorry. I had class today. It’s hard to get out of lecture mode,” she said sheepishly.

“Spirit, avatar, whatever you call him, Discord is a creature of chaos,” Fluttershy said. “And no matter what words he uses, he expresses himself through acts of chaos, big and small. Even just saying hello comes with an attempt to surprise you.”

“They’re a little too predictable, if you ask me,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“I know, and I’m proud of Discord for taking that step.”

“What?” Twilight Sparkle exclaimed.

“When Discord appears as if he were summoned from the shower, or when you see him eat the container instead of the food, it’s familiar. And don’t you appreciate familiar interactions with your friends?”

“I... I never thought of it like that.”

“The day we freed Discord, and I vowed to make him my friend, he treated us as he always did, with acts of chaos. But I could sense the hurt he was feeling inside. For Discord, not having a friend hurt as much as the thorn in that manticore’s paw, and I heard that loud and clear.”

“You heard that in the way he twisted reality around you?”

“It was a feeling, just like with the manticore,” Fluttershy admitted. “To prove I wanted to be his friend, I just had to show him that I was willing to accept that he is chaos. And there was only act that made me willing to give up.”

Twilight Sparkle thought back to that day; Fluttershy’s words put the events into an entirely new context. “The one thing you could not tolerate was separating you from your element. Kindness is a part of you, just like chaos is a part of him.”

“Exactly.”

“But when did you realize your friendship was love?”

“I was slow to realize it. It was the warm feeling I felt whenever Discord stopped by. For too long, I thought it similar to the feeling I get when caring for my animals, or the feeling I get when I see all my friends on the Council of Friendship.” Fluttershy paused to take another sip of tea. “I had to admit that of all kinds of kindness, this one was most special to me.”

“You needed to sense how this one feeling was different. Just like with the manticore and Discord,” Twilight Sparkle said. “Thank you, Fluttershy. This has been very helpful.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Is there anything else you wanted to know? Like what we do on our special nights together?”

“No, no, no, that’s fine!” Twilight Sparkle quickly replied, waving her forelegs in the air. She saw enough of that while monitoring dreams, thank you very much.

“Okay,” Fluttershy replied, almost sounding disappointed.

“But... if you wanted to talk about that, I’m sure Cadance would love to talk to you. Perhaps a vacation next summer?”

“That sounds lovely.”

Twilight Sparkle smiled. She could check Cadance off on next year’s Hearth’s Warming list.

---

Twilight Sparkle returned to her quarters following her conversation with Fluttershy. It was late, but not too late, her favorite time for reading and catching up on correspondence. So she ignored the bed and went into her study. With a flare of magic, she lit the crystals in the chandelier overhead.

Her study was once a sitting room of some sort, when it was Celestia’s quarters, and she fondly remembered study sessions back when Celestia was Princess Celestia and she was just her faithful student. The old furnishings were gone now, replaced by a desk and bookshelf. She took a seat at the desk and looked it over. A trio of letters awaited her response, and five inkwells and five quills were lined up, waiting for her use.

Except one of the inkwells was slightly shifted, and one of the quills was askew.

She had noticed that happening most days, and had attributed it to the maids accidentally disturbing her desk. But when she thought about it, it was always just a tiny bit disturbed. It was far too consistent. One day, she arranged her desk perfectly, and then decided to order her room sealed for the day, with no visitors or staff entering it. That night, the familiar pattern of disturbed items returned, and Twilight Sparkle knew someone was messing with her.

This night, she didn’t return things to normal. She moved a second inkwell out of line. She replaced one of the phoenix feather quills with an ordinary goose quill. She then turned to the chandelier. She changed the colors of the crystals so that half shed red light and half green. The combination of colors was not an attractive one.

She got no response, so Twilight Sparkle knew she needed to up her game. She summoned a variety of crystal prisms, and arranged them around the chandelier. It took some trial and error, but she managed to cast a pattern of lines and rectangular patches of color on the wall. She grinned.

“Ugh. Plaid? You know, I do have standards,” Discord grumbled.

“And good evening to you, too,” she replied. She cancelled her spell, returning the room to its normal white light. “Fluttershy and I just had a wonderful conversation about life and love.”

“Mm-hmm,” Discord muttered.

“It was quite beautiful, the way she described your friendship, and how it bloomed into love.”

“Yes, yes, that four letter word.”

“In fact, her story touched me so much, I thought I’d make it a part of the standard friendship curriculum in schools across Equestria.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Discord hissed.

“Well, I wanted to share this with Cadance, but it wouldn’t be fair to her without knowing the full story. But as a lesson....”

“Fine, I’ll talk,” Discord said grudgingly.

“Your relationship with your dear friend, Fluttershy—in your own words, how did it happen?”

“Oh, this is rich. The Princess of Friendship, at a loss for understanding friendship?” Discord chortled.

“You are a unique creature, Discord, and what I’ve learned about friendship just can’t be applied to you. So, I’ll need you to show me.”

“As a scholar of the art of friendship, surely you’d start by looking at my other friends?”

“You don’t have other friends,” Twilight Sparkle stated.

“Associates, acquaintances, you know, for a certain definition of friend. Think about Tirek, for example.”

Twilight Sparkle looked towards the palace gardens, where a certain statue rested. “Great choice,” she deadpanned.

“Or what about that sweetheart, the Smooze? Tell me, what do they have in common?”

“They’re troublemakers? That would explain why you like them, for sure.”

“No, my dear Twilight, you’re thinking about it wrong. I am a being of supreme power, in my own sphere, and whether associate or rival, I find myself drawn to others with great power. Tirek, Sunbutt, and even, dare I say it, you?”

“That doesn’t explain your relationship with Fluttershy,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“But don’t you see? She’s the most powerful of all!”

“Come again?”

“You see, during my long and glorious rules of Equestria, both of them, I could always get ponies to react to me. Words or deeds, tricks or treats, I could make anypony embrace chaos. And trust me, there is nothing sweeter than to make a pony choose chaos of their own free... free-ish will.”

“Except for Fluttershy.”

“Except for Fluttershy. Exactly!” Discord said. “Oh, how I tried to sow the seeds of discord in her, but she just kept agreeing with me! She ran me out of patience. I, Discord, who had been planning this for centuries, had to....” Discord leaned in close to Twilight Sparkle’s ear. “Fudge things!” he continued with a whisper.

She thought back to that day, how they had all been convinced to give up the elements they embodied, and remembered that Fluttershy never did give in.

“And then, to make it worse, when you freed me, nothing I could do would make Fluttershy abandon her attempt to befriend me. And this, after centuries plotting my revenge!”

“You were turned to stone for a year, tops,” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Minute, millennium, eon, what does it matter? She proved herself strong twice. And I realized, I would never learn the secret of her strength if I left her.”

Twilight Sparkle glared at him.

“Fine, I realized that I valued having her as a friend. Somepony who didn’t view me as a means to an end, somepony who could let me be me. Somepony who didn’t see me as a project to reform.” He looked directly at Twilight Sparkle.

“I think you’ve been reformed just fine. Love will do that to a creature.”

“Careful with the four-letter words, Princess,” Discord growled. “There could be foals listening.”

Twilight Sparkle smiled. “That’s okay. We won’t use the word if you don’t want to.”

“Well, this had been an illuminating conversation,” Discord said. “And speaking of illumination, you forgot your gift.” He plopped that same ugly lamp onto her desk. “Happy early Hearth’s Warming!”

“Thanks,” she deadpanned.

Discord snapped his talons, and the lamp illuminated, casting orange and purple light in a paisley pattern on the wall. “Ta ta for now!” he said, and vanished.

Twilight Sparkle turned off the lamp, only to find everything still colored orange and purple paisley—her desk, her quills, her letters... herself.

“DISCORD!!!!”

Comments

[Mystic Sunrise]

“DISCORD!!!!”

"Ain't I stinker?"

[Darkstarling]

I really like the idea of Discord communicating through acts of chaos. And yes, Avatar is a better word. Or possibly Champion.

I do hope Discord has SOME friends beyond Fluttershy though. I can see why not Twilight though, since he's quite right that she more sees him as a project.

[MooseWhisker]

Very nice. A bit scattered, but overall a very sweet and genuine story!

[Shrinky Frod]

10000244
Shenwould really rather NOT put his relationship with Big Mac and Spike in the same category as with Flutters, I imagine!

[FanOfMostEverything]

The popcorn of boxes was an inspired Discordism.

“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Is there anything else you wanted to know? Like what we do on our special nights together?”

"There's this thing he does with a weather vane..."

“You don’t have other friends,” Twilight Sparkle stated.

"Not even you? You wound me, Twilight, you really do."
"We both know I have tried and failed to do so many times over the years."

Minute, millennium, eon, what does it matter?

It all depends on which hand of Universe Man's watch you're talking about.

Fascinating look at Discord and Fluttershy's relationship from their respective perspectives. A little dry, but still a nice analysis. Thank you for it.

[Alaborn]

10035461

It all depends on which hand of Universe Man's watch you're talking about.

I was wondering if someone was going to notice that.