S5 E7: Make New Friends, But Keep Discord (What If?)
Ever since he'd become more or less "reformed" Discord always looked forward to his "Tuesday Teas" with Fluttershy at her cottage. It was something he never knew he'd needed before, but now he couldn't imagine his life without them. It was a chance for him to spend time with his first friend, and the one nearest and dearest to him.
These special get togethers had taken on an even greater importance in the aftermath of Lord Tirek's assault on Equestria, which had nearly succeeded thanks to Discord making a "slight miscalculation" about the lengths the centaur would go to in order to achieve his goals. That had resulted in Ponyville becoming the epicenter of a battle between two magically suped up beings, and it was a miracle that no one had gotten hurt in all of it.
Of course, the crafty and witty spirit tried his best to downplay any negative effects of the whole thing. And for the most part it seemed like ponies forgave and forgot relatively quickly. But it wasn't hard for him to notice that things were never quite the same even among his closest friends long after things had supposedly gone back to "normal".
It would take only one incident to highlight what still had yet to be addressed about the whole affair, and it all began at another one of those "Tuesday Tea" sessions. A session which started out like all the others, with Discord making jokes and amusing Fluttershy the whole time.
"Ohohoho," Discord declared as he could hardly contain his laugh. "But that is not all. Oh no, that is not all! When I went to look for them again they were on the ceiling! The ceiling! Can you believe it?! My own paws ended up on the ceiling and I somehow never knew or noticed until just then."
Fluttershy giggled before briefly taking a sip of her tea. "Oh Discord, stop it, you're gonna make tea shoot out of my nose!" She had to stop drinking in order to regain her composure. "I've never met anycreature as funny as you! Even Pinkie Pie only wishes she could be as funny as you are. I especially love that story about the time you tried to train your left paw..." She paused and giggled again. "To fetch your right leg."
Discord smiled. "I do seem to know how to make you laugh, don't I? It's great to know that I have at least one good friend I can do that with. Most ponies don't seem to find much to laugh about with me these days." And it was possible to hear a hint of regret creeping into the draconequs' tone of voice.
The pegasus mare was quick to reassure the spirit. "Now Discord, it hasn't been that long since the whole Tirek incident. You have to give ponies time."
"I know, I know," The spirit remarked. "And it's not like I can travel back in time to undo it all. Twilight specifically says that's not a good idea, and whenever I ask her why all she ever does is mention this 'Future Twilight' incident. One of these days, someone is going to have to fill me in on just what happened."
"Well, you don't like talking about everything that you did in the past now do you?" Fluttershy pointed out. "If Twilight wants to tell you about an incident from her past, it's her decision," And after sipping from her tea cup she changed the subject. "Besides, Twilight's very busy getting everything ready for this year's Grand Galloping Gala. Now that she's a princess too, she was able to take over planning from Princess Celestia and give her a break."
Discord's ears perked upon hearing the words "Grand Galloping Gala". "Oh yes, I was wondering when you were going to bring that up. After all, it's my understanding that this time around each attendee gets to bring along one honored guest," And without waiting for a reply he declared. "You don't even have to ask. I'd be honored to accept your invitation. I heard about what happened at the last gala. All that sweet, sweet chaos would've been a glorious sight to see if I hadn't still been stuck in my stone statue prison. No way am I missing a chance to witness more chaos!"
But Fluttershy appeared to look guilty as she confessed. "Oh, I'm sorry, Discord. I thought you'd already gotten an invitation of your own. You know, seeing as you and Princess Celestia are friends now."
Discord sheepishly replied. "Well, maybe 'friends' is a bit of a stretch when she's still breathing down my neck for disobeying her orders to try and play the hero, but she hasn't threatened to turn me back to stone even now that Tirek is rotting away in Tartarus again," And he desperately sought to reassure his pegasus friend. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about. It probably just got lost in the mail or something. Happens all the time. No biggie, as the foals always say," Though he then questioned. "But if you didn't invite me then... who did you invite?"
The pegasus mare confessed. "My new friend, Tree Hugger. A member of the Equestrian Society for the Preservation of Rare Creatures. In fact, she's its founding member. I had the good fortune to meet her during my trip to study the breezies a ways back."
The chaos maker snorted. "I see. How very nice for you," And he not so discreetly took a bite from his tea cup as he tried his best not to look jealous. Then he stood up. "Well, I think I've held you up for long enough. I've got things to do. Gotta go now!"
"Wait!" Fluttershy protested as she saw the chaos maker snap his talons and put on a blue jacket with multiple pockets. "We haven't had any of our Tuesday teacakes yet."
"Oh, is that so?" Discord remarked as he picked up the aforementioned teacakes and slid them into one of his jacket's many pockets. "Well, I guess we're just going to have to exclude them from our party this time. Oh, did I say that out loud? Er... what I mean is... ta-ta." And with another snap of his talons he disappeared, leaving behind an empty tea set for two.
Fluttershy nervously sighed. She had expected such a reaction from her spirit friend. Yet even she could not imagine where this would all lead.
Inside of Carousel Boutique, the Cutie Mark Crusaders were getting all dressed up with Rarity's help. She could barely contain her excitement herself as she put the finishing touches on Sweetie Belle's dress. It was a simple light sea green outfit with a light green bow and a similarly colored gem like button in the front, all intended to match her eyes. And on the filly's head rested a green and blue tiara.
Scootaloo's dress was light purple with darker purple bits for the part underneath her wings. She had a light purple hat to go along with it, complete with what could best be described as a purple dragonfly fixture with greenish-yellow wings and a similarly colored feather sticking out.
"Oh, your first Grand Galloping Gala!" Rarity fondly exclaimed! "Hopefully it'll be better for you than it was for us. Still, with all the excitement and anticipation in your young minds, I'm confident you'll have a good time. And I wouldn't miss this occasion even for all the gems in Equestria!"
"Thanks again for letting us go with you guys," Scootaloo spoke up. "We're gonna have the best time at the gala together! And with Twilight planning it, it's sure to be a whole lot more fun!" Then she and Sweetie Belle began to chant together while pacing back and forth on the display stand. "We're going to the gala! We're going to the gala!"
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were close by, the two of them playing a friendly card game that had been made using their cutie marks in place of the usual symbols. The objective was simply to have the better hand. But it was difficult for the two to concentrate with two of the three fillies that made up the Cutie Mark Crusaders making so much noise. So Applejack tried to get them to be quiet. "Alright now, settle down you two," She told them while looking up from her cards. "It's only your first gala. It ain't like it's some life changin' event or anythin' like that."
Yet the farm mare would soon change her mind, for at that moment her younger sister finally emerged from behind a dressing curtain to proudly show off the dress she was going to wear. Her dress was a reddish orange in color with red dots on the bottom made to look like apples. In the front of her dress was a yellow flower with a smaller red center and a red star in the center of that. And a similar flower was adorned atop her head.
To say that Applejack was speechless would be an understatement. She couldn't stop her eyes from watering as she declared. "My little sister's all grown up! Oh, if only Ma and Pa were here to see this." And she reached out for something to blow her nose into.
Unfortunately for Rainbow Dash, Applejack ended up grabbing her tail by accident. "Hey!" She complained when she felt her fellow mare blowing her nose into the tail. "I don't need your boogers in my tail!"
"Sorry, couldn't help myself." Applejack apologized.
Meanwhile, Apple Bloom joined her fellow Crusaders on the display stand as they all jumped up and down in excitement. "This is going to be the best night ever!" They all declared together, before suddenly they saw one of the mirrors vanish and one of the eyes of Discord take its place! That was enough to freak them out a little and they all ran off the display stand, taking shelter behind their respective big sisters (honorary in Scootaloo's case).
"Hey, come on now," Discord pouted as he materialized from behind the stand. "I thought we were friends. Is this any way to treat a friend of yours?"
Applejack was quick to point out. "Friends don't sneak up on other friends unannounced, Discord. You still have a lot to learn about friendship it seems."
The chaotic spirit decided to ignore the rude remark in favor of proposing a question. "Well, that aside, I was just wondering:" Clearing his throat he asked. "These uh... adorable little cutie pies wouldn't happen to have their own tickets to the Gross Gruesome Gala by any chance, would they?"
Rarity spoke up with an "Ahem" and informed Discord. "To answer your rather rude question, Discord, they do. They're going as our plus ones, seeing as each gala ticket is good for you and a friend, date or anypony you'd like to bring along. Twilight figured the gala would be far more enjoyable if we each got to take somepony with us this time."
Sweetie Belle then excitedly cheered and chanted! "We're plus ones!" And Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were quick to join the chorus.
Discord groaned in annoyance. "Yes, yes, I heard you the first time. Don't wear it out." And with that he departed just as suddenly as he had arrived.
A short time later, across town Pinkie Pie was busy tending to customers at Sugarcube Corner, and had just finished filling the order for a pegasus mare. "Have a wonderful, special, fantastic day! Come back again soon!" Within seconds she then called out (as if she happened to know). "Hey, Discord! Want some cake?"
Discord made himself appear out of a cardboard box as a literal exclamation mark appeared over his head. "Hello, Pinkie Pie," He greeted. "How'd you know I was here? Did you cheat?"
"Nope," The pink party pony giggled. "I know cardboard boxes don't just appear out of thin air. Plus, you're using the wrong label. If you're trying to blend in you need to do a better job," Then she set to work on a sales pitch. "What can I interest you in? I can give you a full list of all the flavors we have in order from most delicious to incredibly, unbelievably delicious! That's how good our cakes are!"
The witty spirit then declared. "Actually, now that you mention it I am rather famished. I'll take one of everything, make that two of everything!"
Pinkie blinked and stared off into the abyss for a moment, as if she couldn't believe what she'd just heard. "All of them?!" She exclaimed and upon receiving a confirming nod she proclaimed to no one in particular! "He wants all of the cakes?! Oh, this is my lucky day!" She quickly zoomed away to start packing boxes to fit the cakes into.
Discord just laughed and tried to play it off while commenting to Pinkie. "Well, I'm going to need a lot of energy when I go dancing at that gala. That is if I decide to go, I haven't decided just yet. And while we're on the subject, are you bringing anypony by chance? Because if not I'd be honored to be your plus one."
Pinkie laughed as she paused briefly in her cake sorting and packing. "It's funny you should say that, Discord. I was just about to ask if you'd gotten your invitation yet. You should've asked sooner though, because I had a hard time figuring out who I was gonna bring along," She then explained as she resumed her sorting and packing. "At first I was gonna ask my mom because she's, well, my mom. But she's not too big on fancy events like the gala so she told me she didn't wanna go. Then I thought about inviting my amazing big sister Maud, but she's off studying to get her rocktorate so she couldn't come either. So I started asking around and around."
"And who did you end up deciding on?" Discord questioned as he then happened to spot Fluttershy out of the corner of his eyes. He proceeded to pull down a submarine periscope from out of nowhere to get a better look at her, because she was not alone. She was in fact walking along with (and talking to) an earth pony mare with a bright green coat. She had pale, light grayish purple eyes, a light dull red mane and tail that were quite bushy in style and a cutie mark that displayed a tree whose canopy was in the shape of a heart. Was that the "Tree Hugger" Fluttershy had mentioned before?
Unaware of what Discord was up to, Pinkie Pie answered his question. "Why, Mrs. Cake of course. And she was more than happy to go, even if it means Mr. Cake is gonna have to watch the twins all on his own for the night. I'll have to make it up to him somehow."
The draconequus then growled, deciding he had to see this new pony Fluttershy was with for himself. And he rudely told Pinkie Pie. "You know what, I'm not that hungry. Cancel my order, keep the cakes for yourself." He promptly vanished with a snap of his talons without waiting for a reply.
The pink party pony looked around and then complained as a realization dawned upon her. "Hey, you're supposed to pay for these! You want none of the cakes now?!" She proceeded to ask herself. "What am I gonna do with all these cakes?!"
Fluttershy was unaware that Discord had been watching her at all, she was currently laughing while chatting it up with the earth pony mare beside her. "Oh my, you are so funny sometimes."
At that very moment, Discord appeared in front of the two ponies as he grumbled. "Well, I guess everyone's funny to you today. Isn't that right, Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy quickly sought to defuse the situation. "Oh, I'm sorry, Discord. You're funny too," Then she gestured a hoof to the earth pony mare beside her. "Discord, this is Tree Hugger. Tree Hugger, meet Discord."
Tree Hugger immediately spoke up in a rather spaced out tone of voice. "Radical to meet you, dude. Really digging your vibe."
"Excuse me, my 'vibe'?!" Discord coldly hissed.
"It's a compliment, Discord." Fluttershy told him.
The spirit snorted. "Yes, yes, I'm sure it is. I guess I just don't speak her language or whatever it is," Then without bothering to wait for a reply he declared to both mares. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Tree... whatever you said your name was. Sorry I can't stay and chat, but I'm a very busy draconequus. Got places to go, things to see, all that good stuff," And he vanished with a snap of his talons, though he then popped back up briefly to declare. "It's got absolutely nothing to do with seeing you if that's what you're thinking. Nope, not at all. You can be sure of that," He delivered the last part with a noticeable nervous laugh. "Have fun at the gala! I'll see you there... or I might not, we'll see!"
Discord was soon out of sight again, and Fluttershy was quick to apologize to Tree Hugger. "Sorry about Discord. He's quite nice once you get to know him, but he doesn't make it easy to get to know him."
"I see what you mean," Tree Hugger commented, her tone of voice making it hard to determine if she was upset or offended in any way. "I get the sense just by looking at him that he's a very difficult creature to understand. He's always so conflicted inside even when he tries to make it seem otherwise."
An upset Discord returned to his own dimension to sulk in private. He even had his own little house in the middle of all the chaos where he could be alone with his thoughts. And right now all his thoughts were on Fluttershy's "new" best friend in Tree Hugger. The mere thought of her was enough to get the chaos maker all riled up. "That Tree Hugger," He complained to himself. "Who does she think she is taking my place as Fluttershy's best friend like that? Am I really that easy to replace? How many more times do I have to apologize to everypony over the Tirek incident before they're ready to actually forgive me?"
Hoping to distract himself, the draconequus set to work on "tidying up" his home. That involved doing things like dirtying up his dishes after washing them, giving the dust bunny under his couch another dust bunny for company or having his windows be covered up by suds from a window washing brush. He had on a little maid outfit while he did these tasks, and the whole time he did so he grumbled and complained since he had nothing better to do with his time. "Oh, why yes, Tree Hugger. Go ahead and take my plus one to the gala. It's not like I've got another friend who would like to go. I just don't wanna tell him I'm still mad at him over something he regrets and has apologized for a hundred times already."
When the household tasks were complete, Discord plopped down onto his well worn couch. He immediately proclaimed aloud. "Oh, why do I even care? I wasn't really planning to go to that gala anyway! It sounds so boring and I don't do boring!"
Yet within seconds of having made such a statement, the chaos maker heard the desperate yelp of a pony who was clearly not used to being in Discord's chaos dimension. And that meant there was only one thing for Discord to do, go out and rescue the unfortunate so and so and see what had led them to stumble into an unfamiliar place for them in the first place.
Discord soon discovered that said pony was an earth pony stallion with a dull brown coat. Said stallion had a brown mane and tail where the mane only just stuck out from the blue postal worker's hat he had on, and his blue eyes reflected a look of absolute terror and confusion upon his face. His cutie mark was a postal stamp with a heart inside of it.
"You appear a bit lost, my friend," Discord greeted the postal worker as he quickly brought the troubled stallion close to him. "Were you looking for me, by chance? It doesn't seem like you'd come here willingly."
The stallion nodded and stuttered. "You are Discord, or whoever the current resident of this place is, yes? Kind of hard to find my way when there's no street or house numbers and no signs."
"No need for them when I'm the only one here," The chaos maker replied as he took the letter the worker had on him and opened it. Inside was a gleaming golden ticket, which meant only one thing! "A ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala, meant for me! I was invited after all!" Yet this revelation soon took a backseat to a nagging question which the spirit was determined to get an answer for. And he ominously demanded of the postal worker. "Why is this so late?"
Gulping, the stallion apologized to the best of his ability. "Sorry, sir. I kind of got a little lost. Just figuring out how to get into here took the better half of a day," He proceeded to ask a question of his own. "Uh, could you maybe point me in the direction of the bottomless pit? I know I passed by that earlier, and I think I can make my way back to reality from there more or less."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, just float off in that general direction and you can't miss it." Discord replied in an unconcerned tone as he sent the postal worker on his way. Meanwhile, he was thinking in his mind. "I guess Princess Celestia at least has forgiven me if she's willing to invite me to the gala. But if I show up all alone, Fluttershy's sure to notice I have no other friends. I need to show that I don't need her pity, I can't afford to look desperate. I'm Discord, I show no weakness to anyone! Now, who do I know who would be available on such short notice?"
All of a sudden, an idea popped into the draconequus' chaotic mind! There was one creature he could call upon to serve as his "plus one" more or less. It was a creature to whom he owed a favor that had yet to be called in. Until now, anyways. "Yes, it'll be perfect!" Discord thought to himself! "See you at the gala, Fluttershy. And we'll see who truly ends up being jealous by the end of the night! Spoiler alert: It won't be me!"
The night of the Grand Galloping Gala soon arrived, and all who attended arrived at the castle to enjoy what they were sure would be a memorable evening.
At the top of the steps just beyond the main entrance, Princess Celestia and Twilight stood at attention as guests poured in. Princess Celestia wore a simple pink dress over much of her body, while Twilight had a lavish white dress with a yellow bow in the back and a beautiful blue necklace in the front. Princess Celestia took advantage of a lull in ponies entering to speak to Twilight. "I just want to say, thanks again for taking over planning and hosting the gala for me, Twilight. You didn't have to do this just because you're a princess now too."
"Hey, anything to give you a break," Twilight happily replied. "You deserve it. Besides, it's my way of paying you back for everything you've done for me since you took me under your wing all those years ago. I just hope this gala goes more smoothly than the one my friends and I attended."
Celestia just smirked as she declared. "We'll just have to wait and see, Twilight."
Twilight turned to her fellow princess and asked. "Okay, what are you planning?"
The sun princess defensively chuckled. "Who me? Planning? Why would I be planning anything on tonight of all nights? Do I look like I'm up to anything?"
Twilight just answered. "I've come to learn that whenever you don't look like up you're up to anything, you're up to something. This is starting to feel a lot like the Tirek incident where you wouldn't tell me the real reason why you were sending Discord to track that centaur down."
But before Princess Celestia could say anything further in her defense, Spike (who was standing next to Twilight) happened to comment as he looked out towards the front doors of the castle. "Say, is that who I think it is approaching? It sure looks like Discord to me."
And indeed it was as a greyish-green coated earth pony stallion with green eyes, and clad in a red and yellow outfit that included a feathered hat blew into a trumpet. The stallion then announced for all to hear. "Fillies and gentlecolts. Announcing the arrival of Discord, the spirit of chaos and his guest of honor... the... uh..." Discord proceeded to whisper into the stallion's ear to provide the answer. "The Smooze!"
Then, who should come strolling into the castle interior but Discord in all his chaotic glory? The draconequus had donned a lavish orange jacket with three yellow buttons down the middle and a red bow tie around the collar. He also wore a matching top hat and strutted in with a cane. Following close behind him was what could best be described as a bright green blob with a mouth. And the blob wore a red bow tie and a blue top hat, leaving a trail of bright green ooze behind it with every move it made.
Ponies who saw the creature gasped, yet they could not take their eyes off the apparently sentient blob that was accompanying Discord.
Discord either didn't know or didn't care about the looks he was getting from other ponies as a result of The Smooze as he just declared in an elegant fashion. "Good evening, everypony! What a glorious affair! Please don't be alarmed, The Smooze doesn't bite," And when he saw the blob start to chase after some ponies who wearing sparkling jewelry, he just laughed and declared. "He always was drawn to shiny things, the little rascal."
Sensing trouble, Twilight immediately flapped her wings and declared to Princess Celestia. "Better let me take care of this. I am the host, after all," She soon flew up to Discord and pushed him a ways back so he was out of earshot of Princess Celestia. Yet she still allowed Spike to come rushing to her side as she confronted the chaos maker. "Do you mind telling me why you've come here with that... that... thing?!"
The chaos maker innocently replied. "Now now, Twilight. There's no need to be rude. The Smooze may be an 'it' but's an it with feelings and a heart."
Spike took one look at the blob and immediately commented. "Seems to me like it's got a mind of its own to boot. Are you sure bringing it here was a good idea? You could've just asked me, I would've been happy to be your plus one instead of Twilight's."
"Hey, I figured you'd rather attend the gala and have a chance to see your favorite dragon sitter instead of spending the night all alone in our new castle," Twilight remarked to Spike before turning back to Discord. As nicely as she could she sought to tell the draconequus. "Look, I know you got a ticket so I'm not going to kick you out. But I've got enough on my plate as it is tonight thanks to the gala. It's extremely important to me that things go off without a hitch so Princess Celestia doesn't have to worry," And she then instructed. "So I'm only gonna say this once in regards to your... guest: Keep it under control, or I'll have to ask you to leave. You got that?"
The witty spirit gave a salute as he answered. "Yes indeed, Twilight. You can count on me to keep The Smooze in line. Scout's honor and all that humble jazz. I promise, The Smooze won't be a problem."
"See that it isn't, Discord. I would think for your sake that you wouldn't want to give ponies more of a reason not to trust you when they're just starting to get over the Tirek incident." Twilight sternly replied and then flew away.
Spike proceeded to look at Discord as he commented. "You're just trying to get back at Fluttershy because she didn't pick you for her plus one, aren't you?"
The chaos maker sought to protest the suggestion. "That's what the old me would've done, Spike. But I'm new and improved. I'm on the straight and narrow ever since you know what happened. Although, it's funny you should bring Fluttershy up. I was just about to ask if anyone's seen her and her..." He grit his teeth as he added. "New friend as it were."
Spike shrugged his claws. "Can't help you there but they're sure to be around. If you need me, I'm going to be more or less spending the night with Princess Luna, at least we'll have each other for company." Then he too departed.
The main ballroom in the castle soon became a central hub of activity as many ponies made use of it, all of them finely dressed up for the occasion. And it was this very ballroom that the Cutie Mark Crusaders became ecstatic to see as they arrived for the gala with their big sisters, all of whom were also dressed up.
Fluttershy had on a lovely green dress with a feather sticking out to one side of her mane while she chatted with Tree Hugger, who was wearing a plain white gown. Neither suspected that they were being watched from afar by Discord as he was not so secretly making his way towards them both.
Tree Hugger was simply talking to Fluttershy about one of her most recent experiences in nature. "The aura coming off the waterfall was so alive! So, like, magic manifestation. It's like watching poetry in motion."
"Wow," Fluttershy commented. "Sounds amazing."
At that moment, Discord happened to "bump into" Fluttershy and he immediately apologized. "Oh, Fluttershy. I didn't see you there. What a coincidence."
But the animal loving pegasus didn't acknowledge the spirit as she was too busy talking to Tree Hugger, asking her fellow mare. "How did you even know to look for an aura on a waterfall of all places? Any chance you could teach me how to do that?"
Not one to appreciate being ignored, Discord loudly cleared his throat to draw attention to himself. And that was what it took to get Fluttershy to finally notice his presence.
"Oh, Discord, I'm so sorry," Fluttershy apologized. "But I thought you said you weren't coming here."
The witty spirit snorted and rolled his eyes as he tried to hide his anger. "No, actually, I just said I hadn't gotten my invitation yet. But it's funny you'd remember our conversation that way."
Fluttershy apologized again. "Oh, I guess I was just distracted. I haven't seen Tree Hugger in so long though. You know how it is when an old friend wants to catch up."
The chaos maker just remarked. "Yeah, yeah," Then he turned his attention to Tree Hugger. "I guess it's nice to see you again. Any friend of Fluttershy's is a friend of mine, or something like that."
Tree Hugger smiled as she replied. "Oh, how nice to meet you, Discord. I'm Tree Hugger. Blessings."
Discord could hardly believe his ears. "Nice try, you've met me before! Stop pretending I don't exist! No way you haven't heard of me from Fluttershy!"
The earth pony mare with a green coat just replied in an almost dazed tone of voice. "She mentioned you once or twice, but maybe we met in pony in another life or something."
"It was just the other day! Are you blind or something?!" The draconequus complained aloud, no longer caring who might overhear him.
Tree Hugger apologized. "Sorry. It's just that I meet a lot of special creatures in my line of work. All of them perfect and unique in their own way. You are no exception. Naturally, when you meet as many creatures as I do they sort of blend together."
The witty spirit simply answered Tree Hugger. "I see, I'm no different than any other creature. I guess you haven't heard about me if you think that. But it doesn't matter, that's actually a good thing," He then sought to change the subject, not wanting to dwell upon who he was. After all, that wasn't what he'd come to the gala for. "Anyway, it's just great to be here with my oldest and bestest friend in the whole wide world of Equestria."
Fluttershy let out a gasp as she exclaimed! "Am I really your oldest, bestest friend, Discord? I had no idea I meant that much to you."
Discord laughed and played off the declaration. "Oh, you thought I meant you? Don't be ridiculous, I had friends before I met you even if I didn't realize it at the time. I'm centuries old, that means I've known creatures besides you and your friends," Then he gestured to The Smooze. "I was talking about the Smooze! Smooze Face, the Smoozinator: Well, I mean that's what we called him back in college."
The animal loving pegasus blinked. "You went to college?"
"For a while, yes. It was the last thing anyone would expect from me," Discord declared and then proceeded to plop The Smooze onto the table that Fluttershy and Tree Hugger had been occupying. "Now Smooze, I'd like you to meet Fluttershy and, um... Tree... Tree Embrace was it?"
Surprisingly, Tree Hugger exclaimed with what sounded like sincere delight! "Hey, I like that! It's so in rhythm with my own life force! Maybe I should change it to that, even rolls off the tongue better than Tree Hugger."
Fluttershy giggled as she eyed The Smooze. "You know, Discord. I've never heard you bring up The Smooze before. Can't believe you haven't talked about him when it sounds like you two are so close."
"Well I'm glad you got that, Fluttershy," Discord declared again. "Because it's true. We are very close," And he proceeded to poof the sentient blob away while remarking. "Though not as close as you and I."
"That's wonderful!" Fluttershy sincerely declared, not appearing to realize what Discord was trying to say. "You know, maybe the four of us should get together sometime. Maybe go out for dinner?"
Discord took offense to such a suggestion! "'The four of us'?! Have you no heart?!"
Before Fluttershy or Tree Hugger could say anything in reply, there came a scream as The Smooze had long since wandered away from the table. "Oh, leave it to The Smooze to be the life of the party!" Discord quickly announced. "I'll see you both later, or at least one of you!" Then he teleported away to tend to The Smooze, not wanting to draw attention.
The spirit quickly became fed up with how his plan to make Fluttershy jealous had not worked out. But he wasn't ready to give up so easily. The Smooze had been a means to an end, and now it was time to more or less get rid of him. Opening the doors that led out to the castle garden, the chaos maker told the sentient blob. "Okay, Smooze, you played your part well enough but it's just not working out. Just stay here and don't get into any more trouble until I come back for you, got it?" He proceeded to lock the doors and make the key used to secure the locks disappear.
Discord came back to find that Tree Hugger was already interacting with some of Fluttershy's other friends, and they were all laughing together about something. Desperately wanting to seem like part of the group, he made himself appear and started laughing with the others. Unfortunately, he laughed a bit too loudly and gave himself away.
"Uh, what's so funny?" Tree Hugger asked the draconequus.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Discord protested. "I'm the only funny guy around here!"
Perhaps sensing how awkward things were becoming, Rainbow Dash nervously spoke up while looking across to Scootaloo. "Um, I think we're gonna go hit the dance floor now."
"Y-yeah, us too." Applejack declared as she looked across to Apple Bloom. And soon, Tree Hugger and Fluttershy were the only ones left with Discord.
Discord quickly gestured to Fluttershy as he told her. "Fluttershy, tell your... friend here about the time we went to the store and came back with two cakes instead of one. After all, that's how crazy things are when the two of us get together."
Nervously, the animal loving pegasus gave a more or less condensed version of the events the chaos maker had just described. "Um, you heard him. Once, we went to the store and got two cakes instead of one."
The witty spirit frowned. "Oh, well you sort of left out all the fun we had on that journey," Then he turned to Tree Hugger as he asked her. "But I'm sure you got the gist of it, right?"
Tree Hugger nodded. "I'm guessing you really like cakes."
"No, we like each other! That's the point I was trying to make!" Discord growled! "Honestly, do you have to suck the fun out of everything?!"
Just then there came a frantic scream that sounded like it was coming from Rarity! "Let me in!" The voice cried out!
Reacting quickly, Discord rushed to the doors leading to the garden and unlocked them. And who should come stumbling in but Rarity all covered in green ooze?! She looked rather shaken up, yet there was something else that bothered her the most. "That creature took my jewels!" She accusingly gestured a hoof to The Smooze, which smiled and appeared to shimmer.
Twilight immediately flew over to confront Discord over the disaster! "Didn't I specifically tell you to keep your friend under control?!"
"You did, yes," The spirit nodded as he realized he looked quite guilty. "Believe me, it won't happen again. I'll make sure the ooze uh, that he can't help but secrete doesn't get on anypony else," He then turned to Rarity. "Here, let me make it up to you." He quickly produced a vacuum cleaner which he used to suck up the fashionista's ooze covered garments, ultimately leaving her with nothing to wear as she slipped away to hide her shame.
"One more mistake like that, Discord, and I will have to ask you to leave," Twilight warned the witty spirit. "Don't make me have to do it, because I will," Then she turned back to the gathered crowd to reassure them all. "It's alright, everypony. Everything's under control. So let's just get back to enjoying this magical evening!" And the crowd cheered.
Quickly losing patience with how badly his plan was going, Discord dragged The Smooze to a secluded part of the castle. "You're proving to be a liability. I'm sorry, this just isn't working out," He declared and shoved The Smooze into a storage closet. "Just stay here and I'll come back for you when the gala is over. It's nothing personal, I just can't have you making me look bad in front of Fluttershy." Yet what he didn't realize is that the supply closet he'd stuffed The Smooze into contained a huge assortment of jewels and gems of all sorts. And for The Smooze that was like an all-you-can-eat buffet!
The chaos maker soon returned to the ballroom, observing the whole thing from atop a chandelier in the center of said room. When he saw Tree Hugger once again laughing and hanging around with Fluttershy's other friends, he became seized with indignation! The draconequus was growing tired of seeing this new friend steal all of his friends away, and he was determined to prove once and for all how "funny" he could really be.
All of a sudden, the lights in the ballroom dimmed and a spotlight focused on the stage as Discord appeared, having shed his top hat and cane. He now held up a microphone while tapping on it to try and get feedback. "Is this thing on?" He asked and soon got a reply when he heard his voice echo across the entire ballroom. "Good evening, ladies and germs! I just flew into Canterlot, and boy are my interspecies parts tired!" He followed up the comment with a rimshot only to receive no reply.
Undeterred, Discord tried another joke as he gestured to his bat and manticore wings. "I've only got these tiny mismatched wings, and yet even I can fly better than Twilight Sparkle. Am I right?" Another rimshot followed his delivery.
Only Princess Celestia seemed to find any amusement in the joke, struggling to hide her laugh. Twilight was both surprised and a little bit offended to hear the pony she'd looked up to react in such a way even to a joke. "Hey!"
"S-sorry, couldn't help myself." Princess Celestia blushed and tried to recover.
Yet the witty spirit could tell that his "audience" wasn't amused in the slightest. So he decided to change up his routine a bit. "Oh, maybe you folks are into observational humor? I've got a good one!" With a poof he disappeared and then reappeared inside of a brick wall. "Did you ever notice how you always just materialize out of thin air? Why not thick air? What's the deal there?" And another rimshot followed, yet the only feedback he got was a cough from a random earth pony in the audience. He tugged on his necktie as though it were suddenly too tight. "Tough crowd."
"What is he doing now?" Twilight wondered aloud. "He's been acting strange all evening."
"I think they're... jokes?" Mrs. Cake commented in uncertainty while standing next to Pinkie Pie. She had a beautiful pink and blue dress that matched her own natural coat and mane and tail colors, and she had a flower that loosely resembled a candy wrapper.
Pinkie Pie, wearing a simple polka doted blue dress seemed to agree. "Yeah, but they don't seem very good. They remind me of the jokes I tried to use on the Cake Twins," When her friends all looked at her she just replied. "Long story. Let's just say they had really weird senses of humor."
Meanwhile, Discord kept up his comedy routine even as it was clear that nopony was even close to laughing anymore. Nervously, he tapped on the brick wall behind him as he said. "Knock knock!" But he got no reply, which caused him to lose his patience. "You're supposed to say 'Who's there?'! Come on, this is the most basic of jokes!"
"You're the most basic of jokes!" Mrs. Cake declared in reply, and soon everypony in the audience was laughing. Not with Discord though but directly at him.
Unfortunately, the happy laughter was soon cut off as the sounds of something slithering could be heard. Faint at first, the sounds grew louder and louder until they couldn't be ignored.
Twilight happened to turn around in time to see a horrible green ooze spilling out from a supply closet, quickly flooding every inch of the ballroom! "What is that?!" She then desperately flapped her wings, only just barely managing to reach higher ground before the whole ballroom was flooded! Princess Celestia and Rainbow Dash were the only other ponies lucky enough to be able to make such an escape, everypony else either lacked the means to escape or were so taken by surprise that there was no time for them to try to escape.
Twilight tried to clear away the ooze by blasting it with her magic, but every time she poked a hole in the ooze it was quickly refilled.
"It's no good, Twilight," Princess Celestia called out to her former student. "Whatever that Smooze is made of, it's something that's completely impervious to our magic."
"I just hope Spike and Princess Luna are okay," Twilight commented. "Doesn't seem like they'd be of much use here. I don't see dragon flames or extra alicorn magic doing the trick. But we have to do something, we can't let The Smooze run loose like this! The gala will be completely ruined!"
"You know, this is kind of a bummer actually." Tree Hugger spoke up as she was stuck on a wall, hanging upside down next to Fluttershy.
Discord soon appeared just as Pinkie Pie happened to come floating past atop Mrs. Cake, using the baker as something of a makeshift raft. "It is, isn't it? And to think, none of this would've happened if I'd just been somepony else's plus one in the first place. Then I wouldn't have to invite The Smooze."
Tree Hugger didn't acknowledge the comment from Discord as she instead made an observation. "It's not The Smooze's fault. Seems like something might have harshed up his flow, you know? Like his senses are all agitated. There has to be a way to calm it down."
The chaos maker bitterly remarked. "Are you out of your mind?! Don't answer that! You don't know a thing about The Smooze! You may have studied rare and exotic creatures, but you've never met a creature like The Smooze before! Who are you to tell me I don't know my own friend better than you do?!"
"I mean no disrespect," Tree Hugger insisted. "But magic isn't working on him, and just blasting it won't solve anything. The Smooze needs to calm down, and I know just the thing. I know I always feel really at peace when I'm being bathed in positive vibes. Maybe he'll calm down with some sonic bliss." She proceeded to chant rather slowly.
To the surprise of everyone (Discord most of all) The Smooze did indeed react to Tree Hugger's chanting. It began to retreat and revert back to its original blob like state, the ooze left in its wake slowly receding as it did so.
"Way to go, Tree Hugger!" Fluttershy cheered as everypony surrounded the green coated earth pony. "You saved us all."
Discord had seen and heard enough! His plan had backfired in spectacular fashion, Tree Hugger was more popular than ever and he didn't like that at all! "Oh, that it's! I have had it with you, Tree Hugger!" He furiously declared as fire flashed in his eyes! "You leave me no choice!" He proceeded to snatch her up and used one of his talons to rip open a dark blue portal. He then floated her over towards it.
In stark contrast to how she had been at any point prior, Tree Hugger nervously exclaimed while gesturing a hoof! "Whoa, dude! What in the world of Equestria is that?!" The thing that frightened her was a giant sock puppet against a crayon and colored pencil drawn background.
The chaos maker calmly replied. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm just gonna send you on a one way trip to another dimension. I simply can't have you taking Fluttershy away from me."
Fluttershy immediately flew up to confront her friend, determined to stop him from making a mistake he wouldn't be able to undo. "Discord, stop! This has gone far enough! This isn't like you!"
Discord just remarked in an unconcerned tone of voice. "There's no reason to get upset, I'll come back for her someday... if I remember where I left her. Besides, I'm doing her a favor. This other dimension has everything: White sandy beaches, an attentive wait staff... I mean, okay, the humidity isn't so great, but where isn't that the case these days?"
Twilight then spoke up as the rest of her friends joined her. "Come on, Fluttershy! Discord's left us no choice! He's out of control! Maybe he needs to go back to stone for a while to think about what he's done!"
But Fluttershy protested. She sensed something deeper about Discord's motivations and so she insisted. "No, leave this to me! I'll talk him down one way or another."
"Well, if you change your mind let us know." Twilight replied but decided to trust her friend's judgement for the time being.
The animal loving pegasus quickly flew over to Discord, confronting the spirit head on. "I don't understand why you're doing this. Why now when ponies were finally starting to trust in you again? We were all getting along just fine."
The chaos maker snorted and retorted. "As well as we could've! Even you could sense that things were different. I held out hope that you would stick with me. But even you abandoned me eventually!"
"Discord, I did not abandon you!" Fluttershy stubbornly insisted! "Just because I invited a friend to a party doesn't mean I no longer cared about you."
Discord wasn't convinced. "So you say, but you never even bothered to ask me how I felt. And this whole night you've been ignoring me in favor of Tree Hugger. I thought if I showed up with someone else you'd become jealous and come back to me. But I see now that I was wrong."
The shy pegasus protested while flying closer to Discord. "You shouldn't be talking about abandon others, Discord! Because that's what you did with my friends and I when you were supposed to track down Tirek!" But then a sudden realization struck her, causing her to gasp! "Wait, that came out wrong!" She tried to insist as the entire ballroom filled with shock.
For a long and uncomfortable moment, no words were spoken as Fluttershy and Discord just stared at each other. But Discord eventually broke the silence when he said to Fluttershy. "I should've known, it's no wonder you made a new friend. Everypony else was right not to trust me anymore," With a sad look in his eyes, he closed the portal and set Tree Hugger down. Then he gave a whistle. "Come along, Smooze. We've made enough of a mess of things already, let's leave these ponies to enjoy what remains of their night without us."
"Discord, wait!" Fluttershy called out in vain, watching as the spirit snapped his talons and disappeared with The Smooze in tow.
Twilight was the first to approach the pegasus mare after Discord's abrupt departure. "Are you alright, Fluttershy?"
"No," The pegasus unhappily sighed. "I knew he was still having problems, but this whole time I've been ignoring him unintentionally."
"Hey, it's not your fault he got jealous!" Rainbow Dash protested! "And there are better ways of dealing with jealousy than endangering somepony else's life! He's lucky we didn't have the Elements of Harmony on us, after a stunt like that you'll forgive us if we don't trust him so easily."
Fluttershy only shook her head. "It didn't have to come to this. I should've had that talk with Discord much earlier, before everything got out of control. Heck, before he decided to try and make me jealous just so he wouldn't be. Now," She felt tears starting to form in the corners of her eyes. "Now I don't know how I'll even begin to apologize to him. I was the only friend he truly had left, and without realizing it I took his friendship for granted."
Surprisingly, Tree Hugger of all ponies was the one to place a hoof around Fluttershy and encourage her. "You know, it's never too late to say sorry or start over. And I find it always helps to talk about the big things instead of avoiding them. It may be a while before I can clear out my chakras after what Discord did. And maybe you should do the same with him, the both of you should let it all out."
The animal loving pegasus unhappily commented. "But I don't even know where he is now. He could be anywhere."
"Maybe he's closer than you think," Tree Hugger suggested. "I can sense the vibes of anything or anyone. And I'm sensing some very strong negative vibes coming from over there." She gestured a hoof to the doors leading to the castle garden.
Hoping beyond hope that Tree Hugger was right, Fluttershy raced over to the doors, opened them and raced out into the garden proper.
Sure enough, there sat Discord with The Smooze not far away. "I'm sorry you had to be around for all of this, Smooze old pal," The spirit apologized to the sentient blob. "It wasn't supposed to be like this. But of course, me being me I just had to make a mess of things like I always do. I know I'm the spirit of chaos and disharmony, but why does it seem like I can never do anything without making it at least a hundred times worse?"
The Smooze just replied by coming closer to Discord.
"Well, I guess at the very least I owe you an apology for focusing on my feelings and neglecting yours," The spirit remarked. "This is probably not what you had in mind when I called in that favor. But at least you had fun, right?"
In response, The Smooze gave Discord a kiss on the cheek.
The kiss did cheer the draconequus up a little, but not much. "You always know what to say, don't you?" He remarked. "Well, at least there's one friend I haven't lost for good after all of this."
Fluttershy proceeded to clear her throat, attracting Discord's attention. "I'm sorry I made you feel like I was abandoning you. And I'm sorry I didn't do more to support you after the whole Tirek incident."
Discord looked away in shame. "You had every right to be upset with me, everypony did. If I'd just followed orders then everything would've been just fine. Twilight wouldn't have lost her home, Equestria wouldn't have been put in danger and I would've been the big hero I so desperately wanted to be. I don't even know why Princess Celestia thought I could be trusted. Maybe I deserve to be turned back to stone if chaos is all I ever bring."
"And what's wrong with a little chaos?" The animal loving pegasus protested. "Without chaos, there can't be harmony. And life would be so boring if everypony always agreed with each other all the time," She then sought to address the reason for her visit. "I'm sorry about Tree Hugger. I should've realized you'd take it personally when I invited her. I should've told you sooner about it all. But just because I have a new friend I like to hang out with doesn't mean I've forgotten my old friends. You saw I was having a good time with Twilight and the others even with Tree Hugger, right?"
The spirit slowly nodded. "Yes I did. But all I could think about was how you weren't paying attention to me. And that felt like you didn't trust me anymore, that like so many other ponies you still held it against me because of what happened with Tirek," He sighed. "It looks like there's still much I have to learn about friendship," Then a smile slowly crept onto his face as he added. "You know, I think I might actually grow to like this multiple friend thing. So many possibilities."
Fluttershy smiled back. "I like it too," Then she mentioned. "Hey, why don't we share a dance together? The night isn't over yet."
"You sure, but what about The Smooze?" Discord asked. "I wouldn't want him to feel left out."
Fluttershy grinned. "I'm sure we can find somepony willing to dance with him. Tree Hugger sure seemed fascinated, and she wasn't the only one I noticed," She then joked. "Maybe we could pair him up with Rarity as an apology for eating her jewels earlier?"
"Let's not get crazy! Things have already been crazy enough this evening." Discord teased as he and Fluttershy shared a laugh. The first genuine laugh they had shared together in a long, long time.
So it was that pony and draconequus ended up dancing the night away in the center of the ballroom with everypony watching.
And it wasn't long before The Smooze find a willing partner to dance with it. Pinkie Pie ended up being the eager volunteer! "Come on, Smoozey! It's not a party until you spread that ooze all over the ballroom again! That was a lot of fun!" And she practically pushed the sentient blob of ooze along.
"Sorry things didn't work out the way you intended them to, Twilight," Princess Celestia apologized as she and Twilight watched the dances from afar. "I expected Discord to liven things up when I invited him, but I never expected him to go as far as he did."
Twilight simply took a deep breath and replied. "Well, whenever Discord shows up you really can't expect things to remain as they are. And aside from the magical resistant ooze spreading uncontrollably and the whole 'other dimension' thing, this gala has actually been pretty peaceful. Besides, everypony seems to be having fun now more or less."
Celestia smiled. "That's just the sort of positive attitude I expect from a princess. You're learning already."
"Well, I had an excellent teacher," Twilight commented. "All the same, I think I'll leave the gala planning to you from now on. Trying to organize and host this event was far more taxing of an effort than I imagined. Besides, I need to be available in case that map calls on me. It's been quiet so far, but you just never know."
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Hey there again. All I can say is, once again, really good job on the exchanges, characterizations and general chapter/episode wrap-up in all the right places. And, again, excellent points in the author's notes. Yeah, you did a really good job using this to start to address Discord's issues (and a great point in doing so at that) as well as the reason for using Mrs. Cake instead of Maud.
Really looking forward to the remaining five chapters/episodes in this volume as well as Volume Fourteen next year.
10990289
You're story appeared up in Dragon Sitter Luna. Which chapter made it possible?
10996375 This chapter here.
10997076
Thanks very much.
Hello and I'm sorry for not answering but I just lost my phone last week and on the worst day of the week Monday! But anyway I just read Make Friends,But Keep Discord and I want to say thank you to SuperPinkBrony12 for using my ideas for this story, I just think it was necessary for Discord and Fluttershy to have a little more development to their friendship/relationship if the Tirek thing was mentioned during the Gala