“You think she’s in there? The cottage is intact and it doesn’t look like anyone broke in, but--”
“Of course she is, Rainbow Dash. Have a little patience, we only just got here.”
“Ugh. I’d be more patient if it were less freezing out.”
“First of all, it can’t be ‘less freezing,’ because temperature is measured by degrees of energy--”
“UGH. Hey, Fluttershy! It’s freezing out here, and Twilight’s being a nerd! Open up!”
Fluttershy heard her friends’ muffled bickering through her cottage door, and she hesitated to open it. The autumn dusk had only just settled over Ponyville; Fluttershy hadn’t bothered to turn the lights on yet, so maybe if she was really quiet…
“Fluttershy,” she heard Twilight say, her voice gentle and maternal. “It’s just me and Rainbow Dash. Please let us in.”
“That’s not working, Twilight!” Dash growled. “What makes you think she’ll let us in now, after all these weeks?” Fluttershy heard the angry flap of wings and muttered obscenities on the other side of her door. “Darn it, Fluttershy, if you don’t open this door, I’m gonna bust it down.”
“Rainbow Dash, don’t threaten her--”
Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy flicked the lock on the door and pulled it open. Rainbow Dash, the rough-and-tumble blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, was hovering with a hoof raised-- presumably to punch the door. Next to her stood the ever-orderly and composed purple alicorn, Twilight Sparkle.
“Jeeze Louise,” Rainbow Dash said, dropping gracelessly to the ground. Her jaw was limp and her fuschia eyes were like dinner plates. “Fluttershy, you, uh, you look…”
Darting in front of the stunned pegasus, Twilight hurried to negate the awkward statement with forcefully-saccharine adjectives. “Awake! Very awake. And you’re... at the door, here, and… and we’re here, too! Hello!” She threw Dash a scalding look, and was given an embarrassed half-grin and shrug in return.
“Oh… um… yes,” Fluttershy said in her feather-soft voice. It crackled with disuse. “Yes. Hello.” She shrank into herself, letting her tangled and dirty pink mane cover her downcast eyes.
Trotting past the shame-faced pony, Rainbow Dash went to turn on the lights. “So, uh, what’ve you been up to? It’s been so long since we-- oh.”
In the newly-lit room, there was a distinct lack of care taken toward cleanliness. Dust and a variety of different animal hair had settled on the woodstove, which, despite the fall cold, was unlit; remnants of food encrusted the piles of dirty dishes scattered around and upon the little green tea table. Stepping gingerly around a pile of crumpled magazines, Dash’s attempted smile translated itself into a grimace. “Have you… had any company recently?”
Before Fluttershy could respond, Twilight cut her off with an authoritative voice. “Rainbow Dash, please go run a bath for Fluttershy. She and I are going to get started on cleaning the living room, and then we’re all going to have something to eat. Okay?”
Having a task spared Rainbow Dash from the excruciating small-talk she was attempting. With a comical salute, she zipped around the corner to the bathroom. Fluttershy’s face flushed, and she started to protest. “Y-you don’t have to--”
“Yes I do, Fluttershy,” Twilight said, her voice firm. “You can’t live like this. It’s been weeks. Teddie Safari isn’t as good at caring for the creatures of Everfree Forest as you are, you know.” She put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder and looked her in the eye, softening her tone. “Rainbow Dash has been worried sick about you. All of us have been.”
Fluttershy tried to look away as tears melted Twilight’s face into a blurry purple muddle. “Oh, I’m s-sorry,” she hiccupped. “It’s just b-been so hard, you know, I… w-we used to write to each other every d-day, a-and he visited every other, a-and I just don’t know what to do with myself now that he’s… Now that I’ve...” She trailed off, leaning into Twilight’s glossy mane. Twilight made soothing sounds and let her cry. “D-darn it, Twilight, I trusted him!” Her voice steadied, anger creeping in with the hurt. “He knew it! He knew I… he sold us out. For nothing. For nothing at all, for someone he didn’t even know, when you really think about it! Tirek swayed him so easily, and for nothing!”
“I know, Fluttershy.”
“No,” she said, pulling away and wiping her eyes to glare at Twilight. “You really don’t. You have no idea at all.”
Bewildered, Twilight looked at her friend for several moments. She then looked around at what had once been a homely and inviting little house. Fluttershy had been a celebrator and nurturer of life until Discord had betrayed her, but now she could barely support her own.
Twilight swallowed her pride. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy. You’re right. I probably don’t.”
They looked at each other in tense silence, each ruminating on their own hurt feelings, until Rainbow Dash’s voice called from the bathroom and snapped them back to reality. “Bath’s ready!”
“Go wash up,” Twilight said, giving Fluttershy a gentle push. “Dash and I will get this place nice and neat for you, okay?”
“Okay,” Fluttershy sniffled. As she turned to go, she blushed and added, “I’m sorry for snapping at you.”
“It’s fine, Fluttershy. Don’t worry about it.” Twilight watched her go.
Dash flapped her way out of the bathroom, giving Fluttershy a nervous smile as she passed. When the door shut, she set back down on the floor and raised her eyebrows at Twilight. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think I heard Fluttershy yelling at you. As close to yelling as Fluttershy can get, anyway.”
Twilight sighed. “I was being insensitive. I think I deserved it. Anyway,” she stood up straighter and scanned the living room. “Let’s get on this. I’ll put things away if you’ll dust, and then we can bring the dishes into the kitchen.”
“Bet you the kitchen’s just as bad.”
“We’ll get through it.”
“Cottage clean-up, cottage clean-up…”
“That’s not funny, Rainbow Dash.”
When Fluttershy re-emerged from her bath, her mane was sparkling clean and un-gnarled, and she smelled very strongly of lavender. Rainbow Dash insisted she’d only put a single drop of lavender oil in the bathwater.
“What do you consider to be a ‘drop,’ Dash?” Twilight asked, smirking.
Flustered, Rainbow Dash made some vague gestures with her hooves. “You know, just… a little bit! Just a drop!”
“So… half the container?”
“No! Only, like, a quarter…”
Twilight snickered, and Fluttershy sniffed one of her still-damp wings. “It’s okay, Rainbow Dash. I really do love this scent.”
For the first time in ages, Fluttershy was looking and feeling decidedly decent. The steamy water had loosened her unused vocal chords, as well. She wouldn’t have admitted it, but knowing that others were in the cottage with her was actually a comforting thought.
Not only had Twilight and Rainbow Dash cleaned the living room, the kitchen had been given a thorough scrubbing, and some apple-oat muffins were baking in the oven. Her cottage felt warmer and better cared-for than it had in a long time. “I can’t begin to thank you girls enough for all your help--” Fluttershy began, but Twilight waved her words away.
“It’s no problem, Fluttershy. We’re just…” she paused, then changed her mind. “Well. We’re glad to help. And we’re always here for you, okay? In fact…” Her purple eyes caught Dash’s in a meaningful glance. “We think Rainbow Dash should stay with you for a bit. Until you’re feeling better.”
Rainbow Dash, who was reclining on the sofa, looked to Fluttershy. Her mouth was set in a line of anxiety, betraying her lighthearted tone. “What do you think, Fluttershy?”
Before she could protest, the oven’s timer jingled. “Let’s talk about it over some nice hot muffins, okay?” Twilight said over her shoulder, already halfway to the kitchen.
“Don’t worry, I won’t, y’know, treat you like a baby or anything,” Dash said sheepishly, sitting up to look Fluttershy in the eye. “Just help you out a little. It’ll be like an extended sleepover!”
Twilight came trotting back out with a plate full of steaming muffins floating in front of her, nervously glancing from Fluttershy to Rainbow Dash. The three stood in silence while Fluttershy stared at her hooves.
Finally, she spoke. “Well, um, okay.” She pawed at the floor with one nervous hoof. “But only for a few days. I don’t want to be any more of a bother to you than I already have been.” Fluttershy looked shyly up at Dash through her eyelashes.
The invisible breath Twilight and Dash had been holding sighed free, and Twilight magicked Fluttershy’s tea table nearer to the couch. The plate of muffins settled carefully onto its freshly-cleaned surface.
Dash grinned hugely and visibly became less tense. “Awesome! It’s no problem, don’t you worry your pretty yellow head over it.” She leaned back against the sofa and rested her hind legs on the edge of the little table, jarring the plate of cooling muffins. “Wow, we thought we’d have to fight you a bit for sure, but this makes things loads easier. Twilight said we might have to warn you about drmcbmghph--!”
Apple-oat crumbs rolled onto the floor as a muffin lodged itself firmly in Rainbow Dash’s gabbering face, and Fluttershy flinched in surprise. A pink aura glowed around the muffin, dissipating as the muffin met its mandibular demise. “Ha-ha! Good one, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight laughed forcibly, picking up another muffin with her magic and hovering it before Fluttershy. “Here, try one of the muffins!”
She wasn’t at the top of her game, sure, but Fluttershy was no fool. Frowning, she took the muffin out of the air and calmly put it back on the table. “Warn me about what, Twilight?”
Twilight looked daggers at Dash, who threw back a look of cool indifference. Turning to Fluttershy, Twilight said, “Oh, well, I didn’t want to give you anything else to worry about. It’s really nothing, I swear.”
“Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly. “Please tell me.”
It was hard for anypony to resist Fluttershy’s gentle politeness, pony royalty or not. It was also so hard to resist that wide-eyed, pleading look on her face.
Twilight gritted her teeth, hesitated, and then relented. “Okayokayokay, I’ll tell you.” She took a deep breath. “So… you know how Discord is… usually in Canterlot?”
Though she flinched at the mention of her ex-friend, Fluttershy nodded and took a little bite of her muffin in an effort to appear casual.
“Well, right now, he’s sort of… not. He was under strict orders by Celestia to stay put and to report to her before and after going anywhere, giving her a timeframe and reason for leaving, but… he hasn’t been seen for at least two hours. He just disappeared.”
Fluttershy’s tone was cold. “Well… good.”
Twilight gaped at her. “No, not good at all! We were worried that in your, um, vulnerable state, he could really…” She trailed off, not wanting to say what all three ponies were thinking.
“There’s nothing he could do to hurt me worse than he already has,” Fluttershy said. Her eyes were filling with tears again. “And he knows I don’t want to see him.”
Dash and Twilight shared a worried glance. “That might not be enough to dissuade him.” Twilight put a comforting hoof around Fluttershy’s shoulders. “Celestia told me he’s been writing you letters.”
Fluttershy buried her face in her hooves and nodded.
Rainbow Dash leapt from the couch to her hurting friend’s side. “What did that jerk say to you?” She hissed, practically spitting fire.
With a whimper, Fluttershy said, “I don’t know. I never opened any of the letters.” She kept her eyes averted from Rainbow Dash’s furious gaze. “I couldn’t bring myself to throw them out, so they’re all in the kitchen under the sink…”
Dash was poised to race off to the kitchen, but she halted mid-air when Twilight spoke. “You can read them when you’re ready. Or never read them at all. It’s your decision.”
Fluttershy sniffled and gave Twilight a weak, appreciative smile. “That’s what I was planning on doing, but… why didn’t you want to tell me about Discord’s disappearance?”
“We didn’t want to alarm you. His magic hasn’t been detected anywhere in Ponyville, but we don’t want to leave it up to chance… and, quite honestly, someone should be here to watch out for you in general.”
“Like with life stuff,” Dash chimed in. “I won’t let your house get that messed up again, all right?” She winked at Fluttershy, who blushed and nodded, wiping a residual tear from her eye.
“Thank you, girls. I’m really sorry for causing you all this trouble.”
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Please. It’s not your fault there’s a deranged spirit of chaos on the loose.”
“It really isn’t,” Twilight hastened to add.
Fluttershy made a mental note of how quickly Twilight has spoken, but she didn’t protest. She watched as the barely-nibbled muffin glowed and sat itself back on the plate with the rest. Twilight walked the plate back into the kitchen, and upon returning, she addressed Fluttershy first.
“Before I go, I’m going to put a magic-neutralization spell on your cottage-- if that’s all right with you. It will prevent any magic from working within its walls. If Discord shows up, he won’t be able to get through. Granted,” she went on, “neither will I or any unicorns or alicorns, but I’ll disable it when I come back to Ponyville.”
Rainbow Dash’s ears perked up. “You didn’t mention you’d be out of town, Twilight.”
Her face grim, Twilight said, “Celestia and I are going to track Discord down. Wherever he is, he can’t be up to any good.”
Fluttershy felt her eyes stinging with tears again, and she flittered gently to the window behind the sofa, her forelegs resting on the back. The view was right out into the ominous and leaf-barren Everfree Forest. This time of year, it created a skyline brimming with silhouettes of craggy trees, reaching into the cloudless night like gnarled claws. If she refocused her eyes to spare herself the frightening sight, Fluttershy would have seen the dim reflection of a worried pink-maned pegasus-- but she didn’t want to see that, either. She knew she wasn’t a pony with the strongest constitution, but she was growing weary of her friends seeing her as so utterly helpless.
She willed her tears back. Stiffly, she asked, “You’re sure all this is really necessary?”
“It’s just a precaution,” Twilight replied.
Fluttershy looked over at Rainbow Dash, who shifted uncomfortably in place. “Honestly, I thought it was a bit much. I mean, he’s a pain in the flank, but everyone keeps saying that he’s nowhere near Ponyville.” Fluttershy looked back out toward the forest. Dash went on: “We’re just worried that once Twilight leaves, he’ll track her magic and head over here. It’s a just-in-case sorta deal.”
“A precaution,” Twilight repeated.
“One,” said a silky-smooth voice behind them, “that you really should have taken sooner.”
All of the light bulbs in the room burst simultaneously, casting a blanket of dark over the room. From the ceiling, a bright beam of light cast a wide circle on the floor. The three ponies were struck dumb, mouths agape.
“No,” Fluttershy whispered.
A conniving, winding Draconequus took a smooth, scaly step into the spotlight’s center. “Oh, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a dramatic entrance,” he said, his voice dripping with honeyed sardonicism. One moment he was dressed head to toe like a flapper, languidly fanning himself; the next, he and the spotlight blinked away with a pop. In the same moment, the exploded bulbs replaced themselves, and a shower of confetti in the shape of pink and teal butterflies rained from a Fluttershy-shaped cloud hovering near the ceiling. Discord reappeared, stretched comfortably upon the couch much as Rainbow Dash had been only a short while ago. “Ta-dah!”
Fluttershy, who had been standing on the couch to look out the window just moments before, squealed and tumbled backward. Her eyes were wide and confused, and her head was on a direct collision course with the edge of the tea table. A luminous pink barrier shaped vaguely like a pillow formed itself between the table and her skull in the nick of time. She landed on her butt and scrambled, feathers askew, to her hooves.
“Pth-thuh!” Twilight spat a few pieces of confetti onto the floor. “Saving me some time, are you?” She zapped the raincloud into oblivion and then lowered her horn, which threw off threatening violet sparks. “You’ve got a lot of explaining to do, Discord. Let’s not make this more complicated than it needs to be.”
Discord smirked and cocked his head. “I agree, Twilight Sparkle. Let’s simplify things. I’m not here to talk to you, so...” He snapped his paw-fingers, and a muzzle and blinders appeared on Twilight’s face. “Keep quiet a minute, would you?”
“Hrrmph?!” Twilight reared, waving her forelegs in confusion. The blinders flew off easily with a tug of her magic. However, the muzzle proved more of a challenge, and she stumbled about the room with each pull.
While Twilight struggled, Rainbow Dash assumed a catlike fighting stance. Her ears pressed back, and a snarl formed in her teeth. Fluttershy ducked as Dash rocketed across the few feet between herself and Discord with a hoof pointed straight at his smug face.
He flashed an unevenly-fanged smile at her the instant before he faded away like a cloud of smoke, and the sickening crunch of splintering wood indicated that Fluttershy was going to need a new couch.
“Behind you,” whispered a voice in her ear. Dash tugged her hoof free from the smashed couch and swung around. She struck empty air.
Twilight had managed to free herself at last, and her eyes glowed white-hot with emotionally fueled magic. “That’s enough!” she bellowed. A sound like a cracking whip accompanied a wave of magic energy as it rippled through the air.
Discord stood frozen in place with an air horn behind Rainbow Dash’s head, one chicken talon an inch from the button and a devious smile on his face. She and Fluttershy were as statuesque as he, bits of confetti caught in the paused whirlwind around their ankles, but Twilight walked unhindered. She panted as though she had run a great distance, the effort of maintaining the spell evident in her strain. Still, she reveled in her power; her horn glowed, her mane rippled in a nonexistent wind, and a triumphant grin played at the corners of her mouth.
“Now listen to me very carefully, Discord, because I know you can hear me.” Twilight stopped directly in his line of sight, speaking over Dash’s head. “If you don’t do exactly as I ask when I unfreeze you, you’ll be stone the next time we meet. I hope you realize that such a task isn’t exactly outside my skillset any more.
“You’re going to accompany me back to Canterlot, of course, but first you’re going to explain to me why you left the castle. You’re going to do it without destroying Fluttershy’s cottage. You’re not going to create any more trouble for her.” Twilight knocked the air horn out of Discord’s grip with her hoof. “For her or for any of us.”
She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and undid the spell. The tremendous pressure of the magic was lifted. Dash leaped to Fluttershy’s side, eyeing Discord with suspicion, her tail flicking nervously. Discord, however, seemed to have been made tame by Twilight’s words, and he only glared at them all with his arms crossed.
“First of all, living like a prisoner qualifies my sojourn down to Ponyville as either fleeing or escaping the castle.” A pout tinged his voice. “Secondly, I didn’t punch a hole in her couch.” He snapped his fingers and the couch was repaired, though the upholstery was now a horrendously garish orange and brown plaid. “At this point, I’ve done more good than you two have for poor Fluttershy this evening.”
When he raised his arm to snap again, Twilight took an aggressive step toward him, her horn glowing. “You can make your case without causing chaos,” she barked. “Not that you’ve got much of one. Fluttershy wouldn’t need anyone’s help at all if it wasn’t for you.”
To Twilight’s surprise, the glare on Discord’s face slipped. A hurt expression replaced it. “Yes, well, I didn’t claim otherwise. I wouldn’t.” As quick as it had happened, though, it was gone; judging by the astonished looks on both Fluttershy’s and Dash’s faces, they had all seen it. He continued: “I was here to apologize for my actions in person, actually, since dear Fluttershy hasn’t been responding to my letters. Er.” He grimaced, as though physically pained. “Please imagine I’ve conjured a newspaper with an advice column for bored housewives entitled ‘Dear Flutter--’”
“Apologize?”
It was Fluttershy who spoke. She had risen from her position of cowering on the floor beside Rainbow Dash, who stuck out a foreleg to stop her from moving forward. “He’s lying! Don’t listen to him, Fluttershy!” Dash’s expression could have made a manticore run crying to its mother. “This… this son of a Cerberus wouldn’t apologize if he got paid to.”
Fluttershy placed a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s own outstretched one, lowering it. Wide-eyed, Dash let her do it.
“He’s not lying.” Fluttershy’s voice was barely audible. Gently, without even the slightest hint of aggression, she said, “I know he’s sorry. I know he wants me to forgive him so we can be friends again. We were… very good friends, weren’t we, Discord?”
Discord visibly relaxed, clasping his paw and claw together joyfully. “Ah, Fluttershy, I knew you’d come around. We just know each other too well.” His serpentine form arched toward her, paw outstretched.
“Hey! Freeze, mister!” Twilight sent a warning shot sizzling into the space between Fluttershy’s face and Discord’s clawed digits. Fluttershy sprang back, but Discord’s paw didn’t jerk away even as the heat of the blast grazed his knuckles. He did as Twilight requested and froze it in place. “I didn’t say you could move,” she snarled. “You’re still in trouble whether she’s forgiven you or not.”
“Twilight Sparkle, the only thing that matters to me here is that Fluttershy forgives me.” Discord’s tone was condescending, as though explaining something simple to a stupid child. “I’ll come right on back to Canterlot without any trouble. I’ve gotten what I wanted.”
“Actually,” Fluttershy interjected, “I-I’m not so sure that you have.”
No one breathed, and all eyes were on Fluttershy. She trembled where she stood, but her eyes were dry, and she kept them aimed at the crumpled confetti between her front hooves. “I know that you’re sorry. I know because you were sorry the last time, too.”
“I don’t understand.” Discord had a half-smile on, but it was an unsure one.
“Do you think that being sorry means you can just… do these things to me forever? Just treat me like I'm expendable, a thing to be traded away when a better offer comes along?”
Any hope for a smile literally slid off Discord’s face and landed with a wet smack on the floor.
Fluttershy wasn’t done. “You’re sorry because… because…” Fluttershy choked, “You wish you had made the safer bet instead of throwing in with Tirek. And, well, here’s my bet: that I won’t have to feel this awful over and over by forgiving you again and again” --she stomped her hoof for emphasis-- “if I just stay away from you.”
For the thousandth time that night, Fluttershy’s eyes were overflowing with her hurt. The difference this time was the steel in her gaze, which she directed straight into Discord’s own.
Unlike when Dash had glared at him, Discord actually took a step back. He withdrew his outstretched paw with uncertainty. From the floor, his mouth said, “Did someone suggest that you--”
“Nopony told me what to do,” Fluttershy said, the mildest hint of an edge to her words. “The others wanted to forgive you, but it’s different for them. They wouldn’t have trusted you with their lives. They don’t… they didn’t feel the way that I…” she trailed off, finally breaking eye contact and ducking her face behind her mane.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight, throughout the entire exchange, had scarcely let themselves breathe. It was like the freezing spell Twilight had zapped them all with earlier on, but this time Fluttershy was the only one able to move. Without looking directly at him, she picked Discord’s mouth up off the ground, gingerly placed it back on his wide-eyed face, and then retreated to lean against Rainbow Dash.
After a few seconds of dead silence, Twilight broke through. “Well. That’s your answer, Discord.” It had meant to come out cold, but all of the ice left her voice in the wake of Fluttershy’s display. Instead, Twilight just sounded tired-- which she, realized, she truly was. And she still had to fly Discord out of Ponyville. “This party’s over. I have to take you back to Canterlot. Celestia’s waiting.”
“Yes,” Discord mumbled, his eyes still glued to Fluttershy. He reached up and touched his own mouth absently. “Yes, I’m sure she is.”
Twilight and Rainbow Dash tensed for action in case he was planning another display of chaotic theatrics, but Discord only dragged his vision away from Fluttershy’s bowed head and drooped wings before he trudged to the front door. Without turning back, he said, “I wasn’t lying when I said all I had wanted to was to apologize to Fluttershy. I don’t have anything else to gain here, so just relax, would you?”
Twilight squinted at him. She was surprised at Discord’s reaction, but she had never trusted him further than she could (physically) throw him, and they had all seen what happened when one let one’s guard down around Discord. A sympathetic glance in Fluttershy’s direction told the whole story.
The door glowed pink and swung open. In her best princess voice, Twilight said, “Rainbow Dash, please stay here. I’m going to fly Discord back to Canterlot, and I’m going to put that spell we talked about up just in case; I doubt I’ll be back at a reasonable hour, so I’ll most likely stay in Canterlot overnight.”
“Okay, Twi. Safe travels.” Rainbow Dash stood close to Fluttershy, who had apparently exhausted her emotional reserves entirely. She leaned on Rainbow Dash’s side and stared blankly into space without saying goodbye to Twilight. Dash put a wing over her friend’s back, pulling her closer.
“Take care, Fluttershy,” Twilight said gently. She and Discord walked out, and the door shut. The cottage was silent for a moment, chilled by the fall air that had sneaked in. Then, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash watched a flash of pink light run over every inch of the building’s interior.
Outside, Twilight saw the same thing happen to the exterior of the cottage. The walls sparkled faintly when she leaned in to inspect her handiwork.
Scrambling over to a window, Rainbow Dash put her hooves up on the sill and watched as Twilight gestured wordlessly toward the Northeast. She and Discord flew side by side into the distance.
Dash watched until they were specks, and then until they blended into the darkness.
“I think I’d like to go to bed,” Fluttershy said from behind her.
"All right," Dash murmured, eyes straining against the night, trying to make out some hint that Twilight was still there. "I’ll meet you upstairs. Don’t wait up for me, okay?”
The flight to Canterlot was a tiring one, especially after all that heavy-duty spellwork, but Discord couldn’t be relied upon to teleport there himself. “At least this is another opportunity to work on my flying stamina,” Twilight mumbled to herself.
“And look how lovely Ponyville looks from way up here,” came Discord’s wistful reply. He flapped his wings alongside Twilight, not moving ahead or falling behind.
She glared at him. “I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity, Princess Twilight.” When Twilight didn’t respond, Discord looked downward once more. “Really, though, it looks very cozy. The little dots of lighted homes dispersing more thinly the further we travel... it’s all very picturesque and quaint.”
Hesitantly, Twilight said, “I… suppose it is. I don’t generally do much flying at night, so…” She let the sentence hang, feeling strange about making small talk with Discord. He was right about the beauty on the outskirts of Ponyville, but she could hardly appreciate it right then; cold night air rushed over her without mercy, and she was too tired to risk expending too much more magical energy keeping herself warm.
Discord no longer sounded the way a deflated beach ball might if it were made animate, but he seemed exhausted as well. In fact, he was silent for a good stretch of time before speaking again. By then, the mountain loomed in the distance, promising that the flight to the castle at its base would only be another fifteen minutes or so.
“Twilight?”
She started, not realizing she'd zoned out as they flew. “Y-yes, Discord?”
“Why didn’t Fluttershy forgive me?”
That certainly woke Twilight up. She turned her incredulous expression toward him and was met with genuine confusion. “Do you honestly not understand why? She told you herself. In her own words. And you left without too much of a fuss, so if you’re just trying to be contrary, I really don’t--”
With a dry, humorless laugh, Discord cut her off. “Don’t be ridiculous, Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy very clearly wants me to leave her alone, so I’ll leave her alone. All the same, this just…” He made an exasperated sputtering noise, struggling to find the right words. “It doesn’t make any sense to me! I apologized and I meant it. She knows I meant it. What else do I have to do to make her forgive me?”
Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. “Discord, you can’t just force others to forgive you. When you hurt them, the hurt doesn’t just go away because you tell them that you regret hurting them. Friendship isn’t a possession, a reward, or something you’re entitled to.”
“You say that like it’s common sense, and yet I remember reading a certain somepony’s diary entries about learning the nuances of friendship through experience,” Discord pouted.
“The difference,” said Twilight icily, “is that my friends and I learned from our mistakes. Fluttershy gave you more than one chance.”
“Well, she’s the Element of Kindness, for chaos’ sake!”
“Sometimes ponies need to be kind to themselves first and foremost. Especially after enduring a deeply hurtful act.”
They landed alongside one another before the castle gates. The last thing Twilight had said seemed to have had an impact on Discord, because he was muttering about it under his breath.
“Kind to herself, eh.” He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I see. Hmm.” A scientist’s lab coat, scaled appropriately to Discord’s narrow form, appeared on him in a puff of smoke. He held a clipboard and pencil, scribbling away furiously. “Interesting, interesting.”
“Put all that away,” Twilight snapped. “You can try to figure out all the infinite facets of your wrong-doing after we talk to Celestia.”
Discord looked at her with disdain for a moment, then snapped his fingers and returned to the state nearest normal that his nonsensical form could take. “Sorry. It’s a nervous habit. Also, you know, it’s in my nature as a being of pure chaos. But hey, you’re the princess.” He curtsied melodramatically, crossed his arms peevishly, and hovered ahead of Twilight. Zipping through the front gate while facing backward so as to glare at her more effectively, he called, “Hurry it up. I want to get this over with.”
Twilight smiled apologetically at the two guards looking on with uncertainty. “Royal business,” she said curtly. “Don’t worry unless you hear screaming.”
A shriek sounded from the entrance hall, followed by self-satisfied giggling.
The little piece of sympathy Twilight had felt toward Discord promptly shriveled up and died. She hastened after her charge, looking forward to unloading him on somepony else so she could finally get some rest.
