Princess Celestia has been alone for a very long time. So what happens when she decides to start getting back into the dating world? She starts a war with an unexpected pony for the love of a special somepony. It will be a while before the actual war starts so please wait and enjoy.
Specaial thanks to lonewolf3878 for the cover art. Set in the Our new Queen Universe. You don't have to read that story to understand what is going on here. But If you want to go ahead that way some things make sense here. But this is a Discord Love story, when does it ever make sense?
Princess Celestia, The Co-ruler of Equestria, the Princess of the sun. With beauty only matched by her fellow Princesses and adored by her fellow ponies. Is bored out of her mind. Her sister Princess Luna had taken the time to schedule a day off for her without giving a heads up. So here she is, in Canterlot's library sipping tea and reading one of the many books she had read before.
"I know Luna is just doing this so I can do the same for her one day." She lets out a sigh as she closes her book. She uses her magic to bring another one to her from the shelf and puts the other one back in its place. She eats a small cookie she "borrowed" from her sister's stash and opens the book flipping through the pages. Being an Alicorn has given her plenty of time to master the art of fast reading, or as other ponies call it, skimming done right. "Normally I would be thrilled to have some time to myself, but what is the point of a day off. If I can't spend it with my sister or any of the ponies that I care about?"
Believe it or not, today was the worse timing in the history of time for a day off; Her student and close friend Princess Twilight, the Princess of Friendship. Oh, Sorry, The Queen of the Changelings, Twilight Sparkles, refuses to leave her children until they hatch. Then there is Cadence, The Princess of Love, who is having trouble with her daughter Flurry Heart again. That leaves only her sister Princess Luna, The Princess of the Moon, who is doing her duties for the day.
So, what can she do? She could always go to sleep, but she is not tired. She could talk to the guards around the castle, but they are not so much into conversations. And she would not dare go and to try to talk to the nobles in Canterlot. They would only brag to their fellow nobles that she spent time with them. She huffs to herself and rubs her eyes. It would appear that she needs to take a page from her student's book and makes some friends of her own. She drinks her tea again and grabs another book. "But where does one start?" she says to no one in particular.
"Don't look at me, Celestia." A familiar voice spoke up next to her, "I was never one to start from the beginning,"
She looks to her left to see that Discord, the entity of chaos, had appeared next to her. Celestia looks to the clock on the wall. She almost forgot that Discord likes to bug her around this time before going to see his friend Fluttershy. He has been doing this ever since he had made friends with that shy pegasus. She knows it was her idea to reform Discord, which worked, but she was hoping that after that happen, he wouldn't bother her anymore. But I guess you can't have everything.
Discord's eyes are closed as he smiles to himself, thinking of how to annoy the Princess of the Sun today. Sure, Discord said that he wouldn't do anything terrible to anypony anymore, but he never said that he wouldn't annoy them. "I was in the neighborhood and decided to drop by." He said before snapping his fingers and causing the cookies to come alive and look like guard ponies before they started fighting each other on the tabletop.
Usually, this would be something that Celestia would dread. However, today was an exception. She smiles at the miniature war zone next to her before she grabs one of the soldiers in her magic, "That is very nice of you, Discord."
Discord's eyes shot open. This was not what he was expecting to hear. "What?" He pulls off his ear and shakes it a few times before putting it back on. "Did I hear you, right? You are happy to see me?"
She nods at this and eats the soldier cookie. She thought she heard it screaming but ignore it. His sacrifice will not be in vain. "My sister has given me a day off, and I don't have anypony to talk to today. You aren't my first choice in conversational partners, but you are better than nothing." She puts down her book and grabs another cookie soldier from the group of soldiers who all have stopped fighting and stare at her in fear.
"Well, okay, then." He snaps his claws, making a robe appear on him and a fancy chair for him to sit on. He leans back in the chair, blowing bubbles from his pipe. "So, what would you like to talk about?"
She didn't think this far ahead. She thinks about it for a second before an idea came to mind. "Discord, have you been able to make any new friends since Fluttershy?" She then makes a magic bubble around the remaining soldiers before they could run away. She always did hate fast food.
"Why, yes!" He says with a big grin on his face as she reaches for another cookie soldier, "I am close friends with Spike, Big Mac, and even your sister."
Celestia dropped the cookie soldier when she heard that, "When did that happen?" She was curious about his progress in making friends; however, she wasn't expecting him to be this good at it already. And with her sister no less.
"She was helping me with a nightmare, and we started playing card games whenever we can." He taps the end of his pipe on the edge of his chair, causing dirt to come out of it, before filling it with paper and blowing more bubbles. "As for the other two, I was bored, and they weren't doing anything important. So, I made a roleplaying game for us to play in, and the rest is history." He leans in close to her. "I was wondering what the siblings to the elements of harmony were like, so yeah." He leans back into his chair as Celestia took this all in. "It was one of the best ideas I have ever had."
By now, half of the soldiers were eaten, and the rest are trying to escape, but they will not escape her hunger, "I am impressed Discord. I didn't think that you would get the hang of making friends so quickly. However, I am certain that there are more siblings to the Elements than just those two. Like Shining Armor, for instance."
Discord rolled his eyes at that and waved his paw dismissively. "That white hairball from the Crystal Empire doesn't want anything to do with me."
"And what about the others?" She asks as another soldier is eaten,
Discord made a scroll appear in front of him and put on glasses. "Ahem, lets me check my notes here. Pinkie's sisters are either too afraid, too loud, or too boring. Not to mention that Rainbow Dash doesn't have any siblings. However, I am still working on the three little trios from Pony Ville. And that's about it." He gives Celestia the list.
Celestia is relieved that Discord isn't forcing ponies to become his friends. She gives the scroll a look over. It has the names of ponies that Discord has either made friends with or not, and Ponies he hadn't talk to yet. It is quite long, and each name has a small note next to it to let him know something about the pony. Twilight would be proud. However, there is one pony's name missing from his list. Celestia looks back at Discord, who appears to be getting ready for more praises from her for his accomplishments, however..." What about Zephyr Breeze?" She asks calmly,
This confused Discord, and he gives her a strange look. "Zebra, what breeze?"
She rolls her eyes and clarifies herself, "Zephyr Breeze. Fluttershy's younger brother." This caused Discord to fall off his chair. Celestia and the soldiers look over to see if he was alright before he shoots up from the floor.
"FLUTTERSHY HAS A YOUNGER BROTHER!" Discord shouts with a look of shock on his face.
"I assume she never told you then," she said, rubbing an ear,
"She never said anything about him," Discord starts pacing in front of Celestia before he stops and faces her, "and how do you know about him anyway?" he says accusingly,
"Twilight mention him in one of her reports." She said calmly,
Discord turned away from Celestia as he put a claw to his chin. "Why didn't she ever tell me about him."
"I guess that thought might have slipped her mind?"
"I must find this stallion at once!" with a snap of his claws, Discord disappeared, leaving Celestia alone once again.
She lets out a sigh and goes back to her novel. "That was nice." Celestia drops her book as her eyes widen in surprise. "Did I say that?" She shakes her head and turns her attention to the remaining cookie soldiers who are cowering in fear. She smiles, "Now, where were we?"
Meanwhile,
Fluttershy is getting ready for her tea party with Discord. She is so excited. She just got a new brand of tea that she can't wait to try out. They will go perfectly with the new Tea Set Discord made her. They have little butterflies on them, along with flowers. The teacups change colors from brown to pink when you pour tea in them, and then they turn blue when the tea gets too cold.
Fluttershy had just set down the tea set when Discord pops up in front of her.
"Hello, Fluttershy." Discord said, crossing his arms with a frown on his face.
"Oh! Hello, Discord, you are early." Fluttershy then notices that her friend is in his grumpy mode. "Did something happen?"
"SO there this stallion called Zephyr Breeze. Heard of him?"
Fluttershy eyes widened when he said his name, "Where did you hear that name?"
"Does it matter?"
She looks away in shame, "I guess not."
"Fluttershy, we are best friends, and there is almost nothing that we don't know about each other." Discord floats next to her. "So why all the hush-hush on your brother?"
"I don't like to talk about him." She hadn't made eye contact with him yet. Discord notice this and back away from her and sit down on the sofa. He lets out a sad sigh before speaking.
"I haven't met him yet. I was going to once I found out about him. But I wanted to know first why you didn't tell me about him."
Fluttershy moves to her chair and sits down and faces her dear friend. "My brother can be a hoof-full sometimes. He is nothing like me. And to be honest, I get embarrassed whenever he is around."
Discord raised an eyebrow in confusion. Is she ashamed of her own brother? Fluttershy, the kindest pony I know, is ashamed of her own brother. How can that be? "Is he really that bad?"
She looks down and draws little circles on her seat with her foreleg, "He tried to start a campfire by tossing rocks at sticks and expecting them to start it on their own."
"And your point is?" he said, snapping his fingers to cause two rocks and sticks to hit each before they started a fire on the tabletop.
She looks at the fire before pointing out a flaw in his reasoning, "But he is a Pegasus. And he only through the rocks and sticks together once,"
"Oh, a lazy brother." He nods at this and snaps his fingers to put out the fire.
"He is getting better, but it doesn't mean that old habits don't die hard."
"I could always fix that." Discord lifts up his claw in a snap ready position and lifts his eyebrows twice, hinting her what he meant.
Fluttershy taps her chin a few times, thinking to herself of the possibilities, "Tempting," She shakes her head in disagreement. "but I can't let you do that even to him."
"If you say so," Discord shrug at this and then uses his magic to start the tea party. Both of them were enjoying the party when Discord remembers something interesting that happened earlier. "By the way, did you know that Celestia was happy to see me?"
Fluttershy dropped her cookie when she heard her friend. "Come again?"
"I know, right," He causes a scroll to appear before him, and he gives it a look over, "I thought she would hate me for at least three more years before she starts to warm up to me again."
"That is wonderful, Discord," She smiles at her friend, "I am so happy that you are finally getting on good terms with her." Wait, again? She thought to herself before she dismisses the thought,
"And that is another milestone check off my list." He checkmarks the list before it disappeared.
As the tea party progressed on, Fluttershy started to get embarrassed as she tries to ask Discord a question. "So...a... Discord."
"Yes?" he said looking up from his teacup,
"Are you interested in anypony?"
It was a good thing that Discord practiced with Spike and Big Mac on his poker face. Otherwise, he would have spat out his tea out of shock by her question. He calmly sets his teacup down, "There are many ponies that I find interesting in Equestria, so you are going to have to be a little bit more specific, Fluttershy."
She starts fidgeting in her seat. "Well, it is just that ever since we have become friends. I have never seen you try to date anypony."
"OH! SO, that is what you mean," He smiles at her, "Well then if that is the case, the list is much shorter."
Fluttershy blinks as she tilts her head, "There is a list?"
"It is not very big, mind you," He pulls out a rolled-up scroll from his horn, "But I do have someponies in mind. However, I never did take a second look at it. Did you want to see?"
Before she knew it, the words were out of her mouth. "Yes." She squeaks.
Discord then moved next to her and showed her the list. Discord was saying something about each name; however, Fluttershy wasn't paying attention. Her mind was focused on one thing, who were the names on the list. She must have checked the list four times; however, her worst fear has been realized. It is not there — her name. Her name is not on the list of ponies that Discord is interested in.
"...and I need to cross out Twilight from this list since she is married now. So, what do you think?"
"What?"
"The ponies that I am interested in. Who do you think that I should see?"
"Oh," She looks away, "Maybe it should be the pony that likes to be with you at any time."
"You are right, Fluttershy," He gets up and moves back to his chair and makes the list disappear, "Thank you for your input," He lends back in his chair and grunts as he back pops, "And since we are on the subject is there anypony that you are interested in?"
This caught Fluttershy off guard as she jumps from her seat, "What!" She almost shouted, but Discord didn't seem to notice.
He looks back at her, "It is just a question. You don't have to answer it if you don't want to."
She calms herself down, still not looking at Discord with a small blush on her face. "There is, but I don't think that he had noticed me."
He smiles at her, "Oh, really. Well, his loss than. Every stallion should be begging you to be your special somepony."
"Discord, you are going to make me blush."
"It is too easy for that," Discord then looks at his wrist and pulls back his fur to show a watch there. "And Horse apples look at the time. May Applejack, forgive me." He lets the hair go back into place, "I forgot that I had to be with the guys today and lost track of time." He looks at Fluttershy with a paw rubbing the back of his head. "I hate to drink and run, but I got to get going."
Fluttershy shakes her head, "It is okay, Discord. Same time next week?" She says hopefully,
"Of course, Fluttershy." With a snap of his paw, Discord was his chaos dimension and fell on his bed before screaming in the pillow. This went on for ten minutes before he calms down. He pulls up his face to catch his breath, "I thought I was going to lose my cool there." He sits up and makes his list of ponies that he is interested in appears before him. He then started to do Origami on it to make a heart out of it. It now says
Is Fluttershy single?
with two boxes next to it, one saying yes and the other no. "And next week, I will start to drop the charm." He said check-marking the yes box.
Back at Canterlot, Night had fallen, and the sisters of the castle have joined together for dinner before turning in for the night.
Luna is finishing a hay burger she ordered from Pony Ville while Celestia is eating a simple salad. "How was your day off fair, sister?" Luna said, eating her hay fries,
"It was interesting," Celestia looks at her reflection in her tea, "And it made me realize something that I didn't put much thought into until now."
"And what pray might that be dear sister." Luna drinks her soft drink waiting for her sister's response,
Celestia looks at her sister, "I want to find a special somepony,"
Luna did a spit take and coughs before getting up from her seat in shock, "Sister! Do you dare enter the realm of courting?! There is so much to discuss and so much to plan for this. However, might I pry do you already have somepony you fancy?"
Celestia thinks to herself, before a small smile comes to her face. "Maybe."
Home to the Apple family. And is where a red stallion and a purple dragon wait patiently inside the barn for their third member to arrive. Big Mac walks to the window to looks for any signs of their friend as Spike lay across a hay bale waiting patiently. Before long, Discord appears before them a flash of light.
"Sorry, I am late guys," Discord said as he pulls out a pocket watch and opens it up to which it falls apart send springs flying, "I lost track of time."
"It is okay Discord," Spike jumps off the hay bale and greets his friend, "Everypony can lose track of time now and then."
"Eyeap." Big Mac added smiling at them and joins them at the center of the barn,
"Now then, Boys. Where did we leave off last time?"
Spike puts a claw to his chin before snapping his claws, "I believe we were going to invade the tyrant Freezer castle to rescue Princess Pear."
"That would be correct."
With a snap of Discord paw, the three of them find themselves in a land of paper wearing their roleplay outfits. Discord is an archer, Spike is a mage, and Big Mac is a swordsman. With looks of determination, they look onward to see the castle of ice chests guarded by Freezer's minions the Icicles. "Now then to ARMS!" Discord pulled back his bow, Spike started to charge up his staff, and Big Mac lifts his sword. "CHARGE!"
Meanwhile at Fluttershy's front door. Pinkie Pie has arrived with a box of treats on her back. She was told to bring an order of cupcakes here for Fluttershy's teatime with Discord. Pinkie and the girls believe it is only a matter of time before they start calling it date time with Discord. She hops to the front door and knocks happily. "Fluttershy, it is me your best friend Pinkie Pie. I am brought the cupcakes you asked for." she waited for a replied but when none came after five seconds she started to get worried, "Fluttershy?" she knocks on the door harder before it opens up on its own, "Fluttershy?" Pinkie Pie called out into Fluttershy house from her doorway. "You here?"
"Yes." A small voice replied within the house.
Pinkie Pie enters the house, "I came by to drop off your order of cupcakes for your teatime with Discord." She stops in front of a tea set and notices that the teacups are half full and were cold. Also, only half of the cookies were eaten. Something is wrong but she couldn’t put her hoof on it. It was then that she slowly started to notice the change in the atmosphere here. Typically, Fluttershy’s house is filled with light and little critters running all over the place. But not today. Today it is a mess, with the shades drawn, leftover food across the table, and no signs of life. "And why is it so gloomy in here?"
Without missing a beat Fluttershy replied from the stairs to greet Pinkie, "I have no idea."
Pinkie smiled when she saw her friend, but it quickly turns into shock, "AH! Fluttershy, You."
"Yes?" She said slowly coming down the stairs,
"I mean you look fine just like every other day, but you are giving off a...” She scratches her head trying to think of the word, “How do I put this?"
Once at the bottom of the stairs Pinkie Pie could see her friend better. But not in a good way. Fluttershy is a complete mess. She has red eyes with lines of tears on her cheeks. Her feathers on her wings are no longer straight. And don't even start with the rest of her. Rarity would scold her friend for what has happened to her mane and coat.
They stared at each other in an awkward silence before Fluttershy spoked up, "Down in the dumps?" She suggested,
"That is one way to say it. What happened?"
The boys had returned to the barn for a break of their roleplaying adventure. Discord was patting off some snow and slime off his outfit before looking at his bow as it broke in half. “That going to cost some gold but not as much as you guys.”
Big Mac grumbles to himself as he pulled out an arrow in his helmet before his shield fell off his side along with a piece of his armor. Spike was no better as half of his outfit was destroyed, “Did you had to make the fortress so difficulted?” he said before his staff broke in half,
“What? I thought that you guys were getting used to the usual adventures, so I decided to take it up a nock.” He said grabbing an apple from a box, “Now how are we going to save the princess now? We don’t have enough gold to repair our gear.” He juggles the apple between his hands in thought before tossing it back with the rest, “I wonder how much we can get if we raid a dungeon? What do we have to sell anyways?” He said while making a small bag appear before him as he looks through it. Discord pulls out different potions and items that they have gather throughout their adventures.
"So, Discord,” Spike spoked up, “how did it go?"
Discord looks back at Spike before pushing the bag to the side, “Terrible Spike. I mean really. How could you fall for the sirens trance? She was half your size. I thought you would have known better. Also, it happens two minutes ago, how could you forget?"
Spike drags a claw down his face in embarrassment, “That is not what I meant.”
“Oh, are you referring to how a swarm of pink spiders poison Big Mac to death while I was being eaten alive by a fifteen-foot troll.”
"Can we not talk about that,” Big Mac said shivering at the memories, “They were everywhere. Also Discord you know what we are talking about."
He thinks about it. They could be talking about how we were trying to get more ponies to join us in our roleplay, but they already know about that. So that can't be what they are talking about. The only thing that I can think of that he has told them about would be about-
"Oh... OH! That." He smirks,
"Well?"
Discord chuckles to himself, "Well, after my cunning strategy, I have discovered that she is indeed single."
"And?" Big Mac pressed,
"I have also discovered that she is interested in somepony."
"Let me guess you have no idea who this pony is." Spike finished,
Discord crosses his arms in a pouting manner, "Hay, I was doing my best trying to keep a straight face when I was fishing for information." They smile at him causing him to blush, “It was very hard mind you!”
"SO how did you find this information?"
"I am glad that you asked Big Mac,” He said looking back in the bag, “So, you see I first showed her a list of mares I am interested in,” He quickly looks back them, “not including her name mind you. And from there I ask her if she was interested in anypony,” He then pulls out a bomb from inside it that was lit for some reason. Quickly he tosses the bomb outside to which it explodes. They all look outside to see a very angry Applejack looking back them with a face covered in black with a small creator in ground in front of her, “Sorry about that!” He said snapping his fingers fixing the damage, “Now, where was I?”
“You I ask her if she was interested in anypony?”
“Right. It was so simple that I amaze myself at how easy it was to get that info from right under her nose." He smiles at his own cunning not noticing the look of concern on his friend's faces. Discord then found a big diamond and went to the corner of the room to sell it for some gold.
Spike and Big Mac shared a look with one another before Spike spoke up, "Ah, Discord."
"Yes, Spike?" Discord said while getting the gold,
"I think you just did a Derpy."
"Eyeap."
Discord turned around to face them confused, "What are you talking about? I found out that she is available, didn't I?
Spike rubs the back of his neck trying to figure out how to say this, "Well yes; you did but... amum... ah... Big Mac, help me out here."
"She probably thinks that you don't like her."
Discord drops the bag of gold in shocked, "WHAT! HOW! WHEN! WHY!"
Spike closes his eyes and rubs the bridge of his nose trying to think of how to tell him, "Discord you showed her a list of mares you are interested in, without including her name in it."
"And your point iiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssss..." Discord eyes widen in terror. For it was at this time that he realizes that he has indeed done a Derpy.
The boys shared a knowing look before Discord screams, "WHAT HAVE I DONE!"
"Hold it Discord." Big Mac said stopping Discord from snapping his fingers to teleport away.
"WHY! I must apologize to her!"
"SO, you are going to tell Fluttershy that you like her?"
"Well, I..."
"Yes?"
"Okay, I see your point there." Discord slumps on to the floor dejected, "But what am I supposed to do now?"
"Well, right now you need to get your head on straight," Spike said. Discord pulls off his head, shakes it a bit and put it back on, "Now then. You need to tell Fluttershy that you like her without telling her directly."
Discord turned to the only stallion in the room that has a marefriend, "Big Mac, you have a marefriend; how did you do it?"
Big Mac gets nervous as he remembers at how he started dating Sugar Belle, "I am not sure you want to do what I did."
"Tell me, anyway," He gets onto the floor in a begging position. "I am desperate."
Big Mac looks at his friend before he gave in, "Well, I tried to tell her my feelings in a song and ended up destroying her bakery."
There was a moment of silence before Discord spoke up. "And she's still in love with you?"
"No, she right out rejected me, until I built her a new bakery. She gave me a second chance, and we have been dating ever since."
"Hum," Discord puts a claw to his chin thinking about it, "It is a bit flashy with effective results. But I don't think that Fluttershy would want me anyway near her animals if I did something to them."
"You know maybe what you need is a mare's point of view on this," Spike added,
He turns to face his scaly friend,"What are you going on about?"
"Well if you talk it over with a mare. Maybe she can give you a better idea of how to handle this. I mean we do have a Princess of Love after all."
Discord claps his hands with joy, "You are right! How did I forget about that?" Discord snaps his fingures and everypony is out of the cosplay outfits. "Sorry to cut this short, but I have a princess to meet."
Discord snaps again and disappears in a flash of light right before a small squad of stallion appears at the entrance to the barn, "We have arrived to save the Princess!"
Big Mac and Spike look at each confused until they got what they meant. "Sorry guys," Spike said, "We are done for the day."
"What! But I was sure that we would arrive on time."
"Did you forget that the time changed earlier," Big Mac asked,
The other stallions glared at the leader as he shrinks in fear, "Hee... oops."
Meanwhile, inside Canterlot's medical ward.
Princess Celestia stands worried next to a Doctor Pony as he was looking over a patient.
"Will he be alright?" The princess asked looking at the guard pony lying unconscious on the bed,
"I believe so your highness." A doctor pony said, walking away from a medical bed where another guard pony lay passed out, "Though I can't begin to understand why so many of our guards are fainting on duty."
Celestia looks to her left to see at least six more guards in similar states across the room. Small sweat of guilt rolls down her face as she remembers how they ended up here. But the Doctor doesn't need to know that, "I have no idea. Please keep me informed about their wellbeing."
"Of course, your highness."
Once outside the room, Princess Celestia meets her sister who came shortly after hearing the news. The two of them start walking down the hall before Luna speaks up, "How are the guard doing sister?"
"They will be fine. Nothing that a little R&R can't fix."
"I see and how pray are you fairing in courting a stallion dear sister?"
She sighs lowering her head, "Not as well as I hope Luna. Every guard that I have ever trust and cared for, is now unconscious in the medical ward. Just because I ask them if they were in the market."
Luna thinks about what she just said but came up with nothing. And shakes her head, "I must get used to today's words. But I believe that you are now back at square one once again?"
"That is correct."
"Maybe you did something wrong in your approach."
Celestia looks offended at her sister's words, "Luna! I may have been out of the game for a few hundred years, but even I know how to court a stallion." she straights up to stand proudly,
"Is that so?" A small grin come to Luna's face, "I can think of seven reasons to question your claim."
Celestia rolled her eyes at that, "So I am a little out of practice. However, I am still certain that I can court any stallion that I set my mind onto."
Luna's smile never faltered as she stares at her, "Is that so sister?"
"Yes! In fact, to prove my claim to you. I will successfully court the next stallion that I see."
"Oh, Princess Celestia," Discord said popping into existence in front of the mares, "Just the mare I wanted to see."
Celestia stares at him, hoping that he didn't hear what she just said earlier. She looks to her sister to see that Luna needs to work on her poker face. She can tell that it is taking every bit of her might not to fall over and laugh at her current predicament. Not wanting to get her sister the satisfaction that she is right, Celestia takes a breath and gives Discord her best monkey smile,
"Is that so Discord? And how may I be able to help you?"
Discord floats lazily in the air next to the sister, "I was wondering if you can assist me in a little experiment I am going to be conducting."
"What kind of experiment?"
"Courting a pony."
"WHAT!" Both sisters shouted,
Discord boops Celestia with his loin paw hushing her up, "Relax sun butt. There will be no touching or anything dirty during the experiment. I want to see if you can help me get better at courting a mare."
She looks at him confused before slapping his paw away, "You do know that there is a Princess of Love for that? Why come to me?"
Discord huffed at that statement and looked away, "Did that and Shining Armor doesn't want me anywhere near Cadence after he heard me." He looks back at them, "Honestly it is as if he thought I was trying to take her away from him,"
She puts a hoof to her face in thought, "And what about Twilight and her friends?"
"Too busy."
Celestia didn't want to put up with any more nonsense today; and wanted to just send Discord on his way, "Well Discord I am sorry but-"
"She will be glad to assist you in your experiment." Luna interrupted,
"LUNA!" she screams her sister's name.
"I thank you, Celestia. I will be back tomorrow to pick you up." Before Celestia could say, anything Discord was gone. She looks back at where Discord was and back at her sister several times trying to come up with words to say but she got nothing. So, she settles on glaring at her younger sister.
"Luna, why did you do that?"
Luna gives a cheeky smile to her sister, "Didn't I hear that you would court the next stallion that you see?"
"Discord is not a stallion." She huffs at her,
"But he is a male. And you did say that you could court any stallion that you set your mind to."
She turned away from her sister, "But I do not see Discord that way anymore. And I am just fine with courting stallions. Thank you very much. I don't need his help."
"Seven. Stallions. Sister." Luna said slowly and firmly.
Celestia sighs and looks to the floor, "Okay, maybe it could help both of us. But nothing is going to happen between us." Celestia leaves her sister behind to attend days court, not seeing the smirk on her little sister's face.
"Did she already forget that I can visit her dreams?"
"It is okay Fluttershy. Calm down," Pinkie Pie comforts her sad friend by rubbing her back on the couch. Fluttershy just finished telling her about that had happened earlier with Discord and how he sees her. It is a very delicate situation, and Fluttershy needed her help, "I am sure that there is a perfectly good reason why you weren't on Discord list."
She lifts her head off her hoof and looks sadly to her friend, "But I thought we were growing so close together," Fluttershy sniffs and looks at the floor, "I thought that maybe if I had enough courage, I could date him."
"Well, don't feel too bad, Fluttershy." Pinkie jumps on the couch make the shy mare jump a little before settling down on the couch. "A lot of mares go through what you are going through." She quickly gives her friend a much-needed hug,
"Really?"
"Yes," Pinkie broke the hug, "Did you know that most of the time when it comes to dating a stallion. He doesn't know that a mare likes him unless she does something so obvious that anypony could see?"
"Really?"
"Yes. And since you are a shy pony. I don't think you have sent any correct signals to Discord that you like him."
Fluttershy looks at the floor dejected, "What do I do?"
"Well, you have three options," Pinkie lifts Fluttershy's head up, "One you can straight out tell him that you like him."
"AH!" Fluttershy backs away and starts to hyperventilate,
"Wait! I am not done yet! Please don't faint Fluttershy."
"Okay," She starts calming down, "I will try."
"Okay. Option two. You can have a friend help you out to let him know that you like him."
Fluttershy puts a hoof to her chin in thought. If I did that then I won't have to tell Discord that I like him. But then he will have to hear that come from another pony and not from me. He might get the wrong idea. No, I got to be the one to do it. But how? "What is option number three?"
"That would be slowly telling him that you like him."
Discord had arrived at the castle and took Princess Celestia to his chaos dimension to practice their dating approaches. The room they were in was filled with self-help books on dating, chalkboards, cushions large enough for them to lay on, and, last but not least, a table filled with all kinds of sweets and snacks.
It took Celestia a moment to snap out of it when she saw a three-layer cake. It has to be chocolate, it’s the best flavor after all, "Okay, Discord, let us get this over with." She says as she lays down on a cushion as Discord floats in the air.
"Now, Now, Celestia. We can't rush through this."
She rolls her eyes, "Fine. What do we do first.”?
"First, we must find out how much we both know about dating the opposite gender. So, show me your best pick up line."
Celestia became worried, "I am not sure about this."
"Come on. We both agree to help each other out, right?"
"Fine." She stood up to prepare herself, "Ahem. Excuse me, sir. Would you like to accompany me for the day?"
Discord nods at this and takes a few notes, "Short and simple."
"I had some practice of my own."
"Okay, my turn. Ahem. Excuse me," Discord uses his magic to sweeps Celestia off her hooves and looks deep in her eyes, "I am on a quest to find the most beautiful mare in the lands, and I seem to have found something much better."
A light blush covers her face for a second before it was replaced with a glare. "Put me down."
"It adds to the effect." He smiles to himself as he let’s go of her.
"You said no touching," she said, dusting her coat.
"I was using my magic. No part of me was touching you."
"How about you never do that again." She snarled,
"Fine. So how was it?"
"Too forward. She would be scared to death by your ugly mug."
"I will have you know that this mug," Discord lifts a coffee mug with a smiling face on it, "Is one of the best-looking mugs around."
Celestia glares at Discord, "You know what I meant."
"Whatever, Princess," Discord tosses the mug away and crosses his arms, "Not like yours was any better."
"What!?"
"Oh, Excuse me, random stallion, sir," Discord said in a terrible high pitch impression of Celestia's voice, "would you like to go on a date with the Princess of the Sun?"
"I said no such thing," she glares at him, "Do not twist my words around!"
"It the same, more or less." He said as he swipes a cupcake from the table and eating in one bite.
Celestia took this moment to sneak a bite from the cake before Discord notice that she did. And when I say bite, I don't mean a small little nipple one does when they don't want to be found out. I mean a huge bite that leaves almost no evidence behind because she eats half of it in one go. She quickly wipes the evidence from her lips before she continues the conversation, "Really? Then having a random mare sweep off her hooves to stare into your eyes is any better?"
"It would work." Discord said before he did a double take as he noticed a big bite in the cake.
"How many?" She deadpans.
"What?" He said, not paying attention as he tries to figure out what happen to the cake.
"How many mares have you swayed with this technique of yours?"
He huffs at her before turning to face her while crossing his arms, "More than you with that lame pick up line."
"So more than seven mares?"
Discord had a flabbergasted look on his face. He couldn't believe Celestia would use the same pick-up line for seven different stallions. "You asked seven stallions out with that pick-up line?"
Celestia looks away, embarrassed, "I don't want to talk about it."
He moves in close, "Oh, Please! I want to hear how that went."
Celestia thinks back when she asked the guards and blushed before moving away from Discord, "Can we focus on why we are here." She said, quickly changing the subject.
"Fine," he huffs as he drops the subject and himself onto a couch, "So it is safe to say that we have no idea what we are doing when it comes to courting other ponies."
"Unfortunately." They both look down in depression with a sigh,
"Well, then." Discord spoke up, "Let's make a list of what went wrong with our approach." He gets up and pulls over one of the chalkboards in the room while wearing a pair of glasses and a lab coat. "Let's start with you, Celestia."
Not wanting to think back at her actions, she tried to change the subject again, "Can't we do yours first."
"Oh, come now. What happened to ladies first?"
She gives him a deadpan stare, "You are a gentle Stallion?"
"You want to date at your age?"
Celestia's face darkens, "Watch it."
"Sorry." Discord said, backing up, "Alright then." He then draws a stick figure of Celestia on the board. "First thing we must point out is you."
"I am aware of that."
"No." Discord pulls out a pointing-stick then taps the board. "I mean you in general," he says, circling the little figure with his stick.
She tilts her head in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"I mean, you have got to remember who you are and how the average stallion sees himself compare to you."
"What does that have to do with anything?"
Discord slaps a claw to his face, "Everything." He then draws some ponies on the board but smaller compared to the Celestia figure. "You are the leader of everypony around them, and you are asking them if they want to date and possibly marry you."
Celestia rubs one hoof against the other, not realizing she had forgotten about her position in Equestria when she started asking stallions out, "Well, when you put it that way... wait,” her eyes widen in alarm, “who said anything about getting married?"
Discord looks at Celestia in confusion, "Isn't that the whole point of dating?"
For the first time in a long time, Discord made sense to her, "Well... well... ah... well yes, but no pony says it out loud."
"Why?"
She scratches her head, trying to think why, "I don't know. It just makes everypony uncomfortable. That is all."
He shakes his head at her, "You ponies are so sensitive."
"Was there a point to your statement?"
"Right. What I am saying is that not just anypony is going to have the courage to date the leader of the nation. Most of them would be scared to death at the idea. I am just surprised that those stallions you ask are fine even after you asked them out." Discord said, not noticing Celestia looking away in embarrassment, "With that in mind, you would have to start dating somepony that you have deep feelings for. Not just some random pony who so happens to be nice to you now and then. It just won't work out."
"I get what you mean. But if that is the case, then my options for dating stallions just went to zero." Celestia slouches down on to her cushion. In all her years as ruler of Equestria, Celestia finally let it all out. Starting with a small sob, "It is tough to make friends when the only ponies that you ever meet every day want nothing to do with you except for your okay on something they want." She sniffles as a single tear goes down her face as she realizes just how lonely she was, "I sometimes feel envious of Twilight's ability to make new friends wherever she goes. And she is never sad even when they aren't around."
"You poor lonely little pony." Discord gave Celestia a small hug from behind, not seeing more tears going down her cheek.
It took everything Celestia had not to have a mental break down and cry her eyes out; as she continues to share her pain, "Why can't everypony understand that despite me being the leader of Equestria, I am still just a pony, just like everypony else." They stayed like that for a while before they break the hug as she wipes her tears, "Thank you, Discord."
He smiles back at her, "What are friends for?"
Feeling better, Celestia starts the conversation, "Now let's move onto your problem."
"Excuse me?!" He puts his hands on his chest in shock, "My approach is flawless!"
Celestia shakes her head at him, "No mare wants to be swept off their hooves by a random stranger."
"It is supposed to be romantic."
"That kind of thing can only be found in a cheap romance novel. No pony in real life would want that to happen to them."
Meanwhile, in Pony Ville,
Big Mac has just swept Sugar Belle off her hooves and stares into her eyes, "Oh, Sugar Belle. You are the most beautiful mare in Equestria." He said, brushing the side of her face.
"Oh, Big Mac."
"You don't know that!"
"Regardless, I believe we are done for now,” She stands up, “I am needed back at Canterlot."
"Already?" He looks at a random clock floating bye to see that they have only been there for 30 minutes,
She sighs before explaining, "You just showed up out of nowhere and ponynapped me. I still have duties that need my attention."
He rubs the back of his head, realizing the flaw in his plan, "Fine. But when are we supposed to meet up again?"
Celestia takes a moment to think about this, "I believe I can make some time three days from now. In the meantime, I suggest that you practice with Fluttershy on how to ask a mare out." Celestia didn't notice the nervous look on Discord's face when she said that.
Not wanting to tell her the reason he started this session. He tried to stear the conversation away from their feathered friend, "But isn't that what you were supposed to be doing?"
"I would if I could, but I must return to Canterlot. I am sure Fluttershy would be more than willing to help you out. Remember, Discord; it’s just practice. I am sure Fluttershy will understand. Until next time Discord."
"Yeah. See you later, Tia." Discord said, turning away and snapping his claws to send Celestia back to Canterlot.
She found herself in her chambers. Celestia knows that she has to get moving; however, she stood there confused about the pounding feeling in her chest. She looks down as she lifts a hoof to her chest. "Did my heart skip a beat?" She shakes her head in denial, "He was just nice. He didn't mean anything by it." she told herself. "So, what if Discord hasn't called me that in over a thousand years, so what? It doesn't mean anything." She tries to convince herself, but that didn't stop the pounding of her heart as she walks to the door. But she stops as she reaches for the knob.
She looks down before turning around and uses her magic to open her closet and pull out a small box. It has a faded pink tone with faded letters on the top. She sets the little box in front of her and open it. There where old letters, old trinkets and a small grey bunny doll on top of it all. She reaches inside and pulls out the grey bunny and holds it at eye level. "He wasn't trying to tell me anything, right?" There was a moment of silence before she squeezes the doll to her chest and lets out a sigh as old memories flow through her head.
A long time ago,
Two creatures could be seen under a tree; one was a white unicorn with pink hair and the other a miss shaped creature.
"Hay Tia?"
"Yes?"
"I was wondering. Do you like dolls?"
"Why do you ask?"
He pulls out a white bunny doll and gives it to her. She takes it and looks at it. "Well, because you are a girl, and I thought girls would like dolls."
"Discord," Celestia said while putting the doll to the side, "I'm going to be a young adult soon. I have no time for playing with dolls."
"Oh. Well, I can get you something else if you like."
"No, it is alright. Just next time, try something sweet."
He chuckles to himself, "You know you are going to get fat if you don't stop eating, sweeeeee-" Celestia uses her magic to pull on Discord's ear bring it closer to her enraged face.
"I am NOT fat!"
"I didn't say that!" Discord said, panicking, "I just said that you would become fat if you don't take it easy on the sweet!"
"You take back what you said!"
"But it is the truth!"
The memory fades away as Celestia puts the doll back in its place before putting the box away and leaving her room.
We now turn to Sugar Cube Corner. More precise downward into Pinkie's secret party room. Pinkie is next to a strange device with a hose pointing at Fluttershy. Fluttershy is looking better but, for some reason, is soaking wet.
"I am not sure this is working, Pinkie," Fluttershy said worried,
"Hay, you are the one that wants to date Discord. Not me." Pinkie said while wearing a teacher's outfit, "Now from the top, repeat after me. I like you, Discord."
"I... I..."
"Yes, yes, come on." she moves her hoof in a come here motion,
"I... like..."
"Come on!"
"I like hanging out with you, Discord." she ends with it a smile to which Pinkie response with a deadpan stare,
"Nope. Wrong answer." Pinkie then pulled a lever on the machine, and water gushes out the hose.
"Eep." Fluttershy was thankful for her cowardice. It has given her a fast reaction time to dodge the water this time.
"Come on, Fluttershy," Pinkie said, turning off the machine, "that's the tenth time you said that. I can only help you out with so much before you are on your own. And we haven't even gotten to the 'Getting turned down from a date' training yet."
"I know. I know," Fluttershy said, coming out from her hiding spot, "But this is the first time I have ever tried to go out of my way to ask somepony to be my special somepony. I get so nervous that I choke."
Pinkie rubs her head, "Why was this so much easier with Twilight?"
"What?"
"Oh, come on. Did you forget already that we helped out with Twilight getting hitch up with Thorax?"
"Oh, how could I forget?" Fluttershy looks dreamy at the ceiling, "The wedding was amazing."
"It was, wasn't it," Pinkie joined her for a moment before remembering something important, "Also, didn't you say something to Twilight that made her continue dating Thorax?"
"I did?" she looks confused at what she was talking about,
Pinkie jumps as she remembers, "Yeah, I think it was like 'If you can't bring yourself to see him for a date, then how will you ever find the courage to talk to another stallion that you may like later?' "
Fluttershy blushes at her own words, "Did I say that?"
"Yep, you did. So, you got to mare up and go for it. I mean, look at how well Twilight and Thorax ended up, and you were part of that."
Fluttershy thinks about this and smiles, "You are right. I can do this."
"At a girl."
"Next week," she said quickly before speeding out the room up the slide.
The Changeling's Hive, home of the reformed changelings with its leaders King Thorax and Queen Twilight. It's has been over a year since Twilight married Thorax. And ever since then, Twilight doesn't leave the hive very often. But that doesn't mean that her friends can't come to visit her. Which is what Fluttershy is doing. She got the idea about seeing Twilight when Pinkie mentioned her yesterday. If anypony has an idea of getting somepony's attention from another species to like them, it would be her.
"Queen Twilight," A Guard Changeling said,
Queen Twilight or Twilight Sparkles to her friends. She wasn't always a changeling, but that all changed when she fell in love with the changeling King Thorax. Now she sits by his side, ruling the changeling hive. Twilight was in her bed chambers when the guard came to greet her. She lifts her head from her bed, annoyed at her title change. She just got used to being called a princess, "It is just Twilight. And yes?"
"One of your friends from Pony Ville wishes to see you."
"Oh! Send her in," Twilight was excited to see one of her friends again. Ever since she had her first batch of eggs, she hasn't moved from her bed in days. Her chambermaids said that this was very common for the Queen's first batch of eggs, so they didn't expect her to be moving around very much. They attend to her every need, so she didn't need to worry about starving or cleanliness. And during times that need her presence in the throne room or elsewhere, she would use a magic orb to talk to through and to ponies or creatures that the guards deemed unsafe for the Queen and the next generation of changelings.
The door opens to reveal Fluttershy, "Fluttershy!" Twilight exclaimed, "it's so good to see you."
"It is good to see you too, Twilight. I mean, your highness." Fluttershy said, taking a bow.
"Please don't," She says, shaking her head, "it is just Twilight. I am not going to go with your highness stuff anytime soon."
"Okay, you- I mean Twilight," She corrects herself and then moves next to Twilight to see larva changelings crawling all over her. They were small things, as big as a mouse. They were mostly white with different color faces. She can see some of them are sticking to the one large egg in the middle of the bed where Twilight is shielding it with her legs.
Fluttershy moves in close to let one crawl onto her muzzle. She loves nature, so she is not the least bit scared or disgust with the larva crawling on the side of her face. "Oh, they all hatched."
"Most of them except for this one," Twilight said, showing her a large egg, the other changeling larvae are crawling over.
Fluttershy puts the larva down on Twilight and moves to look closely at this one egg. "Oh, is it a dud?" She asks, pointing at it. Fluttershy may be an expert in animals, but the changeling's lifestyle and lifecycle are still new.
Twilight glares a little as she moves her friends' hoof away from the egg, "No Fluttershy, quite the opposite. She is just sleeping; she is not ready to come out yet."
"I don't remember seeing this one the last I saw you. Was this laid recently?"
"Yes, she was. And Fluttershy, what the others have been telling me is that this one is a princess egg."
Fluttershy's eyes widened with glee, "A princess!"
"That is right. Soon I will have a little daughter of my own."
Fluttershy looks confused and sad at her friend's choice of words, "But what about all these little ones. Aren't they also your children too?"
Realizing what she was talking about, Twilight quickly corrected herself, "Oh, No Fluttershy! I didn't mean it like that! These little ones are my children, my little girls. But this one is special," She moves her head to cover it from the side, "I could feel it the moment she was laid."
"What? No boys? Is that normal?"
She nods at this, "Actually, the changelings' lifestyle follows the same idea of a termite colony where the workers are genderless, and only royal changelings can have offspring. But I like the idea of them being girls, so I am calling them girls."
Fluttershy looks up in thought, "I guess that makes sense."
The girls watch as the larvae crawl around the bed and each other. Occasional, one of the larvae would stop moving and sleep on Fluttershy's mane. Once more of the larvae started to go to sleep; Twilight used her magic to gather them together and bring them to her. Fluttershy smiles as she sees them yawn before closing their eyes and snuggles up to their mother. Talking in a low voice Twilight continues the conversation, "So how are things going?"
"Good,"
She nods at her friend with a smile, "And what brings you here today?"
Fluttershy rubs her forelegs together, embarrass, "Oh, I wanted your option on something."
"Okay, what is it?"
Fluttershy looks down to think about her words very carefully, "Do you think I am attractive?"
Twilight moves a little back away from her friend at this and gives her a blank stare, "Okay, Fluttershy, two things wrong with that. One I am a married mare and two, I don't swing that way."
She quickly shakes her head, "Oh my. That not what I meant."
"Oh, you mean in general?" Fluttershy nodded. Twilight puts a hoof to her chin in thought, "Well yes. I believe you are a beautiful mare. Is there a problem?"
Fluttershy looks away, "Well, I am not sure."
Twilight gives her friends a flat stare, "Did you tell Discord that you like him?"
She looks back at her friend, shocked, "WHAT!" She covers her mouth before looking that the babies hoping that she didn’t wake them up. Luckly they were sound asleep. Fluttershy lets out a sigh of relief before Twilight continue the conversation.
"Did you tell your crush that you like him?"
"I never said anything about him!"
"After that question, you asked me. There is not much information I could up with unless it involves the world of romance."
"Oh." She looks away in embarrassment,
"So, what is the problem?"
Meanwhile,
"You got this," Discord said to himself, pacing in front of Fluttershy little house.
He has been at this for the past hour. But then again, who can blame him? Everyone has to go through something like this when you are going to talk to somepony you like. He stops in front of the door to knock but stops halfway.
"Just get on with it!" a voice said,
"Huh?"
A small Discord with red horns and a pitchfork pops out of nowhere on to his shoulder. "How long are you going to wait here for, before you knock? Until the sun turns red. Just knock!"
"Who are you?"
"I am your subconscious. It has been a while, so you probably don't remember me."
Discord picks up his subconscious and holds him on top of his lion, paw, "You don't look the part."
"What are you talking about- oh this," He said, looking over himself, "I was in a hurry and grabbed the first outfit in the closet. I mean sure I could have shown up au naturel, but I didn't want to be here without something."
"But why is it the shoulder devil outfit?"
He put a claw to his eyes, shaking his head, "You have no idea how long that guy has been waiting to come out. We barely got him to relax and not get ready to pop out of nowhere. The moment you sneeze."
"Huh," he looks away, "I guess even the entity of chaos has a battle inside himself." He looks back at him, "So what is even your outfit anyway?"
"Hold that thought. You got some company." He said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.
"Hi, Discord." A voice behind him said, startling him. He turns around to see the party pony of Pony Ville.
"Pinkie Pie." He said with a big fake smile, "What a surprise to see you here."
She can tell that his smile is a fake a mile away, but she has more important things to deal with at the moment, "I came to see if Fluttershy is home. Is she?"
"I don't know that."
"Well, I guess pacing in front of someponies house for over an hour without knocking and talking to your subconscious will do that."
"What?"
"Nothing." She said, dismissing the idea and walking inside the house with Discord following her,
Meanwhile, in Canterlot,
A pony was being thrown out of the throne room very fast by a sleepy-looking Princess Luna shouting after him.
"And the next time you try to court me in the throne room. I will haunt your dreams with nightmares until the day you die!"
"Sister." Celestia said, stopping the poor stallion from hitting the wall with her magic, "What are you still doing up?" she let's go of the stallion who leaves the scene as fast as possible.
"Oh, hello, sister." Luna then drinks from a cup using her magic and immediately perks up, "Did you know that you can stay awake for days with this new wonderful black liquid I found in the staff lounge room?!" Luna than runs back into the throne room, leaving behind a cloud of smoke. Celestia moves inside of the throne room to see ponies of different factions everywhere, with Luna going to each one of them, talking to them at speed similar to Pinkie Pie, and then moving on to the next.
Celestia must have been seeing things. There is no way that Luna has found out about coffee, could she? Not after the last time, she almost destroyed their castle and terrorized the ponies. I mean sure it was one of the cleanest courts around, but after seeing her sister like that. She now knows that there is such a thing as too much clean. Slowly Celestia tried to walk to her sister and reason with her hoping that Cafina hadn't returned. "Luna, how many cups did you have?"
Instead of answering, Cafina starts talking about something completely different while not looking at her sister, "I feel like I can solve all Equestria’s problems in one go. I feel like cliff jumping. Do you feel like cliff jumps? I want to run to Manehatten and back." She then stops in front of her sister momentarily, "Oh, and the staff tells me that we require something called coffee." She then moves back to the scared ponies.
"But we had over thirty boxes worth- LUNA!" Celestia screamed as she sees her sister finishing a pot of coffee in one go.
"I can see the future! Hahahahaha!" Cafina was promptly knock out when her sister hit her with the back of a guard's spear.
"Not going through that again," She then motions for two guards to take Luna to her chambers. “Well, now I know how my sister stayed up during my shift.”
Once they were gone, Celestia turns to addresses the remaining ponies in the room, "From now on, my sister is forbidden to have a drop of coffee. And anypony that mentions the word coffee in her sister's presents will be banished to the moon. Understand?" Everypony shook their heads in agreement.
"Good. Now, what hasn't my sister destroy in her caffeine state?" I hope everypony will be okay with the lack of coffee for a while.
"Hum, I guess she not here." Pinkie said, coming down from the upstairs, “Maybe she is hiding,”
"That is odd." Discord said as Angel Bunny glares at him from the couch. But then again, I could teleport to her, but that would be rude. Especially since the last time I did that without her knowledge, I caught her in the tub. He blushes at the memory, before shaking his head, "So, I can understand why I wanted to meet Fluttershy, but why are you here, Pinkie?"
Pinkie was lifting the couch above her head when she heard him, "Hum?” She looks back at him realizing that she was talking to somepony, “Oh.” She drops the couch back where it was scaring away some mice and one frighten Angel Bunny hanging onto for dear life, “Well we didn't finish our conversation yesterday,”
“I guess that makes sense, but this house doesn’t,” He said looking around the house. Everything was still a mess the last time Pinkie Pie was here.
“Maybe Fluttershy forgot to clean up here before she left,” Pinkie suggested,
“And that what is making me worried. I may not have been Fluttershy’s friend as long as you girls, but even I know that even she has a tidy home,” He snaps his fingers to return the house to a more friendly and familiar atmosphere, “Much better.” He uses his magic again to restock Fluttershy’s pantry and fridge, “So what were you two talking about?”
Pinkie wasn’t told to keep a secret of Fluttershy’s crush on Discord. After all, all their friends have already shipped them together. But even she knows that telling Discord any hints would be a bad idea, “Can’t say.”
Discord stopped mid-act of giving Angel Bunny a carrot the size of a couch causing the poor bunny to jump in vain for his meal. He looks back at Pinkie confused, “As in the conversation didn’t make any sense. Or that you can’t tell me?”
“Both.”
“Come on Pinkie,” He drops the carrot as every animal in the house rushes in to eat it whole, “It’s me. Discord. Lord of Chaos,” he moves in close trying to pry the secret loss, “And the inventor of chocolate rain.” He said making the object of Pinkie’s dream appear before her eyes as she gulps.
She stares intensely at the pink cotton candy cloud and licks her chops. She looks back at Discord and his gift several time with a crazy look grow in her eyes as a battle rage on in her head. If she tells him then he will know that Fluttershy likes him, but if she doesn’t she will lose the cotton candy cloud. And who knows when will be the next time she will ever see it again. But her friendship with Fluttershy! But Cotton Candy Cloud!
Discord smiles smugly at her knowing that he got her, “Well?” Pinkie then start shaking causing Discord to back up, “Uh, Pinkie?”
Pinkie the jumps into the air shouting, “I can’t Choose, don’t make me choose! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!” she bolts out of the house in a blur of pink as the door slams behind her.
Discord’s subconscious pop into existence wearing the shoulder angel outfit, "Are you sure you didn't create her by accident?"
Discord looks at his subconscious, "I have done many things in my time, but I think I would have remembered if I made a pony basic off myself. Oh well, I wonder how Celestia is doing?" In a flash of light, he was gone.
Meanwhile, back with Fluttershy and Twilight,
Fluttershy had told Twilight everything. Form her crush on Discord (which she already knew) to finding the list of mares he was interested in. "That is a big problem, Fluttershy."
"I know, but I don't know what to do." She falls to the ground resting her head on her hooves,
Twilight looks over the side of her bed before using her magic to pick up her friend, "Well, the answer is simple; get him to notice you,” Fluttershy was about to say something, but Twilight interrupted her, “And before you say anything, it means you are going to have to be the one who makes the first move."
Fluttershy starts to panic, "But I don't know how to do that."
"But that is how most ponies feel when they want to start a relationship. Look, Fluttershy, I didn't know what I was doing when I was dating Thorax, and I am one of the smartest ponies you have ever meet, and yet here I am.” She gestured around her. Fluttershy looks around the room to see what Twilight was talking about, and then her eyes settle on Twilight’s family. They look so happy and peaceful, which causes the mare to smile a little before Twilight continues.
“Just do what you feel is right. No pony ever said you have to tell him how you feel about him at the end of the week or somepony else is going to snatch him away from you." As soon as she said this, Twilight thinks to herself. Now that I think about it, why was I only given a week? In hindsight, that seems like a small time frame. What would have happened if we only were given one date instead? As Twilight was lost in thought, Fluttershy spoke out loud.
"And if that happens?"
Twilight snapped out of it and said the first thing on her mind, "Oh, then you have to tell him, or it is game over, and you will never have his heart."
Fluttershy eyes widen She is right. If I don’t do anything that shows Discord that I like him, he might fall for one of the mares on his list. He already said that he is making friends on his own. What if he has already made friends with one of those mares! She starts to hyperventilate. And what if she tells him that she likes him before I even get a chance to tell him how I feel!
Twilight looks at her friend with worried, “Ah Fluttershy, are you okay?”
Without saying anything, Fluttershy runs out of the room, shouting behind her, "I got to go!" As she did, Twilight called out to her,
"Wait, come back here and linger. I haven't had a decent conversation in days!" And just like that, the larvae wake up crying, "Ah nuts. Thorax!"
Meanwhile, in one of canterlot’s meeting rooms,
Celestia had finished apologies to the ponies that had the unfortunate to meet her sister high on caffeine. And now, she is having a meeting discussing the current national problems that their kingdom is facing. The recent disappearance of Tirek and Cozy Glow from Tartarus.
"There has been no news about the criminals still at large, your highness-" a secretary pony said before Discord pop up next to the pony startling him.
"Hello." Discord said before he was caught in Celestia's magic.
"Discord, I am in the middle of a meeting." He was going to say something, but Celestia stops him, "No, buts, sir. Unless you know where Tirek and Cozy Glow are currently at, it can wait." She then puts him outside the throne room and closes the doors behind her. Not seeing the look of nervous on his face. He shakes his head out of it before leaning against the door.
"Spoilsport, you never seem to change, huh, Tia?" His statement gave himself a moment of pause, When was the last time I ever called her that? Well, ponies say that you never forget your first. He shrugs to himself, "I will just wait here and see what happens." He floats in the air before settling on the back of a guard pony who didn't notice that he was on top of him. Discord looks to his left to see a painting. It was a picture of a lake with some logs nearby it. He chuckles to himself, "That takes me back." He looks backs at the painting to see a younger version of himself sleeping inside of a painting, fishing with an angry-looking Celestia staring at him from outside the painting.
"Discord, come out of that painting this instant, you hear me!"
"No, can do, Tia." He waves a claw at her, "I am in the middle of catching some z's"
"And My name is not TIA! It's Celestia! Princess Celestia!"
"Whatever, Tia. HAY!"
Celestia has grabbed the painting in her magic and was shaking, making Discord flying around the canvas, hitting the sides. "You will address me as my title, Princess!" Discord came out of the picture before boobing her on the nose with his paw. She stops her outburst and blushes.
"Not going to happen, Tia." He smiles and flies down the hall with an enrage Celestia chasing him.
The two sisters had just both princess and their ponies subjects rejoice at their new leaders. In celebration, each pony brought a token of appreciation. Some were good, while others were questionable. The castle of the two sisters was still on construction, so the two rulers of Equestria have set of chairs form themselves as their subject came one by one to greet them.
"I thank you, dean Hooves." Celestia uses her magic to move a bag of spiky red fruit to the side, "I am sure we can find a use for your cactus fruit." The mare bows before leaving the sister,
Luna looks at the bag, bewildered, "Why did you accept such a gift as this dear sister?" She lifts one of the fruits with her magic for a close inspection, "It is too prickly even to consume."
"I am certain that our subjects wouldn't give us something that we couldn't use."
"True maybe the semesters could make use of the quills on this." She puts the fruit down to see their next guest. To which she frowned at, "Oh, it is you again."
"Sister please he is a member of our country we must not be rude."
"I thank you, your highness," Discord said bowing to the sisters, "Although my appearance is unpleasing to the eye. I come bearing a gift." He pulls out a small blue box and set in front of the sisters,
Celestia grabs his gift with her magic and opens it to see a case full of dark brown beans. She looks back at Discord, confused, "Beans?"
"They are of my creation. I know that your highnesses are going to need the energy to run this country, so I took the liberty of coming up with a solution to your problem. These beans though bad to the taste; pack ton of energy that would put sugar to shame."
Celestia glares at him, "I highly doubt that DIscord." How dear he insults one of the greatest creation in the world.
Unfazed by her comment, Discord continues to explain what else he has done, "Never the lease I took the liberty of planting trees of these beans nearby for future harvest."
"Trees?" Luna spoke up, "Why a tree? It's not a fruit. Shouldn't it grow in the ground?"
"Now where is the fun in that. Besides, it would be easier to harvest if they are in a tree then stuck in the ground."
Before her sister could continue arguing with him, Celestia intervened, "We thank you for your gift."
Discord float away but stops on his way out and called out one last thing, "Oh and don't overeat of them, Only a small hoof full a day is more than enough."
The next day during lunchtime Celestia was surprised to see here sister awake and not the least bit tired, "Dear sister, why are you still awake?"
"It would appear that the draconequs finial made something useful," She finishes put a wall together with her magic, "I don't feel tired at all."
Celestia thinks about how this could be when one thing came to mind, "You didn't eat all of those beans, did you?"
"Tis not as bad as he made them out to be. I only had three beans, and it is amazing how effective they are."
"That is good to know, but what are you going to do now? There are still four hours before moonrise."
"I am sure I can find something to do until then."
"Please be careful. The last thing we need is for you to sleep during your watch."
"Don't worry dear sister. I will be fine." Luna said waves at her sister as she left the room. Contrary to what she told her sister. She is started to feel tired, and turns her eyes to an open box of the beans, "But then again another bean won't hurt anypony. Or two, or three."
Two months later,
"The Castle was nearing it completed ahead of schedule. Very good everypony. At this rate, we will be finished before the winter season sets in."
One of the captain looks around himself before he moves to her side, "Your highness."
"Yes, Captian?"
"If there something going on with your sister?"
Celestia put down her scroll and gave the captain her full attention, "What exactly?"
"She has been seen all over the castle helping everypony."
She tilts her head that this, "Why does that concern you?"
"It is the way she does it and there this weird look on her face," He looks around to see if Luna heard him before continues, "She also looks like she hasn't slept in days, and she has a twitch in her left eye."
Celestia taps her scroll to her chin, "That is odd. I appreciate her help with the construction, but if it is interfering with her sleep, then I will have a word with her." Celestia enters the castle to see her sister hard at work finishing up the servant quarters. Luna then moves quickly to add the furniture and notice her sister present, not stopping what she is doing.
"Hello, dear sister."
Celestia was shocked to see that what the captain said about her sister was very accurate. And stops Luna from doing anything else and teleports them into Luna's room, "Luna, when was the last time you slept?"
She thinks about this, not noticing that she is pacing around the room, "What is today?"
"Friday."
"Two months ago,"
"What! How!? You should be exhausted."
"I don't know what you are talking about. I feel perfectly fine," she said sitting on her bed vibrating, Celestia shakes her head and puts a hoof to her face, before dragging it down her face, "But you look like you wrestle with a usar major-"
"And won!"
"Sister! This is not healthy, whatever is going on here. You need your sleep. I am going to have the guards keep you inside your room until you have a decent night of sleep."
"Nay I have duties to do," She starts walking out the room, "And bricks to set in place-" Her sister magic stopped her and dropped onto her bed,
"Which is what the worker ponies and I are for. You are going to sleep end of discussion." Celestia said slamming the door on her way out,
Luna huffs at this and jumps out of bed, "What does she know. I have been able to get more things done now than I ever had before." She pulls out the box of the beans from under her bed, "Maybe I just more energy that she handles. Then all my problems will be solved." She licks her lips, "For the sake of science, I will discover what happens when you consume a box of these brown energy beans."
That night. Ponies were fast asleep as the moon rising into the sky. Celestia was about to fall asleep when she thought she heard something. She raises her head to hear nothing. It sounded like somepony screaming, but it is gone now. She lays her head back down when another scream was heard. Thinking that somepony was having a nightmare, she closes her eyes and let her sister do her job until another cry was heard followed by five more screams causing her to get out of bed.
"Whatever is happening, it ends now." Celestia was about to exit the room, but the door won't open. "Guards!"
"Your Highness," A guard, called from the other side of the door, "why are you up?"
"I was awakened by the sounds of my ponies what is going on, and why is my door locked?"
"A precaution. Something is going on, and we didn't want it to reach you."
"I can assure you that I can take care of myself. Now open this door." They open the door as she steps out into the hall, "I must find my sister. She will know what is going on." Celestia couldn't find her sister until she started following the sound of ponies screaming from the servant quarters. She saw her sister for a moment before the disappeared back into the main castle. It wasn't until Luna stop in the main hall when Celestia was able to catch up to her.
"Hello, sister."
"Luna, what is going. Ponies are screaming in the middle of the night, and you are cleaning?!"
Luna didn't respond to her sister statement and continue rambling about what she has discovered the about the castle during these past three hours, "Have you ever notices that the chandeliers are not space properly here? Because it ruins the effect here." She said before she disappearing behind a door,
"Luna, this is serious!" Celestia called out to her but was scared when she found her behind her cleaning glass windows,
"Did you know that our guard's armors aren't polished, because when I did it; they shining like mirrors." She runs into another room as her sister went after her.
"Luna, what has gotten into you?" She looks around the room but lost track of her. "Luna?LUNA!"
"Also did you know that no pony here bathes before they go to sleep?" Luna said from the room they were in earlier. Celestia enters the place to find everything is sparkling. She was speechless seeing her sister polishing the armor of the guards in the room, leaving them stunted. "You need to keep your armor in top condition if you are going to represent this kingdoms army."
"Luna-" She stretches out a hoof only for Luna to work on her hoof quickly. When Celestia pulled it back, she found her hoof with a proper manicure. "Sister I can take care of my our hoofs thank you."
Luna has a creepy smile on her face as her body shakes, "That the thing you don't have to. I feel like I can do everything and anything. There is nothing I can't do with the energy flowing through my whole body."
Horror flows through Celestia as she realizes what has happened to her sister, "The beans. Luna, how many did you have. Discord warned up of eating to may of them."
"Oh, counter sister, you can't have enough of them. None if you excuss me there is a castle that I need to clean Hahahahahaa." She charges through the castle cleaning everything and everypony insight.
Celestia did everything you could think of trying to calm down her sister, but nothing work. Ponies ran away from the castle not want to be forcibly clean by their princess for the third time. Celestia must have been cleaned to perfection five times before she was able to trap her sister in her room until she passed out. After erasing the knowledge of those beans from her sister's mind. She called a meeting with her ponies and told them what has happened and that it will never happen again ever.
"Lastly. Captian Stomp."
"Yes, mam?"
"I want you to head to the gardens and removed the trees Discord planted and burn them."
"At once." Quickly they got to work and destroy the nameless trees, not seeing a single seed falling onto the ground. A lonely pony named Caffeine found it seeing what happen to the trees he grab it and running away with it. And that ponies are the origin of the coffee bean. And why Luna has never know what coffee was.
"And that all we have about the whereabouts for those two criminals."
Celestia sighs at this, "So the information we got from Chrysalis didn't help out much?"
One of the ponies looks over their notes again, "It would seem that they have abandoned their hideout shortly after she had left them."
"Do we know what they were after?"
"No your highness. Chrysalis left them before they could go over their plan. Whatever it was, we aren't any closer to finding them."
"Keep up the search if some creature was able to get those three in the same room without killing each other. Then we have reasons to be worried."
"You don't think one of them was able to call them all together?"
"No. Tirak is powerful, but he is strong-headed and doesn't play well with others same goes for Chrysalis. And I don't think Cozy Glow could convince them to work together without a common goal. Some other creature must be behind this. The question is who?" Celestia looks over the notes that they got from interrogating Chrysalis, but found nothing useful. Whatever was going to happen between the three of them is a mystery that they are never going to solve. But the question remains. If they aren't at the hideout, then where did they go, and are the two remaining members still together? "That will have to do for now. Meeting adjourns." The ponies filed out the room in an orderly fashion with Celestia being the last to leave.
She was thinking about a cake when her fantasy was taken away by somepony to her left. She turns to see Discord eating her thought bubble, "What are you still doing here?"
He finishes the thought and burps, "What? Can't I hang around the castle whenever I fell like it?"
"If I said yes, would you leave me alone?"
"Nope. You are too fun to play around with."
She shakes her head smiling at him, "You never change, do you Discord?"
"I could say the same for you, your highness. Always such a stick in the mud when it comes to me have fun."
They started walking down the hallways as they continue their conversation, "Maybe because your fun endangers the sanity of the ponies nearby."
"That is why we have shrinks. And on that topic. Why do you call them shrinks?"
"Ah..."
"Did some pony had enough of another pony and shrank them down a size to talk some sense to them because I have no idea. I was stone for the last thousand years."
She takes a breath, "Are you done?"
"I haven't begun to get started, your highness."
She sighs at this. She has to amitted she missed his unusual form of thinking. And maybe that is just what she needs, "Then keep going."
"What?"
"I have a rough day, and I want you to make me laugh with your chaos magic."
Discord looks around trying to see if he was in a different dimension, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary expect for Celestia, "Am I in the right place?"
She rolls her eyes, "Discord how clearly do you want me to say it," She waves her hooves as she talks looking out a window, "I want you to turn park benches into jellos, I wanted the sidewalk to sound like chips when you step on them, and I want chocolate rain falling from the sky."
Discord suppress a smile as he tries to rationalize what is going on here. Is she giving him the green light to turn Canterlot upside-down without getting yelled at?! "Is this is a test because you aren't playing fair."
She smiles as she walks up to him, "No Discord. I am turning you lose for one day only."
Never before has Discord has felt happier than this moment. Except for becoming friends with Fluttershy. "Excuse me; I need to warm up my snapping finger." Discord snaps his claw and has a wrestling match with his hands before putting it back on and stretches, "Okay Princess, one day of chaos coming right up!"
Fluttershy has arrived at Canterlot after finding Discord note at her house that he was going to bug Celestia for the day. She knew that the two of them are trying to have a friendly relationship and that there will be problems. But what she wasn't expecting to find was chocolate rain falling from the sky, ponies eating giant sweets and baked goods, or seeing live gummy bears running around.
"Oh, dear. I hope everypony is going to be alright. He doesn't even do this much chaos magic when we have tea time. I wonder what Celestia said that made him this angry." Quickly she runs to the castle not trusting the skies. The further she goes into Canterlot, the more chaotic it is. She saw ponies running, but they were going backward instead of going forward, the road was replaced with rock candy, and guards were changing through all the colors of the rainbow.
She continues searching for Discord or even Celestia but couldn't find them. But she wasn't going to give up.
Meanwhile, the two mischiefs of chaos are in the royal gardens laughing their butts off quite literally.
Celestia front half is cathing her breath as her rear half chases discord's, "My fank isn't that big, is it?"
Discord swings from a tree and landing next to her, "I don't know I make a habit of comparing your flank to our ponies."
"Good choice," She grabs her flank and puts it back on, "I must say Discord. This has been a delightful day."
"Same here," he jumps back onto his legs, "Your ponies in this noble kingdom need to know how to have a good laugh like you do Princess."
She laughs at this as they walk in the garden before stopping in front of an old tree, "You remember this tree?"
He huffs, "This must be a trick question. Because I know that the only tree in my life that had any meaning to it died a long time ago and was found closer to Ponyville." He looks at it, and he thought he was looking at a piece of the past and look to Celestia, "Did you use time stop magic on a tree to preserve it for over a thousand years?"
"No, but I made sure that it was the same kind of tree growing here."
"That sounds like more like your style, but why?"
"Because it was where we became friends." She lied. It was more than that, but she needs to know what he thought of it.
"Why do you care so much for that memory Celestia? You didn't even like the gift I gave you."
"So you do remember."
"I remember getting an earful from you after calling you chubby." Discord lays against the tree as old memories came flashing in his. He looks to his left as Celestia sits next to him, "Whatever happened to us, Celestia?"
"I think we let our lives drive us apart and eventually, what we had faded away."
Heavily he sighs as he looks up in the sky, "As I look back. I don't like how things ended between us. But I wouldn't change it. If it means that I won't have the life I have now. I have more friends now than I ever did back than." There was a moment of silence before Celestia spoke up.
"I missed you."
He looks to her, "What?"
Celestia looks at the ground petting a small rock that was eating grass, "When you were turned to stone. I could have put you in the deepest dungeon I could find then seal you away forever. But I couldn't. A small part of me still cares for you even then. That is why I put you in the Gardens. I was hoping one day that you would come back to me."
Discord raises his hands in defense, "Hold on there. Celestia. Those are feelings from a thousand years ago. There is still no way that you could possible sti-" He stops when Celestia move on top of him pinning to the tree, "Princess?"
"Say my name."
"Huh?"
"Say my name, Discord."
Confused, he replied dumbly, "Ce... les... tia?"
"That not it."
"But-"
"Say my name," she said moving in closer to him,
Discord heart works overtime as his face blushes. What is going on here! What is she talking about? There is only one other name I ever called her by, but that can't be what she is asking for. She hates that name. Calm down Discord so what if one of the hottest mares in the world is pinning to a tree. It is not like the first time this has ever happen to you. Wait when was the last time I ever found myself in this scenario; never that when! But more importantly, why is she getting closer to ME! " "T...ia."
Celestia closes her eyes as she closes the gap between them.
Discord eyes are wide open as he squires under the effects of her kiss. Eventually, he manages to get enough brainpower in his head to snap his paw and disappear back to his Chaos dimension; taking all the chaos with him leaving Canterlot as if he was never there.
Dejected, Celestia rubs the tree where her lover was moments there earlier. A small tear came from her eye, before a presence similar to a enrage dragon could be felt behind her causing her to shiver.
"PRINCESS!" She turned to see the element of kindness, not living up to her title as she looks like she was going to kill her. "We need to talk."
Fluttershy is furious. Here she was trying to find Discord and the Princess to stop them from fighting over whatever they were fighting about. And what does she find? An old husky trying to steal her (going to be) special somepony! She is so mad she could scream! Celestia might have stolen his first kiss from her, but she is not going to let her take anything else.
What is kindness doing here? And why is she so upset? I never thought she was capable of being so. Celestia composes herself and moves to Fluttershy, "And what would that be?"
Fluttershy face is unamused as she stares down the Princess, "Discord."
Celestia has been around for thousands of years, but even she doesn't need that knowledge to know what is going on here. Kindness is jealous of her. She huffed to herself and faced her adversary, "Fluttershy. My feelings for him have nothing to do with you," She returns Kindness stare with a forced smile, "After all, you are his friend, and I was his lover."
Fluttershy also returns her with her own forced smile, "Was would be correct."
"A simple slip of the tongue. I can assure you. I am quite very well, his lover." Celestia said as some guards stop near them. They were going to ask the princess about what happened earlier but something in the back of their minds was telling them to stay away,
Fluttershy's eyes closed as she continues the conversation with her smile never fading, "Funny. He never mentions his feelings for you whenever we have tea time together alone."
Celestia follows suit, "I could say the same about you, Fluttershy. He never talks about you when he is with me alone in my castle,"
"At least I want to be with him."
The guards felt very afraid being anywhere near those two mares and quickly but silently left the gardens. Celestia is not amused, "I don't like your tone Kindness. That is your element, after all."
For some reason, you can hear the sound of cats fighting in the background, "True but that doesn't mean I shouldn't fight for what is mine."
"I do believe you are mistaken. How can you possibly fight for something that is not yours?"
"Better to fight for it than to put it away for a thousand years."
"I do not like where this conversation is going Fluttershy. Might you rephrase what you are trying to say?"
Fluttershy uses her stare on Celestia as soon as she opens her eyes, "Stay away from Discord. He is mine."
Ah, the famous stare. A very powerful tool to get creatures with lower willpower to bend to your will. Too bad it does not affect me, Celestia lends in forward, "And if I don't?"
In the chaos Dimension,
Discord House was a disaster more than usual. Everything looks like a stampede of wild Ursa Majors ran across it twenty times and sat on it for good measure. In the middle of this, Discord lies on what's left of his bed as his two best friends pop into existence next to him, "And that is why I think that we should put more bits on the side just in case of- huh?" Spike stops his lecture and notices that he was somewhere else. "What is going on here?" Big Mac shakes his head just as confused until they see the prone body of their friend hiding not so well under a pillow.
"Discord," Spike and Big Mac move next to the friend, "What is going on?"
"I don't know." Discord muffled replied,
"What do you mean you don't know?"
He lifts the pillow off his still-red face, "I mean, I don't know what to think anymore!" He then shoots up into the sky, "My mind is blown!." His head explodes before his body falls back onto the ground making feathers dance around him. Pieces of his head fall back into place backward as he turns back into his bed.
"What happened?"
Discord hits the side of his face until his head was on straight, "Guys I just found out that Princess Celestia stills loves me!"
His two friends glanced at each not sure where he was going with this, "Okay, so what is wrong with that," Spike scratches his head, "She only confest her feeling for you. It's not like you feel the same way. I mean you are trying to get with Fluttershy."
Discord starts pacing in front of them falling to pieces literally, "That's the thing guys. She didn't just confess her feelings for me; she outright kissed me. And to make matters worse I like it. I like it!" His body falls to pieces across the floor. His eyes looked at his friends, "What is wrong with me!"
Big Mac starts understanding what Discord was saying but Spike had no clue why he is so workup about, "Well getting a kiss from any pretty mare wouldn't be something bad right?"
Discord slowly puts himself back together, "Spike that is not the point. I thought that my feelings for her were no more than annoying friends, not lovers. And look at what happened. She kissed me, and I like it," He finishes by tossing his head up into the air and it lands upside down on his body, "What am I going to tell Fluttershy!?"
Big Mac coughs as Discord puts his head on right, "Well, technically Discord. You aren't any of those two's special somepony yet. You can work with this. What matters now is which one of them do you want to be special somepony with."
Discord groans as he melts onto the floor, "That's the thing Guys, I don't know anymore. I thought for sure it was going to be with Fluttershy, but I can't say that anymore," He comes off the floor and pulls out his heart from his chest to show that it was split down the middle with one side having Fluttershy Cutie Mark and the other Celestia, "My heart is torn between the two of them," He puts it back and floats in the air on his back soaking.
"This sounds like it's way out of our hands," Spike said, "We never had to deal with anything like this before. Perhaps Candance would know what to do?"
Discord gives Spike a deadpan stare, "You know that Shining Armor doesn't want me anywhere near his wife."
"Then let me go ask her," Big Mac said, "I am sure he will let me talk to her."
Discord falls onto the floor grabbing Big Mac's front hooves begging him, "Please!"
Back with the girls,
Fluttershy was confused as to why her stare wasn't working on the princess but that doesn't mean she is going to back down, "Then we are going to have problems."
Celestia shakes her head at this nonsense, "Fluttershy. I thank you for what you and your friends have done for Equestria. But this is one matter that I will not tolerate," She stomps her hoof, "Discord is my lover, and I will not let anypony get in the way of our love. Do I make myself clear?"
Normally Fluttershy doesn't like to argue with ponies however this was one of the few times that she felt like she must stand up for herself. Even if it is against Princess Celestia, "Just because you are a Princess, doesn't mean I am going to lose my special somepony to you."
"Fluttershy if one of us doesn't stop this foolish nonsense, then somepony is going to get hurt."
"I have good insurance. Besides, we are forgetting one important factor in our little quarrel."
There was a moment of silence as her words sink in. Celestia's features soften as she to realizes what kindness was referring to, "Discord."
"He is our goal. And he has a say in this matter. The way I see it. The first pony to get Discord to fall in love with them is the winner."
She nods at this, "A simple challenge for me. I have known him longer than you Fluttershy. I doubt you will win."
"True but who was it again that reformed Discord? Hum? I believe her name didn't have a "princess" in it."
"Before our war of love begins, I suggest me make rules to ensure minimal damage to the ponies around us and to ourselves."
"And to also level the playing field."
Celestia teleports them to her private study, and pulls out a scroll from a shelf and a quill from her wing, "Rule one: We don't ever go to his chaos realm or any closed room with him alone."
Not wanting Celestia to rig the war, Fluttershy also pulled a quill from her wing and wrote on the scroll, "Rule two: We will never try to force a kiss on him."
Seeing what Fluttershy is doing. Celestia also adds some more rules to her favor, "Rule three: We can't use friends to help us in any way."
"Rule four: We aren't allowed to lie to him for any reason."
"Rule five: We can't interfere with the other pony's dates with him."
"Rule six: We can't use any forms of magic or potions on him."
"Rule seven: We are forbidden to tell Discord about this love triangle."
"Rule eight: We can't give him gift worth more than ten bits a date."
"Rule nine: We can't date him two days in a row."
"And rule ten: The game is over when Discord says who his special somepony is."
"Agreed," She stamps the document, and motions for Fluttershy to sign it as well. Once done it rolls itself up and flies into the air as a golden ribbon ties it shut. They watch as the scroll glows bright gold before disappearing from the room, "We are bound to these rules until the game is over. No magic in Equestria can change a magic contract once both parties sign it."
"And what were to happen if we don't follow the rules we agreed upon?"
"The magic of the scroll will activate a curse and cause the rule breaker to suffer a very bad cold,"
"That seems like a bit much, but I wouldn't have it any other way. That way I will know if you ever think to cheat."
Celestia huffs out loud, "The games shall begin in two days. I would say, "may the best mare win," but I already know who that is."
"We will see your highness. We will see." The two mares huff at each other while looking away sticking their noses into the air.
Big Mac has entered the throne room and has brief Candance on what is going on. She rubs a hoof on her head before pulling it down her face. She takes in a deep breath and tries to make sense of what has happened, "So let me get this straight. Discord likes Fluttershy." She points a hoof to her left,
"Eyeep."
"But after Celestia kissed him; he now likes her too." she points the same hoof to the right,
"Eyeep,"
"And you are asking me what he should do." she points the hoof to herself,
"Yes."
She grunts and stomps the floor angrily, "First off, I would have smake him in the back of his head for letting another mare kiss him while his heart belongs to another. But what done is done." She takes a few seconds to calms herself down, "So he has no idea how to move forward?"
"Enope."
Candance may be the Princess of Love, but the problem in front of her is not an ordinary case of love. She puts a hoof to her chin looks down and starts to think about how to approach this situation. As she does this, she is not aware that she is thinking out loud, "I would say that it would be best for him to forget about his feelings for Celestia, but I have no idea how deep these feelings he has for her goes. They have known each other longer than I have been around. If things turned out differently, they would have been together, and he might not have become the Discord we know. Celestia's kiss must have rekindled some long-forgotten fire of passion he had for her. But the problem is Fluttershy. She was the one that reformed him by becoming his first friend after so long being a villain. And she has become a part of his life that was empty ever since he lost Celestia. But now his heart is divided between the two mares. This is not a situation that can be easily dealt with. The heart is a fragile thing, and Discord has let two mares get to close at the same time." She looks at a small book she was reading earlier, "Then again, I am sure if I look through the law book; I could find something about having multiple partners to become a herd. But if I do that, then this would apply to every couple in the lands and since I am not ever planning on sharing Shining Amor. That is not going to be an option ever." So some reason every stallion in the room sighed after hearing that. Candance paid them no mind as she finalizes her thoughts, "As painful it is for me to say this, but I cannot help Discord on this matter. He must decide for himself which mare he wants to spend his life with? His first love or his best friend?"
Big Mac is not a stallion of many words but even he has no words to reply to her suggestion, "Huh?"
This got her attention, and it was just then that Cadence notice that everypony in the room was looking at her funny. It took her a moment to understand why, but she had to ask, "Was I thinking out loud?" They all nodded, "I was afaird of that. Sorry." *Ahem* "Anyways Big Mac, my only advice for Discord is to go after the mare who reformed him first. Since she was the one who changed his heart for the better. As far as we know what Celestia did was just in the moment and might not happen again. But if that is not the case then he should have a talk with Celestia."
"But what about Fluttershy?"
"Big Mac. This is a very difficult situation we are dealing with here. Discord first needs to know if the girls have feelings for him before he can do anything. Beside that kiss was in the garden at Canterlot. Fluttershy was nowhere nearby when Celestia kissed him. So the situation is still manageable. I can't imagine what were to happen if she knew that it did happen and she had feelings for Discord."
"I recon that those two would tear Equestria apart."
"Which is why that you must never tell Fluttershy about this. If she does have feelings for Discord, then this can get out of hoof very quickly."
"Can you help us?"
"I can't. Right now there is no clear path on who likes who. If I were to intervein then Somepony may do something drastic. I don't want anypony to be sad if this doesn't work out for anything of them. For the sack of their friendship, I must not interfere. Tell Discord I wish him the best of luck but he is on his own until he sorts out his feeling. Then I can help him."
Meanwhile at Canterlot,
"Sister!"
"Not now, Luna, I am busy," Celestia calls from inside her room. She has been in there ever since she and Fluttershy had parted ways, and have been planning her game plan on how to win Discord's heart. She will not let anything get in her way, not even her sister.
"With What! It is ten-thirty, and you haven't come out of your room yet."
"I am in the middle of delicate planning. I am sure you can handle anything that needs my attention today."
This angers Luna as she slips into the canterlot voice a little, "I am not going to do your royal duties two days in a row sister! Get your royal hindquarters out of there at once! I am giving you three seconds before I buck your door down."
"Luna," Celestia warn,
"Two!"
"Don't you dare!"
"One!" just as she was going to buck the door down, it opens. Not noticing this Luna hind hoof continue to move to hit nothing sending her to fall onto the floor.
"I rather have you not destroy our doors, dear sister," She looks at her sister getting off the floor, "We, don't have as many spares as we did before your banishment."
Luna dusts herself and marches to her, "Then what in your name, are you doing that you refuse to do your royal duties today? I may be generous in helping you with your duties as of lately but even I have my limits," Her eyes wander around the room, "And why does your room look like you are going to war with somepony?" Luna notices the there are maps of towns in Equestria with circles and x marks everywhere with random notes littering the floor.
Knowing that she can't tell Luna about her game with Fluttershy. She quickly tries to usher his sister out of her room, "I am sorry Sister, but this is a matter that you can't help me with."
"Why ever not?" She takes a closer look at one of the maps to see it's Appleloosa and moves onto other maps, "It has been so long since we have ever gone to war intentionally. I am curious about what has called you to action."
Celestia's magic pulls the maps off the wall as well as everything else to her in a neat pile, "As I said, you can't help me. This is something that I must do alone."
"Is it more important than you doing your royal duties?"
"That is not a fair question, sister, and you know it."
Luna points a hoof at her, "Speak thee secrets sister!"
"I can't. Now get out," She picks up her sister and drops her outside her room, "And only interrupt me if you find some pony or creature trying to destroy Equestria." She slams the door,
Luna sits her pondering over what haves just happened, "Sister has a matter that she can't speak of and can't ask for help. And whatever the matter is; she doesn't want me involved," she a feeling a dread came over her, "It must be something so secret that even speaking of it will put her in danger," She gets up with a newfound urgency, "Don't worry, sister. I will do everything in my power to help you from the shadows." She heads to her room to plan.
Meanwhile at Ponyville,
"Fluttershy?" Rarity calls from her front door, "Fluttershy darling, are you home?"
Fluttershy opens the top part of her door to see her friend, "Oh hello, Rarity did you need something?"
"Why yes. Today is our weekly visit to the spa. Did you forget?"
Fluttershy was so caught up with her plan on winning Discord's heart that she forgot what day it was, "Oh. Uhm. Yes, I did." She looks to the side trying to think of a way to get back to work, "Uhmm Rarity I can't go to the spa today."
Rarity puts a hoof to her chest, "Why ever not? You have always looked forward to our spa visit. Is something wrong?" she tries to give Fluttershy a look over to see if anything was wrong. But it is very hard to do so when the pony to are trying to look at only open the top part of her door,
"Yes- erm hum no," Fluttershy is panicking right now. She doesn't want to lie to her friend but she can't tell Riarty what is going on due to the rules of the game. After all, nopony want to get a bad cold, "I- Uhm. I can't tell you."
"What!" Rarity is now concern for her friend, "Fluttershy, since when are you a pony that keeps secrets?"
"Since yesterday. Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to work." She tries to close the door but Rarity uses her magic to keep it from closing,
"Fluttershy, as one of your best friends, I implore you to tell me what is the matter and how can I help you."
Fluttershy never thought she would ever say this as she looks at her friend with a very sad face, "You can't."
Rarity stands there flabbergasted at what she was told. This causes her magic to stop working for Fluttershy to close the door. Her mane sprang a few loose strands, "I must tell the others at once!" She charges back to Ponyville.
Fluttershy sniffs to herself. She never thought that telling one of her best friends that they can't help her would be so hard to do. She takes a few breaths and looks at a scroll she was working on earlier with determination. "The soon you can win his heart, the sooner I can tell my friends what is going on." She tells herself,
Celestia pull out a scroll and starts writing down her plan, "First I will invite him over for friendly get together-"
Fluttershy goes over her plan, "Then I will talk with him about taking a trip to Rainbow Falls-"
"Once he agrees I can make an excuse for us to stay the night in the woods-"
"That way she won't be able to find us. And I will not be breaking the one day rule-"
"After all. It is not a date-"
"If Discord doesn't know that it is one." She rolls up her scroll and smiles at her pet, "What do you think Angel?" The bunny just shakes his head in disagreement, "Don't worry Angel. I know what I am doing. everything will be alright-"
"So long as the little mare doesn't get in the way and mess things up," Celestia said talking to her pet Philomena who shakes her head as her own looks over her plan one more time. "Now all that is left is to see if Discord is available. Now how did that spell go again?" Philomena squawked at her. Celestia thinks about it, "You are right Philomena. I better send him a letter instead."
A beautiful day is one of the things that a dragon and a stallion wouldn't know about. Ever since Big Mac came back from the Crystal Empire talking with Candance. Discord has hidden under his bed and hasn't said anything since. And that was three days ago. IF it weren't for the fact that the was food and water everywhere in the chaos dimension, they would have staved waiting for Discord to come out of his bed. Its morning time, and Spike goes to his friend to try once more the talk some sense into him.
"Discord?" no response, just like yesterday.
"Discord?" nothing,
"Discord, are you coming out of there?"
"No."
"Come on. You can't stay there forever." Spike said as Big Mac enters the room,
He sticks his head out, "Oh yes, I can." He retreats in his bed.
"Discord. Nothing is going to get better unless you do something about it."
Discord huff and then stick half his body out from his bed, "Well, what am I supposed to do? Cadence wasn't exactly helpful."
"Date one and not the other." Big Mac Added,
"But how!?" He puts his head in his arms, "How do I know which one to date and not to date! I care for both of them."
"Look Discord," Spike said firmly, "Candace already said that you have to decide on your own. You already know Celestia likes you more than a friend; however, we don't know anything about Fluttershy as far as we know. She could see you as a friend and nothing more. But we don't know unless you ask."
He looks at his friend with pleading eyes, "Can't you ask?"
"Discord, don't you have a backbone or something."
Discord looks behind him to see that his spine has left his body and is across the room shaking in fear, before his body flop to the ground without it, "Not at the moment."
"Well, get it back. Do you want to send the rest of your life here and never know if you could be more than friends with one of them?"
Discord sighs and looks away from his friend, "No,"
"Then what are you waiting for?" Big Mac added,
Discord's arm stretches across the room and grabs his spine before shoving it back in place and puts his head in his claws, "I am just so nervous. What if I mess up?"
"Discord," Spike said calmly, "If they truly care for you. Then they will accept your decisions on who you want to date. After all, it is also your love life right?"
Discord thinks about it before he sighs and then smiles, "You are right Spike. It is also my love life,"
"That is the spirit."
He gets up and stretches his arms, "I am going."
"Where to?"
"Fluttershy's. I don't think I can look at Celestia anytime soon." he looks over a pile of scrolls that have been piling near his wall for the past few days. "I need first to find out if Fluttershy likes me more than a friend. And then I will work from there." Before Spike could say anything else, Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared out of the chaos dimension, leaving Spike and Big Mac wondering how they are going to get out of there.
"You have reached the answering voice of Discord. If you are hearing this than Discord is not talking calls and I will annoy you for the next five minutes." The voice in the mirror started to singing about nursery rhymes in high pitch voices before Celestia touches the surface of the mirror. It ripples at contact as the voice fades away as she can once again see her reflection.
"So much for that. Now how am I going to find him now?" Celestia grumbles to herself. The war between herself and Fluttershy has already started, and no pony knows where Discord went off to. Not even his friends know because they are missing too. And if she doesn't find out where all three of them disappeared too. She is going to get an ear full from Twilight and AppleJack for letting them become Discords friends. Looking at the clock on the wall, it reads 5:58. "It is close to teatime with Fluttershy. Perhaps old habits die hard. I better hurry."
As Celestia teleported to Ponyville. A lamp in her room burst into flame, and a changeling made its way to the window. Once outside, the lone drone swiftly goes to one of the towers in the castle and knocks the door three times wait for five seconds and tap once more.
"Enter," A voice said on the other side,
Inside the room were Pharynx and Luna gathered around a table with some royal guards next to a large machine that was as big as the room and had screens on them that shows a blinking icon. The guards themselves had headphones over their ears and had a microphone on them. Pharynx looks up his paperwork and notices the drone, "Report." Pharynx said getting Luna's attention to look at the drone,
The drone saluted, "Princess Celestia is making her way to Ponyville to visit Fluttershy House. In hopes to get in contact with Discord."
Luna look down in concern "That is odd. First, my sister can't tell me about something, and then Discord is nowhere to be found."
Pharynx rubs his head with his hooves before looking at the princess, "Didn't you ponies have a way to summon him or something?"
"My sister would have done that by now if she truly needs to get his attention. However, since that is not the case here, then there is more for a cause of an alarm then I thought," Luna turned to one of the guards next to the L.R.C.P. "Corporal alert squad C in Pony Ville to go to Fluttershy's house and remain hidden and watch out for any signs of Discord or my Sister." The Gaurd nodded and started sending the message through the machine in front of him.
Pharynx looks at the pony before asking one important question ever since he got there, "What is that huge metal box they are using?"
Luna smiles at this. Now she can tell him about their new toy, "During the invasion of your kind past endeavors, we have been trying to come up with a way to communicate to ponies without the need of a unicorn or dragon to send a message. That way, even when we aren't able to use our magic, we can still warn our ponies of the danger."
"But we are friends now. Why do you still have that."
"True and ever since we became allies the L.R.C.P. was decommissioned and never seen the light of day. However, it is the perfect way of sending messages to our troops in the most secure way possible with the use of sound waves instead of magic."
Pharynx gives the machine a look over, "Where did you ever get the idea for such a thing?"
"Oh, before Twilight became a Queen. She entered a different world where there is no such thing as magic. And the creatures there were able to talk with one another through similar means that we are using. However, since the L.R.C.P. was never finished, we only have one-way communication at the moment and that of a short-range to boot. Due to having that we need for multiply centers points to repeat the message. It will be another day before we can establish two-way communication with Pony Ville. All we can do is put our trust in our troops and be ready for anything."
"But could we just send them a letter by magic?"
"No, we can not. Due to the mysterious nature of my sister's actions. We can't trust magic at the moment. That is why we are using the L.R.C.P. instead."
"Won't there be a chance of the message becoming altered?"
She huffs at his actuation, "Nonsense, this maybe experimental tech, but how hard is it to send one small message?"
Meanwhile in PonyVille,
A guard Pony came rushing into his superior officce, "Sir!"
"Yes?"
"We got a message from headquarters from the L.R.C.P." The stallion looks back at the message again with a look of uncertainty on his face,
"Well what the matter. What does the message say?"
*Ahem*"It says to go to Filler's house and gain hidden watch and for any signs of disorderly conduct from Pincer Cetia."
The sergeant pony blinks a couple of times at the nonsense he has just heard, "Excuse me?"
"That is what the message said, sir."
Meanwhile not too far way,
Applejack is making her way to Fluttershy's house. Three days ago, her friend Rarity came running to her house and was talking about something, and I quote, "the absolute worst thing is happening to Fluttershy, and she doesn't want our help with it." Applejack had come to talk to Fluttershy shortly afterward about the subject, but she wasn't answering her door. So ever since she has been coming to her house every day until she has a word with that mare. But with no luck so far she returns with back up and a plan. Well, she came up with it while talking to Rainbow but no pony pays a attention to details.
Applejack joins Rainbow near Fluttershy's house and goes to her chicken coop. "I don't know about this," Applejack said, staring at the chickens, "I am pretty sure it will get Fluttershy out of the house, but she will be mighty sour with us."
"Well, how else are we going to get her to come out? Nothing else worked," Rainbow retorted before smiling at the chickens, "Besides, you can't say you never want to try this at least once." Applejack nods in agreement as they crouch down moving closer to the helpless chickens. once they were close enough they gave each other a silent signal and start a count down. At the count of three, both mares moved quickly to the chickens scaring all of them everywhere. They chase the little hens for a minute before Fluttershy came rushing out of her house, wondering what is going on. "Girls! What are you doing?"
Rainbow stops for a moment to look at her, "Chicken hunting duh." She said not being able to catch one while Applejack is struggling to hold onto one of them, "You should try it sometimes it fun."
"Stop that right NOW!" She shouted, causing the chickens to run back into their coop and leaving her friends stunned at her outburst. But they brought it on themselves. Quickly Fluttershy checks on the chickens. Once, she is determined that they are all safe and sound. She slowly turns to face her friends with unrelenting rage. "What do you girls want?"
Both mares gulp as Rainbow struggles to answer, "Ah... well... you see..."
"Yes?"
"It was Applejack's idea!"
"Hay on hold on there partner," Applejack turns to face Rainbow, "I want to just talk to Fluttershy. You were the one who wanted to go chasing chickens."
"Yeah, and how did you catch one?"
"I guess that I am just faster than you is all." Rainbow shakes with anger but was stopped from talking when Applejack holds up a hoof, "Hold that thought Rainbow," She then turns to face the terrifying yellow pegasus, "Now then, Fluttershy. Rarity came to us talking about you having some problems that you don't want our help with. Care to explain."
This causes Fluttershy to calm down as she realizes that they did this because of what happen with Rarity the other day. However just like the other day she has to remain true to the rules that she agreed too, "I am sorry, girls, but I can't tell you."
"Why not."
"I can't get you girls involved."
"Why?"
"Because that was part of our agreement," Celestia said behind the two mares scaring them to jump two feet away from her, "Honesty, Loyalty. I am afaird that this is one matter that you two can't get involved with."
Applejack moves closer to Celestia, "But why not Princess?"
"It doesn't concern you two. Now then I must speak with Fluttershy. Alone."
Applejack wanted to say more but stop when Fluttershy put a hoof on her shoulder, "It is okay, girls. Everything will be alright."
As much as Applejack wanted to know more about what is going on here. She is going to have to trust her friends and let this play out. She nods at Fluttershy as she and the Princess move to enter the house. However, before entering Celestia turns to face the girls,
"Furthermore. You are not to tell another pony about this. This is a private matter. Rest a sure that nothing is happening that will cause any harm to any pony. However, until we are finished, this is a matter that is between Kindness and me." With that she enters the house, closing the door behind her. Rainbow and Applejack are confused beyond belief in what they just heard. They look at each other before moving to the door of the house to listen to what was going on inside. Only for them to hear Celestia talking to them form the other side of the door, "Can I help you two?" Celestia giggles to herself, as she hears the quick departer of the two mares. Once she had her laugh, she joins Fluttershy in the living room.
She was sitting on her chair as Celestia takes the couch, "You didn't have to do that, you know."
"They would have gotten in the way," Celestia takes a cookie from the table in front of her, "Now then. Fluttershy. I know that our battle for Discord love had officially started; however, I must ask you something." she said while eating her cookie,
"Yes?"
She shallows, "Have you seen Discord?"
Fluttershy tilts her head, "No. I thought that you used the summoning spell on him and was on a date with him in Canterlot."
Celestia shakes her head with a sigh, "Fluttershy. We both agree that we wouldn't do anything like that during our battle. That is why I am here. For some reason, Discord is not answering any calls what so ever for the past three days." She uses her magic to cause the scroll they sign to appear before them, "I need your permission to allow us to use the summoning spell to find him."
"Can we even do that? I thought that we agreed to not use magic on Discord."
"That is true however if both parties agree to something similar to this then it can work," She then starts writing on the scroll and reads out loud what is being written down, "For one time only, we will use the spell to find Discord and never be able to do so again for the remaining of our duel." She lowers it onto the table for Fluttershy to sign as Celestia stamps it before giving Fluttershy a pen,
Fluttershy lowers her head in thought. If I allow Celestia to use the spell then we will be able to find Discord. But that would me that I am okay with Celestia twisting the rules for our war for DIscord's love. And who knows how many more times she will be able to find loopholes that we need to agree on to allow during our war. However, I also haven't seen Discord for over three days. He is never late for teatime. I am starting to getting worried. This may be the only way that we will be able to find him. I am not okay with it. But I would like to know if he is alright. "Okay, only once." she signs it,
They watch as the scroll closes up and disappears in a flash, "Thank you. Now then I will begin the spell," Celestia started charging her spell when Discord appears in the room,
"Hello, I am back."
"That was quick," Fluttershy said looking at him not noticing Celestia also confused face,
I didn't finish casting the spell yet. Discord must have shown up on his own. That means that I can use the spell for a later date. Lucky me. "Hello, Discord."
"Oh, HI! UHM," Discord wasn't expecting to face both of them at the same time. What rotten luck, "What are you doing here?"
Celestia tries to come up with a reasonable excuse for why she if with Fluttershy at the moment but came up with nothing. Luckily, she didn't have to say anything, "We were planning a trip to rainbow falls." Fluttershy spoke up,
"Really?" Celestia and Discord said together,
"Oh, yes." She smiles at both of them, "I thought that since we don't get to hang out much, we should just go out and have some fun. What do you say, Discord?"
He rubs the back of his head. This was not something that he is wanted to deal with, but at least this will give him an excuse to be with both of them and to be able to sort things out. Hopefully, "Sure. That sounds like a great ide-" He notices an apple on the table next to a knife as a thought occurs to him, "OH SHOT I knew that I forgot something! I will be right back," Discord disappears with a flash leaving both mares alone notice again.
Celestia glares at Fluttershy, "I don't know what your game is kindness, but it is not going to work."
"What do you mean, your highness?" She said with an innocent smile, "All I am suggesting that we have some fun at Rainbow falls."
"We will see. We will see." They both look away from each with a firm 'humph.'
Rainbow falls popular tourist attraction for Equestria ever since they made it safe for ponies to go the falls like a water slide. It has become a vast water resort. So you can only imagine the surprise everypony facing when not only the Lord of Chaos shows up out of nowhere but with one of the heroes of Equestria along with one of the princesses. However, that is not what has everyponies attention. Even though Discord is a fearsome creature to the average pony, you can only feel sympathy for him. The problem doesn't lie with him but rather with his companions. Fluttershy and Princess Celestia may have smiles on their faces, but the terrorizing aura surrounding them contradicts their smiles. It makes Discord nervous just to be near them along with anypony that so happens to looks at them. They had it ever since they arrived at the water resort. You can cut the tension in the air with a knife, especially whenever they share a glance at each other.
Discord is wearing sunglasses with forced monkey smile as he tries not to lose his cool. "Keep... it... together, Discord." He thought to himself, "Make your goatee proud." To his left, you can see Fluttershy, smiling without a care in the world and occasionally glances at her foe.
"She can't read you," she thought to herself, "You are smooth, like the wind."
Meanwhile, Celestia's eyes wander around the resort, "I... have no idea why we are here." she thought to herself as she waves at some ponies passing by, "I know that we are trying to go out with Discord and that we aren't allowed to interfere with each other dates," she glances at her foe, "so why did she drag me along? Is she pretending to be nice, or does she have something in mind? OOH, Cake!"
The trio walks to the bottom of the falls, watching ponies going down the falls, making splashes at the bottom. None of them have said a word since they got there. And that is causing the ponies around them to feel even more scared.
Discord takes off his glasses to see the falls better just in time to see a couple go down the falls, "Ahhh! I can't handle this level of stress. Somepony say something!"
As if reading his mind, Fluttershy speaks up, "Ah, so... have any of you gone down the falls before?"
Celestia looks at the falls, not showing any emotions to her opponent, "Oh, that looks like so much fun! I can't wait for a chance to go down the falls with Discord. Maybe I will get lucky, and Fluttershy will chicken out, and I will have one up on her." She grins, but she quickly gets rid of it, "Ah, but don't let her know you are excited. You have to play this cool." *Ahem*, "No, but I would like to."
Fluttershy nods and looks up to face Discord, "What about you, Discord?"
"What?"
"Have you gone down the falls before?"
"No, I haven't. To be honest, I didn't know that this was a thing until today."
"Oh, so that means that this will be a first time for everypony here."
Discord's shoulders relaxed at her words, and he looks at the line to get to the top of the falls and notice that it is rather long. He puts a claw on his face things of what to do when he remembers that he is the Lord of Chaos. "Right then, let's get up there." He snaps his claws only for nothing to happen. He looks around, trying to figure out what happened and tries again. "Hold on; I got it."
As Discord fails to teleport them up there. Fluttershy notices a sign next to the line. "Uhm DIscord."
They all look to the sign to read that as a safety precaution for the water park and to prevent cutters in line, Magic canceling stones are hidden across the park. It also advises no flying in the park without clearance. "Well, how about that." they shrug to each other and got in line like everypony else.
As they were getting in line, they didn't notice three familiar mares nearby roaming the park.
"Are you sure they came here, Rainbow?" Rarity asked her friend before ducking to avoid a water balloon fight nearby.
"I am positive that they came here. I was following them since this morning." Rainbow said before getting nailed by a water balloon.
"But what in Equestria name would those three need to keep a secret-" Applejack started before getting hit by a water balloon causing all three mares to duck for cover behind a food cart, "that they must come here for?" She finished as she wrings out her hat.
"Beats me. All I know is that they are here-" Rainbow sticks her head above the cart to look for their targets only to get a water balloon to the face, "That's it! You ponies are going down!" She flies out to do battle.
Applejack sticks her hat out for safety and shakes it a bit. Satisfied that she is not in danger she looks to see a very one-sided fight. She shakes her head at her friend, as she gets ambushed by seven colts and filly armed with water guns.
"There they are." Rarity spoke up; both of them quickly hide behind another food stall as the water fight was getting out of control and getting everypony nearby involved. Once safe, the duo sticking the heads around the corner to see their targets waiting in line.
"Now, why in Equestria would they be getting in line for a water slide for a secret meeting?"
"I have no idea, dear, but I feel as if they are only here just to throw off any sneaky ponies such as us."
"Maybe."
Meanwhile at Canterlot,
Princess Luna is using every ounce of concentration as she uses her magic to pulls a stick from the bottom of the stick tower. Pharynx and another guard observes as she gently places on top of the rest. It holds to a few seconds before it causes the whole thing to tip over and crashes against the table. She hits the table with her hooves with a frustrating grunt as Pharynx tally up the scorecard.
"Do you wish to call it quits now your highness?" Pharynx asked not lookup from the scorecard,
"NEVER!" She shouts before pointing her hoof at him, "I will beat you if it is the last thing I DO!"
He rolls his eyes and sets up another game. "Has there been any words from Squad C yet?" he asks a guard as he starts another game,
"No, your Highness. Communications are still one-sided at the moment."
Princess Luna takes a stick from the middle of the tower and places it at the top, "Well, in that case, prepared to send out another message."
"How do we even know that they got the first message anyways?" Pharynx ask Luna as he takes a piece from the bottom and puts it on top,
Not missing a beat, Luna takes another stick from the middle, "The machine sends back a signal to inform us that they have indeed received it."
"And yet they can't talk back to us," he moves another stick, "You are putting a lot of trust in something that hasn't even been field-tested yet."
"Of course, this is a huge step for our ponies." She moves another stick, "It can revolutionize how ponies talk to each other."
"And, are you sure that there is no chance for the message to be mistranslated on their part?"
"Absolutely. There is no way for the message to be mistaken on their part."
"Okay, Private, one more time," A Gaurd pony asked his subordinate, "What does the message say?"
The Private pulls at his collar, nervous, looking at the note. This is his fifth time trying to decipher the message from Princess Luna. But each time it just gets worse. "It says to get Discord alone and to get her highness and Fluttershy to-" He gulps, "to fall on their faces in chocolate pudding." His superior officer gives him a deadpan look, "I am just reading what the message says, sir! I am not the one writing it. Please don't court marshal me." he begs his superior officer while grabbing his hoofs in a submission position,
He sighs and pulls his hoof away from him, "You do know what we are going to do can be considered treason, you know."
The private starts to panic, "I don't know what to do!"
He slaps his subordinate snap out of it, "Your job Private. Now, where is some chocolate pudding? I bet that this is one of her pranks."
After standing in line for quite some time without any fighting between the girls, the three of them made it to the top of the falls. There was a pony getting pony's life jackets that need them, and another making sure that only adults could go on this ride. Discord watches as two young colts got caught trying to sneak into the ride only to be sent back down the line. Celestia simple looks at the follow of rainbow water going past them. As for Fluttershy, she is looking down where the end of the ride is, it is a long way down.
Fluttershy gulps to herself. She not one for these kinds of things, but she is not going to show any signs of weakness next to her. She looks at Celestia, who notices her stare and stares back at her with little sparks going between their eyes. As this was going on, Discord notice that it was their turn and moved forward only to notice that he was alone. Looking back, he sees his friends smiling at him, but that doesn’t fool him. He may not be the bright creature around, but something is fishy around here. And he is not referring to the random fish that jumps out of the falls.
"Okay, what is up?"
Without missing beat, Celestia replied, "The sky." Discord put a claw to his face for walking into that one.
"What do you mean?" Fluttershy spoke up,
"I mean, you two," he gestures to them, "What is going on?"
"Well, we are going to go on a ride with you right now."
He sighs at this and turns away from them, "Never mind." They move to get into the water when stopped by one of the employees.
"Sorry, guys, but only two ponies at a time."
"That is no problem," Celestia spoke up, "Fluttershy can just go by herself."
Fluttershy glared at the Princess with annoyance, "Actually, I was hoping to go with Discord."
Celestia stares her down, "Well, then that is a problem considering that I am going to go with him."
"And what makes you so sure that he will want to ride down with you?"
Discord turns around to face the girls and try to reason with them, but for some reason, he could bring himself to stare and watch. It is not every day that you see the Princess of the Sun and the Element of Kindness engaging in a catfight, "Girls?"
"What brought this on?"
Rarity watches the trio from a pair binoculars under a shaded area with three lawn chairs for ponies to rest. Rarity is on the far left Applejack is in the middle one, and a green pegasus stallion with sunglasses in yellow trunks wearing a swimming cap was resting on the last one before the girls got there. Rarity had a feeling she was going to need these binoculars, so she packed it in her saddlebags along with other things. Applejack is next to her as she watches Rainbow fighting a losing battle against a group of colts. Rainbow may be soaking wet, but she is determined to teach those colts a lesson; if the lesson was how to gang up on an adult, with every foal in the park.
"Don't you think that we should help her?" Applejack asks as Rainbow gets hit by another ambush from more fillies, "Because I don't think that she is going to get out of there without causing a scene."
Rarity lowers her binoculars to survey what her friend's situation was. It looks like some pony gave them bigger water guns now and have cornered Rainbow against a small water slide. Rainbow looks to her friend for help, but then they open fire. Rarity shakes her head and raised her binoculars to look back that the trio, "She got herself into that mess, and I am certain that she can get herself out of it."
"If you say so," Applejack says as she sees the fillies and colts doing a victory dance around Rainbow prone form, "So what is going on up there anyway?"
"I can't be certain, but I believe that they are here just to enjoy the park."
"Are you serious! Here we are worrying about them thinking that something terrible has happened to Fluttershy," This got the stallion's attention, but he remains quiet, "And it turns out it was nothing more than those three taking time off to have some fun at a water park?"
"That is what it appears to be, doesn't it, darling."
"What are you going on about,"
"I saw the look in Fluttershy eyes that day she told me that we could help her. She was hurting, and whatever the reason was, she could not tell us about it," she looks back her friend, "Something is going on that is so secretive that she is forbidden to ask for aid."
"Than how can we help her?"
"The best thing we can do right now is to wait."
"You can't be serious, Fluttershy is endangered, and you want us to do nothing!"
"I didn't say that Applejack. We will do something, but for right now all we can do is wait," She then looks back into her binoculars, "There is too much that we don't know and- hold on."
"What is it?"
"I can see some stallion cutting inline trying to get to the top of the ride where Fluttershy and the other are at,"
"Really?" Rarity gives her another pair of binoculars, and sure enough, there is a stallion cutting in line very fast, trying to get to the top. Applejack lowers her binoculars in confusion and looks again, "Doesn't that stallion look familiar to you, Rarity?"
"No, although he does have a terrible fashion sense, I do not know that stallion. However, you are right. His physic does ring some kind of bell. Now, where have I seen this particular stallion before?" It took them a moment before they look to their left and notice that the stallion next to them is gone.
At the top of the ride,
The situation has gotten worse with the verbal catfight between the girls. The girl's calm, the smiling face has returned, but those faces were anything but happy. Discord wants to stop the fighting between the girls, and another part of him doesn't.
"The ride is meant for two ponies to go down at once," Fluttershy said as a matter of fact, "Clearly you are bigger than one pony, don't you think your highness?"
The crowd of ponies looks to Celestia for her come back. Just as she was about to say something, they start hearing a commotion of somepony cutting in line, getting close to them.
"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through," stallion made his way to the top and somehow lost his sunglasses and swimming cap. No pony stopped him for no pony wanted to get close to this catfight, and let the insane stallion go to his doom. This confuses Celestia and Discord, but for some reason, Fluttershy looks at the stallion with dread,
"Oh no,"
Once free from the crowd, The stallion looks around before he sets his sights on his sister, "Fluttershy!"
Fluttershy grumbles to herself as her brother showed up out of nowhere and gives him an annoyed smile, "Zephyr, what are you doing here?"
He moves quickly next to her, and Celestia and Discord gave him a look over, "I was here to enjoy a day off from the mane salon and when I heard that you were here. It has been so long since we have seen each other I thought that we could hang out."
Fluttershy didn't want to deal with him right now, however before she could say anything, Celestia spoke up, "Of course, Zephyr, you can hang out with us," Zephry then notice that his sister was not alone up here. He got spook to be face to with both Celestia and Discord. He just stood there in shock, "Relax dear Zephyr, we are here as citizens enjoying a day off," This made him relax, but he kept his eyes on Discord, who gave him a high hoof, "As I was saying. We were just on our down the ride. And realize that one of us will be going down the ride alone."
Discord nods at this, "I see if he is here than we can all go down the ride without anypony being alone," He gave the girls a questionable look, "Is that why you girls were fighting?"
"We weren't fighting," Celestia said a matter of fact, "we just had a disagreement,"
He thinks about this for a second before he shrugs, "Well now that is settled, let us go down the ride," he then moves quickly next to the newcomer and picks him up like a cat, "Zephyr you are with me."
"What?" All three of them said at once,
"Hay, I have made many friends, but this is the first time I every hangout with Fluttershy brother. So what better way to make memories than going down a Rainbow waterfall together," Before anypony could protest, Discord was already in the falls with Zephyr Breeze screaming his lungs off as they went down the colorful water.
The girls look down as the boys went down the slide and then to each other, "This is all your fault," Celestia said to Fluttershy,
At the bottom of the falls,
The group of filly and colts have tied up Rainbow and were pulling her to the rainbow pound and were chanting, "Back where you belong, back where you belong, back where you belong,"
"Let me go! Where are your parents anyway." Instead of answering her. The foals lifted Rainbow above them and throw her into the water at the same time; two figures were coming down from the falls. They both hit the water at the same time, creating a mightly splash and tidal wave, sends the foals away, soaking wet.
As the water settles, Discord raised from the water holding onto Rainbow Dash. He smiles as he looks down at his friend before doing a double-take and holds out the pony in his grasp in front of him, "Zephyr! What Happened to You?! The Rainbow falls have dyed your mane and changed your gender!"
Rainbow glare back at Discord, "I am not Zephyr Discord."
"You even lost your memory!" He pulls Rainbow in for a rib crushing bear hug, "Don't worry, Zephyr. Your dear friend Discord will fix this,"
"Fix what?"
Discord looks behind him to see Zephyr stand there with no changes to his mane or gender, "Oh never mind," He let's go of Rainbow sending her into the water, "What a minute," He pulls Rainbow out from the water as she gives him a death glare, "What are you doing in the Rainbow falls?" He gasps, "Could this be your home?"
"No, Discord this is not my home,"
He thinks about it before dropping the subject, "Could have fooled me," He drops her again,
"Wai-" She tried calling out before going back into the water,
He pulls her out of the water again, "Yes?"
She clears her throat before she starts shouting, not noticing the stallion nearby, "If you drop me into the water one more time! I am going to-"
"Rainbow Dash, is that you?"
Rainbow went silent as heard the voice of the stallion who she despises more than Rarity does Blueblood. The last time she heard his voice, Fluttershy's parents thought that they were dating, which she is NOT. Her eye twitches as she turns to face the profoundly infatuated Zephyr Breeze. He got a better look at her, to which he gave her his best smile, "It is you!"
Thinking quickly, she said the first thing on her mind, "Ah no, you got the wrong mare."
Discord gives her a strange look and checks her cutie mark, "No I am sure that we are talking to the right mare,"
Rainbow glares at Discord as they all got out of the water, not noticing Rarity and Applejack moving quickly in the background. Rainbow struggles to get out of the binding that those fouls put her in, to no avail. Discord then took one look at Zephyr Breeze and to Rainbow Dash when I lightbulb came over his head, "Oh Rainbow Dash, I had no idea."
"About what?"
"That you were dating Fluttershy's brother,"
"WHAT!"
Discord cut the ropes bind her and put her down to switch Zephyr was right next to, "Well, I can understand why you don't want to be seen in public with him. After all, think of what will happen to your reputation if the word got out that you. The Tomboy of the main six was dating another member's brother."
"I am very much aware of what will happen to my reputation and my pride if-" Discord put a claw onto her lips in a hushing motion,
"Say no more. I understand what it is like."
"I highly doubt that,"
"You still haven't sorted out your feeling about him yet and need more time."
Rainbow was going to correct him when she was interrupted by Zephyr, "I don't think so. She always has a hard time staying away from me,"
Rainbow made a face of complete despair and was about to say something when a screaming came from the falls,
five minutes ago,
"What do you mean, my fault?"
The crowd of ponies looks to Celestia, "If you had just gone down the slide on your own, then none of this would have happened."
The crowd looks to Fluttershy, "If you hadn't made such a big deal about who should join Discord going down the ride. Then one of us could have gone down the slide with Discord."
The crowd looks to Celestia, "Excuse me, but whose brother came and stole the spotlight here,"
The crowd looks to Fluttershy, "How was I supposed to know that my brother was here and that Discord would have wanted to hang out with him?"
The crowd looks to the Princess, "He is your brother. You of all ponies should have known where he would have been."
The crowd looks to Fluttershy, "I don't keep track of him all the time,"
"Some sister you are,"
"Say the one who banished her sibling," There was complete silence. It was so quiet that you could hear the ponies down bellow having fun. Slowly the crowd turns to look at Celestia, who had a face of complete rage. They then slowly started to go down the stairs not wanting to be anywhere near this,
"Take that back,"
"Make me,"
*FIGHT!*
Celestia pounce at Fluttershy to which she jumps out of the way, and cause the ponies nearby to move faster. Celestia turns to face Fluttershy and ducks when she went flying overhead. She quickly tries to take to the skies as well but was caught off guard when Fluttershy slammed into her side, sending her to the ground. She groans as Fluttershy lands on top of her back before she starts squishing her like play-do. "I give deep tissue massages to bears, handling you is fouls play,"
Celestia manages to get her off and sending her into the air. Celestia moves into charge after her, but whatever Fluttershy did to her back, her wings won't working the way they should—making her cringed as she tried to stretch out her wings. Fluttershy took this moment to tackles Celestia into the water, and down they went.
Present,
"Incoming," Discord said as they back away from the giant splash created from Fluttershy and Celestia. As the water settles, the two mare's head surface on top of the face, and they stare at each other with hate. Before they could do anything, Discord called out to them, "There you two are. Took you, girls, long enough,"
The girls look at Discord before looking back at each other and blow some bubbles in the water. Rarity and Applejack join the rest on land as the two soak mares crawl out of the water. Applejack wanted to have words with the Princess, but Rarity stops her with a shake of her head.
"So, how was the slide?" Discord asks,
Celestia let out a sigh, "It was alright."
"That is good to hear. Now then who is up for ice cream?"
As a group of friends left of waterfall slide, unknown to them, a pink pony has been moving from place to place at random hiding spots looking for someone. She's in pops out of a barrel that startled the stallion nearby. Before he could say anything, she shushes him by putting a hoof on his mouth and then disappears back into the barrel.
Discord is at the ice cream stand with Zephyr deciding on which ice cream the girls would enjoy. It was at that moment that Celestia and Fluttershy decided to have a little word with each other.
“This can’t on Fluttershy,” Celestia says glaring at her,
“I agree. You should quit Princess. It is obvious that you are not going to win,”
“That is not what I meant Fluttershy,”
“Then what did you m-“
“That is enough of you two,” Rarity said, getting between the two, “We came here because we were worried about Fluttershy’s safety. But now, after what we saw earlier. I am not even sure if any pony is saved near the both of you two right now! What is going on?”
“We cannot tell you.”
Rarity turns angrily to the Princess, “Do not give me that! There has to be a logical reason why you two are acting like this,” She then moves back and forth looking at both at them, “Now you are going to tell me what is going on or so help me I'm going to get all the princesses and our friends involved if I have to!”
Not wanting to risk the contract effect unintentionally. Celestia looks to Fluttershy as they both get a sign of agreement, “I think it's time we told them what's going on. But not here.”
“And what is wrong with here?”
“Discord is not allowed to hear what is going on. However, if you can distract him, I can inform you what's going on.”
As the girls were talking amongst each other. They did not realize Pinkie Pie was nearby looking at them. However, her attention was drawn to Discord, and with a gasp, she mutters to herself, “No, that's not what is supposed to happen! Why are those two with each other?! Why isn't Fluttershy with Discord, and why is she with the Princess?! And what are the girls doing here? I gotta do something!”
Just then, Pinkie Pie notices a guard with two small pies of chocolate pudding on his back nearby. He appears to be is looking for somepony, “Perfect,” Quickly Pinkie Pie grabs the pies and throws one at Zephyr Breeze and the other one at the girls away from Fluttershy. The first had hit the side of Zephyr face as for the second one, it hit Rarity right in her face, “Oops I was aiming for Rainbow,” Thinking quickly not to get caught. Pinkie Pie moves the Guard she got the pies from, to where she was, and hid behind the ice cream stand.
None of the girls said anything as the pies slowly peel off Rarity's face. Rarity doesn't say anything except for wiping her face and giving death glares at the direction where the pie came from. Rarity didn't see a confused guard looking for his pies. She didn't see the look of worried coming from her friends. All she saw was a dead pony. “YOU!” Rarity shouted, causing the Guard to up and look at her.
“Me?”
“Is this your pie?” she said raising the empty pie can with her hoof,
“Oh, you found it, wait what happen-”
“SILENCE!” He gulps, “You have 3 seconds to run,”
“Hey, girls, you wouldn't believe what happened to earlier. A pie creamed my bro on the side of his face, and where is Rarity?” Discord asked looking around for said mare. Zephyr was wiping his face willing trying to look cool at rainbow to with she rolls her eyes at.
“She's occupied the moment," Fluttershy simply said, "I doubt we'll be seeing her for the rest of the day.”
“Ah, that's a shame I thought for sure she would have loved this chocolate ice cream I got for her.”
Celestia shakes her head, “Somehow, I don't think that would be a good idea.”
“Party pooper. Anyways what should we do next?”
As Discord was discussing with the girls on what to do next. Celestia decided to have a moment to herself, “What happened that Guard who throw that pie at Rarity, and why did he do that? Is this Fluttershy doing or somepony else? Whatever the case may be, I will have to start preparing for my next date was Discord. After all, this one is ruin.”
The gang made their way to the swimming pool areas. Zephyr breeze was on the high diving board trying to show off to Rainbow. However, she was busy defending herself from a herd of fillies and colts with water balloons. Somewhere along the line, Fluttershy got drag into the fight only for her to diving into the water to escape leaving Rainbow to fend for herself. Celestia took this opportunity to talk to Discord who was relaxing on a beach chair with sunglasses.
“So, Discord, are you busy this weekend?”
“Why did you have something planned?”
“I just thought we could hang out around the Castle gardens. Like old times.”
He lifts his glasses to look at her, “You mean like a picnic with another ponies.”
Celestia mentally slaps herself, “Of course he is not comfortable with me yet after my stunt the last time we were in the gardens. But wait, maybe that is what I need. Fluttershy will never be so bold to ask Discord out. If I continue to press on my advances, then she will never have a chance with him.”
Fluttershy surfaces from the water gasping for air. Once she is okay she looks around until she sees Celestia with her stallion. And was about to intervein when she was pulled out of the pool and behind some inflatable tubes. “What Pinky what are you-” Pinkie cut her off,
“Don't worry, Fluttershy. I know that you are having a hard time finding some alone time with Discord. So, I'm going to help you.”
“But you can't,” she says in a panic knowing what would happen if she does,
“Don't worry about a thing. You are going to have Discord all to yourself before you know it. Just watch.”
Fluttershy tried to call out to her friend, but she was already long gone.
Meanwhile, outside the park, an officer guard was bewildered to see a white Unicorn mare dragging his subordinate to him covered in chocolate with her magic. She drops him in front of him before stating, “This is your mess, take care of him. I don't ever want to see him again.” she huffs before leaving the park.
He looks down at his subordinate, and as she leaves them and asks simply, “What happened?”
“Horror,” He says, shaking, “Pure horror.”
“What kind of guard are you?” He smacks him on the side of the head, “On your hooves,” He pulls him up, “I assume that your mission failed.”
“Yes, Sir, it did. I didn't even get closer to Princess before she jumped me.”
“If I recall that was Rarity. What did you do to her?”
“I did nothing. Sir honest,” He says panic and confused,
“In any case, how we're going to complete the mission now? Even if it is a prank,”
Before he could think of anything, another guard pony arrives in front of them, holding out a scroll, “Urgent news for the Princess.”
He was going to reach for the scroll, but he stops himself. He notices that something is odd about the soldier in front of him. For some reason, the Guard is female and is pink instead of the standard white, “What's the matter never seen a pink in armor before,”
He leans forward trying to get a better view of who this pony is, “Who are you, soldier?”
The mare looks angrily at him, “Excuse me I believe that the term is ‘who r you.’ " She holds out the scroll before her and hits the tips of his nose with the end of it, "We are at war ponies. We don't have time for silly questions like this. Now get this to the Princess pronto her sister needs her help now.” He was about to say something when the pink pony covered his mouth, “Did I say you could talk?” She shoves the scroll in his hooves, “I said move it go go go!” The two guards head to the Princess as Pinkie steps aside and removes the armor. "That outta do the trick. Now how to get Dashie to leave them alone?”
As Pinkie was scheming, Celestia was putting on the charm with Discord. “Not really. I thought that it could just be the two of us. Alone.”
“I am not sure that is a good idea, Celestia."
Before Celestia could say anything, two-guard approach them, “Your highness.”
“Now is not a good time.”
“I am afraid that this matter can’t wait. This letter was sent from your Sister.”
“Luna?” Quickly Celestia reads the letter before sighing, “It would seem that I am needed in Canterlot Discord. I have to go.”
He exhales in relief to which he got a glare from Celestia, “I am mean I guess we can have a rain check then?”
“Let’s. Say goodbye to the other for me.” She says before taking off to the skies,
“Will do,” It was at that moment was when Discord notice something very important, “Where is everypony?”
On the other side of the pool. Rainbow shakes herself dried as Zephyr pulls himself out of the pool.
“Rainbow, what is with your fan club and water balloons?”
“They are not from my fan club. They are just a bunch of kids who like to throw water balloons at ponies.” They start walking toward where discord is before Zephyr start talking,
“Come on, Rainbow, you don’t have to go that far to get my attention.”
She looks back at him confused, “What are you talking about?”
“I mean if you wanted to show off yourself covered in water just to impres-“
“OKAY, NO.” She turns to face him in rage,
“Huh.”
“I said That is enough. I have had it with you. Every time we are together. You go out of your way to make it seems like I have a crush on you. When I don’t, I hate you!”
He backs up a little before he regains his composer, “Whoa, you are really good at hiding your feeling from me.”
Just then a voice spoke behind him, “Take a hint, sir.”
He turns to see a brown stallion looking back at him, “What hint, and who are you?”
Without saying anything, the mysterious stallion bucks Zephyr into the pool. Rainbow watches in amusement as he tries to swim to shore next to them only for the stallion to push him back in, “Somepony more important than you,” He then turns to face Rainbow, “Are you alright Rainbow?”
“Yeah, but who are you?” He grabs her and pulls her in close whispers into her ear as Zephyr finally gets out of the water.
“Not cool, bro. What is your problem?”
He let go of rainbow and glares at Zephyr, “My problem is that I don’t like you hitting on my girlfriend.”
Zephyr was taken back, “What are you talking about?”
“You heard him,” Rainbow says as she wraps a foreleg around the stallion, “This is my coltfriend. And the main reason why I don’t like you saying that I have feels for you.”
Zephyr tried to understand what is going on. For it doesn't look like they are joking, “But I thought-“
“You thought wrong, sir. Come on, Dash.” The two leave Zephyr there, confused as to what has happened.
Once they were far enough away. Rainbow smiles as she gives the stallion a high hoof, “Thanks for the assist Pharynx,”
The disguise changeling smiles back at her, “I thought that it was the least I could do. After all, the bad blood between us.”
Rainbow's smiles turn into a frown, “But why did you have to say coltfriend? Now he is never going to shush up about who you are.”
Pharynx tilts his head at that statement, “Rainbow, you forget that I am a changeling right.”
Her eyes light up in realization, “That's right. I can make up whatever I want about you, and you can become somepony else if all else fails!”
“Correct.”
“That is awesome know he can’t say I have feelings for him when I am seeing sompony else," She paused for a moment and looks back at him, "Wait a minute what are you doing here?”
He shrugs, “It is my day off. And my brother thought that this would be the best way for me to spend my day off.”
“Oh, so how is it going?”
“It is going alright. Anyways I better get going.” As he turns to walk away, Rainbow calls out to him,
“You know I have never gone down the water slide before," She rubs her forelegs together, "Want to check it out?”
He looks confused at her before smiling, “I don’t see why not.” As the two head to the slide. Pinkie watches from afar as she puts her party cannon away.
“I guess that I didn’t have to do anything after all. Mission completed.”
The next day, in front of Fluttershy's house,
Pinkie Pie hops happy to the front door, "Fluttershy!" Pinkie Pie called out to her friend. She is so happy to have help Fluttershy get some alone time with Discord. She just has to know what happens. "Fluttershy!" She knocks on her door, "I know you are in there!"
Fluttershy opens the top part of her door slowly. She looks at her friend with a red nouse. She sniffs before replying, "Hello Pinkie,"
"Ah Fluttershy, are you okay?"
*ACHOO!*
"No, I had a cold."
"Then why aren't you in bed?"
"I was on my way there when you came to my door."
"Oh sorry,"
Pinkie quickly helps Fluttershy to bed and got everything somepony would need for a pony with a cold. Warm blankets, hot soup, and a thermometer to put in her mouth. Pinkie pulls out the thermometer, "Yeep that a cold," Fluttershy sinks more into the bed, "So what happened? How did you get a cold?"
"I think it is better if I start from the beginning,"
Fluttershy has just finished explaining to the Pinkie Pie about what happened after she had left rainbow falls that day. It turned out that the contract magic effects were immediate. And before she knew what happened, she started having sneezing fits and excuse herself for the day. Discord saw her home and gave her some basic medicine and some Tender loving care. To which she enjoyed very much, If she wasn't feeling so sick. Discord did tell her that he would return the next day to see how she was feeling. And if she doesn't get any better, he would be taken to the hospital. He doesn’t want to risk using his chaos magic on her and making the situation worse, which was a good thing considering that it was magic, making her sick, to begin with. She is going to need to ask Celestia just how long these effects were going to last.
Pinkie Pie put a towel over Fluttershy head as she lays in her bed, not looking any better than she did the day before. “I'm sorry, Fluttershy," Pinkie said with a sad face, "I didn't know that you agree to such terms for fighting over Discord's love with Celestia. I didn't even know she was interested in him.”
“It's not your fault pinky,” she says weakly, “We agree to it shortly after I left you during our training session,”
“So, what happens now?”
“Now I need to get better before Discord starts poking around and find out what's going on. I don't want to think what's going to happen when he finds out about the contract, and the war Celestia and I are having over him.”
“And according to the contract, I cannot help,” Pinkie said,
“Right because you have seen what happens if you do,”
“Sorry I didn't know,”
“It's ok,” *Achoo* “at least I got some time along with Discord after the trip to rainbow falls. Even though I fell asleep shortly after he put me to bed,”
Pinkie wipes Fluttershy nose before throwing away the tissue, “That doesn't seem fair. I mean, when we were able to help out Twilight get together with Thorax, we were able to help her to a degree. But I can't even help you and look at what happened when I did. Also, how long is this supposed to last?”
Fluttershy sniffs, “The war or my cold?”
“Both,”
“Our war was meant to end the moment when Discord declares who he wants a special somepony to be. As for my cold, Celestia was not specific on how that works.”
“Yeah, we better find out about that. Anyways do you have any idea when Discord is going to show up?”
“He said he was gonna be right back he was here earlier,”
Meanwhile in Celestia bed chambers,
“So let me get this straight sister," Celestia said weakly, "You thought that I was going to go to war against another country and used a prototype communications method to spy on me because I didn't tell you what was going on?”
“Yes,”
“And not only did you find out that the communication device is flawed but that you also did not send a letter to me yesterday which interrupted my date with Discord.”
“Correct,”
“And while you were using said communications device somehow our guards ended up going to rainbow falls with two chocolate puddings pies which ended up ruining the date for me. And thus, interfering.”
“Yes, unintentionally but yes,”
*Achoo!*
Celestia sniffs as Luna uses her magic to wipe her sister's nose, “At least my cold makes sense now,” Celestia leans further into her bed as maids of the castle empty out the trash can nearby.
Ever since she got back yesterday, and found out that somepony had interfered with her date with Discord. Her nose has not been happy with her. This is what she gets for agreeing to an old magical contrate without making sure that it was a copy of a magical contract and not a real one. She thought for sure that she got rid of all those magical contrate a long time ago. She guesses that one manages to survive, and she so happens to find it. She only went to Fluttershy to bend the rules of the contrate that day was because she wasn't thinking straight. And now she was paying the price for her negligence.
“Sister, please," Luna said tending to her sister, "If you have at least told me that you were just simply searching for somepony’s affection with a date, I would have backed off. But the way you kept so secretly, I had to take some form of action.” She dunks as Celestia lets out another sneeze, “Also, how long is your cold supposed to last anyway?”
Celestia covers her face with a pillow, “It has been so long since I last used such contracts. I can't remember. But I am certain that this one must still be under the default state. What was that again?”
Luna puts a hoof to her chin in thought, “If I recall contract breaks punishments were meant to last for two weeks to ensure that the pony who broke them would learn their lesson,”
Celestia's eyes widen at the thought of being stuck like this for two weeks straight and sat up from her bed, “Yeah, now it's not happening," quickly she gets out of bed on shaky legs, "Send word to the guards I head for Pony Ville at once!"
“And what do you plan to accomplish going there in your condition?”
“The contract can be broken if we both parties agree that it's not worth it or want it to be changed.” She leans onto the wall of her room, “I rather keep this matter as privately as possible the last thing I would need is for Discord to discover what's going on.” As she opens the door her heart dropped,
“Did somepony call?” Discord said standing in the doorway with a grin on his face. Celestia can't believe her luck today. She doesn't want to think about how this can get any worse because it will.
“You too Celestia," He said noticing her condition, "What is going on? First Fluttershy and now you. What's next, the rest of the main six gets affected by this cold? Is it flu season or something?”
“It's just a cold Discord," She said getting into the hallway, "Don't worry yourself over it. I sure that we will recover in a day or two.”
“If you say so, however, something to tell me that this is too much of a coincidence and something fishy is going on, it's not the fish it behind your sisters’ ear.” He said pulling a small fish behind Luna's ear. Luna searches her ear for any more fishes as they continue to talk to each other.
“Didn't you had a reason to come see me?”
“Oh right, I just came to drop by see what happened. You just up and left all of the sudden yesterday.”
“Everything's all in order now, Discord. Don't worry yourself over it. For now, I would like some rest if you do not mind.”
"But you just left your room, Celestia."
"I would like to go to the garden and smell the roses for a while before returning to my room Discord."
“I may be no Doctor pony but even I know that doesn't sound like a good idea. Although here is a good idea," Before she could ask what he meant. He snaps his fingers and they are back in her room with Celestia somehow back in her bed covered in roses, "There now you can smell the roses without getting out of bed." He says not noticing the blush on her face.
"Thank you,"
"Anytime. Now is there anything else you would like before I head out?"
"No Discord I am good for now,"
"If you say so your Highness,” he snaps his fingers before disappearing in a flash of light,
“That was close," Luna said before looking to her sister, "You think he heard anything?”
“I suggest we do not speak about the matter right now. He might still be nearby.”
Just as Celestia finished saying that, Discord snaps his fingers disappears back to his chaos dimension. She was right; he was hiding behind a dresser eavesdropping to see what was going on. And his suspicions were confirmed. Something's going on, and nobody wants to tell him anything. Well, he's not going to stand for this is going to find out what is going on. However, it's evident that he's not going to figure things out on his own. They have gotten so used to him popping out of nowhere that it was hard enough just to get to Canterlot before he ran into a wall. Sometimes literally. So, he's going to need some help from some friends. But then again, they already know all his friends. But that is not going to stop him from trying. He needs to know what is being kept hidden from him.
And to make matters worse it is not just the Princess keeping secrets from him. As much as he doesn't want to admit it. He thinks Fluttershy is hiding something for him too. He didn't want to say anything to her while he was checking up on her earlier. But he did detect that this cold that she has was not a natural one and after he was nearby the Princess. It confirms that something is going on. The question is, what is it and why is it happening? How can you get answers from a pony that doesn't want to tell him anything?
He sits back on his bed, thinking about what to do when he felt like he sat on something hard. Reaching for it, he pulls out a small book which the title says Twilight's Final Test. “Oh right, I was doing something like that, wasn't I? Well, that was before she became Queen of the changelings. And before Chrysalis got captured. And lost the will to fight Twilight. And only wants to be a loving Grandma, oh well,” He tosses the book across the room as bursts into flames, “Since she is out the picture, it is not like those other two could get along with each other," He put a claw to his chin, "I wonder what happened to them. I did just up and left them in that secret base I made for them. Should I be worried about them?" He waves his paw dismally, Nah, I'm sure the ponies will find them eventually and put them back in Tartarus. Oh, should I? Nah, I got more important things to worry about.” With a snap of his fingers, his in the hospital of Pony Ville startling a nurse, "Yeah I am going to need a group of Ponies to head to Fluttershy's house and check her into the hospital for a cold thank you very much. I got her bill covered," He said causing a pile of bits to cover the poor nurse, "I put her health in your capable hooves and I will back for her once she is better. Tata for now," He leaves the mare to crawl out of the bits. Once she is out she gets to work to sign Fluttershy into the hospital.
Shortly after Discord left Celestia, she got in contact with Fluttershy and agreed to a change in the contract term. The contract now states that if either one asks for help from their friends, relatives, or employees, it shall be a breach of contract. However, if they received any unintentional help from their friends, relatives, or employees and said Pony or ponies are not aware of the existence of the contract. It will NOT be a breach of contract and cause them to be sick for a DAY. And to ensure that Discord doesn't find out of this, they agree to a momentary ceasefire and will resume the war in a week.
Furthermore, they are now allowed one adviser to help them with their efforts; however, the adviser cannot be somepony they are close to and must be single. In addition, the adviser must be approved by the opposing party before they can assume the role. This brings us to our current situation.
In the secret catacombs of Canterlot, four ponies walk in the darkness with a single lantern lighting their way, carried in the taller one's hoof. Black cloaks drape across their backs as they walk silently onward until they come upon a large door. The larger one looks back to the others as they nod in a wordless agreement. Two of them move to either side of the door and open the doors to let everypony enter the chamber before silently closing the doors behind them. Inside the room, there is a center table with pillows for them to sit on with a small table next to the wall filled with snacks and refreshments, along with various pots and boxes gathered to one side of the room, leaving a lone fireplace in the far corner of the room. The rooms light up with Celestia starting a fire, causing the fireplace to come alive. She blows out the lantern before turning to address her companions.
"Now that is taken care of, we can talk freely." She and her companions lower their hoods to reveal their identities. The first was Fluttershy, followed by the captain of the Wonderbolts Spitfire, and the last one was none other than Fizzlepop Berrytwist, AKA Tempest Shadow.
Tempest looks over the room as Spitfire gets to the point, "Is there a reason we had to meet here like some kind of cult?"
"I agree." Tempest spoke up, "Couldn't we have this meeting in a more…" she looked to see water dripping from the ceiling, "Welcoming environment. Not that I mind. I had my fair share of exploring dungeons, but when Fluttershy told me that we would talk to Princess Celestia. This isn't what I had in mind."
Celestia weakly smiles at her guests, "My apologies to the accommodation, but I had to make sure that we could have this meeting in secret." Everypony moves to the center of the room surrounding the table, "I trust that Fluttershy has informed you of the situation we are facing, correct?"
Tempest nods, "Yes, she did. I wasn't sure what to make of it when she asked me about it. But I thought it was a good way to say that I am sorry for what I did to her and her friends. And everypony else."
Spitfire glares at her, "It's a good start."
Tempest's ears go down as she smiles apologetically at her, "So what are we here to discuss?"
"Formalities mostly." Celestia turns to face her foe, "Fluttershy, I Celestia wish to appoint Spitfire as my advisor. Do you have any problems with that?"
Fluttershy takes a hard look at the Wonderbolt. 'On one side, I have never seen her be close friend with her highness. And there are only rumors about her dating Sorin. So, as far as I know, she meets the requirement of an advisor. But I have to make sure.' "Spitfire," said mare turns to face her, "To be Princess Celestia Advisor. One of the requirements was that you have to be single. I am sorry, but can you clarify your statics, please?"
Spitfire glares at Celestia for forgetting to mention that requirement. Celestia looks at the ceiling, whistling as Spitfire sighs, "Although I don't like being reminded about that. Yes, I am single."
"Then no problems here. I am okay with your discission."
"Then Spitfire is officially my advisor for the duration of our conflict."
"Yay me," Spitfire says sarcastically,
Ignoring her, Fluttershy speaks up, addressing her opponent, "Celestia. I Fluttershy have chosen Tempest to be my advisor. Is there any complaint?"
Celestia gives Tempest a hard stare. No pony in Equestria has a good history with this mare ever since her aid in the attack at Canterlot, which almost destroyed everything that Equestria stood for some years back. Although Twilight was able to reform her, Fizzlepop, AKA Tempest, has not been seen very often since. It is impressive in itself that Fluttershy, of all Pony, was able to find her and ask for her aid. Then again, she does have a reputation for befriending dangerous friends. Discord being one of them. Celestia has to admit. Out of all of the Ponies, Fluttershy could have asked for help; Tempest was the last Pony in mind. Being an ex-second in command of the Storm King, she will not be an easy foe to deal with. But this is not a war fought on the typical battlefield. This is a war of love and cunning. The first to make a mistake will be at a disadvantage. Tempest is many things, but a social butterfly is not one of them. Compared to Spitfire. Tempest is a novice against an expert of that art of dating. Celestia smiles at her little Pony, "No. I have no complaints."
"Then Tempest Shadow is officially my advisor for the duration of our WAR."
"My name is actually Fizzlepop Berrytwist." Tempest mumbles to herself, to which Spitfire overhears,
"No kidding?" Spitfire asks Tempest, to which she shakes her head at her.
"Spitfire." Celestia calls to her sternly, "I would kindly ask you to NOT socialize with our enemy's advisor."
"Someponies touchy." She says to herself before clearing her throat, "So what happens now?"
"Now." Celestia and Fluttershy say in unison as they stare each other down, "We plan dates."
Meanwhile, in the chaos dimension,
Discord is busy throwing books over his shoulder while he searches his shelves. Another Discord is picking petals on a cactus flower as he does this, mumbling to himself yes or no. A third Discord has been walking back and forth across the room, making a waist-deep trench. And finally, a fourth Discord meditates in the air upside down, humming to himself as he slowly goes up and down.
Then without warning, the third Discord shouts out loud, startling the other Discords, "I GOT IT!"
"What?" the other Discord say together.
"Now, hear me out." The Discord group together, "We go up to Fluttershy and demand to know what she is hiding."
The other three nods their heads, "Good. But how do you suppose we do that?" Number two asks,
"We start by getting our hands on Angel Bunny…." Discord number three moves his claws together.
"NO." The other Discord's unanimously denied.
"Well," Number Three throws up his arms in defeat before laying on a nearby couch. "I got no ideas." The other Discords move around the room, resuming their activities while Number 1 puts a claw to his chin in thought.
He frowns, trying to come up with an idea. "There has got to be an easier way to find out what they are not telling us."
"That's not going to be easy." Discord four says as he starts floating around the room in circles. "They know all of our tricks, and nopony would help us that those two wouldn't be suspicious of." All Discords sigh in defeat.
"Nopony would help us." Number two says before his eyes widen as he repeats what he heard. "Nopony?" He smiles as a light bulb goes off over his head as he sings out, "Iddddeeeeaaaa,"
"Now what?"
"You said no pony would help us, right?" They nod, "Then let's ask some help from someling?"
The other Discord's didn't get what he was getting at, before number 3 eyes widen, "You mean. You want us to ask help from them?" he points to a poorly drawn changeling hopping from picture to picture on the wall next to other poorly drawn creatures chasing each other,
"You got a better idea?"
The Discords shake their heads as number four grabs the changeling picture. The changeling starts spinning in a circle before it hops out of the picture and hops across the room, "Well, beggars can't be choosers." Discord one says as he snaps his claws, causing the changeling to poof in a cloud a smoke as Pharynx appears before them. Pharynx looks around confused as Discord grumbles as the others disappear, "Drat, I was hoping for the other Brother."
Pharynx is dumfounded. Not because of the random flying objects or the creature from the black lagoon grabbing coffee ten feet over. But the fact that there is a miniature toy version of himself kissing an equally sized toy version of Rainbow Dash. "WHERE AM I!" His demands scare all small creatures to run away from him as he changes into a Nirik bursting into flames, causing fire to go everywhere.
"Calm down, your fieriness." Discord pulls a rope next to him, causing a ton of water to drop on top of Pharynx. Steam fills the room as Pharynx returns to his original form. He looks at Discord, who has a towel wrapped around his body and his head sitting on a wooden chair, "You are in my chaos dimension. I have summoned you here to help me on a noble quest."
Pharynx looks at him unconcise, "Is that so?"
"Yes. You see, close friends of mine have recently become distant from me. They are keeping secrets from me. I would like for you to find out what they are up to and what could have caused the situation in the first place."
"Okay, And I am supposed to do this for free because you ask me nicely?"
"Yeeessss."
He gave him a flat stare, "Discord. I have a hive to run and duties to take care of. I have no time to deal with your friendship problems."
"Ah, but you see it does," Discord gets up and snaps his fingers. Both of them find themselves in a replica of the cutiemap room with the map being ten times big than normal. Discord moves to the map and puts his arms on the edge leaning into it. "The ponies that have become distant to me are Fluttershy the Element of Kindness and Princess Celestia herself." He points to the location of his friends' homes as they glow and grow a little before going back to normal size. As Discord continues his speech, the map is slowly changing into random Chaos creeping towards the changeling hive. "Imagine the problems that may occur if the ruler of Equestria and one of its heroes start leaving the entity of Chaos uncheck, unrestraint, and left feeling mighty lonely for days on end. I can only imagine what this would cause for everypony and everyling."
Pharynx snorts angrily before smiling at Discord, "I know you are playing dirty, and I like that. So, you just need information gather from those two? Is there a set time to complete this mission?"
"The sooner, the better."
"Very well. I should have something for you in two days. Is there a way for me to contact you?"
Discord grabs a random horn from a pony on the map and gives it to Pharynx as it grows to regular size, "Honk this horn, and you while be taken back here. I trust that you can get this done without any trouble?"
"No trouble at all,"
Meanwhile,
"Fluttershy. I know that we are trying to be civil…."
"CIVIL!"
"Yes, civil."
"You are the one not being civil here!"
"The moonlight opera is a romantic experience that only has the greatest impact the first time you see it. So only one of us can take Discord to see it."
Fluttershy and Celestia have been arguing over dates with Discord for some time now. They got so into it that their advisor's Spitfire and Tempest sits calmly away from the ever-growing catfight. They could toss their bits into the arguments, but they found some cookies and went with the sweeter option. Besides, it will be over soon enough.
Spitfire continues to eat cookies when Tempest turns to her, "So what is your story?"
"Love flying, found the best fliers around, started flying with them, moved up in the ranks, and now I train the Equestria's next best flier." Spitfire tosses another cookie in her mouth before drinking some tea. "I would ask the same, but everypony knows your story." Spitfire watches the catfight as Fluttershy is now in the air in Celestia's face.
"If it is any consolation. I am sorry for what I did and trying to make things right." Tempest says before her eyes widen, she sees that the two mares have started growling at each other. "Shouldn't we stop this before it gets out of control?"
"Be my guest," Spitfire says nonchalantly as a fight breaks out before them with magic beams and feathers flying everywhere, "So, what are you doing now?"
"I am security pony over at Las Pegasus and a Bouncer in my spare time." Spitfire gives her a weird look, as Tempest clarifies, "I say I am trying. But twenty years of military training isn't something a pony forgets overnight. And I can say that nopony would dear cause trouble with me nearby." She says proudly as Fluttershy lands a few feet near them before charging back into the fight. "Besides, no pony had to be sent to the hospital in over a month and counting."
Spitfire ducks as a piece of wood flies overhead, "Might I ask what happen?"
Tempest snorts angrily as a pot shatters across a wall, "He grabbed my flank. And I introduce him to the floor. Repeatedly."
Spitfire's eyes widen before a smirk covers her face as she grins at Tempest. "Is that it?"
Tempest gave her a confused look as Celestia let out a loud yip, "What are you going at?"
"Did it occur to that he might have been interested in you?"
"No," She replies flatly as their teapot is quickly magically pulled away from them,
"You have no experience with stallions; I take it?"
Tempest stares with small burning of hate in her eyes. "What that's got to do with anything?"
"Oh nothing," Spitfire answers looking coy at her.
It has been a while since Tempest felt this way. But she can say without a doubt she doesn't like Spitfire, "You know. Now I don't feel as sorry for what happened at Canterlot." Before Spitfire could press the matter, they are interrupted; as loud smash echoes into the room as Fluttershy slams Celestia through the center table. Getting the feeling that fighting wasn't going to stop. Both Advisors got up and started the long and painful processes of separating the two mares.
As per request by Discord, I started my mission to uncover why some of his friends are acting differently. In my opinion, this is a waste of time. But I would rather deal with this than have Discord cause chaos around the hive. However, being the second in command to a changeling hive has an advantage. That is having plenty of professionally trained soldiers that can easily hide in plain sight. Let's see what they have to report.
Target was last spotted leaving Canterlot Castle with a new acquaintance not seen with her before. Perhaps this new pony is the reason for the change in her behavior. More surveillance is required. Target boarded the train to Pony Ville and arrived at the household at nightfall. The new pony now identified as Tempest Shadow seems to be calming Fluttershy down as she applies bandages on Target's forehead and forelegs. Target was very vocal about an argument with Princess Celestia over a Picnic date. Unable to determine a reasonable explanation for the outburst. After a late-night snack, both ponies turn in for the night.
Tempest? I think I recall that mare has something to do with a Canterlot invasion some years back. You know, after all the times that it has been invaded. They would have upgraded their defenses by now. It is rather odd finding her with Fluttershy. I wonder what is going on.
Target was found leaving the medical wing of Canterlot Castle with a limb in her step. The medical record indicates that she had multiple splinters across her back, along with various bruises and bite marks across her body. Treatment recommends a cold bath and rest for the next two days. Princess Luna had talked with her sister that evening to discuss what had happened. Princess Celestia comments, "I fell down some stairs." Princess Luna didn't seem convinced as she gestured to her sister's wings where the bite marks were the most visible. Target avoided any further questions by retreating into her bed chambers, stating that she needed to lower the sun.
I am not convinced myself. Her Highness didn't receive any injuries when she was ponynapped by the hive. Twice. There is no way a fall down a flight of stairs could hurt her. After all, she got hit by a full-power Hive Queen and was only knocked out. What in the world happened to get her hurt?
Furthermore, I am not sure why both mares are injured. The obvious conclusion would be that they fought each other. But that is preposterous. These two mares are known as the nicest mares in all of Equestria. There is no way they would be trying to beat each other senselessly for no reason. But what else could it be?
The castle guards are not on high alert; all is quiet on the new media. So, there is no new threat to Equestria. Not to mention that both mares are keeping a low profile about their injuries. Which begs the question, why did they fight each other? I need more information to work with. Discord would flip out if he found out that these mares are figh- wait.
Two mares were severely injured, both friends with Discord. Two girls are fighting each other and are friends with a boy. No. No nonononono that would be ridiculous. No! There has to be a better reason.
"Ah, Pharynx?" Thorax says warily.
"Not now!" he continues to hit his head on the wall as dents start to form.
"I normally wouldn't impose, but why are to trying to make a hole in the wall with your head?"
"To knock some sense back in." He smashes his head one more time before his body goes rigid. Before Thorax could say anything, Pharynx slowly fell to the floor as his legs slid outward, all the while letting out a sigh. "That's better,"
"Do I even want to know?"
"No."
The next day at Fort Flutter's
Fluttershy's house's windows are bordered up and most of her animals are outside standing guard. If any pony were to walk by, they would think that Fluttershy was preparing to go to war. But that wouldn't make any sense. This is Fluttershy we are talking about. The most admirable mare in Pony Ville. However, the trenches, barbed wires, and animals wearing army hats with little wooden weapons are a little hard to ignore. This is what Rainbow and Rarity had to deal with when they came to their friend's house.
Rarity was on her way to the spa but noticed that Fluttershy hadn't arrived for the appointment and wanted to see if anything was wrong. She met Rainbow halfway there, and they both wanted to go check up on their friend. However, this was the last thing they expected to see.
Rainbow rubbed her eyes, making sure that she wasn't seeing things. "This is Fluttershy's house, right?" Rainbow asks in disbelief, "And not some military outpost."
Rarity's left eye twitches as she watches Angel Bunny on a high stool ordering the other animals in a military outfit. Although he does look adorable, now is not the time for a fashion statement. "On a normal day, I would say yes. But I am getting a feeling that we are being left out of something important."
They walk towards the house before being stopped by a group of bunnies with wooden rubber band guns. "Ah, hello." Rarity started, "I was wondering if we could see Fluttershy." They shake their heads. "But we are her best friends. We can see that she needs help. Let us through."
"Yeah, you keep doing that. While I will fly on over-," Rainbow didn't get one foot in the air before getting shot with ten rubber bands. "HAY, that hurt!" The bunnies only look back at her while reloading their guns. "What is with you bunnies!"
"I think that the diplomatic approach is the only way to go." Rainbow was going to retort, but Rarity pointed to the now visible rubber band cannons near the front door. Rainbow's eyes widened as she landed next to her friend.
"On second thought, talking is a good idea too." She says, not seeing a large bush with a fluffy pink tail sticking out the back, slowly inching to the house.
Inside,
Fluttershy is in her war room with her advisor. However, the war room is a bit of an overstatement. It was her Livingroom, with the furniture pushed to the side with a table in the center surrounded with pillows for them to sit on. There was a medium size billboard nearby on a tripod. And for some reason, a light shines from above the table where Tempest was waiting for Fluttershy to begin their meeting. Tempest was trying to find out where the light was coming from before Fluttershy entered the room. She clears her throat before addressing Tempest.
"Attention!" Tempest stands at attention out of reflex. She widens her eyes before she goes back, sitting down, "Our momentary cease-fire with Celestia is almost over." Fluttershy points to a billboard with badly drawn Celestia with a picture of Discord sitting under a blue moon. "We know that our enemy is planning to take Discord to the moonlight opera this weekend. However, due to the rules of the contract. We can't interfere with their date while it is underway." She flips the page over to show a picture of herself with Discord and a stick figure, Celestia, behind a brick wall. "So, we must prevent Celestia from contacting Discord before he agrees. Any ideas, Tempest?"
"Yes, along with other things," Tempest says before giving the light source one more look. "First off. We will have to contact Discord first. But we can't do that until the time is up." Tempest gets up, moves to the billboard, and flips the page showing a calendar. "Normally Discord would show up for teatime with you every Friday. But that is one day before the deadline. We can't approach him with anything until the day after. So that is one advantage you have over the princess. We can ask him to stop by the day after for a favor."
"Excellent. Now to get our hooves on Tickets to the opera." Fluttershy moves to an end table before pulling a bag of bits out and starts counting.
"Quick question,"
"Yes?"
"Why are we in lockdown by your army of furry creatures? And where's that light coming from?!" She points to the windows and the light, respectively.
Fluttershy stops and turns to face her. "Oh, Angel Bunny found a rubber band gun the other day. I told him that he could keep it so long as he was responsible. I then gave him a cute little military outfit to go with it. He and some of the other bunnies were so cute, marching around like they were soldiers. Then I told him that we didn't want to be disturbed this morning, and he said that he got everything under control. And this is what he came up with," A yell of agony echoes through the house as both ponies look in the direction it came from. "What was that?"
"I will go have a look,"
"Do be careful. Angel is such a sweet bunny, but sometimes he can get carried away."
"Thanks for the heads up."
Later that day at Canterlot,
Celestia's been having a rough day. Unlike Fluttershy, who can just take a day off whenever she feels like it. Princess Celestia must attend day court to deal with politics, negotiation, any problems that her ponies and allies may be having. There was only so much that she could put to the side before her work piles up on her. She hasn't had much time to make any plans for dating Discord due to the high increase in problems that came out of nowhere. Ponies from Las Pegasus are asking for raises; Yacks are causing issues in the north, something about ice cream. The Diamond dogs are asking for ponies to stay out of their mines. Ember is asking for a trade agreement with her ponies for gems, mentioning if they still need Twilight's old castle. It was becoming too much for her Highness that she was beginning to doubt that she with have time for herself anymore, let alone Discord. How could she handle being a Princess and still have time for a love life? Maybe there was a good reason why she and Discord drifted apart? Her ponies needed her. Maybe Discord was better off with Fluttershy after all?
The only light she found on this dreadful day was when she received a scroll from dragon fire as she was setting the sun. It was from her dear friend Twilight. She was going to have a meeting with Spitfire, but Celestia needed to read the letter first. Spitfire quietly enters the room as Celestia opens the scroll.
Dear Celestia,
It has been some time since I have had some time for myself. So, I thought I could write to you again to clear my head. Things have been very hard as of late at the hive. I am mostly busy with making sure that everyling has enough to eat. Making sure that Pharynx hasn't killed anyling. Introducing the hive to an education system and books. Did you know that they didn't know what a fairytale was? Every week, I had to schedule storytime for the hive whenever a new book arrived. They are all such fast learners and are very pony-like with their lifestyles and culture. I have been quite the adventure living with the changelings. The girls drop by whenever they can, but the journey to the hive is quite long. I am trying to come up with a solution to this in the future.
I still can't believe that I am a mother of twelve changelings. They are growing up so fast. Thorax and I are having a hard time keeping up where they are sometimes. We found one in one the drawers wrapped up in one of the blankets sleeping soundly. She gave us quite a fright when we lost track of her for a few hours that Lilly.
My parents visit from time to time to see their grandchildren. Dad is still not happy with Thorax for some reason. Candance and Shining Armor came by the other day with a small care package of baby wipes. Flurry Heart still doesn't know what to make of her new cousins, but it will take some getting used to. But for now, she stays away from my babies until she learns to control that magic of hers.
Your friend Twilight Sparkles
A teardrop hits the scroll as Celestia finishes reading the letter. Surprised she touches her face to find that she is indeed crying. "You are right, my faithful student. They grow up fast. Sometimes too fast." Celestia rolls up the scroll and wipes her tears.
"So, what is that plan?"
Celestia looks to her advisor with a new fire in her eyes. "We fight!"
Pharynx grumbles to himself before grabbing the horn Discord gave him.
*Honk*
In a blink of an eye, he finds himself in the chaos dimension. He stood there motionless and speechless at the Armageddon in front of him. He has faced the Rulers of many nations, fought battles to the death, starved for days, and ponynapped untouchable ponies. But nothing could have prepared him for what was waiting for him in the chaos dimension as Discord fell, crashing down at his hooves. Ducks circle Discord head before he notices the changeling.
“Oh, Hi Pharynx. What brought you here?”
“Discord. I came here to full fill my end of our agreement.” Pharynx ducks as a random magic bolt flies overhead. “But something is telling me that we have more pressing matters.” He sidesteps a flying house. “Mind filling me in?”
Ten minutes earlier,
Discord waits impatiently on a flying rock. “What is taking him so long? How long does it take to find information on two ponies? That's it!” He snaps his claws, making the rock disappear in a cloud of dust, revealing a dimensional mirror. “I didn’t want to do this, but he has left me no choice.” Discord touches the mirror twice as it glows white, revealing the multi-verse in the shape of circles floating in the abyss. He scrolls through the mirror, searching for something. “Let’s see. No, no, no. Ah ha! Here you are.” He double-taps one of the circles in the mirror to cause the mirror image to zoom in on another Discord. This new one was relaxing in his home when the first Discord grabbed him and pulled him through the mirror. The new Discord is confused, looking at his glowing yellow body.
“Hello Me.”
“Me?” Yellow Discord turns to face Discord and frowns, “Wait are you messing around with the multi-verse? You know that is a bad idea.”
“Nonsense. It is me, after all. And since I am you, it is a good idea.” Discord puts an arm around the new Discord’s neck as he pokes yellow’s chest, “Besides, I only brought your astral self over. So long as you stay in the Chaos Dimension, everything will be fine.”
“I doubt that logic.”
Discord rolls his eyes, returning to the mirror, “Stopping being a stick in the mud. I got one more to pick up.” Discord scrolls through the mirror again before grabbing another one of himself and pulling him into the room. The Third Discord looks confused. Discord snaps his claws, making the new Discords glow white. “Now that we are all here. It is time to get down to business.”
“What is going on?” White asks. Yellow shrugs his shoulders,
Discord says, “Okay, I called you both here because you both had something I needed.
“Okay, I will bite.” White Discord says as he takes a bite off the wall. “What is it?”
“Both of you are experts in fields from which I need some advice.”
The glowing Discords look at each other before White speaks, “But we are all the same. What makes different that you need help with?”
“Well, each of you has married different mares, which is why I need your help.”
“Why both of us? Shouldn’t one of us be enough?” Yellow speaks as the other Discord nods, “After all, if you call us for marriage consoling. You have a princess for that. Unless you don’t have one.”
“Well, you see, that is a problem. She refuses to assist me in this matter. So, I am hoping for your expertise. We can come to a solution.” They nod, “You see, I am having a problem with the mares you guys married. Their counterparts here are acting weird and will not tell me anything.”
“Okay, how weird are we talking about?”
After that, I told them about what I was going through with the girls. They reacted differently than I thought. Each time I mention their wives in a good way, one would be happy, the other would be angry, and vice versa. Odd. I have finished telling them about the Rainbow Falls trip when white Discord smirks.
“It sounds like the girls are fighting each other for your attention.”
The original Discord does a quick spit take, “What are you talking about?”
Yellow speaks up, “What he is trying to say is that both mares want to be your special some pony. Lucky dog.”
Discord turns to stone, “What?”
White continues, “If you ask me, you are better off with Celestia. She is your oldest friend and knows you the most. So, if she is going after you now, she is tired of waiting for you to return your affection to her and taking a more direct approach.”
As soon as White was done, Yellow spoke up, “Now I know you are only saying that since she is your wife, but what is wrong with Fluttershy?”
White huffs at him, “Fluttershy is a nice mare, but she is not the most interesting mare. Keeps to herself mostly, not the more social Pony. They will make the later years very boring.”
“Just what are you going at?”
Discord looks between them as if they had forgotten he was there as the atmosphere around them starts to change, “Ah, guys.”
“I am saying that Fluttershy can only give you company, but with Celestia, you can have a special somepony that doesn’t mind playing with you. That is a much better option than having a pretty face waiting for you at home.”
Yellow was fuming with smoke from his nose as he grits his teeth, trying to stay calm, “Fluttershy is more than a pretty face!”
“Her cuteness is the only thing good about her.”
“Big talk coming from the one who married a pony who sits around all day and has other ponies deal with the threat to the country she is supposed to protect! Talk about useless.”
The original Discord slowly backs up, “Guys.”
“That is my WIFE you are talking about!” They shout as they start to charge Chaos Energy in their claws.
“And that happened.” Discord finishes as the two Discords fight in the background causing sheer madness and chaos that their audience can’t keep up with.
Pharynx takes a deep breath and stares down at his host, “Discord.”
“Yes.”
“Send them back.”
“I would if I could.” They both look at them before scooting away a little, “But I will have to let them vent a little before I can send them back. So, they will be here for a while.”
“Then what do you propose we do then?”
“This.” Discord snaps his paws, making them both leave the chaos dimension. “There, problem solve.”
“And what is stopping them from leaving there like we just did?” A moment of silence passes before Discord quickly snaps five times, but nothing happens. “Discord?”
“There now; they can’t leave.”
“Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. Now then, you have something to tell me?” Before he could say anything, Discord felt his body shudder, “What! QUICK, tell me before I leave!”
“Celestia and Fluttershy are trying to court you!” Pharynx says quickly before Discord disappears in a flash of light. “There. I said it. I hope he heard it. I would say that this is over, but I am getting there feeling that things will only get worse from here.” He looks around, finding himself near the hive, and takes to the sky. “Now, how to tell her highness that there are now three Discords, and two of them are at war with each other?” He sighs, “Just another beautiful day in Equestria.”
“Pharynx!” Thorax cries out as he and a group of changelings follow suit, “There you are. Where have you been?”
“Calm down. I was only gone twenty minutes,”
“Twenty minutes? Pharynx, you have been gone for two weeks!”
“What?”
At the same time, in the Crystal Empire,
Discord reappears, disbelief written across his face, “Impossible. You have got to be lying!” He shouts, blowing Princess Candance’s mane backward as she closes her eyes.
She glares at him unamused, “Discord, we need to talk.”
“About what?”
“About this love triangle between you, Celestia, and Fluttershy.”
“He is right!”
Sweet Apple Acres two weeks ago,
“Sorry, Fluttershy,” Big Mac says, loading another apple crate on the wagon, “But I haven’t seen Discord since his last breakdown in his Chaos Dimension.”
“Oh, I hope that he is all right. I haven’t seen him in so long. I am getting worried. And he missed our tea date,”
“That is odd. He often would talk about how he looks forward to your tea dates.”
“You are sure that you have no way of contacting him?”
“Normally, with him, he would appear without a heads up. So, there was no reason to have a way to contact him.”
“Same here.” Fluttershy’s ears go down as she gets depressed, “Oh dear, I never thought I would need one, so I never asked him for some form of contact. I am a terrible pony.”
Rainbow, who was staying quiet the whole time, scoffs, “Now, don’t talk like that, Fluttershy. So Discord is missing, and we have no way of contacting him. But you must remember one important thing, Fluttershy.” She clears her throat, “He is the all-powerful entity of chaos incarnate, and nothing short of the elements of harmony, a magic-eating centaur, or giant worms’ spit can hurt him. I am sure he is fine. More likely, he is caught up somewhere and doing something.”
“But what could be keeping him away from our tea dates?”
Meanwhile present time,
“And then I find out that my aunt was smashed through a table- Are you listening to me!” Candance scolds Discord once again, making him stand straight again,
“Yes mam!”
“You must do something about this. They will kill each other and every pony in Equestria if you don’t stop this.”
“Okay, miss airhorn, I will. Just give me a second.” He says, moving the fur on his arm to look at a watch. “Well, look at the time. That is not where it should be.” He rubs his chin, “Did those two cause so much Chaos that I accidentally went forward in time by two weeks?” Seeing the rage in the Princess’s eyes, he clears his throat, “SO, your Highness. What did I miss?”
“What you missed?” The Princess’s eye twitches as her rage boils, “WHAT YOU MISSED!”
“Honeybun, please mind your temper.” Shining Armor says as flurry heart starts crying over the noise,
“Oh, sweety, don’t cry.” She calls out to her child before staring at Discord, “You stay here and don’t move.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.” He says as she comforts her baby. Discord notices a shortage of guards in the area, even though it is the throne room. “Did everypony get a day off, or did you finally did away with your guards?”
Shining Armor convinces his wife to take the daughter away while he deals with Discord, “Discord, you better have a good reason for disappearing for two weeks.”
“Okay, enough with the angry cold shoulders. I stop being the villain.” He quickly looks at his watch, “Six seasons ago. Can somepony tell me what is going on?”
“Well, it started two weeks ago,”
“Can you not?”
“What?”
“You are about to go into a flashback sequence. Can you just tell me without doing that? It is too cliché. And one flashback per chapter is more than enough for readers, don't you think?”
“What are you talking about? Nevermind. So after you disappeared. I got a call from my sister that their second in command was missing and asked if we had seen him. I said no, but after a week, I sent some guards to help with the search. Not knowing what was to come next.”
“What happened next?”
“I am not sure. Myself, from what ponies from Pony Ville told me. Three days before I sent out the guards, Fluttershy and Celestia started to act differently.”
“Differently? How different are we talking about here? Like new favorite tea different or evil cold shoulder different?”
“Like Pinkie Pie being banned from eating her sweets differently.”
“What? How cruel.”
“That is not the worst of it. From what I can gather, they both went looking for you after you disappeared. They didn’t do their jobs; they didn’t talk to anypony if it didn’t have to do with finding you. It was getting scary, then it happened.”
“What happened?"
"They both turn on each other.”
“What?!”
“I don’t know, why they started fighting but fighting they did. It didn’t matter where; the moment they would see each other, they would start a brawl. It was a sight to see. But before I knew it their little skirmishes turned into an all-out war.”
“A war, you are kidding me, right? How can they start a war with each other? It’s just the two of them.”
“A week ago it was just the two of them.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, it appears that Fluttershy received help from Tempest and the remnants of the Storm Kings Army, along with every animal in the Everfree, some Dragons, and ponies across Equestria. And as you know, Celestia has the Canterlot Guard, The WonderBolts, Her sister, and the other Princess in Equestria by her side.”
“You have got to be joking.” Discord pulls out a spyglass to have a look out the window. Looking at Canterlot, ponies of all uniforms are getting ready for battle. With evidence of destruction everywhere, “Well, I be a monkey’s uncle.” He gives the spyglass to Shining Armor, “Here you look at Pony Ville. I dear not look.” Shining rolls his eyes as he looks through the glass, “Now tell me what you see.”
“Good Faust. What Monstrous thing they have created out there.”
“What is it?”
“Well… it… it’s a big orange and black thing. With large bulbus eyes and hundreds of legs.”
“Really? Let me take a look.” He quickly looks, nodding, “There is a ladybug on the lens. Do you mind?” He asked the bug on the lens as it flew away. Looking through the lens, he can see that Pony Ville is also getting ready for war. “Well, that is not good.”
“You think!”
Discord tosses the spyglass over his shoulder, hitting a random cat, “Look, I have no excuse for why I disappeared. All I can say is that I am sorry. Somehow ended up going to the future by two weeks. I didn't mean for any of this to happen,”
“Then go back and fix this.”
“Time is much more fragile than you think, my dear Pony," He pulls out a small clock ticking away, "Of course, I can return to my time before this happened, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Why.”
“For reasons beyond my control, my chaos magic is acting up. If I am not careful I can cause more harm than good," The clock in his claw explosive sending springs and gears everywhere, "Until I fix this problem, I better use my magic sparingly,"
“Then what do you recommend?”
“Look. Only two weeks have passed. I will try to fix things here in this timeline. I rather not deal with messing around more with time than needed.”
“If you say so.”
“Also, what is up with your wife? Earlier, she seems to be ready to bite my head off.” He says a mini-Discord gets eaten by a mini-Candance behind him before poofing into smoke.
“She is the Princess of Love. She is sensitive to any form of love. And she started acting a little odd after she talked with Celestia. A week ago. I think she is calming down.”
“You think?”
“You should have seen her when she got back,”
“I will take your word for it.” He raises his paw to snap but stops, “Oh, and before I head out and confront the two. Who hasn’t joined the war? The last thing I need is for them to have some form of Discord trapping machine.”
“The pillars of Equestria are with Celestia, except for Star Swirl the bearded. He decided to help protect Twilight and her hive, who have chosen to remain neutral in this conflict.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“Most neighboring lands have chosen to stay out of this along with us and the Element of Harmony.”
“What about Starlight?”
“Well, that’s the thing I don’t know.”
“You mean as you don’t know if she is remaining neutral or not?”
“I mean that no pony has seen her. She had disappeared before this started. No pony knows where she is.”
“I hope that means that she is staying out of this. She may be a unicorn, but she is second only to Twilight herself. I rather not deal with her.”
“Noted,”
“Now then, where to start?”
“Try the sea. I heard something about testing out a new weapon there.”
"Not with the war efforts. I mean with one of the girls. Who should I talk with first?"
"Sorry, but I can't help you with that. You are on your own."
“Thanks, Shining Armor, you are so helpful," Discord says, his voice dripping with Scarasm. "Wish me luck,” He says, snapping his claws and disappearing in a flash of light.
“You are going to need it.”
Candance returned shortly after Discord left, “Ah, dear,”
“Yes?”
“Shouldn’t you have told him that Princess Celestia and Fluttershy are a little cuckoo in the head right now?”
“I thought he would have gotten that from my metaphor of Pinkie.”
“Which one?”
“The one where Pinkie Pie was banned from eating sweets?”
“But that’s the wrong metaphor; You should have said the time when she thought that her friends didn’t want to come to Gummies birthday party or even Twilight’s Smarty Pants doll incident.”
A place where ponies once roam freely, going about their days. It is now the center for militias of various species. Flags of yellow with three pink butterflies stand proudly across the town. No pony remembers how the fighting started, but one thing was clear. The rebellion will not be defeated, not even against Princess Celestia.
Discord appears in the middle of town with no pony noticing him with a look of bewilderment. Quickly he hides behind a pile of crates before he is seen. Reaching into his fur, he pulls out a handheld periscope before lifting it overhead to look around.
Discord’s yellow eyes blink from where the top of the periscope’s lens should be, “Let’s see here. Militias of assorted ponies and creatures.” The Periscope bends to the left before going to the right, “Even some from the Everfree. And they aren’t eating anypony. I thought for sure there would be a pony burger by now. And are those Boom-Boom Sticks?!” The periscope shakes in denial, “No, I must be seeing things. Equestria doesn’t have guns.” He moves the Periscope toward a Fortress off the side of town, surrounded by dozens of non-magical base creatures and strange towers emitting energy. Discord lowers the periscope with a look of confusion as he combs his goatee. “You know. If I didn’t know better. I thought I saw a military base where Fluttershy’s house should be.” He looks again to see Henry, the bear driving off some unwanted ponies. “I did see a military base where Fluttershy’s house should be.”
He scoffs as he lowers the periscope before looking at us, “You see, this is why I can’t leave these ponies unsupervised. I was gone for only two weeks, and they started a revolution," He shakes his head before thinking out loud, "I’m not sure what those towers are, but I was supposed to appear next to Fluttershy when I arrived. And since that didn’t happen. I think that somepony has been playing with Chrysalis’s leftovers.” Knowing that things got harder. Discord pulls on his face in frustration, stretching it so it snaps back into place once he lets go. “This is the changeling hive all over again. Only this time, I don’t have any side characters to gather up the save the princesses. But the bigger question is, how do I get in there?” Looking again through the Periscope, seeking an answer, however, a strange sight beholds him.
“Gee, all I can see are a pair of big blue bloodshot beady eyes.”
Pinkie giggles from her binoculars pressed to Discord’s periscope lens, “Well, that is funny I see that same thing. Aside from the color, though. Yours are yellow.”
Panicking, Discord grabs Pinkie by the mane and pulls her into his cover, “Pinkamena Diane Pie, please don’t do that! Also, what are you doing? You are going to blow my cover.”
Discord drops her, and she lands softly on her hooves, “Looking for you, silly. You have no idea what things have been going on since you disappeared. Fluttershy and Princess Celestia…”
“Yes, I am aware of that, Pinkie.”
“You do?” She asks as a random pony starts chasing a dragon in the background with a red stick that is smoking on the end for some reason,
“Yes and I am going to have a word with them to stop this civil war,” He gestures around them as something explosives in the background, “Before somepony does something that they would regret.” The background pony and said dragon falls from the sky, smoking before two hospital ponies, one with a siren on their head, came and took them away on a stretcher, “I wonder if this is how Twilight feels each week?” Discord ponders to himself,
“Maybe, but I don’t think we are on the same subject.”
Discord pats Pinkie on the head before pulling out a scroll from her ear, “Pinkie, I am Discord. I never finished school, so don’t start going Twilight on me.” He tosses the scroll over his shoulder, hitting a random cat, “Besides, nothing makes sense with me in the first place.”
“If you say so,” Pinkie says, unconvinced,
“Furthermore, I thought that the elements weren’t getting involved with this.”
“No, just me. And some changelings that Twilight gave me.”
“Why would you need… never mind. Pinkie, I need to talk to Fluttershy. Got any ideas?”
Pinkie puts a hoof to her chin in deep thought, thinking out loud, “Well, you could just go out in the open and say, oh Fluttershy, I am here to see you at the top of your lunges. But…”
“Perfect! Why didn’t I think about that.” Discord leaves Pinkie behind in cover as she talks to nothing.
“Because that’s a really bad idea…” She could only stand there and listen to Discord doing her idea, which is quickly followed by the pain of agony screaming across Pony Ville as unknown horrors befall Discord as Pony Ville’s Militia opens fire. Sounds of explosions and battle cries shake Equestria itself. Pinkie grimaces at the deafening sounds as she ducks and covers, protecting her head, as her hiding place slowly takes the shape of Discord's outline. This went on for a full two minutes before the Militia finally ran out of ammo. Pinkie rubs her ears as they stop ringing followed by a long, drawn-out groan of despair and a weak thud to the ground. Pinkie shook her head as medics ponies came and took what was left of Discord to the hospital,
“Tried to warn him,”
Meanwhile, at the Canterlot Counterintelligence Center
A group of ponies stands in a dark room with the only light illuminating a soft blue light from a mirror with numbers and letters coming and going quickly in front of each of them, with three larger ones next to the pony in the center of the room. A notification letter pops up in one of the mirrors; the guard touches the mirror and opens the letter before it displays its information on the mirror. Once finished he turns to call his superior in the center of the room, “Princess Luna,”
“What is it, Lieutenant?”
“We just got word from Agent Sweetie Drop. Discord has been sighted in Pony Ville.”
In frustration, Princess Luna covers her eyes groaning before regaining her composure, “Out of all the places… Do we have him?”
“Negative Agent P. could not capture him before Fluttershy’s forces opened fire on him and took him into custody.”
Shocked Luna wasn’t sure how to take that information, “What? Why would they do that!”
“According to the reports, they mistook him for being your sister, and I quote, “Let him have it.” End quote,”
“Curse these ponies and their trigger-happy hooves. Can’t imagine what my sister will do if she hears about this?”
“Hears about what?” Princess Celestia says calmly behind her sister.
Luna yelp jumping straight into the air before landing on her hoofs. “Sister, we have located Discord.”
Celestia squeals in happiness, “That is wonderful News. Where is he?”
“Behind Enemy lines. The rebels have him in Pony Ville.”
Without missing a beat Princess Celestia gave her commands, “Not for long. Lieutenant, ready the troops. We march on Pony Ville.”
Concerned for her sister Princess Luna moved to stop her, “Sister, please. Pony Ville is too heavily armed. We lost too many during the last skirmish, ever since they started getting aid from the other world and found a way to weaponize Discordia’s rocks. And we could barely fend them off the last time they came to our doorstep. Dear Sister, please listen to reason. We cannot win this.”
Princess Celestia moves to talk into her sister’s ear before leaving the room with a stunned sister, “Luna, you can either help me or get out of my way. Discord will be with me by Sunrise tomorrow, and nothing will stop me.”
Ten minutes later,
“Ow.” Discord weakly says as he is bandaged from head to toe, lying on a hospital bed. Nurse Red Heart enters the room and pulls a thermometer from his lips, looking at the temperature before writing on a chart. “Give it to me straight, Doc, I can take it.”
“Well, I never have taken care of an entity of chaos before, so it is hard to say. Also, I am a nurse, not a Doctor.” She puts the thermometer down before a thought crosses her mind, “Furthermore, I thought you were immune to pain; how did this happen?”
“It for dramatic effect. I am perfectly fine.” Discord flexes his body, getting out of the bandages like they were paper.
Nurse Red Heart moves to leave the room, “Well, I will take your word for it and let her know you can have visitors.”
“And who would that be?”
“Commander Fluttershy.”
“Commander who!” However, before Red Heart could leave the room, a blur of yellow and pink enters the room wrapping itself around Discord’s chest,
“Discord!” Fluttershy says, rubbing her face into his chest as her grip increases, “I am so happy to see you!”
“Fluttershy, you are squeezing my stuffing out.”
“Sorry.” She lets go as Red Heart quickly leaves the room, “It’s just that I miss you so much. You just up and disappeared on me.” She looks up at him with puppy eyes, “I thought something terrible happened to you.”
‘Oh Fluttershy, that is not fair,’ Discord thought to himself as he tried to calm her down with head pats, “Nope, just some problems in the Chaos dimension. Nothing to worry about.”
“That’s good to hear.” She buries herself in his chest, not letting go. Discord didn’t mind at first, but it might be a little too much after ten minutes.
“Ah, Fluttershy, you can let me go now.”
“No. I will never ever let you go again.”
“That’s sweet to hear, but a guy needs his space.” He fails to push her away, causing her to hold on tighter. “Seriously though, Fluttershy, let go.”
“No, if I do that, she will take you away from me. That is right; I am most forgotten!” She takes Discord by the neck, dragging him out of the hospital and above Pony Ville onto a cloud.
“Uh, Fluttershy, why are we up here?”
“To show you how I will keep her away from you.”
“I am getting a really bad feeling about this, but who and how?”
“Why that no good colt stealing Celestia, oh course. Take a look.” She waves away some birds that are sitting on a floating box hiding it. Fluttershy moves to the box, “You see after we found some Discordia’s rocks from Chrysalis’s throne, I got to thinking. How can I stop Princess Celestia without worrying about the sun and moon once she has been taken care of?”
“Fluttershy, are you all right? Because I am getting evil villain vibes here.”
“Never been better.” She opens the box and pulls out a large bluebell that makes Discord’s jaw pop off his face. “I just knew you would like it.”
Discord quickly puts his jaw back in place, flabbergasted by what she has. “Where did you get that?! More importantly, how do you know about the Bewitching Bell?!”
“Well, you see. I figure that if any pony knows how to steal magic and give it to others. It would be Princess Celestia or have something in her archives mentioning it. So after our last attack on Canterlot, I have some of my troops go through her archives for anything important, and we found a book mentioning this wonderful bell.” She holds it proudly in front of her. “I can overthrow Celestia and become the new Princess of the Sun. And she can never bother us ever again. We can be together forever.” She says, moving closer to him with a crazy look in her eyes.
Discord could only look dumbfounded at what has become of his precious Fluttershy, ‘This is worse than what I have been told. Fluttershy is one hoof away from becoming a full-on villain. And it’s all my fault. I have to stop this.’ “Fluttershy…”
However, Discord was interrupted by a loud voice coming from Pony Ville, “Red Alert! Red Alert! Princess Celestia is at the front gate! I repeat, Princess Celestia is at the front gate! This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill.”
“Hold that thought, Discord. I got a Princess to stop.”
“Wait!” she was gone with the bell, “Why doesn’t anypony listen anymore!”
