One could not have asked for a better day for a picnic. The skies were clear, the sun was warm, and the breeze was non-existent.
Of course, when Discord is invited, any day could be a perfect day. But he had learned early on in his strides toward friendship that nopony really liked his take on weather management. Well, except for Pinkie, but even he didn't understand how that mare's mind worked.
And so he simply laid against the trunk of a tree and allowed his chaos powers to rest. Not two paces away, on the other side of the tree, a large red-and-white checkered cloth laid on the flat ground, the standard furniture needed for any outdoor meet-and-eat.
Sitting on the cloth were two of his pony friends. Fluttershy, his first true friend, quietly scanned the landscape. One or two of her bird friends had stopped by, but after greeting them, she asked politely for them to leave. This always amazed Discord. Not the talking to animals thing, but how she could even get him to do practically anything if she asked nicely enough.
The aforementioned Pinkie Pie was also present. As per her usual, she was energetic and even a bit impatient, if her constant sideways glances at the basket she had brought were any indication. But she couldn't well start before everypony was present.
And then there was Rainbow Dash, who was almost directly above Discord, relaxing on a tree branch. To be fair, this picnic was scheduled for a time which would usually be reserved for her afternoon nap, but she wouldn't dare miss spending time with her friends, especially if she had promised Fluttershy she would be there.
"Ooh," Pinkie exclaimed, hopping on her hooves, "Here they come! Here they come!"
Indeed, coming through the field toward the four, were four more ponies and a small dragon. As expected, they consisted of Rarity, properly dressed for the occasion, Applejack, carrying another basket of goodies, Princess Twilight, whose title always got a chuckle out of Discord, and Spike. But it was the fifth member of this contingent that piqued the draconequus' greatest interest. A purple unicorn with a purple and blue mane done in a wavy, clearly Rarity-inspired, design.
This was Starlight Glimmer. Discord had never met the mare, but he had heard about her from Fluttershy. Perhaps he had heard a little too much about this unicorn, but if he had learned anything from the Treehugger incident (other than to never challenge Pinkie's sister), it was to not judge a book by its cover, no matter how nefarious it looked.
As if he had any room to judge. He still had flashbacks to the Tirek incident and how he had hurt Fluttershy. But that had been placed quite far behind all of them at this point.
"I wonder how they treat her," Discord thought to himself with a bit of a smirk.
"Howdy y'all," Applejack greeted after setting down her load, "Sorry we took so long, Starlight here was half-lost in the castle."
Starlight chuckled, "Yeah, well, all the doors look the same. Maybe Twilight could invest in some signs."
"But darling," Rarity argued, "that would break up the symmetry of the crystalline structure."
"Say," Twilight interjected, "aren't we missing somepony?"
Discord smiled internally at his unintended cue.
"Well, princess," he said in his trademark sly way, "it's not somepony you're missing," he wrapped around the tree like a snake, coming into view, "but I know of a draconequus who doesn't want to miss out."
Discord's smile came into full view as he happily drank in Starlight's wide-eye, slack-jaw expression.
"Dra-draconequus," Starlight asked in awe.
"Oh yes," Discord continued gleefully, "I don't believe we've met," he flash-teleported in front of Starlight and earnestly shook her hoof, "The name's Discord, singular draconequus, Lord of Chaos, the whole shabang. Here's my card."
He handed Starlight a white business card from his lion paw. Starlight looked down to see a picture of Discord's face smiling at her with his eagle claw giving her a thumbs up. Then the portrait winked at her, scaring her enough to let out a Fluttershy-esque squeak and dropping the card, from which Discord materialized.
"Discord," Fluttershy said softly, but audibly, "be nice to Starlight."
"Oh come now, Fluttershy," Discord replied, teleporting beside her, "You should know I only play jokes on my friends."
A halo appeared above his head, but it was attached to his antlers by wire like a bad stage costume.
"Well I'd be certainly glad to know that you and Starlight could be friends," Twilight observed, "I think there's a lot you two could learn from each other."
Discord raised an eyebrow. He had heard from Fluttershy the exploits of this mare, and despite his earlier self-note not to judge, he couldn't help but be curious about what this history-altering pony could possibly teach him.
"Is that so," Starlight asked Twilight, who nodded.
"Oh yes," the alicorn replied, "Discord himself didn't really know friendship before he met Fluttershy and the rest of us. Since then, he's been on the road to learning how to temper his chaotic tendencies and live in harmony with everypony."
Discord knitted his brow slightly, partly at Twilight underselling his journey, and partly at the sappy, cliché way in which she had done so.
"That's right," Pinkie exclaimed, hopping beside Starlight, "Now that we're all friends, imagine all the fun we could have. Starlight's a good baker, and great with magic, and a fast learner. I bet she could even learn magic from you, Discord!"
"I wouldn't say that, Pinkie," Starlight responded, "Think I've gotten into enough trouble with high-level magic."
"But y'alls magic ability is still there, sugarcube," Applejack pointed out, "It's just a matter of usin' it wisely."
"Yeah," Pinkie interjected again, "I mean, you're almost as good with magic as Twilight was before she became an alicorn."
"Well," Discord shrugged, about done with the heaps of praise, "at least when I made the mistake of trying to tear their friendships asunder, I used my own abilities, and didn't steal an old spell scroll to do it."
"Discord," Twilight said in a reprimanding manner. But the draconequus was just getting started.
"Tell me, Starlight," he continued, "After Twilight stopped you the second time, what penance did you serve? Obviously they didn't encase you in stone for a millennium like yours truly, but they must have given you some form of punishment. Oh, or maybe Celestia herself laid it down, what with your theft of a one-of-a-kind Starswirl scroll from the Canterlot archives."
"Discord," Twilight repeated more firmly to little avail.
"Or maybe she didn't know about that. The scroll was destroyed, after all. In that case, maybe it was up to the princess sitting in front of me, which means that there wasn't any at all. If I've learned anything from the various misadventures I've heard about, all one has to say is 'I'm sorry' and they'll immediately be forgiven by everypony. If it was up to Celestia, you'd be in a dungeon with a magic suppressor on your horn for the rest of you life."
"Discord," this time it was Fluttershy who called to him. This time, he stopped, "There's no need to say things like that."
"Actually, Fluttershy," Discord replied, determined to deliver his point, "yes there is. Miss princess over there thinks that we're the same, that we can be friends. Well, in exploring friendship, I have learned some things, princess. I've learned that you can have different friends for different reasons. I've learned that sometimes it matters what your friends think, but not to put all their weight behind those opinions. But I've also learned that in so much that you can choose who to befriend, you can equally choose who you don't. So you all can be friends with whomever you like, but I will not be friends with her."
Twilight opened her mouth to say more, but was beaten to the punch.
"SHUT UP," Starlight yelled, surprising everypony, including Discord, "You don't know anything about me, and you don't have any idea what I've gone through!"
Discord smirked, waving his paw and conjuring up a cartoonish interpretation of Starlight's life story, "Sure I do. You unfortunately lost your only friend when he got his Cutie Mark. Then, like a child, you blamed things that were outside your control for taking your friend away. And instead of growing out of this mindset when you got your own Cutie Mark or perhaps made new friends, you internalized your pain and believed that everypony was against you."
"Discord," Fluttershy tried to reel the draconequus in, but he was too far into his rant to stop now.
"So you created a community where there were no Cutie Marks, thinking that this would make everypony equal. But you lied to them, Starlight. You never gave up your Cutie Mark. You didn't want equality, you wanted to be more important than everypony else. Then when these ponies uncovered your con and saved that town, you turned your anger toward them. You found out a way to go back in time, and you attempted to change the past to change the present. And you know what," Discord slithered closer to Starlight, "that was both the most brilliant and the most dangerous thing you ever did."
"Huh," Starlight asked, her eyes misting over slightly.
"I'll admit, when I heard about it, I was impressed for a moment. And I'd be lying if I didn't say that I thought once or twice about what life would have been like if I had overcome Celestia and Luna all those centuries ago. But then I started to think about, not what I didn't have, but what I do have now. I have friends now, I'm not encased in stone, I'm invited to parties."
"That's right," Pinkie cried.
"And you know how much of a struggle that has been for me? I was punished twice for my crimes. When I saw Luna for the first time after my reformation, she blasted me in the face. I've had to work for it. I had to work very hard not just on the outside, but on the inside as well. And I still make mistakes. Quite frankly, I don't deserve their friendship. Quite frankly, you don't deserve their friendship. And I don't know what Twilight has in mind for you, but know this. Despite how I might sound, I will be amicable toward you. Tartarus, Celestia and I are actually friends now, and we hated each other for centuries. So I wanted to lay this out for you right now. You do not get my friendship by default. I've never had a friend by default. Fluttershy earned my friendship, and I earned hers. I can only hope that that is the case for all these other ponies. So enjoy your friendships, but do not take them for granted."
Discord slithered back to his position beside Fluttershy. Everyone's eyes shifted between the two former antagonists. Starlight sniffled, running a hoof against her face to keep a tear or two at bay.
Again, Twilight turned to Discord, but, again, Starlight beat her to it.
"You're right," Starlight sighed, "I don't deserve their friendship. I tried to destroy their lives, and even alter history just to get my way. I was wrong. But now I just want to do everything I can to earn it. I haven't been this happy since I was a little filly. I-I just...just..."
Starlight sniffled again, and Pinkie was quick to give her a comforting hug.
Upon seeing this, Discord hung his head low on his serpentine body. He gazed at Fluttershy in his peripheral vision, who gave him a little smile and angled her head toward Starlight. Discord sighed, not a sigh of disappointment or inevitability, but a sigh of calming.
"Miss Glimmer," he started, looking at Starlight, who quickly returned the eye contact, "I may have spoken a bit too earnestly. I think we can both agree that neither of us have been saints. I'll be the first to admit that about myself. And maybe I gave the princess here too little credit. Maybe, with a little digging, there are one or two things that we can learn from each other. Just don't expect any hugs from me anytime soon."
Starlight gave a small chuckle, "I think I can live with that."
Discord gave his own chuckle in return.
"Finally," Rainbow exclaimed, popping open a cannister of pink lemonade, "any more sap from Discord and we would have had to make this a pancake brunch."
That got a hearty laugh out of the whole group.
