Once again the mane six had stopped Equestria from being destroyed. Their most recent success had been defeating giant plants growing from the Everfree forest that were sapping the life out of the tree of Harmony. They had to sacrifice their elements but it seems that everything turned out alright and everyone was jumping with joy.
Everyone except a certain Draconequus.
Discord had just finished cleaning up the mess that his plants had caused so he decided to go home and relax for a while. He entered Fluttershy's cottage and sat on the couch as he began to contemplate his new life and how it was going.
"Is this what friendship really is? Is this what these ponies are so obsessed over?" Thought Discord. " I mean the only reason that I'm even reformed is because of those stupid elements of harmony hanging over my head and they're gone now. So why haven't I done anything yet." Discord pondered this question for a long time. Then the realization came to him and it hit him like a ton of bricks.
"Fluttershy." He muttered in a whisper. How could he have not seen it before now? Fluttershy was the person who was keeping him from creating all the wonderful chaos he wanted to right now. "But no...it couldn't be her. I mean she's so small, weak, and helpless." He thought. "She couldn't possibly be holding me back from anything. I mean, if I wanted to I could instantly turn her into a speck of dirt or make her forget everything she's ever done with those other mares." But as he thought of doing those things to her, Discord started feeling guilty and wrong for thinking of doing such things. It was an odd feeling he had never felt before.
Discord then cloned himself in the hopes that it would talk some sense into him.
"I can't believe you." The clone huffed. " You actually care about Fluttershy? What has she ever done for you? Offer her friendship? We shouldn't care about such things. It only gets in the way of doing what we love most."
"I know I'm acting really stupid." Replied Discord. "I shouldn't be afraid of what Fluttershy thinks or does, I shouldn't care about her friendship, and I shouldn't be sitting here when there is wonderful chaos to make and nobody to stop me."
Discord made the clone disappear and started to march towards the door. He grabbed the handle and pulled it with a powerful pull. He began to walk outwards when he bumped into somepony. He looked down, saw Fluttershy, and all the confidence in his plan he had before melted away.
"Oh. Sorry, Discord." Fluttershy said in her usual, timid tone.
"It doesn't matter" Discord answered. He began to walk once again towards the house, but stopped dead in his tracks as he realized what was going on. He wasn't going to let Fluttershy ruin his plans again. She had nothing and she was weak. He had unlimited Godly powers and he wasn't going to let some pony keep him from that. He turned around and proceeded to walk in the direction of town.
"Where are you going?" Fluttershy asked as meek as ever.
"To go create some chaos." Discord retorted. It felt great saying this to her. It was as if he was getting control of himself once again.
"You can't do that." Fluttershy said in a stern tone. " Ponies would get hurt and the town would be demolished."
"And why should I care about that?" Discord asked. "You ponies have never done any good for me. If I remember correctly, you and your friends were the ones who turned me to stone a second time so why should I care about your stupid town and its narrow minded citizens?"
"Because that's what friends do." Fluttershy spoke these words with a sort of controlled anger. "They care about eachother and don't just do whatever they want if it's going to hurt the other friend. So unless you don't want my friendship, I suggest you go inside right now and forget about this chaos idea."
Discord felt taken aback at these words. Mainly because of the tone. He had only ever heard her use that tone one other time...the time he almost lost her friendship when he froze Sweet Apple Acres. Tears began to fill his eyes as he remembered that day.
"F-fine!" He shouted as he slowly walked inside. He decided to go to bed after that. There was nothing else he wanted to do.
As he was lying in bed he began silently crying.
"So this is what friendship is like." he said lightly to himself as he began to drift into sleep."I don't get the appeal." These were the last words he spoke before he fell into a deep and dreamless slumber that left him off even more tired once he woke up. The only good thing that had come out of that sleep was an idea.
"Maybe this isn't what friendship is all about." Discord thought. "Maybe...maybe other friendships are different. I mean seriously every time I see a pair of friends (Which is about every 5 seconds) they BOTH seem happy. It seems there's only one way to prove this idea...." Discord crept past Fluttershy's bedroom and slipped out the door as quietly as he could, but with all the animals making noise he could have been as loud as he wanted without Fluttershy noticing his noise.
"Let's see how everypony else treats friendship." Thought Discord as he walked towards Ponyville to begin his studies of friendship.