Alone, Together

The awkward silence was unbearable. Discord was cautiously wandering through the maze with the ponies. It was too unbearable for even Twilight. "So," she said when he came to a halt to decide which turn to take.

"And do you have anything to say about this?" Rarity said to him.

"What?"

"You know,"

"You ponies were back there?"

Rarity hesitated, "Yes,"

"I say that it's none of anyone's business,"

Applejack was very annoyed and infuriated by now. "Well its our business now, too. What's really going on between you and the-"

Her lips were twisted by Discord's paw, as he did not want that sentence to be finished at all. He tied them together like a balloon.

"Oh look- the exit, now off you ponies go," he shoved the ponies out of the labyrinth and disappeared.

Celestia sauntered over to her bed. She collapsed on it, tears streaming down her face. Big girls don't cry, Big girls don't cry she kept whispering to herself, but it only made her cry even more. Luna had really hurt her feelings in the labyrinth. She made a point, though. How would the relationship affect her subjects?

Discord slithered up his 'Thinking Tree' where he does his really deep thinking. It was basically his home, considering he had none. He thought about how they both knew they liked each other, yet they said nothing to each other about it. Every time they met, they just had a delightful chat.

He really hated his next thought, allot, but it was a good thought. A good plan. His thoughts were interrupted when a mailbox that only appeared when he got letters shot right next to him. The only pony who sent him letters was Fluttershy, and from Fluttershy it was from. It read,

You are invited

To a dinner party at

Fluttershy's Cottage

Discord chuckled a bit when he realized it was in Haikou form, secretly. The letter was a bit more formal than her other friendly messages, so he inferred there were more guests, making him cringe. He knew it would be her pesky nosy pony friends, nosing into his business instead of theirs. When he came to thinking of it, Fluttershy hadn't been out as often as usual. This thought gave him a sense of urgency to rush over to her house.

He arrived early as usual to any of his visits because he hated the feeling when he enters a room already occupied. All the ponies glancing at him would always make him nervous.

"I'm so glad you could come!" Fluttershy greeted him as she trotted out of her kitchen. She looked way different than before because of her messy bun that pulled back her mane, except for her long forelock, that was trimmed a bit shorter. There was a grey hue under her eyes, assuring she had not been out at all.

Minding her state, Discord offered to set the table. "Go ahead," she urged him, going back into the kitchen. With the snap of his paw, the silverware in Fluttershy's cabinet jumped out with their new pair of legs and assembled on the table with the plates and napkins.

Fluttershy was half asleep while she was making tomato soup. She rested her elbow on her counter and put her head on her hoof, slowly shutting her eyes. The knock on the door shocked her awake, as she let out a quiet shriek.

She sauntered over to the door, letting her friends in. "Are you okay? Do you need anything? Is something wrong?" Twilight immediately started asking Fluttershy many questions, showing concern for her friend. It was pretty obvious that she was ignoring Discord's presence because she was so annoyed of him.

"Thank you so much for coming, please, have a seat," she urged them to sit at her table. "Now, I know you are all wondering why I invited you here,"

"Yes," Rarity murmured, glancing at Discord.

Fluttershy was a bit hesitant about what she was going to say, hoping Discord and her friends knew what she meant. She tried to comprehend the situation herself over the last few days. Her mouth opened to say the words, praying in her mind that her information is correct. It was very obscure to her, due to of her absence.

"As you know, Celestia has... well..., and Discord," she stuttered so much, yet it was clear what she wanted to talk about. Discord rolled his eyes. "This is really unnecessary, really," he told her. Silence broke into the room.

"I for one am happy for him," Fluttershy broke the quiet.

"Do you realize that at any moment, time, place, he can easily take over Equestria all over again!" Twilight argued.

"And do you realize your ignorance! He's reformed, why don't you trust him as a friend? Why are you so disapproving of this!?"

Discord gazed as Fluttershy defended him. Their argument went on and on, and the soup was never served due to their arguing.

He slithered back to his Thinking Tree, where he does his really deep thinking, and coiled himself around a branch.

After a while of thinking really deeply, he decided he needed to express his plan that he thought of earlier to Celestia. The plan that he hated so much, yet was a really good plan. He teleported himself to Canterlot, outside of the castle. His teleportation distance was limited, so this was the closest he could get without tiring himself out.

He shrunk himself and teleported on top of Celestia's throne. Exactly going as planned, she was sitting in her throne going through papers. To avoid suspicion of the guards, he whispered in her ear, "Meet me in your room,"

Discord rode her to her room, yet again, exactly as planned.

"Alright, I think I have a plan, since the garden-y meet-y thing obviously didn't go down as planned," he expanded back to original size. "Remember that one plan we had when we were little and made that big castle on the paper and had the plan and everything? Well, I know this really good place that we can get away to,"

"Wait, weekly or forever?"

"Eh, forever I guess?"

"But what about Equestria? You just expect me to vanish from my subjects?" Celestia was clearly angry.

"Wouldn't you sister take into control?"

"Yes but she's not ready and I cant just betray her!"

"Well, you already did, about 1,000 years ago," he was talking about when she banished her sister to the moon, and that really set Celestia off, but she had nothing to say. She just had a very angry, red face. Discord was quite aggravated too, but did not know how to express it and would always unleash chaos or do something he would regret if not handled.

"What about Twilight Sparkle? What would she do?"

"Well she's obviously nosing in so much, she's just such a nuisance. I think you should 'punish' her for her wrongs,"

"Are you asking me to banish her?"

"You've banished enough ponies, haven't you?"

"You stop that! You can't even decide what species to be!"

"That's it!" Discord was very angry by now. He tapped Celestia's head with his lion paw, causing a rapid swirling in her eyes of all sorts of colors. He teleported out of the room, leaving her with a grey hue.