Some Love

Discord choked once more, a bit of clay dust and a few granules of sand escaping from his mouth. Wiping his maw with his paw, he took a shaky stand to his hooves, and looked around. Upon seeing the beetle trundle away, he stumbled after it, his talon clutching his stomach.

“Celestia! Wait! Come on, don’t play this game with me! You and Meredith need to get along; resolve your differences! Isn’t that what you and your six little mares are always going on about?”

Discord burped loudly, and fell to his knees, coughing up a few pebbles. “Oh f-fuff... those shrimp really did a number on me...”

Snapping his fingers, a beaten cup appearing in his hand, looking as though it had been sitting neglected under a few hundred pounds of debris for quite a while. In fact, in only barely held its shape, and large cracks running around it threatened to cause it to crumble at any moment.

Taking a dry sip from the cup, Discord’s slurp echoed around the small area that only he and Meredith were in now. Dropping the cup to the ground, where it burst apart into many, many fragments, he shot a slightly irritated glance at Meredith.

“Meredith, whatever was that all about? You’re better than that! Why, I know I couldn’t have expect you and Celestia to be the best of friends right off the bat... but I daresay I hoped that you would at least be civil with her!”

Meredith, a mop, did not respond.

“Well, I don’t care if she started it, you should know better than to—AH!”

The static in Discord’s ears had returned abruptly, as if a muted stereo had just been blasted on eleven. He fell to his knees once again, clutching his ears as the loud sound droned through him.

“Alright, Discord! Let’s get you looking your best! This is going to be a VERY important day!”

Discord’s forehead hit the ground, and his jaw was clenched tight, eyes screwed up in pain as the static blasted louder and louder

“Oh, do I have to Mom?”

His back and tail contorted, his tail coiling and his back twisting, his legs flailing around upward while his elbows remained planted firmly on the ground, pressing down.

“Don’t act smart, Discord; this means a lot to Twilight, and I think you should be looking your best!”

“AGH!” Discord wailed, flipping and flailing about on the dried clay. “Th-this... this is agony! Pure torture! Meredith, p-please! Help! Get help!”

“Oh, alright, Fluttershy. Honestly, I don’t know what all the fuss is about this, it’s just a simple diplomacy party. Why, I shouldn’t even need to GO there in the first place!”

Discord’s fang was digging deep into his chin as his agony increased, blood dripping from the entry point. His elbows bored into the ground, uprooting chunks of clay as he did so, a high pitched scream escaping from his lips, which likewise echoed.

“Well, they said we all could bring a plus one, I want you to be mine! Besides, it’s the leader of the Barrowdeep Dragons! That’s fascinating, wouldn’t you say? Worth meeting?”

“...”

“I-Is something wrong?”

“I don’t get along well with dragons, Fluttershy.”