Discord took Meredith in his paw and talon, and kissed her once on the handle.

“Allow me to steal one more, m’lady,” he said, letting the needle drop to hit the record. With another snap of his talon, the record player sparked to life, and the vinyl disk began to spin.

The sound of a piano being plunked jauntily began to flow from the record player, and Discord smiled down sweetly at the mop. “You lead, or I?”

The mop sat silent in Discord’s grasp.

“Oh, hush.” Discord waved his paw and giggled. “You’d do just fine! But if you insist. I never have a problem with being the lead...”

Discord grasped Meredith firmly, and slowly swayed with her as a baritone sax kicked in. He didn't stay swaying for long, however; soon, he was swinging across the slab, Meredith following, the music echoing across the grotto. Drums playfully stammered in, setting substance to the tune. Now, there was a beat, and Discord picked up to it accordingly.

Popping back and forth from behind Meredith, Discord’s hooves clattered across the stone as the jazzy tunes sashayed in the air around he and Meredith. He jumped away from Meredith, and began to tap dance, beating his hoof against the slab and adding a clickity-clack, clickity-clack that meshed perfectly with the music.

“Now! Meredith! Show me what you’re made of!” he hollered, grinning expectantly at the mop.

Meredith stood there, suspended upright for a moment, before falling victim to the treacheries of gravity, and fell sideways.

Discord’s wings shot out, and the spirit of chaos lept across the slab, dipping down just in time to grab his love before her handle would have clattered against the stone. He slid on his back, clutching her tightly to his chest, and placed his hooves on the floor. His wings erected, and he pushed the two of them back upright.

The music had changed. Gone was the jazzy track, having ended at about the same time Discord had collided with the floor in order to save Meredith. Now, it was a slower, more ethereal song... a slow dance.

Discord looked down at Meredith with a soft smile, his eyes lowering to a half-lid. “I’d never let you tarnish yourself against the stone, my love. No nicks, no chips, no slivers amiss...”

Discord snapped his talon above his head, and the light emanated from the crack changed to a light blue, casting the whole floor in a romantic shade. A disco ball hovered in the air about fifteen feet above them, reflecting light and casting what looked like thousands of distant stars all across the dance floor.

“Oh, my sweet, sweet...” Discord breathed, before bringing up the handle to his lips. He bowed down with her, the song’s strings wavering and wobbling in his ears. Discord smiled around the kiss, rubbing Meredith’s wooden shaft gently with his paw and talon. Unable to contain it any longer, he let his tongue escape, the long, snake-like mouth muscle wrapping around the shaft in earnest, stroking and caressing the handle.

He pulled away, his tongue unwrapping from Meredith with a wet slurp. Wiping his mouth of any excess saliva, he grinned sultrily down at his lover. “Oh, you do know how to please me, Meredith. Tell me, where did you learn to kiss like that?”

Discord paused for a moment, before laughing loudly. “Oh, Meredith, you card! I should have known. A lady never tells, does she? No kiss and tell here, no kiss and tell here...”

The music had changed again, messy guitars and droning that sounded oddly like a vacuum cleaner emerging from the sonic soup. Discord hummed along with the droning, swaying softly with Meredith as he did so.

“I don’t know what I’d do without you Meredith, quite honestly...” Discord admitted, a few piercing notes slicing their way into the song. “I am... not what you would describe as a ‘popular’ draconequus, no, not at all...” he took a deep breath, and gazed down into the eyes of his reflection on Meredith’s polished handle. “Why, if it were not for you, I would hazard to say that I would have gone completely mad ages ago...”

Meredith, still a mop, said nothing.

Discord chuckled weakly, his eyes watering a bit. “One could even say you made a softy out of me... well, no, that would have been Fluttershy’s doing, I suppose.”

Discord gave Meredith a stern look. “Oh, don’t start that mess, please. You know Fluttershy and I are just good friends, and that’s all! I owe her a lot, but romanticism... that’s something I could not achieve with her. Nor do I care to do so!” he added hastily. “You know that you’re the only one for me, my dearest Meredith.”

Discord grinned deviously and raised his eyebrows a few times at Meredith. “But I can see how you’d be afraid I’d be stealing mares to be with me. I am rather handsome... why, I remember a time when I could hardly walk down the street without them throwing themselves at me! Of course, I was exuding an aura of powerful male hormones... got a few stallions when I walked past The Cherry Pit...”

Discord coughed, and swung Meredith into his arms again as the song began to peak a crescendo. He carried the two of them out into the center of the dance floor, twirling and spinning and smiling. “But of course, you remain to be my one and only! Everything else in the past... it’s just that! It’s been only us, it is now only us, and it will continue to be only us! Meredith, my one and only, I love you!”

Discord tossed the mop up into the air, where it spun and spiraled a few times. Discord dropped to one knee, and stretched out his arms into a cradling position, grinning widely. Meredith fell enatly on her side into his arms, and Discord kissed her once more as the song drew to a close.

“It’s a personal mix record, so it only has three songs on it, I’m afraid,” Discord said to Meredith as he walked over to the record player, mop in arm. “I know, I know. I’m trying to find the time to bolster it, but... I just can’t seemingly find any! It’s strange, when you’re free of all things, time just leaps at you, but the instant you get busy...” Discord flipped his paw over, and an hourglass appeared. He held it, lifted it above his head, and threw it against the dance floor, where it shattered, scattering the sand all about. “Poof. Like a madman smashing an hourglass.”

Discord cackled loudly, and turned off the record play with a quick flick of his wrist.

“Oh, so many things...” Discord moaned, sauntering towards the hill which lead to the thinking tree. “I’ve got to trim the eelgrass, water the subterranean sunflowers, feed the jabberwocky and the skittering horror... not to mention get ready to see Celestia tomorrow!”

Discord heaved a long sigh, and turned to look at Meredith. “I’m glad I have you to ground me, though, my lovely. I don’t think I could bear to do this all alone...”

He began to hop, and then skip, up the hill to the thinking tree, Meredith bouncing behind him. Discord always made sure to take extra care not to let her slap against the rocks, however, lifting her up high and then not letting her fall all the way back down.

“I know it must sound an awful lot like I am repeating myself,” he said as the tree came within spitting distance. “And I must be, I simply must be... but I want to drill it into you, you know? I want to let it become fact, our love...”

Discord leaned Meredith against the thinking tree, and let out a deep groan, clutching his forehead with his paw. “Oh, the issues, the tasks, the responsibilities! To be young and free and properly chaotic again! Without a care in the world...”

He sat down beside Meredith. “Oh, sometimes this reformations seems more like a burden, a curse, more than a blessing.”

Discord paused for a moment, then slapped himself rather hard across the face. “What am I saying? Meredith, don’t let me speak so ungratefully again! I may be the spirit of chaos, but that’s no excuse for being selfish and bratty! Fluttershy did me a great service, yes she did, and to just...”

Discord swallowed hard. “I have truly gone soft, haven’t I? But... I suppose I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Discord turned to the mop and smiled shakily. “Come now, dearest! Let’s take our mind off of all of this for just a while. I think we’re due for a nice little treat, a good way to spend the night...”

Author's Note