Sunny Side Up

       Chapter Edited by Biker_Dash

A tall, slender mismatched figure slowly perused one of the halls in the royal castle. A small smirk was barely visible upon his goatlike face. Gazing off at nothing in particular, he stroked his beard with a talon. Today was just another boring day, as usual. It also didn't help that Celestia was starting to get overly suspicious of his good behavior. So what if he wanted to behave himself. Its not like he had been doing anything for the past three months. Redesigning the molecular structures of plantlife hardly counted as doing anything really. At least to an immortal God of Chaos. Besides, what he did in his spare time was none of her business anyways! In fact, she should be kneeling before him begging forgiveness for treating him like this.

"Ahem..."

A firm angelic voice stopped him in his tracks as his mind came back to the realm of Equestria. Speak of the devil and she will appear, he mused. Turning around to face his tormentor, he gave an over exaggerated flourish with his right paw and bowed. "Hello Celestia," he said with as much fake cheer as possible.

"Good evening, Discord," she replied.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your company on this fine day?" he asked as he returned to his normal standing position. It was not often that Celestia spoke with him and even more rare for her to seek him out directly. The only time she had ever done that is when Equestria was in danger. A slightly sadistic smile spread across his muzzle. It seemed his help was needed to save Equestria again, he thought. Before he could ask though, Celestia had already started talking.

"I’ve heard of nothing but good news about your behavior lately. It would seem your reformation is going along quite well as you have gone three entire months without one slip up. It is very impressive especially since you prefer chaos over order. In fact, it would almost seem that you are finally seeing things my way for a change," Celestia said with a smug grin.

Shes actually trying to get a ruse out of me?  Ohhh hoo ho Princess... two can play that game, he thought smugly. Leaning down, Discord looked into those big, disgustingly adorable purple pony eyes and said in a lecturing tone, "Without chaos, there can be no order. Because truly, how can one see order if there is no chaos." This, of course, caught Celestia completely off-guard, confusion clearly written all over her face as she pondered his words.

Suck on those horse apples you prissy little pony, Discord thought as he leaned back from her face.

Quickly regaining her sense of composure, she replied with a retort of her own. "Ah, but you forget. The reason I keep you around is to remind my little ponies about the consequences of chaos. Im always looking for more stone statues to add to my collection in the garden."

"Touche," Discord mumbled. Ok...so shes not 'all bark no bite' then. He would never admit it, but he actually liked it when she showed the darker side of her personality.

"Now that those pleasantries are aside, I actually do have a question for you," she stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Of course, Princess! I’m all ears," he said as ten or so ears magically grew from his head, all of which pointed towards the white Alicorn in front of him.

Quite used to his little antics, Celestia gave no pause as she started talking. "Its more of an observation than a question really, but I would like an answer, nonetheless." The princess paused, letting out a small sigh, then spoke in a tone not unlike a parent scolding a foal. "I know you’re up to something Discord. And don't bother denying it either."

Discord tried to clear his perfectly good name by voicing his objection, but was rudely interrupted as she continued talking over him. "There is no possible way on Equis that the Lord Of Chaos decides to stop doing what he is best known for. No… you’re up to something. And once I find out, it will not be pleasant for you around here." She was now glaring at the draconicus, searching his face for any signs of deceit.

Discord, however, had decided to file his talons while the white Alicorn went through her little 'episode'. Once he noticed that the yapping had stopped, he looked up from what he was doing, giving her a bored look. "Celestia, Celestia," he tsked, "Have you no shame? I go out of my way to behave myself and this is how you reward me? Why, its almost like you’re just waiting around for me to slip up, so then when I do, you can point your pretty little hoof and say 'I told you so'. Right. In. My. Face." He punctuated the last part of his statement by poking her in the nose with his paw.

It seemed his knack for getting under her skin paid off as her mane started crackling and waving around. The heat could be seen visibly rolling off of her in waves in her anger. "You and I BOTH know that is not true," she said in a dangerous tone.

"Yet here we are. You’re accusing me of such things when I have been nothing but a gentlepony the entire time. You, Celestia, are such a hypocrite sometimes, preaching to your little ponies about being kind and accepting of others around you when you don't even give me a chance. I have feelings too, you know!" He finished his statement with a pout, folding his mismatched arms in the process.

Celestia just stood there with a mixture of anger and guilt on her face. She wasn't entirely convinced that he was being truthful, but he had a good point.

"If you must know, I have been up to something," he said, still pouting.

"Oh?" She tilted her head in curiosity. She could barely hear him as he mumbled something under his breath. "Im sorry. What was that again?" she asked.

"I said I made you something..." An audible flushing sound could be heard as Discord’s face contorted and seemed to suck inward as he tried to finish the sentence.

"Okay, and that something is?" All the emotions she had been feeling before were replaced with curiosity.

"Oh Fine! If you really must know, I was making your birthday present. But now I'm having second thoughts about giving it to you," Discord snorted and pointed his nose in the air.

Celestia bit back her comment about the so called gift being a trick and instead opted to give him the benefit of the doubt. He looked like he was being sincere, and even acted like it too. Maybe she had it wrong this whole time. Of course, she would still take precautions as needed. Oh well. Lets see where this goes, I guess, she thought.

Before she could voice her thought however, Discord continued, "Bah! Who am I kidding. You wouldn't like it anyways. All that work for noth—"

"Show me," Celestia interrupted.

"You know your birthday is not until next week, right?"

"So?"

"Don’t you want to wait until your birthday? I thought thats what all the ponies do nowadays."

"Just show me, please?" The puppy dog look Celestia gave him was absolutely priceless.

"Very well then," he sighed. Celestia could be really cute when she wanted to. Heh! If only she knew what she was getting herself into.  Well, here goes nothing. A small black crystal vase popped into existence. However, It wasn't the vase that held Celestia's attention. No, it was the creation that the vase held.

In her entire life, she had not seen anything like the flower that was being held in that vase. It appeared almost translucent and so fragile as its pedals waved in some nonexistent breeze. It was also glowing a soft orange color and seemed to radiate... heat? All thoughts froze as she finally realized what she was looking at. She had only heard old mythical legends that described this flower, as it was said to have disappeared long ago. Celestia loved flowers. They were what brought beauty and color to her day, which is why she had a whole palace garden dedicated to all the exotic floral wonders from all over Equis. This, however... "I-Is that a D-Dragon Fire Lily?"  she stuttered, not believing what she was seeing.

"More of a hybrid, I'm afraid," Discord said as he scratched behind his head.

"H-How?" she asked, not blinking once.

"An old Dragon coven I raided back when I was... you know..." He waved his arms around, "not reformed. They had a petal of this flower sitting in a preservation vault. I had kept it because it was possibly the last remnant of its kind. Kinda like me, I guess. Anyways I discovered a certain type of blue flower (which is absolutely brilliant for pranks) in the Everfree Forest that has a similar magical resonance to the original petal of the Fire Lily. After some experimenting, I found that I could rewrite the magical essence of the Poison Joke to make it nearly identical to that of the other plant since both possess natural chaos magic." The chalkboard that he had summoned for his short presentation disappeared with an audible pop.

Celestia was speechless. Discord had done what seemed impossible.

"Well, are you going to gawk at it all day or am I going to get a proper tha— Oommf!" Discord wheezed as his life was slowly squeezed out of him in a bone crushing hug. One minute shes about to incinerate me and then next thing I know, shes hugging me. Oh wow... Shes so soft and warm. Kinda like a giant heated blanket, he mused to himself, happily returning the hug.

"Please forgive my ignorance, Discord. It was wrong of me to assume the worst from you," she said in a sincere apology as she let him go. She floated the vase over to get a closer look at the flower.

"Also, one more thing Celestia," Discord said, putting on a very serious face. "Do NOT under any circumstances touch this flower bare—" For the first time in 1000 years Discord actually double facepalmed. By the time he had warned her, it was too late. She had been so entranced by the flowers beauty that she had not heard his warning.

She had already started playing with some of its petals. "Huh? What was that? Im sorry, Discord. I was a bit distracted."

"Oh nothing at all, Tia." Discord smiled. This was probably the only time he could call her that and get away with it. "Glad you love your gift." This should be very interesting. Very interesting indeed, he thought.

"Thank you, Discord". I better hurry and get this to my chambers for safe keeping, she thought to herself. "See you tomorrow at breakfast, if you want to drop in." With that, Celestia trotted off, practically skipping.

Discord chuckled to himself as he watched her go. Mares... As he teleported to his chambers, he failed to see Celestia's mane start to turn a faint orange color.