“Ah-choo!”
An unusually green and spotted Discord stewed in his isolation bubble as he gave another miserable sneeze. It turned out that being actually sick was a lot less fun than pretending. Who knew? He supposed he was even more surprised at the fact that Tatzlwurms could sneeze, which would have ordinarily appealed to his chaotic nature if the sneeze hadn't been directed at him. Now he had to sit in one place and non-chaotically relax and recuperate. The peace and quiet was excruciating.
Staring across the room through his misery, he watched Fluttershy happily trotting across the room with a bag of grain. Fortunately, he had Fluttershy happily tending to his needs, unlike her friends. It was like they didn't even know what good friendship was! Discord sighed in exaggerated disappointment before calling to the yellow pegasus, who was currently pouring out carefully-measured amounts of food to her animal friends. “Oh, dear Fluttershy! Could I trouble you for a cup of soup?”
Discord's insincere sincerity seemed to go perpetually unnoticed by Fluttershy, who looked over to him sweetly. “Of course! One cup of soup, coming right up. You'll be better in no time!”
Discord watched her delicate form retreat to her kitchen, and soon delicious smells began wafting into the room. Unfortunately, Discord was both trapped inside a sealed bubble and had his nose thoroughly clogged, so he was forced to imagine what smells he was undoubtedly missing. He sniffed experimentally as he thought of possible ways to smell the unsmellable. Perhaps he could poke a teeny-tiny hole in the bubble and shove some straws up his nose. It sounded reasonable to him, and it probably would be fine. Probably.
Discord was considering how to create a containment breach without breaching containment—something he would have insisted was possible given enough chaos magic—when Fluttershy returned with a piping hot bowl of tomato soup balanced carefully on her back and held steady by her wings. She trotted over to Discord, who teleported the soup onto a table that he conveniently conjured inside the bubble. Discord eagerly tied a checkered handkerchief around his neck and conjured about a dozen different kinds of spoons as he sat in front of the bowl.
“Ah, thank you very much, dearest Fluttershy! Did I mention how good of a friend you are?” Discord conjured a little pepper shaker and immediately tossed the entire shaker into the bowl before picking up a spoon in each hand and digging in.
“No problem, Discord. I'm always happy to help a friend in need.” Fluttershy smiled warmly before giving a look of concern as Discord's nose twitched. “Are you all right?”
“Ah...ah...AH...AH-CHOO!”
The sneeze rippled through the entire small house, causing it to perform a small backflip in the air before settling back in place. Fluttershy's animals scurried about in a panic, while Fluttershy herself stood rooted to the spot, seemingly too stunned to move. Random small acts of chaos erupted throughout the house. Pictures on the walls changed colors, birdhouses turned into spaghetti, and bookshelves full of books erupted into song and dance routines. After a couple of moments, everything calmed again, and the house became eerily quiet as all the creatures within hid away fearfully in various alcoves.
After several long moments, Fluttershy shook her head roughly. “That might have been a little too much pepper,” she muttered before leaping in the air in surprise and flailing about in confusion. “What the...” She looked down at herself for a few moments before slowly turning to the bubble, where a Draconequus was cowering on the floor. “...Fluttershy?”
“Wha-what happened?” Discord's voice was distinctively less cocky than usual as his body looked up timidly from the floor.
“Well, I didn't expect this to happen! I'm you and you're me! That sneeze must have unleashed some serious chaos! I may have to look into this.” Fluttershy's voice was uncharacteristically full of flippancy. Her body trotted closer to the bubble and peered down at the still-cowering Discord. “I must say, even with a cold I remain ruggedly handsome.”
“Uh...can we switch back?”
“What a good question, Fluttershy! Why don't you try sneezing? Here, I'll try.” Fluttershy's body gave an exaggerated, fake sneeze, but nothing happened. “Well, it was worth a shot, but I suspect all my power's still over there in my body.”
Discord's body looked over itself in confusion. “But what would I do? Just...sneeze?”
Fluttershy's body tapped her hoof impatiently. “Yes, yes, try sneezing. It's worth a try, and I'm not sure I can stand such a peaceful body as yours much longer. No chaos at all in here!”
“Well, ok, I'll try...” Discord's body gave a tiny, dainty sneeze that did not cause any chaos whatsoever.
Outside the bubble, the real Discord sighed. “Try the soup, then. It should be packed with pepper.”
The result yielded a much larger sneeze, but no chaos, and Fluttershy's body sighed yet again. “Fiddlesticks.”
“I, um, I think...maybe we should get Twilight. She'll know what to do.”
Fluttershy's body grumbled. “Oh, I suppose miss purple pony princess would probably have everything fixed up in a jiffy, but I'm not sure I want to give her the satisfaction. Unless...” If Discord had still been himself, he would have spawned a light bulb above his head, but he had to make do with a slowly growing, ominous smile. “Why, yes, I think I will go to Twilight. What a good idea!”
The expression on the face of Discord's body showed that Fluttershy was having second thoughts.
“Oh, Fluttershy, I must say I'm starting to warm to this little adventure! I hope you don't mind if I borrow your body for a while. I promise I will return it in absolute mint condition. Ta ta!” Fluttershy's body strolled out the door with an altogether too cocky stride, humming a tune in a manner that Fluttershy's vocal cords, had they been self-aware, would have been extremely embarrassed by.
“Oh...oh dear.” Discord's body looked down uncertainly before taking a deep breath and assuming a more assertive stance. Fluttershy yelled after her departing body, “You had better behave out there, mister, or I will be very disappointed in you!”
The response came from near the front door. “Yes, yes, I promise I won't cause too much chaos before I bring Twilight back.” A few moments passed before Fluttershy's head popped back into view, looking about the room before settling upon a book and picking it up. “I suppose I'll return this book to Twilight while I'm at it. See? I'm being very helpful.” At that, her body departed from view once more.
Fluttershy in Discord's body looked about worriedly. “I have a very bad feeling about this...” she murmured, fidgeting in the now silent house.
As Discord approached Ponyville, he passed by the expansive orchards of Sweet Apple Acres. As he looked out across the trees, the first step of his (self-labeled) brilliant plan came to him. Looking around him to make sure there were no witnesses, he laughed maniacally. “Can't have a good plan without a good evil cackle to go with it!” Discord chuckled to himself. “Now for a little chaos before we get back to Fluttershy. After all, we can't let an opportunity like this go to waste, now can we?”
Flying over to a particularly visible tree, Discord alighted on a branch that looked especially comfortable before carefully jumping up and down just enough to drop a few apples. Then he carelessly flew up, down, and around through the branches until there was enough damage to be visible from the ground. He set himself down nearby to get a look at his handiwork. “Looks careless enough,” he announced to himself before returning to the road. Step one was complete.
The trip to Ponyville was fairly quick, as Discord was focused on getting to the library. Fluttershy's body trotted casually through Ponyville, suspiciously lacking its usual meekness. The remainder of the trip to the library passed uneventfully, and soon Discord saw the library's tree up ahead.
Discord quietly let himself into the library. He required stealth for phase two of his plan, titled “Operation: Angry Twilight Sparkle.” He figured he probably would need to come up with a more creative title in time, but then again, he didn't want to plan and label everything too much; it would indicate too much organization for his taste.
Discord looked around the main room of the library, cautiously keeping an eye out for Twilight. As he scanned the bookshelves, he casually rotated a book sitting on one of the nearby tables by a couple of degrees. There was a small chance Twilight would notice things that were slightly out of place in her highly-organized space, and every little bit counted in pushing that mare's buttons. However, Discord was looking to catch a bigger fish than that.
Discord finally found what he was looking for: the entire Daring Do collection. He quietly gathered them from their shelf and rearranged them, making sure that they were chaotically jumbled about. He even put one of them in a nearby section for good measure. As the final touch, he placed one on a table in plain view of the rest of the room. Twilight couldn't miss it.
Discord chuckled to himself before he turned to his next task: attracting Twilight's attention. However, he felt it wasn't enough to simply say hello. He needed something a tad more chaotic, but something that would still not break his cover. Discord smiled broadly at a particularly large stack of books on another table.
Twilight was deep in thought in her laboratory, writing a detailed report for her most recent experiment, when she hear a faint “ah-choo” in the room above, followed by what sounded like a torrential avalanche of books. Fearing for her precious charges, she skidded into the main room to find...Fluttershy sitting demurely in the middle of a cascade of books, her cheeks flushing with what Twilight assumed was embarrassment.
“Fluttershy, what happened?” Twilight gasped, attempting to comprehend how Fluttershy could suddenly be sitting in a small pile of books.
Fluttershy's voice was barely higher than a whisper. “I sneezed.”
“Huh?”
“And then I accidentally bumped a stack of books. Sorry.”
Fluttershy's body was flushing red in Discord's efforts to conceal his amusement, and it was only through careful self-control that the lord of chaos was able to sit quietly. The ponies didn't think he was capable of such self-control, but it sometimes paid off to show restraint in the short term for a bigger chaos payoff in the future.
“Well, I hope you weren't hurt. Oh my goodness, you aren't getting sick, are you? That isolation chamber should have kept you protected, but...was there a flaw in the construction? Did the surface crack? I knew I should have asked Pinkie to stay off of it.”
Discord was quick to steer the conversation away from himself. “Oh, no, not at all. I feel fine. I just came to return this book I borrowed.” From Fluttershy's saddlebags, he withdrew the book that he had retrieved from her house before departing.
Twilight sighed in relief. “Whew. Well, you certainly finished with that book quickly. It's only been a few days.”
“Well, you know how interesting—“ Discord quickly checked the book's cover before continuing, “—squirrel bone structure is. I just couldn't stop reading.”
Twilight seemed to accept the explanation without reservations. “Yeah, I know what you mean, even if my interests are in a different area. Sometimes I start reading, and the next thing I know, the sun's coming up. Here, you can give me the book. I'll put it back.”
Discord hoofed over the book. Here was the moment Discord had been waiting for. Twilight began walking over to a shelf, but she noticed the Daring Do book also lying on a nearby table and paused for a moment. She picked it up with her magic and walked over to the section with the other Daring Do books before sputtering with consternation. “What happened to these books?!” She almost shouted before looking to the side and narrowing her eyes, thinking through the possible culprits. “Spi-no, wait. Rainbow Dash.”
Discord was watching eagerly as his plan went off without a hitch. “Is something wrong?”
Twilight turned around, seething. “Yes. If you see Rainbow Dash, tell her to come over to the library. I need to talk to her about properly putting away books she borrowed.” She stomped her hoof in frustration. “I thought we had already solved this issue!” She growled as she began to pull out all the Daring Do books and set them on a table in preparation for resorting. She called out, “Spike, I need your assistance in here!”
The dragon's response came from upstairs. “I'll be down there in just a second!”
This was Discord's cue to leave. “Ok, I'll let Dash know if I see her. See you later, Twilight.”
Twilight took a break from grumbling to herself to wave goodbye. “Bye, Fluttershy!”
Now Discord had to find Rainbow Dash. Wandering about the town, he looked to the clouds for a telltale explosion of color, but he had no such luck. “Where is that obnoxious mare when you need her?” he muttered to himself.
“Who's obnoxious, Discord? And what are you doing looking like Fluttershy?”
Discord did a double-take as he noticed Pinkie Pie hopping happily alongside him, although she was giving him an intense, scrutinizing look. He rolled his eyes. “I should have expected you would notice right away. How did you notice?”
“Well, Fluttershy never walks that way, and she doesn't call ponies obnoxious. Kinda simple when you think about it!” Discord was surprised at how logical her reasoning was, at least until she spoke again. “Well, that and my ear flopped, my nose itched, and I did a backflip.” She put her nose inches from Fluttershy's face and squinted her eyes in mock seriousness. “So what are you doing? You had better not be doing anything mean to Fluttershy!”
“What, me?” Discord raised a hoof to Fluttershy's chest as if she were offended. “I would never dream of such a thing! I am simply seeking Twilight's help in a pesky body-swapping matter, and playing a harmless prank along the way. Surely you can appreciate a good prank, Pinkie Pie?”
“Ooh, I do like a prank! So what are you doing? Does it involve balloons? Streamers?”
“My dear Pinkie, if I told you, that would be telling, would it not? ”
“I guess! If you told me, then you would have been telling me at the time, so then I would have been told!”
Discord leaned in towards Pinkie conspiratorially, whispering, “It's going to be a surprise, so let's keep this between you and me, ok?”
Pinkie crossed her hooves and sat back with a suspicious scowl. “I dunno. You're usually a big mean meanie pants, and your pranks hurt ponies' feelings! How do I know this prank's any different?”
Discord tried to smile disarmingly, but for most ponies it would have been anything but reassuring. “Because I promise, Pinkie! I promise that I don't think that this prank is going to go too far, and that it will be just right! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” He went through the motions and sat expectantly.
Pinkie bought the ploy without question. “Okie-dokie-lokie! I'll check back on you later to make sure you kept your word!” Pinkie began to bounce away, but Discord stopped her.
“Might you know where Rainbow Dash is? I need to talk to her for my prank to work, you see.”
“I saw her napping in a cloud just south of Ponyville! Try there! You have fun with your pranks!” Pinkie hopped away, humming happily to herself.
As Pinkie had said, Discord found Rainbow Dash lounging on a cloud at the south end of town. From the ground, Discord could see her tail twitch slightly as it dangled over the edge. Quiet snoring issued from the cloud as Discord fluttered up to land softly next to Dash. As much as he would have loved to have given her a little jump scare, he kept his eye on the prize. It was time for a little more acting.
“Dash...Rainbow Dash!” He kept his voice just above a whisper. “Wake up!”
Rainbow Dash rubbed a hoof across her eyes as her peaceful slumber was interrupted. “Snrk...wha? Fluttershy?” She sat back and yawned widely before turning to her friend with a smile. “Heya, Fluttershy, what's up?”
Discord decided it was most in-character to open with an apology. “I'm sorry to wake you, but I happened to see you sleeping there, and I was just talking to Twilight. She wants to talk to you about something. She's really mad.”
The last vestiges of sleep vanished as Dash snapped to attention. “What? Why?”
The next few lines of dialog were going to be crucial. “She seems to think you mixed up a bunch of Daring Do books at the library and made a mess of them.”
Dash was immediately defensive. “What? I didn't do anything like that!”
“I know, Dash, and I believe you. In fact, I was there and I saw something that makes me think...it might...it might have been Rarity.”
“Huh? But Rarity doesn't read Daring Do! She reads those sappy romance novels!”
“But I saw some romance novels mixed with the Daring Do books! It seemed odd to me, but what if she's playing a prank on you?”
Dash drew herself up and prepared to leap off the cloud. “I dunno, Fluttershy, but I think I'm going to go find out! I'm going to Rarity's!”
Discord held out a hoof to block Rainbow's leap. “I passed Rarity's boutique earlier, Dash. She just headed out, but she said she would be at the library later.”
“Right! Then I'll go clear my name at the library first!” Dash reoriented herself and soared off the cloud towards the library. “Thanks for letting me know, Fluttershy!”
Discord waved after her. “Glad to help, Dash,” he called after her, before quietly chuckling to himself. Now there was only one more piece left.
Discord knocked on the front door of Carousel Boutique with a carefully-calculated mixture of timid and confident. After a short pause, the door was opened by a bespectacled Rarity, which indicated that she must have been in the middle of working. Discord quickly opened the dialog. He was in a hurry to get back to the library.
“Hi, Rarity. How are you today?”
“Oh, hi, Fluttershy. Are we still on for the spa visit on Thursday?”
“Of course! I wouldn't dream of missing it.” Discord considered his acting impeccable, if he said so himself. “I was just wondering if you had a free moment for something else.”
Rarity tapped a hoof on her chin thoughtfully. “Well, I might be willing to take a break shortly. I do have a few errands I need to run. How much later are you considering?”
“Oh, it isn't for me. Rainbow Dash has something she wants to talk to you about, and she said she would be at the library shortly. I was on my way past your boutique and I thought I would let you know, if that's ok.”
“Of course, Fluttershy, dear. I'll be sure to visit the library before running my errands. Thank you very much for letting me know.”
“Of course, Rarity. Anything for my friends.” Discord was sure he was going to strain something with all the politeness he had been forcing himself to endure.
When Discord arrived at the library, the show was already in progress. He slipped quietly into the room and edged along the wall, watching as two angry mares stood eye-to-eye in the midst of an argument.
Rainbow Dash was looking at Twilight incredulously, as if she couldn't imagine that her friend did not believe her argument that she was not the Daring Do culprit. “Twilight, I own copies of almost all the Daring Do books by now! Why would I borrow one from the library?”
Twilight shook her head in frustration. “Dash, you're always the one who borrows those books, and I know you still lack a few of them. Besides, other ponies actually check the books out before just taking them out of the library! That's another thing that I'm disappointed about. I've asked you multiple times to not remove books without telling me first!”
“Geez, Twilight, I said I was sorry about that, but I swear that this time I had nothing to do with this. I think it was Rarity.”
“What?! Rarity? Why?”
“Well, you did find romance novels with the Daring Do books too, right?”
Twilight tilted her head a moment in thought, trying to remember which books had been mixed with the Daring Do collection, before jerking with realization. “Hey, how would you know what kind of books there were?”
For a moment, Discord thought that his secret was out, but before Dash could open her mouth, Rarity opened the door to the library.
“Oh, hello, Dash. I heard you wanted to talk to me?”
Dash was invading Rarity's personal space in a flash. “Yes I did, as a matter of fact. Did you think it would be funny to set me up as having left another mess in the library when you returned your romance novels?”
Rarity recoiled as if struck. “Well, I cannot believe what I am hearing, Dash! I did no such thing! Just because you like performing your silly pranks does not mean everypony does! Wherever did you come up with this outlandish assumption?”
Discord figured that this time the impending questions really were going to blow his cover. He considered whether to try to string everypony on longer or come clean immediately.
Suddenly, Applejack opened the door to the library in another serendipitous moment of timing. “Scuse me, Twilight, but do you happen to know where Rainbow—there you are!” Applejack pointed an accusatory hoof at Rainbow Dash, who jumped in confusion. “Dash, what have I said about sleeping in my trees? If you're gonna do it, you have to treat the trees right!”
“Huh? What are you talking about, AJ?”
“I'm talking about one of my trees has got its branches smashed to bits and apples everywhere!”
“AJ, I swear I don't know what you're talking about! I haven't even napped in your trees in the last few days!”
“Well, who else sleeps in my trees, Rainbow?”
“Uh...I dunno—nopony, I guess—but it wasn't me!”
“That's a likely story. Who else in this room can fly and visits Sweet Apple Acres regularly?”
Rainbow Dash snorted. “I don't have time for this! I have to clear my name with Twilight and prove that Rarity is pulling a prank on me! Who else in this room borrows lots of romance novels and knows that I love Daring Do books and borrow them from the library?”
Rarity was about to give an offended objection when Twilight stepped forward, brows furrowed. “Well, that still doesn't explain how you knew which books were mixed with the Daring Do books! Assuming for a moment that Rarity didn't do it, who else in this room would know that fact, other than me and...”
There was a moment of realization. All the ponies followed Twilight's gaze and slowly turned their heads towards Fluttershy, who was casually relaxing against one wall. She waved. “Surprise! Oh, what a wonderful scene of miniature chaos that was! If only I could have summoned some popcorn.”
The room was silent for at least a minute as the other ponies processed the highly improbable. Twilight was the first to recover, and she guessed who the culprit was instantly.
“Discord! What are you doing looking like Fluttershy?”
Discord rolled his eyes with a small sigh. “I suppose the charade is up, my dear Twilight. Ah, well, it was fun while it lasted.”
Rainbow Dash zoomed down, coming nose-to-nose with Fluttershy's face. “What do ya think you're doing, Discord? What have you done to Fluttershy?”
Discord gave an exaggerated innocent shrug. “Why, I haven't done anything. Just a small sneeze, and here I was, in Fluttershy's body! It was a complete accident, I swear!”
“Huh?” Everypony's jaw dropped. Discord had to admit, it was an amusing sight.
Rainbow Dash looked at the yellow pegasus incredulously. “So you're saying you two...switched bodies. Because you sneezed.”
“Alas, my cold got the best of me. That and the pepper shaker, but really, that's neither here nor there. You see, Princess Twilight, I have come to you to humbly request your assistance. My good friend Fluttershy is sadly lacking in the art of chaos, so she was unable to switch us back. So you see, I haven't done anything wrong at all!”
Twilight bristled, her wings rustling in irritation. “You may or may not not have done anything wrong with your initial swap, Discord, but you have been secretly agitating the four of us all day!”
Discord tilted Fluttershy's head haughtily. “Agitating? My goodness, Twilight, is that how you treat somepony doing you a favor? I was broadening your horizons by teaching you important lessons about trusting your friends...or something.” Discord waved the rest of the explanation away with a hoof before continuing. “In fact, if you think about it, every instance where we have met in the past has resulted in an excellent friendship lesson. I would change my credentials to reflect such an achievement, but 'Lord of Pushing Ponies Outside Their Comfort Zone' isn't a very catchy title.”
“Discord, all you did is made all of us argue with each other so you could enjoy some chaos and disharmony! Don't you dare try to spin it as a favor!”
At that moment, the front door banged open and a pink storm of righteous fury tumbled inside.
“I heard that! Discord! You big meanie! You lied and did horrible things to my friends! And most importantly, you broke a Pinkie Promise! Nopony breaks a pinkie promise!” She stomped towards Discord with increasing anger.
Discord smiled comfortably towards Pinkie. “I would love to be able to point out that typically I am no pony, but, unfortunately, I am one at the moment, which really ruins the joke. Therefore, I must stick with the more mundane 'No I didn't.'”
“Didn't what?” Pinkie continued to advance furiously.
“I didn't break a Pinkie Promise. I promised you that I didn't think the prank would go too far. It didn't! This prank was perfect, at least in my humble opinion.”
Pinkie stopped in her tracks. “Um...well, I-I guess you're right.” She sat down and looked at her hooves in frustration. “But you still were super-mean!”
“Nonsense! If anything, after this, your friendships will be even closer than before, now that you have realized that you shouldn't doubt each other! Don't you all like bonding? One day you'll look back on this and laugh, just I am right now.” He let out a long chuckle that sounded so strange coming from Fluttershy that every other pony in the room suppressed a shudder.
Twilight managed to compose herself before she accidentally immolated Fluttershy's body, and she ground her teeth with frustration instead. “I doubt that, Discord. You are going to be doing some community service after you get better to make up for what you did.”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh, please, you ponies are always so sensitive! You never know how to take a joke—“
“A cruel joke!” interrupted Rarity. “And those are not funny at all!”
“I can tell when the court is not in my favor,” Discord said as he raised his hooves in the air in defeat. “Very well. Let's leave the arguments to another day and not leave Fluttershy waiting, then. Shall we?” He gestured out the door.
As they returned to Fluttershy's cottage, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Twilight, and Rarity clustered together and all stared daggers as Discord, who was trotting separately.
Discord rolled his eyes. “You certainly know how to make a pony feel welcome.”
Dash gave him an especially dirty look. “Don't think for a second that we're gonna forgive you.”
Twilight nodded thoughtfully, having calmed down significantly since earlier. “You know, Discord, you aren't doing yourself any favors.”
Discord harrumphed. “You wouldn't have trusted me even if I hadn't done anything today.”
“You don't know that!”
Discord didn't bother to respond to that. “Oh, look, we're here.”
As they entered the cottage, they all could hear Discord's voice faintly whispering, “Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear...”
Applejack looked towards the isolation bubble. “Sounds like Fluttershy ain't taking this so well. Are you ok, Sugarcube?”
Discord's body looked up pitifully from the floor, stopping its panicked whispering and breaking into a smile. “Everypony? Oh, you're back! Discord, you actually brought them back!”
Fluttershy's body smiled proudly. “I gave you my word, dear Fluttershy, and here I am.”
Twilight glared at Discord indignantly. “Don't listen to him, Fluttershy. He may have brought us back here, but only after playing an annoying prank on us.”
“Hey, don't shoot the messenger!”
Twilight almost let herself get swept up in irritation again. “You are definitely not just a messen—oh, never mind, let's just get this done. Both of you stand near the edge of the isolation chamber and let me analyze you two.”
Twilight spent several minutes poking and prying at the two, her horn sparking, while the other ponies looked on curiously. She then tapped her chin thoughtfully, deep in thought. After a final long pause, she looked up triumphantly. “Aha! This should be pretty simple, actually. Who knew it was just a straightforward mind-body flux inversion?”
“Well, I certainly didn't...” muttered Applejack.
Twilight raised her head. “Ok, just stand where you are. This should only take a moment.” Her horn lit up for several seconds and a faint glow appeared around Discord and Fluttershy. After the glow faded from her horn she smiled. “Done! Are you two back in order?”
Fluttershy looked gratefully at Twilight from behind her own hair once again. “Yes, thank you so much, Twilight! I feel so much better!”
Discord moaned from the floor inside the bubble. “Ooooh, Fluttershy, what did you do while you were in my body? A thousand push-ups? I feel substantially worse than I did before...”
Fluttershy rushed over to the bubble, her concern overflowing. “Oh, I'm sorry, Discord, I was just so worried about what you were going to do while you were away! I couldn't stop imagining all the horrible things you might do, so I just started feeling worse and worse as I panicked, and I couldn't help myself.”
Discord moaned and painfully summoned himself another blanket.
Dash burst into laughter, rolling on the floor in her amusement. “Serves you right, Discord, for all that stuff you actually did!”
Twilight chuckled. “Nothing like a bit of poetic justice twice in a row, right Discord?”
“Yes, yes, I suppose you would try to turn it into a lesson, wouldn't you?” Discord sighed and turned over heavily to face the wall. “Now let me sleep off the rest of my 'punishment' in peace.”
Twilight groaned at his response and rolled her eyes. “Come on, girls. Discord may be reformed, but he's always going to try to pull stunts like this. Let's not let it bother us. We'll be back later, Discord, to discuss this incident further.”
As the rest of the ponies left, and Fluttershy went to the kitchen to calm down and make some relaxing tea, Discord smiled to himself.
“Worth it.”
Author's Note
I suppose this was basically a Discord character study. I think of him as a jerk that somehow manages to be a bit charming at the same time, so I find him a bit endearing despite myself. I am a bit nervous to hear what people think about his manipulative actions in this story, but I would say it does fit his personality. Even after being reformed, he quite enjoys pushing everyone's buttons.
After finding the Body Swap contest, inspiration for this story popped into my head. Unfortunately, I came across the contest the last week before the deadline. I apologize if the story seems a little rough around the edges, but I was just glad I could kick myself into gear to finish a story. A deadline really helps sometimes. Too bad I'm cutting it really, really close.
