For a Phoenix Feather

As the two mares approached Sugarcube Corner, they observed weary ponies walking away. Children were bright eyed and excited, while parents and other older ponies looked either entirely confused or exhausted. The two mares gave each other a look before picking up the pace a bit and stepping inside. What they found was one part warzone, three parts kitchen disaster.

Vermillion and Discord sat with a rather distraught Rarity and cowering Fluttershy. Rarity's mane was a mess of streamers and sprinkles, while Fluttershy had frosting on her wings, which were currently shielding her face. Vermillion had a blank, shell shocked face and wore... balloon armor? A party tiki torch lay unlit at his side, and his mane was liberally coated in confetti and bits of dough. Discord, surprisingly, wore the same expression, but he was coated with flour and splotches of juice.

"How did she...?"

"I don't know, D."

"But what about the..."

"I don't know, dude."

Across the room, Applejack and Rainbow Dash wore exhausted but triumphant expressions, no less coated by confectionary calamity and party paraphernalia. The only unscathed pony was Pinkie, who stood grinning from ear to ear atop a wall of flour sacks and balloons cemented together with jam and frosting. "Hey girls! You missed the tastiest battle ever, but everypony is staying for dessert right?" A chorus of groans greeted the question.

Twisted stared at the giant mess before shaking her head. "She got the best of you, didn't she Dissy?" She snickered, hearing more of the same come from the other ponies in the room. She kept forgetting they had yet to learn her nickname for him which made it all the sweeter.

Discord glared at her, flicking the cake and confetti concoction at her as she looked at her stallion companion. "Nice armor, dear. Celestia would be most pleased." She stuck her tongue out at them before her attention turned to Pinkie Pie. "Got any coffee, Pinkie?"

"Yeppers! Lots of cream and sugar?" she asked. For a moment as she waited for a reply, she wiggled her rear hooves, felt an ear flop, and she tasted seafoam. Her frown was brief enough to avoid notice with all the other craziness in the room. "I've got plenty of sugar for sure!" She added without skipping a beat. Where she would find said sugar after the mess they made, nopony was sure, but none doubted she could and would.

"Yes, please. An energy shot like that is just what I need." She replied as she took a seat next to the boys, giggling softly to herself as she dusted some confetti out of Vermillion's mane. She seemed better than they had seen her earlier. Yet, something about Pinkie definitely weirded her out.

"Hey. So, uh. Yeah. Not exactly how I expected this to go." Vermillion cleared most of his mane by combing it with telekinesis. "Have you ever planned a party while fighting a battle? It's a new one for me." He began doffing the balloon armor, which was surprisingly robust. When he saw her looking at it strangely, he explained unhelpfully, "The armor was a truce gift after the Battle of Meringue. Came in handy when the truce broke and the Clash of Confetti started."

The grey mare blinked at him, staring at the mess then back at him as he ‘explained’ before she shook her head, holding her front hooves up. "Nope. Not even gonna try." She commented before turning back to the pink mare who brought her coffee over to her. She smiled and took it happily, taking a sip and grinning wider. "Perfect!"

After her cup was nearly empty she turned and looked at Vermillion, "So... The planning went... well?"

"About as well as it could with her using that feathering party cannon in the middle of a duel. Nearly lost the Torch of Leadership to a well-placed instant party." His eyes looked a strange mix of nostalgic, haunted, and giddy. He shook his head vigorously. "Sorry, coming down off a bit of a sugar rush. Long story short, yeah, we can have the party here in a couple days. Pinkie said she'd take care of everything, and I stressed how it should try and avoid the craziness. I think she was trying to get it out of her system today," he noted as he idly licked a stray dollop of whipped cream from one of his hooves.

"That... was complete gibberish. I think you may have PTSD, hun." Twisted smirked a bit as she looked at Discord who was struggling with Rainbow Dash’s and Applejack's abuse of the new nickname.

"Do you see what you've done? This is why we can't have nice things, Twist,” the draconequus grumbled, launching a cotton candy cloud at the two and sticking them together, though that only seemed to throw Pinkie back into attack mode as she leapt back behind her barricade.

"No, THIS is why we can’t have nice things, Dissy!"

Vermillion's expression changed, and like a flip was switched his horn lit up and the tiki torch was back in his grasp. "By the Torch, rally to me, ladies of the dainty pastries! To battle!” Several pies, the last reserve of ammunition from their side, floated up in two magical auras of blue as Rarity opted for a vengeful first strike against Applejack for ruining her mane.

Twisted could only duck behind an overturned table as the war kicked off all over again.

Discord had ducked down, coiled around the pegasus in an attempt to shield and protect his already caked mane from being even more damaged. Two birds with one stone I guess? Though Twisted seemed to get that kick from the coffee at the perfect time.

She pushed Discord off of her and into the direct line of fire from the confetti cannon, using the distraction to pull a large sack of flour, the bag ripped from the previous battle, over her shoulder as she took to the air. She snickered a bit at the scowl she got in return. "You on my team or not?" She teased as he snapped, wrapping over shoulders and settled onto her back, "ONWARD!"

The grey mare would definitely fail to sneak up on the Queen of Sugar herself, however...  She had a bit of payback to get to as she swooped over Vermillions head. Discord pushed the entire bag on top of the stallion's head. "Bombs away!" Discord shouted as he conjured up a large pail of water to more or less ‘cake bomb’ his new unicorn rival.

Vermillion gave a sudden cry at the unexpected betrayal. "Ms. Rarity! Prepare for counter batter-y fire!" As Vermillion lit a spellflame at the end of the torch, the white unicorn fed globs of cake batter to him, which he gave a quick coating of frosting he cleaned out of Fluttershy's wings and passed over the flames, loosing a literally half-baked barrage of cupcakes up at his airborne adversaries. He angled his shots so that the stray rounds would land in the territory of his other rivals, one managing to smack Rainbow across the muzzle. The athlete merely licked the frosting away and narrowed her eyes as she retaliated with a chilling volley of ice pop recently acquired from the freezer. Rarity yelped as the heavily food-colored sweets melted into her coat, turning her a riot of running colors and interrupting the stream of cupcakes. Vermillion adapted by extinguishing the torch and summoning up all the confetti he could, blasting it into the air in little capsules that broke into colorful papery airbursts intended to ground his flying foes.

Discord snickered at Rarity's dismay before conjuring up a large cannon strapped to the back of the grey pegasus he rode. Despite the lack of use her wings got she was rather nimble against the cupcake flurry, the little Discordian on her back launching wads of cotton candy grenades that threw thick chocolate milk everywhere when they hit ground, or another pony. Pinkie willingly took a cloud to the face, devouring it mid-air. She did always love those even before his reformation.

Once the confetti started Twisted had a bit of a harder time, coming to a sudden halt and flapping backwards, throwing the bits of paper back with the gust from her wings. "Oh ho, you sneaky bastard," she muttered to herself before swooping down at him, lifting him under his front legs into the air, "Yooohooooo~ Target Practice?~"

"Gladly." A singular voice finally interjected. All eyes turned to a frazzled-looking Twilight Sparkle, wings spread, horn aglow, and four dozen levitating globs of cooling fudge levitating in her magical grasp. Nopony had been tracking her presence since she froze in the entrance. Nopony dared to move.

"I believe it is my royal duty to decisively end this conflict."

And with that, the fudge was loosed in a shotgun blast that coated every pony in the room with the exception of Fluttershy, whom Twilight correctly assumed had been dragged into the conflict unwillingly and was currently taking shelter under one of the booth tables by the window.

"Now, I believe we all owe Pinkie Pie some help cleaning up the mess we've made." All the ponies, and draconequus, in the room let out childish groans, Rainbow muttering, "Do we have to?" She hardly even needed an answer as Twilight summoned a small stockpile of cleaning supplies for the ponies to get to work with.

After over an hour of careful cleaning, the store was finally back in working order. Vermillion panted as he haggardly trotted over to Twisted. "Never have I been more grateful to be born a unicorn," he managed, finally extinguishing his magic as he got the last of some particularly stubborn stains cleaned up.

Twisted yawned, her sugar rush gone as she leaned against the wall, her hooves barely holding her up at this point and bits of paper littered her already multicolored mane. Yup. Definitely bedtime now.

Discord yawned a bit and looked down at the small mare next to him, shaking his head and pulling her onto his back, "I'll take her home while you mingle. Get the last bits for the party settled, eh?" He smirked a bit before he snapped again, Twisted giving him a small wave before the two of them disappeared from sight.

Though she could not be sure if he was coming home or not, she lacked enough fight in her to dispute the decision.

Vermillion only had time to nod a bit before they disappeared, turning back to Twilight. "Find out anything useful?" The princess ruffled her wings and her muzzle scrunched up. Vermillion hid a smile at the amusing response.

"I made a few notes about it," the dozen or so filled scrolls in her bags belied, "but I can't quite figure out the important details without interacting with it with my magic, and if your experience is any indicator, that wouldn't end well. Plus with her in her exhausted state, I can only imagine the kind of strain in would put on her. That and I don't want anypony giving her any more trouble than she already gets. I think it has to do with the talisman. I felt a little awkward around her, but I didn't feel any 'bad vibes' or anything from her." She tapped a hoof to her chin. "But you've been rather good at magic, particularly shield spells," she continued as she began pacing in the lobby. "And I obviously have plenty of magical power on hoof, so maybe its influence doesn't get through to us, our own magic insulating us? Or maybe it doesn't want magically talented ponies tracking it...." She was devolving into muttering and postulating until Vermillion stopped her with a firm hoof.

"Princess, we'll sort it out. As long as she stays clear of everypony else, I can handle any... outbursts the hunk of junk encourages. You may want to help me with my first-aid spells, though. I have a feeling they'll be more useful the longer we take." The princess gave him a sad little nod. And they bid their farewells to each other and the other ponies in the store before making their way out. It was a lot later than he had planned to head out, so he did not expect to find any residence managers still at work. With that conclusion, he set a course for Twisted's house, both to check on her and, more likely than not, crash at her place for the night. If her response to his departure was any indicator, she certainly welcomed him staying there. As such he quietly made his way inside and up to her room to check on her after he arrived.

As he entered the dark room a pair of dark red eyes looked over at him, the light from the moon above the skylight highlighting the long body of Discord who was almost coiled around a small bump in the blankets that could assumedly be his companion. His eyes shifted for a moment as the mare shifted in her sleep, adjusting himself to keep her comfortable before looking back over at the stallion.

"A shower might do you well." Discord said softly. This was probably the calmest and most serious he had ever been in his life. Despite the teasing and tormenting of his friend, he did seem to really care, so much so he would sit still for this long to keep his friend comfortable.

It was definitely a sight to behold. He smirked a bit at the look he received from Vermillion, "I know. It's odd for me to hold another so high and so close, isn't it? I mean... You knew me before Fluttershy's reformation. Well... you knew my magic." He shook his head a bit, "Anyway, get cleaned up so you both can get some sleep, would you? I can still see the confetti in your mane."

Vermillion smiled that crooked, genuine smile before turning to the bathroom and carefully turning the water on and stepping in. The flow washed away the last evidence of the ‘conflict’ at the bakery, and the sound of flowing water and steamy heat of the shower lulled him into a contemplative state, the events of the day and each conversation coalescing into a single train of thought. Of all the strangest tidbits of the day, Twisted seemed perfectly fine during the ridiculousness over at Sugarcube Corner. No rampage, no bruises, not even a mean word. Given how active and engaging the situation had been, he actually wondered why the trinket had not activated. Was the area chaotic enough? Something to do with the presence of the element bearers, perhaps...

Maybe she just needed to get it out of her system once in a while. But she hardly had a temper. Did it? It had almost spoken to him through her when he rammed his sword through it. Was it sentient? If so, was he crazy enough to try and befriend an ancient chaos artifact?

I think up some weird stuff in the shower, he mused.

After soaking for more than long enough, he lathered up thoroughly and rinsed off, stepping out and vigorously drying off. He stepped back into the bedroom with the bathroom light off, faintly lighting his horn to find his way. He checked the bed to see if Discord was staying.

The coiled mass looked up at him as he came back. "I leave her to you then," he said softly before he snapped, his form disappearing and leaving the two alone. His absence seemed to only disturb the mare for a minute as she whined and struggled to get comfortable again in her own blankets, her wings curling around her shoulders as she struggled to keep the heat from Discord from escaping around her.

He sighed softly before getting up onto the bed and taking advantage of his size to wrap halfway around her, and a quick flick of his magic brought over his scarf to wrap around her as well. He placed his head down flat on the bed, his chin almost jutting out in a pout as he let his own fatigue drag him into sleep as well.

He cracked his eyes as morning broke, and eyed the skylight suspiciously, as if it might betray him and let the sun through early. Seeing that he had, for once, awoken before Twisted, he carefully got up and quietly made his way downstairs and into the kitchen.

Through the night Twisted had curled up with him, her wing gently laid across his back like when they had been camping, though when he got up she hardly seemed to notice more than the sudden lack of warmth. She shifted with a soft and sleepy sigh as she buried her muzzle into his scarf.

As he touched down on the bottom floor, Discord yawned, his back cracking loudly as he pulled himself upright from the couch. Had he slept here all night? Discord looked up at the hoof beats, quirking a brow at his messy mane and lack of scarf as a smirk crossed his lips, "Sleep well?~"

Vermillion rolled his eyes. "Well enough. Now help me find the waffle iron or summon one up for me if you want some breakfast." He dismissed waiting for a response before trotting heavily up to the coffee maker. Today was one of those days his gut said would need it.

After getting a pot roasting and checking for any useful additions, he determined the house was in need of a proper mocha mix in the future, and he would have to settle for cream and sugar in the interim. Next step was to mix up some waffle batter, which went much more quickly and smoothly than he anticipated. "Hey D, you find that waffle iron?" he asked as he prepped the stove.

Discord snapped as a rather large, bright purple waffle iron clanked down on the stove, the draconequus settling down in one of the chairs to watch. "Someone seems grumpy." He snickered a bit before one of his ears flicked back towards the door. "Seems the princess has an idea~!" He snapped his fingers as the door sprouted legs and moved out of the way, leaving a confused and flustered Twilight in half-knocking mode.

"Well do come in~!"

Vermillion turned to look at the princess, blinked, then returned his attention to the iron. He decided waiting for it to preheat was not in his agenda and lit a flame spell almost to the point of a blowtorch and heated the pan much more quickly, then placed it on the stove and poured some batter in. "How do you like your pancakes, princess? Browned, or still a bit of gooey batter?" He was far from a morning pony, and he certainly had not been expecting to see her this morning, especially not this early. He was not sure if he was still on leave at this point, but if not he was counting this under part of his special assignment as a guardian or whatever they wanted to call it.

Breakfast first, or even her highness can shove it, he thought within the safe confines of his own head.

The purple mare walked in, eyeing the door that now took its place back in the entryway. "Uh... browned please." she responded sheepishly, noticing his demeanor. Discord snickered a bit to himself as he pushed a chair out for her, leaning heavily on the table as his tail twitched behind him. He was definitely enjoying the stallion’s irritated mood, "So then. Shall we find you an apartment today?"

"That’d probably be a good idea. Kinda missed it yesterday with all the hubbub at Sugarcube Corner. I figure a single bedroom apartment will get the job done fine." He served up several well browned waffles for the princess with a glass of juice and apples that he sliced with the flurry of a knife as they passed to the table. Discord got a teetering plate of nearly gooey ones, while Vermillion piled his first batches of over or undercooked ones for himself. A stack of perfectly golden waffles remained on the stove to stay warm for Twisted. He shoved a piece of one waffle into his mouth and contemplated its slight crunchiness.

The smells of breakfast and the voices from below took little time to stir the mare upstairs. After a few groans and a near-death experience falling out of the bed, Twisted sleepily walked down the stairs, Vermillion's scarf twirled around her neck as she greeted her companions.

"Morning," she mumbled, her eyes falling upon the odd sight of the princess of friendship, a royal guard on holiday, and the spirit of chaos eating oddly sized waffles at her kitchen table. "... I think I'm still sleeping or Discord brought his own waffle iron again," she mumbled, taking a seat next to Vermillion and leaning on the table with another yawn. "Oh... By the way..." She looked up at him with a small smirk. "Sorry for stealing your scarf... It's really comfortable."

"No worries, I happen to think it looks great on you." His comment was delivered flatly, emotional expression limited to neutral at best in the morning. "And yes, Discord provided the waffle iron. Evidently not the first time. And don't ask me about Twilight, I don't know what's up with that either." He punctuated that sentence but stuffing his face and giving a pointed look at the alicorn sitting across the table, his flat expression ruined by his bulging cheeks.

Twisted chuckled softly and nodded. "That's why I'm keeping it," she teased, sticking her tongue out at him before looking at Discord. "And I heard something about apartment hunting today?

He chewed thoughtfully on an apple slice and nodded slowly. "Yeah, that kinda fell through yesterday, so I should take care of it today. If I get that all squared away I wont have any pressing issues before the party. Pinkie will have most of it set up, and one of the treaties we signed covered the restrictions on guests." He popped another bite and waited to swallow before continuing. "It should be a nice little affair, although how she figured out a couple of my guard buddies ended up around here is anypony's guess."

Twisted tilted her head at him. "Your guard buddies are here? Why didn't you tell me?" She grinned and nudged him. "Dont wanna introduce me or what?" She giggled a bit and stuck her tongue out at him before taking a bite out of her own waffles.

Things seemed almost normal now. Discord was teasing the princess since she had decided to scold him for using his magic on Twisted's door and it ended up with him enchanting a couple other things on the table which seemed to be frazzling the purple mare.

"Dissy!" Twisted frowned playfully, "Be nice to our guest!" She shoved another forkful of food into her mouth before looking back at Vermillion, "So!" she started with a swallow of waffle, "uhm, did you happen to see any of the apartment complexes since you've been here that look nice? I bet with the guard pay you could afford a house if you plan on settling here when you're not working."

He gave that a solid bit of consideration. "That's... not a bad idea in the long run." His eyes seemed to become distant for a moment before he shook his head. "Something to think about for down the road. In the mean time, an apartment will do. I spotted a couple nice locations, but I'm probably going to just end up being that guy and renting the cheapest place I can find." He gave a little shrug and a smirk. "And I didn't know anypony I knew from the guard was here. Pinkie brought it up. The things royal intelligence could do with her abilities..." His overly wistful tone belied the seriousness of his statement. "So, if I may, Twilight, why exactly are you here this morning? I wasn't expecting to see you until I reported in this afternoon."

"Reported in?" The mare chuckled softly and shook her head, "I honestly just came by to see how everyone was. After that, ahem, battle," she paused as a frown was replaced by a slightly forced smile, "and the whole clean up I wanted to make sure everypony got home safely..."

"Of course they did, You don't doubt me, do you princess?" Discord pouted, giving her puppy eyes that she almost failed to overcome. Almost.

"Discord, I don't doubt you but you like playing pranks on all ponies and frankly I think Pinkie wore you out last night," Twilight shot back and snickered a bit before getting to her hooves. "Anywho, I could escort you to the apartments. I know a bunch that are close to the castle that are relatively cheap."

Vermillion smiled and nodded. "That sounds like a good plan to me. Let me just clean up breakfast and we can get to it. Anything you need while I'm in town, TR? I can pick it up after I get the housing arrangements all squared away," he offered as he levitated the dishes over to the sink. He scrubbed off the waffle iron and set it aside to dry. "You uh... you want this iron back, Discord? Not sure where it goes since you, y'know, poofed it here."

"Oh no, I'll take care of it later~" He smirked a bit before ruffling a sleepy Twisted's mane, "And I'm sure we can take care of anything she needs."

Twisted shook her head, her mane fluffing a bit in her face before she looked up at the two leaving ponies, "Well uh... I guess if you see any sweets you think I'd like then grab those but, uhm, I think I'm okay," she said sheepishly, waving a hoof at them as they walked out the door.

He offered a warm smile and a wave as he left with Twilight, stepping out into the morning sun with his customary grimace. He tried his best but after a moment he sneezed. He scowled at the sun as the princess giggled, and then they were on their way down the path away from Twisted's house.

"So my dear," Discord began as he moved over to the few dishes that remained, animating them to clean themselves. "I have tea with Fluttershy this afternoon, but my morning is otherwise free." A snap of a claw and the waffle iron disappeared, and in his paw appeared a day planner. "I can't even begin to imagine what I might do with free time on my hands. Care to help a fellow out?~"

Twisted chuckled softly, looking up at him, "Well... I guess I did need to go into the forest to grab some stuff for this tea I've been looking into... Did you want to come?" She looked up at Discord with a small smile, contemplating the ingredients she would need. "It's supposed to help calm the user..."

Discord nodded firmly, serious for a moment. But, as usual, it quickly disappeared as the dishes finished themselves and he whisked her along and out the door. "So where exactly in these delightful woods are we heading? Hopefully nowhere too dull, or I might just have to mix things up a little." He snapped and disappeared in a flash to reappear coiled on her head like a turban. Another click and a pair of obnoxiously colored saddle bags materialized on her back. "You might be needing these to store that... tea, was it?"

She looked up at him with a small smirk, "Yeah... It's got a couple odd ingredients so I gotta be careful." She looked back at the bags warily, "Please tell me there isn't already stuff inside these from your last escapade?" She groaned, remembering the LAST time she had been saddled with bags he provided. She was a nice shade of pink for almost a week.

Discord scoffed for a moment, looking at her expression before sagging a bit. "Oh fine, you're no fun." He reached down with an arm that stretched impossibly far for his size and lifted a flap, the explosion of confetti and fake snakes causing him to snicker a bit as he closed the bags once again. "That should be the only surprise in store, but I'm never too sure with my magic." He settled back in, striking a coy pose atop her head as she took them further into the Everfree. "So what exactly is it that we're looking for? I'd like to be helpful, and some of the more... entertaining varieties of flora are some of my best handiwork."

Twisted jumped a bit at the sudden loud noise before blowing her bangs up in his face with a small smirk, "Well then.. I remember needing some poison joke, some heart’s desire, and some more phoenix poppies." She turned off a small pathway she knew lead towards Zecora's area where she knew some poison joke grew though she did not quite know how she was going to package it without doing something ridiculous to herself first.

"Ohoho, poison joke was quite the treat to make back in the day. It's one of the ones that just never gets old. Although I'm curious to see what fun effects it has on you..." he contemplated, stroking his beard until it popped off. A quick look at the talisman hanging from her neck made him frown. "Well, nevermind, the other ones should be simple enough to find. I didn't make the phoenix poppies but I wish I had! They're wonderfully chaotic on their own if you let them ignite." The beard between his fingers went up in a tiny flame before another stroke of his chin marked its return to his face.

Twisted frowned a bit before shaking her head, "Yes, well, I'm sure I don't want to know what's got you in such a responsible mood." She stuck her tongue out at him before flapping her wings to get her up in the air to fly over the bright blue flower patch they had arrived at. "Any way of picking them without turning me some weird color again?"

"I supposed levitation would do the trick, but somepony is rather lacking in the horn department. I could try and use my magic, but while I'd rather enjoy the results I somehow think you won't. Well, time to have a bit of fun then! It's why I'm here after all. I'm going to need to borrow these, first, though." With that, he plucked her wings from her back, and with a quick flick to her forehead, she sprouted a horn. "Yes, yes, unicorn magic doesn't mix blah, blah... get on with it then!"

She whined a bit as she landed with a thunk on the ground, wincing a bit as she landed inches from the first of the flower patch. She grumbled, her magic swirling a bit as she frowned at him, "That was close you jerk!" She barked, shaking her head as she looked over the flower patch, finding a flower that looked healthy before focusing as Vermillion had briefly taught her. It took a few tries but she managed to pick it and put it in a glass jar she had the draconequus conjure, the poor thing's legs wiggling about as she put it into the saddle bag she knew had been emptied at the beginning of their errand.

"See! Nothing to it. I daresay you've learned a thing or two thanks to a certain stallion." He proceeded to provide her with a very literal wink-wink, nudge-nudge as he casually traipsed through the poison joke. "Although he has been getting rather buddy-buddy with the princess. I do wonder what they're studying sometimes..." He tapped his chin thoughtfully before exiting the patch and returning to her. "Ah, well, it's not like anything would bother you, right?"

She frowned a bit at his comments, though it had crossed her mind once or twice. "He's free to ‘study’ whatever he wants. I don't own him, ya know," she mumbled a bit, though she failed to hide the slight pink color added to her cheeks. "And no. It doesn't bother me." She grumbled as she headed ahead, "You coming or what?"

"Oh yes, just give me a moment." He reached behind one of the trees impossibly deep and pulls her wings out from them. He floated over and took her new horn off with an audible suction-cup pop before quite literally slapping her wings back on. "There we are, right as rain. Now, on to the... what was it again? Heart's desire, yes. I rather thought that walked off with the royalty, but I supposed the plant will do for now, right?" He twirled his tail with a claw as he sauntered further along the path.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" she grumbled, watching the smirk on his lips spread into a grin. "Discord it isn't nice to tease me you know," She continued to mumble, stretching her wings out as she felt him slap her on the back. "Geez, you're rough today. Something on your mind?"

He stretched and continued his nonchalant walk. "Oh, I'm just curious is all. Plus things have been a little tense lately, and it's just such a killjoy. I'm just trying to have my fun how I can! I'd rather not give Fluttershy a reason to take away tea time, so I can't use my usual, most maddeningly entertaining magic." He sigh and slumped for a moment before summoning an umbrella than rained from the inside. "Though I dare say my creativity has gone up a notch with the lack of more... counterproductive tricks." He twirled around a tree as they finally came across a patch of heart's desire, scooping up several ideal specimens and offering them an the semblance of a bouquet to the pegasus.

"Well I told you all you gotta do is ask." She blinked a bit as she was greeted with the bouquet before she chuckled gently and took them from him. "Thanks Dissy.." She smirked a bit and kissed his cheek. "Besides, I like your magic for what it's worth. What do I need a unicorn around for when I have the best and most fun magic around?" She stuck her tongue out at him as she added the bouquet to her pack gently and started heading for the poppy field.

Discord smirked, his cheeks coloring for but a moment, then straightened himself up and dismissed the downpouring umbrella. "Quite. Now what was that last thing you needed? Poppy seeds was it?" he asked as he summoned a book titled "Horticulture Experimentation Log 3B" with the letters TS adorning the spine. "Oh my, quite a few breeds of that particular one. Fluttershy might like those..." he said as he floated along upside down.

Twisted snickered a bit and shook her head, "You know Purple Smart isn't going to like that you took books from her library. If you recall, last time you got to her books you ate them." She trotted ahead a bit, spotting a few flowers ahead that almost seemed like fire on the horizon. "There we are."

The draconequus snapped and the book disappeared. To where, one might only guessed, but hopefully back to its rightful place in the library. "Yes, yes, I do recall. Is there anything else I can help with before I go about my day? It's nearly noon now." A quick look through the canopy confirmed as much, time having passed quickly during their search.

"No, no, go ahead. Don't want to be late." She smiled softly and hugged him. "Thanks for your help, Dissy."

He returned the hug warmly before stepping back and clearing his throat. "I'd best be off, then. Ta ta!” A snap and flash later, and he was gone, leaving Twisted to walk the path home alone. She made it back with little incident and stored the ingredients, being particularly careful with the poison joke, but otherwise had an afternoon to herself. A quick knock at the door brought her attention to it, only to find a pink envelope stuck to it. Opening it triggered a little poof and a small cloud of confetti, but the contents indicated the time the next day for the party, and included a guest list for her. The list was pleasantly short, including the element bearers, Vermillion, and several other ponies she was familiar with.

She flinched a bit at the sudden poof of the paper flakes but after looking over the list she smiled and walked back inside to spend the day with her newly brewed tea.

The sun had already dipped below the horizon as she heard her front door open and close, the sound of hoofsteps drawing her attention to the foyer. Vermillion was setting down his bags as he made his way over to her. "Heya! I got the apartment all squared away, but it's nowhere worth staying in yet. I'll head out with a, uh... buddy of mine to fix that here soon." Was he blushing? "Anyway, mind if I crash here tonight until I can get set up at the apartment?"

She felt a twitch run through her before she looked back down at her book. "A buddy, eh?" She gave a small smile as she ran her eyes over the page. "And yeah, of course you can stay." The scent in the house was... different. Flowery and warm unknownst to him from her tea earlier. "Oh. I got Pinkie's invite by the way."

"She sent out invites? That's weird, I didn't..." he said as he turned and glanced at his saddlebags, seeing the crimson and pink corner of an envelope. "I'm guessing it's rigged with confetti, knowing that mare, so I'm just going to leave it there until I feel like safely extracting it later. Something smells nice. You cook something for lunch today?"

"Tea. Dissy helped me find the ingredients earlier." She yawned softly and stretched out her wings. "So your girlfriend in town?" She smirked, glancing up over her book.

He went a couple shades darker at that. "I, uh... something like that." She had never seen him this flustered before, his bravado completely absent. "What kind of tea was it? I haven't smelled something like this one before." It hardly took a mage to divine he was deflecting her.

She shook her head and closed her book, "It was meant to help calm me down." She got off the couch and stood before him. "Something like that?" She tilted her head, "Want to explain, Mr. red-as-a-barn?"

He flopped down at the table and seemed to search for something. "You didn't save any tea for me? How cruel." His tail was flicking back and forth across his seat, muttering, "I could use a bit of soothing the way this conversation is going..."

She sighed softly, heading to the stove where a tea kettle was still sitting and poured him a new cup, "Look.. I don't care if you want to tell me or not, just say so." She set the cup in front of him, a few heart-shaped petals lingering on the top of the light pink liquid.

He took a few sips of tea, finding it indeed rather soothing. He gave her a serious look. "If this gets to the guards, I'm blaming you, and I will be coming for payback." He took a deep, calming breath. "Sooo... I went to a carnival just outside of town and... met... a stallion." He seemed to deflate and his head smacked into the table. "Before you ask, yes, I thought I was straight too."

She blinked for a moment before giggling to herself, "Awwwww!" She smiled softly, "Vermillion, there's nothing to be ashamed of. Why were you so worried about that?"

His voice was muffled by the hardwood of the table as he answered. "Because guards already give me enough crap over other little things." He lifted his head up from the table. "Plus it kinda caught me off guard, since most other stallions don't... aren't... adorkable." The blush returned heavily. "Come on, I date mares up until this point, totally dig it, and then WHAM!" he said, punctuating with a slammed hoof. "So I know I'm not gay exactly. Just... flexible? You tell me you'd be totally cool just randomly finding out you're bi." He paused for a moment. "Then again it really didn't take much to roll with it..." He shrugged. "I guess I just don't feel like dealing with the plothole ponies out there." He rubbed his temples with his hooves. "So how was your day?"

"Well..." She muttered softly, rubbing the back of her neck, "A-Anyway... My day was quiet really. Not nearly exciting as yours." She chuckled softly and nuzzled him, "Come on. I think we should get to bed. You've had a bit of a shocking day."

He finished the tea and levitated his cup and the other remnants over to the sink, rinsing them out and putting them away. "And bed sounds rather nice. I could use some sleep for tomorrow. Twilight wanted to test a theory tomorrow morning before the party. I didn't get all the details, but she was pretty excited about it and wanted me to help out."

"If you two end up hitting it off, I'd love to meet him~" She stuck her tongue out at him playfully as she slipped into her side of the bed.

She could hear his exasperated sigh from across the room as he made his way to the bathroom, calling out, "I'm going to shower so I don't stink up your bed. Back in a flash." The bathroom door shut and the sound of running water could be heard as he got to it.

Though she smiled softly to herself she felt a small twinge of pain in her chest. Was she... jealous? She frowned at her mental realization and buried her head into her pillow in discontent. Me? Jealous? Why? We're friends. I have stallions I'm already interested in. So why is this feeling so painful?

She sighed heavily with a equally exasperated groan, muffled into the fabric of her pillowcase as she stretched out her wings and more or less flopped against the mattress. If she ever met him it would not be the most ideal of meetings. That was for sure... And Dissy being all pushy about it did not help either.

She listened softly to the sound of the water hitting tile, an oddly soothing sound as it slowly lulled the grey mare to sleep, gently curling herself around her pillow.

Vermillion made his shower rather brief compared to his usual, and returned to the bedroom and dried off. His gaze lingered on the shape of Twisted under the covers for a few moments before he returned the towel to its place to dry and got himself settled and comfortable for the night. He spent some time staring up into the stars before finally drifting off to sleep.

He awoke some time later, and a glance up into the skylight indicated it was not yet dawn. If the passage of the moon was any indicator, it was not terribly far, though. He decided to sit and contemplate what the day might bring and mentally checking his readiness for any number of scenarios that the party might throw their way. He sighed quietly and simply tried to enjoy the soft embrace of the mattress and pillow beneath him as dawn approached.