Treezie in the Sky with Discord

by Amonisis

Rating: everyone
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Comedy, Other, Random, Discord, Slice of Life
Length: 6258

Discord has a bone to pick with Tree Hugger for being too forgiving too easily. Can they get their Chakras cleared up and find the right aural frequency for a groovy good time?

The Grand Galloping Gala has finally ended after a wacky night of shenanigans.

However, Discord still has a chip on his shoulder about the whole thing, and it's not even his favorite flavor! He now must talk get on the same astral level as Tree Hugger and find out why his aural frequency is so low, and how come she could forgive Discord so easily.

Discord will soon find out that one can get a contact high off of life!

Published 2015-07-15 19:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-07-15 19:10:01 UTC

Treezie in the Sky with Discord

Treezie in the Sky with Discord

By Amonisis

Discord hugged the Smooze goodbye. “Take care, smoozinator! And don’t worry about the carpets. I’ve been meaning to get them stained anyways!”

The gelatinous blob friend turned around to his house, an even larger gelatinous blob typical of those inclined to live a traditional blobby life. How an ooze could make heads or tails inside that kind of home was beyond most comprehension, but it’s a happy home nonetheless.

Discord stood at the curve for a minute staring at nothing. What is this odd feeling that I’m getting? He snapped out of his trance and materialized a cherry red hot rod. He knew he could just snap his claws to go home, but he wanted to clear his head by driving through the chaos induced void that was his home. He got in his front seat, buckled his seat belt, started his engine, then went spinning and flipping uncontrollably into nothingness.

“I just need to careen into the infinite and despairing chasm of the void for four light-years and then take a left at Eris Road, then I know the streets well enough to get home,” he said aloud to himself. The vacuum of space was nice this time of year, the silence allowed him to think more clearly. Discord shifted gears and leaned back in the seat to let the gamma particles flow through his hair.

He talked with himself, ”I know I did bad at the Gala. I was being a jealous and possessive mess! I apologized to Fluttershy and Tree Hugger as well as most of the other ponies for my actions. So why do I still feel like something is amiss?”

His car got caught in the event horizon of a black hole, making Discord furious. He shouted, ”Oh darnit! How I hate construction! This is going to take forever to get around! Although I suppose it does give me some time to puzzle out this conundrum.”

He stroked his goatly beard and pondered, ”Maybe the reason why I feel bad is because I ruined the gala for everypony?” He shook his head and laughed. “Nah! I and everypony knows that the Smooze livened up that collective snorefest for everypony!” He kept trying to think, hearing the hamster run in his wheel, ”Come on Gilbert! Give me something!”

A light bulb appeared above his head, and although the light and the bulb itself were caught in the gravity of the black hole, Discord still kept his idea. “Maybe it’s because of Tree Hugger! She has forgiven me so quickly, and it’s been bugging me. She should at least have the audacity of holding a thousand year grudge against me! In fact, I’m going to go settle this whole mess right now!”

He hopped out of the car and used his automatic lock to make sure nobody steals it. “I’m going to see you soon, Treezie!” He snapped his claw and was gone, leaving his car to fall eternally towards singularity.

___

Breathe deep. Inhale, exhale, repeat from the Swavisthana chakra…

“Ooooooooooohm… neeeeeeigh…”

The soothing tones of Tree Hugger’s meditation resonated through the open air; through the leafy oak trees that reached for the sky; and through the rocks that dotted the earth. Everything sat in serene stillness, the only exception was the slight rustling of leaves from the canopy above the green earth pony. All was in blissful sonic peace.

“Ooooooooooohm… neeeeeeigh…”

Tree Hugger could feel the energy rise through her as she shifted focus from one Chakra to the next, as though a purifying light was flushing out all stagnant negative gunk from the flowing river of her soul. With each breath she was closer to harmonic resonance to the universe.

“Ooooooooooohm … neeeeeeigh…”

“You ponies and your cute noises!” a voice sounded out of nowhere, ”if I could bottle them up, I could probably make a fortune off of them. Either that or make an herbal whinny soup.” Laughter filled the air. A flash lit up the woods in front of Tree Hugger, revealing the Lord of Chaos, Discord.

“Cool! Could you also make an organic herbal bath out of horse noises too?” Tree Hugger continued the train of thought, ”it would be cool to see what sound smells like.”

“You know that was meant to be a joke, right? Although, I do know of a certain sound that smells. It involves eating a few too many bean burritos.” A whoopee cushion popped next to Tree Hugger; Pfft! “Oops, excuse me!” Discord said as he blushed.

Tree Hugger giggled, “Dude! I didn’t know you could be so funny, righteous dragon goat bro!”

“Me, funny? You must have the wrong Draconequus. I’m all serious and all business all the time!” Discord was wearing a business suit with shoulder pads that reached out at least fifty feet to each side with a briefcase and coffee in his grasp.

“Your aura today is a clear and bright yellow today! It is so alive! I just want to be in it! You know?” Tree Hugger started to sway as her smile grew to each cheek. “To what do I owe this most awesome of meetings, man? I haven’t seen you in like… a couple weeks… maybe?”

Apparently I was in that black hole longer than I thought. “Can’t a Lord of Chaos just pop in unannounced to a friend of a friend?” Discord said with claw to his heart, ”I mean it’s not like I came here for a specific reason. I mean I wouldn’t be chaotic if I were so predictable.” Discord’s nose grew a foot when he finished his sentence.

“No need to give reason to what is. Like, this is all pre-destined from the beginning of the universe and our cosmic flow has crossed paths, man!” said Tree Hugger, holding out her forelegs over an invisible expanse. “However if there is a reason, it would be groovy to let me know the faux secreto.”

And ponies accuse me of being strange, myself included, Discord thought to himself. “Well you caught me in a bit of a fib. You see, ever since the gala I have been puzzling myself over the things that happened, what with me being jealous, the Smooze being goopy, you saving the day,” Discord snapped his claw to make a mariachi band appear. He was also in a colorful red and green poncho with a sombrero on his head as he continued, ”and me threatening to throw you into a dimension beyond pony understanding with the delightful Senior Huevos.” He boomed proudly on his trumpet along with the music.

“That was pretty harsh on my mellow.” Tree Hugger’s expression slipped from her normal bliss to a more serious one, ”But that moment has left us, and neither of us are the same pony or dragon-thingie that we were. So everything is, like, Zen between us now.”

“But that’s just it!” Discord said. He snapped his claws and the mariachi band and garb disappeared. Many little figurines popped into existence in front of him, each one of the shaped like a different pony. He picked up one in each of his twenty something claws and paws.
“A thousand or so years ago, I ruled over Equestria and subjected the ponies to my wondrous chaos magic.” He made the Discord figurine dance while other pony figurines were lying on their side, he made a few of them shiver by shaking them a little.

“But then, Princess Sunny Side Up and Moon Pie came in and ruined my fun!” The two princess figurines hopped over and he shook them at the Discord figurine, making him shake then freeze in place. “In hindsight, I guess they were right with the whole ‘do not harm or torture ponies for one’s own amusement’. But at the time, being frozen in stone really harshed my mellow.”

“However, thanks to the helpful little fight between three adorable little fillies…” He held a yellow filly, orange filly, and white filly and rammed them into each other.

“You’re dumb!” Discord used a high pitched and squeaky voice.

“You’re the dumb one!” He used a raspy and slightly deeper voice.

“I’m a book, you’re a chicken!” He then used a southern drawl.

“Nuh-uh! You are a marshmallow!” He said in the raspy voice.

Then Discord started to shake his figurine, ”That little scruff set this gruff stuff free.”

“At last I was free to do with Equestria as I pleased again! And so I did some renovations that were so desperately needed!” Random objects floated around the figurines; checker board designs; floating houses; tutu-wearing buffalos; all being doused in chocolate milk. “I turned all of Equestria on its silly little head.”

“Ooh!” Tree Hugger had a revelation. ”So you did all that crazy stuff? Man I thought I had taken one too many tabs and imagined all that groovy stuff!” She giggled at the memory of all the weird and wild things from that day. ”Could you do that again? That was, like, the best trip I didn’t even know I was not on.”

“Unfortunately no, as a bona fide good guy now I must be on my best behavior.” Discord was glowing with angelic light, donned on his crown a glowing halo, and in his claw he strummed a Lyra.

“Hey!” yelped the mint green pony. She frantically looked around, wondering where she had been transported to. She was in the forest and saw a green earth pony on the ground waving at her. She then saw a large goat headed snake creature holding her.

“Oops! Sorry, the text can always be so confusing! I mean, lyre, Lyra. Simple enough mistake.” With a snap of Discord’s claws, Lyra was gone.
___

Lyra appeared back in her home. ”Whoa, what? Who? What the buck just happened?” the dazed unicorn asked to an ephemeral audience.

“What was that, Lyra? Did you say something?” A voice from upstairs asked, ”are you seeing weird apes again?”

“No, Bon Bon! This time I was summoned into the middle of the woods by Discord for a name pun!” Lyra replied.

“Okay, that’s fine. Just remember to take your medication. I don’t want you to go out another human hunt!” Bon Bon said.

“Fine!” Lyra went over to the medicine cabinet and pulled out the bottle of pills for her hallucinations, so called by Bon Bon and her doctors. She took out a pill and looked at it for a moment, then threw it outside into a bush. “I took my pill!”

“Fantastic, sweetheart!” Bon Bon said, her voice now sweeter and more enticing, “now I’m making some truffles for us after dinner, I don’t want you to miss that!”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world!”

Lyra stepped out of her house. She whispered to herself, ”I’m going to find those humans! Today feels like the day!”

She looked around sweet innocent Ponyville and pondered the town’s immense resilience. Too many times has it been attacked by some sort of giant monster or abomination that threatened its very existence. However every single time it bounced back in response, making this town a symbol of strength in both Lyra’s mind and probably the mind of most Equestrians. The only time she felt uncertain that it was going to survive was when Discord came to town and literally turned reality on its head.

Speaking of Discord, she thought to herself. He really seems like he can do anything! Maybe he could help me out, with a small bit of persuasion. She grew a wicked grin and ran off in the direction of the woods where she remembered being spirited away to. I’m going to find Discord, and with him, my final proof of humanity!
___

Amongst the forest thicket, Discord and Tree Hugger were still talking. Discord pranced the little horse figurines around like a child using his imagination to create stories for them. He thought about how Tree Hugger was able to enjoy all that chaos, as well as forgive him.

“Come to think of it, you are the second pony I’ve known that actually liked when things got a little kooky for this one-pony town. Maybe there is some hope for you after all.” He cleared his throat, ”Now where was I? Oh yeah!”

“That’s when I met Ms. Sparkle and her band of friendship cavaliers! Twilight was still a unicorn at the time, but she never lost her stick-in-the-mud charm to princesshood.”

Discord marched the purple pony figurine around and mimicked, “’Nag nag nag nag BOOKS!’ So on and so forth.” Discord sighed, “that was when I was frozen for a second time. I gotsa tell ya, being frozen in stone is not a pleasant experience, especially after a season passes and you can’t scratch that little itch on your nose.

“Well then I finally was released a third time. By the order of Celestia no less! I was one lucky little fella!”

He pranced the little Celestia doll over to the mane six dolls.”’I need you guys to free him, despite being known as a threat to Equestria. I think we can make him a goody two shoes so I can totally make out with hi- I mean see if his power can be channeled for good n’ stuff.’

“She specifically had Fluttershy, of all ponies, to reform me! At the time I thought this would be a cakewalk, given that she was the classic shrinking violet of the group according to Horseshowtropes.eq, and I took every chance I could to add a little chaos and mischief into her life.” The Discord figurine was laying on its back with a little bowl of paper in his claw while the little model cottage spun around. A tiny rabbit figurine had shot out the window. “It was definitely going the way I intended.” Discord paused as the rabbit figurine landed in the bushes and made an unusual yelping noise. “Or so I thought.

“I remember that day out on the lake, frozen in a sudden midsummer blizzard. Twilight and her funky bunch were ready to put me back in stone and urging Fluttershy to do the same. She turned them down and alas I was victorious.” The little Discord figurine commenced to jiggling in victory. ”With the Technicolor Dream Team out of the way, the world was now under my chaotic control.

“Fluttershy was the only pony I had ever met who acted ‘friendly’ up to that point without some sort of manipulation, bribe, or fear of being tarred and pony-feathered. I wanted to be free, so I tested her at every moment, knowing full well that she couldn’t change this draconequus!”

The Fluttershy figurine then walked away from the Discord one. He said, ”‘Not your friend!’ That is what she said back then. At that time, I won and had everything I could have hoped for.” Discord closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. ”Or so I thought.”

The figurines all popped out of existence, leaving the solemn looking Discord in front of Tree Hugger. “Even with the power to do anything I wanted and more, she somehow wormed her way into my crusty old heart. She gave me a shot when everypony else and their grandmother wouldn’t, and for arguably very good reasons. I could have easily just touched her forehead and place her under my control.” To emphasize his power, he used his magic to drag a squirrel to him. The squirrel was now floating in mid-air, unable to move as Discord placed his index claw on his furry head, color blasting his eyes and draining his brown fur of color. The squirrel stumbled on two legs, completely zombified. “But I knew that wasn’t what I wanted.”

Discord sat down on the grass. “I gave up being the ruler of Equestria, turned everything back to normal. Only then did Fluttershy come back and was my friend again. I mean can you imagine? A being that thrives on chaos! Who relishes in the complete iconoclasm of the world, giving all of that up for one friend? It simply blows the mind!” His head then popped like a balloon. His neck hissed as a new head inflated in its place.

“That story is giving me major real feels, man.” Tree Hugger smiled. She felt honored by Discord’s openness with her. ”It doesn’t take an aura reading to know how much she means to you, man. But I do have to ask, why are you telling me all this?”

“Well, I have given Fluttershy no reason to trust me yet she did, especially after what I had done to them and to Equestria. Yet she was the first one to try and be friend, the one quickest to forgive me. I still tried to mess and toy with her, but she still helped me anyways in her infuriatingly nice and angelic way. It’s so much nurturing kindness that not even I can get away from the sappiness of it all!”

Discord started tearing up and snapped his claws.
___

The sun was beating down on the majestic Cloudsdale during the final race of the Equestrian Grand Prix. The crowds were cheering fervently as the Pegasus racers flapped, dipped, ducked, dived, and dodged every obstacle and everypony they came across. It was one of the most difficult races ever constructed by the Cloudsdale Pegasi, weeding out the losers from the real champions.

Leading the pack was Ponyville local and crowd favorite Rainbow Dash. However she only held onto that lead by a wingspan as her rival, Lightning Dust, tried to close the gap with every maneuver and advantage possible. The gap shrank as they turned the last corner, checker flag victory in both their sights, but Rainbow Dash was edging out her opponent.

The end was near and Rainbow Dash could taste sweet victory! She barely had any room to think with the adrenaline she felt coursing through her. She had won many races before, but the Grand Prix was the most important of them all, and the greatest chance to be a part of the Wonderbolts she could possibly have.

The two rivals were about to cross. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes and clenched her teeth; pushing with all her might to burn through that finish line!

Poof!
___

A rainbow blur shot through the clearing in front of Discord and Tree Hugger. The gust pushed back every tree and bush, ripping the leaves off of anything too close to the anomaly. The object stopped, revealing Rainbow Dash. She pumped her hoof in excitement.

“Yes! Yes! I did it! Who has two forehooves and just won the Equestrian Grand Prix?” Rainbow lifted her hooves up and pointed to her chest, opening her eyes to try and see Lightning Dust but saw that she no longer was in Cloudsdale.

“This... mare?”

Rainbow Dash found herself in what looked like a forest with tall leafy trees, like that of the Whitetail Forest near Ponyville. She felt confused and angry when she saw a familiar pair of yellow eyes and mismatched horns.

Discord smiled. “Oh thank you, Dashie. I just need your tail for a moment.”

Rainbow yelped, “What the? Discord?”

Discord wiped his eyes and nose on her tail.

“Hey! I’m not a snot ra-“

“Buh-Bye! Can’t wait to see you again!” Discord snapped his claws and she disappeared.
___

Rainbow Dash was back at the race just inches away from the goal post. She bolted immediately over the line and looked up at the score board. To her horror, she received 12th place. She fell to her haunches in stunned silence.

“And this year’s winner is,” the deafening voice of the intercom boomed, “Lightning Dust!”

On the podium that sat not too far away from the line Rainbow had just crossed was Lightning Dust being crowned in a golden olive laurel wreath and given a large gold medallion. Lightning Dust beamed as the waves of applause swept over her, drowning the string of swearing that Rainbow Dash let out.

“I’m going to make it rain Tartarus on him!” Rainbow Dash fumed. She flew off towards Ponyville, fighting any fatigue she had. “May he know the taste of my hoof and the fury of my wrath!”

She cocked her wings like a shotgun and then exploded towards the town; Leaving a trail of rainbow fire in her wake.
___

Tree Hugger could have sworn she recognized that blue rainbow pony from somewhere before. However after a thorough search of her mindscape, she felt that this will be a mystery that can never be solved. Tree Hugger accepted this reality, shrugged, and then looked up at Discord once again.

“Fluttershy.” Tree Hugger said her name with a growing smile. She contemplated all her experiences with righteously kind Fluttershy. “I could tell that pony had a deep connection with everything around her,” Tree Hugger mused, ”Her aura glows like sunlight, and her mind and actions are totally in tune with the harmony of the universe. Total agape love and kindness, I wish I could get on that level.”

“But that’s just it: I said that only two ponies have ever really forgiven me. The first is Fluttershy, obviously, but the second is you! Aside from Fluttershy, I could tell that Twilight and her League of Extraordinary Gentlemares don’t trust me, and to be honest that is fine by me. It makes it more fun to mess with them.” Two nearby trees bent down near the ground and formed a makeshift couch. Discord lied down and kept spilling his soul. ”But just like with Flutters, I threatened you with unspeakable horrors, yet once your chakras cleared up, you’ve given me forgiveness. What is it about you two that enabled you to do that?”

“Whoa! Heavy question, dude,” Tree Hugger remarked. Unsure of where the glasses and cigar came from, she placed them down to the side. ”Let me see if I can communicate it on this plane.” Tree Hugger closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her mind clicked. ”What would you do if you came across a wild manticore, or some other equally big creature?”

“I would probably put it in lederhosen and make it yodel,” Discord said in his best green lederhosen with an accordion between his paw and claw. He snapped his claw again and they appeared in a mess hall, surrounded on all sides with cider swilling ponies as they played polka in an Olde Style Octoberfest. Tree Hugger was in what looked like a Germane maiden outfit with braided hair.

“Trippy. I guess I mean if you were a pony, like me or Fluttershy?” Tree Hugger said as she was trying to get her hair back to their normal dreads.

Discord popped them back to the forest they were in. Tree Hugger’s hair was back to normal, yet the sound of polka and yodeling still rung in her ears.

“Well, without my powers and being normal pone pone, hmmm.” Discord mulled it over. ”I guess I would be, as you ponies say, scared out of my butt!” Another whoopee cushion appeared between Discord and Tree Hugger. Pfft!

“I already used that gag!” Discord scolded the magical novelty toy. The whoopee cushion sagged in shame and then disappeared. “Now don’t let me catch you trying to repeat my jokes again!”

Tree Hugger giggled, ”You’re kooky, man, but you got it right on the dot. A pony’s natural reaction to something that is larger than them and could easily hurt them is to be afraid of them. For those who aren’t tuned to the higher frequencies of beautiful mother Equestria, nearly everypony, regardless of how calm their mind is, will feel some sense of fear.” Tree Hugger pointed a hoof towards the trees behind discord where a single squirrel was scavenging for nuts, momentarily looking around until it spotted the zombie squirrel stumbling towards it. It skittered up the tree in a frantic pace. ”Fear keeps them alert and ready to flee or to fight. Then they learn to associate fear and mistrust with survival against that manticore or scary beast.”

“But I’m not afraid of no beast! For I am the bravest being in all the realms!” Like a true Asgardian, Discord wore his armor and held Mjölner up high. “I prefer green, gold, and horns, but whatever.”

Tree Hugger smiled at Discords antics. “No, but think of all those other ponies that met you, like Princess Twilight and her friends. You nearly made the world into a huge bummer, and they had to fight tooth and nail to make sure everything was groovy again. To them, you are the manticore to fear and mistrust.”

Discord clicked his claw on his chin and looked to one side, avoiding Tree Hugger’s half lidded gaze. “You have a point, but that didn’t answer my question. Why do you and Fluttershy trust me then? Do you both have some sort of odd mental condition that makes you too nice to ponies that don’t deserve it?” Discord felt like he has said that somewhere else to somepony with significantly less hair and less patience.

“I mean I’ve nearly destroyed Equestria three times, a thousand years ago, a year ago, and then with that lying centaur meanie pants Tirek.” Discord’s expression dropped. ”Although I was no better…” Discord trailed off. His head lulled over the other side of the tree couch he was lying on in an attempt to hide his shame, straight into a birds nest. “Oh pardon my intrusion, I didn’t mean to-Ow! Hey stop!” The birds began pecking and scratching at the yellow eyed intruder. “I’m sorry! I’ll leave! Jeeze!”

Tree Hugger waited for Discord to save his head from the angry birds, and then asked, “Well, how would you say Fluttershy or I deal with the manticore or big beastie?” Her head tilted gently to one side. Her dreads dangling like wind chimes waving in a breeze.

“Well I know Fluttershy would say something like, ‘Oh you poor dear, you must feel so confused and scared’.” Discord had a large pink wig on, now cuddling a manticore plushie. ”‘It’s okay now; you are a good little manticore. Everything will be alright.’” The wig disappeared. ”I guess since she can talk to them, she is able to understand them. With you? I imagine you would burp and neigh at them till they are happy.”

Tree Hugger lost her composure and fell into a giggling fit. ”Oh Hari Krishna! You are too much, man!” After letting her giggling subside she continued, ”Fluttershy has the ability to talk with the animals and understand them. I try to get them on the same emotional wavelength and let their negative fields dissipate. However the most important thing is that both of us know that they have their feelings and reasons too, man. The raging manticore might have a thorn in his paw and is in pain. The hungry chimera needs to eat so she attacks.”

“I don’t have a thorn in my side! And last time I checked, I had plenty of syrup waffles in my pantry.” His pantry appeared and he checked inside. The pantry burst open with waffle-shaped cookies, cascading over them in a syrup-clastic flow. Tree Hugger was now munching peacefully on an errant syrup waffle. ”Well I will need to visit the bakery soon, but still have plenty!” A sheep popped out of the pantry, escaping his syrup-soaked prison and sprinted off deeper into the less-sticky woods behind them.

“True, you have no thorns, and plenty of food. However I could tell one thing from your story.” Next to her some of those same figurines appeared, Discord stared in disbelief as she continued, ”all your existence, nopony trusted you or came close. So you decided to toy with them instead. You learned to live with it, to the point where you didn’t even notice there was something missing.” Tree Hugger made the Discord figurine walk away from the other ponies that had their backs turned.

“Then on the day that the Princess brought you back, one pony came close. She gave you a home and gave you attention. Yet these things were foreign to you and you acted the way you always have.” The Fluttershy figurine got close to Discord. The Discord figurine kept moving away. The real Discord stared as he remembered his actions from back then, as cold and mean spirited he was back then.

“It was only when you made her walk away from you that you realized that she gave you something that you never knew you wanted, never knew you needed.” The Fluttershy figurine walked away, leaving the Discord figurine alone. The Discord figurine looked around as Tree Hugger said emphatically, “A Friend.”

“From that point on, you changed. Instead of wanting nothing to do with ponies, you became friends with the one who didn’t fear you or try to force you to change.” The Fluttershy figurine came back to the Discord figurine. ”She knew that all those years of loneliness and mistrust clouded your vision. She knew that other ponies would fear your power and fuel that sense of mistrust between you and them. So she decided to bridge that gap and lead you across with her.” The Fluttershy and Discord figurines walked together in front of Tree Hugger. Despite being made of plastic, they both seemed to smile more the more they moved.

The figurines disappeared and Tree Hugger looked up at Discord. ”I may have not known you nearly as long as she has, my memory can be a little spacey. However, working with rare and mythical creatures, I have seen pride, mistrust, hunger, hatred, all thrown my way. ”She closed her eyes, strain wrinkled around her face. She sighed and continued. “But if I wanted to help them and nurture them, I needed them to let go of their mistrust, but on their own terms. I meditate and chant with them to help their emotional energy rise, but they ultimately need to decide to trust in me and my healing tones.”

She hummed as an example of her methodology and Discord felt his energy rise. He held onto a branch to keep himself from floating away. The zombie squirrel was nearly about to eat a poor defenseless squirrel when it stopped. His grey coat filled with wooden brown again and he returned to normal, fell back to four paws, and skittered off into a nearby bush. The other squirrel let out a squeaky sigh of relief and ran off in the opposite direction.

“You didn’t like me. You tried to tear a rift between Fluttershy and me, and grew angry and fearful because of it. I didn’t realize that until you were about to throw me into the portal with that thing, but it makes perfect sense.” Tree Hugger got off her haunches and stared at Discord. He didn’t sense any intimidation in her eyes, but his mind and body seemed frozen in that stare. “You could trust Fluttershy, but you didn’t trust me. And given she was your only real friend until then, it makes sense that you would be jealous and possessive.”

Tree Hugger walked up to Discord, confiding to him, “Nopony can just say they forgive without being from a place of authenticity.” Tree Hugger then hugged Discord, ”but I can say that I authentically forgive you, because I know you must have suffered quite a bit and not even known it.”

Discord was at a loss for words: he thought about Tree Huggers speech and noticed the strange leaves appearing on his antler and horn. He looked down at the hugging pony, and then returned the hug. They stayed locked in that hug for a while. Gradually, Discord felt something heal within him.

“Hey, Treezie,” Discord finally asked.

“Yeah, chaos bro?”

“Thank you.”

“No prob.”

“Hey, listen,” Discord said. ”What if I told you there was a parallel universe filled with these weird ape creatures, and some of them are just like you?”

“That would be pretty righteous!”

“Well, I know of a time where they had this big hootenanny called ‘Woodstock’ where a bunch of these creatures play a bunch of music and do various amounts of illicit things.” Discord scratched the back of his head. ”Would you want to go?”

“Discord, that would be one of the most awesome things ever! Let’s take Fluttershy and get harmonious with weird apes!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Discord snapped his claws again. The two of them disappeared from the forest grove and were on their way to a groovy good time.

A lone bush rustled nearby as something was fidgeting to be free from its branches. Lyra’s head popped out of the branches, her mane mangled with sticks and leaves caught in her mint flavored hair. She rubbed the top of her head from where that stupid bunny figurine hit her.

“So Discord knows of the weird apes known as humans too? I knew they were real! I knew it!” Lyra was pumping her hoof in the air in celebration. However, she quickly remembered something very important that was still in her way. “Oh crud! I don’t know how to talk with him or track him down!”

Lyra hung her head low as her dreams were draining away from beneath her when she heard a faint sound. Her ears perked up to listen to what it was. What in the hay is that? It sounds like a whistle, but I’m the only pony out here I think, Lyra tried to figure out the puzzle.

She looked around and saw a rainbow trail appear in the sky from over the tree canopy. The rainbow grew closer and the sound grew louder until it threatened Lyra’s ears, forcing her to cover them. The anomaly was almost directly on top of her when it halted, revealing that it was a pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail that had caused the noise.

“Discord!” Rainbow Dash screamed. “You show your stupid goat face right now and answer for my race that you stole from me!” She zoomed from place to place looking for Discord. Her posture resembled a hawk hovering in air, seeking a small rodent to capture for lunch.

Lyra kept still for fear of drawing the angry mare’s wrath. Eventually Rainbow Dash moved on to look elsewhere in the woods. Lyra felt the fury dissipate from the area.

“Of course! Rainbow knows him too. By the looks of it she is just as desperate to find him as I am.” Lyra felt her excitement rise at this thought. “I will find those humans soon, and Discord is going to help me make that dream come true! Mu-hahaha ha–“ A panicking sheep ran her over and stopped her triumphant laughter.

Lyra groaned, ”Where in Tartarus did that come from?” Lyra picked herself up and brushed off the dirt from her coat. She stood there for a moment and pondered, then placed a hoof on her chin. She then asked herself, “And why did it smell like syrup?”

“Is it possible that the sheep that just ran me over was a metaphor for a life changing event? A sudden unexpected and unexplainable thing happens and causes one to ponder the event that just happened, drawn to a deeper understanding like a black hole pulling us all in together to find the singular purpose for the existence of pony, Equestria, and possibly the world?” She stepped up on a nearby rock and looked up towards the sky. “Is this a promise to myself and all those who surround this great world of ours to never take what we have for granted? For even our certainty of how the world is and will be is nothing but an illusion, and the only thing that we can have any sort of control and sense of contentment from is being in the here and now?”

She furrowed her brow in contemplation. She huffed, “Nah! That’s dumb!”

Author's Note

Hey everypony! If you made it this far, then congratulations! You didn't give up and/or spontaneously combust!

Thank you for reading my first fanfic I have written in years; the only other one being something that should never see the light of day again. This one I have much better feelings about over all. It was just so much fun writing it down and just playing with the characters.

The only thing I really feel the need to mention is that this story kinda sets itself up like a sequel. I do not know if I will ever revisit this story, not because I wouldn't want to, but rather my brain doesn't work in such a predictable way. I can only ever write about the thing I'm feeling passionate about at any given moment, otherwise i just get a nice heaping helping of mental constipation.

I am completely open to critiques, so long as they are respectful. If i want to get better as a writer, I will need the help that others can give me.

Shoutout to my friend Shade (https://inkbunny.net/slightlyshade ) for helping me edit and go through this thing over and over again as he cracked his mighty whip to get me to fix stuff and not be so stupid. He is a prolific artist and writer, so check him out!