Twilight's Lesson
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Discord's Trial

Twilight's Lesson

Twilight:

"Boo!" I quickly jumped up in the air, terrified out of my mind. Once I plopped back onto my mattress, I quickly looked in the direction of the noise, and to my annoyance it was none other than Discord, who was literally laughing his draconequus butt off.

I was utterly furious, especially since I had laid down the law last night about pranks. For the most part though, I was relieved that I had taken the initiative to take my pills the night before, because that was quite a scare. My poor heart was still thumping loudly in my ears.

"Discord!" I yelled, stomping on over and glaring at him. "What was that for?! You could have given me a heart attack!" Anger flashed in my eyes, destroying any remnants of terror that I had only a few moments ago.

After a couple of minutes of more laughter, Discord's giggles finally subsided and his eyes fell on me, his golden irises full of playful mischief, but I mentally shook myself, because I knew this evil creature to be anything but playful.

"S-sorry! It's just- Oh, you should've seen your face!" and he erupted into more giggles.

I, however, was not amused, and told him as much when I promised that he would pay later with chores. This caused the draconequus to quiet abruptly, falling back into his sullen mood from yesterday. This day was already looking glum, and it was not because it was cloudy outside either. Sighing, I led a rather disgruntled Discord down to my small kitchen, where my wonderful assistant Spike was making waffles, one of my little indulgences that I could never resist.

"Morning Twilight!" Spike beamed at me, brightening my day a smidge with his cute baby face.

"Morning Spike! You're looking happy today. Did you wake up well?" I hardly ever woke up before Spike, so I always made it a point to ask how his day went so far.

"Awesome! I went over to Rarity's house early to help take out her trash, and to thank me, she gave me some yummy gems!" Spike had a huge smile on his face.

"You didn't eat them all, did you?" I asked sternly. Spike may be a growing dragon, but he WAS a little pudgy around the middle...

Spike blushed, coughed, and went back to his cooking. I laughed softly under my breath, shaking my head. A loud thump caused me to remember our guest, and I turned to see Discord sitting at the table, his Griffon claw holding up his head. He was staring off into space, looking bored out of his mind. It was still a little weird to see him so out of character, but without his powers, he was indeed out of his element. Resentment caused me to care little for him and his feelings, and Spike was pleasantly pretending that he did not exist. I thought that was a rather smart tactic, and was glad that he had listened to me yesterday when I warned him about any angry outbursts, no matter how much he disliked Discord.

I noticed the rather quiet atmosphere that began to thicken, so I struck up a conversation with Spike about what needed to be done today, which included the daily re-assortment of books, and Spike's usual chores. I also added that Spike would get the afternoon off, because Discord would be doing the rest of the chores. This elicited a loud WHOOP! from Spike, and a heavy groan from Discord. I didn't say anything after that though, because I knew that it was unwise to push Discord's buttons TOO far. I knew that in order for him to regain his powers, he had to change, so Discord was keeping himself in check, although he wasn't doing that great of a job.

After Spike served breakfast for me and Discord, he abruptly left to do his other morning chores, so that he may go over to play with the Cutie Mark Crusaders with Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Applebloom later. If he did them well enough, he could even have a sleepover with them, as long as Rarity was ok with it.

Discord didn't say anything as he stared pointedly at his food, not moving a muscle.

"What? You don't like waffles?" I asked, a little miffed to think that Discord probably thought that the food Spike prepared for him was beneath him.

"I'm not hungry." his lips were turned in a deep scowl, unhappiness wafting from his being.

A rather unfortunate growl made itself clear that the draconequus was lying, and I couldn't help it... I laughed. All my anxiety seemed to dispel itself from inside my stomach, making me feel much better. This caused Discord to look up in surprise, his eyes empty of any malicious intent. He then gave a hesitant smile, blushing a little.

"Ok,ok, I AM hungry," and after a few moments of thinking, he slowly used his claws to grab the fork that lay a little to his right on the table, and dug in.

I was pretty shocked at the abrupt shift in mood, and pondered this as I stared at his steady eating. He seemed to notice I was looking at him however, for he stopped and stared back, an eyebrow raised. I turned away back to me own food, and began to wonder that maybe today wasn't going to go as badly as I thought.

.............................................................................................................

I regretted my earlier thought as I was unsuccessfully trying to teach Discord manners, something that seemed utterly impossible.

"Ugghhhh! Just repeat what I read, ok?" he was grating on my last nerve, not even paying atention to a word I read from my trusty book, How to Interact With Ponies, which was at the moment opened to chapter 2: Manners.

He pouted, and whined," But it's too boooring. Not even worth my time." a claw was waved dismissively at my precious book." We should being doing something more entertaining, liiiiiikkeee turning the world upside down with utter chaos!" he seemed to brighten and become menacing as he grew in size, his eyes full of the old mischief, but then he remembered himself, shrinking back," but Miss Twilight here won't let that happen, now will you?" he got rather close to my face, a wicked smile on his face.

My eyes widened with fear, and my heart raced again, but then he pulled back and laughed.

"Oh Twilight! You are definately an easy pony to scare! Sure you can handle the cunning, amazing Discord, king of chaos?" and he snapped his fingers, apparently expecting his powers to whip up something naughty, but to my relief, and his distress, nothing happened.

He gave me a scathing look before turning his back on me, seething.

"Now can we get back to our lesson?" I asked, holding back all th retorts that I yearned to yell. As there was no answer, I assumed it was an indication to keep going, so I began again, repeating the words out of the book," A pony must adhere to the rules of society in order to interact with other ponies. Otherwise, chaos would ensue, and nothing would get do-"

"What's so wrong about chaos?" Discord demanded, annoyed." It's what makes the world an interesting place, you know. A place where you can have chocolate milk any day, and eat rainbows, and maybe even poop butterflies! The sky is your canvas, and the world is your playground...." he trailed off, a nostalgiac look on his face. "But seriously though, why does every pony dislike chaos?" he looked at me with a serious face, something that I had never seen on him ever. Could the king of mischief be serious?

But it seemed that he was, for he was still giving me that look. I took this opportunity to turn it into a part of the lesson.

"Chaos itself isn't wrong, per se, but a world cannot exist in chaos." I began.

"Why not?'' he demanded. I gave him an odd look, which prompted him to ask,"What? Why the look?"

I shook my head and reflected,"You would never have asked this queston five years ago." he opened his mouth to say something, but I raised a hoof, and went on with my explanation," We need order in this world to get things done. If there was chaos, the world would be... how do I explain this?" I bit my lip for a moment before saying," For example, if it rained chocolate all the time, everyday, we could not grow crops, plants and trees would die, and there would be no food. Thus, all creatures would cease to exist. Another example would be if the roads were made of soap, it would be very slippery and somepony could fall to their death, or get seriously injured. You may pride yourself in never killing anypony, but you'd still be doing so if you caused chaos to reign everywhere."

I stopped to make sure he was listening, and he was, waiting patiently. I guessed this change in him had resulted from his lack of powers, and because he had a lot to think about as a statue.

"And if ponies were dishonest, greedy, unkind, disloyal, unhappy, and not to mention broken, the world would not only be chaotic but a painful place to live in! There would be a lot more murderers, stealing, and nothing would get done! Ponies would die of starvation, and there would be no more happiness. Chaos would become a thing to be feared above all others! That's WHY there has to be a system of some sort,"I stopped, having realized that my voice had become louder and louder, and my cheeks had blossomed with rage.

Discord had a startled look on his face, and it was evident that he had never thought if chaos that way. I'm pretty sure he caught the hint at the anger at what he had done to me and my friends as well.

Realizing that this was a good place to stop, I said rather abruptly,"This concludes our lesson. We will take a lunch break, and then I will direct you to your chores." I walked quickly to the bathroom, washed my face, and took two more pills that were stashed in my little drawer in my bedroom, making sure that Discord hadn't followed me. It would be unwise for him to learn my ailment. He could use it to his advantage somehow.

I made sure to lock my drawer, and stashed the key in between one of my books in my room, labeled, Canterlot, a History, assuming that Discord would never have interest in reading a book as rigorous as this.

After making sure everything was secure, I made my way downstairs to call on Spike to make lunch before he left, wondering if I'd run out of pills by the end of the week.