At the Gala

Equestria’s King, Discord the Lord of Chaos, had just fallen into a deep depression at this time. He was a Draconequus: he had the head of a pony with mismatched horns on his head, big yellow eyes with red pupils, his body was serpentine shaped covered in brown fur, a pale red snake tail with white feathers at the tip, a lion paw for his right arm, an eagle claw for his left, a left green dragon leg, a right light brown goat leg, a purple bat wing and a blue bird wing on his back.

Usually King Discord was a bright, happy fellow who used his magic to take great care of his Kingdom. Over a decade ago ponies were being hunted down by local packs of werewolves. He used his powers of chaos and banished all the werewolves far away from Equestria. Since then, every year his subjects would throw a week long festival in his honor and end it with a grand gala. Being a creature of chaos he loved dancing, playing games, pulling pranks, and having all sorts of fun with his subjects and fellow Royals. You couldn’t find a jollier fellow…that is… until now… before he met… her.

At the castle, in his royal bedroom chamber, King Discord was lying in his bed, sobbing. His face was buried into his arms on top of his pillow that was soaking wet from his many tears.

There came a knock on his majesty’s door.

“GO… AWAY”, he wailed.

The door creaked open; a grand white unicorn with dark blue hair clad in purple and golden armor stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. He slowly approached the melancholy King’s bedside. This unicorn was the King’s Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor.

“It’s just Shining Armor, your majesty”, he proclaimed as he bowed his head.

“Did you not hear me?” Discord said as he lifted his head up towards his servant, tears streaming down his face. “I said to… LEAVE ME ALONE!” he screamed as his head fell down into his arms and continued crying loudly.

Shining Armor looked down at Discord’s pillows and noticed they were all soaking wet. His horn started to glow with a bright blue light and pointed it towards the pillows. In a bright flash the pillows were replaced with clean, dry ones. Discord didn’t notice as he continued to sob into his new pillow.

“Discord I understand that you are upset about what happened with Fluttershy but…”

Discord lifted his head and let out an ear-piercing wail, Shining Armor had to cover his ears from the painful scream. Discord dropped his head back down and continued sobbing, now louder than before.

Shining Armor removed his hooves from his ears and continued, “…but you’re the King! Your subjects need you right now. Rejection is not easy for anyone, but as King you don’t have the luxury to lie around and mope over your broken heart. The Kingdom is in a dire financial crisis and we really need you to pull yourself together and help us solve this!” he stated to the broken King.

Discord’s sobbing started to quiet down. He pushed himself up, flung the sheets off, and sat right up over the side of the bed. He snapped his eagle talons and in a flash a handkerchief materialized in his talon. He lifted the handkerchief to his bright yellow and red eyes, which were now puffy from all the crying, wiping away all the tears. He then blew his nose into the handkerchief and tossed it over his shoulder as it disappeared in in flash.

“You are right Shining… I shouldn’t be bawling like this… but I… I…I”, he stuttered as a fresh wave of tears came streaming down his face. He summoned another handkerchief and buried his face as he screamed, “I CAN’T HELP IT…I LOVE HER TOO MUCH!”

Shining Armor sighed as he watched his king sob loudly into the handkerchief.

“Before I came up here, I spoke with Princess Candace of the Crystal Empire about what had been going on between you and … the gardener.” He stopped himself from saying that name again afraid the King would wail again. Discord lowered his paw and claw to look sideways at the Captain, tears continued flowing down his face. “And we’ve come up with an idea to help you move on. Your festival is two weeks away and the entire Kingdom will make sure this year’s the best ever! And for the gala this year…” He pulled a scroll from behind his back and unfurled it for Discord to read. “We’ll make sure that every eligible maiden in the Kingdom comes and presents herself to you. You know, find you someone new.” he said with a smile.

Discord wiped his face and tossed the handkerchief away in a flash again. He grabbed the scroll and read it over. He wasn’t sure about this idea of meeting “eligible maidens”. He loved parties of course: dancing, mingling with others, playing games, and showing off his chaos magic. But now after everything he had been through with Fluttershy, even just thinking her name sent a shot of pain through his chest and more tears weld up in his eyes, he wasn’t sure that he was ready to start all over again. Still what could it hurt?

“I’m not sure about this, but if you think this will help…” he snapped his eagle talon and his signature appeared at the bottom of the scroll. “Then I give you the order to spread the word and start planning the Gala.”

“Right away your Majesty”, Shining Armor levitated the scroll from Discord toward him. “Don’t worry everything will work out, I’m sure of it”, he said as he exited from the room with the scroll floating next to his head.