Discord woke up with a start, someone was banging on his door!
"Discord!" A familiar voice called. "Get your butt down here! We need ya!" With that he teleported onto his porch.
"Hello, Rainbow Dash..." The draconequus yawned. "What seems to be the problem? Must be awfully serious for you to come here." Suddenly a toothbrush popped into his hand and he began to brush his teeth.
"Listen, Celestia called me and the others for a meeting and we decided we needed you there too. So come on already, lets go! We don't have all day!"
"I see you still lack a sense of patience.~" He smirked. "But alright, if Fluttershy needs me I'll go... Just give me a moment to wake up."
"We don't have time!" Rainbow Dash flew up and slapped his face.
"That works too, I suppose." Discord said, slightly shocked.
"I got him, like you asked, princess." Rainbow Dash landed in the castle and bowed slightly towards Celestia and Luna.
"Wow, we just got everypony don't we?" Discord looked around the room and saw several ponies he recognized. "Fluttershy, what's going on?" The draconequus flew over to the shy mare.
"Well, uh, um... Somepony we thought was gone has came back, and, uh-"
"He's threatening to kill hundreds of innocent ponies and animals." Celestia finished for her and glared at Discord.
"And that's not good. How do I come into play, princess?" Discord glared back at Celestia.
"You were once evil yourself, we were hoping you could analyze the situation for us." Luna said stepping between the two of them.
"Maybe try talking to him, darling. See if we can negotiate." Rarity said raising an eyebrow.
"Who exactly are we talking about?" Discord looked around the room, trying to avoid eye contact with Celestia. With that question, Twilight used her magic to throw a book down on the table, it was the history of the Crystal Empire. On the page was an illustration of King Sombra chasing his subjects, fire all around them. "Oh my..." Discord fluffed up some. "I don't think I want to."
"Discord..." Fluttershy whispered. "I'm scared too... It's okay."
"Me? Scared? Psh! Where is he anyway?"
"He's built a palace made of crystal not far from the Empire. If we're not careful he may attack." Celestia frowned slightly.
"Alright, I'll go to the Crystal Empire then. But on one condition." Discord smirked.
"And what is that?" Applejack asked in a worried tone.
"Can I have a companion or two go with me? They don't have to stay the whole time but just... For support." He looked down at Fluttershy.
"Ha! He really is scared! A big guy, like him... scared!" Rainbow Dash laughed.
"Rainbow, it's perfectly okay to be scared, I thought we went through this already." Twilight glared at the Pegasus mare.
"Sorry..." Rainbow frowned.
"Fine, three ponies can accompany you on the way to the Empire, there Cadence will give you more details of what is happening." Celestia straightened up, vaguely looking like an elegant swan. Discord hugged Fluttershy, possessively and waited for others to volunteer for the other two positions. But it never came. Discord felt like crying, they still didn't trust him.
"Well? Anyone else coming?" Discord frowned and looked around the room.
"I have to look after my farm."
"The Pegasi need me to help with the weather."
"I have a huge dress order to fill."
"I've been studying a lot lately and need to finish a book." All the ponies, except for Fluttershy, were making excuses! Celestia frowned again.
"Twilight, Pinkie, you'll go."
"I just said I needed to finish a book."
"What's more important, a book, or a life?" Discord snarled.
"Fine..." Twilight looked away from everyone, embarrassed.
"You'll leave tomorrow, that gives you this afternoon to pack. Dismissed." Celestia strolled away, trying not to get too stern.
Twilight went home to pack up for her trip, wondering why she had to go. "Discord's a big boy, he doesn't need a baby sitter. Besides, he'll probably just annoy me..." Suddenly a gust of cold air came from no where. She looked around. "The windows aren't open..." She felt something strange about the wind. "This trip isn't going to end well. Is it?" Twilight was very concerned with the unusual wind and began to research. "There has to be something here!"
"Twilight, what are you doing?" A young dragon yawned.
"Slept in again I see..."
"Sorry..." Spike frowned.
"Anyway, I'm going to make a trip to the Crystal Empire."
"Why?"
"Sombra is back."
"Oh man, not that creep!"
"Can you please help me study a little before I go?"
"You mean, I'm not going?"
"I don't want you to get hurt, I'm sorry. It sounds very serious."
"Oh, okay, I'll stay here and finish the dusting I started the other day."
"Thank you, Spike." The purple alicorn smiled at the little dragon. "Now, can you please help me find books on wind?"
"Sure..?"
Pinkie Pie was happily packing. She liked going on adventures with friends. "This is gonna be fun!~" The same wind blew around her. "Hm? My Pinkie sense is tingling... Something bad? When? Where? I shouldn't go should I..? But now I'm curious! I need to go!" The wind made one of her balloons fly out of the suitcase. "Hey!"
Discord was pacing around his house, he didn't really need to pack because of his magic, so instead he was panicking. "What if I fail? Would Fluttershy hate me? I don't want to loose her..." The draconius continued to pace, back and forth, back and forth. "Fluttershy shouldn't leave me if I try my best? Even if I fail if I do that hopefully I'll be okay..." A mysterious wind also blew around him, and he paused. He looked around and sighed. "Weird. But... Thank you, wind, I actually needed a distraction." Discord made some tea pop out of thin air and sat on a chair. "I just need to stop worrying about it."
Discord slowly walked to the train station. Yes, he could have teleported, but he didn't want to go. When he finally got there his head dropped down.
"Discord?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Are you okay?" Twilight looked up from her book of Crystal Empire history.
"Wow, I've never seen him this upset." Twilight frowned.
"Cheer up, Discord!" Pinkie handed him a cupcake.
"Thank you..."
"You're welcome!~"
"I'm just worried I'm going to fail..." The conductor signaled for everyone to aboard the train and Twilight and Pinkie did so.
"You can do this, Discord. Look, I'll hold your hand." She carefully poked his lion paw with her hoof.
"Thanks, Fluttershy. You're a great friend." Discord smiled at her and she smiled back before hopping onto the train. Discord slowly followed, he'd never been on a train before.
"Here we go, weee!~" Pinkie said excitedly.
"Woah! Wait! I wasn't ready!" Discord hanged on for dear life as the train started moving.
About a day later they finally arrived to the Crystal Empire, and it was heavily snowing.
"Brr..." Fluttershy said. "I forgot how cold it could get here." Discord snapped his fingers and suddenly himself and the girls were wearing scarves and hats.
"Where's this Cadence at?" Discord looked around aimlessly.
"Celestia said she'd be waiting for us near the palace." Twilight said, readjusting the scarf with her magic.
"Oh, great. We have to walk there..."
"Oh, come on, Discord! Walking isn't that bad, besides, you can do that weird hovering thing." Pinkie smiled at him.
"Thanks for trying to cheer me up but it's not going to work..." With that Pinkie Pie frowned.
It was night when they walked up to the palace after what seemed like years of walking in the snow. Princess Cadence came trotting towards them excitedly, "Hello, everyone!" Cadence hugged everyone, except Discord, starting with Twilight Sparkle. "This must be Discord, yes?"
"Yes, princess, this is Discord." Fluttershy smiled shyly.
"Okay, so, you know that King Sombra is back, right?"
"Of course."
"He's rather powerful, do you think you can stop him?"
"Princess, I'll at least try to calm him down..." Discord frowned. Would he even be able to do that? His magic was rather strong, but Sombra seemed much stronger. "I'll do it for my friends' safety." He glanced down at Fluttershy. He only really had one friend, though, but the princess didn't need to know.
"Come, I'm sure you're all tired after your journey. We're going to hold a feast and then you guys can go to bed, if ya want."
"Thanks, Cadence!" Twilight smiled and followed her into the palace. Pinkie Pie skipped behind the two alicorns.
"Discord?" Fluttershy looked up at him. "Whatever happens, I'll still be here for you." She smiled cutely.
"Fluttershy, that's very sweet of you... You're so kind."
"That is my Element of Harmony, silly." She giggled.
"Oh yeah..." Discord laughed awkwardly. "Why would Celestia choose me, anyway?" Fluttershy sighed when he asked that.
"I didn't want to tell you so soon, but everyone else was afraid too. They knew you'd go to try to impress us. Since everyone is still not quite used to you and you want to be friends with them.."
"Well then, I'll just have to give it all I got!" Discord growled. "Let's go see what they have to eat."
"Okay..."
Author's Note
Sorry this is short-ish.
The next chapter is going to be longer!
Promise!
