Two

Fluttershy waited patiently atop the checkered picnic blanket on a popular hill just outside Ponyville. There were many picnics going on that afternoon but the hillside was so broad that there was plenty of breathing room for everypony.
In a flash of light Discord appeared before her in fancy attire. "Just on time my dear, sweet, Fluttershy." he bowed and offered up a bouquet of white and blue daisies which she grabbed with her mouth and then placed down beside her.

"These look lovely, Discord. Thank you."

"Oh it was nothing." he chuckled modestly. "It's very brave of you to wait out for me here all by yourself on such a busy day. Dare I ask what the occasion is?" Discord smiled as he pinched his beard.
Fluttershy meagerly pushed a small, wrapped gift toward Discord across the blanket with her hoof as she began to speak.

"Um. Well I. I wanted to thank you for watching Angel bunny for me while I was in Manehattan. He told me you two got along perfectly the WHOLE time." She beamed proudly.

"Hehe. You know me. A glutton for self improvement." Discord spoke quietly as he picked up the small gift box and shook it beside his ear.

"I mean it." She insisted proudly. "You've really come such a long way since we started seeing each other. Open it." she smiled meekly, nervous how he would react to the gift.

"Well you complete me." he smiled at her as unwrapped the box and opened it up. He pulled out a golden pendant from it. "Discord + Fluttershy" was embossed on the rear and a heart on the front. His heart sank as Fluttershy began to speak.

"You complete me too. Which is why I want to be each others special somepony for a very long time. Forever." Fluttershy blurted the words out past her nerves.

That word. "Forever." It struck Discord like a wrecking ball. In all of his self improvement and adapting to the pony way of life now an important oversight barred his path. "Forever." It was a word that carried wildly different implications for a mortal versus an immortal. To Discord the last several years had been a mere blink of an eye. One scene blurred into another forming a grand mosaic of thoughts and experiences and one missing tile where he had yet to confess his indiscretions with Bon Bon to her. For Fluttershy in her limited years the thoughts and experiences and emotions were all vivid and striking, each an entire mosaic of it's own.

"I-I can't accept this." Discord stammered as a look of fear and dread washed over his face. "I'm not the perfect special somepony you think I am."

"What do you mean?" Fluttershy's joy from the moment began to fade.

"Several years ago I worked on a top secret assignment with Bon Bon." Discord pointed down the hill where Lyra and Bon Bon were enjoying a picnic of their own. "Her and I had an affair together." his heart quivered as he continued.

"This isn't funny Discord." She shuttered."This is no time for a joke."

"I'm afraid it's not." A tear ran down his face.

"How could you do this to us?" Fluttershy bursted into tears and slumped down as a feeling of weakness washed over her. "I don't understand." She jabbed him with her hoof. "How could you keep this for so long? Why are THEY fine with it?" She
motioned down the hill at Lyra and Bon Bon still happily gazing into each other's eyes.

"I erased her memory of it. No memory. No guilt for her to live with I figured." Discord explained.

"That's evil!" She cried out.

"Fluttershy, please." Discord reached out and placed his paw on her back.

"Don't touch me!" She batted his paw off and galloped away down the hill crying.

Discord hung his head. His heart pleaded with him to chase after her but he knew now he could only bring her pain. The golden pendant had fallen on the picnic basket in the commotion with the lettering on the back side facing up. His chest felt heavy and he strained to draw air. He picked up the pendant and looked for the emptiest spot on the horizon and began to walk.

As Discord wandered aimlessly he felt an unfamiliar terror. In all of his thoughts and experiences there lay no clue as to what the future now held for him. A new grand mosaic began to form before him and this experience was not just a single tile but the sum of many. He lost track of time as he wandered. But suddenly he felt a great energy overcome him. Everything went white. He was being teleported against his will but to where and by whom? "Is there another Lord of Chaos in town?" He thought to himself as he began to re materialize. It must be. Such a teleportation would otherwise take an army of angry alicorns to pull off.

The whiteness faded and before him stood the least preferable of his speculations. He was in the Canterlot throne room. The four princesses glared at him with a look that could pierce through mountains and Fluttershy hid behind them staring down at the floor.

"Discord!" Celestia's voice shook the entire scene.

"You stand accused of high crimes against Equestria!" Luna piped in.

"I can't believe you would do something like this." Twilight sighed.

"Do you understand why you are here?" Cadence asked.

"Fluttershy..." Discord wimpered.

"What you did to this poor Filly's heart is none of my concern!" Celestia snarled. "But to have tampered with a ponies memories while working in service of Equestria is a serious charge." Celestia pointed to Fluttershy "And it's only by her heartfelt plea that you aren't back in the royal statue garden this very moment." Celestia motioned to Fluttershy.

"You have to make things right somehow. " she sobbed as she stepped forward. "Give her back her memory."

"Memory curses are highly forbidden." Celestia explained. "But we can't reverse what you have done."

"Hold on everypony!" Twilight interjected. "Reversing a memory curse even after a few days can be dangerous let alone a few years. Maybe Discord's magic is different but she still has to reconcile the lost memory with years of new ones. I can't endorse this"

"A valid point, Twilight." Celestia sighed.

"But the offender must be punished!" Luna insisted.

"Discord. You have until dawn two days from now to seek whatever advice you must and then report to me with a plan to make things right." Celestia demanded.

Discord nodded. He reached out toward Fluttershy and began to utter her name but in that moment was teleported back to where he was wandering moments earlier. Fluttershy wanted him to restore Bon Bon's memory. Twilight was against it. Perhaps the rest of the Mane 6 wouldn't be so divided on the issue he hoped.

"Hold on now!" Applejack blurted boisterously. "This here is best two out of three."

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash objected.
The two of them were at Sweet Apple Acres playing a game of horse shoes.
Rainbow Dash prepared for her next toss and as she released Discord appeared in it's path knocking it to the ground.

"Discord..." both said in an unwelcoming tone.

"What do you think YOU'RE doing here?" Rainbow Dash demanded.

"That counts as your toss by the way sugar cube." Applejack gloated.

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow Dash protested.

"Well I don't see anything in the rulebook about being blocked by a big ole pile of trash." Applejack snarled.

"Good one." Discord said as he literally shrunk before them. "I suppose you've heard."

"You're darn tootin'" Applejack replied.

"If you go anywhere near her again..." Rainbow Dash made a fisticuffs gesture with her hoofs.
"That's not why I'm here." Discord explained. "I'm to seek advice on how to make right erasing Bon Bon's memory and then report back to Princess Celestia."

"Well that seems mighty obvious dontcha think? Give back her memory. The honest thing." Applejack Gloated.

"I completely agree." Rainbow Dash added. "Lyra has a right to know that Bon Bon was 100 percent unloyal."

"But they're so happy together. oblivious. Not only will I be hurting Bon Bon but I'll be hurting Lyra as well." Discord protested.

"Well that joy is all a lie!" AppleJack protested.

"Three to one now. I think I see where this is going." Discord sighed.

"Well sounds like you got your answer." Applejack said curtly.

"Yeah, so beat it!" Rainbow Dash insisted.

Discord listlessly snapped his fingers and disappeared.

"Make sure your streamers aren't blocking the sponsor's banners, darling." Rarity smiled.

"Right!" Pinkie Pie saluted as she strung up some streamers around the inside of the Ponyville town hall. "This is going to be the BEST. FUNDRAISER. EVER!" she screamed excitedly.

"Simply the most fabulous!" Rarity hung her hoof as she boasted. Her horn glowed as she magically strung up some ponish lettering underneath the streamers. "Featuring the musical stylings of Lyra Hearstrings" it read.

Pinkie pressed a pin in to holdup a streamer and behind it was Discord's chest. He deflated like a balloon as it pierced him.

"Oh it's you." Pinkie said.

"What are YOU doing here?" Rarity demanded.

"I've come to seek your advice." Discord calmly explained as he re-inflated and stood normally. "I need to know if restoring Bon Bon's memory is the way to make things right."

"Absolutely not!" Rarity snapped.

"But why?" Discord and Pinkie Pie gave her a confused look.

"What if Lyra finds out about... You know... right before her big performance. We've worked so hard on this fundraiser it will be simply ruined!" she explained.

"Ooh. You're right!" Pinkie piped up. "They're so happy together!"

"Even if it's all a lie?" Discord sighed.

"Look, darling. You gave her a second chance as a gift. And even if it wasn't the right thing to do" Rarity spoke softly.

"You can't just TAKE A GIFT BACK!" Pinkie screamed.

"Well it's a hung Jury now." Discord sighed and hung his head. "Well thanks girls."

"BYE!" Pinkie said excitedly. Discord thought it odd as he teleported away of how much warmer a reception he received this time around. The day had escaped at this point and he had only tomorrow left to figure this out now on his own.

The next morning Fluttershy walked meekly through the inner grounds of the friendship school as she prepared herself mentally for her next class.

"Hey misses Shy!" Gallus called out as he swooped down and landed in front of her. "I finished that essay. I know it's a few days late but if you'd let me explain..."

"Oh. That's okay, Gallus." she said softly as she grabbed a small stack of papers from him and put it in her saddle bags.

"Oh.. so we're cool then?" He scratched the back of his head.

"Yes." She said quietly.

"Is everything okay?" He quizzed.

"Yes." her eyes started to well up with tears.

"What happened?" He insisted.

"It's grown up pony stuff." She sobbed.

"A broken heart?"
Fluttershy answered his prying with a meek nod.

"Hey you know how it's hearts and hooves day in Griffonstone? Everyone's crying." He laughed akwardly. Fluttershy just stared back at him. "I'm not being very helpful am I?"

"You tried to show you care. That's nice of you." She sniffled.

"Well I have a class right away. Take care." Gallus patted her on the shoulder and soared off.

Fluttershy went to pull the essay out of her pack to look it over and Discord appeared animated on the pages. "Fluttershy..." He said.

"I don't want to talk to you right now." she sobbed.

"Why did you stand up for me to Celestia?"

"Because I love you." she burst into tears. Some of them landed on the paper causing Discord's image to smudge.

"I love you too. I'm so sorry."

"I know you love me. And I know you're sorry. But that doesn't mean things can just go back to the way they were." she cried.

"I know..." he sighed. The essay turned back to normal as he left.

Discord found himself at the picnic hill watching Bon Bon and Lyra together.

"Hey check this out." Lyra put a music box down on the blanket at opened it up. A melancholy melody sounded as the figurine twirled.
Bon Bon watched intently. She was familiar with the music box so she wondered what Lyra was getting at.
When the song on the music box finished Lyra wound it back up. She placed her hoofs over Bon Bon's ears and started it up again, letting her hear it after the first two notes had already played.

"No way! That's so weird." Bon Bon said as she raised an eye brow.

Discord had no idea what was going on. All he knew is that he had squandered his last day to figure this out thinking in circles. He had to figure this out fast.

"I asked the orange one, the purple one the blue one..." He muttered to himself.

"Of course! The other purple one!" He snapped his fingers and appeared in Starlight Glimmer's room in the Castle of Friendship. She was nowhere to be found. "Oh, great." he sighed.
Discord snapped his fingers and teleported outside Trixie's wagon and knocked on the side.

"Trixie!". He called loudly.
Whispering could be heard from the inside and then Trixie opened up the window and stared unimpressed at Discord.

"Oh. It's YOU. The great and powerful" She yawned loudly "Trixie needs her beauty rest. Please come back in the morning." She shut the window.

Discord knocked again. "I really need your help right now."

Starlight Glimmer popped up at the window next.

"Oh there you are." Discord exclaimed.

"I was wondering when you'd come to me. I was hoping you would when I heard what was happening." She sighed.

"It just seems like there's no easy answer." Discord complained.

"Why don't you just send them an anonymous fruit basket?" She said with a yawn.

"Would that really make things r-"

"NO!" she shouted."So what if they're happy right now? Sometimes life hurts. But you can't just give up there. Sometimes life seems hopeless but you can't just give up there. If I hadn't made all of the mistakes I made I would be a completely different pony than I am now. You never gave Bon Bon and Lyra a chance to be the ponies they would have been. You can't know if they would have been better off or not. You stole their choice over their own destiny." She snapped.

Starlight Glimmer was right he thought to himself. No matter how dangerous or painful it was the only way to make things right was to give Bon Bon back her memories of that fateful day.

The next morning Bon Bon and Lyra laid down with each other on their picnic blanket looking each other intently in the eyes.

"I have rehearsal soon." Lyra said.

Bon Bon wrapped her hooves around her tightly. "But I never want to let you go!" she giggled.

"You'll see me again before the fundraiser, silly!" Lyra giggled back. "Here. She'll keep you company in the mean time." Lyra plopped the music box down in front of her and they both smiled.

The two kissed and Lyra sauntered off gleefully.

Once Lyra was out of sight Discord appeared before Bon Bon.
"Bon Bon." He called her attention calmly...

"And you are?" She raised her hoof to her chin in contemplation. "You're that Discord that everypony warns about..." She realized.

Discord reached over and touched her forehead. Suddenly Bon Bon flashed back to the day her memory was erased.

"When you wake up you won't remember us ever having worked together. How can you carry guilt for something you don't even know about?" Discord snickered.

"What's going on?" Bon Bon said, dazed.

"Oh, you dropped your bags." Bon Bon saw that he had handed her pack to her.
"Thanks." She said with a vacant expression.

"It's simply been too long since you and Lyra had a picnic. Don't drink too much cider." Discord disappeared just as Lyra showed up.

"Your note said you had something important to talk to me about!" Lyra said in a concerned tone.

"It's been too long since we've had a picnic!" Bon Bon exclaimed.

"It's only been a week you weirdo." Lyra giggled.

"Well let's go." Bon Bon realized her pack was full of picnic supplies, so she laid out a picnic in the grass nearby. She packed an awful lot of cider it seemed.

"You!" she snapped angrily at discord as the picnic scene faded from her conscious. "How long?" She whimpered.

"It's been a few years." Discord explained repentantly.

"A FEW YEARS!? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!?" she screamed.

"I know now how wrong it was of me to steal that from you."

"It's all been one big lie this whole time..." Bon Bon began to cry.

Discord knew it was time to leave her be. He watched helplessly at a distance as Bon Bon paced nervously awaiting Lyra's return from rehearsal. When she showed up he couldn't bring himself to listen in. But he didn't need to. Lyra's reaction mirrored Fluttershy's. She grew weak. She slumped down. She cried. She yelled. She ran away. Bon Bon froze for a while but then carried off listlessly into the yonder.

Discord went over to the picnic blanket. The music box was still sitting there. He kept playing it out and rewinding it. The song was always the same melancholy progression as the world carried on around him. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were going around Ponyville with a disapproving look affixing "performance cancelled" addendums over flyers and billboards for the fundraiser; the world made by his dishonesty now collapsed around him.

"You did the right thing." A voice spoke softly. It was Starlight Glimmer.

"Then why doesn't it feel that way?" Discord asked in a frustrated tone as he rewound the music box once more.

"Sometimes the right way isn't always the happy way..." She answered. "When I was a little foal I had a music box just like that." she said watching him rewind it. "Check this out."

Starlight covered his ears as the song began to play, and removed her hoofs after a couple of notes had passed. The music sounded different this time. Instead of invoking a sense of melancholy it felt a little more upbeat.

"But how?" He asked.

"I'm sure a music pony could explain it. But I'm not a music pony." she laughed awkwardly.
"The notes haven't changed though..." He scratched his beard.

"It's because of how the mind perceives the ratio of change between the different notes." another voice piped in.

Oavia had been walking by and happened upon the scene.

"So it's all a matter of perspective?" Discord scratched his beard.
Octavia pulled out her Cello and started to play a classical melody.

"You could have snapped your fingers and set my village free-
But without the lessons what kind of pony would I be?" Starlight Glimmer began to sing.

DJ PON-3 was also passing by and happened upon the scene. She unfolded her portable DJ station and mixed in some more contemporary sounds. Discord scratched his chin. "If you can't beat em, join em" he thought and started to place imagery into the groups minds.

They saw Fluttershy having fun practicing aerial acrobatics with Rainbow Dash and Gallus

"Some ponies win, some ponies lose-
The perils of a destiny we choose." Starlight continued singing.

"You have to take the good things with the bad-
Take the triumphant with the sad."

Starlight continued singing as Rarity replaced the addendum on the fundraiser billboards with "The Ponytones: Featuring Fluttershy!" they then saw Fluttershy and the Ponytones in dress rehearsing together.

"But that is just the perils of a destiny we choose."

They then saw Applejack tearing up looking at a picture of the Apple family parents.

"Not every pony makes it through all of life's upsets." Starlight's singing and the music became more solemn.

Applejack put the picture away as Apple Bloom runs to her and she kisses Applebloom on the forehead.

"That doesn't mean we have to live a life full of regrets." Her tone became more hopeful.

The music went into a refrain and Trixie showed up and threw a hoof around Starlight. "You know if it wasn't for Trixie's misdeeds she never would have met this special pony while preparing for the humble and penitent trixie's equestrian apology tour!" she shouted.

"That's a mouthful" Discord observed.

"It was a working title!" She retorted.

"Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry-
Sometimes we're meek sometimes we're spry" Starlight sang as the music picked up again.

"Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose-
But that is just the perils of a life we get to choose." They all sang together as the music ended.

"Bon Bon!" Discord jumped up and shouted.

He quickly snapped his fingers and teleported beside Bon Bon. She was standing at the edge of a ravine with tears in her eyes.

"I know it's not all your fault..." she said quietly when she noticed him arrive.

"I'm a terrible pony. If I really loved Lyra how could I have done that to her?" She stared down at the rocks below.

"Every pony makes mistakes." he said calmly.
Discord held out the music box and opened it up. The melancholy melody began to play.

"Does it make us evil? I'm not even sure I can answer that." he sighed. "Just step back please. I'm not asking you to pretend like nothing ever happened. We made this mistake together. Let us figure it out together." he pleaded with tears in his eyes.

"I'm just so angry. It's just so frustrating!" She shouted creeping closer to the edge.

"Sometimes it's our heartbreaks that inspire us to become stronger and better ponies." Discord said as he projected the image of Applejack and Applebloom into Bon Bon's mind.

"Maybe you won't ever be together with her again but I know you love her. If you die now you will never know if she makes it or not!" he shouted.

Bon Bon looked at him and then back down at the ravine as he creeped a little closer. She then burst into tears as she threw herself back into his arms. Discord began to cry too.

"You could have just snapped your fingers and turned the ravine into jelly..." she cried.

"That's the perils of a life where we're free to make our own choices..." he said crying.