Difficult Conversations Must be Had
When Twilight Sparkle accepted her role as the Princess of Friendship, she also accepted all the benefits as well as the detriments that came along with it. Sure, she now had a beautiful castle to live in, plenty of books to read, large amounts of food to eat, gorgeous gowns, and enough money to last her a lifetime. The guards stationed all about the castle were kind to her, and she visited with Princess Flurryheart often. Fillies all across Equestria idolized her, wishing that they too could be as intelligent and successful as her one day. So one would be led to believe that the princess had the perfect life.
That's where the princess would disagree. At one point, long long ago, she did feel as though she held all of Equestria in her hooves. None of the aforementioned things mattered to her, for she had the greatest gift of all: friendship. She was able to share all her success with her friends. When a drought would hit, Twilight sent money to Applejack to last until the crops could be sold once more. When Rainbow Dash injuried her wing during a stunt, Twilight saw to it that her friend received the best medical care possible. When Rarity designed a new outfit, Twilight would be one of the first to model it, adding to the success of her friend's business. During the Grand Galloping Gala, Pinkie Pie would be the main caterer, showing the ponies of Canterlot what Sugar Cube Corner had to offer. Fluttershy was allowed into the Canterlot gardens whenever she pleased, so she could do as much research on the animal life as she pleased.
Yes, life was good for the group of friends for many years. However, all good things must come to an end. First it was Rarity, followed by Pinkie Pie, then Rainbow Dash, and Applejack was quick to follow. One by one, Twilight's friends passed away. It was painful each and every time. She wished so badly to pass with them, or to have them live just a little bit longer. Alas, it was out of her control.
One creature, however, would not accept this.
Discord had so much power. One could argue that he was slightly more powerful than Twilight Sparkle herself. This is why his friendship with Fluttershy was so vital. Of course, he had made other friends, such as Spike and Big Mac, but none held a candle to his dearest Fluttershy. After all, she had been his very first friend. As the years rolled by, his feelings for her grew into something more. Not only had she taught him friendship, but she taught him love as well.
They did eventually, as Discord kindly put it, "get together". This strengthened their bond, as one would expect. It came to a point where he couldn't imagine a life without her. He was no fool though. He knew she was bound to be ripped from his arms by death at some point. He couldn't bear such a thought. Without her knowledge, he cast an immortality spell upon her. He didn't intend to keep her alive forever. That would be cruel. No, he merely wanted just a teensy weensy bit of extra time with her. He hoped that she wouldn't notice. Perhaps if she did, she would thank him. After all, she claimed to love him. Why wouldn't she want to be with him for as long as possible. Unfortunately for him, she was no fool either. After Applejack's death, she confronted him as to why she felt as young as she had when they first met. After much debate, he snapped his fingers and let her go.
That's all the information Discord was willing to reveal at her funeral. That was half a year ago, and Twilight was still struggling. It had been so difficult to go on without her. Fluttershy had been her last friend. She was the remainder of her original friendship group. Now all of that was gone. She found herself sobbing herself to sleep often, thinking of the ponies she had lost.
And how, pray tell, was Discord holding up? Well, he seemed to be doing perfectly fine. He never faltered, never seemed affected, never showed any signs of grief after his speech at Fluttershy's funeral. It was rumored that one of Fluttershy's last wishes was for him to live happily. It made sense after all. Of course she wouldn't want him to suffer or die right along with her. No, she most likely asked him to make the most of his immortality.
Twilight could only imagine how lonely the loss must have made him. She feared that the joy he so effortlessly showed was a veil meant to hide some deeper emotion. With them both being immortals, and the two of them having the same friend group for quite some time, the princess thought it might be good for the two of them to become better friends. It was a simple enough idea, truly befriending the lord of chaos. The tricky part would be in the execution of it.
It wasn't uncommon for Discord to show up at the castle. Every now and then, he would pop by to "check up" on Twilight and the rest of the castle staff. He never truly asked her about how she was doing, but rather focused on the state of Equestria. Then he would wander about the castle and end up in the gardens. Next thing she knew, he would be gone.
"He's not getting away so easily today". Twilight told herself, setting herself atop her throne. While it could be hard to predict exactly when he'd drop by, he always made it a point to come on a Tuesday. So for the past few weeks, Twilight had made sure to check the castle for him. This would mark her third attempt to try and talk to him. She didn't know if she would make it another week. She felt the strong urge to speak to him morph into anger. Why was he taking so long? What else could he possibly be doing?
She almost missed the brief flash of white light from across the room necause of how deep in thought she was. When she came back to reality, she saw a tall draconequus before her.
"Well, don't you look classy today Miss Sparkle," Discord said dramatically, snapping his fingers to put on what looked to be a business suit. "I'm terribly sorry that I didn't get the memo, or else I would have dressed appropriately." She simply frowned at him. Noting her lack of amusement, he got rid of the outfit.
"Discord, I was wondering if I could have a talk with you." Twilight stated. They were never close enough to have casual conversations. It was all business with them. His jokes hardly ever entertained her, which he was fully aware of, so she hoped that he wouldn't push it today.
"Whatever about?" He questioned, raising an eyebrow at her. "Has some big baddie come to terrorize your town?" She shook her head and stood up, making her way over to face him.
"It's nothing like that. Come walk with me, if you would. I would like to ask you a few things." A small smile graced her face. She didn't want him to think that he was in any sort of trouble. If he believed her to have malicious intentions, then he would surely shut down and she wouldn't be able to initiate any sort of real friendship with him. Thankfully for her, Discord appeared to notice how seriously she was taking this, and he gave her a simple nod before they started their walk.
"I feel as though I hardly know you anymore, Discord" Twilight began as they left the throne room and entered a large hallway. "I would like that to change. Please, tell me about how you've been doing." Had she been looking directly at him, instead of focusing her gaze on the hallway before her, she would have seen the roll of his eyes.
"Really Miss Fancy Pants, if you need a favor of some sort you can just ask." Discord replied, almost sounding bored of the conversation. A frown spread upon the princess's face. This was going to be much more difficult than she thought it would be.
"That really isn't the case. I've just noticed that we've grown apart. Although I suppose I should have noticed it sooner and tried to fix things with you. I want to make it right now. I want to know more about you and the life you now live. That's all I want, Discord." She took a glance at him as she responded, attempting to gauge his reaction to her words. She was met with a look of disbelief. This led her to focus her attention onto the magnificent floor beneath her as they continued. Something about that look caused her heart to ache.
"Oh of course that's all." He scoffed. His tone sounded irritated. Not necessarily angry, but he seemed to be a little annoyed with her.
"What, is it a crime to try to get to know my friend better?" She asked, becoming a tad bit frustrated herself. However, that feeling soon turned into confusion when Discord stopped dead in his tracks. This caused the mare to halt as well and look up at him once more. The look he gave before was nothing in comparison to how he looked now. It was perplexing. He had a frown upon his features, a furrowed brow, and his eyes portrayed both anger and sadness. She had never seen him this way.
"You dare to still call me a 'friend'?"
"Do you take issue with that?"
"Actually, I do," Discord snapped. "If you were truly my friend, then you would have 'gotten to know' me sooner. However, what have you done throughout the years? You've only reached out to me when you needed assistance. Tell me, princess, is friendship magic or is friendship conditional?"
"It hasn't been like that and you know it," Twilight retorted. "And if we weren't friends, then you wouldn't have helped me in the first place." This caused the creature of chaos to lose all signs of seriousness and roar in laughter. After a few excruciating moments of his infuriating laughter, he was finally able to compose himself. He held his stomach with one arm and wiped away a tear with his other.
"Oh that was too good, princess," Discord chuckled. "Surely you don't believe I saved Equestria's bacon every time it was in danger for you. Nope, that was all for my darling Fluttershy. Had it not been for her, then your precious pony world would be in ruins."
"But Fluttershy is dead, Discord. If we weren't friends, then you would have at least tried to cause some sort of chaos once she passed away. You've even come to survey the castle to ensure the safety of Equestria. I see that as a sign of our friendship, weak as it may be." As much as it pained Twilight to remind herself of her past friend, she had to continue this conversation with him. She couldn't back down now, not after she had finally been able to make this much conversation with him. Pulling another 180° on her, Discord regained his serious, almost somber, standpoint. His face morphed into one of slight sadness.
"For your information, Fluttershy's last request was for me to make sure nothing bad happened to you." He explained. "Besides, do you really think so little of me that you believe I would just go out and harm ponies for the fun of it? Have I not proved myself trustworthy throughout our acquaintanceship?"
"See, there you go again," Twilight huffed, zeroing in on his word choice. "You absolutely refuse to call us friends. I don't understand. I was always kind to you."
"Kind? No, Fluttershy was kind to me. She was a true friend. Even Spike and Big Mac treated me as an equal. You only tolerated me. Just because you were never outright rude to me doesn't mean you were kind. You were doing the bare minimum."
"It's not like you ever tried to get to know me either," Twilight pointed out. "I know that I claimed that we grew apart, but I'm starting to feel as though we never knew each other in the first place."
"Well, somepony give her a prize, she finally figured it out!" Discord retorted sarcastically. With a snap of his eagle claws, he placed a large, colorful medal, with an image of himself giving a thumbs up on it, around the mare's neck. As one would presume: she was not amused. Seeing the critical look on her face, he snapped it away. Twilight took a deep breath in and then exhaled it slowly before speaking again.
"Okay Discord, it seems that we are at an impass. Neither one of us put much effort into this friendship. That being said, do you remember all those years ago with Tirek? Do you remember how I asked him to release you because I considered you a friend? Recall how the medallion you gave me turned out to be the final key we needed. Our bond was never strong, but I still think that we had one. I want to fix my mistakes, and I hoped that you would be willing to fix yours as well. I want to be friends with you. Can't we let bygons be bygons?" She asked with a tad bit of desperation in her voice. The male noticed this and narrowed his eyes in a confused fashion.
"The concept I can't quite seem to grasp is that out of all the creatures in your kingdom, you're practicallt begging me to be friends with you. Why me? There are about a bazillion other ponies out there who worship the ground you trot on and would kill to be your pal."
It was at this point that Twilight realized how genuine he was being. Despite his shenanigans and deflection, he was clearly insecure. He thought she could make other, better friends. And why wouldn't he? After all, she had favored hanging out with practically anypony but him in the past. When she thought about it from his perspective, she could understand why he wouldn't take her seriously.
"Other ponies aren't you. When I think of you, I think of Fluttershy. I'm reminded of all the good times I shared with her. And when I think of her, I think about the rest of our friends. Discord, we're all that's left of our original group. Now, please don't think I'm trying to rekindle any spark of friendship we might've had because of some obligation to those memories. It's not like that. It's just that I see so much of our friends in you. Your humor is on par with Pinkie Pie's, you've become as hard-working as Applejack by taking care of Fluttershy's cottage, you're as loyal to Equestria as Rainbow Dash once was, you're generous to all the creatures in the land like Rarity used to be. But most of all, Discord? I know that deep, deep down, you're kind like Fluttershy was. You have your bad moments, sure, but you possess all of their good traits as well." She answered with a small smile on her face.
Discord stood in shock for a moment, his cheeks lightly flushing. Obviously he didn't expect such a heartfelt response from her. It was a rare spectacle to see a god, especially one such as himself, be at a loss for words. He was quick to recover though, and gave her a toothy grin in return.
"Well, my goodness Miss Sparkle, you didn't have to flatter me so," he chuckled. "I'll take your friendship application into consideration. Be warned though, I already have a line of ponies waiting for my companionship, so the competition is pretty fierce."
"Naturally," Twilight played along, "I figured as such. Perhaps we should start simply by meeting once a week or so, if you have the time of course."
"Hm, I suppose I could squeeze you in," Discord stroked his beard in thought. "Maybe we can do tea on Tuesday?"
"I look forward to it, Discord."
Author's Note
Hey guys!! I'm really proud of how this oneshot turned out. I wrote the original when I was 12, in an old journal, then I posted it on this site shortly after I turned 13. Any oh boy did it show. I liked the concept of it though, which is why I decided to give it another try! This is truly a reimagining of the original rather than a rewrite I suppose. I kept the same general idea, but I changed basically everything else. I remember being ecstatic when several people actually liked the original fic despite all its flaws. I hope some people like this too :) . So yeah, thank you all for taking the time to read this!! I'm totally open to any constructive criticism that anyone might have, so feel free to comment any suggestions/tips you might have!
