Flurried Hearts

Cadence sat up in a soft medical bed with a sigh, holding her pillow to her chest. The clock ticked as the couple sat awkwardly. "I'm sorry." She didn't bother turning to her husband; she knew the look he'd give her was disappointment.

Shining rubbed his wife's back; "We talked about this before." He reached his hoof to her chin, turning her head gently. He gently placed a kiss on her forehead.

Cadence smiled at her husband's lidded eyes filled with love and concern. She was so lucky to find a stallion like him. "But Celestia and Twilight-"

"But nothing. You are not Celestia and I hope you aren't Twilight. It is weird if I married my sister." That made Cadence chuckle lightly. "I know they both do a lot of work but Twilight has her friends. I know Celestia is like a mother to you. But you are not her, you are Cadence." Shining scooped up his wife's hoof and held it to his chest.

Cadence leaned against her husband. "But-"

"But nothing. Celestia did it all but she also ignored her sister, jealousy ate at her soul until she turned and got banished to the moon. Celestia is not without many faults." Shining paused. "And Twilight has all her friends yes they may not be there to help run the kingdom but they will be there for her. I know Celestia is someone to look up to but you're going to really hurt yourself if you keep trying to be like her. Or you hurt someone else. So please just ask for help."

"Wasn't that a little mean?"

"It's true. You fell down a flight of stairs if Discord hadn’t caught you. Who knows what would have happened?!" He hugged his soul mate close.

She knew that it was but Celestia held a special place in her heart. "I should really thank him for that." Cadence and Shining sat in more silence. It continued until the medical doors opened.

"Captain Sir." A group of similar-looking guards saluted. One, in particular, stepped forward "we got lucky and ran into a powerful mismatched creature. With numbers on my side, I have managed to cancel everything for yesterday and today."

Cadence snorted finding the differently-shaped roller skates funny. "I guess you ran into Discord. How did he look?"

"Injured your highness. His eye was dripping with blue... magic?" The guard guessed if it was blood they have a much bigger problem.

"Oh... we should check up on him. I'm not sure the medical staff is equipped to handle chaos magic." Cadence rubbed her husband's hoof gently. "Please."

Shining sighed "I suppose you are correct but if it aggravates your condition we will come right back." He knew his wife wouldn't be comfortable until she checked on Discord. He loved her for her endless compassion for others he just wished it extended to herself.

"Your highness when you are rested we must talk about putting back some security measures. It would have made today easier. It's irresponsible to leave the kingdom this weak again." The guard bowed lightly waiting to be dismissed hopefully before he chose to comment more.

"That is plenty fair. We'll gather the guard tomorrow to make sure this never happens again." She said guilt bubbling in her chest. How could she let this happen she was so sure they were in a time of true peace. She tried to ignore the severe dread of failing her people. Cadence shakenly got up and Shining glared at the guard, the three of them separated.

Discord groaned "where am I?" He mused but he didn't have to for long. His gaze locked onto a crib that contained a sleeping baby alicorn. Next to his plain white bed, rows of the same bed were on both sides of the room. Clearly, it was not his. "How did I end up here?"

"Easy sweetheart." A nurse stepped through huge purple doors with a plus engraved in white. "Hmm, your eye is still so blue." She quickly shuffled to Discord's side, holding her hoof to his head, "no fever that's good." To tell the truth, she wasn't sure of that, she had never seen anything like him but she knew fevers too high were dangerous.

Discord groaned holding his head the walls changed from cheese to hot sauce, to stained glass of Fluttershy, then to leather. "Mmmmm." The leather-clad walls stayed as he rubbed his head with his claw and paw. It throbbed like hell and make it hard to focus.

The nurse acted like nothing had happened even tho concern grew within her. There was no need to panic about her patient it would just make it worse. "Don't stress yourself," guided the creature back down to the bed. "Take a deep breath you'll only aggravate your condition." What he had required calling the head nurse or even the princess but she did know stress always made things worse.

Discord yawned and Flurry poofed into his claw and paw. He scratched her head relaxing further. Those scratches got slower and slower. Sleep was just on the other side of this last scratch.

Slam!

Discord jumped at the noise and the nurse was ready to verbally behead the creature who woke him she turned around to a dark stallion holding a lard tray of various meat. She shuddered at the thought, most horses were vegetarian.

Sombra sat on the bed that was much too short for his friend. While normally he would laugh at the sight of half of Discord's body on the floor as if it were a puddle. He was not in a laughing mood. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way." He laid the tray on the bedside table.

"I promised Fluttershy I wouldn't eat meat again." Discord stared at the plate of shrimp and his stomach grumbled. He couldn't deny that he needed it to heal, to fuel his magic. He thought he could get away with it if he stayed away from dark magic.

"You know she would insist and the kitchen is very angry with me for stealing this." Sombra pushed the tray forward having taken it from a canceled dinner.

He sighed and started shoveling shrimp. If she was here he knew she cry because she 'forced' him to be vegetarian. Then he argued back that she didn't want to do it for her. Then she insists on eating and not having to be vegetarian. He would try to convince her he wanted to be but she wouldn't listen and he'd eat the shrimp.

Cadence entered with a soft knock and a light squeak of the door. "Discord I am so sorry." She stepped forward and gently held his head in her hooves. "Your eye."

"Don't worry it only looks bad sorry about the room." He grunted holding his head the floor was suddenly lava. Well, it looked like lava but tasted and felt like chocolate. "I'll fix it later."

Cadence smiled gently looking into his eyes. "It's not your fault, you were injured because of me. It's just a room and you will be able to fix it once you are better."

Discord stuttered, "I'm sorry?" He just stared at Cadence in shock. In his whole life that was never a sentence, he thought he hear.

"It's not your fault you have that headache and it's causing this. Not you." She hugged Discord and yawned.

Discord hugged her back yawning too. "One more time?"

"It's...not...your fault." Cadence and Discord soon started snoring. Leaving Sombra in stunned silence.

Shining quietly opened the door to find the two passed out where they sat. Cadence is in her chair and Discord is in the medical bed. He sighed picked his wife up and putter in the bed next to Discord. At least she was resting.

------- Sometime Later -------

Star Fleet galloped, and his clone crew followed him closely. She skidded down hallways, his possey having spread word of a very important meeting. Star panted taking one final turn left and there was the staff room. He took a moment to catch his breath, "allriiighhhtt.." he slurred out as his crew turned to sheep, then to pie then disappeared completely. He wasn't gonna lie he would miss the extra hooves, and so effective too. Perhaps he could get the Princess to have that miss-matched creature do it again. It's not like she didn't owe him after this one. The absolute headache of canceling without causing panic was not something he wanted to do again.

He regained his composure and opened the door to the staff room. The guards and maids alike whispered among themselves. Most likely rumors about the strange day.

"Order, order. Some of you may have noticed today was usual. At this very moment, our monarch is weak. Any time someone could take us down and I need you all to keep an eye on Sombra and that strange mismatched one."

"Discord," a voice said from the back. Ivy stepped forward a frown on her face. "And that mismatched creature saved our princess so maybe you should give him some respect." Her voice quivered but she resolved to remain strong.

The crowd murmured with panic whispers.

"Order! How did you know?"

"I helped Sombra find the kitchen he said something about Discord having to eat. So I showed him the way and he told me what happened." Ivy crossed her hooves.

"Which he stole!" A member of the kitchen yelled from the other side of the room, the rest of the kitchen staff agreeing.

"Well, the princess told him he was welcome to help himself. I was surfing him that day so I would know. I was sure he got everything he needed since he was helping her."

The crowd begging to argue amongst themselves. Most of them assume ivy was lying, that she was brainwashed. Ivy's closest friends sided with her and the screaming match got louder.

"I said order!" Star Fleet bellowed silencing the argument.

Ivy could not be silenced, "they both know. And to remind you, Discord helped you when you needed it. I thought this was a true emergency, not a smear campaign. I'm going to check on the creature that saved the princess to see if I can help. You are all welcome to sit here and panic. Ivy stomped her hoof and with a huff left the meeting. The door slammed shut and her closest friends followed suit each one letting the door slam. Ivy wasn't going to just sit and listen to that nonsense.