Discord's First Hearth's Warmingby ZeroMonkeyChaptersConvincing the GirlsConvincing DiscordThe PageantConvincing the Girls“We’re all here now. What’d you call this meeting for, Fluttershy?” asked the blue pegasus as she finished her last, impatient flying lap around the room and landed quickly next to the sturdy wooden table in the center. It was Rainbow Dash who spoke, but Fluttershy could see the same curiosity etched onto the faces of her other four of her friends who had each found a comfortable position around the library’s small main room. It was Rarity who chimed in next, rising from the chair where she had been covertly napping. “You hardly needed to be so cloak-and-dagger about all this. We’re not in a Shadow Spade novel, darling.” “And no, saying that it had something to do with Hearth’s Warming didn’t really clear things up,” Applejack added in her drawl. Fluttershy waited calmly a few moments more to see if her other two friends, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, had anything to add and quietly steeled herself for their inevitable reactions to what she was about to say. On her back, Angel Bunny also prepared himself. He knew this wasn’t going to be pretty. “...Well, um, first could you all promise me that you’ll let me explain myself before you react, okay? ...Please?” A chorus of assent rang out in the small library, Pinkie Pie’s being the most enthusiastic and including a series of silly gestures that indicated how seriously she took the oath. Fluttershy gathered her courage a moment longer, then spoke very quickly, spitting out the words like they were poison. “I’d like to invite Discord to Hearth’s Warming this year!” At once, both Rainbow Dash and Applejack had forgotten their promise from a few moments prior and had begun to emphatically rebuke Fluttershy’s request. Applejack was ranting about tradition and Rainbow Dash was saying something or other along the lines of ‘good-for-nothing troublemaker.’ Their sudden and impassioned speeches rendered each other largely mutually unintelligible. Meanwhile, Rarity held her tongue, but with a distinct look of a disapproval on her face. Pinkie Pie also looked like she had a lot to say, but hardly any more than any other time when she had to stay quiet. Fluttershy didn’t doubt that she would have joined the other two in ranting in a heartbeat, not out of any strong feelings of her own, but for the fun of it. Twilight’s eyes had widened at Fluttershy’s statement, but the curiosity remained. When Applejack paused her ranting which had moved onto the spurious claim that Discord would use the opportunity of the Hearth’s Warming festivities to try and ruin her farm again, Twilight cut in reproachfully. “Girls! Let Fluttershy explain herself, at least.” Once again the focus of attention, Fluttershy faltered and shrunk back. A well timed prod from Angel Bunny snapped her out of it, however, and she recovered her resolve. “Well, I’ve, uh, been trying my best to help Discord better understand friendship...but if I’m the only pony who reaches out to him, he’s never going to really be reformed.” “He’s keeping to himself and not trying to rule over Equestria. That’s reformed enough for me,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively. Before the conversation could get out of her control again, Fluttershy responded with a much firmer tone as her confidence solidified. “He’s not trying to rule over Equestria, Rainbow Dash, because he values my friendship. But I’m not Princess Celestia; I won’t be around forever. If nopony else even tries to be his friend, what do you think will happen when I’m gone?” Before Rainbow could think up a retort, Twilight’s eyes lit up with realization and she cut in. “Fluttershy’s right! Since the very start, we’ve been treating Discord like a burden and foisting all that responsibility onto her, but that’s no way to treat a friend!” The room was silent for a while after Twilight’s declaration as everypony mulled it over. Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked unconvinced. Pinkie Pie was lost in her own world, her eyes inscrutable, perhaps already selecting a recipe and designing an apology cake for both Fluttershy and Discord, perhaps thinking over the situation in depth, perhaps trying to remember if she left the oven on at Sugarcube Corner. Applejack’s stalwart expression slowly took on a tinge of guilt. “Ah reckon that makes a whole lotta sense. Ah’m sorry for treating you... and Discord so badly. But why are you bringing this up now? Why Hearth’s Warming?” Fluttershy gave Applejack a gentle and said, “Oh, well part of it is that I, uh, needed to figure out how to broach the subject and then actually build up the courage to do it. But it’s also that Discord is, um, really creative and now that he’s not, you know, wreaking havoc on Equestria, he doesn’t really have an outlet. I think performing might be a good way for him to express himself without, uh, literally turning the world upside down, don’t you think?” Applejack nodded and thought for a second. “What role were you figuring on him playing? There ain’t exactly a wealth of draconequuses in the Hearth’s Warming Pageant.” Fluttershy’s face scrunched up in thought. “Well, I’m pretty sure he could take the form of a pony, I think.” “Shapeshifting is in very poor taste right now, I’m afraid. The invasion of Canterlot is still fresh in a lot of ponies’ minds,” Rarity chimed in, “And I don’t have time to make a costume for him anyways. Hearth’s Warming is only a few days away and we already have a full cast.” “I don’t think that he’d enjoy having to take the form of a, uh, pony for very long, either,” Fluttershy agreed. After sitting in pensive silence for a while longer, Twilight weighed in. “I might have an idea. Your Granny Smith is the narrator this year, right Applejack?” “Eeyup.” “Alright, hopefully we can convince her, but here’s what I’m thinking...” Convincing DiscordIt was a beautiful winter morning in Ponyville, a scant few days before Hearth’s Warming, and Fluttershy’s cottage was unusually quiet. It was not in and of itself unusual for her home to be quiet during the winter, as many of her animal friends had left to hibernate until spring. Today, however, even her year-round residents were nowhere to be seen, for one simple reason: today was the day of her weekly tea time with Discord. Now, this wasn’t out of any animosity on their part. The simple fact was that animals were even greater creatures of habit than ponies and that Discord was rather the opposite. Things were never routine around him and so the animals found somewhere else to be whenever they knew he would be around. Tea time with Discord had become as routine as was possible when a millennia-old spirit of chaos was involved. It started with Fluttershy trying her best to exchange pleasantries and Discord endeavoring to never answer the same way twice, even if it meant that his answers didn’t make sense half of the time and barely made sense the other half of the time. Today, however, instead of delving into the myriad of strange topics it normally took to keep Discord entertained for an hour, Fluttershy decided to broach an entirely new topic. “Discord, it would mean a lot to me if you would take part in Ponyville’s Hearth’s Warming pageant this year.” Discord raised an eyebrow, “That’s one of those sappy pony holidays, right?” His eyebrow kept rising, escaping from the confines of his forehead. “It’s about how great friendship is or something along those lines, isn’t it?” The eyebrow raised higher and higher; it was almost to the ceiling now. “Don’t answer that. All your holidays are about how great friendship is.” His eyebrow slipped through a crack in the ceiling and disappeared from sight. “For Hearth’s Warming, we put on a play about Equestria’s history. Have you ever tried acting before? I think you might like it.” Discord stroked his chin dramatically. “I met a playwright once. He was a poet too. I think turned him into an orange. He didn’t do much rhyming after that. I don’t really see the point in acting. What’s the point in playing pretend when you can change reality on a whim?” “Well, I talked with my other friends and we thought you might enjoy being the narrator. As long as you stick to the story, you can add whatever special effects you like. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” “Really, I think I’ll pass,” Discord intoned with disinterest as he threw a buckball across the room to himself, “It sounds like a boring waste of time to me. I’m sure all those other ponies would rather I not be there anyways.” “Have you ever been to a Hearth’s Warming celebration before?” “What?” Discord looked actually thoughtful this time, “No, I don’t think so. When I was in charge of Equestria ponies only had important holidays, like Chaos Day, Anarchy Day, Disorder Day, and of course, Discord Day. Those were the days.” “Well, if you’ve never tried it, how do you know you won’t like it? Please will you just give it a chance?” Fluttershy accompanied this heartfelt request with the largest, most powerful puppy dog eyes she could muster. Discord held up his paw to try and shield his eyes, before relenting. “Fine. Please just stop that before you give me a heart attack.” Fluttershy gave him a gentle smile, “Thank you. Now, I’ve got a copy of the script here...” The PageantIt was Hearth’s Warming Eve and Ponyville’s town hall was packed to bursting with ponies and holiday spirit. Cheerilee ducked and weaved through the crowd, looking for an open space to sit. She was late and what had been intended to be orderly rows had already been stretched and squished in many places as ponies clumped together and snuggled for warmth. She saw an open spot and slid into it without a second thought. She found herself sitting next to an elderly green mare in a rocking chair which she reasoned Big Macintosh must have carried all the way from Sweet Apple Acres. “Granny Smith? I thought you’d be reprising your role as narrator for, what is this? The tenth year in a row?” Cheerilee asked, not overly concerned about the matter, but certainly curious. “Not this year, dear.” “Then who?” Granny Smith chuckled dryly. “Oh, you’ll see.” A few more minutes passed in amicable silence and then Mayor Mare slipped through the curtains to address the crowd. “Ponies of Ponyville! Your friends and family have been hard at work practicing for the pageant this year and we will be giving them each their due credit at the end of the show. However, before we begin, I’d like to introduce a special guest who will be our narrator this year,” At this, the Mayor seemed a little uneasy, Cheerilee noted, “Many of you have heard of him. May I present the reformed spirit of chaos: Discord!” Cheerilee thought that she might have felt her jaw hit the floor when the draconequus appeared on stage instantly and without so much as a noise. Some Time Later... Discord floated near the entrance to town hall, basking in praise from the townsponies as they left for their homes. As three fillies left the building chattering about how cool the special effects were, he turned to regard Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy who were conversing not too far away. “At the risk of agreeing with Celestia,” Discord shuddered at the thought, “It is certainly a fair bit more pleasant to be loved than to be feared.” Fluttershy chuckled politely and Twilight rolled her eyes. As Pinkie Pie bounced by, having taken off the hat of her Chancellor Puddinghead costume and begun to eat the pudding out of the hat, Twilight fixed Discord with an unamused look. “Chancellor Puddinghead’s hat was not actually a cup of pudding, you know. It was rather the prevailing fashion among Earth Ponies at the time to…” Before Twilight could fully enter into lecture mode, Pinkie Pie interrupted with a morsel of wisdom. “Yeah, but pudding is delicious!” Twilight rolled her eyes again and shortly thereafter, Rainbow Dash flew up to them, still half-clad in Commander Hurricane’s armor. “I had my doubts, but that was totally awesome! Especially those windigoes; they looked so real!” “Well I should hope they looked real. It would kind of defeat the purpose of summoning real windigoes otherwise,” Discord replied, nonchalantly. “Y-you summoned real windigoes into town hall!? Thats... T-thats...” Twilight stammered and was quickly interrupted by Rainbow Dash. “Awesome!” While Twilight’s brain rebooted, Rarity and Applejack joined the group and after not too much longer, Mayor Mare. Applejack nudged Twilight gently and quietly told her, “Everypony’s here,” which served to break Twilight out of her stupor. Twilight spared one last reproachful look to Discord, then nodded at the Mayor, who looked to Discord. “The Elements of Harmony, that is Twilight Sparkle and her friends, have persuaded me to grant you a plot of land in Ponyville,” the Mayor produced a scroll of paper from her saddlebags, “You just need to sign the deed and its all yours.” At Discord’s questioning glance, Fluttershy explained, “It was Rarity’s idea. We realized that now that you aren’t causing chaos all over Equestria, you didn’t really have anywhere where you could still exercise your powers and express yourself. But on this plot of land, you’ll be able to build whatever you want and do whatever you please. It can be your little slice of chaos or whatever you want it to be.” Discord couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he manifested a flamingo feather quill and signed the parchment. He looked to the Fluttershy and her friends and said, quietly enough that he almost could have been mistaken for Fluttershy herself, “Thank you.” A few more moments of pleasant silence were interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s stomach growling loudly. Applejack started to shepherd her friends out the doors. “Alright partners, let’s get some food in you. You’d better believe that there’s no Hearth’s Warming dinner in Equestria like an Apple family Hearth’s Warming dinner.” As everypony got moving, Applejack turned to look at Discord. “Are ya coming?” Discord, finally remembering that he had an image to maintain, did his best to look aloof and uninterested. “I suppose.” The draconequus floated lazily after the ponies into the snowy winter night, trying and failing to hide the smile on his face.
Convincing the Girls“We’re all here now. What’d you call this meeting for, Fluttershy?” asked the blue pegasus as she finished her last, impatient flying lap around the room and landed quickly next to the sturdy wooden table in the center. It was Rainbow Dash who spoke, but Fluttershy could see the same curiosity etched onto the faces of her other four of her friends who had each found a comfortable position around the library’s small main room. It was Rarity who chimed in next, rising from the chair where she had been covertly napping. “You hardly needed to be so cloak-and-dagger about all this. We’re not in a Shadow Spade novel, darling.” “And no, saying that it had something to do with Hearth’s Warming didn’t really clear things up,” Applejack added in her drawl. Fluttershy waited calmly a few moments more to see if her other two friends, Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, had anything to add and quietly steeled herself for their inevitable reactions to what she was about to say. On her back, Angel Bunny also prepared himself. He knew this wasn’t going to be pretty. “...Well, um, first could you all promise me that you’ll let me explain myself before you react, okay? ...Please?” A chorus of assent rang out in the small library, Pinkie Pie’s being the most enthusiastic and including a series of silly gestures that indicated how seriously she took the oath. Fluttershy gathered her courage a moment longer, then spoke very quickly, spitting out the words like they were poison. “I’d like to invite Discord to Hearth’s Warming this year!” At once, both Rainbow Dash and Applejack had forgotten their promise from a few moments prior and had begun to emphatically rebuke Fluttershy’s request. Applejack was ranting about tradition and Rainbow Dash was saying something or other along the lines of ‘good-for-nothing troublemaker.’ Their sudden and impassioned speeches rendered each other largely mutually unintelligible. Meanwhile, Rarity held her tongue, but with a distinct look of a disapproval on her face. Pinkie Pie also looked like she had a lot to say, but hardly any more than any other time when she had to stay quiet. Fluttershy didn’t doubt that she would have joined the other two in ranting in a heartbeat, not out of any strong feelings of her own, but for the fun of it. Twilight’s eyes had widened at Fluttershy’s statement, but the curiosity remained. When Applejack paused her ranting which had moved onto the spurious claim that Discord would use the opportunity of the Hearth’s Warming festivities to try and ruin her farm again, Twilight cut in reproachfully. “Girls! Let Fluttershy explain herself, at least.” Once again the focus of attention, Fluttershy faltered and shrunk back. A well timed prod from Angel Bunny snapped her out of it, however, and she recovered her resolve. “Well, I’ve, uh, been trying my best to help Discord better understand friendship...but if I’m the only pony who reaches out to him, he’s never going to really be reformed.” “He’s keeping to himself and not trying to rule over Equestria. That’s reformed enough for me,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively. Before the conversation could get out of her control again, Fluttershy responded with a much firmer tone as her confidence solidified. “He’s not trying to rule over Equestria, Rainbow Dash, because he values my friendship. But I’m not Princess Celestia; I won’t be around forever. If nopony else even tries to be his friend, what do you think will happen when I’m gone?” Before Rainbow could think up a retort, Twilight’s eyes lit up with realization and she cut in. “Fluttershy’s right! Since the very start, we’ve been treating Discord like a burden and foisting all that responsibility onto her, but that’s no way to treat a friend!” The room was silent for a while after Twilight’s declaration as everypony mulled it over. Rarity and Rainbow Dash looked unconvinced. Pinkie Pie was lost in her own world, her eyes inscrutable, perhaps already selecting a recipe and designing an apology cake for both Fluttershy and Discord, perhaps thinking over the situation in depth, perhaps trying to remember if she left the oven on at Sugarcube Corner. Applejack’s stalwart expression slowly took on a tinge of guilt. “Ah reckon that makes a whole lotta sense. Ah’m sorry for treating you... and Discord so badly. But why are you bringing this up now? Why Hearth’s Warming?” Fluttershy gave Applejack a gentle and said, “Oh, well part of it is that I, uh, needed to figure out how to broach the subject and then actually build up the courage to do it. But it’s also that Discord is, um, really creative and now that he’s not, you know, wreaking havoc on Equestria, he doesn’t really have an outlet. I think performing might be a good way for him to express himself without, uh, literally turning the world upside down, don’t you think?” Applejack nodded and thought for a second. “What role were you figuring on him playing? There ain’t exactly a wealth of draconequuses in the Hearth’s Warming Pageant.” Fluttershy’s face scrunched up in thought. “Well, I’m pretty sure he could take the form of a pony, I think.” “Shapeshifting is in very poor taste right now, I’m afraid. The invasion of Canterlot is still fresh in a lot of ponies’ minds,” Rarity chimed in, “And I don’t have time to make a costume for him anyways. Hearth’s Warming is only a few days away and we already have a full cast.” “I don’t think that he’d enjoy having to take the form of a, uh, pony for very long, either,” Fluttershy agreed. After sitting in pensive silence for a while longer, Twilight weighed in. “I might have an idea. Your Granny Smith is the narrator this year, right Applejack?” “Eeyup.” “Alright, hopefully we can convince her, but here’s what I’m thinking...”
Convincing DiscordIt was a beautiful winter morning in Ponyville, a scant few days before Hearth’s Warming, and Fluttershy’s cottage was unusually quiet. It was not in and of itself unusual for her home to be quiet during the winter, as many of her animal friends had left to hibernate until spring. Today, however, even her year-round residents were nowhere to be seen, for one simple reason: today was the day of her weekly tea time with Discord. Now, this wasn’t out of any animosity on their part. The simple fact was that animals were even greater creatures of habit than ponies and that Discord was rather the opposite. Things were never routine around him and so the animals found somewhere else to be whenever they knew he would be around. Tea time with Discord had become as routine as was possible when a millennia-old spirit of chaos was involved. It started with Fluttershy trying her best to exchange pleasantries and Discord endeavoring to never answer the same way twice, even if it meant that his answers didn’t make sense half of the time and barely made sense the other half of the time. Today, however, instead of delving into the myriad of strange topics it normally took to keep Discord entertained for an hour, Fluttershy decided to broach an entirely new topic. “Discord, it would mean a lot to me if you would take part in Ponyville’s Hearth’s Warming pageant this year.” Discord raised an eyebrow, “That’s one of those sappy pony holidays, right?” His eyebrow kept rising, escaping from the confines of his forehead. “It’s about how great friendship is or something along those lines, isn’t it?” The eyebrow raised higher and higher; it was almost to the ceiling now. “Don’t answer that. All your holidays are about how great friendship is.” His eyebrow slipped through a crack in the ceiling and disappeared from sight. “For Hearth’s Warming, we put on a play about Equestria’s history. Have you ever tried acting before? I think you might like it.” Discord stroked his chin dramatically. “I met a playwright once. He was a poet too. I think turned him into an orange. He didn’t do much rhyming after that. I don’t really see the point in acting. What’s the point in playing pretend when you can change reality on a whim?” “Well, I talked with my other friends and we thought you might enjoy being the narrator. As long as you stick to the story, you can add whatever special effects you like. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” “Really, I think I’ll pass,” Discord intoned with disinterest as he threw a buckball across the room to himself, “It sounds like a boring waste of time to me. I’m sure all those other ponies would rather I not be there anyways.” “Have you ever been to a Hearth’s Warming celebration before?” “What?” Discord looked actually thoughtful this time, “No, I don’t think so. When I was in charge of Equestria ponies only had important holidays, like Chaos Day, Anarchy Day, Disorder Day, and of course, Discord Day. Those were the days.” “Well, if you’ve never tried it, how do you know you won’t like it? Please will you just give it a chance?” Fluttershy accompanied this heartfelt request with the largest, most powerful puppy dog eyes she could muster. Discord held up his paw to try and shield his eyes, before relenting. “Fine. Please just stop that before you give me a heart attack.” Fluttershy gave him a gentle smile, “Thank you. Now, I’ve got a copy of the script here...”
The PageantIt was Hearth’s Warming Eve and Ponyville’s town hall was packed to bursting with ponies and holiday spirit. Cheerilee ducked and weaved through the crowd, looking for an open space to sit. She was late and what had been intended to be orderly rows had already been stretched and squished in many places as ponies clumped together and snuggled for warmth. She saw an open spot and slid into it without a second thought. She found herself sitting next to an elderly green mare in a rocking chair which she reasoned Big Macintosh must have carried all the way from Sweet Apple Acres. “Granny Smith? I thought you’d be reprising your role as narrator for, what is this? The tenth year in a row?” Cheerilee asked, not overly concerned about the matter, but certainly curious. “Not this year, dear.” “Then who?” Granny Smith chuckled dryly. “Oh, you’ll see.” A few more minutes passed in amicable silence and then Mayor Mare slipped through the curtains to address the crowd. “Ponies of Ponyville! Your friends and family have been hard at work practicing for the pageant this year and we will be giving them each their due credit at the end of the show. However, before we begin, I’d like to introduce a special guest who will be our narrator this year,” At this, the Mayor seemed a little uneasy, Cheerilee noted, “Many of you have heard of him. May I present the reformed spirit of chaos: Discord!” Cheerilee thought that she might have felt her jaw hit the floor when the draconequus appeared on stage instantly and without so much as a noise. Some Time Later... Discord floated near the entrance to town hall, basking in praise from the townsponies as they left for their homes. As three fillies left the building chattering about how cool the special effects were, he turned to regard Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy who were conversing not too far away. “At the risk of agreeing with Celestia,” Discord shuddered at the thought, “It is certainly a fair bit more pleasant to be loved than to be feared.” Fluttershy chuckled politely and Twilight rolled her eyes. As Pinkie Pie bounced by, having taken off the hat of her Chancellor Puddinghead costume and begun to eat the pudding out of the hat, Twilight fixed Discord with an unamused look. “Chancellor Puddinghead’s hat was not actually a cup of pudding, you know. It was rather the prevailing fashion among Earth Ponies at the time to…” Before Twilight could fully enter into lecture mode, Pinkie Pie interrupted with a morsel of wisdom. “Yeah, but pudding is delicious!” Twilight rolled her eyes again and shortly thereafter, Rainbow Dash flew up to them, still half-clad in Commander Hurricane’s armor. “I had my doubts, but that was totally awesome! Especially those windigoes; they looked so real!” “Well I should hope they looked real. It would kind of defeat the purpose of summoning real windigoes otherwise,” Discord replied, nonchalantly. “Y-you summoned real windigoes into town hall!? Thats... T-thats...” Twilight stammered and was quickly interrupted by Rainbow Dash. “Awesome!” While Twilight’s brain rebooted, Rarity and Applejack joined the group and after not too much longer, Mayor Mare. Applejack nudged Twilight gently and quietly told her, “Everypony’s here,” which served to break Twilight out of her stupor. Twilight spared one last reproachful look to Discord, then nodded at the Mayor, who looked to Discord. “The Elements of Harmony, that is Twilight Sparkle and her friends, have persuaded me to grant you a plot of land in Ponyville,” the Mayor produced a scroll of paper from her saddlebags, “You just need to sign the deed and its all yours.” At Discord’s questioning glance, Fluttershy explained, “It was Rarity’s idea. We realized that now that you aren’t causing chaos all over Equestria, you didn’t really have anywhere where you could still exercise your powers and express yourself. But on this plot of land, you’ll be able to build whatever you want and do whatever you please. It can be your little slice of chaos or whatever you want it to be.” Discord couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he manifested a flamingo feather quill and signed the parchment. He looked to the Fluttershy and her friends and said, quietly enough that he almost could have been mistaken for Fluttershy herself, “Thank you.” A few more moments of pleasant silence were interrupted by Rainbow Dash’s stomach growling loudly. Applejack started to shepherd her friends out the doors. “Alright partners, let’s get some food in you. You’d better believe that there’s no Hearth’s Warming dinner in Equestria like an Apple family Hearth’s Warming dinner.” As everypony got moving, Applejack turned to look at Discord. “Are ya coming?” Discord, finally remembering that he had an image to maintain, did his best to look aloof and uninterested. “I suppose.” The draconequus floated lazily after the ponies into the snowy winter night, trying and failing to hide the smile on his face.
