For the Love of Cake

“Discord you have to stop,” said Fluttershy, muffled from the cloth napkin pressed to her snout. “You made me laugh so hard tea came out of my nose!”

“That’s a good thing in my book, my dear,” said Discord happily, and refilled her cup. “Do you think we convinced that nice couple from Phillydelphia to go for the tiered brambleberry pie in lieu of a traditional wedding cake?”

“You were very persuasive,” she chuckled after she had recovered.

“Bursting out of the top pie as a bunch of tiny hula dancers wasn’t too much?”

“Oh no, not at all. Though, that would be hard to replicate at their wedding. You should see if Pinkie Pie would hire you out to parties.”

“I do make a mean balloon arch.” He snapped his fingers and instantly became an arch of multi-colored, and textured, Discord balloons, his facial features on separate balloons. They came loose and began to float away, igniting another eruption of laughter from him and Fluttershy.

“See? See? ” Pinkie urged her friends “Just look at them.”

“Pinkie, this doesn’t feel right. Maybe we should just leave. It looks like they’re having a lot of fun.” Twilight pulled back from the window that she and the other ponies were looking through. She felt ridiculous, hiding from her friend in a bush and spying on her.

“I don’t know,” said Rainbow Dash, stretching out the syllables in thought. “I think Pinkie might be right on this one.”

“At the very least, we don’t want to scare or embarrass, Fluttershy,” added Rarity with a thoughtful nod. “This is a delicate time and she needs to feel love and support.”

“That’s why a surprise party is the perfect idea!” Pinkie nearly vibrated with excitement as she spoke.

“Hold on there, sugar cube. I’m on Twilight’s side. Wouldn’t it be better to wait for Fluttershy to tell us herself?”

“There are no sides, Applejack,” said Twilight with frustration. She wanted to stretch her wings. “I mean, we’re all on Fluttershy’s side. Even if it is surprising.”

“Surprising? Discord crashed through your roof in a suit! If anything, we weren’t paying enough attention to her. I’m with Pinkie, we should show her that we love and support her,” said Rainbow Dash.

“I for one do hope he doesn’t intend to wear that suit. Oh! I could make him a new suit, he’ll need one to match her dress. Naturally, I’ll be making the dress.”

“Slow down, Rarity. We don’t need to go that far.”

“I’m not saying we plan the whole thing now, Twilight! Don’t be silly, you can’t pull off something so important in just a couple of hours. I don’t even know what color confetti she’ll want! We’ll just have a little party. To celebrate the engagement!”

Fluttershy watched on as Discord chatted up another couple, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing and giving away his bit. She wasn’t fully convinced that they had really helped anyone today, but equally, she felt certain no one had been bothered or upset by their antics. It seemed like everypony was having a good time. Discord had used his powers several times to give the ponies presenting a little “extra oomph” as he had put it, but as promised had kept the chaos to a minimum.

It was funny. It wasn’t long ago now that Discord had put those same powers to bad use. Not very long at all since she and her friends had had to go up against him, fight with their elements, and ultimately win. Friendship always won in the end, it seemed. Indeed, her unexpected friendship with Discord had flipped her world upside down in more ways than one. Literally on multiple occasions.

She wouldn’t trade it for anything.

She loved her pony friends: caring for the farm animals with Applejack, her two pony book club with Twilight, and pampering girls' days with Rarity. Even her friends who were already more chaotic, like Rainbow Dash and her unexpected races and more gentle flight lessons, or Pinkie who occasionally interrupted her animal choirs but also always brought the best treats to their forest picnics.

But Discord was something completely different. Not just because he was a different, well, thing entirely. She had never met anypony like him before, nor had she known that somepony could have such a change of heart. He was still fundamentally the same, and convincing him to help could sometimes be like pulling teeth, but something had changed within him.

Discord was like his own element, his power alone nearly equal to theirs combined. The element of chaos, in a way. If the elements of harmony weren’t already perfect, she thought that forgiveness would have made a good addition. A symbol of who you could become if shown the way, and a splash of love and patience. There was room yet for him to grow, but Fluttershy hoped she would be there in those years to see just how much more he could grow and become a better, truer version of himself.

“Can I ask you a question?” She asked when he finally returned to his seat. His arms were loaded with mini snacks, and samples from the hopeful caterers, and he spread them across the table.

“Aside from that one?” He asked, chomping into a greasy mini calzone. She didn’t dignify the question with a response, merely giving him a look that earned a laugh. He wolfishly swallowed down the calzone and dabbed his mouth with a cloth napkin held in his tail. “Of course, Fluttershy. What’s on your mind?”

“What made you want to come here? Can’t you just use your powers to make all this? I’ve seen you make cakes and pizzas before, and sometimes they are as big as a house!”

“And just as delicious. But, you know, they have such a good assortment here. I’m glad you said something I almost forgot!” He snapped his fingers and a slice of cake appeared before Fluttershy on a delicate dish. It was sunshine yellow, with white frosting, on the top and in the middle. The cake had been baked in such a way that cutting it revealed a cute, red heart pattern inside. “Angel food cake, your favorite. I saw it over there and knew you’d want some.”

“Wow, this looks great! But you’re not avoiding my question so easily, Discord. Why did you want to come here today?” Maybe he just wanted to be lazy and not have to use magic to make them. She couldn’t deny that food often tasted better when someone else made it.

Discord made a funny look, and put down the bowl of mac and cheese, absently stirring it with his spoon as he spoke. He looked away from her, his eyes somewhere distant. “I thought you’d like it.”

“Oh come on, that can’t be the reason. What’s the catch?”

“No catch. Fair question, though. I know you like weddings, I know you like snacks even though you’re worried you’re getting fat. You aren’t by the way, not that it would matter. You’re pretty… uh pretty great no matter what.”

Something twisted in her stomach, almost like the flutter of a butterfly. “Thank you. You’re, um, you’re pretty great too.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that. If I’m great, it’s only because you helped me. I guess maybe I just like repaying your kindness. I know you’re always telling me to pay it forward, but I like seeing you happy. Is that a friendship thing? Always wanting to see your friend smiling?”

“Yeah, that’s friendship. I like seeing you smile too, Discord. Even if sometimes that smile means you’re up to something.”

He laughed, but it sounded a little more bitter than usual. She wanted him to look at her, but his attention was somewhere far away.

“I feel like I get friendship, but then sometimes I get… new feelings and it’s all so confusing and I don’t know what to do. Being good is hard.”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t know if I can explain it. Maybe I’m just not used to how strongly you can feel your friendship feelings for another. It feels like it gets stronger with each day.”

“That means you’re getting closer to ponies, Discord. That’s a good thing. You’re bonding with others. You must feel much less lonely now.”

“I do, but I don’t feel this way about every pony. Even the ones I really like, like Pinkie Pie. She’s my kinda gal, you know. That party canon thing is something else. We’re in talks to improve it.”

“What do you mean this way ?” Fluttershy asked, mouth feeling strangely dry and her heart thumped roughly in her chest. Was she getting sick?

Finally, he looked at her, and she was unprepared for the intensity of his gaze. He stared deeply into her eyes for a long moment, like he was searching for something. An answer deep inside that only she had, if he could just figure out how to get it.

“I don’t have the words for it, Fluttershy. I just know I want to see you smile, but it doesn’t end there. I want to spend time with you, and I like being by your side. We don’t even need to go to things like this, I would be content in silence with you. I am never content in silence. I want to protect you and keep you safe, and I like making you laugh. You make me happy, Fluttershy. I just want to be with you. But I don’t feel this way about everypony and I’m worried that something is wrong. I’m worried I went too far and broke friendship.”

More than friendship , her frantic mind urged her. That’s love! That’s love! He’s in love with you! Her two-pony book club with Twilight was one in which they read sappy romance novels. This had all the trappings of a standard romance story, friends to lovers. But the rational side of her mind was louder and argued against such a bold assumption. Discord hadn’t had any friendship like the one he had with her. He might have been just feeling friendly emotions, but they were strong because they were unfamiliar.

Besides, she felt all of those same things about and for him and she certainly wasn’t in love with Discord.

“You didn’t break anything,” she said gently. He did seem to be feeling very strongly, and she didn’t want to hurt him or upset him when he was being so vulnerable. “I can’t tell you what you’re feeling because I’m not you. But it sounds like you are learning to love your friends.”

“Love? I keep hearing ponies talk about that, especially today. Elaborate.”

“That’s not an easy thing to do, Discord.” She looked around helplessly, hoping something might give her an answer to end this quickly. The conversation was starting to go down paths she was unsure how to navigate, and her heart was beating annoyingly quickly. It felt like she had eaten butterflies that were now protesting in her tummy.

“Uhm, well. Ok, the other ponies here are really engaged. Engagement is kind of like a promise, and the wedding is when you solidify the promise. You promise to always be by the other’s side no matter what happens, to defend them, to be their best friend. You have to love a pony very much to make a promise like that because you also are promising to love just that pony in just that way for the rest of your life.”

“I’m confused. Love is when you make a promise?”

“No. I’m doing a bad job explaining this. There are different kinds of loves. You can love your parents or siblings, and that’s familial love. You can love your friends, and that’s platonic love. They have different expectations. Then these ponies love each other romantically. Rarity says that romantic love is a step beyond platonic love, but platonic love is still really powerful.”

“So, what is the difference between platonic and romantic? You can only do it with one pony your entire life? How do you know you’re making the right choice?”

“I don’t know if I’m the right pony to be asking this, Discord,” she squeaked. She could feel an embarrassed blush creeping across her face. Why did he have to look at her so intensely? “It, uh, it’s different. You want to do different things together.”

“Like what?”

“Like, um, well kissing for example.”

She was mercifully spared from having to further explain when one of the hosts announced that the event was coming to an end. Everypony should grab samples, business cards, and whatever else they needed so they could start filtering out of the event hall. Discord immediately took them up on that offer, creating an oversized bag to stuff as much food into as he could.

To her relief, their previous conversation didn’t continue. Discord rambled off ideas that he had for hypothetical wedding planning businesses they could run. They took the long way home, walking at a steady pace so the laughter didn’t have to end too soon.