And Uninvited Discord, No Less
“…you’re sure you’ve got those holiday decorations handled, dad?” Fluttershy asked with mild worry as she and her mother passed through the living room with some final supplies for dinner. “You know I’d be happy to help you if you need it.”
“I appreciate the offer, Fluttershy,” her father, Cloudy Shy, told her daughter as he hovered around the ceiling, hanging Hearth’s Warming tinsel. “But I think should have this done soon. Besides you’re already helping your mother and I don’t want to overwork you.”
“You wouldn’t be, dad,” the butter-yellow pegasus assured her father sweetly as she stopped near the entrance to the kitchen to watch, but nonetheless trusting his word and letting him work. “And I just don’t want to see you get too overworked too. We’re just here to celebrate Hearth’s Warming Eve together as a family, after all.”
“We do deeply appreciate you coming this year, dear,” her mother, Spring Breeze, thanked from where she stood nearby, watching. “You know we’re always happy when you come home to visit us, particularly for the holidays, but we also understand you’re a grown independent mare with a life of her own.”
“It’s really no problem,” Fluttershy assured once again. “With Dr. Fauna agreeing to look after my animals, it left me free to come up for the holidays and I want to make the best of it, together!” She turned to her father again. “If you really have the decorations handled, dad, then we’ll go finish preparing the Hearth’s Warming Eve dinner.”
“I think so!” Cloudy Shy confirmed as he worked and waved the two mares on. “Don’t let me keep you two from doing what you need to.”
Satisfied with that then, Fluttershy followed her mother into the adjoining kitchen. “So, mom, what is there still left to do?”
“Not much,” Spring Breeze replied as they went to the counter where most of the food was already mostly finished, laying out the supplies they had brought. “We just need to put together a few more things and then we’ll be ready.” As she and her daughter set to work, she continued the earlier conversation. “Thank you again for coming, Fluttershy,” she reiterated. “I’m sure you would’ve had plenty of other fun plans for holiday besides humoring your parents like this.”
“Oh, nothing too major, actually,” Fluttershy admitted as they worked. “The girls were planning a little Hearth’s Warming Eve activity this year, but nothing so important that I had to attend. They’d all urged me to come here anyway—family is more important than some holiday games, after all. Beyond that, I really didn’t have any other commitments as my friend Discord won’t be here for Hearth’s Warming, since he’ll be away for this whole week.”
But of course, no sooner had she said this, the draconequus himself suddenly appeared behind them in a magical flash of light. “Au contraire, my little pony!” the large serpentine creature giddily declared, wearing a colorful poncho. “Heeeeeeee’s BACK!”
And then to emphasize it, he whipped out a trumpet to start playing a mariachi solo only to be cut short when Spring Breeze, startled by his sudden appearance, yelped and reflexively swung around, accidentally losing her grip on the cutting knife already in her hoof and hurling it towards the mismatched creature. It would’ve hit Discord square in the neck had he not magically split his neck into two halves in the same moment, creating a gap just wide enough for the knife to fly harmlessly through and hit the wall behind him instead. In amusement, he twisted his head around like an owl so to look at the knife before turning back to the others. “Ooh, nice throw!” he complimented despite the gap still present in his neck, giving Spring Breeze a thumbs up.
Spring Breeze just gaped at him for a moment before sinking to the floor in a faint.
“Discord!” Fluttershy declared in dismay as she ran to her mother’s aid.
“But it was a good throw!” Discord protested with a frown as he got pushed aside in the process. “Some creatures would love to have a throwing arm like that!”
“Not that!” Fluttershy said as she looked over her collapsed mother. “I think you might’ve shocked her too badly!”
“Oh fine,” Discord snapped his claws and magically replaced the trumpet and poncho with a surgical doctor’s outfit before leaning over the fallen pegasus. He proceeded to vigorously rub together one claw from each of his mismatched paws. “CLEAR!”
He then pressed the two claws to the chest of Spring Breeze and with a small zap, she jolted awake again with a small gasp. “Oh my, what happened, did I slip?” the mare asked in a groggy confusion. She looked at Discord (who waved) and her eyes widened. “Goodness me, how did something like you get here?”
“Oh, just disappeared there, reappeared here, you know how it is,” Discord replied without really answering the question.
Spring Breeze’s jaw opened and closed several times as she failed to form any kind of response to that.
Meanwhile Fluttershy, again motioning Discord away, proceeded to help her mother back up. “Easy, easy, mom, you passed out for a moment there,” she explained as she started leading the mare carefully back into the living room, Discord floating along behind them like a balloon towed by a foal. “Let’s get you sat down somewhere so you can take it easy for a moment.”
“What’s going on?” Cloudy Shy asked as they entered, having landed to put away the leftover tinsel when they started to enter. “Is everything okay in…” he trailed off as he saw Discord (who again waved) trailing behind the rest of his family, his eyes widening. “…oh my.”
“Discord, these are my parents, Spring Breeze and Cloudy Shy,” Fluttershy introduced with some strained patience while she motioned her parents to sit down on the couch. “Mom, dad, this is—”
“My name is Discord!” Discord interjected so to dramatically introduce himself, swooping to the front of the living room and striking several sensational poses. “Lord of Chaos, defeater of Cosmos, aaaaaaaaaand the youngest draconequus to have ever received the Pink Heart of Courage in this great land of Equestria!”
He then held his final pose, clearly awaiting applause. Instead, he got an awkward silence from the three onlooking ponies.
“…what?” Cloudy Shy finally asked, clearly confused as to what exactly had brought this strange newcomer into his home.
Discord deflated briefly before puffing himself back up and repeating the spiel once again. “I said that my name is Discord! Lord of Chaos, defeater of Cosmos, and the youngest draconequus to have ever received the—!”
“Discord, you’re the only draconequus to have received the Pink Heart of Courage,” Fluttershy pointed out as she sat down on the couch herself.
“Which by automatic also makes me the youngest,” Discord pointedly replied, folding his arms. “So there!”
“Okay…” Spring Breeze said slowly, still taking this all in. Neither she or her husband seemed to know how to react to the draconequus and continued to take him in with clear intimidation.
Which Fluttershy swiftly took note of and grew concerned. “Um, not to sound rude, but why are you here, Discord?” she asked of her friend, also showing confusion for his unexpected arrival. “I thought you said you were going to be at that chaos seminar all week.”
“We finished early,” Discord huffed like it should be obvious. “It’s a chaos seminar, after all, we ain’t beholden to no schedule!” He then waved that matter off. “Either way, I have returned early for Hearth’s Warming and am free to spend the holiday with you all!”
“So…you came straight here,” Fluttershy guessed, trying to get the full picture.
“No, I went straight to Sweet Feather Sanctuary so to surprise you…but instead I surprised Dr. Fauna filling in for you.”
“And…she reminded you that I was spending the holiday with my parents?” Fluttershy prompted, since Discord seemed to have forgotten her telling him that before.
“Well, she didn’t really want to stop and talk as she kept claiming she was going to spend the holiday with this hippogriff guy—” Discord made air quotes as he said this, expressing his doubt over the existence of said boyfriend, “—she claimed to have met, but yes, she mentioned you were here.”
“Did Dr. Fauna also point out that by coming here, you’d be, um, dropping in uninvited?” Fluttershy then prompted in an instructive tone.
Knowing that was the tone she always used when trying to tell him he’d done something she for some reason thought he shouldn’t have, Discord paused and considered the question for a second. “I don’t think so,” he admitted, “but lemme me ask her and double check real quick.” He then snapped open a small portal next to him and poked his head into it. “Hey, Dr. Fauna, me again, did you—” he then perked up mischievously at whatever he saw on the other side of the portal. “Oh ho ho, I take it back, you really weren’t lying about that hippogriff guy!” Instead of a response, there were two indignant screams from the other side of the portal, followed by two pillows being thrown at Discord’s face. “Okay, okay,” Discord said, unfazed, “I can see you’re busy here.” He then snapped the portal closed again and turned to face the three pegasi again, grinning smugly. “Sorry, it seems she’s all tangled up at the moment.”
Fluttershy’s parents just stared at him blankly. Fluttershy meanwhile had her face pressed into her hooves.
“Whatever the case,” Discord then continued, getting back on topic, “I’m here now! So how do we want to spend our Hearth’s Warming Eve?”
“Well, Discord, I was intending to spend it with my parents this year,” Fluttershy explained in a somewhat apologetic yet resolute tone, trying to signal to Discord that her plans had already been set.
It either flew completely over Discord’s head or he chose to deliberately ignore the hint. “Then I’ll just have to spend it with you here too!” He declared it like it had already been decided. He winked at Fluttershy’s parents. “It’s about time we all got to know each other anyway!”
Fluttershy couldn’t help but notice the eyes of both parents bulge at this. “That’s…nice of you to offer, Discord,” she explained to him, “But I’m not so sure that’d be a good idea, given that, um, none of us had expected, much less planned, for you to be here, so…”
But Discord wasn’t having it, waving the matter aside. “Oh, I’m sure you all can accommodate little ol’ me,” he pressed. “Besides, I’m already here, I might as well use this chance to show your parents just what sort of creature I can really be!”
“What…” Cloudy Shy began hesitantly, “…sort of creature would that be?”
“Well,” Discord said eagerly, since this was going into his sort of wheelhouse, “given my limitless powers, pretty much whatever I want to be.” And to demonstrate, he started snapping his fingers repeatedly, transforming himself into varying things and creatures each time he did so. Thus, clearly gobsmacked, Fluttershy’s parents watched with dropped jaws as the draconequus turned into an iguana, a tea kettle, a gnu, a chair, a griffon, a tomato plant, a lemur, a copy of Ice Climbers for the NES, an alligator, Bill Murray, a gopher, a grandfather clock, and finally a duckbill platypus at which Discord eagerly halted his montage. “Oh, oh, oh, wait, wait, wait, there’s something else I can do with this!” He then made a 1940’s fedora appear on top of his platypus head and motioned eagerly to his audience. “Eh? Eh?”
But the others just continued to stare at him blankly, not following.
“Um…Discord…” Fluttershy used that moment to interject, “Look…”
“But I’m just showing off what I can do!” Discord reiterated, reverting back to his normal self.
“And any other occasion, I would be happy to give you that chance, Discord,” Fluttershy gently imposed. “But this is also Hearth’s Warming Eve, so I should think the night’s activities should be more focused on that instead…no offense.”
“But then all the more reason to include me!” Discord countered eagerly. “That’s what the holiday is all about, right? Including and interacting with your friends?”
There was a moment of silence as Fluttershy and her parents exchanged quiet looks.
“He…does…have a point, dear,” Spring Breeze reasoned with some hesitance before Fluttershy could form a reply. “And we should have supplies enough to include him.”
Fluttershy, however, bit her lip. “Are you sure though?” she asked her mother tentatively. She side-glanced at Discord, again trying to hint to him that maybe his intense personality wasn’t a good mix with her parents. “I’m sure Discord wouldn’t want to intrude or anything.”
“But we wouldn’t be very good hosts if we just turned him away like this, Fluttershy,” Cloudy Shy reasoned, attempting to be neighborly despite finding the draconequus intimidating. “Besides, with your brother not coming, we certainly have the room.”
“That’s right, you do have a brother, Fluttershy,” Discord mumbled, as if only just now remembering this detail. He glanced around, noticing said brother was totally absent from the area. “So where is that little ragamuffin?”
“Zephyr Breeze needed to be somewhere else this year,” Spring Breeze explained, “Said he was busy working on something that he was sure would earn him some needed money.”
“Let’s go gambling!” Zephyr Breeze declared from within the casino and sat down at a slot machine, pulling it’s lever.
This only resulted in it playing a loud, unwelcoming, noise: URNNNG!
“Aw, dang it!” Zephyr groaned and pulled the lever again.
URNNNG!
“Aw, dang it!”
URNNNG!
“Aw, dang it!”
URNNNG!
“Aw, dang it…”
“So anyway!” Discord said, clapping his paws together, eager to get on with it. “Hearth’s Warming Eve stuff! Where do we want to begin?”
“Uh, well, Discord…” Fluttershy began, not ready to move on just yet.
“We, um, traditionally start with a nice Hearth’s Warming Eve feast,” Spring Breeze replied hesitantly, unintentionally cutting off her daughter. She pointed a hoof back at the kitchen. “Though there’s still a thing or two we need to finish preparing before…”
“No need!” Discord assured and snapped his claws.
A flash of light filled the room again and they all suddenly found themselves seated around a ridiculously long dinner table within a fancy dining room, a vast meal stretched out upon it between which sat Fluttershy and Discord at one end while her parents sat at the other end. It was so sudden that Fluttershy needed a moment to focus on what the greatest issue with this was.
Which her father was kind enough to establish upon him startling and pointing at it with one hoof. “Goodness me, what is that?” he asked in wide-eyed shock.
Discord glanced blankly at the table’s centerpiece, visibly confused. “…it’s a turkey.”
“Why does it look like that, then?” Spring Breeze asked, sharing in her husband’s horror as they stared at it.
“…it’s been cooked to perfection?” Discord replied uncertainly, like this should be self-explanatory. “I don’t get what the problem is here—are you more ham people or something?”
“Discord,” Fluttershy hissed as she grabbed the draconequus’s arm and pulled him close so they could have a hushed conversation. She motioned with her head at the centerpiece in question, her tone stern. “Was that turkey alive before you put it there?”
“For heaven’s sake, Fluttershy, what do you take me for?” Discord replied as he frowned in mock offense. “I snapped that turkey into existence already cooked, so it was never actually alive to begin with.”
Fluttershy breathed a relieved sigh at that moral dilemma dodged before moving on to the other half of the issue. “Then let me remind you again that ponies typically don’t eat turkey.”
Discord opened his mouth to reply, stopped, then blinked to himself as realization struck. “Riiiiiight,” he said, drawing out the word as he processed the implications. “I keep forgetting you ponies are so…vegetarian. Seriously, you all don’t know what you’re missing, passing up the joys of things like, I suppose in this case, holiday turkeys.” He proceeded to raise his claws to snap yet again. “But never mind! Lemme just tweak the menu real quick, and…”
“No!” Fluttershy quickly interjected by grabbing his paw and stopping him, then inhaling sharply before continuing more calmly. “Discord, we already have a meal mostly prepared, please let us just use that instead. It’ll…save problems in the long run, trust me.”
“Well, sure, if you want to do everything the boring way,” Discord grumbled with a scoff.
“Is…everything okay, dear?” Spring Breeze then asked at that moment, she and her husband watching the two discuss but were too far away to make out what their hushed mutterings were saying.
“Just a moment, please, I’m talking things over with Discord,” Fluttershy said, shooting her parents a forced grin before turning back to the draconequus. “Okay look, Discord…you know I enjoy your company and normally I would be delighted to have you for the holidays, you know I would! But, with my parents here and all, I…um…”
“Why Fluttershy,” Discord said, pulling back a little. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were asking me to leave.”
“Um…I kinda am.”
Discord put his paws to his face and made a dramatic gasp. “Whaaaaaaaaat?!”
“It’s not you!” Fluttershy quickly assured him. “It’s just…” she winced. “…I worry your…chaoticness…might be a bit much, and…”
“But you always like it when I add a bit of chaos to things!” Discord bemoaned in an exaggerated pout, throwing in a pair of big and wet anime eyes for added measure.
Fluttershy’s wince grew as she avoided eye contact. “Yes, well, my parents aren’t exactly as…brave…as I am.”
Discord merely gave her a deadpan look.
“…Yes, I know, the irony isn’t lost on me either,” Fluttershy admitted, sheepish. “But trust me on this. I worry they aren’t going to know how to deal with you, and…that doesn’t seem exactly enjoyable for someone like that, right?”
Discord stopped to ponder the dilemma for a moment, tapping his chin and humming to himself while glancing back and forth between Fluttershy and her parents looking on. “Point taken, I suppose,” he finally relented, snapping his fingers again and returning them back to their original seating in the living room, the holiday feast he’d conjured up gone again like it had never been there in the first place. “But! That just means I should change my approach, don’t you think?”
Fluttershy hesitated skeptical. “…what exactly do you mean?” she asked slowly.
“Don’t you worry your pretty little head about that,” Discord said before pushing her towards the kitchen. “Now that I better understand who I’m working with, I’ll prove to you that I can entertain your parents just as well as I can entertain you, even in spite of the genetic namby-pamby-ness you all seem to share.”
“But…!” Fluttershy started to object.
“Please, Fluttershy?” Discord stopped to beg. “It’s not like I have anywhere else to be for the holidays anyway.”
Fluttershy winced, knowing he wasn’t wrong. She glanced back at her parents, aware they were still regarding the draconequus warily. Now that there wasn’t a huge table separating them, making it easy for them to overhear, she pulled Discord close so to speak to him in a hushed voice. “…I just think they aren’t going to know how to react to your chaotic ways, Discord.”
Discord raised an eyebrow at her. “Neither did you, at first.”
Fluttershy bit her lip, realizing his point. She let out a sigh. “All right, Discord, I’ll trust you with this,” she relented before turning to her parents. “Mom, dad, I’ll go see to finishing our Hearth’s Warming Eve dinner while Discord stays here and…um…visits with you for a bit.”
Both of her parents tensed at the reveal of this plan, but tellingly neither of them voiced any objections. “Oh…how nice of you to do that, Fluttershy!” her mother managed to praise as Discord resumed scooting Fluttershy into the kitchen. “Taking over the meal prep while letting us get to know your…um…friend a little better.”
Fluttershy hooked one hoof on the edge of the doorway before she was pushed out of the room entirely. “Just to be clear though…you’re sure you’re okay with this?” she stressed, uncertain. “Discord can be a bit intimidating on his own, as you’ve already seen, so…”
“Yes, but…um…if he’s a friend of yours, we can try to be a friend of his too,” Cloudy Sky reasoned. He glanced in Discord’s direction. “And…he does seem to want to help.”
“Yes! I do!” Discord confirmed, latching onto that argument in his favor while returning to his original position in front of the couch and beaming in Fluttershy’s direction.
Fluttershy bit her lip again. “…okay,” she finally relented. “But I’ll be keeping an ear out, so just give a shout if you need anything. And Discord?”
“Yes, dear Fluttershy?”
“You behave.”
“Indubitably!”
Despite that assurance, Fluttershy still hesitated a moment longer in the kitchen doorway, worriedly looking over the three, before sighing and allowing Discord to have this chance. Her parents watched her retreat into the kitchen then turned to look back at Discord, who had assumed as innocent looking a position as he could. He’d even conjured a halo over his head and subtly rearranged the figurines on the fireplace mantle behind him so to look like they were singing angelic choirs around him.
“So…Discord, was it? How, uh, how did you come to meet our Fluttershy?” Cloudy Shy finally asked.
“Oh, while I was on parole from being imprisoned in stone—she was the leading pony urging me to use my chaotic powers for good rather than for evil and not to try to conquer all of Equestria so to turn it into my own personal playground of helter-skelter anarchy within which sanity could not survive,” Discord replied casually. He sipped from a glass of chocolate milk he’d picked up from literal nowhere then hurled the empty glass behind him where it more exploded than landed inside the fireplace, the brief but large plume of flames outlining his figure in an ominous shadow.
Spring Breeze and Cloudy Shy responded back by pressing themselves deeper into their seats, looking tense.
Discord coughed awkwardly and quickly sought to change the subject. “...so how about some party games? Like impressions! I’m great with impressions!” He leaned closer as if slyly sharing a big secret. “I don’t want to brag, but my impression of John de Lancie is unparalleled.”
“…who’s John de Lancie?” Spring Breeze asked with uncertainty.
“Who’s John de Lancie?” Discord repeated, shocked. “What plebeian doesn’t know who John de Lancie is? He’s a simply brilliant actor! I should know!”
“Oh, well…we’ll take your word for it then,” Cloudy Shy said, trying to appease the draconequus. He then forced an apologetic grin. “Spring and I aren’t much for games anyway.”
“Then perhaps I can wow you in doing some impossible feat?” Discord suggested, going to what he knew best. “Shall I bend gravity? Slow-mo light? Deflate the universe? Find Trixie’s humility? The sky’s the limit!”
“…How about we just make some small talk?” Spring Breeze suggested with forced sweetness instead.
“Small talk?” Discord whined, dismayed at the mundane suggestion. “I have, without exaggeration, PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWERS, and you just want to make small talk with me?”
“Yes!” Spring Breeze replied simply and without any hesitation. Worse still (for Discord at least), Cloudy Sky nodded his head in agreement.
“But I want to prove to you two just what I can do and how utterly awesome that makes me!” Discord stressed. “More importantly, I want to show that just because I’m the lord of chaos doesn’t mean that has to be a bad thing! I want to prove that what I do can appeal to even the likes of you two!”He urgently motioned for them to give suggestions. “So c’mon! Give me something I can demonstrate with! Anything at all!”
The two ponies glanced around the living room awkwardly in search of inspiration. Eventually Spring Breeze locked onto the Hearth’s Warming decorations that encircled the room. “Well, it is Hearth’s Warming Eve,” she pointed out, looking to Discord. “So maybe you should show us something pertaining to that.”
Discord hummed thoughtfully as he considered the idea. “In what way?” he prompted.
“Perhaps show us some magnificent holiday decoration or some sight like that,” Cloudy Shy suggested with a hopeful grin. “I rather like things like that.”
“Hmm…a magnificent sight that is holiday related, something that blows everything else out of the water but still something you two would appreciate while still utilizing my own magnificent abilities…” Discord considered aloud. He suddenly brightened with an idea, made a light bulb appear over his head, then grabbed the pull cord on it so to light it up. “The Wishing Star!”
“The Wishing Star?” the pegasi chorused together.
“The Wishing Star!” Discord repeated back. “It’s something weird and it’s so bizarre! So we’re on our way to the Wishing Star!” With a snap of his fingers, Cloudy Shy and Spring Breeze suddenly found themselves seated within what appeared to be a school bus. Sitting behind the wheel was Discord, wearing a dress and a wig of frizzy red hair. “Seat belts, everyone!” He then pulled a conspicuous red lever and suddenly the bus transformed into a bus-shaped rocket ship and launched itself towards the sky with great force and speed.
“AHHHHHHH!” Cloudy Shy and Spring Breeze screamed in a panic, holding onto each other as they could otherwise do nothing but wait out the wild ride.
Discord, meanwhile, didn’t notice their terror. “WAHOOOOOO!” he instead bellowed exuberantly.
Fortunately, the ride was brief, and soon their peculiar mode of transportation came to a stop with a thump.
“Everybody out!” Discord said, motioning to the two pegasi to follow him while also shedding the wig and dress. “Single file, please!”
Still holding onto each other, Cloudy Shy and Spring Breeze followed Discord off the rocket bus, down a short corridor, and into a large and spacious metal room with several windows running in a circle around the bottom. Curiously, no matter which angle you peered through them, one could only see a starry sky through them.
“What is this place?” Spring Breeze asked in a tone that was somewhere between confused and mystified.
“This?” Discord asked, turning to face them. “This is my own personal SPACE STATION!…STATION!…STATION!…COOKIE!…STATION!”
“A what now?” Spring Breeze asked, only further confused.
Cloudy Shy, meanwhile, had his ears perked. “And what was that about a cookie?”
“Look, when you get to be my age, your echo stops behaving like it should,” Discord replied, folding his arms. “And this is a space station—basically any place that sits out in outer space.”
“You mean we’re in space?” Cloudy asked in a gasp, going to one of the windows so to get a better look.
“Yup, it’s one of the places I go to whenever I’m trying to hide from things like Celestia, Luna, tax collectors, or that one guy from the coffee shop that never leaves me alone,” Discord explained while Spring Breeze joined her husband at the window. Discord then shook his head and joined them. “Anyway, the reason I’ve brought you two here is so you can see…” he pulled out a pocket watch and made a show of checking the time. “…that.”
He then pointed out the window. His two pegasi guests followed his gesture and saw a small pinprick of light slightly larger than the surrounding stars off in the distance. But as they watched, it slowly grew bigger and bigger until it was a full multi-colored ball of light streaking across the sky. Spring Breeze and Cloudy Shy watched in awe of the majestic sight for several moments, having never seen anything quite like it before.
“And that’s the Wishing Star you were talking about?” Cloudy Shy asked Discord.
“It’s actually a comet,” Discord explained, “infused with magic to the point that it does have some wish-granting properties. Nothing dramatic, of course, so I wouldn’t go wishing for anything like, say, world peace or anything like that, but it’s powerful enough that your wishes would still grant you a good day or subtle stuff like that. It always flies by here in time for Hearth’s Warming.”
“Then...why haven’t I ever heard of it before?” Spring Breeze asked as she watched the comet sail by.
“Still too far away to be clearly seen from Equestria,” Discord answered. “But it’s orbit is gradually bringing it closer and closer every year. I estimate that in about another, oh, generation or so, it’ll be close enough to be easily seen in the sky just in time for the end of every Hearth’s Warming Eve.” He grinned. “I’m sure at that point it’s passing will become a staple of the holiday. But until then…you two get to enjoy it up close a little ahead of schedule.” He then leaned closer. “So…anything in particular you two would like to wish for while you’ve got the chance?”
Spring Breeze and Cloudy Shy watched the comet start to finish it’s arc across the sky for a moment before looking at each other with pleased grins. “Truthfully…I think we’d just wish to have a nice and lovely holiday with family and friends, enjoying special times like this,” Cloudy Shy spoke on the behalf of them both.
Discord grinned. “Good choice,” he said in approval before snapping his fingers once again.
In a flash they were back in the living room once again, like they had never left. Cloudy Shy and Spring Breeze looked around taking in the familiar sight of the room before Spring Breeze frowned. “…Wait, if you could just teleport us between the two locations, why did we need to do that whole thing with the bus and…?”
“Dinner’s ready!” Fluttershy suddenly announced, interrupting without realizing as she entered the room. She surveyed the trio of creatures and was pleased to notice that nothing too awry seemed to have transpired while she was away. “I take it everything’s been going okay in here?”
“Why, Fluttershy!” Discord said dramatically. “Why would you ever expect anything less from moi?”
“Mm-hmm,” Fluttershy hummed, giving Discord a knowing look before turning to her parents, still coming down from their awe seeing the Wishing Star. “What about you, mom and dad? Have you been getting along with Discord okay?”
They both looked at the draconequus for a moment then back at their daughter. “Well…he’s certainly an unusual fellow…” Cloudy Shy began.
“…but he still has his moments, doesn’t he?” Spring Breeze finished.
Fluttershy smiled warmly before glancing at Discord, who shared in the grin. “Well…I certainly like to think so.” She waved them all into the kitchen. “Now come along everyone, let’s go have dinner!”
“Yeah, I can eat!” Discord declared happily, the others chuckling as they headed towards the kitchen.
Fluttershy pulled Discord aside before they both entered the room though. “Thank you for not overwhelming my parents, Discord,” she said. “I don’t know what you did, but they seem to have really warmed up to you now.”
Discord grinned. “That was all I wanted,” he assured.
It was then that Fluttershy had a sudden thought. “Wait, Discord, was you coming here like this all just so you could try to…?”
“Now, now, Fluttershy,” Discord interrupted slyly, patting Fluttershy forward and into the kitchen, “let’s not keep your parents waiting.”
And indeed, when they entered the kitchen, they found her parents already seated at the table and looking on at the food that’d been set out with eager expressions, commenting as such as their daughter and her friend joined them.
“Ooh, it all looks delicious!”
“Yes, you’ve done a wonder job finishing getting it ready, Fluttershy.”
“Thanks, mom and dad.”
“Yeah, but…where’s the turkey?”
“Discord.”
“Right, right, boring vegetarians, sorry.”
Author's Note
Signing up for Jinglemas is always a bit of a gamble, because you can never be totally certain just what sort of story you might be asked to write, and I admit to always fretting a bit about that every time I do. But the moment I got FanOfMostEverything's request for a story with Discord and one or both of Fluttershy's parents, I immediately knew what I could do with that.
Then quickly had to trim down my original idea a bit as I realized what I was envisioning would be a bit too long for the purposes of Jinglemas, and in turn rethink a little how the story flowed together, but who's counting? 
Technically speaking, there aren't canonically accepted names for Fluttershy's parents, so I just made up my own. Then realized partway through writing there were some accepted fanon names for them I could've used instead...but by then I had gotten attached to the names I had made up, so...that's why their names might not be what you expected if you're familiar with those fanon names.
