Discord lay on a cloud, letting the sun's light beat down on him. He couldn't think of any chaos to cause today... okay, he could, he just didn't want to. Even now, he hated to admit it, but he still felt guilty about betraying Equestria to join forces with Tirek. It was only a two weeks ago, but things like this didn't usually get to him. And if they did, it wouldn't last that long. Guilt was still an unfamiliar feeling to him.
No matter, he'd soon be back to his mischievous and chaotic self. It would just take time.
But why would he want to be his chaotic self? No one liked his chaotic self, just despised his true nature. Even Fluttershy had a limit to his chaos. Sometimes he just felt like a pet. Celestia's pet. That was why she freed him in the first place. 'To use his magic for good instead of evil.' Except his magic wasn't evil, it was just... different. Something neither Celestia or her younger sister appreciated or respected, at least.
It was thoughts like these that led him to betraying Equestria in the first place.
"Hey Discord!!!" A high-pitched voice interrupted his train of thought. Discord looked down to find Pinkie Pie looking up at him. He let out a sigh, but didn't ignore her. It was the least he could do, she had forgiven him for almost handing Equestria over to Tirek.
"Yes... Pinkie?" He replied grimly. This made the pink pony frown.
"Aww, why the long face? Every time I see you you're always grinning!" She grabbed some balloons from behind her that weren't there a second ago, and tied them around her waste so she could float up to beet Discord face to face. Unlike what many other ponies would do, Discord didn't question any of Pinkie's shenanigans. In all honesty, they were normal to him.
"Eh... nothing to do." He lied, slumping on his belly, only half focusing on the floating pony in front of him.
"Really? Strange! I have plenty of things I wanna do today!" She exclaimed. "Come to think of it, Fluttershy told me you're good at baking sweets. You can always help me make this cake I've been wanting to make for a while! And by a while I really mean since this morning, but still that's a while since I can always just wake up and start baking but for some reason I didn't bother this morning and it seems like forever since this morning even though it's still morning but you know what I'm saying!" She giggled. What Pinkie had just said even made Discord put effort into processing it all.
But spending time with Pinkie Pie? Alone? With no guide on how to survive? It didn't take him long to answer.
"Um... No thanks." He simply said, spinning his body 180 degrees to turn away from her.
"Why not?" She suddenly appeared in front of him, despite having turned away from her. Unlike usual, she had a frown on her face.
"Well... um..."
"I mean, you had a long face before because you had nothing to do, and that means you were sad that you had nothing to do, so I thought, well maybe you couldn't think of anything to do, but that doesn't make sense since you can do like... anything with your magic and I would've thought you could keep yourself entertained with anything and you're clearly sad about something so maybe help from a friend would cheer you up!"
Her logic impressed him, but the answer was still,
"No."
"Oh... Okay." Feeling like a failure, Pinkie's balloons started to deflate on their own. Her frown grew, and her head drooped.
Great, the guilt was back. Discord regretfully watched the pink pony float back to the ground. Though it hurt to think of spending a single minute alone with Pinkie, he still owed her for his betrayal and her forgiveness.
"Okay, fine." He sighed.
"REALLY?" Pinkie shot right back up without the help from her inflatables, grinning.
"Might as well."
"GREAT!" She squealed, falling back down to the ground. Discord snapped a talon and appeared next to her, then followed her as she bounced down to Sugarcube corner.
"Mr and Mrs Cake aren't in today, so I've been baking all morning. But there were no customers so I went to see if anypony was coming, and I saw you on a cloud and you looked bored so I came over to see if you were bored or not." She explained. "Turns out I was right!"
"Unfortunately." Discord muttered to himself.
"Oh, don't worry Discord," Pinkie told him, having heard him, "We all get bored now and again."
Once they were in the kitchen, Pinkie dragged out flour, sugar, and other ingredients they'd need to make the cake.
"Ooookay, so we're gonna need to make some sort of cake, but I have no idea what kind of cake to make! What about you, Discord? Got any ideas? You always have creative ideas!"
Discord tapped the table next to him with his talons. "I dunno if it's possible to make a cotton candy cake." He shrugged.
"I think that's worth a try! Never really done it before... but it sounds good!" She bounced to the cupboards and opened them. "Oh... we don't have any cotton candy." She said sadly. Discord just sighed with annoyance, and snapped his fingers. A cotton candy cloud appeared above her and started raining chocolate. Pinkie reacted differently to the chaos than the others would. Instead of growling with frustration, she started giggling and catching rain droplets on her tongue.
"Mmm! This is the best chocolate rain I've tasted for moons! Well... that's probably because I hadn't tasted any since before you were reformed but still!" She mumbled with a mouth full of chocolate milk.
"At least somepony appreciates it..." He sighed. Pinkie took note of it, then trotted over to him.
"Discord? Is there something wrong? I mean... I just assumed you were bored, but is there something troubling you that I don't know about?"
"No!" He replied assertively. But Pinkie's expression had changed. It wasn't a goofy smile anymore (though, it was still covered in chocolate), but a more concerned look. Discord slumped as he sat on the floor, not bothering to float in mid air any longer. "Okay, yes."
"What is it?" Pinkie asked, sitting down in front of him.
"Well... lately I've just been thinking. Okay, to be fair, I've been thinking this almost all my life. But, it's just that..." Discord struggled to get the words out. What was he, the master of all things chaos doing, sharing his worries with a pink pony who cared for nothing but parties? "My true nature is to preform chaos. I don't do it because it's a hobby of mine I just picked up one day, I was born to do it." He folded his arms. "Clearly even the wisest of ponies can't even understand that." He immediately thought of Celestia when he said that. Not even she ever picked up on the simplest fact about him.
"Well, I guess I'm not very wise. But I totally get that!" Pinkie grinned. Discord gave her a skeptical look. He doubted that she could understand something the ruler of all Equestria couldn't. Maybe she just misunderstood what he'd said.
"Um... you do?" He started.
"Well of course! Kinda like me. Ponies don't really get why I'm soooo into parties and all that, but the truth is, it's not the parties or the fun that I'm into. It's just seeing my friends smile that I love!"
The explanation was unexpected. If he reworded that a tad, Discord had an exact description of how he felt.
"I guess... I mean, I never meant to harm anypony with my powers, I just thought that Equestria was so boring. Everything was the same. I didn't like it, I was just so... bored. I thought that's how everyone felt. So maybe I'd be treated better if I could impress them with my magic. Maybe at least my only friend would appreciate it..."
"You had a friend?" Pinkie raised a brow. "Like, before us?"
"Guuh...errr..." Discord stuttered, realizing what he'd just said. "Well... of course not... I only cared for chaos back then." He grunted, turning around. But Pinkie appeared upside down in front of him with a curious look.
"But you just said you thought you'd be appreciated by at least your only friend! But when Fluttershy was reforming you, you mentioned that you'd never had a friend before." She rubbed her chin. "Well, now it's just all confusing. Did you have a friend?"
"No, I didn't." Discord denied, causing Pinkie to tilt her head.
"Then why did you say you had a friend before?"
"Because... uh. Oh, you know what fine, I did. Happy?" He spat.
Discord's tone didn't bother Pinkie though. "But... why have you never mentioned them before?"
"Because she's still alive." Again, he turned his whole body away from her. She didn't appear in front of him this time, just stood their thinking. Discord highly doubted she'd bother to ask anymore questions. At least, he hoped.
"That, by any chance, wouldn't be Celestia, would it?"
Discord stopped. He turned around and stared at her. "How did you..."
"It was kinda obvious." She shrugged. "You see, when we first met, you and Celestia hated each other. But the weird thing is, Celestia doesn't hate anyone! So from the start, I just assumed something happened between you two. And don't worry, I know what it's like to loose a friend." She put a hoof on his paw. "You've just got to remember, we think differently because, well, we're all different!"
Discord looked down at her. Out of all ponies, Pinkie Pie's words actually spoke to him.
"Pinkie, am I... too different for Equestria?"
"Of course not, silly filly. I mean, I'm friend's with everyone, and look how different I am!" She laughed, licking all the chocolate off her face by somehow extending her tongue. Discord wasn't sure why, but it made him smile.
"You know, Pinkie Pie, you are quite a chaotic pony." Discord chuckled, a smirk spreading across his face.
"You think so?" She grinned.
"Yeah. So, shall we get started on that cotton candy cake?" The draconequus stood up, preparing to snap his fingers to get started.
"You betcha!" She exclaimed, leaping up in the air.