Chapter 2

"Remaining Hard Feelings"

While Discord contemplated on ending his existence, Twilight Sparkle and her friends continued to get adjusted to their roles as the council of friendship. However, Twilight was having a lot on her mind considering the fact that it had been only a few days since she lost everything that she ever owned when Tirek destroyed her library. To this end, she had been acting very strange around her friends and it was now starting to grow on her, much to her friends' dismay.

"Let's go through this one more time," said Twilight, as she and her friends sat upon their new thrones. But, Rainbow Dash was already starting to grow tired over how to simply enter a throne room.

"We've gone over this like a million times, Twilight," replied Rainbow Dash, already sitting on her throne. "We've found all six keys, defeated Tirek and got this sweet castle, end of story."

"Yes," Twilight replied. "But why?"

"I don't know, sugar cube," remarked Applejack, sitting upon her throne. "It's probably just your new house or something."

Twilight chose to ignore the thought as she didn't feel like talking about this right now. Of course, Rarity was very excited about the new surroundings.

"I must say," said Rarity, stepping onto her throne. "There is really not much to all of this. It's all simply divine!"

Everyone gave out a small chuckle upon hearing these words, except for Fluttershy, who was looking forlorn and Twilight began to take notice of this. She couldn't worry about her new home for much longer as Fluttershy's sadness was starting to take notice.

"Hey, Fluttershy," said Twilight, looking over towards her friend. "Is something wrong? You seem kind of quiet."

Fluttershy kept looking down at the floor for a second and then looked back up towards the princess of friendship. As far as Twilight and the other ponies were concerned, they were used to seeing Fluttershy so quiet, but this was something completely different.

"Nothing," she replied quietly. "I'm just thinking about Discord, that's all. He hasn't been himself since we defeated Tirek."

This made all the ponies fall silent upon hearing Discord's name being uttered. Despite the fact that he had been forgiven by them, there were still some hard feelings against him among the ponies because he helped Tirek get what he wanted.

"He has been acting strangely lately," chirped Pinkie Pie, waving her hoof around. "It's almost like he doesn't want to live anymore."

This made Twilight glare at Pinkie upon hearing those words and the pink pony slouched down in her seat. After all, Twilight had been strict with Pinkie about Fluttershy's sensitivity ever since the time Fluttershy had to overcome her stage fright with the Pony Tones.

"What?" retorted Pinkie, shrugging her shoulders. "I'm just telling it like it is."

"It's all right, Pinkie," interjected Rainbow Dash. "Discord should at least apologize for what he did to Equestria. We wouldn't have been in the situation that we were in had it not been for him."

"I completely agree with Rainbow Dash," added Rarity. "I still feel that we should have punished him to an extent."

Twilight and Fluttershy could not believe what was being said and glared up at their friends. Yes, he did betray Equestria, but he was a victim just as much as they all were and both Twilight and Fluttershy knew it.

"I can't believe you all," said Twilight disgustedly, doing a face plant with her hoof. "Don't you all think maybe you should leave Discord alone? He has apologized for what he did and that is that."

"It goes much deeper than that, Twilight," replied Rarity. "Princess Celestia thought we had reformed him and as it turned out, we didn't succeed at that. I'm sorry, but maybe it would be best if we asked her and Princess Luna to have Discord turned back to stone."

"What good would that do?" snapped Twilight, trying to make light off the situation. "Can't you all just accept the fact he is sorry and move on?"

But, her friends couldn't move on with the matter, especially after something like this where they had their purpose in life sucked out of them by Tirek.

"It was because of Discord that we were able to defeat Tirek and return him to Tartarus," continued Twilight, trying to get through to her friends. "I managed to get my key to open the chest from him and this is how you all repay him for helping us defeat one of the greatest threats ever known to Equestria?"

But her friends remained defiant at what they have said about Discord. Twilight could see that they were not going to easily listen to what she had to say to them and then she looked over at Fluttershy, who had chosen to ignore what they had to say. Fluttershy could see that in her mind, Discord was apologetic for what he had done and she knew it.

Feeling that she could no longer ignore what was being said, she stepped off her throne and walked out of the room. Twilight then got off her throne and before she went to follow Fluttershy, she turned back towards her friends with disgust deep in her eyes.

"Now look what you've done," she flounced at her friends. "Fluttershy is upset now because of what you all are saying about Discord. It seems that maybe you all weren't forgiving about him and only apologized because of us. You all have a lot to think about."

And she walked out and slammed the doors of the throne room in their faces as the sounds of the doors slamming had woken up Spike from his nap on his own throne next to Twilight's.

"Is the meeting over?" he asked groggily as he opened up his eyes. "What did I miss?"

But, the four ponies in the room didn't answer as they continued to sit on their thrones thinking about what they had just said about Discord. Perhaps they should fully forgive or maybe that they were just being too hard on him.

Nevertheless, Twilight managed to catch up to Fluttershy just as she was about to walk out of the door to Twilight's castle.

"Hey," she said tenderly to Fluttershy. "I just want you to know that I have forgiven Discord for what did just as much as you. We will get through to the others no matter what it takes."

"I hope so, Twilight," replied Fluttershy, a small smile coming onto her face before turning back into a frown. "It's just that I wish he didn't do what he did, too. But, I don't want him to do what the other ponies are wanting him to do."

"Don't worry," replied Twilight. "Just stand with me and we will get them to understand in time."

With that, Twilight pulled her shy friend into an embrace and they hugged each other, knowing that Discord would be fully forgiven.

Meanwhile, Discord had disguised himself as a bird and began to make his way to Canterlot. For all he was concerned, he needed to do something before completing his intentions to turn himself to permanent stone…