The rough feel of the blue-barked tree made Discord smile. It wasn’t fully uncomfortable—rather, it was a nice tough feeling, with just the right amount of scratchiness to make it pleasantly unpleasant.

The tree boasted more than just blue bark; it drooped down, long stringy, fluffy blue leaves with tiny flowers blooming here and there, dappling the blue with pink and yellow. Discord lounged in the crook of two branches, smiling contently and he twiddled his claw and talon equivalent of thumbs.

This was his thinking tree.

The God of Chaos had just returned from a long jaunt with Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence, and he couldn’t be more content. Much fun and mischief had been accomplished, and Twilight was thoroughly flustered.

“Oh, she’s such a treat to mess with,” Discord giggled to himself, absently levitating a few inches from the crook of his thinking tree. “I do hope I get to show up again and have a bit more fun, oh yes...”

Discord wasn’t just laying there, recollecting, of course; he was thinking to himself, as this was his thinking tree. This is where the birth of all his tom foolery and practical jokes and pranking took place. Of course, in days past, back when it was a wee sapling and he was far younger, there had been more sadistic plots connived there...

Discord sighed, the edge of his content feeling dulling slightly. Gazing up above him, he moved his paw and talon to tweak with the atmosphere. Soon, cotton candy clouds and a vanilla sky greeted him, with his trademark chocolate rain drizzling down.

Not even this seemed to cheer him up, however.

Frowning, he curled his body in a very snake-like fashion around one of the sturdier tree boughs. Resting his bearded chin on the rough wood, he moved his head back and forth softly, scratching the skin below.

He was bored. And when Discord got bored, memories of things that he’d rather not revisit often floated to the surface of his mind.

Slithering down the blue tree, Discord curled up in the green grass below, lying on his back. His thinking tree was situated in a little grotto at the far end of the Royal Gardens, and the vanilla sky and clouds that he had created were often nestled against the cave ceiling. A rather large rift in the ground about twenty five feet up connected Discord’s little hidey-hole to the rest of the world. The rest of the grotto was a modestly-sized cavern, filled with all manners of oddly colored plants and fungi.

His thinking tree was usually situated in a nice beam of sunlight, but it was grim, grey watery light that filtered down on him today. The sky above in Equestria was a stormy grey, obviously work of the local pegasi weather team.

“How depressing,” Discord muttered. Flopping over onto his belly, Discord looked at each blade of grass on the ground before him. Taking his talon, he twisted it around his left eye, extending his eye in a way akin to a spyglass. His vision magnified, zooming in on a grass stalk, where he found a small insect winged pony was scurrying across it.

“Ew, breezies,” Discord remarked, picking it up by its back with his paw. It babbled and squeaked in its strange language, and flailed its tiny legs in vain protest. “I thought we sprayed for these.”

Flipping back onto his back, Discord nonchalantly tossed the faerie pony up at the break in his cave sky. “Get your pollen somewhere else!” The tiny creature screamed cutely in horror as it sailed up towards the riff at breakneck speeds.

“Discord!” came a soft but stern voice from the hole in Discord’s grotto. Both of the Chaos God’s eyebrows shot up, and he sat upright quickly.

“Fluttershy?” he said hopefully, looking around before setting his gaze up at the mouth of the cave. Indeed, mane hanging down over her face from the angle, Fluttershy had her head poked over the lip.

Fluttershy dropped off the side and glided down through the cavern air. Discord could see a saddlebag perched on her back as she became fully visible. Coming to a stop about halfway up from where Discord was sitting, the pegasus flipped to face her belly at the opposite wall, and Fluttershy caught the creature on her soft underbelly. Discord’s eye was still magnified, and he watched in extreme detail as the breezie cheered in delight and scuttled towards Fluttershy’s mane.

“Off you go, little guy,” she said kindly, brushing her mane to the side softly, and the breezie chirped what was assumed to be a thank you as it flew off towards the outside world, considerably slower and much more controlled than when it had been propelled by Discord.

Fluttershy descended the rest of the way down through the air, and softly alighted the ground next to Discord. He collapsed his eye back into his head, and grinned at the pony. “Fluttershy! How good it is to see you again!”

Fluttershy gave Discord an apprehensive look. “Discord, that wasn’t very nice to do that to the breezie. They’re only here to gather pollen to take back to their homeland! In fact, in just a few weeks there’ll be a great congregation of them heading back when their portal opens, so it’s extra important to make sure they’re safe!”

Discord rolled his eyes. “Hey, it was stealing my pollen!”

“What do you need pollen for, Discord?” Fluttershy asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Lots of things,” Discord retorted. “But mostly for...” he extended an arm to impossible lengths, where it disappeared into the darkness that hid the walls of the cave from sight, and returned with a bit of pollen on his paw-tip. “Pollen puffs!”

Gesturing his talon over the paw, the pollen swelled to roughly forty times their original size, so they were roughly the size of a small gum ball. Unfurling his tongue, Discord consumed two of the pollen puffs, grinning contentedly. He offered the other two to Fluttershy, who accepted them cautiously, and popped them into her mouth after Discord nudged her slightly.

Chewing them both, Fluttershy frowned slightly. “They don’t taste like anything,” she remarked. Discord swallowed his bits, and smiled, flashed his teeth and lonely fang.

“They’re like air, only more nutritious!” he advertised, smile never faltering. As he did this, he placed an arm on his head, wailing in mock distress. “I can’t eat too many or I’ll get fat, though. Goes right to my thighs!”

Fluttershy giggled quietly, placing her hoof to her mouth.

“Well, they weren’t bad by any stretch of the word, that’s for sure,” she said kindly. “But um... there’s a reason I came here, Discord.”

Discord was in the process of fishing for more pollen when she spoke, and he looked over at Fluttershy’s concerned expression. “Oh yes, I was wondering about that. I gave you the location of my grotto in our third letter, why did it take you so long to show up? Also, a bit of notice would have been nice, I could have put out the nice china for our pollen puffs.”

Fluttershy blinked, and suddenly the two of them were sitting on a picnic blanket, surrounded by ornate china plates and a tea set. Discord was wearing a bonnet with a few roses circling the top of it in a crown-like fashion around his head, and Fluttershy was sporting a large sun hat.

“Oh my,” she said quietly as Discord poured her cup of tea, smiling and giggling. “I’ll make sure to let you know next time, hehe!”

Discord took a sip from his cup, and set it daintily down on the saucer he was holding. “So, tell me about this ‘reason’ thing. I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with the concept.”

Fluttershy gave Discord a knowing smile, and the God of Chaos took an innocent sip from his tea. Sighing slightly before, Fluttershy took a deep breath.

“Discord, I’m concerned about you.”

Discord took a pause in mid tea-sip. “Hm?”

Fluttershy nodded, casting a gaze to the side. “Oh, yes. I’m afraid that you’re not happy.”

“What?” Discord exclaimed. “Why ever would I not be happy? I’ve just enjoyed a nice little outing with Princess Cadence and Princess Twilight to the wild edges of Equestria! I’m perfectly content.”

“Content is not the same thing as happy, Discord,” Fluttershy whispered softly.

“It is for me,” Discord said, setting down his tea. “I appreciate it, Fluttershy, but it’s not necessary! I’m alright with being in my grotto, plotting little tricks and such to pass my time. It’s a nice little break than what came before.”

“So you don’t mind?” Fluttershy asked, looking up at Discord, her eyes large and sympathetic.

Discord looked back into the sad eyes, and frowned. “What? What could I possibly mind? Everything is fine, Fluttershy.”

Fluttershy crept up closer to Discord, careful not to place her hooves on any of the plates or cups on the blanket. “Do you ever miss who you once were, Discord? Before we forced you into reforming?”

Discord chuckled. “My dear Fluttershy, I chose to reform! What could possibly lead you to think that I wouldn’t want otherwise? You’ve been my first—” the word stuck in Discord’s throat for a moment before he coughed and freed it. “F-friend in a long time. I am content, Fluttershy, much more so than I was as the malevolent spirit of chaos.”

Fluttershy didn’t look completely convinced, and pawed at the blanket with a hoof, casting her gaze downward.

“But that’s not to say I don’t think about it,” Discord said, bringing his talon under Fluttershy’s chin and steadying her gaze with his. He grinned slightly. “Quite often, in fact.”

“Oh?” Fluttershy said, blinking uncomfortably as she struggled not to associate the last memory of Discord giving her a gaze this deep and direct with the current situation.

“Oh yes,” Discord said, sighing, and looking away. Fluttershy shook slightly, but took a deep breath and banished the memory. “Yes, being trapped in stone for that many years makes you accustomed to doing some deep thinking whenever you’re given some time alone.”

“I see,” Fluttershy said, sitting down, resting her back against Discord’s large tail.

Discord looked down at Fluttershy, an odd expression contorted on his face. It was halfway between grimace and grin, and was honestly the most confused expression Fluttershy had ever seen on any creature, living or dead.

“I do remember being truly happy as that creature, the one I have since come to hate after my reformation,” Discord confessed, and Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “And I wonder... if I can’t be happy if I’m not a villain, what’s the point in being around at all?”

“Oh no, Discord,” Fluttershy exclaimed, and rushed to hug Discord. He was taken by surprise, and grunted softly as the pegasus flung herself on his stomach, hugging him tightly. “No, Discord, you mustn’t think that!”

Discord stared down at Fluttershy in shock for a moment, then gradually and awkwardly, returned the hug, arms curled around the pony’s shaking body, paw resting in her mane.

“It’s not all the time, I wouldn’t worry if I were you,” Discord remarked, sighing. “But it does get rather bothersome when those annoying thoughts do bubble to the surface, after all.”

Fluttershy looked up at Discord, and he saw a tear forming in one of her eyes. “Discord,” she spoke in a hushed voice. “I love you just as much as my other friends, you have to know that; we have have gotten off to somewhat rocky start—”

Discord snorted.

“Okay, extremely rocky start, but you’ve got to know that I can see how much you’ve changed, even if all my other friends are a bit more apprehensive of you! Even Celestia sees how you’ve changed, you must...” Fluttershy hiccuped. “You must believe me...”

Discord nodded. “Oh, I do. Don’t you worry, please.”

Fluttershy nodded, her gaze still watery. “You know what was the first sign that you weren’t deceiving us with your reformation, Discord?”

Discord cocked an eyebrow. “What was that?”

Fluttershy wiggled out of the hug, and undid one of the pouches on her saddlebag, and removed a scroll. “Your first letter.”

It was Discord’s turn to have his eyes widen.

Clearing her throat, Fluttershy began to read from the letter. “Dear Fluttershy, I am very pleased to be getting fan mail already! I knew I was famous, but not that famous. Jokes aside (as if), I do greatly enjoy seeing a letter from a tolerable pony as opposed to these stuffy princesses. Luna is all boring and gets offended when I make moon jokes, and Celestia won’t stop giving off that ex-girlfriend vibe. Kinda kills my buzz. But you’re rather interesting to be around, and it pleases me greatly to get a letter from you. We absolutely must make this a regular thing, I insist. I would also like to take this time to apologize for the atrocities committed by me in our previous meeting. I hope that you and your friends aren’t too hung up on that. It was only a little bit of personality-inversion, but nonetheless was wrong of me. I’m sorry. -Discord.”

Fluttershy looked up from the parchment once she had read all of the text upon it, and saw Discord looking down at her. “I think that shows a lot of character on your part, Discord.”

The draconequus sighed, and lifted the saddlebag from her back. Fluttershy’s wings rustled slightly as this occurred, and she watched silently as Discord placed it down near Fluttershy’s previous sitting place on the blanket.

Fluttershy gasped quietly as Discord scooped her into a hug quickly, but returned the hug all the same almost instantly.

“You’re a good friend, Fluttershy,” Discord said. “Pardon my sap, but I felt it needed to be said. Coming in to check on me like this... I’d rather not any other pony do it than you.”

Fluttershy smiled. “You’re a great friend as well, Discord.”

The two lay in the grotto, the watery sunlight from the stormy sky breaking into golden rays as the clouds parted.