Applejack shook her head as she and Pinkie Pie walked to Twilight’s. “Ah don’ know what that speed letter was all ‘bout. All it said was Discord was up t’something and we had’da hurry to to her house… What d’you think he’s up to now?”

Pinkie giggled, skippy along. “I dunno,” she said happily, her voice as bouncy as her messy hair. “Ooo, I wonder if he’ll make cotton candy again! I just LOVE cotton candy!!” She stopped suddenly, rubbing her chin. "Wait, have you ever wondered what your hair tastes like? If it didn't taste like hair, mine would probably taste like cotton candy! That'd be awesome!!"

Applejack quickly grabbed Pinkie’s hand as it strayed up to her hair. “Don’ even think about it, Sugarcube.” She dropped her hand as they got to Twilight's house, the rebuilt library. After Tirek's defeat, they had remade the library better than ever. Applejack only hoped Discord wouldn’t be blowing it up soon. "Here we are..." She hesitantly raised her hand to knock; what would be waiting for them inside?

Applejack recoiled as the door swung open of its own accord. Her eyes widened as she saw the predictable chaos inside. Books were scattered about, papers seemed to be flying, and bits of wood around them had been charred by various unicorn magic beams. Even more startling was that Discord was reading. He was reading a book about careers. Applejack shook her head and hesitantly followed the oblivious Pinkie Pie inside. “Er… Twi? Y’here?”

“In here,” an exhausted voice said, buried in a book pile.

“Woops! Let me get that for you,” Discord said, smirking. With a snap of his skeleton hand, the books around her neatly stacked themselves next to her. The librarian’s eye twitched, but she said nothing in reply to him. Discord scoffed lightly. “No respect…” Rolling his eyes, he groaned. “And I rolled snake eyes again!” Picking them up from the floor, he put them back in his skull - much to the disgust of Applejack, and to the delight of Pinkie - and resumed reading.

Pinkie giggled, spinning her hair in her fingers. “Twilight, did you perfect that tornado spell? It looks totally CRAZY in here! I thought you were reshelving the library!”

Twilight groaned again, holding her face in her hands. “I did, I did, but… Well, Discord came here with an idea in mind, and no amount of reshelving can stop one of his ideas.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, glancing at Discord. “Now what’ve you got planned now?”

Discord smirked lightly as he glanced over the book at her, flipping to the next page. “If you must know, dearest Applejack, I’ve decided to settle down with a lovely mare and get a job. At least for a while.”

Applejack stared at him blankly. “Mind repeatin’ that, Sugar?”

Discord chuckled. “I want a family,” he said simply, shrugging as though he were commenting on what lovely weather it was outside.

Applejack sat next to Twilight, bewildered. “That’s what ah thought you said…”

Pinkie giggled and jumped over to where Discord was. “What’cha reading, Dissy,” she said, bending over backwards to try and read the book title upside down. Discord smiled and showed her. “101 careers and jobs?...” Pinkie straightened up faster than a whip crack. “Oh! You should TOTALLY try working at Sugarcube Corner! We’ve got this HUMONGOUS birthday party coming up and I have to plan for it, but there’s also a wedding and another birthday, and you need LOADS of cake for all of that - “

Discord put his fingers up to Pinkie’s lips, clamping them together. She still tried to speak, and looked as though she were trying to laugh. He smiled. “It sounds like a fantastic idea, Pinkie.” Waving his hand, a slip of paper and a quill appeared, jotting ‘Sugarcube Corner’ on the growing list. Pinkie snatched it out of the air, glancing over it.

“Dissy, you don’t have many on here…”

“I have plenty, Pinkie.” Discord slipped the paper out of her hooves, scanning what he had written there. “So far, I have reshelving at the local library, cloud clearing, cake baking, and my personal favorite, running for mayor!” He frowned softly. “Although, that last one seems a little beyond my reach. Ponies don’t seem to like me much. I wonder why?”

Applejack scoffed. “Ah’ve got no idea,” she muttered, holding her palm to her forehead. She was already getting a headache and she had only been here for a few minutes.

“For the element of honesty, you sure have a tendency to use sarcasm,” Discord said, just loud enough for her to hear. She glanced at him, seeing him calmly reading, as though not having said a word. She scoffed again and went to help Twilight clean up some of the ever growing pile of books.

Discord shut the book he was reading and magiced it away. “Hmm… I think that should be enough on that list. Now for the other one!” He grinned as he held out his hand, grabbing a scroll from midair. He unrolled it, much to Pinkie’s confusion.

“Dissy, when’d you start writing lists? You never stay organized!”

“Oh, Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie,” he said with a shake of his head, holding up his three pinkies and shaking them at her. She giggled as he made them disappear. “I’m reformed now, am I not?”

“Yepparuni!”

“Then I should have a job and a family, just as normal men - or, in my case, draconequui - do, correct?”

“Uh… Yep!”

“Then you should know that obtaining those things is not as simple as the wave of my hand. It requires the utmost precision and organization,” he said, his voice a near perfect imitation of Twilight’s.

Twilight glared at him, growling lightly beneath her breath. Applejack gently patted her on the back, smiling softly at her all too familiar response to the God. “Now now, sugarcube, y’gotta roll with this. He is reformed now.”

Twilight leaned close to her, whispering. “Do you really think he’s reformed? You saw how he betrayed us with Tirek…”

Applejack shook her head. “It don’ make a lick of sense, but Ah think he might be. Y’saw his reaction to us, and y’saw how he acted after he gave y’the necklace from Tirek’s brother.”

“I still don’t trust him…”

Discord shut his eyes lightly, standing. “Well, if you’ll excuse me, ladies, I need to go see a woman about a house. Adieu!” Before they could utter a word, he disappeared.

Twilight groaned as Applejack sighed in relief. Twilight massaged her temples. “At least I can start to organize my books… again…”

Applejack started picking up a few books. “Don’t worry, sugar. We’ll help out s’much as we can. Right, Pinkie?”

There was no response. Applejack glanced at the girl.. “Pinkie? Y’listening?” Pinkie glanced at her, a deep frown on her face. “Huh? What’s wrong, Pinks?”

Pinkie rubbed her arm, looking worried. “Well… I think he heard you.”

“Oh… Why’s that?”

“Because he looked… sad…”

Twilight and Applejack glanced at each other, both with faces of regret.

*~*~*~

Discord sighed as he sat alone on the hill. Of course they thought of him like that. He should’ve seen it, obviously. After all, he had betrayed them utterly and completely and almost brought about the destruction of everything they knew and loved. He was surprised if any of them truly forgave him, after all that.

But he had been doing pretty good, right? Hadn’t he? He wasn’t absolutely positive - he had never really been ‘good’ before, unless you count the few sparing years of his childhood. How could they expect him to get it right after so very many years of being cruel and evil?

It wasn't as if he wasn't trying…

Discord shook his head, rubbing his face. "Bah. I can't keep thinking about this!" With a disgruntled little growl, he reached his fingers into his ear and pulled out his brain. He looked at it closely, dusted it off, and pushed it back in. "There. Now, time to build that house."