Chapter 9

"Unfunny Comedy"

For most of the evening, it seemed to Twilight that Discord was doing as she had told him, which was to keep the Smooze under control. Unfortunately, when it seemed to her that Discord had promised to do as she asked, various screams came from around the gala where the Smooze had his eye set on the jewels that many of the mares in attendance wore. All that mattered to Twilight was that Celestia's stress level was kept down to avoid the effects of the shingles virus.

"Celestia seems to be well relaxed," Twilight whispered to herself as she saw Celestia talking with Fancy Pants and his guest, Fleur De Leis. "But, why does she seem down to an extent?"

Twilight noticed that Celestia was only trying to keep a positive attitude, only to seem bored once Fancy Pants and his guest left. Twilight thought that it may be because Luna wasn't there because of her duties or because Cadence had to take care of Shining Armor with his injury and all.

"Is everything all right, Princess Celestia?" asked Twilight, flying over to her. "You seem kind of down."

Celestia's train of thought was broken and she gasped when Twilight spoke to her. In her mind, the Gala wasn't to her liking. It was just ponies talking to ponies and it seemed that her interest was fading away.

"Uh, nothing is wrong, Twilight," stuttered Celestia, trying to hide her feelings. "Just relaxing and enjoying the gala."

Celestia chuckled nervously for a moment and before she could say another word to Twilight, a loud scream was heard and the sound of pounding on the door was heard.

"LET ME IN!" screamed the pony on the other side and Twilight took a key and opened the door with her magic and a white pony covered in slime came through the door and collapsed. Twilight could see that it was her friend Rarity and she looked to see the Smooze sucking on jewels from several ponies.

"That creature took my jewels!" cried the fashionista pony, pointing to the Smooze as he snacked on a pony's jewels.

Remembering what she had told Discord about keeping the Smooze under control, Twilight turned and walked over to Discord with a scowl on her face. This was a night to keep Celestia's stress level down and she was not going to let the creature of chaos ruin it for her.

"Discord," Twilight said sternly. "I thought I told you to keep your friend under control."

"Oh, please," replied Discord, pretending not to care about the welfare of the guests. "I've much better things to do than to watch that thing all night."

Suddenly, Discord noticed Fluttershy standing next to him and knowing that his relationship with her was at stake, immediately corrected himself to Twilight.

"What I mean to say is," he laughed nervously. "That thing is a dear, dear friend, and I'll make sure that the ooze, uh, that he can't help but secrete doesn't get on anypony else."

To prove his point, Discord produced a vacuum into existence and placed the nozzle on top of Rarity, turning it on and sucking up her ooze-covered gala dress, leaving her scrunching away in embarrassment.

"Thank you," said Twilight, feeling a sense of relief before turning to the guests gathered. "It's all right, everypony. Let's just get back to enjoying this magical evening."

So, the gala resumed although Twilight noticed that there was something off about Celestia. She noticed that a small smile had come to her mentor's face, almost as if she enjoyed seeing what had happened.

"Well, that was unexpected," said Twilight, trotting over to Celestia. "Maybe now Discord can keep his friend from causing any more problems."

Celestia only responded with a small nod of her head, pretending to agree that Twilight did what was right for the good of the gala. While she did feel bad for Rarity, Celestia seemed to get a hint of amusement over Discord leaving Rarity exposed.

However, just before Celestia could say another word, the lights went out and the sounds of a microphone check were heard coming from the stage.

"Check, check, check. Is this thing on?" called Discord, talking into the microphone.

"Now, this night is going to be even more fun," thought Celestia as she and Twilight joined the guests surrounding the stage. "Maybe it was a good thing that I invited Discord after all."

Just then, Discord began his attempted comedy routine as Twilight kept a close eye on him, determined to make sure that he didn't cause any more trouble.

"Good evening, fillies and germs!" began Discord, walking back and forth between the ends of the stage. "I just flew into Canterlot, and wow, are my interspecies parts tired!"

The sound of a rimshot was heard and rather than getting a laugh from the audience, Discord instead got silence. Then, he took his attention towards Twilight and thought of a way to enlighten her.

"I've only got these tiny mismatched wings," he continued. "And even I can fly better than Twilight Sparkle! Am I right? Pa choo!"

Another sound of the rimshot was heard as Discord pointed to Twilight, who didn't take the joke very well and thought of it as an insult.

"Hey!" she called, but Celestia quietly giggled at the joke, much to her surprise as well as Discord's.

Unfortunately, even though Celestia found it funny, Discord still didn't get a response from the crowd. The more that the audience stayed quiet, the more Discord felt like he was an idiot. He needed to do something and fast.

"Uh, well, perhaps you're into more observational humor," he remarked, chuckling nervously as he changed out of his formal attire and into a red and black polo shirt. "Did you ever notice how you always materialize out of thin air? Why not thick air? What's the deal there?"

Still, there was silence and Discord could see that he was indeed losing his grip on the audience.

"Tough crowd," he remarked, taking out a necktie and pulled against his neck in a choking motion. "I can't believe it, I'm losing to a group of ponies."

At this point, Twilight and her friends were starting to wonder just exactly what Discord was up to. Twilight was starting to think that Discord would say something stupid about Celestia as part of his routine and cause her stress and anxiety.

"What is he doing?" she whispered to Rainbow Dash, her voice slightly panicked.

"I think they're jokes," replied Rainbow Dash, confusingly. However, Pinkie Pie who was with her sister Maud, was delighted with what Discord was doing as much as Celestia.

"Maud! Jokes!" she cried, excitedly hugging Maud.

"My favorite," she said dryly and not showing any interest. Then again, it was Maud, so nopony was surprised.

However, little did anypony notice that while Discord was starting to spin another bad joke, a young colt suddenly began to notice the closet door glow a bright greenish color. When Discord had gotten another bad rep for a bad joke to which Maud replied that he was the most basic of jokes, the ooze came through the door and the young colt let out a small scream that caught the attention of Twilight.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" she cried, pointing to the ooze coming from the closet door and before another word could be said, the door burst wide open and the Grand Galloping Gala was about to be turned upside down.

It seemed to Twilight that her biggest fear of Celestia becoming stressed again was about to be revealed… Next Chapter: Discord Goes Too Far Estimated time remaining: 6 Minutes