Dear Aoi,

As this concerns friendship, I'm only going to repeat this once, the letter is timed to self destruct after you've read it so remember everything carefully.

Yes, I had a friend long ago, his name I will not say, we were... aquainted with each other for a bit, and I saw him as a best friend, when I started taking my responsibilities seriously, he... started showing his true colors, he caused trouble in Equestria, at first just pranks and jokes, but then turned to drastic actions. Luna and I had to wield the elements of harmony in order to stop him. But why are you asking this of me?

-Celestia

It seems both Celestia and Discord had things to settle... I think I have an Idea on why things went sour, but how can I make this work. I thought about this while the letter disintegrated scrap by scrap into green smoke from my hand.

"It seems both you and Celestia see things eye to eye... somewhat." I called to the now wide-eyed Discord...

"Both of you right now have been honest so far, according to this letter, but she's holding back... I think she's still trying to get over this hurdle," I stood up now to look Discord in the face, "but no amount of feathers can get you over this..."

"She really thinks that about me..." He seemed upset due to the wording of the letter..

"Not as you might think... even through written words, there are things I can tell others are hiding..." I rewrite the letter from memory, then circle and underline some parts.

"The fact that she doesn't mention your name, yet allures to the lore clearly hints to you, but she still respects your privacy, even through you're currently stone. She also revealed that you were her best friend, here, not 'just a friend'. Also she sees that you did these things out of 'drastic' necessity, she had some idea why you were doing these things. then this last part: 'I HAD to wield the elements of harmony to stop him' meaning she thought of this only as a last resort, at the time. In short, she still saw you as a friend, knew you were doing these things because of the growing rift, but due to her current burden, she couldn't think of anything else but to stop you then think about it later... a mistake on her part, and she's starting to see at such..." Discord started to make sense of my explanation.

"But how did you figure all this out from her letter?"

"Apparently you were only watching the INTERESTING parts of my life... you skipped me taking psychology for 2 and a half years, then dropping out."

"So how does this help?"

"Easy... I'm going to take a step in the psychological dark." I pull out a piece of parchment...

Dear Princess Celestia,

I'd like to talk about this.. are you free?

Aoi

I breath in deeply and whisper the words 'Watashi wo Okuru (I send)". The letter lifts into the sky and vanishes in green smoke...

"Wait, you're going to actually Talk to her about this..." he seemed skeptical about this...

"Oh you of little faith, I simply asked if she'd like to talk about it..." a letter appeared in front of me again...

Dear Aoi,

My duties prevent me from meeting you at this current time, see me after the Lunar festival next month in Canterlot.

Princess Celestia

"It seems we now have an audience with an old friend..." I slowly smile...

"So why are you doing this..." Neither rejecting nor approving of the idea, a string holding onto a sliver of hope.

"Friends help each other." I take a swig of milk from the jar in the fridge and wipe off my muzzle.

"So, Discord, get ready, cause in about a month, you and Celest are going to have a Renunion of a lifetime." He slightly blushed.

"Try ten..." both on board... now all I need is some sleep.

Two Gaiden Chapters a chapter apart, I couldn't just let this new developement blow off too soon. But now it's time to get back to the gist of everyday life, starting with an Unexpected Surprise.