My friends are less than thrilled by these developments; it has been about a month since Discord and I became an official couple, announcing ourselves to Twilight Sparkle and our other close friends, and the subtext to conversations around Ponyville has finally become text. It's all right for him: if the jokes, stories and gossip get to be too much for him to handle, Discord will just zap himself off to the Chaos Dimension and leave me having to deal with everypony on a daily basis.

        Yes, he offered to take me with him, but I declined. Like I said before, I can deal with ponies talking behind my back.

        I feel like I'm going through what I did at Summer Flight Camp all over again, except I don't have the liberty of excusing these ponies on the basis that they're dumb kids who don't know any better. When it's ponies that I respect, ponies that I've since come to care about, I can only take offence when I'm described as The Draconequus' Doxy. Who you are dating should not be anypony else's business, but then, can I really blame them for their reaction? How would I feel if Twilight Sparkle was to come home one day with Queen Chrysalis as her paramour?

        That ridiculous thought gives me my first genuine smile after a trying few days.

        I'm meeting up with the girls for a sleepover at the library; I hope and pray to all of the Goddesses that it will be just a normal get-together like any other, but I know what's coming, and I try to steel myself for it as best I can. Yes, their intentions are pure and honourable, but a as a wise pony once said, “The path to Tartarus is paved with good intentions.”

        They're staging an intervention. They'll never say it out loud, but they think that I'm naïve, that I'm too stupid to make my own decisions, that I can't even be trusted when it comes to my own love life. To them, I'm just an animal lover who can't deal with anything more complex than feeding rabbits and singing with the birds. Goddesses, how I envy my friends their depth of understanding of me. Imagine how offended Twilight would be if I described her as just a librarian, or Pinkie Pie as just a baker. We're, all of us, more intricate than a couple of brief descriptions might suggest, but it suits them to think of me as simple.

        The irony that I'm older than all of them is writ pretty large.

        When I enter the library, I find them sitting in a rough horseshoe on the floor, waiting for me to join them with brittle smiles etched onto their muzzles; their expressions turn when I sit, becoming all but unreadable, though Pinkie Pie – as per usual – is the one having the most difficulty in keeping herself calm. Of all my friends, she's the one I find the most difficult to understand at times. Like Discord, she is capable of being flighty, of valuing fun for fun's sake, and I adore how her energy and presence lightens up even the darkest room. I think, given her fun-loving nature, she is the one most likely to empathise with my feelings.

        Tartarus knows, in another universe, her and Discord might make an ideal match.

        Rarity is the first to speak, and befitting her ladylike status, she does so quietly and gently, trying to keep her upper-crust accent free of emotion. While I do not think of myself as particularly ladylike – I care little for fashion, looking good, or preening myself – the fact that I am soft and delicate is probably why she thinks of me as the most feminine of the group, and thus the reason why she invites me with her to the spa so often.

        While it isn't a profitable use of my time per se, it does at least give us the chance to spend time together, so I can at least value it for that alone. “Darling, Discord is … unpredictable. I'm not so sure that you've thought this through properly. What I mean to say is how can you be certain that he isn't just using you?”

        “She's right,” says Rainbow Dash, never shy about venting her opinions when she thinks that she's right. Which is pretty much all of the time. Sometimes, I get the feeling that she likes to fly while talking simply because she enjoys the sensation of being above other ponies. “He's done some pretty nasty things in the past, and you're never going to know if he's fully reformed or not. What if he turns around tomorrow and buries Ponyville under snow, or chocolate milk, or something worse?”

        I offer a shrug at this; I have thought about all these things and more, but you can't spend your entire life being ruled by what-ifs. “What if the weather team makes a mistake and a flash flood hits Ponyville? Or is encased in ice?”

        “That's different,” Rainbow Dash replies protestingly, flying up close to my face until we are practically nose-to-nose. “What if he's just using you to find out more about us, about the Elements of Harmony, huh?”

        “Discord is going to make mistakes, that's why we all have to help him,” I say. “Maybe he isn't fully reformed, but he's learning, he's trying, and he won't make any progress if you keep doubting his sincerity.” The words sound pitiful even as I utter them, but they're all that I have.

        “Fluttershy, just last week he was swapping the manes and tails of all the ponies in town,” said an exasperated Twilight Sparkle. “You can't defend that sort of behaviour.”

        “So. When Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash pull a prank, that's perfectly fine, but when Discord does it, it's suddenly a problem?”

        “But-”

        “-Nopony was left permanently injured, right? He always undoes his chaos once he's had his fun,” I say, trying to keep the edge out of my voice. They aren't ever going to see my point of view, and my frustration is threatening to boil over. In my entire life, I think I've only ever been properly angry once or twice, and I almost regret not adhering to Iron Will's teachings. Being able to express my annoyance would feel good right about now. Useless and damaging, of course, but good.

        “Sugarcube,” Applejack says, her voice tender and concerned; the same one she uses when she's trying to console Apple Bloom, thus underscoring the fact that I'm just another little sister to her, somepony who needs the benefit of her wisdom and guidance. “We're only telling you this because we love you, all right? We don't want to see you getting hurt by somepony you barely know.”

        “It's my choice to get hurt,” I say, my eyes closed, voice firm. “Discord has changed.” I turn to Twilight Sparkle, looking directly into her pretty mulberry eyes. “You're always telling me that everypony has good in them, that everypony deserves to feel the magic of friendship. Are you now telling me that you were lying?”

        Twilight sighs, but before she can offer a rebuttal, I feel forelegs wrapping around my waist and a lock of dark pink hair tickling the back of my neck. “Fluttershy,” Pinkie Pie says, her voice more subdued than I've ever heard it, “if you're happy, then I'm happy. I may not trust Discord, but I trust you.”

        Seems I was correct in my assertion, then. Of my five closest friends, only one supports me.

        Only one understands my choices.

        Still, it's better than nothing, isn't it?

        I return Pinkie's hug and thank her for believing in me.