A Winter Wishday Carol – Chapter Seven: It's Winter Wishday!

When Discord woke up, he found he was back under his blanket in his cave, with the morning light shining through the entrance. He felt bewildered, but also elated.

For a few seconds, Discord wondered whether it had all been a dream. He shook his head. It couldn’t be. The kiss he’d shared with Fluttershy still clung to his lips like the crumbs of a Winter Wishday cookie, and his nightgown continued to sparkle. And he was pretty sure that he caught the last glimpse of a spectral pink butterfly fluttering off. Fluttershy really had come to him during the night and taken him on that journey, he just knew it.

He threw the blanket off of himself and excitedly went over to where his animal companions were sleeping. He knelt down by them and tickled their tummies, causing them to open their eyes.

“It’s Winter Wishday!!!” he squealed enthusiastically. “Or Winter Wishhoofie! Or Winter Wishentine! Or even Winter Wishipalooza! Whatever you want to call it!”

His animal friends were stunned by his jubilant behaviour, but happy to see him in this state all the same.

Discord was too merry to think about whether to mourn Fluttershy first before getting on with everything else. Besides, he’d already mourned her when he’d been with her ghost. Now that all of his grief was out of the way, it was time to focus on the good times he had with her and the good times he was going to have with his friends.

“We’re going to meet up with the ponies and play games with them and celebrate the winter holidays with them!” he gushed while clapping his hands. “Reginald, get the comb! Hazel, get the ribbons! I need to get my hair game on point!”

Reginald grabbed a comb and started brushing Discord’s hair with it, while Hazel got to work tying up his goatee so that it didn’t get in the way. Reginald then scampered over to a collection of bits and bobs that he had, where he retrieved some stray tinsel and some holly leaves. Upon scurrying his way back to Discord, he proceeded to tie his master’s hair up with the tinsel into a low, loose ponytail, before decorating the top of his head with the holly leaves. Anyone else would have suffered a prickling pain from those leaves, but Discord barely felt them.

“Alright, climb onboard!” Discord happily called out as his animal companions climbed into his hair. “We’re off to celebrate Winter Wishday!”

He was out of the cave like a shot, sprinting as if somepony’s life depended on it. Down the hill he ran, cheering and whooping as his animal friends desperately held onto his hair so that they wouldn’t fly away in the process. Even though the snow lay thick on the ground, he breezed through it as if it hadn’t even snowed at all. At one point, he even did a forward roll in the snow before leaping up again with barely any effort and dashing away. Fortunately for his animal friends, they had buried themselves deep within his hair at the time.

Discord refused to stop running until he reached Maretime Bay. Once he arrived, he skidded to a halt and twirled around a bit in delight on the spot. Rather than being exhausted like anyone else would have been after running for that long a distance, it seemed that he was more energetic than ever.

Some ponies were rather surprised by this bombastic entrance of his, but they soon saw the endearing side of it. He didn’t take offense to their surprise either.

Remembering what he’d been shown last night, Discord thought it would be fun if he glimpsed through the windows of the houses he’d seen once again. He scurried over the first house and took a sneaky peak through the window. Yes, there was the earth pony with her partner and cats happily curled up next to the fire. Just like he remembered.

Discord was just about to sneak a glimpse in the second house when he caught a glance of a red earth pony with blonde way saunter past a few feet away. Sprout Cloverleaf, he’d been told his name was. Discord had heard all sorts of horror stories about him from his new pony pals. How he’d tried to stop ponykind from uniting on at least two separate occasions. The first time, Discord thought technically counted as attempted genocide.

Discord knew what he had to do. He bent down and scooped up a particularly large lump of snow and rolled it in his hands until it made a nice spherical shape. He chuckled a bit to himself, proud of his snowball, before swinging his arm round as fast as he coiled and launching his frozen missile towards his target.

The snowball smacked Sprout on the back of his head, causing him to nearly skid on the ice below him. He swiftly turned round, shaking lumps of snow out of his hair with a look of shock on his face as he tried to find who had targeted him just now.

He saw Discord right before him, innocently looking down and shuffling his feet with his hands behind his back and a small smile on his lips. “Did you throw that at me?!” Sprout angrily inquired.

“No no no, why would I do that?” Discord innocently replied. “I’m just a frail innocent old man. I would never be able to throw something with that strength and skill at all!” He picked up some more snow and rolled it in his hands, making another snowball. “Look, I’ll show you.”

He made a performance of pretending to aim his snowball terribly, but with the clever use of some magic, he somehow made it splatter on Sprout’s snout, causing the annoyed earth pony to sneeze a bit. Discord couldn’t help but giggle at this.

“So…Happy Winter Wishday!”

Though still annoyed with Discord, Sprout started to see the funny side of it. He started to roll up a snowball himself and swing it about in his hoof.

“Okay old man, you’re on!” he declared with a confident smirk on his face.

Discord was all too happy to engage in a snowball fight himself. He levitated some snow upwards and rolled them into two more snowballs that he confidently held in his hands.

True chaos broke out at that moment on Maretime Bay. Pony bystanders could only watch in surprise and even amusement at the sight of an elderly draconequus and a red earth pony chucking dozens of snowballs at one another at an increasingly fast pace. Sprout was a relentless sort, refusing to back down how many snowballs he got hit with. Meanwhile, Discord was using all sorts of nifty tricks and spells to hit his target, such as by teleporting the snowballs behind him and hitting him on the back of his head again in the process.

Phyllis Cloverleaf happened to be heading by at that point, but stopped in shock at the sight before her. “What is going on?!” she yelled out in alarm.

But then a mischievous smirk spread across her face as she picked up a snowball herself and aimed towards Discord, the missile smacking him on the shoulder. She wanted to make sure that her son had some backup.

“Hey, you can’t have two against one! That’s not fair!” Discord pretended to whine, but his chuckling gave away his true feelings on the matter. He always liked a challenge or two, and this would provide him with the perfect one. Besides, his animal companions had decided to back him up and were rolling some snowballs up from the snow on his shoulder, eager to return the attack.

They all continued to throw snowballs until eventually they collapsed on the ground, laughing with amusement while caked in snow. After Discord had managed to get some control over himself despite his high energy, he suddenly realised something.

“Oh, that’s right! I’m supposed to be meeting up with friends!” He hastily wiped the snow off of himself before turning to leave. “But this fun little snowball battle of ours has given me an idea!” He started to sprint off, but turned his head round to the Cloverleafs. “Enjoy the rest of your Winter Wishday!”

The Cloverleafs waved goodbye to him. “Enjoy yours as well!”

***

Meanwhile, Discord’s pony friends, plus Misty and Sparky, had gathered together in the same place Discord had seen them in when Fluttershy had shown him Winter Wishday Present. The conversation started out the same.

“I’m sorry, he won’t be here this Winter Wishday. I talked with him about him last night.”

“So he said he wasn’t coming?

“No. He said he didn’t like how ponykind seems to celebrate Winter Wishday separately. That it lacks-”

But this time, before Izzy could finish her sentence, a snowball suddenly landed next to her hooves.

“Huh?” she exclaimed, rather confused by this. The others looked on at bewilderment at where the snowball had landed.

And then utter shock as they looked up.

A whole barrage of snowballs came hurtling towards them at a high velocity. The group had no time to get out of the way as one by one, they got pelted with every snowy missile.

“Argh, not my hair! I spent ages working on it this morning!” Pipp screamed as Zipp grabbed some snowballs herself and aimed back at the source of the snowballs.

But as the snowballs weren’t hitting them too hard, the group started to see the funny side of it and started laughing, even Pipp.

At last the barrage stopped. The ponies were covered from head to hoof in clumps of snow and Sparky looked almost like a miniature snow dragon. They looked round rapidly to see where the snowballs had come from, until they finally spotted the mystery snowballer.

Discord was sitting on an entire throne made of snowballs, holding some more in his hands. He jumped off the throne to his feet upon being spotted and gave the group a wave.

“Yoohoo! Happy Winter Wishday! Happy Winter Wishhoofie! Happy Winter Wishentine!”

Izzy’s shock immediately turned into delight. “Discord! You came to celebrate after all!”

She dashed over to Discord and leapt into his arms as they hugged each other tightly, tears of joy streaming down their cheeks. The other ponies came trotting over, Sparky included, equally excited.

“Oh Izzy, I’m so sorry about last night!” Discord said as he continued to rock Izzy about in his arms. “But I’ve decided to spend time with you all this year! This is what Fluttershy would truly want!” He wiped a tear away from his eye with his eagle talon. “So, how are you all doing on this fine winter day?”

“We’re doing great! Especially now you’ve shown up!” Izzy responded, bouncing up and down with excitement. She slowed down after a bit, but then suddenly broke out into a few giggles. “Discord! You’re still wearing your jammies!”

It was true. Discord had been so overwhelmed with excitement and festive joy that he had forgotten to change out of his nightgown, which was still covered in sparkles, when he’d left his cave.

“Well, well, well,” he chuckled as he held up the skirt on the gown. “So I am!”

“I’ve got your present here too!” Izzy said as she levitated a giant parcel with blue wrapping paper decorated with pink snowflakes out of the sack she’d been carrying with her. Discord took hold of it and opened the paper up, making sure not to damage it in case Izzy had specially made it herself.

He couldn’t believe what he was looking at. It was an ice blue satin longcoat with white wool trimming the sleeves, neckline and coat tail. That was impressive in itself, but what really captured Discord’s attention were the decorations on the coat. There were the cutie marks of his old friends - a pink star representing Twilight, balloons representing Pinkie Pie, a rainbow bolt representing Rainbow Dash, red apples representing Applejack and jewels representing Rarity. There were the cutie marks of his new friends, plus Misty’s butterfly cutie mark. And most importantly of all, there were pink butterflies representing Fluttershy fluttering around each other cutie mark.

Discord couldn’t find the words to respond. He was too choked up to say anything and tears were blinding his eyes. He thrust his face into the coat and sobbed heavily into it, soaking part of it with the tears.

Izzy was gravely concerned. “Oh Discord, I’m really sorry. I thought that it would be a nice gift for you. I didn’t think it was going to upset you-”

Discord was still sobbing, but he broke out into watery chuckles upon hearing this. “Oh Izzy, you silly billy! I’m not upset at all! I’m delighted that you made me such a beautiful gift!” He swiftly swung the coat round and put it on himself, easily pushing his arms through the sleeves before happily hugging the coat round himself. “And it’s so cosy and fits so well! Oh thank you, thank you for such a wonderful present!”

He scooped the relieved Izzy up in his arms again for another hug. “And thank you for being such a wonderful friend.”

Izzy kindly got out a handkerchief and used her unicorn magic to wipe Discord’s tears away with it while she returned his hug.

Once his eyes were dried, Discord went over to Misty and Sparky, shaking hoofs and hands with them simultaneously. “I’ve heard quite a lot about you from Izzy and Sunny here, he said. He patted Misty’s head. “It seems that we have quite a few similarities with each other with how we started out!”

Misty grinned and blushed at the same time.

“So, now that you’re here, what shall we do?” Sunny asked with excitement. “Have another snowball fight? Build snow ponies?”

“Actually,” Discord began. “I was just thinking about that Power Pass game that Zipp invented that I got to play with you lot the first time round.” He turned to Zipp and playfully stuck his tongue out at her while winking. “Thanks for inventing a game that I’m good at, by the way.”

“However,” he added as he knelt down in the snow and started to roll up some snow. “I’ve been thinking that it could do with some improvements.” He smirked as he continued to roll up more snow and pat it into a spherical shape in his hand. “I mean, it’s a nice game and all, but it’s not very wintery, isn’t it?”

Zipp rolled her eyes in response to Discord’s bragging, but found herself smirking in return.

“So instead, we’re going to replace our usual ball with this large snowball here!” Discord said as he finished patting the snowball up and proudly held it in his hand to show everypony. “As usual, all magic is allowed, but you have to pass to every player on your team before attempting to score a goal, otherwise it doesn’t count. If you drop or damage the snowball in any way, the other team gets a penalty shoot out. Simple as that!”

“Great!” Pipp pumped her hoof with joy. “So who’s on which team?”

“I think it will be like last time,” Discord said as he picked up his animal friends and allowed them to crawl about in his hair and on his arms and hands. “You ponies and your dragon versus me and my animal squad.”

Everybody cheered and whooped in response to this. Everybody except Misty.

“But Discord,” she said with concern. “You don’t have as many team members.”

“That’s okay,” Discord replied with a mischievous smile on his face. “I’ve already decided that Izzy will be on my team as well.” And he proceeded to pick her up and ruffle her hair in the process, making her break out into giggles.

“Hey, no fair!” Sunny whined, but she was chuckling as well.

“So I guess that’s settled then,” said Zipp as she stretched her muscles in preparation. “All we need to do now is get this game started!”

“Nuh-uh!” Pipp retorted as she whipped out her cell phone. “First things first – we need a festive photo-op!”

Everybody gathered round as Pipp got the phone ready to take a group selfie, winking and grinning as she held the phone up. The resulting photo was perfect – the whole group was smiling and laughing together. And right in the centre of it all, with the biggest, warmest smile of them all, was Discord.

Once that was all done, the game could finally begin. Just like the first time he played it, Discord and his team took the lead easily. He even had a bigger advantage this time with Izzy on his team. But somehow, winning didn’t seem like the most important thing. For him, just being with his new friends having fun on Winter Wishday was enough.

***

When the game was finished, the whole group sat down in the snow, exhausted but happy.

Izzy turned to Discord, who was cuddling up with his animal companions. “So Dizzy, is there anything else you want to do today?”

“The problem is,” Discord replied. “I feel like I’d be spoilt for choice. Bridlewood’s Wishiehoof tree decorating seems like it would be good fun, and I hear that Hitch and his grandmother make some snazzy cookie cottages. I have some good ideas that I could help cook up.”

He turned to Pipp and Zipp. “And then there’s your Wishentine gala. Though something makes me think that you’re having your doubts about attending this year.” He said this with a mischievous tone, making sure not to let them know about what he’d seen last night.

“Yep! After that one year our mother made us perform for two hours? No way, no how!” Zipp immediately responded. She shuddered at the awful memories of it.

“Well, if you’re not going to attend, how about I take your place?” Discord suggested. “I know some good songs to get the crowd up and dancing - ‘Starmare’, ‘West End Mares’, ‘Equestrian Grass’, ‘Pinkie Pie Pony Club’,  ‘Pony Gangsta’.” Some of the ponies gave amused and bewildered side glances upon hearing these song titles.  “Of course, you need some festive ones too - ‘A Winter’s Tail’, ‘Every Day’s Like Hearth’s Warming’...”

“Careful not to exert yourself too much,” Hitch warned him. “We wouldn’t want you to burn yourself out and go back to how you were before.”

“Don’t worry about that!” Discord laughed reassuringly. “It's the first year I'll be trying them out, so maybe just an hour for each activity. And I’d only be performing at the gala for half an hour. I wouldn’t want to miss out on that Wishing Star that you like to see every year. Maybe we could look at it from the top of the lighthouse together?”

"That would be a brilliant idea!" Sunny responded.

"Besides," Discord continued with a bit of an emotional smile on his face. "I still want to honour Fluttershy this winter season, and I felt maybe I could show you some of the traditions we used to share with each other around this time of year."

"Ooh, like what?" a curious Izzy inquired.

"Well, one of my favourite things to do with her on Hearth's Warming Day was go for a morning skate on the frozen lake near Ponyville." Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot another lake in the distance with signs of freezing over. "Maybe we could all skate together?"

Some of the ponies were excited, some were nervous, but all of them were willing to give it a go. Upon noticing their positive responses, a satisfied Discord snapped his fingers and teleported them all over to the lake. Once they were there, he magically produced several pairs of ice skates for them all to wear.

Once everyone had their skates on, they all made their way onto the ice and began to skate around. There were a few wobbles and a few pratfalls, but even the less graceful ones were having a great time. Discord in particular pulled off some graceful twirls and jumps despite his age. He made sure to dance with all of his friends, even leading them into a magnificent group dance where they joined up to form a giant snowflake together that could be seen from the sky.

And the whole time this was happening, Discord felt a warm, comforting sensation wrapping over his body as he skated across the ice. The same one that Fluttershy's spirit gave him every time she was by his side. Adding to the the joy that he was feeling from being surrounded by his friends, this was the most blissful feeling yet. Discord smiled and gave a warm chuckle to himself, happy in the thought that Fluttershy must be by his side again, enjoying this day just as much as he and his new friends were.

THE END.