Broken Mare
Fluttershy worked carefully, chopping up the fruits and vegetables for dinner in her quiet cottage at the edge of town, by the fringe of the Everfree Forest. She worked carefully, but quickly. He would be home soon. He always came home at about this time. She needed to have his dinner waiting for him when he got here, just the way he liked it.
Dinner finished, she carefully set the table, presenting everything in the most appealing light. Candles flickering in the table's center, the dish set carefully at his spot, the food ready to eat. She put on a nice dress, something to help set the mood so that he could relax after his long day. She made one last cursory check to make sure everything was spotless, then stood by the table to wait for him.
She waited. And waited. And waited. The candles burned down and went out. The food grew cold. After a time, with a soft smile, she cleaned up the table, are her own meal, then did the dishes, once more making sure everything was spotless. Quietly, she flew up to their room, hung the dress up carefully, then curled up in the bed they shared. Waiting for him to return, she slowly fell asleep.
She maintained the immaculate state of the cottage, keeping it clean for when he returned. The silence of her home was calm, cozy. Smiling, she washed the white tablecloth. She was sure she'd gotten all the tomato sauce out, but she had made it so thin that day, it never hurt to be extra careful. She always made the sauce too thin, he said. Raising the tablecloth, she examined it carefully. Not a trace of red.
Walking back inside, she winced as her hip bumped the doorframe. She was still tender there, from when they had gotten...intense in their intimacy. He would never hurt her, but they did like it rough. Of course. Ponies didn't hurt their spouses, it just didn't happen. And his magic had healed things up nicely, so nopony would ever get the wrong impression. Although she had had trouble walking a few mornings, and a few spots were still sensitive...but that was nothing. It was all worth it for him.
There was a knock on the door. She perked up. "Yes, coming!" She started to run to the door.
There was a flash of light, and Discord floated in the air in front of her. "Fluttershy!" he said happily. "Haven't seen you in a while, you hardly ever leave here lately!" He floated forward, spreading his mismatched arms.
Fluttershy stepped back out of reach. "Discord...you know he doesn't like it when you visit..."
Discord lowered his arms, frowning. "He's not here, is he?"
"Not at the moment, no-"
Discord smirked. "What he doesn't know won't hurt him." He hung himself in the air, swinging like a hammock. Snapping his fingers, he conjured them each a drink. "So how goes it with your husband, Shy?"
"Oh, everything's wonderful!" she replied happily. "He's so sweet, helping me get better at things. We're so very happy together. I'm really lucky I married a stallion like him."
"Yes," Discord said, a mild note of distaste in his voice. "So you've said. But Fluttershy, what about your animal friends?"
Fluttershy frowned slightly. "Oh, I miss them, it's true." The smile returned. "But they were all very understanding. I have to think about our future now. They know how it is. After all, soon we might be ready to have foals, and then I'd never have time for the animals."
Discord watched Fluttershy carefully, somewhat sadly. "Well, as long as you're happy..."
"Oh yes," she replied eagerly. "I'm very happy."
Discord set his feet back on the ground. "Then I'm very happy for you, Fluttershy." Seeing they'd both finished their drinks, he made the glasses vanish. "I hope we can talk again soon."
Fluttershy smiled. "That would be nice...but really, you know you don't really get along with him. Maybe it would be better if you didn't until you two warmed up to each other a bit more."
"Yes...maybe..." Discord stared at her sadly for a time, then vanished.
Fluttershy walked carefully up the stairs to the room she now shared. Heading inside, she glanced carefully around until she was certain nopony could see her, then went to the closet. "Are you in there, Angel?" she whispered quietly. "There you are," she said, pulling the small bunny out and cuddling him. "Sorry we can't spend as much time together as we used to, but you know how it is, don't you?"
Angel glowered up at her, like he always did when she wasn't spoiling him rotten like she used to.
"Oh, don't be like that, Angel," she said, pulling him into a tight embrace. "How about I sing to you. I bet you'll like that." Holding her old friend tightly, she began to sing softly.
"Out in the garden
Where my food grows,
There is the secret
Nopony knows.
One so small
And one laid flat,
Together we all
So happily sat."
She didn't know where the song came from, but for some reason it seemed Angel liked it. It always calmed him down. After a time, she shooed him back into the closet. "Now, you find your way back out now, okay? I'm sure we'll have more time. But don't let him see you, alright?" Quietly, she closed the closet door and returned to the ground floor.
He'd be home soon, and he'd want dinner.
Fluttershy blinked as she cut up the fruits and vegetables. The knife seemed to draw her eye, like it was taunting her. It was a new knife, but she didn't remember exactly when she got it, or why. Setting it down, she tossed the fruits and vegetables together, singing softly to herself.
"Out in the garden
Where vegetables grow,
There lies the truth
Nopony can know.
Never forgotten
But hard to track,
Two lovely ponies
Soon to come back."
She didn't know why the song came to her so often, or why it felt like it changed. That made no sense. It was the same song, after all.
There was a knock on the door. "Coming!" she said happily, setting the salad on the table as she walked over to the door and opened it.
Twilight smiled at her, folding her wings. "Fluttershy! There you are. How have you been?"
"Twilight!" Fluttershy said happily. "I've been just fine. What about you? How goes life as a Princess?"
Twilight groaned. "Ugh, don't remind me. Ever since I agreed to help Celestia with the paperwork side of Princesshood, I've hardly had a moment to myself. When did the fate of Equestria suddenly depend on paperwork?"
Fluttershy smiled as Twilight walked in to sit next to the table, going on about the problems of her new job. Fluttershy enjoyed these moments as she leant a harmless ear to her friends and let them vent. She couldn't quite remember when the last time she'd done this had been.
"So Fluttershy," Twilight said as she exhausted her litany of complaints, "what about you? How are things?"
"Oh, things are fine, just fine. You know just how happy I am with him."
Twilight blinked. "Fluttershy...where is he, anyway?"
Fluttershy blinked. "Oh, he's just off on a business trip, you know how he travels sometimes. He'll probably be back any day now, possibly even tonight. I should make his favorite to welcome him, show him how I've improved as a cook-"
"Fluttershy," Twilight interrupted, "nopony's seen him for seven years."
She blinked a few times. "Has it really been that long? Couldn't be. He was just here..." Her voice trailed off. He had been here recently, hadn't he? Why would Twilight tell her otherwise?
"Fluttershy...wherever he's gone, if he's been gone this long...I think you need to accept the possibility that he's...not coming back."
She shook her head. "No...he'll come back. I know he will. I was so lucky to find him...he wouldn't leave me behind..."
Twilight stared at her friend sadly. "Maybe not...intentionally." She took a deep breath. "Fluttershy, you've isolated yourself so completely here. We've been worried sick about you. You...can't keep living like this. You need to...move on." She closed her eyes. "Mayor Mare actually asked me to mention this...she's drawn up the paperwork to have him declared legally dead. I...know it hurts to think about, but...you need to move on. None of us can stand to see you like this." She stood up. "I'll bring the paperwork around tomorrow. Just...promise me you'll think about it? For your sake?"
Fluttershy said nothing. She sat silently as Twilight got to her hooves, bid farewell, and left the cottage. Fluttershy rose to her hooves and walked up the stairs to their room. She walked over to the closet and pulled it open.
Glancing down, she gasped. "Angel, you need to be more careful." She pulled the small bunny out, his eyes glaring up at her in anger. "I'm glad you're here, though. I can't believe Twilight would suggest such things." She gently stroked Angel's head. "I mean, of course he's coming back. He always comes back. I could never have him declared dead like that. Not with what we mean to each other. And of course it can't be seven years. Why would she lie like that? She never lies about such...important...things..."
Her eye twitched slightly, struggling to think. "She wouldn't lie to me...but then how could it be true?" She looked down at Angel and blinked. Why did she see red on her forehoof? She hadn't made any sauce...
Sauce...knife...tablecloth...
She stared at the stitches along Angel's body...the ones she had forgotten she had sewn. "I...what did I...it didn't..."
Angel's eyes glared up at her, accusingly.
"I let you down...I didn't save you...save anyone..." Fluttershy shook her head. "No...it didn't...it couldn't...never coming back..." As the accusing eyes bored into Fluttershy, something inside her failed...as she remembered.
Discord flowed down to Fluttershy's cottage in the dead of night. His last visit had left him disturbed, much like the others in the past seven years. He decided he would get to the bottom of things. He phased right through the wall, not bothering to teleport. "Fluttershy?" he called out. "Fluttershy, we need to talk!" He flowed up towards the bedroom. "I've been worried about you, and-" His voice died as he phased through the door.
Creak...Creak...
The beam creaked under the weight that hung suspended by the rope...the weight that had once been Discord's first friend.
"No..." he whispered. "No!" He snapped his fingers, making the rope vanish. Lunging forward, he caught the limp body as it fell, checking for a pulse, breathing, magic, anything. All was still. "...why?" he asked at last, struggling not to break down in tears.
He noticed something sitting on the bed. The body of a familiar white rabbit, now stuffed, sat there, his dead eyes glaring up at where Fluttershy had hung. "You were..." Discord began, then shook his head. "A long time now, I can tell, but your body can at least tell me what you've seen, why this happened." He snapped his claws.
The stuffed bunny flared in light...then suddenly leaped upon him, pummeling him with cold, dead paws, mouth open to rage silently.
Discord blinked. "Your soul remained? But...why?"
The animated corpse that held Angel's soul hopped over to the desk, tapping his foot angrily on a sheet of parchment. Discord floated over to the desk and read the parchment silently.
Out in the garden
Neath the morning dew,
Lies the secret
Nopony knew.
Neath white lilies
and orchids black,
Two little ponies
Never coming back.
Discord stared at the parchment for a time, then flew out to the garden. In a tucked away corner, he saw two patches of flowers that seemed...out of place. The patch of white lilies was quite small. Snapping his claws, he levitated it up, layer by layer, until he found what he hadn't expected to see. There, laid out carefully, tenderly, was a small group of bones.
He bent down to examine them. "These are equine...fetal bones. Looks like an unborn foal, close to term..." He scanned with his magic. "But the mother took a hard hit to her abdomen and...miscarried. This was...15 years ago." His head snapped up as the dirt and flowers returned to cover the grave. "Shortly after her wedding..."
Turning, he snapped his claws, discarding delicacy. The earth under the black orchids tore open, and he stared at the skeleton revealed. Wrapped in the decayed tatters of a tablecloth, a unicorn skeleton lay haphazardly. Next to the throat was a vegetable knife, well-worn and stained. The groove in the front of the exposed vertebrae told a definitive tale.
Discord scanned the bones with his magic. "So...that's where he's been all this time." The earth closed back over the grim tale, and Discord warped back to Fluttershy's room. Scooping up her body, he held her lightly in his arms, stroking her mane.
He felt something pound on his arm, and he turned to see Angel, still animate, pantomiming snapping fingers.
Discord shook his head. "There are some things...even I can't do. And even if I could...I'm too late to help her. She's...gone..." Discord closed his eyes. He knew that image of her hanging there would haunt his mind forever. But perhaps...
Turning, he picked up the piece of parchment. Perhaps he need be the only one...
Discord opened the door at Twilight's knock. "Good morning Twilight," he greeted, pasting a smile on his face.
"Discord?" Twilight asked, shocked. "What are you doing here?"
"House sitting," he replied calmly. "I was worried about Fluttershy, so I stopped by in the middle of the night to check on her, and found her packing for a long trip."
"A long trip?" Twilight asked, shocked. "Where to?"
"She said she was going to find him," Discord continued to lie through his teeth. "She also asked me to give you and the others her farewells...and apologies."
Twilight stared, shocked. "But...but why wouldn't she tell us herself?"
Discord stared pointedly at the paperwork sticking out of Twilight's saddlebags.
Twilight turned, saw the papers, and hung her head. "I told her she had to move on...this is my fault..." Twilight closed her eyes, tears starting to form.
"Now don't be like that," Discord said, handing his eagle arm over her shoulders. "She'll be back someday. You know her, just as stubborn as the lot of you. She probably just needed to know for herself beyond a shadow of a doubt what happened with him. When she learns, she'll be back...and then you can all make up and reunite. Just be patient until then."
Twilight looked up at him, managing a smile. "I...guess you're right." She swallowed, managing to dry her tears. "You take good care of her house while she's gone, alright?"
Discord smiled. "Of course I will. I'll be right here, waiting for her return."
As Twilight left, Discord flowed back into the house. Of course, he knew some catastrophe might come up that needed the Elements...but Chaos could do nicely in a pinch. He had failed Fluttershy - his first friend - by not seeing what was really happening before it was too late. He promised himself that he would not fail her now. Her friends would remember her, for as long as possible, as a mare who did anything for friends and love, as she had always been. Only he would remember what he had seen hanging there...a broken mare.
In the bedroom, he opened the closet. Pushing aside the taxidermy kit he had found there, he beckoned the stuffed Angel to him. The bunny hopped up, rubbing the soft spot where a unicorn hoof had caved in his skull years back, the stitches telling the tale. Cuddling his former rival for Fluttershy's attention, Discord found himself singing.
"Out in the garden
O'er which I will slave,
Lies the secret
That I'll take to my grave.
Under the willow tree
'Neath soil so black,
My Little Pony,
Never coming back."
Without thinking about it, Angel spread his dead ears to catch the falling tears he could no longer shed.
