Labyrinth

Fluttershy walked up a grand staircase.  The sound of her hooves against the marble floor echoed throughout the halls and resounded back at her louder than they left.  She cringed with each sound, but didn't let it slow her any.

Reaching the second floor, she found it just as deserted as the first.

"Hello?" she finally called.  There was no response but her own voice.

She pushed open a few doors, finding only rooms that looked as though no one had occupied them in many, many moons.  The last door she opened revealed a vast room filled with staircases leading in all directions.  There seemed to be no floor, ceiling, or walls: only staircases.  Even the doors she had walked through were gone and replaced by another staircase.

A good way's away, she spotted Angel running up - or down, it was hard to tell in this place - a staircase.

"Angel!"  she cried and ran forward.  "Angel, I'm here!"

The bunny lifted his head to meet her gaze and reached out his little arms.  Their sight of one another was cut off by Discord appearing in front of her.  He looked down at her with a cold, unfeeling expression.

All fear of him gone, she returned his look with a serious stare.  "I've come for Angel, Discord.  You can't stop me."

Discord sighed heavily.  He reached out to run his talons through her hair, frowning when she didn't flinch or pull away.  "How you've turned my world, you precious thing."  He clenched her hair tight and pulled her closer.  "You starve and near exhaust me."  Leaning down to move his head closer to hers, he continued, "Everything I've done, I've done for you."  His voice lowered to a whisper, just as faint as he became as he faded away.  "I move the stars for no mare."

She looked around to try to figure out where he went, but Angel's pleas for help pulled her focus to the bunny and she ran down the stairs in front of her.

A hopeless chase ensued, as it seemed that no matter which path either of them took, they seemed to end up further and further until they could no longer see one another.

"Angel!"  she called, stopping halfway up a staircase.  "Oh, Angel, where are you?"

Discord slithered out of the air beside her and coiled around her neck and shoulders like a boa.  "You've run so long, my dear; you've run so far..."  He met her gaze.  "Your eyes can be so cruel."  He tightened around her neck.  "Just as I can be so cruel."  He slithered off and vanished again, but she felt him watching her as she started to run again.

Finally, Discord perched on a ledge and watched as the bunny and the mare saw each other again and made their way to one another.  He sighed, wistfully, sadly.  "Though I do believe in you."  His voice echoed throughout the timeless chamber.  "Yes, I do."

"Angel!"

"Live without your sunlight, love without your heartbeat.  I can't..."

"Oh, Angel!"

"... live..."  His voice faded as he lowered his head.

Fluttershy and Angel found themselves very close to one another.  He was directly above her, or she was directly above him, but no staircases attached the platforms they stood on.

"... within..."  Slowly, his eyes closed.

"I'm coming!"  She huddled down, then jumped with all of her might.  Her wings, though she tried to stretch and flap them, remained plastered to her sides.

"... you."

As the last word fell past his lips, she fell back to her own platform.  Everything around her changed when her hooves hit the marble floor.  She somewhere and yet nowhere at all.  It was almost as though she were floating in the air, but there was clearly ground beneath her.

Discord stepped forward from the nothing.  The darkness clung to him like tendrils before she could see him entirely.  He looked almost... sad.

"Where is my bunny?"  Fluttershy stepped toward him, her voice wavering with uncertainty.

"Fluttershy, beware.  I have been generous up til now, but I can be cruel."

"Generous?"  She furrowed her brow.  "What have you done that's generous?"

"Everything!"  The fur on the back of his neck stood on end as he roared.  "Everything that you wanted, I have done."  He threw his hands in the air.  "You called for the Goblin King; I became one.  You asked the bunny be taken; I took him."  He stepped closer.  "You cowered before me; I was frightening.  I have reordered time and space!  I have turned the world upside down and I have done it all for you!"  He looked at her with anger and disappointment on his face, then turned away from her.  "I'm exhausted from living up to your expectations of me.  Isn't that generous?"

"I...  I'm sorry."  She looked at him with pity, though she was more confused than anything else.  "I never meant to ask all that of you.  I just want my baby bunny back."

He closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.  "I ask for so little."  He vanished and reappeared behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders.  "Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want.  Forget about your bunny, about your friends and stay here with me."

"Why?"  She looked up at him.  "Why me?  Why are you doing this to me?"

He pulled away from her.  "I have watched you, seen you for so long.  Your heart is filled with love and kindness for all things.  For things that don't deserve it, like your wretched little bunny.  I..."  He stepped backwards into the darkness.  "Fluttershy, just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave."

"Why me?!"

He burst forth from the darkness again, the rage returning.  "It has to be you, don't you see?  If I could have just made room in your heart, you could love me.  But you refused to let go of that bunny!  Of your friends!  You said goodbye to them, yet you hold fast to them.  Why do you persist in having those things, when I can give you anything?"

Fluttershy stood up on her hind legs and put both her hooves on his face, cupping his cheeks.  "You're... lonely, aren't you?"

He flinched back from her touch.  "Lonely?  I?  I can conjure forth anything I wish from nothing.  I can become anything with a mere snap of my talons!"

"But you don't have any friends."

He flinched again, this time solely from her words.  "...  No."

She smiled sadly.  "I wish I could help you, Discord, but I have to return home.  I have to take Angel back with me.  I can't stay here with you.  Please... give me back my bunny and take me home."

His expression flashed with rage, then hurt, then nothing.  "As you wish," he whispered.  A crystal ball fell from his paw and as it shattered, so did the world around her, including Discord.