Discord awoke slowly to the sound of Fluttershy’s talking. To indicate that he was awake, Discord groaned.

“Oh! You’re awake! Thank goodness! Are you alright, Discord?” Fluttershy asked in her sweet, innocent, voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine Fluttershy, I just came here to smell the flowers.” He hissed. Fluttershy backed off. She knew to be extra careful when someone was just waking up, because that’s when someone can be very grumpy, and she hated to get ponies on their nerves.

“Ugh.. sorry for my rude reply Fluttershy, I am quite fine now, but my sides-” Discord winced-”Did they get slashed by some... manticore?” Discord hissed again, clearly in pain.

“Y-You mean you don’t know what happened?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh of course I do! Some magenta beam of light shot towards me, and I instinctively teleported myself. But because I had been gathering seeds in the Everfree for the prissy princess or otherwise known as Celestia among you pony folk -which is now as I think about it actually where I got half of these cuts from- I had gotten tired, so tired that a mild gust spinned me out of control and I landed headfirst into your cottage.” Discord looked to the repaired hole, which looked like nopony ever disturbed the quiet household, before adding another comment. “Which seems to be fixed.”

“Yes, is that what happened? Oh good, the more I know the, um, better! But I-I must tell you something, Discord.” Fluttershy said.

“Yes, my dear, what is it that you wish to speak? About my damaged ability to use magic? Or should I say, wacky magic? Yes, I know darling Shutter-I mean Fluttershy, I heard it all last night. The talk with your friends, what Twilight said, everything! I can hear everything and process it while in my sleep, you know, and I must say, that is quite a talent. Do you seriously think this has never happened to me before? Hurting my head, and thus defecting my magic for a certain time? Dear Fluttershy, thank you for your hospitality, and thank you for caring for me, you know, you really don't have to do this!” Discord replied cheerfully, though pain was still imprinted on his face.

“H-How did you...what?” She shook her head and thought hard as she processed what Discord said. “You’re Welcome.” She finally responded.

With that, Discord involuntarily settled back, trying to somewhat get himself not on his sides and stomach. But he then remembered that this was Fluttershy’s bed.

“Oh, Fluttershy...I forgot,” Discord tried to stand up, but because he couldn’t put all his upper body pressure on his flimsy body, he awkwardly skwrimed onto all fours.

“Discord it’s okay! Please-!” Fluttershy begged.

“No, don’t beg me! I am begging you! The couch downstairs is way longer and comfier for my…-ahem-unique body.” Discord declared.

“Very well, but at least let me make the bed.” She spiffied it up quickly, then led Discord down the hall. She had to admit, he looked handsome in a way, like a warrior back from battle, his body tense from deep pain within. But Fluttershy was snapped out of her thoughts when Discord stopped and looked down at the stairs blankly as he tried to figure out what do next.

“Uhh…” He looked down at the wide stairs, though wide for a pony’s body, his longer, skinnier one would not be able to get down the stairs so easily without him scrunching up, and because of his injuries, that would hurt.

“Oh my, um.. how about you take three steps at once, like, stretch out your body, then tuck it in again?” Fluttershy suggested but then looked again at his wounds. “Or, you know, since you’re getting yourself up and around too early, you could just-”

“N-No, Fluttershy. I am just being immature and...weak.” Discord said sternly. This surprised Fluttershy. Since when did Discord care about his being weak? Was...was this to impress her?

‘No!’ Fluttershy snapped out of it. ‘Since when have I ever been thinking that he was trying to impress me?’

But she already knew the answer: Ever since his “reforming”.

Taking a shaky breath, the draconeqqus slowly spread himself outward, looking quite funny, like a zipline, his back claw gripping the last step of the stairs, and the other two gripping the eighth step up, the last one before a steady turn. Discord sighed. He was stuck. He was too scared to scrunch up in worry that it would hurt his wounds more, but then again, he just couldn’t get himself back up.

“You can do it.”

Discord whipped back his head so hard that his neck hurt, eyes wide.

“Really? Dear Fluttershy, I am sorry if I am being a coward here, but I believe I am quite stuck.” Discord admitted.

“You’re not being a coward, you’re just afraid that you’ll hurt yourself. Here, I’ll help.” She carefully moved his back two legs to the second last step. “Just take...baby steps, see?”

Discord sighed.

“You’re right.”

Fluttershy giggled. “Come on, let’s get you downstairs for some breakfast.”

And with that, the pegasus and the draconeqqus slowly made it down the stairs.

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“Ah! Finally!” Discord exclaimed as he plopped down on the couch, happy to finally be off the stairs he so embarrassed himself at.

“Now, what would you like for breakfast, Discord? If you ask, I already fed the animals just before you got up.” Fluttershy questioned from her kitchen, a room only accessible by a hole in which there was no door. Fluttershy’s cottage was actually bigger than it looked, much to the relief of Discord. Hey, who would want to be in a small, cramped, cottage full of animals? Not that this house was cramped, no, the animals had their own few rooms, much to the delight of anypony who comes within the cottage.

“Oh, my dear Fluttershy, I am so honored by which you choose to ask me what I like for breakfast, now, if you had any eggs with a side of ranch dressing that would be magnificent.” Discord declared in an over-the-toply-dramatic tone. He didn’t want to be all sappy after the stairs incident, so he made himself dramatic instead.

“Ranch Dressing? Oh, nevermind.” Came her reply from the kitchen.

Discord chuckled to himself, as he thought in his mind, A Bit of Chaos Everyday Keeps the Snobby Ponies Away! ‘Ha,’ Discord thought, ‘Snobby ponies, such as the princesses are my least favorite ponies. But watching their hair get ruined, or tail taken abruptly off, it’s so hilarious!’

Coming out of the kitchen, Fluttershy quickly set the plates of hot, scrambled eggs to the side and gave Discord an are-you-serious? look. She knew by his facial expression that he was thinking about havocking chaos, from messing up manes to turning ponies into chocolate.

“Discord?”

Discord snapped out of his thoughts. “Hmm?”

“What were you thinking about again? I don't know, maybe taking off the princesses’ tails again?” She asked as she eyed him over suspiciously.

“What? I am the Lord of Chaos, and now being deprived from my “natural” work had been making me think about it a lot!” Discord excalimed.

“Then maybe we should get you a spot in the Everfree Forest to practice your “work” then,” She suggested.

“Really?”

“Yeah, so you don’t go wreaking chaos to the poor ponies around us, if you do someday.” Fluttershy looked at him truthfully. “And I believe you won’t.”

In that moment they locked eyes, both looking deep within the other, getting lost in each other’s, until finally Discord snapped out of it.

“Oh, um, well! Doesn’t this look divine!" He said those last couple of words like the white unicorn known as Rarity.

“Oh! Yes, let’s eat, shall we?” Fluttershy awkwardly agreed.

Fluttershy sat next to him on the couch, but before doing so, she asked:

“Mind me sitting here?” To which he, said "Nononononono!". Fluttershy rolled her eyes and ate quietly. They ate for a while, Fluttershy eyeing how Discord literally drowned his eggs into the ranch. ‘Oh Discord,’ She thought, ‘You can be so...random.’ But then a sudden question popped up in her mind.

“Discord?”

Discord looked up from his plate, which he had been devouring quite hungrily, a good thing she put so many eggs on the plate, and answered with a “Hmm?”

“Were you always evil? Like, you aren’t right now, but you know, before.” Fluttershy asked meekly. “How was it like a thousand years ago?”

Discord chuckled. “No, I guess I wasn’t, but a thousand years ago this earth as we know it was very different. The ponies were much different. Ah, yes, the little ponies-they believed in witches and goblins that lay in the unventured forest. A thousand years ago was when Tia also got her multicolored mane. Ah, yes, the day she got her cutie mark, she was mighty beautiful. Tia and I used to know each other very well, you know, as kids growing up, although I am a couple years older than her. We were playing in the forest when a skinny little messenger pony came up to the princess and told her that her mother was very sick. She went to see her immediately, and her mother told the two daughters that she loved them, she kissed them, and I, as a close friend back then, asked if I could do anything in my power to help her, but as she said in that calm, kind voice of hers:

(Flashback) This is but my time Discord, but promise me yet, that the three of you will keep your friendship together, forever, no matter what happens. When you separate, I fear someday, the world will be filled in utter chaotic depression, for, the most powerful magic of all, will be broken that day, and that magic is...

“The magic of friendship,” Fluttershy finished in utter shock. “She was the one…?”

“Who figured it out? Yes, and moments before her death she assigned Tia to the Sun, and little Luna to the moon, and after only a day or two each got their cutie mark- plus their hairstyles.” Discord paused, and a painful silence hung in the air. “A-And only but a few days later my magic, it... accidently went out of control, a-and that’s when we figured it out...”

“Figured out what?” Fluttershy asked, intent on every word.

“That I was the Lord of Chaos.” Silence fell upon both.

“Ever since, I’ve had to be more careful with my magic, and Tia and Luna had more “Royal Duties” to attend to. Soon, I was resented, when I used to be cherished upon the pony folk. I had gone into such a lonely state that, what Queen Staria had feared would happen, happened.”

A short second passed before he could continue with his story.

“I-I” He stammered.

“You lost control again.” Fluttershy finished for him.

He sighed. “And so our "magic of friendship" was released, as we were then enemies, actually a few weeks before it, but still officially, to the burden of both the princesses and I. But all that magic had to go somewhere, and, well, that’s when the Tree of Harmony was created.”

Fluttershy gasped. “Really? Wow, so, you, discorded yourself?”

Discord shook his head. “I didn’t didn’t discord myself, trust me, all three of us were heartbroken at the state of our,” Discord gulped of the last word, “friendship. But, as their prissy selves, they had to do the right thing and imprison me in stone.” Discord looked down. He and Tia, as he would call her, sometimes missed their friendship, though neither would admit it.

Fluttershy sighed and looked outside. It was beautiful, and the young pegasus felt the need to change the subject.

“Hey Discord, wanna go outside? Take a nice stroll?”

“Hmm? Oh yes, my dear, why not?” Discord looked over and stood up, keeping his gaze distant. ‘It looksso perfect out’ He observed. ‘Too perfect.’ Discord looked once more, but shrugged off the suspicious feeling.

And so, the two got up, put away the dishes, and went out into the warm, sunny day.

Author's Note

Evil Stairs! You never know when they would want to pick a fight! Anyways, I am pretty happy with this chapter. What do you think?