He couldn't like her.

At least, he shouldn't like her.

Yet he had, and still did. The small, butter colored Pegasus with the deep, aqua-blue eyes and cotton candy colored mane was always kinder to him than any pony else could ever be. Even when he hadn't been reformed, he could still feel her undying kindness as she was turned into a complete opposite of all she truly was. He practically knew, though, that she couldn't ever possibly like someone like him. It was almost certain to him. But that didn't stop him from loving her, now did it? Not by a chance.

It was on days like these that Discord relished not being cast into stone. The soft breeze, the perfect warmth of the blazing sun, the peace and quiet of the blue sky above. It was even better when Discord got a chance to see one of his closest friends ever since his reformation. Ah yes, today was going to be perfect. Not a grey cloud in the sky. Not a moment to waste.

Discord appeared in front of Fluttershy's cottage, breadbasket in hand. Grinning from ear to ear, he tapped on the door that blocked him from entering the inside of the cozy cottage his friend called home. After a long moment, during which he heard a bustle from inside, Fluttershy opened the door. Her face illuminated as she caught sight of her guest, and she smiled.

"Discord!" She flapped her wings until she reached to his height, greeting him with a hug. Nuzzling his cheek for what Discord thought to be too short, she let go and gestured to her home. "Come on in!"

"Why thank you, dear Fluttershy! My my, what a truly splendid day we have here! And not a cloud in the sky!" Discord floated in behind Fluttershy, taking in a woeful gasp as a cotton candy cloud suddenly appeared atop his head, just above his antlers. "Oh, well, you aren't fun, now are you?" he popped the cloud like a hydrogen balloon, returning his attention to his friend's hustle down below.

"Oh, sorry Discord," she breathed as she frantically flew back and forth around the house. "I'm..." she paused to fly into the kitchen and grab another item. "Just...." flying back across the living room, she dropped another feeding bowl into the corner. "Busy!"

Discord chuckled. "Oh please, Fluttershy. Stop fretting for once and have some fun! Here, what is it that just must be done?"

Fluttershy stopped. "Um, well, I need to feed the animals."

"Uh-huh."

"And....I need to make sure every thing is clean for tomorrow's get together."

"Continue."

"And...I need to pack some food with the tea kettles and the blanket for our picnic!"

"Is that it?"

Fluttershy nodded. "Yes." said Fluttershy defiantly.

"Done."

"...Excuse me?"

"Done! While you were talking to me about your oh-so-called worries, I fixed everything up for you. No problem!" Discord gestured around the room; every animal had been feed, the floor was sparkling, and a second basket appeared in Discord's free hand. Using his magic to make the basket lighter, he handed it back to Fluttershy, which took a suspicious glance in the basket as soon as her hooves felt the utterly suspicious lightness of it.

Then her eyes met with Discord's, who threw her a glance and grinned in his usual, Discord-y way. Fluttershy sighed.

"Well, it looks like I owe you yet again, Discord." Fluttershy said, taking a look around the room. Not one thing was out of place, something she couldn't have trusted Discord to cope with not to long ago.

Discord scoffed. "Oh nonono, dear Fluttershy. It's all but in a day's work! Besides, it's what friends do, isn't it?" he looked into those wide, blue eyes once more, paralyzed by the underlining beauty of the mare he wished he could call more than just a friend. Maybe a best friend, at least? He almost missed her reply getting lost just gazing at her. He usually found himself zoning out of reality whenever he was bored, such as with conferences and the like, but when he was with her, he felt entirely more happy. And entirely more guilty for what he'd done before.

How could so much pure innocence be portrayed within a single pony? Sure, everypony had their faults, but for some reason, Discord couldn't find one with Fluttershy. He found her to be practically perfect. For his own self, that was quite the generous assumption. Discord, just like his appearance, would never be perfect. Now that was true truth.

On the other hand, Fluttershy had never known that somebody else beside her own pony friends could ever make her feel so uplifted and excited. She'd always guessed that maybe it was because maybe she was attracted to him, with his hidden wisdom and ever-lasting smile, but then she'd think better of herself. Who would somepony ever love a lousy push-over like her? She would be afraid to ask him out on anything more than a picnic, anyway. Just giving Discord a welcoming hug made her feel all giggly on the inside, like she had in her early years of school when all the other little fillies and colts would pretend to be on date just as their parents had. Of course, now she was all grown up and had long since moved away from her parents in Fillydelphia, the town where she had been born and stayed for a couple of years before moving to Cloudsdale.

Fluttershy snapped back to reality. Discord, on the other hoof, still seemed to be lost in his thoughts. Fluttershy coughed. "Yeah, I g-guess so."

Discord tensed, looking spooked before swinging back around to her. On the other side of the room, Angel, her pet bunny, face palmed. Fluttershy could practically hear her pet's thoughts. She didn't like them.

"Oh dear, looks like I got lost in thought," Discord waved his hand. "Truly sorry," he added. Fluttershy tried to smile, but yet she couldn't understand what he had been so lost in thought about. All she knew was that she locked eyes with him, and then that was it. To her, moments had seemed to pass until she returned from having her head in the clouds. Thinking about this, she thought of whether Discord could have been thinking about her, but she immediately brushed off the thought. She was almost certain that wasn't it. That just had to be it, right? Even spite her shyness, she hoped secretly that it wasn't true.

The bright summer day was glorious. Neither of the two creatures could stop wondering about it. They managed to find a comfortable spot and talked on and on about the subject, about how pegasi do their jobs, and how hard it must've been to create such a perfect day.

Although, as the conversation came to end, Discord brought up a valuable question.

"Fluttershy, do you ever, how do you say it, miss your parents?" The draconequus asked.

Fluttershy froze. She had never been asked this question in a long, long time.

"I g-guess I do, yeah."

Discord shifted. "I don't know, it's just that I always see that every small pony in Equestria is always interlocked with the hooves of a bigger one. You call those ponies parents, right?"

Fluttershy giggled. "Well of course, Discord, everypony has parents. Ponies come from other ponies! Wait.....you do know how ponies are made, right?" Fluttershy stared, suddenly feeling uncomfortable. Her smile was between a mix of a grin and a frown.

Discord's eyes bulged, and then popped out of his head, rolling into his hands and back into his eyes a moment later. "Oh yes yes, I do quite know how ponies are made. If you would ask me, I would rather not have wanted to." Discord shivered. He remembered learning how those things had been made. Oh, was it very awful. Being as young as he was, he despised the idea. Even at over thousands of years old, he still despised the idea. He never quite grasped love, since after thousands of years away from the warmth of another his thoughts had turned to apple crumble. Just as he thought about it, an apple fritter came into being. He swallowed it in one bite.

"Okay, well," Fluttershy began. "Ponies have to be taken care of one another, right? When ponies are little, they can't just live on their own. They need to learn from their mistakes before they become a grown up. I'm still not a grown up, if you ask me." Fluttershy shriveled a bit in shyness, away from her beloved friend.

Discord grasped for more. "Then why did you move away from your parents when you just said you're not grown up?"

"I don't know!" Fluttershy cried out. Discord jumped back, surprised. He flung in arms up like a criminal would when getting caught by the police. He'd never known that such a simple question could cause these reactions. He was, after all, still a bit "new" to this whole friendship thing, and Fluttershy's sudden outburst was something that was relatively new to him. How did she suddenly just change personalities?

"I-I....I just don't...." Fluttershy shivered, hiding herself in her mane. Feeling apologetic, Discord teleported next to her. He reached out to grab her into a hug, but he wasn't sure really how to. After a minute of rambling about on the inside, Discord awkwardly placed his arm around the smaller creature.

Fluttershy continued to snivel. "I haven't seen them for years, Discord. And....I-I just don't know why." She opened her mane just a twitch. "My parents decided to move back to Filly-Delphia where I was born, but I loved our cottage here so much that I chose to stay. It-it's not like I don't love them, it's just that....I don't get why they wanted to leave." Fluttershy took a long pause before opening her mouth once more. "Even though it was my choice to stay here, I still feel like they've abandoned me. I try to send them letters but they never reply back."
Fluttershy continued to gobble about her parents. "I always ask myself-Was it the right thing?"

Discord took his eyes off his friend's small, tiny figure. He sighed, and closed his eyes in remembrance, back to a long, long time ago. He decided it was best to not give away his story, and instead, hoped to give her some sound advice. A large speaker appeared next to him.

"Well, let me give you some sound advice," He called. Fluttershy looked shyly back up to him, and the speaker disappeared.

Suddenly, it was like that moment back at her cottage. Fluttershy's eyes interlocked with Discord's. The small pony could see much more than teasing and cheer behind the soul of the sound, happy draconequus she knew. She could see much more. She wanted to know what was behind those eyes, what was behind the very meaning of his words. Discord wasn't known to give good advice. Rather, he was known for being a bit too "honest" at the wrong time and places. Even so, she decided to listen to his words.

"See, I wasn't always alone." Discord began, a deep, dark shadow coming forth and into his steaming glare. "In fact, I used to have many 'friends'."

Fluttershy revealed herself completely.

"But they betrayed me, so I left them alone. That's why you're my true first friend, Fluttershy. You've never betrayed me; if you did, it would always be for good reason."

He tinkered around with a spare, plastic copy of the element of kindness in his hand, twirling it over and over again. Discord felt and just saw how close he truly was to his friend, with his tail having unknowingly wrapped around her. Filling over with a sudden sense of coldness, he teleported back to his original spot, the plastic element disappearing as well.

"I'm not known for my advice, Fluttershy." He began once more. "But I do know this: Sometimes, if you're not sure about whether something is wrong or right, it doesn't matter. Its already happened. There's nothing that you can do, and there never, ever will be."

Discord turned a cold shoulder to his one and only best friend.

"Well, it's getting late. Thanks for the good time, Fluttershy." And with that, he snapped his fingers. He was gone.

Fluttershy sat, stunned. She had no idea what to do; she had no idea what to think. What did Discord mean? He had friends before her? What kind of 'betrayal' was he talking about? She slowly picked herself up from the ground, staring absentmindedly as she began to fold her checkered red and white picnic blanket. Catching her eye, she noticed that the dishes had already been taken care of. She'd never seen this side of him. Where was that jokester, all-of-a-kind, loveable friend she had known before? Fluttershy had the urge to go over to Twilights' and see what she could do, what she could possibly find out, if anything, but her instinct told her that with this attitude, the half-carnivorous draconequus needed his space.

Whilst Fluttershy folded, stuck in her thoughts, two pairs of bright, golden eyes gleamed behind her in the undergrowth.

A second later, an earsplitting shriek was heard.

Author's Note

After over a year, it looks like my first story, Unexpected is finally going to be rewritten! This story will contain a few events and elements of the previous story, but will instead create a whole lot of new elements and events since this rendition takes place as Season 5 goes along. Due to the fact that another Discord may come later on in the season, some opinion may change over time, but for the most part, things will stay fairly relevant.

Overall, I hope you savour this brand new rewrite! Enjoy!