Today started like any other day at the little cottage on the edges of the Everfree Forest. The earliest rays of Celestia’s sun bathed the house in a bright light, and shone through the window on the top floor unto the sleeping Fluttershy. Her eyes fluttered open, and she awoke with a soft yawn. Looking over the edge of her bed, she saw her pet rabbit, Angel, still fast asleep in his bed. She slowly flapped her wings to gain some height and glided over the sleeping rabbit, then tip-hoofed down the stairs. She knew how grumpy Angel could get if she awoke him earlier than absolutely necessary. Celestia knows she wouldn’t want that fiasco to happen again. Once downstairs she began to grab all sorts of dried and fresh animal food and went outside. Aside from Angel, a lot of the animals outside were already awake and hungry for breakfast. As soon as Fluttershy stepped outside she was swarmed by a horde of hungry animals. She endured the excitement for about 10 seconds before her expression changed from a soft smile to a stern look, she stomped her hoof down and yelled:
“Alright, that’s enough!”. Immediately, all animals took a few steps back, and Fluttershy’s smile returned. “There, that’s better.” She began to walk to the chicken coop and dropped a bag of fowl feed in the fenced area. “I know you’re all hungry, but that’s no reason to act like a bunch of hung-, um…well, you know, it’s no excuse to act rude. Just return to your homes and I’ll come feed you soon.”
A while later, after Fluttershy was done with feeding the animals, her stomach began to rumble. She giggled. “Only one more mouth to feed I suppose.” She giggled again as she walked to her kitchen and grabbed a pan to warm up some oatmeal. While she was stirring the oatmeal she heard a soft thumping on the stairs. Oh, that’ll be Angel. He’ll probably want some food. Fluttershy turned off her stove to avoid burning her own food and grabbed some carrots from the counter. Just as she hovered around the corner, Angel descended from the final stair onto the ground floor, yawned loudly, yet adorably, and scratched his fluffy white hindquarters.
Fluttershy warmly smiled at him. “Good morning, Angel. Did you sleep well?” He only chittered something in response. “Alright, I’ll leave you be. Are you hungry? I have some carrots with your name on them~.” She said in a sing-song voice. She held the carrots out in her hooves, but Angel slapped them away and hopped towards the snack cabinet, where his favourite rabbit snacks were ‘hidden’. As soon as the carrots left her hooves, Fluttershy's face contorted into an uncharacteristic frown. Oh no, I am NOT having this again.
"Angel!" She set her hooves to her sides as she hovered in midair. "You come back right now mister." Hearing his master raise her voice like this, even the rude rabbit turned around to face her. "I've had it with that arrogant attitude of yours!" The rabbit's ears drooped as he heard his master scold him like that. "You are coming here now, you're going to eat your carrots, or you can go without food until dinner. Do I make myself clear?" Angel nodded while sporting a sheepish smile and hopped over to where the carrots lay strewn on the ground, grabbed one, and started to gnaw on it.
About half an hour later, Fluttershy was enjoying a steaming bowl of warm oatmeal on her couch.
"HELP, HELP, SOMEPONY HELP!". Fluttershy jumped up when she heard the distressed, and somehow lisping scream. She quickly ran to the front door and slowly opened it a bit to peek out of the slit. What she saw was a lanky, light brown pony with a short, curly, dark brown mane and tail. He was also wearing a navy blue Royal Equestrian Mail Service uniform and a brown mailbag. What she also saw put a frown on her face. Her favourite pet rabbit was currently biting the mailpony's ear. "OW! OW! MAKE HIM STOP!" Fluttershy was drawn from her annoyance by the mailpony's distress.
"Oh, oh my, of course. Angel, stop biting him! Now!" Angel looked up from his 'prey', and let go. Angel jumped of off the mailpony's head and landed next to Fluttershy, where he blew a raspberry at him. "Angel! Apologize to him!" Angel looked up at Fluttershy, muttered something and went inside.
The mailpony was rubbing his ear when Fluttershy said: "I'm so sorry, he's a bit, um, aggressive towards strangers." The mailpony grumbled as he grabbed his bag.
"Just my luck, first my birthday gets forgotten by everypony, then I get stuck in the dimension of a chaos crazed demon, and now I get assaulted by rabbits. I should be paid more." Fluttershy gave an apologetic smile.
"I'm really sorry, can I do something for you? Can i maybe get you something to eat or drink?" The mailpony smiled and shook his head.
"Thank you ma'am, but I have to get back to delivering the mail, otherwise I'll never get paid again, let alone more. Speaking of which, I've a letter for you." He reached into his bag and retrieved a white letter sealed with a tree with pink leaves that formed a heart. "Well, I'm off ma'am. Good bye, and have a nice day." he said as he walked down the path towards Ponyville. Fluttershy waved him off, and then looked at the letter.
"Oh, this is a letter from Tree Hugger!" She quickly flew inside and tore off the letter's top.
Dear Fluttershy, How are you doing? I'm doing great. I just returned from my little trip to the Rainbow Falls, and my chakras are more open than ever. I was wondering, that Discord guy gave me the shivers, but he also had some interesting vibes. Him and that Smooze fellow. Could you maybe schedule a little get-together with the 4 of us? Maybe dinner or something? Anyway, see you later gal.
-Tree Hugger
Fluttershy positively beamed. "Oh my goodness! A dinner date with the four of us. That'll be so much fun!"
"That'll be so much fun!" it echoed from somewhere. Fluttershy yelped and ducked behind her door. She looked around the corner, and heard somepony say it again. "That'll be so much fun!" This time, there was a raspy snicker after it. Fluttershy then had a look of realization. She giggled and rolled her eyes with a little smile. She opened her front door and walked outside. "That'll be so much fun!" She heard it again. When Fluttershy looked at the source, she saw a red parrot sitting on a bird post. "Oh hello there, mister parrot. You wouldn't happen to know where that sound came from, now would you?" The parrot shook his head, and hopped on Fluttershy's outstretched hoof. She nuzzled the parrot on its cheek. An almost purring sound came from the parrot. The parrot only buried its head deeper into fluttershy neck and looked at her with beady eyes.
"Oh my, you're almost as cuddly as Discord, or rather, or how cuddly he wants to be." She hummed. "If only that fluffy bundle of joy was here, then I could just smother him with hugs, and wrap him in my wings and never let go." She said while dramatically looking upwards.
"Really?!" it suddenly sounded from below. The voice was not the same as the one she heard echo her earlier. This voice sounded old, but with childish glee and very smooth. Fluttershy smirked and dropped the parrot unceremoniously on the ground, where it landed with a grunt. She trotted over a bit so she could sit across from the talking parrot. Said parrot was now gone, and replaced by a large snake like creature. Its body was covered in brown fur, its left arm ended in an eagle's claw, its right arm was a lion's front paw. One back leg was a green lizard's leg, and the other was a cloven hoof, probably from a goat. Finally, its tail was of a red dragon that ended in a white tuft of fur, and its head was a goat's head with one goat horn and one deer antler. Its eyes were a bright yellow with red irises, with one iris being bigger than the others.
Discord pouted as he sat himself upright. "Poo, how did you know it was me?"
Fluttershy giggled. "The moment you said 'Really?!'. I had an idea, but I wasnt sure until then." Discord slithered up to her and wrapped his long body around her, gently wrapping her in a fuzzy embrace with Fluttershy's hooves and head poking out the top of Discords little coil. He nuzzled her nose and Fluttershy responded with a small giggle. "Alright, alright, that's enough of that, Mr. Snugglepants." Discord snapped the fingers on his eagle claw and he dissappeared with a bright flash. He reappeared a bit further off along with a pair of blue jeans that wrapped their legs around Fluttershy's waist and she started giggling again.
"No, no, I'm Discord. That's Mr. Snugglepants." He snapped his fingers and the pants disappeared. Now then, what's gonna be, and I quote, 'So much fun' ? he said while hovering in mid-air, resting his chin on his claws.
"Oh, Tree Hugger has invited me, and by extension you and the Smooze for a double dinner date."
Discord's chin lost the support of his arms and his jaw hit the ground. Literally. Using a tirejack lever he jacked his jaw back to the default position and asked: "T-Tree Hugger? Invited me and the Smooze? Even after our little..." He coughed. "Accident?"
She nodded. "She wrote to me in a letter that after her trip to the Rainbow Falls, her chakras were all cleansed, and she was ready to hang out with you again. She was really interested in getting to know you better. So, you're coming, right?"
Discord scratched the back of his head, and coughed into his hand. "Yes, well, you see, I have something to do that day." He laughed nervously, and was about to snap his finger to leave when Fluttershy spoke up.
"I haven't even told you the date. How could you know you have something to do that day if you don't know what day I'm talking about?"
"My uncanny foresight?" A nervous smile crept on his face as he said this.
Fluttershy looked at him with concern. "Discord, what's wrong?"
He gave her a dismissive wave. "What? Nothing's wrong. I'm just a...very busy draconequus! You know how it goes. Special assignments from Celestia, and, um, uh, that sort of things." He gave a sheepish smile.
Fluttershy sighed and closed her eyes. "You still feel guilty about what you did with Tree Hugger, don't you?"
Discord scoffed. "Guilty? Moi? Well, I never. I just don't feel like going." he said, and turned his back on Fluttershy, softly hovering in the air.
"And why is that? Don't you like spending time with me?" she said while pouting.
Discord ground his teeth. He then forced himself to smile and turned around to face her. "What? What makes you say that Fluttershy? You're my bestie!" He flashed himself right next to her and put little friendship necklaces around their necks. "Wouldn't miss an oppurtunity to spend time with you for the world! So, um, when and where's that dinner date?"
"Next week tuesday at seven o' clock. You can just come to my house, and then we all walk to the restaurant together." She said with a smile.
"Any dress code?" Discord asked.
She giggled. "Maybe something casual." She knew how much Discord liked to dress up, seeing as he always switched up his outfit.
Discord smiled, gave a bow and waved. "Alright, then, ta-ta." He then teleported away with a white flash.
Fluttershy waved back as he left. When he was out of sight, her face turned to a sad frown. Oh, Discord. If only you told me what was wrong, then I could properly help you.
Back in Discord's personal dimension, a place with a deep-purple sky and swirling colors in it, Discord flew in the direction of his house, which looked surprisingly normal. He quickly opened his door, went inside, closed it again, and leaned against and scooted down to a position. He buried his face in his paw and claw, and dragged them down his face.
"Oh, Discord, what did you get yourself into this time?" He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, thinking how to handle the daunting tuesday to come.
