Fluttershy opened her eyes as consciousness slammed down on her with an uncomfortable amount of force. Blinking a few times to clear her vision, she saw it was still dark.

All of a sudden, her stomach felt horrible, like she was famished at the same time as being too full. Its contents didn't threaten to lurch upwards, however, so she ignored it for the moment.

Breathing in deeply, she lowered her eyelids. There was no particular reason as to why she had woken up; she hadn't had a nightmare of any sorts. So, reasonably speaking, there was nothing standing between her and somnolence.

Except her growing awareness of the paw draped around her waist, that is.

It bothered her, but she didn't really know why. Discord had slept with her hundreds of times before. She wasn't even very close to him; his right arm was the only part of him touching her.

It just felt...off, somehow.

The pegasus lay there for five more minutes to ensure it wasn't just the cold or the light keeping her awake -- though deep down she already knew she would have to get up sooner or later. With a small sigh, she opted for the former.

Fluttershy slid out from beneath Discord's arm and silently placed her four hooves on the wooden floor. She held her breath as she gently placed one of them forward, then another. Discord was a heavy sleeper most of the time -- in the mornings she sometimes had to wake him up. However, at that moment not only did she not want to disturb his sleep but she also did not want his company.

Suddenly, her stomach twisted and she instinctually galloped to her bathroom, horribly aware of how much noise she had made while opening the door.

She stood over the toilet seat, breathing somewhat unsteadily as she waited for the rush of bile and undigested hay to fill her mouth. Time and time again, she came within a hair's breadth of vomiting -- but eventually her belly relaxed and she did too, to some extent.

Fluttershy curled up against the wall. After a while, she thought about what had happened earlier, about her unprecedented discomfort at being next to her boyfriend.

Boyfriend. Boyfriend, boyfriend, boyfriend. It felt wrong, and not just because Discord was as much a boy as tomatoes were a vegetable. She had had coltfriends before, albeit only a few, but they only put up with her for three months at the most and she and Discord had been a couple for nearly a year.

"Well then maybe she doesn't love you as much as she says she does."

She started at the sound of Tirek's voice, echoing in her brain. She didn't like it, not one bit. Just thinking about how he stripped ponies of their magic is just...dreadful.

The mare was horrified. However, she soon came to realise that it was not because of the sense of terror that accompanied the voice: it was as a result of what the voice was saying.

Truth be told, this was an issue that had been bothering her for months. But back then she had assumed it was just some odd form of paranoia, and now that someone had indirectly told her that she was right, convincing herself otherwise was beyond undoable.

Fluttershy threw her head into her hooves. She couldn't keep this from him. Any fool knows that withholding true thoughts and feelings can mess up any relationship, whether it be between friends, family or lovers. And while she was not by any means the Element of Honesty, she found it relatively difficult to lie, especially to a loved one.

Gradually, the solution crept up behind her but she slipped out of the way before it could pounce and tear out her heart.

The mare scrambled back to her bedroom -- mine and Discord's bedroom, she forced herself to think. To her relief, nothing that felt distinctly like discomfort bubbled forward.

With a content sigh, she climbed back into his arms and snuggled into his fur. Not even a minute had passed before he tightened his grip around her.

His mismatched arms felt warm, and relaxed in such a way that it caused Fluttershy to relax in turn. They were safe. Secure.

They were where she belonged, she decided -- realising that it had just been her paranoia all along.

Twilight's eye hurt.

She knew it did. But she didn't move her hoof from her cheek, because her vision was out of focus and she had trouble waking her brain up again.

In her other hoof was the necklace Sunset had given her. Originally, she had planned to examine it closely to see if she could figure out how Sunset and Pinkie had combined memory crystals and rock candy, but that day it seemed her mind was unwilling to concentrate.

The alicorn tried to smile. Yesterday, Sunset had barely gotten back through the portal in time. She and the unicorn had mucked about with each other for such a long time that Cadance had to send some of her guards to look for them.

"So, what, you just ate it?!" Sunset ridiculed.

Twilight gave a smile. "Yeah."

"Even though it could've contained meat?!"

The princess shrugged. "It's not the first time I've been dared to eat meat."

The unicorn shook her head. "You're crazy."

"I'm no --"

"Pardon me, ladies, but it's nearly midnight. Princess Cadance needs you to hurry up."

The two mares spun around to see a not-so-crystal crystal guard standing a few hooves away. He smiled with one cheek, then carried on walking.

Sunset narrowed her eyes at him. "That looks like...no, it can't be."

"What? What is it?"

"Nothi -- oh my gosh, you're blushing!" Sunset pointed at Twilight and squealed.

She touched her cheeks. "I am no --" she began defensively.

"You've got a cru-ush, you've got a cru-ush, you've got a cru-u --"

"I do not!" Twilight protested, strangely calm.

"You're blushing harder! Of course you do! Oh, I should've known that that's why you come here so much!"

The princess pursed her lips as a part of her screamed to bring her feelings into the argument -- and for a moment, she thought she was going to obey it.

"Sunset..."

"Yeah?"

Twilight opened her mouth, but she couldn't form the words. "I...nothing. Never mind."

Sighing, Twilight shook her head and blinked, bringing herself back to the real world.

She looked at the necklace, at the four crystal pendants hanging off it. She looked at each one individually, sentimental feelings invading her heart as she remembered each one.

Then she got to the last one and froze: it was moving. For a moment, she was amazed at the fact that the memory was animate -- how was Sunset able to pull that off? -- and then she remembered what the memory was.

Twilight was attempting to braid Sunset's mane. Her own was in a neat, loose Prench braid that the unicorn had expertly done a few minutes prior. But now it was Twilight's turn, and she was having no such luck.

The alicorn couldn't hear what the mares were saying, but she remembered lots of laughter and unintelligible words coming out of her own hair-filled mouth. Eventually, the past Twilight gave up and collapsed in hysterics. Past Sunset joined her.

A minute later, they stopped laughing and looked at one another with grins on their faces. Sunset placed a gentle hoof on Twilight's cheek and --

The princess Twilight of the present touched her cheek with her own hoof and found that it was wet. She squeezed her eyes shut for five seconds before she was sure that all the droplets of salty liquid trying to escape were put back in their cells.

She shouldn't be feeling this way. She and Susnet had talked it out, and agreed not to act further upon what they had done. It meant nothing. Nothing...but that only made it worse. Without even beginning to consider the romantic attraction she had towards Sunset, that had been her first ever kiss. Of course it meant something.

Twilight drew in a deep breath, and set the issue aside for the moment. Letting the oxygen mingle refreshingly in her lungs for a while before exhaling, she decided to go and have another look at the six-keyed box the Tree of Harmony had sprouted.

"Sweet Celestia!"

All six of the Elements of Harmony -- plus Spike, plus Discord -- held their jaws agape, as before them stood a magnificent, crystal castle. What was more, it looked like a treehouse -- a rather silly and unnecessarily extravagant treehouse, but a treehouse nonetheless.

The six mares were all panting, since the now unlocked box had filled them with a humungous amount of magic that they had no way to use. They were buzzing with an energy unknown to most, though Twilight found it to be similar to when she had transformed into an alicorn.

"Woah, what is that?!" Spike wondered aloud.

"It's...a castle," Twilight breathed, knowing it was obvious but too stunned to gather her thoughts into words.

"Yeah, no, I meant what is it doing here?"

Everyone looked at one another in search of an answer, but they were as in the dark as each other. "I'll write to Luna and ask what this means."

"Princess Luna? What about Princess Celestia? And since when did y'all start callin' her by her first name instead of her title?"

The princess shrugged. "It's like when you guys started trying to call me 'Princess Twilight'. I knew you too personally for it to feel right, and now that I'm so close to Luna...those formalities just don't feel right either."

AJ nodded. "Fair enough. Now, Ah'm off to Sweet Apple Acres. Ah dunno 'bout the rest of y'all, but opening that box has given me so much earth pony magic that Ah feel like Ah could buck the entire orchard. "Ah won't," she added, seeing that Twilight was arching an eyebrow at her, "but Ah need to get this energy out somehow."

"Can I join you?" Rainbow asked with a smirk, and didn't wait for an answer. She flipped Applejack onto her back and zoomed to Ponyville's orchard at a surprising speed, even for one of her athletic ability.

Fluttershy found herself zoning out on the spot where the couple had disappeared. She blinked herself vigilant and bit the inside of her cheek to stop herself from crying.

"Shall we go?" Discord asked. The pegasus sniffed and turned to look at him with the most convincing smile an anxious and honest pegasus like her could muster.

The next time she opened her eyes, they were in the living room. Discord pecked her on the lips then proceeded to roll round the room in the shape of a donut. Once he had done three loops he unravelled onto the floor with an unceremonious thump and a big, goofy grin on his face. Fluttershy looked at him, feeling guilty that she didn't enjoy his mirth as much as she'd like to claim she did.

"Is there anything chaotic that you're okay with? Like, really chaotic, so not just turning our house upside-down --"

Our house.

"-- or floating around in the pocket dimension I found. And preferably something we can do together, because --"

Together.

"-- I'm feeling super-duper-extra chaotic and in love with you today, how about you?!"

Fluttershy froze.

She said nothing. Discord's brow creased. "Okay, maybe that was a little bombarding, but I do want to do something. Maybe -- no, actually: maybe not. Well, not yet at least -- or are you actually okay with time travel? Because I know some points in history that you would really love, and --"

He was getting lost in his own ideas. Fluttershy took this as an opportunity to look down and wipe her eyes.

"-- your body is probably used to the feeling of chaos magic by now." He paused to take a look at her, and found she looked distracted. "Hey, what's up?" he asked softly.

Goodness, how can I not love him?! What is wrong with me?! Fluttershy gasped, and then she couldn't hold it back any longer. She flung her hooves around the neck of a stunned Discord and sobbed into his fur.

The draconequus was taken aback by his marefriend's sudden wave of sadness. Sure, she was emotional, but...surely she wasn't still appalled by the idea of chaos? They had been together for almost a year now. Still, he didn't hesitate to wrap his arms and wings around her for comfort -- but she wriggled them off, almost as if she...didn't want him to touch her.

"Fluttershy, what's wrong?" There was now distress in his voice. He pulled her back to where he could properly see her.

Her eyes glistened with more moisture than usual as she looked him in the eye. She sniffed, and gently took his paw. "Discord, I..." The words were beaten back down her throat, but she forced them up again. "I...we need to take a break. I need to take a break."

He turned away. "Th-this isn't permanent, I promise! I just need to work out my feelings for you. They're all over the place, and I don't know what's happened, but...I can't...it feels weird for someone to say we're a couple, and it feels off when I kiss you. Sleeping with you isn't as comforting as it was six months ago. I can't live with these discomforts while also organise and understand my emotions.

"I promise, I Pinkie Promise that this isn't goodbye. W-we will continue our relationship, just as soon as I've figured out what on earth is going on with me. P-please...please try to understand that this isn't something I can do while I feel this way. I'm..." She gulped. "I'm...sorry."

A perpetual second passed. Then Discord turned to ~~his marefriend~~ Fluttershy and smiled. "Sure," was all he said, and her face flooded with relief and contentment. Fluttershy hugged him tight, thanking him repeatedly as a weight slowly lifted off her. "I swear to Celestia, this isn't the end of us."

"I know," Discord said, perhaps a little too insistently, but Fluttershy didn't notice. She also probably didn't notice that she was accidentally breaking his heart by indirectly saying she didn't love him, but oh well.

Author's Note

I can't believe none of you lot called this title. I mean COME ON: you never heard the phrase 'Its all fun and games until someone gets hurt'? Ugh. Internet, I am disappoint(I'm not really but for the sake of an Author's Note I'm writing this for some reason)