Let Me Go

Chapters

Tea For Two
Tea For Now
Tea For Ever
Tea For One

Tea For Two

The mid-day sun shined brightly over the Silver Shoals retirement village. Several residents were shuffling about outside, enjoying the pleasantly warm autumn day. A last hurrah of summer before the cooler weather set in. In the courtyard, a pony was entertaining a rather irregular regular visitor.

"You're looking vivacious as ever," Discord said.

"Comes with the territory," Celestia said, sitting across from him at the patio table. "You know that." Her weak smile was somehow a strange mix of playful coyness and a knowing seriousness. It was the sort of smile that could only really be done by her. The ponies around them wore their age in the wrinkles of their face. Celestia's face was as ageless as ever, but she carried her age in that smile. The knowledge of the harsh truths of life, but the wisdom to enjoy life all the same.

"Tea?" he offered. She nodded. He lifted the kettle and poured it into her cup. She took a sip and then looked at him.

"This is the wrong cup for wine," she said, swishing the burgundy liquid in her tea cup.

"Oopsie!" He snapped his fingers and her tea cup transformed into a proper wine glass. "Unless you actually did want tea."

"Honestly, I don't care much for tea," Celestia said. She took a long sip of her wine glass. "Thank you."

"But I've seen you drink tea at literally every single function you've attended," he said.

"Quite right. In fact I've done the math. I've drank enough tea to fill the pool they have here."

"But you don't like it?" he asked.

"Fancy that. Such was the duty of a princess. Ruler of all, but a slave to protocol." Celestia's wine glass refilled itself. She gave Discord a look. "You're trying to corrupt me," she said.

"As if it were possible," he said, finishing his own glass and setting it on the table to refill itself.

"Behave," she scolded halfheartedly, drinking her wine.

"As if it were possible."

Discord's eyes scanned around the courtyard. When he had first visited, the ponies stood and stared, either in fear or curiosity. It never phased him anymore. He was used to the reception whenever he went to a new place. But now, most of the ponies there had seen him visit several times before. His physical appearance always garnered a brief second glance, but no more than a pony with a missing limb in a wheelchair.

"No Luna today?" he asked.

"She's still the night owl that she has always been," Celestia said. "It's what she enjoys."

"That's good, I suppose. You've both earned it. Now that you're retired you can live it up. She can do whatever it is she does, and you can... day drink." Her eyes narrowed at him slightly. "Hey, I'm not judging. Have fun! You only live once."

"I certainly hope so," Celestia muttered, taking another drink.

Discord didn't antagonize her. He knew it was a sore subject. While he reveled in his immortality, Celestia lamented her own far too often for his liking. He noticed the small, purple diamond charm on her bracelet and looked down at the same one on his own. He fiddled with it a bit in his claws.

"The service for Ms. Rarity was nice," Discord said. "Very tasteful. She looked beautiful. I didn't know the last dress she ever made was her own funeral gown."

"She designed it. Sandbar and Yona did most of the work. She had been sick for a while... I think she knew."

"Everypony knows," Discord said. "Foalhood is over the moment you know that it's going to happen to you. Death: inevitable, yet unexpected." Discord flicked the charm on his bracelet, sending it spinning around to the other side of his wrist, out of sight. "Ponies come and go." He motioned at the elderly ponies around them with a sweeping motion of his arm. "Everypony." He looked across the table at the alicorn sitting with him. "Well, mostly."

"No... it's everypony," Celestia said, acutely aware that immortal did not equate to invulnerable.

"Everypony and everything, all of it, all of it is temporary. In time even Canterlot Mountain will erode away into no more than a nub of dirt." He looked at the world around them. She just stared at him, watching him looking around the area. She watched his eyes intently, watching the way they focused on things farther away versus the middle distance. Or rather the way they didn't.

"Where are you?" she asked.

"Hmm?" His eyes returned to her.

"Where are you?" Celestia asked again. "Your eyes... one of them never changes. Whenever you look around I can see one of them changing. The diameter of your pupil in the light, your focus. But the other just... stares. Like your looking right through me at something else. Lost in thought. I always just thought it was part of your chaotic nature but... even when you change everything else about yourself for a bit, that eye... never changes."

"I'm just keeping an eye on things," he said.

"Things?"

"Things," he repeated with a seriousness she seldom saw from him. She waited patiently in silence. "What?" he asked in annoyance.

"I was waiting for you to continue," she said.

"Well get comfy. I won't be telling you about it any time soon."

"Well time is something that you and I have in abundance," Celestia said, "In the end, time is all you have."

"Not anymore."

Celestia saw it. It was just the tiniest glimpse, but it was there. It flashed across his face for the briefest instant that his guard broke. A glistening shimmer in his eyes before he blinked it away.

"It's her," Celestia said. "You're keeping an eye on Fluttershy. Right now."

"No," he said. "Always. Ever since-" He swallowed hard. "The first time the Elements turned me to stone, I was annoyed. The second time it happened, I was surprised. But ever since that time the changelings took Fluttershy and- and my magic couldn't save her..." He grit his teeth, trying to force back the tightness in his throat. "Just remembering it makes my heart race, and I feel like I can't breathe. I've never ever felt like this before. It- it's like-"

"It's fear," Celestia said.

"I fear nothing!" he growled.

"You fear for her," she said. "Because you care about her."

"After all these eons... I've known her for such a short time. But if anything were to happen to her-" He looked at his mismatched forelimbs, balled into trembling fists. "I would kill everyone and then myself."

"I do believe you would," Celestia said.

"Because I'm a monster!?"

"No. Because you love her," Celestia said. "And some of the worst atrocities have been in the name of love. Throughout history there have been those who would have butchered the whole world for what they loved. But of all of them, I think only you would actually be able to do it."

"Love!?" he sneered. "You ponies talk of your love. You sing of it. Tell stories about it. This beautiful wonderful thing, like it's the light of the world. If this is love, then why... Why does it hurt so much!?"

"Because it's real."

Discord's eyes darted around the courtyard at the elderly ponies. Their old bones creaked as their fragile bodies shuffled about in the fading twilight of their lives.

"All these ponies are going to die," Discord said. "Someday everypony is going to die. Everypony. Someday she-"

"Discord," Celestia put her hoof on his trembling paw. The wine in their glasses started to boil. "Discord, I know! I know that's why you had never let yourself get attached to anypony. But you have to accept it." The glasses shattered and he slapped her hoof away, standing up so quickly he toppled over the table. Steam evaporated off his cheeks from water that was definitely not tears. His eyes burned red with the intensity of the sun. Celestia didn't flinch. "Discord, someday you're going to have to be prepared to let her go."

"No."

Tea For Now

"Discord!" Fluttershy greeted cheerfully, before checking the wall clock. "You're home early."

"I- I missed you," he said.

"Oh, you're such a sweetheart! How was Celestia and Luna?" she asked as he walked inside her cottage.

"Oh, you know. Living-" Discord glanced at the portrait by the front door. It was a picture of them back when they had first become friends. It was the same picture that he had walked by every time he walked in or out of the house. He almost didn't even notice it anymore. In the glass, he saw his faint reflection. He looked exactly as he did in the photo. He looked at young Fluttershy, and then at the mare sitting in the living room. She had bags under her eyes. Her mane was frayed with streaks of silver running through it. 'When had that happened?' he wondered. He had been keeping a constant eye on her for decades, and he never saw it happen. It had been so gradual and insidious that he never saw it. "Living it up," he answered.

"Is everything okay?" she asked as she walked over to him. "You look upset." He scooped her up in his arms and hugged her.

"I'm sorry. I just missed you is all," he said, holding her tightly. His throat felt like it was closing up, like there was a rope squeezing around his neck. Minutes passed, but the feeling didn't.

"..."

"Um, Discord, can you let me go?" she asked.

Let me go

The rope around his neck pulled a little tighter.

"Yes, of course," he said, setting her down, getting his feelings firmly in check. "I guess I just missed you more than I realized. But I'm fine now. Everything is fine," he said. She seemed unsure. She seemed... old. "Everything is going to be okay."

"You-"

"I would tell you if it wasn't. I promise," he said. It was good enough for her. "Ooh, I just remembered! I got you something while I was out!" A shopping bag materialized outside. He opened the door and grabbed it.

"You didn't have to-"

"Fluttershy, I did. I really did." He gave her the bag. She opened it and looked inside, taking out the items.

"Wrinkle cream and mane dye?" she gave him a hurt look. "Discord, I never thought that you could be so shallow! Of all creatures! Do you think I ever judged you on your looks?"

"What!? No! No no no! That's not what I meant at all! I love y- your looks, your beauty! I just-"

"Just what?"

"I just... wanted to play salon."

"Salon?"

"Yes, you know, like the ponies at the spa. I just wanted to spend a day to pamper you, and give your mane some dye and help you look as young as you feel!" he said. Fluttershy sighed.

"I'm sure your intentions were in the right place. But I think I look just about exactly as old as I feel." She walked over to the couch. As she walked, she has a slight limp.

"Is something wrong with your leg?"

"It's just my knee acting up again," she said.

She had tripped going up a small set of stairs and hurt her knee, and it was taking a long time to heal. That was... gosh that was four years ago, Discord realized. Another bag materialized outside.

"Oh! Of course," Discord said. "That reminds me!" He opened the door and grabbed the new bag and brought it inside, walking over to sit beside Fluttershy. He took out the box of tea bags.

"Tea?"

"Yes! It came highly recommended by Celestia. You know how much she loooves tea!" He grinned. "She said this helps her to feel younger. It could help your knee get better."

"Well I don't know about that. But we can try it," she said.

"Now about trying that spa day?" he said, holding up the mane dye and wrinkle cream. She rolled her eyes and just smiled.

"I suppose if you really want-"

Fluttershy barely got the 't' in 'want' out before the couch transform into a barber chair and he had wrapped an apron around her.

"Great! Let's get started!" he said, snapping the custom gloves over his paw and claws. He started adding the dye to her mane and working it in as a second pair of his disembodied hands worked on where her tail was hanging under the chair. "You know, this is the same brand that Mayor Mare used." He snapped the gloves off and opened the wrinkle cream jar, gently applying some on her cheeks and on the lines at the corners of her eyes. "There we go. Now we just let that set in for a bit." He moved the hand of the clock around one lap. "There, that should do it."

"Um, that didn't seem very long," she said.

"Time flies when your having fun! Isn't that what Pinkie Pie always says?" he said as he helped her out of the chair.

"Well-"

"Now go on and shower the extra dye out while I get some of this tea going," he said, turning the chair back into her old couch.

"Well... if you really think this will help me look younger..." she humored him, stepping into her bathroom to shower off. Discord got the tea going while she bathed. The tea would do nothing to help her and he knew it perfectly well. But he knew he needed to be subtle about the changes he was about to make.

A short while later, she stepped out of the bathroom with her mane up in a towel to dry. Discord had already arranged the table with a set of tea cups and the kettle already brewed. He poured her a cup.

"There we are. A cup of this will have you feeling better in a snap!" he said, snapping his fingers for emphasis. In truth, the snap did more than the tea would.

After a week of benign tea and face cream, Fluttershy was looking and feeling wonderful. She was practically glowing with youth. She was her old young self again.

"I must say, Discord, this tea is amazing!" Fluttershy said.

"Well, I suppose if anypony knows how to stay feeling young, it would be Celestia," Discord said.

"I was thinking about visiting the cemetery today. I wanted to bring Rarity some flowers," she said.

"Something tells me that she's not going to notice," Discord said. Fluttershy didn't get angry. She knew that he simply didn't have the same understanding to grieving that other beings did.

"I suppose it's not really for her," Fluttershy. "It more for me. I miss her. It's important to me to give her some flowers to help with letting her go."

"Ah. Well if it's for you, Posies then? I know they're your favorite." He snapped his fingers, blinking a big bouquet into his paw for her.

"I was going to get her violets, since those are her favorite," Fluttershy.

"Were," he corrected. Fluttershy's smile faltered a little.

"Those were her favorite," she said.

"Violets it is then." He snapped his fingers and the posies turned into a big bunch of violets.

"I'd rather go collect them myself," Fluttershy said.

"Why?"

"It's... part of the process."

"If you insist." He snapped the bouquet out of existence. "Shall we go to the Everfree then?" he asked, offering her his elbow.

"... Actually, I think I'd like to just go myself."

"Have I done something wrong?" he asked.

"No, no. I just don't want to bore you. I know how much you hate walking."

"I don't mind walking when it's with you," he said.

"Okay. Well actually, it's just that... you've been a bit clingy these past few days and I just want a little space."

"..."

"Is that alright?" she asked.

"Yes, of course! You're a strong independent mare. Please, don't let me keep you a moment more," he said, getting the door for her.

"I promise I won't be too long," she said, trotting outside and heading to the woods for the flowers.

Discord closed the door and sat on the couch to wait. He sat, stone-still, and waited. His eyes unfocused and stared into the room, but one of them was very busy.

Keeping an eye on things.

Fluttershy trotted along the well-trodden path in the woods. She realized she was trotting, and not just walking or limping. The aches of her body were fast becoming a thing of the past as the bounce returned to her steps. And not only that, but she was able to just keep on going without huffing and puffing from the exertion. Her eyes caught movement in the trees above her. A large panther was leaping about, prowling from tree to tree. She just smiled at the animal. Brother panther was another forest friend to the mare.

The limb of an older tree creaked loudly as he landed on it. By quick reflex, he jumped off it to the next. The force of him launching himself was the last straw for the heavy limb, making it break loose. The thick branch tumbled over end, falling vertically like a massive spear down at Fluttershy. She froze and clenched her eyes.

"Fluttershy!" Discord said. "You forgot to pack a lunch."

Fluttershy looked up at her friend, floating above her, holding a brown paper bag. The jagged end of the branch, inches from her face, protruded from his chest, and the rest of it was sticking out of his back.

"Discord are you okay!?" she asked. Discord looked down at himself.

"Oh. Would you look at that. I've been impaled," he said with complete lack of concern. He grabbed the branch and pulled it sideways out of him and his torso reformed as though he were made of clay.

"Discord! You saved my life!" she said.

"Did I?" he feigned. "What a fortunate stroke of pure luck on my part."

"I'm the lucky one!" Fluttershy said, hugging him. "Lucky to have you."

"Now and forever," he said, hugging her back.

It was to no pony's surprise when Pinkie Pie had finally succumb to complications from diabetes. In the days leading up to it, they had all made their peace when they visited her in the hospital.

The wake was, predictably, a party, complete with multi-colored balloons and steamers that read 'Happy Deathday Pinkie Pie!' The music was a selection of departed's favorite songs. The festive colors and jovial melodies belied the somber tone of the gathering. It culminated in a video presentation of Pinkie Pie herself. The light's dimmed and the projector reel spooled to life. The screen flickered and there she was, Pinkie Pie, sitting in her wheelchair, looking back at the camera.

"Hey everypony. If you're watching this, it means I'm dead and you're probably pretty bummed. Hopefully the going-away party I arranged for myself will help to cheer you up. Look, I know we all loved Rarity, but that service for her was sooo boring! Cheese, I know it couldn't have been easy for you and Lil' Cheese to put it together. But I'm sure you did great!"

Cheese Sandwich hugged his son.

"Dashie, if you're still alive, I'm kinda surprised, and it means that I just lost a bet." Pinkie smiled. "But I know it's because Applejack cares about you, and probably got you to quit drinking. If she did, I hope she can make an exception for you today. Cheers!" Pinkie Pie held up a mug of apple cider and took a sip.

Rainbow Dash lifted her mug of non-alcoholic apple juice to the screen.

"Applejack, I'm confident that you're still kicking around. I've always said, 'Applejack is too stubborn to die!' You were always the strongest of us. And not just physically. Keep looking after Dashie."

"I will," Applejack said to the screen, hugging Rainbow Dash beside her.

"Twilight, I know you cancelled something more important to be here today," Pinkie Pie said.

"Nothing is more important than friendship!" Princess Twilight Sparkle said.
"Nothing is more important than friendship," Pinkie Pie said at the same time on the screen.

"Jinx!" Pinkie Pie teased. "I know that's exactly what you'll say!" Twilight just smiled and shook her head. "I'm sure Celestia and Luna and everypony are just all so proud of you!"

"We are," Celestia said, sitting beside her younger sister.

"Spike, say hi to your wife, Ember for me, and make sure to remind Twilight not to take life too seriously. You'll never get out alive!" Pinkie Pie laughed hysterically. "Ha ha! Ghost humor!"

"Heh. Good one Pinkie," the large drake said.

"Fluttershy," Pinkie Pie's voice and tone turned serious for the first time in the entire video. "I have a very important task for you. Make sure Discord doesn't bring me back. Discord, I know you meant well when you offered to resurrect Rarity for me, but we both knew that wasn't what she wanted. And it's not what I want either. I always said 'You only live once.' And I will not be made a liar!"

"Now then, I know you've probably all been chatting it up with each other catching up and talking about how much you miss me. But I know there's one there that has been unusually quiet. So I'd like to end this video by passing things off to him to say a few words on my behalf. Let's all give a hoof to my friend Discord!" Pinkie Pie lifted her other hoof. Or rather, the stump of where her hoof had been amputated due to her advanced diabetes. "Oops! Looks like I already did! Hehe!" The video ended and the screen went black.

Everypony in attendance turned around and looked at the Draconequus sitting silently in the back of the room.

"I'd rather not," he said. Fluttershy tugged at his arm and whispered.

"Pinkie Pie asked you to. Please? For me?"

Discord begrudgingly stood up from his seat and walked with Fluttershy up to the podium at the front of the room. For a long minute he just stood there and stared at everypony.

"Funerals are stupid!" he said bluntly. "Do you think a dead pony even knows if we are here? Do they even care? It's a waste of time!"

"Discord!" Fluttershy whispered angrily beside him. "Nopony likes funerals. Can you just- can you just say something nice about Pinkie Pie! And then you can leave if you want." Discord sighed and set his jaw.

"Pinkie Pie..." he started over again, but then paused, picking his next words carefully. "Before Fluttershy became my friend, and took the time to understand me best, I think Pinkie Pie was the pony that understood me first. She was the only one that ever appreciated my chocolate rain. And the only mortal I've ever know to never take life seriously." He looked over at the body of the mare laying motionless in the casket. Her fur was a dull, pale pink. Her mane had long gone completely grey.

"And now she's dead..." He lifted his fingers to snap them. Fluttershy put her hoof on his elbow and shook her head. "Forever, apparently... And that sucks."

Discord knocked over the microphone and the podium with it, making a loud crash and a screech of feedback over the speakers. Then he walked out without another word.

To say that 'Rainbow Dash didn't take Applejack's passing well', was the understatement of the year. To wake up beside her spouse having passed in her sleep was hard enough. But the worst was at the service when her final wishes were read.

Leave my father's hat with my nephew. Scatter my ashes around my orchard so that I might be with my beloved apple trees. Leave no marker for me. Leave no grave. If I have lived rightly, I should need no memorial to be remembered.

Rainbow Dash was inconsolable. It was a prompt end of her sobriety. By the end of the service, she was violently drunk.

"I'll give 'em somethin' t'meber her by!" she slurred. "Sunic Reen...Bum!"

The last successful Sonic Rainboom for the venerable mare was decades ago. She ran for the door. Spike tried to stop her, but she broke his jaw, and likely every bone in her hoof, when she socked him for blocking her path. She took off into the sky, screaming incoherently as she flew as high as she could, until the air was simply too thin for her wings to grasp. And then she turned and flew straight back down.

The official report ruled her death as a 'flight accident' when she failed to pull out of the dive. But whether it was an accident or not would never be known. Or talked about.

But sure enough... Rainbow Dash did one last Sonic Rainboom for Applejack.

Rainbow Dash's closed casket, (and what parts they could recover of her) was given a Wonderbolt burial with full honors. Scootaloo, Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy and Discord stood on one side of it. Celestia, Luna, and everypony else stood on the side as it was lowered. Celestia looked at Fluttershy. For a mare that was nearly eighty, she didn't look a day over twenty nine. Celestia's eyes shifted to Discord. She looked at him. He looked right back at her.
She knew.
He knew she knew.
She knew he knew she knew.

He looked at Fluttershy beside him. She was looking at the casket sitting in the bottom of the grave.

"I could bring her back, you know," Discord said.

"If it was her time, it was her time," Fluttershy said.

"But if it was an accident, maybe it was before her time," he said.

"No."

"But maybe-"

"Do you think Dash would want to go on living without Applejack!? She wouldn't want that."

"I... could bring her back too," Discord said.

"Applejack definitely wouldn't want that," Spike muttered through his jaw brace. "She'd probably kick the snot outta ya."

"You're all just so ready to just give up?" Discord asked. "Don't you care?"

"Of course we care," Fluttershy said.

"But ponies aren't meant to live forever," Twilight said beneath her breath, and her waving mane. She looked beside her at her friend, Fluttershy. She knew it was only a matter of time.

It began to rain as the dirt was filled in over the grave. The sky rumbled and the other ponies dispersed until only Fluttershy remained. Her mane started to tingle and stand on end. The cloud flashed, and a stream of concentrated electrons shot down through the air at nearly the speed of light to the one high point in the whole cemetery, the yellow pegasus standing beside Rainbow Dash's headstone.

In a fraction of an instant, an umbrella appeared above her. The lightning struck it, and traveled down the metal handle and into Discord's arm, his body absorbing the fatal strike. The deafening boom of thunder scared the daylights out of the poor mare, but she was otherwise unharmed.

"I thought you might want an umbrella," Discord said.

He was happy to hold it for her to keep her dry.

To keep an eye on her.

"Happy Birthday, Fluttershy!" Twilight said, presenting the cake at the monthly Council of Friendship. But now it was just Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy and Discord. There was another Ogres & Oubliettes convention that weekend, but Discord wouldn't miss her birthday for the world.

"I can't believe it..." Spike did the math in his head.

"I know. A hundred and twenty two." Fluttershy said. "Healthy living."

"No I mean I literally can't believe it," Spike said. "You don't look it at all. You barely look thirty!"

"Oh, you flatter me," Fluttershy said.

"Fluttershy, you don't have a single grey hair or wrinkle. Look at me, I've grown. Even Twilight has. But you look like you haven't changed a bit since the coronation!"

"Oh it's just a bit of wrinkle creme and mane dye," Fluttershy said. "I still feel-" Fluttershy stopped mid sentence. She realized that she didn't feel old at all. In fact, she felt great. She couldn't even remember the last time she had so much a cold. Granny Smith died when she was eight five, and by then she looked like a shambling corpse. Creme, dye, and herbal tea aside, there was no way she should feel this good.

Fluttershy looked at Twilight.

Twilight looked at Discord.

Fluttershy and Spike followed Twilight's eyes.

"Discord?" Fluttershy asked.

Discord just stood there, nibbling on his slice of birthday cake. "Hmm?"

"Is this you?" she asked. "Is this your doing?"

"Is what my doing?" he asked.

"Don't play dumb! Answer me! Is this your doing?"

"I have no idea what you're-"

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Fluttershy shouted. Her voice boomed and echoed off the stone walls of the throne room. Even Discord was taken aback, dropping his fork. The metal utensil clattered on the marble floor.

"..."

"Alright Fluttershy. I won't lie to you," he said.

"..."

"Answer me! Have you been keeping me young!?" she demanded.

"I... may have been keeping you from getting old," he said.

"That's the same thing! Why would you do that!?"

"Are you... angry!?" he asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yes! Did you keep me around just for me to watch all of my friends die?" she asked.

"Don't be so crass!" he scoffed. "Such ingratitude! After all the times I save your life!"

"All the-" Fluttershy dug through her memories. All the close calls, the narrow escapes, the near death experiences. "You were- the lightning at Rainbow's funeral! The tree falling in the Everfree! The assassination of Cadance when I was hugging her! You weren't blocking the arrow to try to save her! You were saving me!"

"Guilty."

"The zeppelin crash! You saved me but you let Celestia and Luna-"

"They had wings and horns!" he interrupted. "I assumed they could save themselves or teleport out of there! Look, I could bring them back if you want!" he offered.

"That's not the point! You don't get to pick and choose who you-" she yelled.

"I could bring them all back, if that would make you happy," he said.

"No!"

"Look, I honestly don't understand what it is that I've done wrong," he said. "I've been nothing but an angel! A guardian angel. For you!" he said growing increasingly agitated with her. His vision started to become blurry.

"Who decided you needed to be my guardian angel!?"

"YOU DID!" he yelled. The water to keep his eyeballs wet started to become excessive, overflowing out of the corners and running down his cheeks. The new sensation was most peculiar to him. But try as he might, he couldn't stop it. "You did! When you befriended me! When I cared about you! When I finally cared about someone besides myself!"

"Was Rarity not your friend? Pinkie Pie? Applejack or Rainbow? Celestia, Luna, Cadance? Were they not your friends?" she asked.

"Of course they were!" he snapped. "You think I don't miss them!? You think I don't want to bring them all back!?"

"Then why haven't you?" she asked.

"Because," he said simply, "you asked me not to."

"You saved me, but not them? Why? What makes me so special?" she asked.

"Because-" The words caught in his throat. It had been tumbling over and about in his stomach for years like a hairball desperate to come up. "Because I LOVE you!" he shouted.

Fluttershy was speechless. Twilight and Spike looked on in complete lack of surprise at the revelation. It had been plainly obvious to everyone in the world except the two that mattered.

"There! It took me a century to admit it. But I said it!" Discord said.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" she asked.

Because you were afraid to, Celestia's words haunted him from beyond the grave.

"Fluttershy, I have existed for more time than they even have a number for," Discord said. "And in all those years I have never met anyone that made me care about someone besides myself, more than myself! Until you. Every day is a choose-your-own-adventure game of you making choices. But in the game of life, no matter how long you play it, there is only ever the bad end. Even for somepony like Celestia. But the difference is I didn't love her. Not like I love you. And I-"

Discord struggled with the words. It wasn't as hard to admit as loving her. But it was a struggle none the less.

"And I'm scared," he said. "The thought of losing you terrifies me like nothing else in this world. To go on continuing to exist forever without you-" He paused. "So that's why I've been keeping an eye on you. Watching over you. Anticipating anything that might happen to you. Every day I see so many things that could hurt you. But I never wanted one of them be me. I'm... sorry that you found out like this."

"Discord, ponies aren't meant to live forever," Twilight said. "Even Celestia understood that. Whether it's a thousand years, or less than a day, we, all of us, get the same thing: A lifetime. There was a reason why Celestia never developed romantic attachments, and why I probably won't either."

"Don't you lecture me on immortality!" Discord spat.

"But it was because I can't- and not even Celestia could keep a pony alive forever. Even if she helped me become an alicorn, I know that one day the hoof of fate will bring about my end. Maybe not tomorrow, or for a thousand years. But one day. And in all that time I will have to let the ones I love go. And so do you," she said. Discord wasn't having it.

"Discord," Fluttershy's soft voice cut in. "Pinkie Pie's grandfoals are already middle-aged. I don't want to spend the rest of my life going to everypony's funerals."

"Then let's not go!" Discord said. "I've been saying that right along!"

"I can't just stop caring about everypony," she said. "I can't just turn that part of me off."

"Well... neither can I," he said, taking her hoof.

"Discord, you have to let me go," she said.

"..."

"No."

Tea For Ever

Time marched steadily on as it always does.

All things change.

Pinkie Pie's grandfoals passed. Her great great grandcolt died without a foal of his own. His sisters took on the names of their husbands. The last of the Pie name passed out of the living history. Pumpkin Cake's grandfilly didn't not have the love of baking her ancestors had. Sugarcube Corner's land was sold to a development company and turned into a strip mall.

Rarity For You Inc., the last of Rarity's legacy, folded and was rolled into the conglomerate that bought the boutique chain.

The Apple family held out the longest as a cohesive unit for generations until the combination of a drought and a wildfire left the orchard with little more than ashes. The remaining Apple clan moved to Manehatten and founded a company to develop technology for communicating long distances via electrical signals through wires.

Much of old Ponyville, including the town hall, was destroyed by a rogue tornado. The old construction was replaced with modern materials and designs, changing the entire appearance of the town. Only one thing was left untouched: The small cottage near the edge of the Everfree Forest.

Decades turned to centuries. Technology accelerated. Motorized carriages became commonplace. Airship travel made the world smaller every year. The entire continent was connected under the rule of the two alicorns: Princess Twilight Sparkle of southern Equestria, and Princess Flurry Heart of the northern Crystal Empire.

The two leaders met often, keeping up on the events of the world, and each other's lives. Their regular meetings were rolled into the Council of Friendship, along with Spike, and The Hornless Alicorn, as some called her, or The Immortal Pegasus, or The Witch of the Everfree. But she preferred just 'Fluttershy'.

They gathered in the castle courtyard. It was cold in the mid-winter, but it was the only way to allow space for Spike, who was now the size of a small house.

"The snow has made keeping the northern train tracks open a real chore," Flurry Heart said. "It'll take a miracle to get them clear before the spring. But the Empire can manage on its own for a few months."

"Speaking of miracles," Spike said, "Any news on Discord?"

"Oh, I haven't spoken to him in years," Fluttershy said, looking just as young and vibrant as the other two alicorns, despite also being several hundred years old.

"When was the last time you saw him?" Twilight asked.

"It was a couple years ago when I was visiting Manehattan..."

Fluttershy stepped out of what had used to be Rarity For You. It was a cafe now. She didn't care for the coffee they served, but she always made a point to stop there whenever she was in the city. She stood on the street corner, waiting for a taxi. The din of horseshoes on cobblestone had been replaced with the droning of carriage engines. The perpetual smell of exhaust hung in the air of the city streets. Most of the citizens never noticed it anymore. But Fluttershy could never get used to it. Perhaps it was what made the coffee taste bad.

Fluttershy turned to the pop of what sounded like a firecracker. The tire of a carriage popped as it was driving down the road. The screech of rubber skidding on road filled her ears as the carriage lost control and careened towards her. The bright headlights blinded her, and she froze in terror.

The vehicle made a deafening crash as it slammed to a dead stop, as though striking the trunk of a tree made of solid steel. The windshield looked like a spider's web from where the driver's head had struck it. He laid still against the steering wheel.

Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked at the front of the car, folded in on itself like a taco around where Discord stood, calm as a cucumber, between her and the smoking wreck. He looked down at her with the same sad eyes he always had whenever they met like this.

Fluttershy didn't say 'thank you' anymore. She just glared at him. There was nothing left for her to say to him. There were no more angry words or attempts to reason with him.

He didn't say 'I'm sorry' anymore either. They both knew he didn't mean it.

She just stared at him and waited. After a long minute, he snapped his fingers and vanished off to... wherever he went while he 'kept an eye on her', and waited to rescue her again.

Another note in her death journal.

"How many times is that now?" Twilight asked.

"Fourteen," Fluttershy answered. "That I know of."

"You should try talking to him again," Flurry said.

"He's not going to change his mind," Fluttershy said. "You know how stubborn he is. Everything else changes, but he never changes." Fluttershy looked exasperated. "Every day I go out into the world. And I don't recognize any of it besides my cottage. Even this castle was rebuilt after the real Grogar returned. It's like a dream that I can't wake up from. Oh- speaking of dreams!" Fluttershy lit up for a moment. "I had a dream about Pinkie Pie, and Sugarcube Corner the other night! I swear I could smell the cakes! Do you remember what Sugarcube Corner used to smell like?"

"I do," Spike said. "A dragon's nose never forgets. There's nothing else in the world that ever smelled like Sugarcube Corner baking in the morning."

"Do you remember, Twilight?" Fluttershy asked. A single tear rolled down Twilight's cheek.

"I'm afraid I can not recall the smell of Sugarcube Corner, Fluttershy," she said. "It has been so, so long."

A funeral for a dragon was a rare thing. Even more so for a hero of Equestria. The service for Spike, the Brave and Glorious drew in mourners from every corner of the known world to the dragon lands. The drake died at the tender young age of nine hundred and two, survived by his wife, Dragon Lord Ember and their many heirs. To die such an ignoble death for a dragon, something as simple as Scale Rot left untreated. Ember would go on to say that he had really died of stubbornness.

The dead dragon king laid upon an obsidian slab, poised to be slid into the burial volcano.

After two days of calling hours, Twilight, Flurry and Fluttershy watched as the last of the mourners came and went. Despite being listed among those Spike still called his friends, Discord was not among them. Ember bid the visiting ponies a final farewell before tending to the final ceremony for her husband.

Before his sons pushed him into the lava, Spike received one last visitor.

They hadn't played Ogres & Oubliettes since Big Macintosh had died centuries ago. But Discord had held onto the campaign book and all the notes. He set the tiny book in the crook of the massive dragon's arm, and left the twenty-sided die in his claws. It burned along with the rest of his body as it slid beneath the magma.

"Sorry, Garbuckle," Discord said. "We never did defeat the Squizzard and save Shmarity."

Almost everypony underestimated Spike's role as an ambassador and adviser to the princess. Everypony except Twilight, herself. She knew better than anypony else just how much he did. But she kept up his good work with foreign relations. She would never have suspected that the greatest threat to Equestria would come from within.

Fluttershy received an urgent summons to come to Canterlot. When she arrived, the castle was already on high alert. Ponies ran in every direction. Twilight was at the center of it, directing them until her eyes fell on Fluttershy. She ran over to her and ushered her along with herself.

"Twilight, where are we going!?"

"The dungeon!"

"What!?"

"It's- It's not the dungeon anymore it's just a cellar. We just need to get underground!"

"What's going on?"

"Equestria's under attack! A cell of terrorist unicorns have started detonating Mega-Spells!" Twilight turned to one of her aids. "Where is Princess Flurry!?"

"We don't-"

"Detonation!" another shouted over the crowd. The others went quiet. "We just got a report of a detonation in the Frozen North! Princess Flurry- the Empire it's... it's just gone!" Twilight didn't even have time to cry. Her security guards unceremoniously shoved her along, pushing her towards the way to the cellar, along with Fluttershy.

The cellar was cramped and poorly lit. What had once been prison cells had been turned into storage space. One in particular was lined with shelves of bottles. Twilight led Fluttershy into the small room of wine where they hunkered down.

"Mega Spells?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight nodded. "What is that?" Twilight looked at her, and then just stared off into nothing.

"The folly of ponykind," Twilight said. "A storage vessel of pure magical energy, released all at once."

"What does the spell do?" she asked. Twilight just shook her head.

"It's not even a spell. It's just raw, unfocused magical energy. Magical capacitors have always been a part of practical magical applications. To help a caster put extra energy into a spell's power. But the bigger they are, the more dangerous they are."

"Why?"

"Magical energy is just like any other energy. Too much in one place, when released... it transfers that energy into the matter around it. The ground, the air, and ponies. Make one big enough and fill it with enough energy, then you could destroy an entire city. Of course nopony was ever crazy enough to do it. Until now." Tears ran down Twilights cheek as she thought about the loss of the Empire, and Flurry.

"Is this the end?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight hadn't the heart to disrespect her friend by humoring her this time.

"I think so." Twilight leaned her head back against the rack, bumping against one of the bottles.

She turned and looked at it, taking it off the shelf with her magic. She grabbed a couple of glasses out of one of the ration kits. The label on the bottle was worn and dull with the passage of time. But Fluttershy could just barely make out the name.

"Sweet Apple Acres?" Fluttershy asked. Twilight nodded.

"The last batch of cider that was bottled by Applejack herself," Twilight said. "I was saving it for your..." she trailed off. "For when Discord 'changed his mind'. I was going to have a drink of it then." She and Fluttershy looked at the huddled masses of ponies in the makeshift shelter.

"I suppose we'd better have it now," Fluttershy said, taking one of the glasses. Twilight pulled the cork out of the bottle and smelled it.

"It has aged wonderfully," she said.

"Then it suits us," Fluttershy said. Twilight poured the cider into Fluttershy's glass and then her own. She set the bottle down and lifted her glass to hers. Twilight didn't know what to toast to. It didn't matter much to either of them in that moment.

"To-"

In a flash, everything went white, like a camera had gone off, but it was just bright and it stayed that way. It was blinding bright yet Fluttershy could still see. The cider in Fluttershy's glass flash-boiled and then the glass itself melted right out of her hooves. The last thing she saw was Twilight sitting in front of her glowing iridescent bright before she, herself, evaporated into dust.

And then the blast wave hit. Everything that was on fire around her was instantly propelled sideways as supersonic winds rushed past her. Molten pieces of the castle careened off the invisible barrier surrounding her as the entire structure was swept clean off the face of the mountain until nothing but the sheer bedrock slab of the mountainside was left, glowing red hot under her hooves. And yet she was left unharmed. Everything, the entire city of Canterlot, everything was just gone, swept up along with the rest of the ash into a billowing mushroom cloud rising up into the upper atmosphere. Nothing remained but the small, yellow pegasus.

Another blast came from the valley floor as Ponyville was swept away in a similar fashion. Fluttershy saw the entirety of the devastation from what used to be Canterlot. She flew down towards the devastation after the second ball of fire drifted upwards into the sky.

Ponyville was nothing but a blackened crater. The entire Everfree Forrest was utterly devastated, leveled down to the stumps. What few tree trunks survived were in flames. Amid all the burning embers and black ash, there was a single, solitary dot of green.

Her cottage stood alone, completely unscathed amid the carnage. Fluttershy flew down to her front door and opened it. It was unlocked.

Inside, Discord sat on her couch, clearly waiting for her.

"Did you do this!?" she yelled.

"I protected you and the cottage, yes," he replied.

"Did you destroy Equestria!?" she screamed through her tears.

"Of course not!" Discord scoffed. "Fanatical unicorns did. If it's of any comfort to you, they all died when they detonated their bombs."

"It's not!"

"Pity. Tea?" he offered.

"Tea?" she asked incredulously. "TEA!? It's the end of the world and your response is TEA!?"

"No, you're right. This really is more of a whiskey occasion," he said, snapping his fingers to bring a bottle of liquor into existence."

"Are we all that's left?" she asked.

"No no no!" Discord chided, pouring a glass. "Including you, there are..." one of his eyes spun around as he scanned the whole world. "... eleven hundred thirty five ponies left," he said.

"We need to gather-"

"Nine hundred fifty one have sever injuries and will be leaving us shortly. Seventy eight have internal bleeding and won't make it through the night. Another one hundred and four have already gotten a lethal dose of magical radiation and will be dead within two days." Fluttershy did the math quickly.

"That still leaves one other pony!"

"Sorry. He died while I was talking."

"So we're the only ones left?" she asked again.

"In a few days, yes," he replied.

"What... what do we do now!?" she asked.

"Pssh," He scoffed. "You think this is the first apocalypse I've ever seen? All you ponies did was wipe out society. Which is, by the way, overrated if you ask me."

"Did you know this was going to happen!?" she asked.

"Exactly this? In this way, at this time? No. But the end is inevitable for all things, Fluttershy. Of all the uncertainty of reality, that is the only truth I know." It was of no comfort to the mare. "Besides, look on the bright side, Fluttershy! This will give the world a break, and let the animals take over for a few million years. All we have to do is sit tight and see who rises up to become the next dominant species of the planet!" Discord said excitedly. He bumped her with his elbow. "Between you and me, I have my eyes on those primates."

"A few million years?" she asked.

"Oh, I know it sounds like a lot right now. But trust me. Just hang out with me and it'll fly right by before you know it. And then when the next species rises up, they'll look to you, their immortal, invincible leader! You'll get to be the ruler of the world!"

"What, at all, makes you think that I would want that!?" she asked.

He shrugged.

"Nothing. I suppose I'm just projecting a bit." Fluttershy started crying. "Oh, come on, don't be like that!" he said. There was a knock at the door. "Let's see who that could be!" Discord opened the door. Outside was another copy of Discord holding a pizza. "Ah, delivery!" Discord said.

"Be careful with that," The other Discord said. "You might want to give it a minute to cool down. It's a few million degrees out here." Discord closed the door and opened the pizza box. The pizza was already the perfect temperature, and her favorite toppings. It made no difference. Fluttershy was openly sobbing.

"I watched Twilight evaporate right in front of my eyes!" she cried.

"Oof. Okay, well, yeah, that's certainly not ideal. If it makes any difference, you being alive had nothing to do with any of this. The world is only better for you being in it!"

"Why would you do this to me! I never wanted to see any of this!"

"You got to hang out with Twilight her whole life! That counts for something, doesn't it?"

"I don't want to go on like this! I miss my friends!"

"I can bring them right back!" he said. He snapped his fingers. The table with the pizza was surrounded by her old friends, just as they looked when they all first met.

"Pizza party!"

"Fabulous, darling!"

"Gotta go fast!"

"Apples!"

"Books!"

Fluttershy covered her eyes and screamed.

"Stop it STOP IT! Get rid of them! Those aren't my friends!"

Another snap of his fingers and they were gone.

"Discord! Please! Let me go! This isn't a world I want to live in anymore!"

"Fluttershy, you know I can't do that."

"Why!?"

"Because I love you."

"If you loved me, you'd let me go!"

"No."

"Then you really are a monster! I don't ever want to talk to you again! Get out!" she yelled. With a snap he disappeared.

Whenever Fluttershy opened her fridge, there was always fresh food. Whenever she turned on her tap, there was good, clean drinking water. Whenever she turned on her light, there was power. She wanted for nothing. Naught but the sweet release of death.

So she stopped eating. But she never hungered. She stopped drinking. She'd never thirst. She tie her leg to a boulder and throw it into a lake, but she never needed to draw breath. She bound her wings and tossed herself from a cliff and fall onto a giant pillow. Long she walked the the surface of the world, the whole of reality was her prison.

Day unto day, unto week, month and year. Decades, centuries and millennia. What ruins there were left of the cities eroded into ash and dust. Over the eons the winds and rain wore down Canterlot mountain into little more than a molehill. The surf of the seas beat upon the shores, reshaping the coast into unrecognizable shapes.

The sun in the sky slowly grew dimmer, and the world became colder. The sun burned out until it was little more than another star in the sky of eternal night. The world was a cold, dead rock, devoid of any life.

Except for one, single, doomed soul.

"Discord," Fluttershy said. The sound of her own voice startled her. She hadn't heard it in countless years. "I'm ready to talk now."

Tea For One

Discord appeared before her.

"Yes, my love?" he said.

"I give up," Fluttershy said. "I want so much to just die. But I give up."

"You want to die and leave me alone to this?" he asked, motioning to the frozen wasteland of a dead planet around them.

"I get it. I understand. I wouldn't want to be left alone to this fate forever either. This is... this is worse than hell," she said. "So... whatever it is you want to do to me, go ahead. It can't be any worse than what you've already done."

"You really feel that way?" he asked. "Fluttershy, everything I have done for you, I have done because I love you!"

"No. You did it so you didn't have to be alone in... this. I get it. But if you love me, if you really loved me, you would spare me of this living nightmare," she said.

"What would I do without you?"

"I don't know," Fluttershy said. "I've spent millions of years trying to end my life, knowing that it's impossible. I know you don't want to go on alone either, but... I don't know. I just want so much to not exist anymore. Please," she cried. "Please, I'm begging you. Please just let me go!"

A flash of light and something appeared in Discord's claws. A tiny bottle. He looked at it, and he looked at the pony weeping in front of him.

"I'm so sorry," he said. He extended his arm to her. She looked at the small bottle in his hooves. She wiped her eyes and looked at it.

"What is it?" she asked.

"It's a potion."

"What will it do?"

"It will put you to sleep," he said. With a snap of his fingers, a beautiful bed appeared beside them in the middle of the desolate wasteland. Fluttershy felt a chill run through her as he released her from his protective enchantments. "You'll fall asleep and you'll never wake up."

He snapped his fingers and a tea set appeared. He poured them each a cup and set the small bottle on her side of the tray. She opened the bottle and poured it into her cup. She looked at it and then back at him.

"Heh. I'm actually kind of scared."

"Me too."

"Discord, when I fall asleep, will I dream?"

"I don't know," he said.

"Will I go to heaven?"

"I don't know."

"Will I meet everypony in the afterlife?"

"I don't know about any of that, Fluttershy!"

"You don't seem to know much," she said with a weak smirk.

"I know that I love you, Fluttershy," he said.

"I know."

"Do you... love me?" he asked in a trembling voice.

"Is that what you want me to say?" She asked. "Would it be of comfort to you?"

"If it's true."

She looked away for a moment. "I did... once, long ago..."

But not anymore. She didn't say it. She didn't have to. He knew it plainly well. How could she not, after everything he had done for her? He thought. How could she, after everything he had done to her? He knew.

"I'm sorry." Fluttershy drank her cup and crawled into the bed. He knelt beside her and tucked her in. She looked up at him and smiled. He looked down at her and cried. "Discord," she whispered, feeling her eyelids getting heavy. He leaned closer. "Thank you." She kissed him on the cheek and closed her eyes for the last time. A few moments later her chest stopped moving. And she was gone.

Discord snapped his fingers and Fluttershy appeared beside him.

"Discord, I love you and you were right and I love you and I'm glad you kept me around forever and I love you!" she said.

"You're not Fluttershy." He snapped his fingers and tried again.

"I love you and I'm shy and yellow and I love you."

He snapped his fingers and tried again.

"I love you."

He got up and walked away from Fluttershy's body, laying there in the bed. Her dozens of copies followed him.

"I love you."

"YOU'RE NOT FLUTTERSHY!" He yelled, snapping and making them all vanish. He snapped his fingers again. A tall, white Alicorn appeared.

"You deserve this," Celestia's voice said.

"Hmf. That actually does sound like something she'd say," Discord said, making her vanish as well. He walked back over to where Fluttershy laid. He understood now. He understood why she wanted this. Everypony she had ever loved was dead. And now he felt the same way. He simply wanted to no longer be.

He carefully aligned her bed with the head of it pointing exactly north. He cleaned up the ground around it, clearing it of twigs and pebbles. He materialized a steamroller and pressed the land flat and level. He worked his way outward, grading the land. He started building. It was just a house at first, but it grew and grew larger into a mausoleum. Everything was perfectly flat and square, precisely aligned and flush with each other part of it. Each addition of it was a perfect factor of ten larger. Each perfect part was perfectly perfect. And there at the center of it was his dear Fluttershy. Once he thought it would be enough, he returned to her at the center and sat in a perfectly perfect chair. He placed his paw on her hoof and remained perfectly still. Perfectly orderly.

The absolute antithesis of chaos.

After a a few minutes he looked down at his paw. It was slowly fading. He could see her hoof through it. He was slowly fading out of existence. He didn't know what would happen next. If there was an afterlife or not, or if Fluttershy would be there. He didn't know for sure. Not really. All he knew was that she wasn't here. And here was no place he wanted to be without her. He knew that for sure. That and he loved her. And she loved him. She did, once. That was enough to make him happy for a moment.

His smile was the last part of him to disappear.