How'd She Do It?

by BrilliantCreativity

Rating: teen
Tags: Discord, Slice of Life, Sad, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Filthy Rich, Other, Romance, Fluttershy
Length: 4801

Fluttershy has been noticed by the public for reforming the Lord of Chaos.

Fluttershy, feeling proud of herself for reforming the Lord of Chaos, is caught up in a web of questions and piles of confusion as Discord distances himself and Filthy Rich pries into Fluttershy's personal life.
Feeling the stress, the Element of Kindness searches for a way to escape the publicity and make things right with Discord. Is it too much or will Kindness prevail?
Note: I do not own the Cover Image!

Published 2018-04-01 18:20:12 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-07 06:32:03 UTC

Sentiment

Fluttershy was walking back towards her cottage, recalling the recent events that had taken place. Earlier that day she had been assigned to reform the Lord of Chaos himself and, at first, was very worried. How could she, Fluttershy, reform the Lord of Chaos? She hadn't had the slightest idea, but she was the Element of Kindness, this should've been easy. Right? Princess Celestia seemed to think she was fully capable and for that, Fluttershy did her best. There was a few minor bumps in the road, eating spells on paper, turning her cottage upside down, a dinner party that practically attacked the guests, flooding at Sweet Apple Acres and then turning it into an Icy Wonderland but she did it.

Soon after, Discord left with Celestia to talk about how he can use his magic for good. But before he had left he whispered something in Fluttershy's ear.

"If Celestia goes on about politics for too long, I'll need you to distract her with your 'stare' so I can make a break for it." That had made Fluttershy stifle a giggle, in that moment it was like Discord was just a casual and funny
guy/Draconequus who had never had anything to do with taking over Equestria. He wasn't a villain and he wasn't a bad guy, he was just a creature who had been misunderstood and never been shown kindness. Until now. Fluttershy managed to get through to him and melt part of the stone around his heart, managed to shine a light through his dark vision on the world and managed to give him something he never thought he could have, a friend.

Fluttershy was proud of herself, she may have helped save Equestria a few times but for her, this was big. This was something she had done all on her own, by following her own instincts, gut and judgement.

A smiled had spread across her face as she trotted down the dirt path. The sun was starting to set but she didn't seem to mind, she had high spirits. The Everfree was to her right, the trees were peaking over and almost looked looming. Usually the sight of the forest would frighten her but...that didn't happen this time. She could only look at it as a forrest, see it as it is. She found no reason to hide or cower. She found these sudden observations strange but didn't give it much thought.

She started humming a song by Pony Simpson, La Da Dee, until she came to the bridge that went over her small stream. She could see Angel Bunny in the window staring at her whilst holding up an empty food bowl. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at his attitude. Despite his nagging, she kept the same pace while seemingly smiling at the ground.

Angel Bunny was confused at this reaction to him being his usual annoying and demanding self. Usually whenever he was hungry, she would rush around the house to get him food...but today was strangely different. He started rapidly stomping his foot on the counter. He then heard the door latch, click. He faced the butter cream pegasus that stepped through, looking pleased and very serene with herself. This just annoyed the bunny.

He charged towards her and slammed the empty bowl in front of her, murmuring a bunch of noises that nopony, except Fluttershy, could understand.
"Oh, sorry Angel. Just a second," she said, reaching down and picking up the bowl with her mouth. She carried it towards the the kitchen and placed it on a counter. She put her hoof on the counter top and stretched to open a cupboard that held rabbit food. She brought it down and poured the contents into Angel's food bowl.

She carried it to the floor and placed it in front of Angel.
"There you go. All settled," she said. Angel examined what had been laid before him and, immediately after, shoved the bowl to the side. His actions were followed by some angry squeaks.
"Angel, you need to eat your food."

"*squeak *twitch."

"No, it's either this or nothing." The rabbit slammed his fist onto the floor in anger which was also followed by some more squeaks and twitches.
"Angel, either eat it or not. I'm going upstairs to have a bath. If you finish all your food by the time I'm done, you can have some carrots or lettuce. It's up to you," she finished and then headed up the stairs towards her bathroom.

Angel Bunny was stunned, Fluttershy never said 'no' to him. She always gave him whatever he wanted to eat. For her to act like that was highly unusual.

Fluttershy turned the knob to turn on the hot water, it didn't take long for the room to be clouded in steam. When the tub was filled to Fluttershy's liking, she slowly climbed in and sank in with a sigh of relief. So much had happened that day and it felt nice to just sit back and relax.
"I reformed the Lord of Chaos and Disharmony," she whispered. "Me...I Fluttershy the weakest pegasus in all of Equestria...reformed Discord."

"I did it!" she jumped while raising her voice.

"I Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, reformed, Discord, the Lord of Chaos and Disharmony!" she practically yelled, in her own sheepish voice. She sighed and quieted back down.
"And I did it on my own," she whispered.

"Well, I don't know about that," said another deep but familiar voice. Fluttershy squeaked and, for some reason, ducked under water so that only above her muzzle was showing to try and hide her 'naked' body. Even though ponies walk around naked all the time.

"W...who said that? Who...who's there?" she waited a while for a response, but when she got none she slowly started to raise her head out of the water.
"M...maybe it was just my imagination," she said quietly but aloud.

"Oh, I doubt that. Because if that were the case, you would have a very creative imagination my dear," said an invisible voice. Fluttershy's eyes widened.

"D...dis. Ahhh!" she leaped back into the water as a familiar draconequus swung from the ceiling and met her eyes, upside down and face to face. It took her a while to recollect what just happened. Discord swung down from the ceiling and floated down to her floor. He took a bow a swayed both of his arms to one side.
"Good evening my dear, so sorry to interrupt your zenlike bath time but I do believe I heard my name being summoned."

Fluttershy shook her head to come back to reality, in time to hear what he had said. Her cheeks started to turn a light red.
"Oh, I...umm. I didn't call your name o...or anything. I...in fact I'm not too sure what you mean, heh," she said, not meeting his gaze as she 'casually' stroked the back of her mane.
"Ah, huh. Well, it's a good thing you're not the Element of Honesty because I can't see that going too well for you. Because honestly you suck at lying," he smirked while raising one of his fluffy eyebrows.
"Soo, why were you saying my name?" he asked casually as he leaned in towards her with his mismatched hands behind his back. Fluttershy tried to go to the very back of the tub, which wasn't very far. She tried to cover up the top half of her body with her hooves but that only caused Discord more curiosity.
"Umm, may I ask exactly what you're doing?"

"Well, umm you see...you're kind of in my...my bathroom...with me, while I...I'm having a bath..." she stuttered, hoping he'd understand what she was trying to say.

"Uhh, yeah." He looked her up and down, trying to figure out exactly what she meant. "Oh, are you...ha ha ha...are you weirded out because you're naked in a bath or something?" he took the red expression on her face as a yes. "Seriously? Don't you ponies walk around naked, I mean the only difference is from when I've seen you before is that you're in water. Besides, you called me here, I mean, personally, I should be the one whose weirded out right now."

"I...I I didn't mean to call you. I'm so sorry, you were probably ver...very busy. You...you can return to whatever it was that I...I called you from," she said nervously.

"So you admit to saying my name? May I ask exactly why?" he inquired further. Her face was crimson from embarrassment. Why wouldn't he just give up?

"I was just...*sigh...talking to myself," she breathed with a small chuckle. "It's nothing you need to worry about, I was just happy because of what happened to day," she finished and then took a deep breath and lounging back in her bath tub.

"I see," he said. He backed away from her and stood up on his mismatched feet. He started stroking his beard and looked up at the ceiling. "And what exactly was it that you accomplished today?" he asked, looking her right in the eyes. She returned his gaze, but then looked down and began fidgeting her hooves.

"You...you know."

"I might, but just incase I'm wrong...why don't you say it?" he gave a toothy grin and moved his eyebrows up and down. Fluttershy giggled.

"Well...I mean, you and I became friends and-" she took a deep sigh, "I don't want to say that I...exactly reformed you because you're still a free being and have total control over what you do...but I...I helped you find something, other than chaos, that you care about...my friendship. *sigh. There I said it, I'm proud of myself for befriending you...the Lord of Chaos," she smiled at the last part. She raised her head to look at him, she met his eyes and just gave a swift nod.

"See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" he slightly laughed. She shrugged her shoulders. "Although I still have one more question for you?"

"Yes?"

"Why? Why are you proud of that? I mean surely this isn't something new for you, don't you tame animals all the time?"

"This was different?"

"How so? I mean, I'm practically made up of different animal parts."

"Because you're not just some bunny or deer, you can actually talk and have a much more viewed and distinct outlook on the world...and you do have magic, so I think that should make you different from just any animal I tame. Besides, I didn't necessarily tame you."

"Why not?"

"Because you aren't domesticated or anything...you still have the freedom to make your own choices, good and bad. All I did was show you the consequences of one of those paths."

"Ah huh...I see...but haven't you saved Equestria a few times or something, including me?" when he said that last part, Fluttershy thought she saw a pang of distraught in his eyes.

"Discord...I would like to talk more but I think we should do it...ahem...somewhere else?" he smiled mischievously.

"As you wish," he said taking a hovered bow. He snapped his fingers, draining the bath tub with small whales that had large elephant trunks and teleported them to her living room. Fluttershy was instantly dried off and was wrapped in a white, fluffy robe.

"There, now you were saying?" he inquired. Fluttershy was still a little stunned from being teleported but quickly shook it off. Discord made a professional looking suit appear on him as he held a clipboard and pen.

"Right...umm, well that is true, about saving Equestria and all, and I just hope that you don't reminisce about what you did in the past because it's ok and-" she was cut off.

"Wait wait wait wait...what did you say?" Discord made his outfit disappear.

"I said it's ok."

"For taking over Equestria...twice?"

"Umm...yeah."

"Why and how is that ok? I mean, I'd love to agree with you and just let bygones be bygones but it seems that everypony else doesn't exactly agree with your statement my dear," he said with a click of the tongue and had a puzzled and confused look on his face.

"Well I don't really blame you, per-say, I mean I know how it feels to be called names and thought to be something that doesn't really matter, and I can only imagine how far that went for you to have the mentality to take over Equestria," she said explanatory. He was silent and for a moment, stunned.

"Not that it was the best decision but if you've never had a friend before and haven't ever been shown kindness, I wouldn't necessarily say that it was totally your fault."

"...I see...Let me ask you this Fluttershy. If nopony had told you to, and I hadn't taken over Equestria twice and even perhaps I wasn't as..." he made a thesaurus appear along with glasses and browsed through the large book. With a loud slap, he closed the book and made both it and the glasses disappear. "...Parsimonious as I am and/or was..." he leaned in closer towards her which caused her to hold her breath. Something about this situation, about the way he leaned forward and whispered into her ear, causing her to gently tremble, though it was not out of fear; she hoped he knew that. "If you took all that into account and pretended that it was all true, would you have dared approach me by yourself," he breathed before backing up slightly so that his face was directly in front of hers. "Would you have greeted me by free will and shaken my deformed hands without screaming, sit in my company without shaking, speak to me without that little voice in your head telling you to run?" his voice was gentle but corse but his eyes held...something different, something mysterious.

Fluttershy gulped, though not intentionally. She could feel her fur stand on end but she prayed that he wouldn't notice, in fear that he might think that she was afraid of him, but she wasn't. She was far from it and could see the eagerness in his eyes to hear her answer.

He thought he already knew the answer. It was the same for everypony. She was the same, simply trying to do whatever the Princess demanded. Sucking up to her good-will. They all thought her a beauty and beacon of hope and wisdom with no more flaws than a god. Where ever he went, whichever timeline it was everything was always the same and this buttercream mare, this Element of Kindness, this flightless pegasus was no different. He knew it, he dared not think anything else. She was the same as-"Yes."

Her small voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking towards her, he noticed that she was biting her lip and her eyes were large. Why?

"Don't lie," he snared, backing away and sitting back in his chair. The whole time he had been by her neck, breathing heavily. Fluttershy hadn't known what to do. Why was he acting so...strange all of the sudden?

"I-I'm not lying. You're saying that if you had never taken over Equestria, I had never been told to befriend you and if you weren't as..."

"Parsimonious," he finished. She nodded. "If all that were true, your asking me if I would have befriended you on my own if we had met in town or bumped into each other while heading somewhere...and I said and still say, yes. Yes, I believe that I would-"

"Fluttershy, come on. While I admire your kindness, I think we both know that you're just saying these things, these words of utter nonsense, to spare my feelings. Well save your sentimentality my dear, because I don't want your or anypony else's pity!" he surged, his voice raising with each word.

"Discord I'm not-"

"Don't...just...don't. Goodbye my dear." And in a snap of his lion paw fingers, the Lord of Chaos disappeared, leaving the Element of Kindness in confusion as soft and pondering tears left her angelic teal eyes.

Author's Note

Helpful criticism is always appreciated! :pinkiehappy:

Cameras

Fluttershy walked slowly down the dirt road towards Ponyville's town square with her head down as her pink locks draped over her face, hiding the disgruntled look in her eyes. She couldn't get Discord off her mind, and she found the thought quite unsettling. This morning, she tried to feed all the animals but her mind wandered to the past day and she ended up dumping the bird seed all over a bunch of squirrels, stepping on one of the mouse's tails, hitting Angel Bunny with a dust pan and then dropping the broom stick on top of a marmot. Not one of her finest moments.
She felt terrible and sniffled as she thought back to Discord. He was so confusing.

"Fluttershy!" three voices shouted, two male and the other female. Fluttershy didn't recognize either of them. They all wore hats and held cameras with notepads and quills in hoof. Their eyes were alit with excitement as they approached the frightened mare. Fluttershy took a step back as she put a hoof to her chest. "C-can I h-help you?" she stuttered.

"Is it true that you reformed the Lord of Chaos!?" a purple colt asked, silencing the other two as they all waited patiently and eagerly. "U-umm, I mean I suppose b-but-" she stopped herself short as she realized they were all writing down everything she was saying, which only made her eyes shrink and a throbbing in her throat surface.

"Was it difficult?! Did he hurt you?!"

"Is it true that he turned your cottage upside down?!"

"I've heard that he can use mind control to manipulate ponies, can you evaluate?!"

"Is he as evil as they say?!"

"Would you describe him as monstrous?!"

All of their voices echoed around her head, question after question being fired again and again; not even giving her a chance to answer. She began to feel dizzy and put a hoof to her head.

"Everypony stop! That's quite enough," boomed a large and masculine voice, but not one that Fluttershy was welly acquainted with. Turning her head, Fluttershy saw Flithy Rich coming up the trail. She could only wonder what in Equestria he was doing here.

Trotting up next to Fluttershy, he looked at the three photographers. "You should be ashamed, crowding an innocent mare, let alone an Element of Harmony," he shouted defiantly.

The photographers each gave each other a confused look before turning their heads back to Rich, who made a motion with his head to tell them to get going. "Many a-apologies, Fluttershy," the female stuttered before turning away with the other two, each of them still looking at Rich with a strangled look.

Fluttershy sighed and turned to the wealthy stallion. "Thank you Filth-er-Rich," she said, her face turning red from embarrassment."No need for that Fluttershy. Now, perhaps you could tell me what all that was about hmm?" he asked. She really didn't feel like talking, especially to somepony like Filthy Rich, but she knew that he'd think her rude. Though, she knew she had to be careful about how much information she shared, increasingly about Discord. Fluttershy knew how fast gossip could spread.

"They simply came up to me on the path and started asking questions, for the newspaper no doubt," she simplified. He raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly were they asking about?" he inquired. Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders, hoping he would think that it was not important but that was not the case. She sighed once more, "They were just asking about Discord."

"Discord? As in, the Lord of Chaos Discord?" he asked surprised, though it didn't seem entirely believable but she couldn't think why. Fluttershy gave a small nod. "But he's good now, after his reformation," she rushed, thinking herself silly.

"Is that so? Why do you say such things?" his questions were odd and he seemed quite interested, curiously more than he should've been. "Well, I mean, no disrespect Rich but do you see any chocolate milk pouring from cotton candy clouds, or checkered grass or rabbits with longer legs than you or I, perhaps you see floating houses and purple skies that echo with his maniacal laughter while he tortures innocent ponies and Sir, do you see an Evil God of Chaos sitting on a throne with the Elements of Harmony in paw or claw?! No, no you don't! Do you realize why?! Perhaps it's because I became his friend!" she practically shouted, surprising both Filthy Rich and herself. Her voice seemed to have been rising with each word and she could only put a hoof to her mouth and stare at the rich stallion wide eyed.

"I-I-I'm so sorry, Sir. I-I do not know where that came from..." she said shamefully, backing away. "N-no need for apologies, quite alright but you do seem rather stressed so I suppose I should let you be on your way...Umm, good day Fluttershy," he said hesitantly before turning away and walking back towards Ponyville. Fluttershy whipped her head around and stared at the Everfree Forest, and without even thinking, she bolted towards and into it. She could feel tears in her eyes as the wind flew past her, blowing her mane in a tangled but beautiful motion.

She eventually stopped, as she came to a cliff, the same one that had fallen apart when she and her friends had gone searching for the Elements of Harmony.

Fluttershy leaned against the large wall of stone and looked beyond the abyss in front of her. Her breathing slowed as she relaxed into the rock formation and wrapped her hooves around herself, in a hug-like formation. "I'm going crazy," she whispered to herself. She wiped away a singular tear and stared at the green grass."What is wrong with me? Am I getting sick?" she sighed, "Perhaps it's just me."

"Oh, I doubt that."

Fluttershy bolted to her hooves and looked around the forest. She knew his voice, of course it was him. "Discord?" she said aloud, hoping for him to come out. At least she knew she wasn't alone in the woods.

She still saw no sight of him, until she watched a white tuft of fur come down in front of her face. Gazing upwards, she was relieved to see the Lord of Chaos perched on a branch that stuck out of the stone wall.

"Hello Fluttershy. That was quite the little show you put on back there," he smirked as he looked towards his new friend. He still didn't quite see the point of having one but he did know that it felt...nice? Maybe that was the word, though he didn't really give it much thought.

Fluttershy burned red and stared into his ember eyes. "Y-you saw that? H-how much?" she asked worriedly. "Most of it I'm sure. From the part where one of the newspaper ponies said Lord of Chaos."

"Oh." Fluttershy, didn't know what else to say. Was he offended by what she said or what anypony else had said. Oh sweet Celestia, she hoped not.

"You certainly know how to put on a good show my dear," he said, raising a fuzzy eyebrow before slithering off his branch and landing on the ground. He crossed his arms and looked at the mare.

She wished he would just tell her what he had thought. Was he mad, angry, suspicious, confused, sad, hurt? She had no idea.

"I-I'm sorry if I offended you or-"

"Offended me? My dear, you wound me, do you truly think me that petty? To be hurt by some meaningless comments from a pony who has nothing to do with their time except nag?" He stated confidently. Though he would never admit it, there were a few times where he could almost feel something prick at him. Did he hurt you?! I've heard that he can use mind control to manipulate ponies! Is he as evil as they say?! Would you describe him as monstrous?!

The memory of Fluttershy in the maze with him floated into place as he remembered how he was unable to manipulate her and yet he could do so with all the others. It still fascinated him to this day. Though, again, he would never admit it, especially not to Fluttershy.

"I'm sorry, I just..." she took a deep breath and looked deep into his eyes, "I just wanted to make sure you were alright. I mean, after how we parted yesterday, I was worried that I had done something wrong-"

"And that I'd go back to my evil ways or perhaps go gallivanting towards Ponyville and torture some innocent ponies?" he said icily. Fluttershy felt hurt but at the same time knew she deserved it. How foolish of her to say that towards FIlthy Rich. "I'm so sorry Discord, I-I wasn't thinking when I said that but you need to know that that's not what was going through my head when we parted ways! I just wanted to make sure you were alright!" she nudged, taking one step closer to him, to which he questioned.

Scoffing at her words, Discord looked away and stared at the small amount of blue sky above them. "Please, spare me your comedy," he grunted. Fluttershy scowled towards him. "Discord, yesterday you asked me if I would approach you on may own and on my own accord and you didn't believe me. Today, you ask me if I thought you were to retreat back to your old ways and I retaliate and yet you still don't trust me. Why?" she breathed, staring at the tall draconequus. She couldn't help but feel sorry for him, he must've been so lonely and mistreated to have become so distant.

"Forgive me my dear, but I haven't exactly ever done this before," he said, gesturing to the space between the two of them. "I'm not what you would call an expert at trust and especially not...friendship. Uhg, why is this so hard? I thought this whole friend thing was supposed to be easy, was supposed to help me, but it's just...confusing!" he growled, agitated with the situation.

"Discord, I know friendship is new to you and believe me, I know how confusing and strange it is but-"

"How could you possibly know? You're an Element of Harmony for Tartarus sake!" he retaliated, interrupting her. Fluttershy was calm and walked closer to the Lord of Chaos, sitting next to his feet. Discord looked down towards her, intrigued and curious about her actions.

"When I was younger, I had absolutely no friends and no experience with it. My childhood was not as...disgruntled as yours was but, as a child, being bullied can still hurt...anyway, when I made my first friend, Rainbow Dash, I had no idea what to do or how to handle it. I had trust issues and kept to myself, usually locking myself away in my room after school and flight camp...so, I get it. Not absolutely all of it but...I can relate a bit."

Discord plastered the ghost of a smile on his face a fought the urge to stroke her pink mane. Everything about friendship was confusing but...with Fluttershy, it might not be too bad.

A large rumble shook the ground and the pair looked towards each-other in confusion and Fluttershy in fear. "What-AHHH!" she screamed as the ground gave way and she began to fall. Discord had began hovering immediately after the ground left his feet, and he expected to see Fluttershy doing the same but-

He acted swiftly and flew downwards towards the unconscious pegasus, probably fainted from fear. As he carefully grabbed for her, he realized one too many things at once. First was how adorable she was, the second being the soft texture of her fur, the third being how nicely she smelled, the fourth being how...cuddly she was? Though, one of the last things was the bruise on the left side of her head. Discord ran his paw over the spot, realizing that she had become unconscious from something hitting her head and not fainting from fright. He felt bad for not catching her quicker, but felt even worse for the trouble he was putting her through.

Discord could hear Timber Wolves howling and pulled Fluttershy closer to his chest, before flying upwards and towards her cottage. He knew he could've teleported but he felt like flying, for a reason he didn't know the answer to.
As he flew with the sun gracing his face, he looked down towards the small pegasus and gave a small smile before facing the home that he had once turned upside down, without even giving a thought to the idea of having an Element of Harmony as a friend.