What's the Thing Above Us?
Fluttershy stands by the door at Twilight’s castle as she waves goodbye to the Winterzilla, who is being guided to her home with her bird friend, Constance.
“I’ll see you later, Harvey,” Fluttershy shouted, “And be sure he gets comfortable at the sanctuary, Constance!”
She heard the confirming chirps of a birds as it and the Winterzilla walked farther into the snowy night. She didn’t notice the tall figure of the draconeqqus behind her after she turned her head around.
“Not meaning to intrude or anything, but what kind of a name is Harvey?” Discord commented.
“It’s the new name I gave to the Winterzilla you and Rainbow Dash got me,” Fluttershy replied, turning her whole body towards him, “I just finished a book about a pony and his imaginary friend, and for some reason, it kind of stuck. Do like it?”
“Oh, sure, such a fitting name with a creature with unpredictable behavior,” Discord commented before showing a teasing smirk, “Or maybe I’m just talking about me?”
Fluttershy giggled at the comment to which Discord joined in his usual deep chuckle. Discord always loved the sound of her laughter, which always reminded of a small chiming of a giant blue bell flower he’d made years ago. The main difference from that was he’d materialized it from the Canterlot Bell Tower and instead of the bell ringing loud bongs, it grew vines from the top and stretched it way down, completely covering it in its vines.
Not one of my finest works, Discord thought, Though I heard somepony from another dimension uses them to kill a couple of bats. And I was the crazy one.
He broke out of his thoughts as he heard Fluttershy calling out, “Are you having fun tonight?”
“Oh, yes, my dear. This Hearths Warming party you call it is simply bombastically delightful. Granted we were almost consumed by pudding, but at least it tasted good.”
Fluttershy chuckled before Discord leads her inside of the castle and shuts the door behind them with his tail.
“You know, I really appreciate you spending Hearth’s Warming with us,” Fluttershy said, "I should also thank Rainbow for inviting you.”
“Well, it’s the least she can do for letting me find a present for you. I would not settle for her giving you anything unworthy of your love and care.”
“I also understand that this is also your first. How come you never celebrated it before?” Fluttershy asked.
Discord could only shrug with indifference, “Eh, never gotten the chance. I bet if I tried celebrating it a thousand years ago, ponies wouldn’t think to invite me, even if I wasn’t reformed.”
“Didn’t it bother you that you were never spend the holiday?”
“Hmm, I’m not exactly sure. I was too focused on spreading chaos and then being turned to stone to feel bothered by anything.”
“But didn’t you feel lonely?” Fluttershy’s voice now sounded softer.
Discord stopped at his traces, suddenly thinking of her question with more thought, “I might’ve been.”
He paused for a moment to see her reaction, which revealed a small frown and a set of large, blue eyes staring up to him with concern. He then tried to lighten the mood by bending down to her eye level and adding, “But now I have friends like you, so I don’t have feel lonely.”
Fluttershy grinned a small smile, “You’re right about that.”
Then with a gasp, he exclaimed excitedly, “I have an idea! How about next Hearth’s Warming, you can come spend it with me and we can make our own traditions. I can even invite you to come with my parent to see the Hearth’s Warming Pageant--- If I’m not casted in it again.”
Discord was surprised by the suggestion and was immediately unsure about it, “Oh, please, Fluttershy. You don’t have to invite me just because I’m lonely.”
“But I want to, Discord,” Fluttershy said, “Besides, Friendship is the true meaning of Hearth’s Warming. I should show that to you more often.”
Discord grinned at her sincerity and her warm heart, to which he knows she is always so good at showing. He can reply on that moment, “I would like that.”
A pause came by between them before Discord cleared his throat and began to stand, “The party’s about over. Would you like me to escort you home—Oof!”
Discord was caught surprised as he felt something entangling in his antler and he shook his head until he felt it coming out. Looking up to see what have caused and saw that above them, attached on the top arch of the doorway, hangs a small plant with white orb-like berries and green leaves.
“My, my, what do we have here? I wonder who put this up--?”
Discord looked down at Fluttershy as he stated his curiosity but then he stopped when her face was completely red. She seemed to glance back to the plant and then him out of fear.
“What’s the matter?” Discord asked concerned
“Discord.... That's--” Fluttershy said, her voice showing signs of anxiety, “That’s a mistletoe.”
“Mistletoe?” Discord glanced up at the plant confused, “What’s so bad about it?”
“N-nothing really. It’s just…..” Fluttershy’s throat grew more and more tighter as she stared at the mistletoe hanging above Discord and herself. She just found that even with the full knowledge of the situation, she couldn’t find the right words or even the courage to speak up so intimately about the topic.
She tried to take a deep inhale before staring up to Discord, her cheeks still flaring red, “There is this tradition that ponies have to do when they are standing under the mistletoe.”
“Well, it couldn’t be that bad if you know what this means, right?” Discord asked even more confused hearing about this fact.
“It’s not, but, umm….” Fluttershy grew nervous as she come to the point, “If ponies find themselves under the mistletoe, they have to…. Have to…” She quickly turns her glance down to the ground in embarrassment as she squealed out loudly, “THEY HAVE TO KISS EACH OTHER!”
Silence was hung in the air, the only sounds being the fading reverberance of Fluttershy’s cry.
“What was that?”
Fluttershy heard Discord’s voice sound less confused, which to her was a good thing. The worst of it was that she had to repeat herself again just to get the message across.
She stood up straightly, glance up to Discord and stated calmly, “Ponies, preferably couples, have to kiss each other if they found themselves standing under the mistletoe. And since we are both under it right now, that means…. We have to kiss.”
Fluttershy expected Discord to burst into a fit of laughter or even a loud scoff as soon as she finished her sentence and silence was between them once more.
Instead, she just heard a simple, “Okay.”
Her eyes flew up in surprise to see how calm he is.
“Okay?”
“You did say it is tradition,” Discord stated, “And I understand from that anypony can do the same, even if they aren’t together romantically. This means that even friends can do it too.”
Now it was Fluttershy’s turn for confusion and surprise. She stuttered as she tried to ask, “S-s-so, you’re--- you-you’re okay with this?”
“Of course, as long you okay with this,” Discord replied, “Besides even if we do this, it’s not gonna confirm the fact that we’ll be each other’s special somepony.”
Fluttershy thought over it and it does seem be a fair point—a little realistic and mature coming from the lord of chaos but a good one, nonetheless.
“Yes, I—” Fluttershy cleared her throat, her anxiety fading away, “I guess you’re right. I mean we do this, this doesn’t confirm that we’re interested in each other, right?”
“Right!” Discord added as both him and the pegasus joining into a silly moment of laughter.
As soon as the laughter died down, Discord asked with a smile, “So you're okay with this?”
“Yes, I am,” Fluttershy finished her giggling. She open her wings and flew up softly to his eye view, “This is only just going to be a one-time thing, right?”
“Right,” Discord nodded, “This kiss won’t change anything between us unless we wanted to.”
“I’m surprised that you seem very calm about this mistletoe thing,” Fluttershy smirked.
“Like I said before—I’m unpredictable.”
Fluttershy chuckled before both of them were ready for this impending moment.
Slowly, Discord brought his eagle claw to his face, gently leading her closely to his face. Both their eyes started to close as they finally felt their lips impact together.
They both thought this would be a quick, simple kiss. But they had become so entranced, none of them realized that this had lasted much longer than they expected. As slowly as they started, they slowly parted from their kiss, their eyes opening to a new light they had never noticed before.
Discord let go of his hand on her cheek and Fluttershy glided away from his body, their cheeks lighted in a light shade of pink.
“Well,” Discord stated out loud, almost finding himself completely speechless, “That was…. Umm…. That was—”
“Nice,” Fluttershy finished for him.
A pause came between them long enough for them to process what just happen. And neither of them seems to regret it.
“Umm…” Discord shyly asked, “Do you, ummm, want me to escort you home?”
“Sure,” Fluttershy simply said, holding out her hoof for Discord to take.
Discord took hold of her hoof gently in his massive lion paw as he guides her out of the hallway and towards the door to their way home.
Unbeknownst to them, Spike was hiding in an opposite doorway close to where Fluttershy and Discord stood and where the mistletoe hung. After making sure it was safe to come out, he flew up to the archway and pluck the plant out of its way.
“Heh,” Spike lightly chuckled, “I always knew he was a softie.”
