Kindness and Chaos

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

During her years in Ponyville, Fluttershy maintained that no other mantra described life in town quite as accurately. Even now that their resident Princess of Friendship had packed up and left for Canterlot, life in Ponyville went on. It had been half a year since her hilariously disastrous coronation, and at their fifth monthly 'Council of Friendship' assembly two weeks ago, one of the items on the agenda was what to do with Twilight's now virtually empty castle. The suggestions had been everything from maintaining it as a tourist attraction, to using it as a campus expansion for the adjacent School of Friendship, to using it as a community building. Nothing had been finalized yet. For now, Starlight was checking on it daily, making sure the Friendship Map wasn't going off.

For how busy life seemed to have gotten and stayed, the assemblies in Canterlot seemed almost like a weekend getaway. Pinkie was either helping run Sugarcube Corner, or on the road with Cheese Sandwich. Applejack was where she always was, the family farm. If Rainbow wasn't touring with the Wonderbolts or drilling new recruits, she was at Sweet Apple Acres with AJ. If Rarity wasn't here in Ponyville, she was at one of her boutiques in Manehattan, Canterlot, or at her newest location in Seaddle. Fluttershy had continued to devote nearly all her time to her animal sanctuary, which was continually bustling with activity.

After their first class had graduated, all five of them had decided to become guest lecturers at the School of Friendship, instead of professors, freeing up more time for their respective careers. Starlight and Sunburst now ran the school, with Trixie as counselor, who had now definitively put roots down in town, and hadn't gone out on the road with her magic show since accepting Starlight's offer. The five international students had more or less stayed in town as well, and were helping prepare for the next class which started in the fall.

Fluttershy had been running a few errands in town, and the last stop on her list had been added at the last moment, when she had gotten a letter from Rarity, stating that her order was ready. Both her and Rarity knew how very important this item was, so she had left right away to start her errands and get it. With how confident and assertive she had gotten over the years, she was hoping this wouldn't lead to another one of her increasingly rare relapses. Walking up to the front door of Carousel Boutique, she took the first of what was certainly going to be several deep breaths of the afternoon, and pushed it open, the bell up above signalling her arrival.

"Afternoon, Fluttershy!" Sandbar greeted, stepping away from the rack he was organizing and coming over to give her a quick hug.

"Hello, Sandbar. Rarity told me my order is ready."

The earth pony immediately nodded.

"She and Yona are in back, I'll go get her." He replied, turning and disappearing behind the curtain that separated the front display area from Rarity's work space. About half a minute passed before Rarity came out and smiled at her longtime friend. Even though it had only been a few days since they had seen each other, she likewise came up for a hug.

"Fluttershy, great to see you again so soon." The unicorn greeted, releasing her from the embrace.

"You too, Rarity. You said my order was ready? Sorry to place a rush order on you like that, but when I heard you'd be in town for a few days, I figured now was as good a time as any."

"Nonsense darling. I know how important this is, and while it was tricky, with a little help from Starlight, I was able to pull it off." The fashionista replied. Her horn lit up, and she levitated a small hinged velvet box through the curtain behind her, and offered it to the pegasus, who sat down as it was gently set down into her front hooves. She stared at it thoughtfully before taking another deep breath and looked back up at the unicorn.

"Rarity... Am I making the right choice?" She asked meekly. Damn it, it was happening already.

"Darling... I sincerely hope these are just last-minute jitters. Because that's an answer you need before you even order something like this." Rarity told her, and Fluttershy smiled in response. She was correct, of course.

"You're probably right. I have answered that question, I guess I'm looking for some last-minute encouragement."

Rarity turned and stood beside her friend and put her left leg around her as she continued staring at the small box.

"Then allow me. Interspecies relationships are becoming more and more common in Equestria, especially after the Friendship School opened. He has certainly improved over the last few months, and out of everypony I've met, I really think the two of you can make each other happy. I believe this is the boldest, most assertive choice you have ever made... And the right one."

Rarity gave the pegasus a reassuring hug, then turned her toward the door.

"Now, no more stalling. Go for it, and good luck."

With that, Rarity gave Fluttershy a gentle shove towards the door. Turning to look back one last time with a smile, Fluttershy left the Boutique at a trot, and began to reflect on how she had come to this point.

After the fight outside of Canterlot, the coronation had been postponed while a considerable portion of Canterlot Castle had to be reconstructed. Construction teams from all over Equestria had come to volunteer their services. In the three months that repairs had taken, Twilight had slowly begun packing up her belongings in the castle, getting ready for the inevitable move up to the mountain valley.

As for Fluttershy, she slowly but surely began to spend more time with Discord. Their weekly tea parties became twice a week, sometimes three. Then the tea parties slowly became dinner for two. The draconequus was still his unpredictable, chaotic self, but he did seem to honestly regret playing with fire when he had unintentionally unleashed Chrysalis, Tirek, and Cozy Glow on Canterlot.

But Fluttershy suspected there was more to it than he was letting on. Maybe it wasn't just about building up Twilight's confidence in preparation for her reign. Maybe, it was about taking that forgiveness and redemption he had received, the magic of friendship, and attempting to pass it on to others that needed it.

Of course that had backfired spectacularly when he had pointed them in the direction of an ancient artifact that was capturing and releasing magic. And it did unfortunately reveal how fragile their society was, and how rumors and lies could do real damage to relationships.

But when the rebuilding and healing had begun, Fluttershy had found herself getting closer to Discord again as he began helping out more with the sanctuary and her cottage. Although she initially scoffed at his suggestion of using his chaotic realm for some of the animals, she eventually had to admit that it could be handy when sanctuary space became an issue, which it periodically did.

As she reached the edge of town, she slowed her gait to a saunter, and began to mentally recite what she wanted to say and how she wanted to say it. She brushed a feather tip against the outside of her saddlebag every few steps, just to feel that the box was still inside. One last question still remained; would this be a surprise? Or had she fumbled somewhere along the way, and he had caught wind of what she had been planning? She had asked Rarity for a rush order so she wasn't stopping into the boutique more than twice over the past week. She had tried her very best to go about her routine and not look excited about anything to avoid arousing any suspicion.

Her confidence had been fairly bolstered by the time she came to the path to her front door. As she walked up towards her cottage, she still was wondering how she wanted to go about the words. Then, as she placed a hoof on the front door, doubt began to creep into her mind again.

'There really is no predicting how he'll react. What... What if he says no...?'

She took another deep breath, and let it out as she pushed open her front door and stepped inside. A few birds chirped in greeting, and Angel hopped off the couch and nuzzled her front leg, welcoming her home.

"Hey there, Angel. Hope I wasn't gone too long." Fluttershy greeted, patting the bunny on the head on the way to the kitchen to prepare a bowl of lettuce for him. She saw that her feeders were already full of seed; Discord's doing, but the rabbit still wasn't trustful enough of the draconequus to take food from him, that was still completely Fluttershy's responsibility.

"Say Angel, you haven't seen Discord around, have you?" She asked as the bunny started to eat his meal, but his ears twitched in response to noticing how nervous her voice sounded. As if on cue, there was a flash of light, and the Lord of Chaos in question appeared, standing on her center rug.

"You rang, my dear? What shall it be for dinner tonight? Haycakes? Hayburgers with hayfries? Carrot dogs with the works?" Discord asked, platters of food appearing around him with each item he named.

"A-Actually, there's something I need to ask you first." She said, stammering, running a wingtip across her saddlebag again.

"Oh? Do go on, I'm all ears."

Discord proceeded to float in the air as all of his limbs, wings, and horns turned into various types of ears.

Too nervous to laugh at his visual gag, the pegasus took a deep breath, closed her eyes momentarily, and took a step toward him.

"Discord, you and I have known each other for awhile now. Our friendship got off to quite the rocky start, but each time you stumbled, you've managed to right your wrongs, and you always mean well. You've opened me up to entirely new possibilities and impossibilities. You and I have gotten to the point where I don't think I can imagine my life without you anymore."

She opened the flap of her saddlebag, reached in and took the box with one wing, and opened it with the other, before dropping to a knee, and offered it to him.

"Discord, will you marry me?"