Salvation a la Mode and a Cup of Tea

Chapters

Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 1

Chapter 2

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Chapter 3

Somehow, things got better.

Fluttershy still had nightmares, but they started tapering off. No longer a daily thing, they got to the point where they were more like a weekly thing… and then a whole month went by between them. And when they did happen now, Fluttershy found she could deal with them better, without vomiting or hyperventilating. Well, without as much hyperventilating as before, at least.

But a particularly disturbing nightmare had wreaked havoc on her sleep the previous night, and with a request from Princess Celestia for the six friends to meet with her and an important visitor, Fluttershy was having a bit of trouble thinking straight this particular morning. She was almost relieved when Applejack had asked her for help at the farm. Straightening out issues between animals was what she was best at, after all.

And besides, it also took her mind off the fact that Princess Celestia wanted to see all six of them.

“I may have to call upon you again. Not because I want to, but because I feel that I simply have to.”

But that couldn’t be the reason, right? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary that day. No threats could be felt, either looming or stomping around in plain view. It was probably just some important visitor from a far-off land that just wanted to visit the famed Element Bearers. That had to be it.

But Rainbow Dash’s near frantic appearance, yelling at them to get a move on already! brought all of Fluttershy’s fears back out into the open, and now there was no way to push the thoughts aside until later.

“What—do you suppose—is goin’ on?” Applejack called to Fluttershy, having to gallop to keep up with Rainbow Dash’s flying towards Ponyville.

“I don’t know,” Fluttershy gasped out, hardly able to keep up with Applejack, let alone Rainbow Dash. And I don’t want to think about it. There was clearly a problem, and the only thought that could comfort her was the possibility, however slight, that maybe they wouldn’t have to use their Elements this time.

And suddenly she barreled into Applejack, who had screeched to a halt with dumb stupefaction at the scene awaiting them. Fluttershy groaned and rubbed her eyes, the sight that had struck Applejack taking a moment to reach her.

Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, Twilight, and Spike, all waiting for them, with expressions of unease and disbelief on their faces. Celestia, smiling regally as usual, but with the tiniest of twinkles in her eyes. And Discord, still an awkwardly-posed statue, positioned right behind her.

Fluttershy wasn’t sure what to think, other than that maybe Celestia was mocking her.

“Fluttershy. I’m glad you’ve come,” said Celestia. “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What in tarnation is goin’ on?!” Applejack spluttered.

“We’d explain, but quite frankly a more likely explanation for all of this is that Celestia’s lost her mind,” Rarity murmured.

Fluttershy stepped forward, inwardly curling into the fetal position. She was going to have back-to-back nightmares again, she was sure of it. She tried her very hardest to keep her gaze on Celestia rather than Discord.

“What… what favor would that be?” she asked. Maybe she just wanted her to give Discord a good buffing or something.

“I have thought long and hard about a previous conversation we shared… I’m sure you remember which one I’m referring to,” said Celestia.

Gulping, Fluttershy merely nodded.

“Unfortunately, I still can’t grant your request. In fact, quite the contrary, I’m afraid that the Elements of Harmony may be needed soon to vanquish yet another foe. Not only that, I’m afraid that they will not be enough.”

“What?!” everyone other than Fluttershy gasped out.

Even Fluttershy drew in her breath at this. “You mean that the evils out there that you were talking about…”

Celestia nodded gravely. “Yes. I am gravely concerned that our current safety may not last. But that is where Discord comes in. And you, if you’re up to it.”

Fluttershy felt dizzy. “I… don’t understand what you’re asking of me.”

“Discord could become a powerful ally to us, our ace in the hole, as it were. All he would need to do is change allegiances.”

“Changing from evil to good just because somepony asks him?!” Rainbow spluttered out from behind Fluttershy. “You know that’s never gonna happen!”

Celestia shook her head. “Discord’s allegiance isn’t towards evil. Nothing of the sort. His allegiance is towards chaos. Towards himself. And I believe that, if somepony were to give him a chance…” She looked knowingly at Fluttershy.

Oh goodness. Fluttershy felt her legs lock up. She had put this idea into Celestia’s head, hadn’t she? Hadn’t she insisted that Discord had never even been given a chance to redeem himself?

And if this was her idea… well, she’d better put her money where her mouth was, right?

“If Discord were to have an outward motivation for his actions, rather than simply his own inner whims, then I truly believe that that outward force could… redirect him, shall we say. That she could show him reasons to use his chaos and magic for good.”

Fluttershy tried to say something to that, but her throat seemed to have dried up, so she merely nodded.

“I realize that this is a tall order,” Celestia continued, “but I wouldn't ask if I weren't confident you could get him to use magic obediently of his own free will.”

“And…” Fluttershy finally found her voice, although it was barely above a whisper. “You really think I'll know best how to do that?”

“I do,” smiled Celestia.

And a sudden thought crashed into Fluttershy’s mind. This is my chance! This was her chance to redeem herself, to right the wrong she had committed when she’d sentenced Discord to stone all those months ago. She was being given the chance to help Discord, not hurt him. And she was going to try, oh goodness, she was going to try harder than she’d ever tried at anything before, to make up for how she’d been part of the reason for this in the first place.

Of course, though, her elation at her chance for redemption began to become suffocated by reality after Celestia left, and after the six friends released Discord, and after Discord had mocked them mercilessly before gleefully declaring that he’d be staying at her place now…

…and Fluttershy remembered that she was, well, Fluttershy. She was so quiet and meek that she’d barely even had friends before fate had thrust the six of them together. How was she supposed to make herself Discord’s “outward motivation”? And, yeah, no pressure if she failed or anything, just that the world would be thrown into chaos again and no one would ever know any peace for the rest of their lives, yeah, no pressure there…

“Oh dear,” she whispered.

…

Sure, he broke stuff, but he fixed them… more or less. Sure, he turned her entire cottage into a spinning ball, but, well it wasn’t hurting anyone… and the mess could be picked up later, couldn’t it? Sure, he was selfish, and a little dramatic, but he just didn’t know any better… right?

Besides, he was certainly interesting.

“I have great news!” she proclaimed, flying back in the cottage (and feeling proud of herself for being able to hit the moving target that was the front door). “We’re hosting a dinner party this evening!”

The spinning cottage screeched to a halt, the furniture all falling with a thud to the floor (or rather, the wall, since the spinning had stopped with the floor on the side). “Did I just get… volunteered? Without my permission?" Discord gasped, bolting upright from his position on her couch.

“Well, um… yes?” Fluttershy said uneasily. “Sorry about that, but I thought it would be a lot of fun. The girls can see just how fun you are and that you’re ready to be our ally! I can get the drinks ready, and you can decide on the menu. I’m sure you could show off lots of different recipes that I’ve never heard of before. And if you need any help with the preparations, let me know. I’m a pretty good cook. Although…” Her eyes flickered towards her kitchen, more specifically the stove that was bolted to the floor… and with the floor’s current position, the stove was now at a ninety-degree angle with the ground. “I’ve never cooked sideways before.”

“A commendable offer, my dear Fluttershy, but unnecessary,” Discord said with a quick flick of his paw. “Do you honestly believe that I need a stove to cook? How droll.”

“Well…” Fluttershy flushed, a bit guiltily. “You may not, but I wanted to make some tea, and I do need the stove for that.”

“And there it sits, what’s the problem?”

“I, um… don’t know how to do it sideways? If you could please turn the cottage back the correct way, I’d really appreciate that.”

“Oh, fine,” Discord muttered, snapping his eagle talons and spinning the cottage ninety degrees, everything that wasn’t bolted down tumbling around with it once again. He smiled a bit at the jumbled mess, and Fluttershy, after an initial wince, shook her head with a small smile of her own. The mess wasn’t hurting anyone, after all, and if it made Discord feel more comfortable, then it could stay. At least for a little while.

“Thank you,” she said warmly. “I’ll get a pot of tea started. Let me know if you need any help with anything.” She fluttered into the kitchen, opening a cabinet near the stove and removing a well-worn, brass teakettle. Filling it with water, she turned on a cooktop and placed the kettle on top, then turned her attention to another smaller drawer, filled with boxes of various flavors of teabags.

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy only just kept herself from yelping at Discord’s presence mere inches behind her, and she commended herself for keeping her voice level as she turned around and responded, “Yes?”

“I can’t decide between the solid sunbeam gelatin, the liquid linoleum gelatin, or the gaseous guitar gelatin,” Discord said, the three bizarre varieties floating next to him. “Which do you think would be the best? I’m afraid I don’t know what kind of flavors ponies’ taste buds favor these days.”

Surprised, Fluttershy stared at all of them, especially the gaseous one. She was baffled as to how gelatin could be a gas, but this one somehow was—and looked delicious, even though it was apparently guitar-flavored.

“Ah, the gaseous guitar, then?” said Discord, following her gaze.

“It does look… delicious,” Fluttershy admitted. “They all do, actually. Why not use all of them? We will have six guests joining us, after all. We’ll need lots of food.”

“Excellent!” Discord grinned at that. “I like the way you think!”

“While you’re here, is there any particular flavor of tea you prefer?” Fluttershy asked. “The mint tea isn’t an option, I know that Pinkie doesn’t really care for mint flavor, but other than that I’m not sure which I should make…”

The tea boxes flurried around Discord, completely passing through the gaseous gelatin. “These flavors are all so boring,” he muttered, reading all of them in a flash. “Although I do admit that this ‘pumpkin spice’ could possibly be intriguing.” A pumpkin appeared out of nowhere, crashing down on the counter and yelling “¡AY YI YI!” The other tea flavors went flying against the walls.

It was so ridiculous that Fluttershy found herself giggling. “Pumpkin spice is more of an autumn flavor, but it is pretty tasty. I’ll make that.”

The pumpkin was sitting on the pumpkin spice tea box, and it growled at Fluttershy when she tried to retrieve it. “Now, now, there’s no need for that,” she said firmly, although she was still smiling. “If you let me have the box, I’ll make a cup of tea just for you.”

The pumpkin jumped up like a dog, yapping and panting with a long, orange tongue.

“Although, would that be cannibalism?” Fluttershy wondered aloud.

“Ooh, I certainly hope so!” Discord proclaimed gleefully. “How wonderfully chaotic that would be!”

Thinking quickly, Fluttershy grabbed an apple from a basket of fruit on her counter and tossed it in the air like a ball. The pumpkin scampered after it, freeing the box of teabags. Fluttershy retrieved one and placed it in a teapot, then checked the kettle on the stovetop for steam. There was none yet.

“How do you do that without magic, anyway?” Discord blurted out.

Fluttershy looked at him, far more confused than when he’d shown her the gelatins or the pumpkin dog. “Do what?”

“Hold things in your hooves without any fingers.”

Still confused, Fluttershy just shrugged awkwardly. “I don’t know… I just… do?”

“You ponies fascinate me sometimes!” Discord suddenly grabbed her by her right lower foreleg, carefully examining her hoof. His own limbs, which were strange and mismatched, did at least have digits for grasping things.

“Well… maybe it’s just our own kind of magic that nopony understands yet,” Fluttershy offered.

She then heard the hiss of steam from her teakettle, and carefully pulled her hoof from Discord’s gasp. “Oh, good, I can brew the tea now.” She poured the hot water into her small, round teapot, taking the string and swirling the teabag inside for good measure.

Discord, meanwhile, was dangling a teacup off of one of his claws and examining it with a magnifying glass. “Hmm. Well, I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on tea by any means, but your little set lacks pizzazz. I could spruce it up for you.”

“Oh no, don’t!” Fluttershy blurted out before he even had a chance to snap his fingers. “I know this set is kind of plain, but it belonged to my grandmother and we had lots of tea parties with this set before she died… it’s special to me just the way it is.”

“Suit yourself,” said Discord, surprising Fluttershy by very carefully setting the teacup back on the saucer without any shenanigans. “I suppose I’ll just have to create an entirely new and better set for you.”

“That would be nice,” said Fluttershy with a sincere smile. “That way, I’ll have two tea sets that have memories attached to them that make them special.”

Swirling the teabag once more, wanting for the tea to get just a little bit darker, she let out a small chuckle. This day was strange. It was probably fair to say that this was the strangest day in her life, in fact, and in every way imaginable that anything could be considered “strange”. And yet right now, this entire time spent with Discord in the kitchen, she had felt perfectly fine. More than fine, actually. Good.

“I never realized how easy it is to talk to you, Discord,” she said softly.

“Oh, I could have told you that,” said Discord lightly. He was floating horizontally again, most of his long body hovering to Fluttershy’s right, but his neck and head craned around to her left side to better examine her tea-making skills. “I’ve talked to myself for hours on end before. I’m the best conversationalist I know.”

“Can’t say I agree with that,” said a second Discord that suddenly appeared, crossing his arms and regarding his twin grumpily. “You can get awfully tedious sometimes, mister.”

The first Discord gasped, clearly very affronted by this remark. “Them’s fightin’ words!” he growled, donning an army uniform and helmet.

“Stop, stop!” Fluttershy cried out. “Please don’t fight with, um, yourself. And I don’t think you’re tedious at all.”

“Ha! Did you hear that?” the first Discord crowed triumphantly to the second Discord. “You’re outnumbered.”

The second Discord just crossed his arms again and pouted.

“And besides, I think the tea’s ready. Why don’t you try some and tell me what you think?” Fluttershy removed the teabag from the teapot, replaced the lid, and poured the tea into a teacup.

Or, at least, she tried to. But an inch above the teacup, the tea suddenly turned midair and began flowing sideways.

Discord, now just a singular entity again, smirked at Fluttershy. “Oh, dearie me,” he cooed, a bit mockingly, “whatever could be the matter now?”

Fluttershy watched the gravity-defying flow for only a moment before gritting her teeth in determination, a firm smile etched upon her face. She picked up the teacup and held it sideways—

--only for the tea to change directions again, this time flowing straight upwards.

“Too slow!” Discord teased.

Undeterred, Fluttershy turned the teacup once more, but the flow of the tea twisted away from her again. And again. And again. It was starting to make a very jagged pattern in the air.

“Just give it up, Fluttershy,” said Discord, still smirking smugly at his handiwork. “I always win.”

Fluttershy thought fast. She’d have to change her strategy. Noticing that the tea flow had taken her near her fruit bowl again, a sudden idea struck her. She whistled loudly and grabbed an apple. “Pumpkin, fetch!” she called out.

The pumpkin from before burst into the kitchen, yapping and wagging its vine tail, and Fluttershy threw the apple, sending it sailing past Discord’s head. “¡AY CARAMBA!” the pumpkin roared, leaping after it.

And Discord’s eyes were wide with shock, looking genuinely surprised by this turn of affairs. Surprised enough to forget about the zigzagged flow of tea for a second, at any rate, which was enough time for Fluttershy to position the teacup correctly at the flow and finally fill the cup with tea.

“Not always,” she said with a pleased smirk of her own at Discord, who still looked a bit stunned.

The flow of tea continued longer than it should have, overflowing the cup. Startled, Fluttershy fumbled with the cup, managing to avoid dropping it but still spilling the tea into the floor.

With an abashed smile, she looked back at Discord. “Maybe… most of the time?”

Discord smiled again too, not bothering to try to hide his approval. “Oh, well done, Fluttershy! You are a quick study indeed.” He swirled an eagle talon in the air, spinning the spilled tea up from the floor like a mini tornado, and raised it upwards towards his tongue, now sticking out of his mouth like a board. His tongue snapped around the tea-nado in its entirety and shot back into his mouth, taking the tea with it. “And this is delectable!”

Fluttershy beamed, her heart feeling like it could nearly soar. And the thought that made her feel this way wasn’t the expected “I can do this.” No, it was a firm, solid, “I did it.” She’d been right, she was sure of it now. Discord certainly wasn’t perfect, but he was fun and exciting and rather sweet in his own unique way, and she’d redeemed herself by redeeming him. And even better… she’d made a new friend.

She nearly laughed with her response, as much to herself as it was to Discord.

“I’m glad. I’m so glad.”

…

Perhaps she had gotten a bit ahead of herself.

She wasn’t an idiot—she’d known that to at least some degree, Discord was just playing nice with her to get what he wanted. So she hadn’t been surprised when, during their dinner party, it became clear that he had caused some mischief with the beavers at Applejack’s farm. Whether he’d started it during the party or earlier, it didn’t really matter.

What mattered was getting him to stop it. And Fluttershy knew that it wouldn’t be as easy as just asking him. She just hoped… hoped beyond all hope… that she’d managed to give him a change of heart. She could deal with a conditional agreement from him… depending on the condition, of course… but she could compromise. She just hoped he could, too.

But when his condition was to never use her Element against him, she almost broke down with tears of relief. And any hesitation on her part was simply from what her other friends would think of her answer. But, in the end, her choice was simple and clear and liberating.

“I will never use my Element of Harmony against you.”

It was like being set free.

Did he know? She’d never brought it up during the day. He’d never asked. Maybe he’d noticed her tugging at the heavy necklace clasped around her the whole day and suspected… but she doubted it.

She doubted he realized just how easy of a promise this was for her to make. Because using her Element to trap him again was the absolute last thing she ever wanted to do.

But then… instead of fixing his mess, he just made it worse. Purposefully. And he laughed at her, cruelly, revealing that, unsurprisingly, he had been playing her all along.

And Fluttershy… was angry. As angry as he’d made her the last time.

But she still refused to use her Element against him. She knew how bad the nightmares were, after all.

And, also… she couldn’t even consider doing that to someone she’d grown to care about.

She renounced their friendship, true. Friendship was a two-way street and if Discord wasn’t going to hold up his end of the deal, Fluttershy wasn’t going to make amends for him.

But that didn’t mean that this didn’t still hurt.

She shook with anger as he continued to mock her, proclaiming that he didn’t need her permission to be himself.

She didn’t look at him, though, too afraid of her own powers. What if the Element activated all on its own, powered simply by her rage?

Oh goodness she couldn’t let that happen again. Because as angry as she was at him, she couldn’t condemn him to that stone prison again.

And he still continued to hammer his insolence in, because as if he’d listen to whatever she had to say?

Fluttershy shook again, pointedly looking away at him. She was naïve and a fool, but she wasn’t going to break down and use her horrible weapon against him again. Which probably made her even more of a fool, but she didn’t care anymore.

Her kindness was her weakness, not her strength. She knew that now.

And why should he care, he taunted, about losing the one friend he’d ever made?

She was a fool… a stupid, selfish fool. She’d just condemned Equestria solely because she wanted to stop a few bad dreams. Just because she’d come to care about someone who clearly had no intentions of caring for her in return.

She winced guiltily, prepared for more jeering, but it never came.

Only silence.

And the sound that finally got Fluttershy to open her eyes again was Discord’s soft, small, “Oh.”

Dismayed and wholly confused, she looked at him, and he looked back at her… vulnerable. Almost heartbroken.

“Well played, Fluttershy… well played.”

What?

And he sat down on a frozen bush, utterly defeated, and snapped his fingers, and everything went back to the way it should be.

What?!

And all her other friends were hugging her and cheering, and Fluttershy still wasn’t exactly sure what had just transpired, but the chaos Discord had brought about had been undone, and she hadn’t had to use her awful power, and Discord was smiling at her, albeit with a bit of reticence, and admitting, “I like it better my way, but... I guess when you're friends, you can't always have things exactly your way all the time, eh?”

And there it was.

She had really done it.

There was silence for a few moments.

Finally, Pinkie Pie spoke, loudly and dissonantly cheery. “Well, we’d better let Princess Celestia know what happened, huh?”

Twilight straightened up, sudden authority in her voice. “Right! Um, Spike, take a letter.”

Spike held out a parchment and quill, obediently awaiting Twilight’s instructions.

“’Dear Princess Celestia...’ um… ‘Please meet us on the south edge of town. I’d like to present our…’”

The hesitation was immense.

“’…progress report, in person. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.’”

“Should I include the nine ellipses?” Spike asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, definitely,” Discord murmured, “I’d say they’re quite necessary.”

“Only one is sufficient,” Twilight muttered to Spike.

Spike scribbled the note and sent it off to the ether with a puff of smoke.

“Well,” said Applejack in a no-nonsense voice, “let’s get goin’, then.” And she and Rarity and Rainbow Dash took the lead, Twilight and Spike falling behind them, with Pinkie stifling her usual energy to stay behind with Fluttershy and Discord.

“This calls for a party!” she declared with a grin. Fluttershy noticed that the bounce in her step wasn’t quite as pronounced as usual, although she still did seem quite genuine in her enthusiasm. “We’ll have to have a celebration. What’s your favorite cake, Discord?”

“Red velvet,” Discord answered instantly, with a confident grin.

“Um, that would be actual velvet,” Fluttershy whispered to Pinkie. “At least, I assume so…” She looked up at Discord.

“What else could I mean by ‘velvet’?” Discord questioned, raising a confused eyebrow in Fluttershy’s direction.

Pinkie blinked in confusion just once before shrugging it off. “I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something!” she proclaimed, bouncing merrily ahead, overtaking both Twilight and Spike and the confused group of Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

Now left alone with Discord, Fluttershy felt the awkward silence envelop her like a stifling blanket.

“We are still friends, right?” Discord murmured to her hesitantly.

Fluttershy nodded instantly, despite everything. “Of course,” she reassured him.

“Good!” Discord grinned fully and easily at that. “Then I hope it’s acceptable to request a friendly clarification regarding what exactly was wrong with the giant ice rink. I thought you ponies liked ice skating.”

“Well, yes, but it wasn’t… right,” Fluttershy said awkwardly.

“Well, of course it wasn’t ‘right.’ That was the point. The spicy pumpkin dog and the obedient gravy bowl and the singing cutlery weren’t ‘right’ either, but you allowed those.”

“It’s different when it’s contained.”

“Contained?!” Discord barked out a laugh at that. “You can’t ‘contain’ chaos, my dear Fluttershy.”

“Well, I don’t know much about chaos,” Fluttershy admitted. “But what I do know is that turning an entire field to ice right before summer comes would have harmed all the animals who lived there. Plus, it would have destroyed Applejack’s crop.” She gave Discord a disapproving look. “And that’s not even getting into what you did to those poor beavers.”

“No, no, I get the beavers,” said Discord. “Don’t turn creatures into the opposite of their true natures, blah blah blah. I get that. But how could an ice rink harm anyone? The fields and the animals and the air particles all seem to handle winter just fine on their own.”

“Yes, but…” Fluttershy searched for the words to explain properly. “When winter comes, those animals have had time to prepare. Some have been storing food beforehand. Some have grown warmer fur. Some have migrated to warmer locations. But the point is, they’ve prepared. Winter arriving in June catches them off-guard and unprepared. They would have suffered greatly.”

“And… we don’t want to cause any creature to suffer.” It was only just barely not a question.

Fluttershy nodded. “That’s correct.”

“Oh.” Discord sighed grumpily, his tail sagging. “There are a lot of rules to follow, huh? And I hate rules.”

“I know… I know it’s a lot,” Fluttershy said sympathetically. She gave Discord what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “But you don’t have to figure it out alone. I’ll be there to help you. And you can still make chaos, as long as it’s not hurting anyone.”

“Would ice skating in your cottage fall under the ‘not hurting anyone’ banner?” Discord asked hopefully.

Fluttershy giggled. “As long as you set it back when we’re done. That would be fun, actually.”

“Well then,” said Discord with a smirk, tossing the suddenly reappearing set of ice skates in Fluttershy’s direction, “I’ll hold you to it!”

Chapter 4

The next three days were positively boring and made Fluttershy want to scream.

Oh sure, she kept busy with her animals, and visiting her friends, and attending to the chores around her cottage. And her dreams were pleasant, with not a nightmare to be found. Normally she would have been nothing but relieved to have things go back to normal after shake-ups, but this particular shake-up meant that things really shouldn’t have gone back to normal, and she just wasn’t sure what to make of it.

She kept expecting for her living room floor to turn to ice at any moment, based on what Discord had told her, but every day it remained a firm, boring, expected solid oak. Heck, she kept expecting Discord to just show up, but he didn’t. She hadn’t seen him since their “progress report” with Celestia, when Discord had promised to be (sort of) good. She had no idea where he had gone. On some level she was somewhat concerned about this—what if he was causing some destructive mayhem away from watchful eyes?—but more than anything, Fluttershy just found that she missed him. Even though her daily life had slid back into thoroughly dull territory, she still wanted to tell him about it.

It would probably bore him, though, she reasoned with herself.

She still wrote to him about it, though. In fact, she had written an entire letter, rambling and silly and probably not very interesting at all, and even sealed it in an envelope before she realized that she still had no idea where he was… and even if she did, could any mail pony in Equestria even reach him? For all she knew he was in an alternate universe or something, and she doubted any amount of postage would give the regular mail ponies in her town the ability to get there.

Evening was falling, and Fluttershy was curled up in her living room chair, opting to eat her supper of carrot and celery soup away from the kitchen table this night. The family of blue jays that were currently living in the highest birdhouse in her living room were settling in for the night, exchanging pleasantries with Fluttershy but not really saying much in the way of general conversation, and after a few failed attempts to engage them further, Fluttershy turned to her dinner and sipped the broth in silence, leaving them to their own devices.

It was ironic, she mused to herself. Before, this kind of dreary normality would have been exactly what she craved, but right now it just felt stifling. She had changed so much in a mere year, thanks entirely to friendship.

It was… humbling, really.

And as it turned out, it was while these thoughts were ruminating in her mind when a bright flash of light blasted through her cottage, startling her so much that she spilled what was left of her supper all over the floor.

“Hello, Fluttershy! My, what a sight for sore eyes!”

“Oh—Discord!” Fluttershy stammered, giggling a bit through her surprise, as Discord’s eyes literally did have bandages on them, accentuating his statement. “I wasn’t expecting you.”

“No one does,” smirked Discord, temporarily donning a long red garment. “Just call me the Spanish Inquisition!”

“Uh… what?”

“Never mind.”

“It’s really good to see you again,” said Fluttershy, smiling warmly. “I’ve been wondering where you went to.”

“Why, Chaosville, of course!” And suddenly Discord was shoving a souvenir mug, hat, T-shirt, and potted cactus with plush needles into Fluttershy’s arms. “It’s been over a millennium, you know! And let me tell you, the new management had really let it go to pot. The place had nearly become… orderly.” He shuddered.

“So what did you do?” Fluttershy asked.

“I usurped the management that’s been squatting there ever since I was turned to stone the first time, took back my rightful place, and renovated! And the former management is now a mothball.”

“Oh!” Fluttershy gasped out. “That’s… that’s not very nice!”

“He was a moth before,” Discord said dismissively, “and now he’s a moth that can roll. He actually prefers it this way.”

“Oh… well, I guess that’s alright, then,” Fluttershy admitted. She set down all of the gifts Discord had brought her onto her small coffee table. “So… what kind of renovations did you make?”

“I’m so glad you asked!” Discord exclaimed, nearly squealing with delight. Suddenly a large cloth screen on a tripod appeared against Fluttershy’s far wall, and a real-to-real projector popped up behind the couch. “Alright, Dis, roll ‘em!” he instructed, flopping down on the couch comfortably and informally while clapping his hands twice, causing the lights to go out. Behind the projector, a second Discord wearing a small felt hat gave a thumbs-up and started up the film.

The movie was fascinating, and chaotic, and absolutely enthralling. Chaosville looked weird and strange, but it was like nothing she’d ever seen before and she found it almost beautiful in an otherworldly way, especially with all the unexpected changes being made to the landscape. Discord seemed very pleased by Fluttershy’s reaction, and he excitedly went into further detail about everything the film was showing, at one point growing so loud and enthusiastic that the Discord on film had to snap at him, “You mind keeping it down? I’m trying to work here!”

When the picture eventually cut off and the used-up reels flapped loudly against the projector, Fluttershy couldn’t help but feel disappointed that it was over already. “That’s all there is? I’d like to see more…”

“In a month, the director’s cut will be ready,” Discord said to her, and Fluttershy giggled a bit.

“Um… would you like some tea?” she blurted out, with the sudden realization of you have a house guest, Fluttershy! You need to be hospitable! Even though this particular houseguest had dropped in unannounced, but she had a feeling he was usually going to be unannounced. She’d just have to have her kettle ready to go at a moment’s notice from now on.

“Tea would be delightful, my dear,” said Discord, snapping his fingers. The projector and screen disappeared, and the lights went back on. Fluttershy blinked for just a moment to readjust her eyes to the light before scurrying to her kitchen and starting a kettle of tea. She reached into her tea cabinet and pulled out a bag without even looking at what flavor it was. Picking things randomly was chaotic, right? Hopefully Discord would like the tea however it ended up. Not that any of the flavors she kept on-hoof were unusual in any way, though.

Once the tea was brewed, Fluttershy carefully brought the teapot back into her living room and set it on the table. “I don’t know what flavor this is, I didn’t look,” she said quickly. “But I hope you like it!” She dashed back into the kitchen, retrieved two teacups and saucers, and returned to the living room, handing one pair to Discord.

Discord snapped his fingers again. His teacup floated over to the teapot, knocked on the teapot’s side with its handle, and a door on the teapot flung open wide, tea pouring out into the cup. Once it was full, the door slammed shut and the teapot looked normal again, and the teacup floated back to the saucer in Discord’s paw. He picked up the cup with his talon and took a sip. “Delicious,” he said approvingly.

“Oh, good!” said Fluttershy, grinning. She poured herself a cup in the normal way and tasted what she’d made. It seemed to be just a simple green tea, but it was tasty and very soothing.

The two unlikely friends took another few sips in a comfortable, if unexpected, silence.

“Fluttershy?” Discord finally said.

She looked up at him from her cup and saucer. “Yes?”

Discord looked a bit uneasy, passing his cup and saucer between his paw and his talon. “This is… awkward,” he mumbled, “but I was wondering if you could give me an… explanation.” He winced at the words. “And understand that under usual circumstances, I hate explanations.”

“I’ll try to make it as painless as possible,” Fluttershy promised. “What do you need me to explain?”

Discord was now tumbling the teacup up and down through his talons. He hadn’t finished his tea, but the liquid that remained had formed into a sphere and was hovering patiently by his side. “There’s no way that it won’t be painless, because it involves one of the worst days of my life… when you and your friends turned me to stone.”

Fluttershy winced, feeling like she had just been kicked in the stomach. “If it makes you feel any better, that was one of the worst days of my life, too.”

“So we agree that the day we met was absolutely horrible? This friendship is off to a fantastic start, isn’t it?” Discord said sarcastically.

“It doesn’t matter how it started,” Fluttershy said emphatically. “All that matters is how it’s going. And I for one think it’s going very well right now.”

“Hmm… we agree on that, too.” Discord finally smiled again, although it was small. “But that’s not what I need you to… explain. When you and your friends hit me with that friendship rainbow of doom, the rest of them were all cheering, and blocking out most other sounds, but I still heard what you said.”

Fluttershy paled a bit.

“You said, and I quote, ‘We failed.’” He looked at her sharply. “So what did you mean by that?”

Fluttershy gulped. Up until now, she’d believed that no one had heard her say that… lest of all Discord, who was kind of solid stone at the time.

“I, uh…” she stammered, setting down her cup and saucer and tugging awkwardly at her mane. “I don’t actually understand how the Elements of Harmony work,” she finally blurted out.

“Well, that makes two of us,” Discord quipped.

“The first time we used them was on Nightmare Moon—Princess Luna,” Fluttershy clarified. “She had been banished to the moon for so long—“

“Ah, yes, I heard about that,” said Discord. “I can’t imagine how positively batty it drove poor Lulu. Although at least she was able to physically move while she was there.”

Fluttershy grimaced with grief and guilt. “W-well, when we used the Elements on her, it kind of… drove out the darkness in her. Nightmare Moon was gone, and Princess Luna was freed from her clutches. So what we did was good all-around for everypony, including her.” She started blinking rapidly, her gaze forlornly falling to the floor. “So… s-so when we had to use them a second time, against… you… I guess I kind of thought the same thing would happen.”

“Ah, yes, the very same Elements that condemned me to a granite prison the first time would do something completely different the second time. Makes perfect sense.” He said this in such a way that Fluttershy couldn’t really tell if he actually did think it made sense or not.

“I don’t understand how they work,” Fluttershy emphasized fiercely. “I don’t know why they worked for us a certain way one time and then did something completely different the next time. But I thought maybe it was because, when we used them against you, I was… angry. Furious. I thought maybe it was my anger that did it to you.”

“It might have been,” Discord said levelly with an accepting shrug. “You had every reason to be angry at me.”

“B-but…” Fluttershy felt her eyes start to well with tears. Oh no, not now, not now… “The thought that maybe we could have helped you, if I had just been a little more understanding… it was eating me alive. I—I had… nightmares… nearly every night… I felt so horrible… I just couldn’t live with myself, knowing what I’d done to you…”

Discord looked so surprised by this that the floating tea globule instantly returned to his cup.

“But the nightmares are gone now,” Fluttershy quickly explained. “They were kind of tapering off before, and then we freed you and helped you and even though it’s late, it still happened… I’m so sorry that it came so late,” she murmured, guiltily looking at the floor again. “I should have tried to help you sooner.”

She blinked harshly as tears began to stream out of her eyes.

A few long moments later, she felt something hard and porcelain tap at her nose. She looked up. It was her teacup, filled again with tea, floating in the air expectantly.

Confused, she raised her head even more and to the side, giving Discord an inquisitive look.

“You should have some more tea, my dear,” he said, motioning towards the keen cup. “You’ll feel better.”

Blinking away as many tears as she could, Fluttershy took the cup and took a sip.

“There’s no need to waste your tears on me,” Discord continued. “In fact, up until very recently, I would have been your strongest opponent on the matter of my needing any sort of help.”

“Things have changed,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Yes… yes they have.” Discord quickly and abruptly chugged the rest of his tea and set his teacup back down on the table, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “In fact… I’ve changed. And it’s mostly because of you.”

Fluttershy blushed fiercely.

“Because, despite all votes to the contrary, including my own, you seem to have been right about me.” Discord finally gave her a small smirk at that, leaning back comfortably on the couch. “Feel free to claim all bragging rights with your victory, you certainly deserve them.”

Despite herself, Fluttershy giggled a bit at that. “I don’t think I’ll brag, necessarily… but I am really happy with how this all turned out. I’ve never met anyone like you before, Discord. And I feel so lucky to be able to call you a friend. I really mean that.” She gulped once more, trying not to dwell on the guilt that still filled her mind. “I just wish that things hadn’t had to be so rough between us to get to this point.”

“Ditto,” Discord murmured in a very soft voice, but he still held his gaze with Fluttershy, and she regarded him and nodded softly.

There wasn’t much more that needed to be said, truthfully.

But still, Fluttershy still gasped with a sudden reminder. “Oh, wait, Discord, I actually have something for you!” She flew over to her desk in the far corner of the room and opened a drawer, pulling out a small envelope. She flitted back to the couch and chair and held it out towards him. “I, um, I wrote you a letter yesterday. Only I didn’t know how to send it to you, because I didn’t know where you were or if mail would even reach you…”

“Oh, that’s easily remedied,” Discord remarked, snapping his fingers. One of the drawers in her desk suddenly began to glow a dark purple color.

“What… what is that?” Fluttershy asked.

“Just drop any future letters to me in there, and I’ll get them.” He eagerly opened the envelope. “I’ve never gotten mail before!”

This statement made Fluttershy feel a little piteous and sad. What kind of creature had never received mail in their entire life… let alone one who had lived as long as Discord had? But her pity was quickly overridden by embarrassment as Discord scanned her letter, her letter that she was sure was boring and embarrassing, right in front of her. She suspected that he’d find it asinine, and she really didn’t want to be present for that kind of a reaction.

But the smile never left his face as he read through her lines… in fact, it seemed to grow softer. “You’re too sweet,” he murmured.

Fluttershy blushed again, trying to hide in her mane.

“Almost too exceedingly sweet, in fact. You’re giving me cavities.” To prove his point, he flashed his teeth at her, now sporting numerous black holes.

“Oh… oh dear. Sorry,” Fluttershy offered uneasily.

“Don’t worry, they’re no bother.” Discord snapped his fingers, and the cavities all exited his mouth and converged into one large black hole, and he grabbed it and flung it into the ether.

“Where… where did it go?” Fluttershy asked.

“Space, somewhere,” Discord said with a shrug. “It’s harmless, as long as any spaceship isn’t stupid enough to try to get too close.”

“Oh… I certainly hope that doesn’t happen,” Fluttershy admitted.

“Space crews can be rather foolhardy at times, but I’ll try to keep them away from it,” Discord said with an accepting shrug. “I suppose I’d better start patrolling.”

“Wait,” Fluttershy blurted out. “Before you go…”

Discord shot her an inquisitive look.

Blushing again, Fluttershy said quickly, “Didn’t you want to turn my cottage into an ice skating rink?”

Discord brightened instantly. “I’d nearly forgotten about that!” He snapped again, and the floor turned to ice.

Fluttershy beamed, and she retrieved the skates that she’d been keeping on the hook on the front door for days now. “I’m not very good at ice skating,” she admitted as she put on her shoes. “Promise to not laugh at me.”

“I promise to not laugh at you… too much.” Discord smirked at her, already wearing skates and a scarf, and sailed past her easily on the frozen floor.

Fluttershy’s smile didn’t leave her face as she awkwardly took the floor.

True, it wasn’t much of an assurance, but it was still more than enough for her.

Chapter 5

Now that she had an easy way of contacting him, Fluttershy found that she was much more disposed to write Discord letters.

And the next one she’d written him was certainly more interesting than her first. Twilight had become an alicorn! Wasn’t that exciting? Fluttershy had told him in detail about how it had happened, at least as best as she could determine from her own experiences and how Twilight had explained everything to them later. It was surprising, and definitely a huge change in their lives, but Fluttershy had to admit that Twilight definitely deserved the honor and prestige that came along with her new position.

Of course, just the next day later, a mysterious threat had appeared from the Everfree Forest, and the Element bearers were kept busy with trying to figure out how to deal with it… and Discord had also, um, “helped” in his own unique way. Fluttershy wasn’t exactly sure what to make of it, but she knew better than to question him, because after all, he wasn’t keen on explanations for anything.

Although, the very next day, she got one… sort of… in the form of her very first letter from him, delivered through the peculiar desk drawer displaying an upright red flag and loudly proclaiming “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!”

It took her a minute to be able to read it, true, due to all of the letters randomly spinning around the page as she read it. But she grew accustomed to it after awhile.

My dear Fluttershy,

Your news of Twilight Sparklepants’ new form gave me the most excitement I’ve felt since—well, since finding that cactus plush for you, which was pretty recent, BUT STILL GRANT ME THIS JOY I BEG YOU. Alicorns are so stuffy and serious, and yes, Twilight was predisposed to this “upgrade”, wasn’t she? She’ll need PLENTY of character development to be truly worthy of the title of “princess”, as I’m sure you’ll agree. I’m certainly happy to oblige to “develop” her. After all, what are friends for?

Besides, I imagine that you’re happy to have found that Tree of Harmony? I mean I’m certainly not happy to see that blasted plant again, but on the other paw it was very welcome to relieve you of the burden of your Element. You always tug at it so awkwardly when it’s stuck around your neck. And I don’t blame you. It looks quite cumbersome. I’d have pitched it long ago if I were you, but I suppose letting a magical tree gobble it up is the next best thing.

I look forward to discussing this with you in person at our next tea party, at the specified time of whateverscheduleyouponieskeepIhavenocluewhatdayoftheweekitevenis. But if it’s to spend time with you again, I’ll keep whatever schedule you want! I’ll even sent a reminder and everything!

Tell Pumpkin Dog I said hi.

Your friend,

Discord

The letter had given Fluttershy a warm smile that lasted throughout the day that nearly everypony she saw commented on. And that evening, she finally got the chance to respond.

Dear Discord,

It was such a joy to receive a letter from you! I’ve already read it four times. I really love how the letters in the words keep rotating around and around. I guess I don’t know how much you actually like doing things like writing letters, but I hope you’ll write me more often. It makes me happy to hear from you.

Well, I think Twilight’s still a little peeved that you didn’t tell her right away what was going on with the plunder vines, but she’s dealing with it as best as she can, I suppose. I think she’s finally starting to get used to her wings, too. Already she’s flying almost better than I do, although I suppose that’s not a very high bar. She also already has another stained glass window in Princess Celestia’s palace. I’m just glad that I’m not in this one this time. I think I’m in three of the panes, and that’s three too many, in my point of view. I think Twilight was a little nervous about her solo one at first, but now she’s happy and proud to be in so many, and I’m happy and proud for her, too. I know she’ll be an amazing princess.

I suppose I am a bit relieved to be free of the burden of my Element, although I also understand that it’s needed to keep Equestria safe. It’s a very mixed bag. If I can find a way to keep everypony safe without having to rely on its awful powers again, I would be the happiest I’ve ever been. But I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see. The safety and happiness of others come before my own desires, after all.

I would definitely love to schedule a regular time to see you—and to have tea, I have plenty of it! Would Tuesday afternoons work for you? I know your schedule is quite different from mine, so if that’s not doable, please let me know as soon as possible. I can rearrange things. Just let me know.

Pumpkin Dog misses you! I think he really likes those real wooden pencil treats of yours. Make sure to bring some more next time you’re here!

Your friend,

Fluttershy

Upon finishing the letter, she sealed it and stuffed it into her discordant drawer in her desk, knowing that it would reach its intended recipient.

She then attended to her animals and her domestic chores for the evening, her attentions entirely focused on the tasks at hand. She had nearly forgotten about the letter she’d just written, in fact.

Nearly, but not entirely.

That night, she laid in bed soporifically, the events of the last few days enough to drain her energy into what was promising to be an acceptant, acquiescent sleep.

It was more than what she was usually granted after major events, after all, so she would thankfully count her blessings… after some rest.

She had nearly completely drifted off to the sandman’s domain when the snap and bright flash of light jolted her awake.

“Ah, Fluttershy! Good evening!” Discord was snaking out of her lower bedpost, eager and enthusiastic in whatever he wanted to tell her.

Wearily, Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. “Uh… good evening, Discord… I was trying to…”

“Rest, I know,” Discord interrupted, throwing an arm around her withers. “But your latest letter demanded an immediate response.”

“I… I can wait on the response,” Fluttershy answered uneasily.

“Nonsense!” The paw around Fluttershy’s withers tightened fondly as Discord motioned with his eagle claw. “The hesitation I detected in your words betrayed a pressing need to know the truth.”

“Uh… about what?’ Fluttershy stammered. She hadn’t realized she’d been asking any sort of question at all in her letter other than a regular date to meet up, and that certainly didn’t demand an immediate answer, did it?

“About Celestia’s stained glass windows,” Discord answered.

Fluttershy gasped.

“Now, granted, I know as little about them as you do,” Discord admitted. “But perhaps we could discover the truth about them together?”

“But… what truths about them are unknown?” Fluttershy asked, sitting up straighter. “They’re, um, pretty straightforward.”

“Hmm, do tell,” Discord murmured, taking notes in a spiral-bound notebook.

“Well… they’re signs of commemoration, showcasing great events of the past and, um… the heroic ponies responsible.” The last part of this sentence was mumbled into near gibberish.

“The hewofic moapies remumumuhf, interesting,” Discord said.

Fluttershy straightened up again, feeling ridiculous at herself. Because this was ridiculous. “And anypony would be absolutely grateful to be honored in such a way,” she said firmly.

“Aha!” Discord lightly tapped the tip of her nose with his pencil. “But you are not just anypony!”

“I, uh, I…” Fluttershy stammered again, her heart sinking. “…no,” she finally admitted quietly. “I actually… hate them.”

“And the truth has come a-knocking!” In Discord’s place a door suddenly appeared, with the sound of rapping at the frame. Fluttershy turned the handle and Discord strolled out, smirking at her. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“No, not really,” Fluttershy said, frowning. “I don’t really like to hate anything. Especially not something as… inoffensive as stained glass windows.”

“On the contrary, their sharp, unmoving pictures that lend themselves to no nuance whatsoever is appallingly offensive.”

“I don’t even hate all of them,” said Fluttershy quickly. “Or even most of them. I mean… I don’t really like most of them, but the only ones I really… hate… are the ones that show…”

“Ooh, let me guess,” said Discord, raising a hand in the air. “You?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I know… it’s silly…”

“Absolutely. It makes no sense whatsoever. I love it!”

“Can we please talk about something else?”

“No. Because…” Discord leaned in closer to Fluttershy, speaking in an effected stage whisper. “I believe I know how to solve your problem.”

“My… problem?”

“Yes! You’ll just have to come with me.” He pulled away from her and held out his paw expectantly.

Fluttershy blinked.

She was still pretty tired, and wary from the direction this conversation had gone, and really had no idea what Discord was talking about (although that at least was fairly expected). But, well… she was awake now, and (while she hated to admit it) intrigued. It was probably just best to see for herself what he wanted to show her.

So she held out a hoof and took his outstretched paw. “Alright.”

And they were instantly transported out of her cottage and into… somewhere.

The sky was a deep purple, nearly black, and dotted with thousands of glistening stars. But where Fluttershy was situated, she was instead bathed in yellow and pink lights.

And when she saw why, she screeched and ducked as much into her own mane as she could.

She was surrounded by tall, immense stained glass windows, every single one of them depicting herself.

“Pretty good likenesses, wouldn’t you say?” Discord said, floating lazily next to her and sounding rather pleased with himself. “I nearly gave you a buzz cut in one of them, but I held myself back.”

“Why did you bring me here?!” Fluttershy gasped out. “You… I just told you that I hate these!”

“Of course. And you know what you do with things that you hate, right?”

“Uh… cower and run away and try to avoid them entirely for the rest of your life?”

Discord blinked, looking a bit surprised. “Hmm. I’d never thought of that before…” He brightened up again. “But no, the correct answer is that you destroy them!”

Fluttershy drew in her breath. “Destroy?”

“Correct! These have all been lovingly hand-crafted by only the finest of chaos magic with the express purpose of being shattered into a million pieces at your hooves.” He balled up his fists and shook excitedly, looking on the verge of letting out a giant squee. “So what are you waiting for?”

Meekly, Fluttershy poked her head out from her mane and made herself look at the glass again. “They all look so… nice. I mean, I don’t like seeing myself like this, but I couldn’t possibly destroy such beautiful craftsmanship.”

“Just think of them as like bubblewrap, then,” Discord said with a shrug.

Fluttershy still felt unsure about the whole thing. “These aren’t… real, right? I mean, they’re not the ones in Celestia’s castle?”

“Of course not.” Discord looked a little put out by that. “Really, Fluttershy, I’m offended. Mine are much better than hers.”

“And… you really want me to destroy these?”

“Let’s just say, on a scale of one to ten, I’m at about a twenty-one and a half.”

“O-okay.” Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy straightened her neck and stepped up to the nearest windowpane. The sight still filled her with intense disquiet and unease… maybe smashing them to bits really would help her feel bit better?

She flung out a foreleg and tapped the glass. Nothing happened.

She could actually hear Discord rolling his eyes, even though they stayed in his head this time. “Come on, you can do better than that.”

Squinting her eyes and gritting her teeth, Fluttershy tried again, with more force this time. Still nothing.

“That wouldn’t even break a stick! You’ve got to really be destructive.” Discord’s ears perked up eagerly, giving Fluttershy only the tiniest bit of warning as to what was coming next. “Like this!” And suddenly his tail cracked out like a whip, smacking the pane and shattering it into thousands of tiny shards.

“Aaahh!” Fluttershy yelped, still standing right in the crossfire. She instinctively dived under her forelegs and covered her head as well as she could.

“Ah, that’s more like it,” Discord said in a self-satisfied tone. “The rest are all yours—wait, why are you cowering?!” He sounded almost offended at that.

“B-because I don’t want to get hit with broken glass!” Fluttershy gasped out.

“And you won’t! My dear Fluttershy, did you really think that I would let you get hurt here?”

“I… didn’t think either way about that,” Fluttershy admitted.

“Well, don’t think too fast.” And before Fluttershy could move, Discord grabbed a broken piece off the ground and flung it right at her. Fluttershy didn’t even have time to flinch or close her eyes… and thus she saw that it seemed to bounce right off of her before even hitting her.

No longer frightened but still a bit wary, she attempted to pick up the piece to examine for herself, but found that if she tried to get any closer than about an inch to it, something seemed to stop her, and in fact the shard seemed to push back from her as if she and it were similarly charged magnetic poles.

“Really.” Discord scoffed at her. “You trust me so little?”

“Sorry, but it’s… it’s an instinct thing, I did it without even thinking, and—Discord!” she suddenly shrieked in terror. “Your body is covered in glass shards!”

“Oh, is it?” Discord remarked lightly. He pulled a larger one out of the base of his tail and took a look. “What luck! I have treats for later!” He popped the shard in his mouth and munched on it. “And one for now.”

“Are you hurt?” Fluttershy asked frantically.

“Negative, sarge. And neither are you. So now that that’s all cleared up…” As his long tail flicked against itself and popped another glass shard out, he motioned again towards the other windowpanes. “They’re all feeling very left out, you know.”

Fluttershy’s hooves pawed at the ground, making the shards next to them do a bizarre dance in order to stay away from her. She looked up, seeing yet another stained glass depiction of herself, almost mocking her in its calm serenity.

Her eyes narrowed in determination.

She ran towards it… and past it. Rearing up on her forelegs like Applejack would against a particularly enormous tree, she bucked her back legs solidly and squarely against the glass.

It shattered in a very satisfying crash.

“Yes! YES!” Discord cheered over the tinkling of falling glass, donning a cheerleader’s outfit and pom-poms. “Go Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy breathed heavily, looking at the translucent pink and yellow mess all around her, and felt herself smile. This was… gratifying. She wasn’t sure why, exactly, and it probably wasn’t right to deal with her feelings by being destructive this way… but there were clearly no rules here. And, if only for a moment, she was happy to chuck away any notions about what was “right” or “wrong”.

She made a running gallop towards the next pane, shattering it with an even stronger kick.

Another horrible eternally tranquil Fluttershy, gone.

She ran towards the next one, almost laughing with glee this time. She barreled into it head-first, crashing through in a shower of shards. The shards all caught the brilliant light cast by the sky full of stars, leaving twinkling, shining colors scattered around the area. She gasped in wonder—she’d never seen anything so beautiful; had never even imagined that such beauty was possible.

She wanted more of it.

She spun around, focusing on the next pane—wait, why was she green in this one? Oh well. No matter. That would just add more beautiful colors to her glass canvas.

Run. Gallop. Smash. And her shame and unease and guilt became another magnificent, stunning, twinkling glass waterfall.

She destroyed another pane. And another. And another. And more colors dazzled around her and even the crashing and tinkling of broken glass seemed almost musical to her ears. She laughed blissfully, feeling light enough that she wasn’t sure if she had started flying at some point or not, and not really caring either way.

She had never felt so free before.

There were only a few left now. Turning to the next one, Fluttershy hesitated once again. The others had just been unfamiliar scenes that didn’t tie to anything in reality, but this one was very familiar. It was the one of Fluttershy and her friends surrounding Nightmare Moon.

“You… promise that this isn’t the real one?” Fluttershy asked, turning back to Discord.

“Scout’s honor!” Discord remarked, dressed appropriately.

Fluttershy regarded the pane again. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him… but it looked so real…

And, well so what if it was the real one? Didn’t she want never to see these again… for anyone never to see these again?

So she shrieked out something that was nearly a battle cry, reared up on her hind legs, and smashed it to smithereens.

“Ooooohhhh!” a crowd of Discords murmured approvingly.

Fluttershy turned to the next one. This was the one that simply showed the six Element Bearers in their round, perfect bubbles. She remembered how the stained glass Discord had lounged so nonchalantly on the bubble showing her form that very first day and growled dangerously.

I am not a lounge chair.

This was a nonsensical pre-attack thought, but it was still enough to send her shrieking once more, running straight through the center of the pane and shattering it profusely.

There was now only one pane left, and Fluttershy felt her eyes burn with anger the instant they fell upon it. It was the one of the six ponies, all looking artificially posed and calm and dissonantly happy, surrounding and condemning Discord’s twisted, shocked form.

“This,” growled Fluttershy, “is the one I hate most of all!”

“Ooh, me too!” Discord cried out gleefully.

Fluttershy took a running leap, aiming her body not at the middle this time, but right at her own, horrible form. She wanted this one to not shatter into shards, but disintegrate into dust.

CRASH!

It was done.

Fluttershy panted heavily as the last of the stained glass sprinkled down around her like huge, sparkling raindrops. They tinkled and clattered against each other until they had all settled down, and then it was silent once more.

Discord was practically hopping from foot to hoof, looking just as pleased with her as he was with himself. “Called it! That did make you feel better!”

Still panting, Fluttershy raised her gaze upwards, still overwhelmed by the beauty of the night sky, wherever they even were. “Yes,” she said, smiling. “It did.”

“Now then,” said Discord eagerly, popping up next to her, “for your next wanton destruction of highly breakable artifacts, I believe I saw some fine crystal dinnerware down the next avenue over.”

Fluttershy blinked, a little slowly and groggily. Now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, she remembered that she had nearly been asleep before Discord had whisked her off here. “I… I can’t tonight, Discord, I’m exhausted.”

“What does that have to do with anything?’ Discord asked genuinely.

Despite her fatigue, Fluttershy managed a small chuckle. “I need to go to sleep.”

“Really?” Discord’s eyes turned into confused question marks. “Didn’t you just sleep yesterday?”

Still smiling, Fluttershy said, “I had a wonderful time here, but I really should be going to bed now. Please take me home.”

“Very well,” Discord muttered with a disappointed sigh. “I suppose I’ll have to destroy all that crystal myself. Or better yet, turn it into rubber.” He snapped his fingers and in an instant, they were back in her own room.

Fluttershy flopped onto her bed, her head hitting her pillow with a soft, satisfying smack. “That was a lot of fun,” she murmured to Discord. “Thank you.”

“Any time, dear Fluttershy.” Discord smiled warmly at her and snapped again, causing her blankets to all pull up and tuck around her like a warm cocoon. “I hope you don’t mind if I took a little souvenir from your mess.”

Blinking deeply and struggling to stay awake, she mumbled, “What is it?”

“You missed this one.” Smirking, Discord presented the circular pane of Fluttershy’s head, the one that he had enjoyed lounging on the very first time they’d met.

Sighing, Fluttershy’s eyelids grew too heavy to open again. She was certain she’d destroyed that one… although maybe this was just a copy? “That’s not a lounge chair,” she murmured, nearly incoherently.

“Can it be a barstool, then?” Discord asked instantly.

She was already half-asleep, but Fluttershy still giggled lightly. “That’s fine.”

The last thing she heard before completely drifting off to sleep was Discord’s fond “Sweet dreams!” and the snap of his departure.

Chapter 6

Fluttershy was awake a little later than usual that next morning, and she found herself hurrying through her usual breakfast and morning chores before heading outside to tend to the animals. There was a badger with a broken paw that had been staying with her for the last few days, and upon making sure that the rabbits, ducks, and butterflies didn’t have any immediate needs, she turned her attentions to him. “I hope you’re feeling better today,” she said to him with a smile. “May I please see your paw?”

Badgers were often surly, and this one was no different, but Fluttershy was slowly getting on his good side by being gentle and patient with him. He harrumphed for a second or two, but Fluttershy waited patiently, and finally he offered her his bandaged paw.

“The swelling’s gone down,” she murmured, patting the wound carefully. “I would imagine that the fracture is healing nicely. As long as you take it easy—“

The badger suddenly fidgeted and pulled away, his eyes on something behind Fluttershy.

Surprised, Fluttershy turned around. In the air above her was the mail pony, Muffins, looking a bit discombobulated. She smiled when Fluttershy saw her, though, and handed her a regally sealed envelope before flying off.

“What in Equestria…” Fluttershy murmured, tearing open the seal and reading the letter inside. It was quite short.

Dear Fluttershy,

Please come to the palace immediately. It is a matter of some urgency.

-Princess Celestia

Fluttershy’s blood ran cold.

The stained glass windows.

They had been real, as Fluttershy had somewhat suspected. And Celestia found out. And she knew that she was behind their destruction.

And oh no, oh no, oh no, this was very very bad.

The animals in her yard, all noticing her very abrupt, horrified panic, gathered around her questioningly. Even Pumpkin Dog, who had been rummaging off who-knows-where for the past few days, lumbered into view and sat on his hind vines, barking out a concerned “¿Qué?”

And all Fluttershy could do was meekly look up from the letter, her face as white as a sheet.

“I’m in big trouble…”

…

The entire train ride to Canterlot, Fluttershy kept nervously clicking her front hooves together and frantically switching her glance from the window to the train car aisle and then back again, over and over and over. The only thing she could think of was just what she was going to say to Celestia, and while it started out panicky and rambly and nonsensical, by the time they reached their destination it had been running through her head so many times that it seemed to have straightened itself out into a mostly concise, very contrite apology.

Princess Celestia, I’m so, SO sorry for breaking your windowpanes. Just because I don’t like them doesn’t give me the right to destroy them. I understand that I’ve made a giant mess, and I’m sorry. I will pay for any and all damages.

…how much would that even cost, anyway? Probably far more bits than Fluttershy had…

Again, I am sorry. So, so sorry. Please forgive me. And did I mention that I’m sorry?

There was no way this was going to go well.

She reached the palace entrance and, upon meekly introducing herself to the guard on duty, was swiftly led down a familiar corridor.

The doors flung open, and Fluttershy winced, turning her head away in shame.

“Fluttershy! Thank goodness you’ve come so quickly,” said Celestia, who was already waiting for her in the hallway. “There’s a problem in the sculpture garden.”

“Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy blurted out, “I’m so sorry for… wait, what?”

What?

“A very large and territorial eagle has taken up residence on the sculpture of myself and Luna,” Celestia continued, either not noticing Fluttershy's outburst or not paying it any heed. “Normally I wouldn’t mind, but it’s made its nest right on top of my head… and it’s scaring away all the visitors.”

Distracted, Fluttershy craned her neck to look behind Celestia and down the hallway, with every strained glass window looking intact and exactly as it should be.

“What?” Fluttershy asked again in a small voice.

“Like I said, it is a very large eagle,” said Celestia. “And it leaves very large, um… messes,” she continued, as diplomatically as she could. “I was hoping you could try to convince it to move its nest somewhere else. It can still stay in the garden if it wants, just as long as it stays off the statues.”

Fluttershy blinked.

“Will you be able to help? I’m sorry for sending you here on such short notice, but we have visitors from the Crystal Empire arriving later today, and I was hoping to have the eagle in a more suitable place by the time they arrive. And also to allow time to give the sculpture a good scrubbing.”

“Um… yes, I’ll help, I’ll do my best,” Fluttershy stammered.

“Thank you,” smiled Celestia. “Come this way.” She turned and headed down the corridor of stained glass windowpanes. Carefully, Fluttershy followed her, her trot slowing profusely as she approached the greatly disliked, greatly blatant, and greatly still standing in one piece pane depicting Discord’s most recent defeat.

Sensing that she had fallen behind her, Celestia paused and looked behind her shoulder. “Is something wrong, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy quickly shook her head.

“N-nothing…”

…

It had taken a fair bit of convincing to persuade the eagle to move her nest to a more suitable location, like a tree or a craggy cliff. And, as Celestia had implied, the statue was left covered with numerous bird droppings when the eagle finally consented. So after helping to carry the nest to a sturdy tree overlooking the gardens, Fluttershy had helped Celestia to scrub the sculpture clean, which took even more time. When they finally finished it was time for a late lunch, which Celestia had insisted Fluttershy have at the palace with both herself and Princess Luna as thanks for her help. Fluttershy made small talk as best as she could (which was to say, not very well) and, while the princesses were very friendly and inviting, she was slightly relieved to finally head back for home.

She did some grocery shopping upon arriving back in Ponyville, encountering Rarity there. She chatted about the latest gossip, and Fluttershy told her about the eagle and the sculpture (although mentioning nothing about the stained glass windows or just what she had been doing the previous night), and they cheerfully bade each other farewell after their errands were done. Upon arriving home, Fluttershy quickly put all her groceries away before going out to check up on all the animals again (they were all fine, although Pumpkin Dog had wandered off again). Once that task was done, she glanced at her garden, which was looking a bit overgrown, and headed there next, crouching down on the ground to better see the numerous weeds sprouting up.

The first one she pulled came up with a rather tough yank.

Fluttershy bit her lip. Now that all the socializing of the day had quieted down and she was alone again, she was better able to process just what had happened… although she still wasn’t sure how to process it.

She had been so sure last night that the windows she’d broken were the real ones.

Yanking up another weed, Fluttershy shook her head at herself. It was ludicrous to think that. After all, Discord had said that they weren’t the real ones. And plenty of them weren’t “real”—those numerous ones that showed only her weren’t anywhere to be found in Celestia’s hall. Clearly he had snapped those ones out of thin air—so why did she think that the ones based on the real deals were any different?

And… why was she disappointed that they hadn’t been real?

Groaning softly to herself, Fluttershy wiped a few beads of sweat from her brow as she crawled through tangled overgrowth towards the next weed. Okay, okay, she knew why. It wasn’t a pleasant truth, but she had to be honest with herself. She wanted them gone. She still felt a sense of overwhelming dread whenever she so much as thought about the blasted things, let alone looked at them. Having them gone for good… it would certainly be a weight off her chest.

True, it would be replaced by a different weight, a weight of guilt for destroying them… but she had a feeling that weight would be naturally lifted from her far sooner than the first one would.

And she was well aware that that was a terrible thing to think.

It was with these thoughts that she weeded her garden, the yanking and digging of invasive plants growing rougher and rougher the longer she was at it. When she had finally finished, the garden looked more open, but a little rougher around the soil.

Fluttershy headed back inside to clean up, washing her hooves in the sink and wiping off sweat and dirt from her body with a rag. She probably needed a shower after all that, but she was still feeling antsy—almost more antsy since before working on her weeding, in fact—and figured, if nothing else, she might as well channel her nervous energy into cleaning up the inside of her house, too. So once her body was to a state that wasn’t too outwardly dirty, she took up her broom and dustpan and headed to her main room to sweep the floor. She started in the far corner, where her writing desk sat.

The urge to write a letter was far stronger than her urge to clean.

But she knew that she was still being stupid, so she swept her broom across the corner of the room far more forcefully than was probably necessary. There was no point to writing a letter anyway right now… Oh hi Discord, how are you? Say, did you know that when you told me that none of those stained glass windows were real that I actually apparently didn’t believe you so I’m trying to figure out why you’d actually tell the truth about that and why this bothers me so much and AARGH.

She swept the debris into the dustpan with one quick, jerky movement. Stay away from that desk, Fluttershy, don’t make more of a fool of yourself than you already have, she chided herself.

Still, though, her gaze fell upon the desk, or more importantly the little interdimensional mailbox that was the small drawer on the top left. Despite herself, she flew over and opened it, hoping to see a letter that she could actually respond to. There wasn’t anything, of course, and she knew this; the drawer let her know pretty blatantly whenever she received something.

She groaned in slight aggravation. She wished he’d write her another letter, if only to get her mind off of their most recent excursion.

“Just… what?” she demanded in a soft voice to the drawer.

What indeed… why was she talking to her desk?! Vexed at herself, she quickly pushed the drawer shut and picked up the broom again. Obsessing over this problem, which wasn’t even a problem at all because it was a good thing that she hadn’t actually destroyed anything real, was not only completely foolish but it also wasn’t going to help her get any of her chores done. She began to sweep the floor again, still with an antsy fervor but with a little more focus this time too.

But her focus was sliced into ribbons with the sudden, loud “YOU’VE GOT MAIL!” proclamation from her desk, complete with the telltale, upright red flag.

Startled, Fluttershy dropped the broom, letting it clatter uselessly to the floor. It seemed that she had gotten her wish, but the timing seemed a bit suspect. Had Discord actually heard her through the mailbox and written in response to her nonsensical question? On the one hoof Fluttershy found that thought preposterous, since it had been hardly enough time to write out a response, but then again, she had only said two short words—maybe this was just one or two words in reply? That was all that could be expected, after all.

And besides, it could just be a coincidence. He could have spent all day writing her a letter for all she knew, and only just now got it sent to her, however it was he even did that.

The broom on the floor forgotten, Fluttershy bit her lip and opened the drawer. She was surprised, but only a little bit, to find not a letter inside but Discord himself, in a small enough size to fit in the drawer. “I’m going to need a little more than that,” he said to her sardonically.

“Uh… what?”

“Yes! Exactly! More than a ‘what’, if you please.”

Fluttershy shook her head, her tousled mane bouncing against her forehead. “It’s… nothing. I’m just being foolish. It’s nothing worth talking about.”

“Oh, I highly doubt that.” Discord gave her an upside-down smile, as he had draped half of his body over the edge of the open shelf, dangling from it like a very unusual-looking string. “You know I’m always interested in whatever you have to say.”

Feeling her cheeks twinge a bit from the unexpected compliment, Fluttershy shook her head again. “Well, I don’t want to talk about it, because I’ve been thinking about it half the day and it’s stupid and I don’t want to keep thinking about it.”

“So yelling at your mailbox to me helps you with that how, exactly?” He was still sort of smiling at her.

Fluttershy sighed in resignation and slid down into the desk chair. “It’s kind of… long. And complicated. I still don’t really understand it myself.”

“Sounds intriguing,” Discord said, smiling more eagerly now. In a snap and a flash he was his normal size again, yet still in his dangling, reclining position, draped completely over her desk this time and sending her papers fluttering to the floor. “Give me all the complicated, confusing details.”

Awkwardly, Fluttershy tapped her front hooves together, her eyes darting downwards. “I, um, I was called to Princess Celestia’s castle today…”

“How horrid.” Discord had plucked off one of the claws on his paw with his talon and was using it to pick at his teeth.

Fluttershy sat up straighter, the words (and then some) suddenly tumbling out of her mouth without warning.

“Last night, I know you said that those stained glass windows weren’t the real ones, but I kind of sort of thought that maybe they were, and when Celestia asked to see me I thought for sure it was because she found out and knew what I did, but they were all fine—and I know, I should have known that because you told me that the ones I broke weren’t the real ones, but I thought that maybe you kind of fudged the truth a little because I don’t like them, and you don’t like them, and maybe if I thought they weren’t real I’d be more willing to get rid of something that neither one of us likes, but they’re still there, and I don’t know, I just thought—“

She was shushed with a furry finger (thankfully with its claw reattached) against her lips. “That is far too much thinking for one day, Fluttershy,” Discord said matter-of-factly.

“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy blurted out. “I—I guess I didn’t believe you, even though you were telling the truth… I think maybe part of me didn’t want to believe you. That’s horrible of me and I’m sorry…”

“You hate those windows even more than I thought,” Discord said, pulling his finger away from her and rolling over on her desk so that he was now lying on his belly. He laid his face in his palms and kicked his feet back and forth. “I do admit, allowing you to believe that those weren’t the real windows would be something I would do. What a great friend; you know me so well already!”

“But…” Fluttershy began.

“But,” Discord continued, arching a bushy eyebrow in her direction, “in this case, I actually was telling you the truth. As you know.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes. And it’s good that you did. Destroying the real ones would be wrong. But still…” She sighed helplessly, feeling her eyes narrow a bit. “I just wish those things were gone.”

“Well, you know that normally, I’d do anything for my dearest friend, but now that I’m sort of halfway in Celestia’s good graces, I’m not exactly willing to throw that away on such a wishy-washy desire.”

“I’m not asking you to destroy them,” Fluttershy said quickly. “Please don’t destroy them. Just because I don’t like them doesn’t give me the right to break them. It’s just… I don’t know, maybe we could…”

And she stopped herself right then and there, not giving that idea the dignity of a verbalization.

But she had still said enough to pique Discord’s interest. “Maybe we could what?” he asked eagerly.

“Nothing,” Fluttershy said, fiercely shaking her head.

“Come now, don’t leave me hanging!” He was once again draped over her desk, his head and half of his body dangling off the edge.

She carefully pushed his tail, dangling from the other edge, out of her way and moved towards the broom she’d left lying on the floor. “I need to keep cleaning.”

Abruptly the broom turned into a podium stacked with microphones on the top, and Fluttershy was suddenly standing behind them all. She was surrounded by five Discords, all shoving even more mics in her face. “The public needs to know your brilliant idea!” one of them proclaimed.

Fluttershy tried to ignore all of the mics and move the broom… podium… it had once been a broom, anyway…

“The story of the century,” another Discord quipped in a disappointed tone, “and we can’t get two syllables out of her.”

Fluttershy sighed, a bit impatiently. “Discord…”

The podium turned back into a broom, the mics disappeared, and only one Discord remained, crossing his arms a bit grumpily. “Can I at least get an exclusive interview later?”

Sighing again, Fluttershy swept at the floor in an unfocused swoop. “Alright, I’ll tell you… but it’s a terrible idea. I was going to say that… maybe we could… um… deface them. Like draw on them, or something. But,” she continued harshly, as Discord was looking positively gleeful at this idea, “we are not going to think about that anymore, because like I said, it’s a terrible idea—“

But between the words “terrible” and “idea”, Discord had already teleported them right into Celestia’s palace, and Fluttershy suddenly found herself surrounded by the windowpanes that plagued her.

She squeaked in surprise for just a brief moment before glaring at the draconequus responsible. “Discord!” she hissed. “I told you, this is a terrible idea!”

“Yes, it’s horrendous!” Discord was already climbing up the wall like a lizard, approaching the pane depicting him holding ponies like marionettes over a burning pit. “Horrendously perfect!” He started scribbling on the pane with a marker.

“This isn’t right!” Fluttershy protested.

“No, it’s not—you don’t have a marker.” One suddenly appeared in Discord’s tail, and he flicked it towards her without even looking. “There, now you get to have fun too.”

“But—“

“It’ll all wash off with the magic eraser on the end.”

Surprised, Fluttershy examined the marker, which did indeed seem to have something that looked like a white, spongy marshmallow on the end.

“So don’t worry about making mistakes!” Discord continued. “Just think of them as ‘happy accidents’.” Another marker had materialized wrapped in the tip of his tail, and he was now scribbling over “his” windowpane with two limbs.

“Well…” Fluttershy said, uneasily, “if it’ll wash off when I’m done, then I suppose… maybe I could do a little bit…” She raised her voice a little bit. “You are going to remove all of your markings when you’re done, right?”

Discord looked at her with a dramatic gasp. “What?! You’ll have me remove all traces of my artistically genius improvements?” The panel he had been working on showed the three ponies under his strings with speech bubbles that shimmered, having them say “OH DISCORD YOU ARE THE GREATEST RULER THE UNIVERSE HAS EVER KNOWN!” “TEACH ME YOUR WAYS!” “COTTON CANDY ROADS FOREVER YAY!” and the image of Discord was now wearing sunglasses and holding up a huge foam sign that said “#1 LORD OF CHAOS”. They were all shimmering too, almost rippling like ocean waves.

It was silly, and absolutely not the right thing to have done, but Fluttershy found herself giggling a bit at it despite herself.

Discord seemed to beam at this. “Just wait until you see the next one,” he said eagerly, crawling over towards the one of Celestia and Luna trapping him the first time.

“I shouldn’t be encouraging you,” Fluttershy called after him, although without much conviction in her voice. “Besides,” she added quietly, a determined look setting into her eyes, “this was my idea.” She flew over to the panel showing her and the other Element bearers in their soft, circular frames. She ignored the images of her friends; she wasn’t really bothered by those.

No, she turned her ire to the one that showed her, its soft yellows and pinks looking dissonantly cheerful and heroic.

She bit her lip.

“Well, here’s what I think of that,” she murmured, and taking her marker, she drew a big X over it.

She had to admit, it felt kind of good to do that.

“Saaaaayyyy,” Discord said, suddenly appearing next to the pane, still clutching the wall vertically like a reptile, “I have a barstool that looks just like that.”

“With a big X over it?” Fluttershy teased.

“Hmm, now that you mention it, no.” Discord stroked his beard as if this was some sort of new revelation to him. “Do you think it’s an improvement?”

“And just what is going on in here?!”

The new voice bellowed in with such alarm and authority that Fluttershy and Discord dropped all three of their markers as they spun their heads around to the sound. It was Princess Celestia, standing in the doorway, her mouth slightly agape and her eyes quickly narrowing.

“Oopsie,” Discord said in a small voice. “Busted!” He and Fluttershy were suddenly outfitted with orange jumpsuits.

“Discord,” Celestia said, her mouth tight and her voice sounding as if she was only barely managing to keep from screaming, “do you mind explaining the meaning of this?”

“Well, since you asked, yes, actually, I do mind,” said Discord, shrugging offhandedly as the jumpsuits disappeared.

“These windowpanes are sacred. They tell of the history of Equestria to all who come through here, and all who will in the future. They are not to be tampered with!”

“Pish-posh. If you’re going to use that excuse you could at least have the decency to make them historically accurate.” Discord scoffed a bit. “I never held ponies by marionette strings. Now, I believe I did turn one or two into hand puppets at one time…”

“Wait!” Fluttershy spoke up, her voice coming out as almost a squeak. “Y-your Highness, this was actually my idea. I’m sorry. I’ll clean it all up.”

Celestia raised an incredulous eyebrow in Fluttershy’s direction. Discord also looked at her with surprise, as if he had been fully expecting her to let him take the fall for this.

After a few awkward moments of silence, Celestia finally found her voice, sounding only a smidgen less irritated compared to how she had addressed Discord. “Then would you care to explain just what this is all about, Fluttershy?”

“I, uh…” Fluttershy straightened her posture, her wings flapping more strongly as she found her resolve. “With all due respect, Your Highness, I don’t like your stained glass windows. Well, the ones that show me, at least. I wanted… well, in truth, part of me wants to destroy them. But since I know I shouldn’t do that… I thought I could deface them instead. Which I know I shouldn’t do that either,” she hastily added. “I was going to fix everything before we left, I promise.”

Celestia continued to regard Fluttershy with an expression of pure befuddlement, her eyes bulged out at uneven degrees. If the situation wasn’t so tense Fluttershy might have even laughed a bit at how funny she looked. The princess turned her attention to Discord, her glare now questioning, although no less befuddled.

Discord just shrugged. “Those are the facts as far as I know them, don’t expect any further clarification from me.”

Celestia looked back at Fluttershy. “May I ask why you dislike them so much?”

Fluttershy hesitated, her eyes growing wide. She was vaguely aware of the answer, true, but she’d never put it into words before even in her own mind, much less spoken out loud. Discord had never asked her why—he probably was completely unconcerned about something like reasoning, after all—which had given Fluttershy the luxury of avoiding having to explain herself.

Until now, of course.

“B-because…” Fluttershy’s voice faltered. Her tongue felt heavy and dry in her throat, and her wing flaps were slower and more labored now. Celestia simply waited, and even Discord was regarding her carefully, waiting for her answer. “Y-you said that these windowpanes are sacred.”

“Yes, I did,” Celestia said levelly.

“When—when I think about ponies walking through these halls, through this palace, and looking up and seeing me… even years, maybe centuries from now, they’ll still come through here and see me, as if… as if I’m somepony important, when I just want—I don’t want to be special.”

Two jarring sounds happened simultaneously at that. From Celestia, she exhaled through her nostrils with a somewhat surprised snort. And from Discord, a loud “Ha!” that sounded rather mirthless.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that, Fluttershy,” said Celestia, finally giving her the tiniest of smiles.

“As much as I hate to agree with Lester, she’s right,” added Discord. “That ship sailed a looooong time ago.” And he was on the ship suddenly sailing off down the hallway to demonstrate.

“It’s just… too much,” Fluttershy offered, shrugging awkwardly. “I never asked for any of this. And no, I wouldn’t change anything that led me to this point—everything I’ve been through has brought me closer to my friends… I probably wouldn’t even have any close friends if not for my adventures,” she admitted. “And if I’m really needed to save Equestria, then of course I’ll do whatever I need to do. But…” She looked back at the windowpanes, feeling her body ripple uneasily. “When I see myself in these panes… it’s just so much attention on me. And these panes will be here long after I’m gone, and ponies will still be looking at me and talking about me, when I just want to be… forgotten.”

The room fell quiet again. Celestia continued to regard Fluttershy with an expression that no longer looked angry, yet was still quite firm. Discord was also staring at her, no longer sailing away or doing anything remotely, well, Discord-ish. He was just standing there giving her a look of honest surprise and bewilderment.

Fluttershy gulped, suddenly feeling very heavy. Her wings flapped twice more but the weight in the silent air was too much for them, and she rather abruptly landed, her hooves hitting the floor with an echoing clicking sound.

Celestia stepped forward, approaching her.

“Thank you for telling me this, Fluttershy.”

Unsure how to respond to that, Fluttershy simply nodded meekly.

“Being a hero comes with many lofty expectations… even, as you rightfully stated, long after you are departed from this world. But it is then that your impact will be the most important. Perhaps, in a century or two, the fate of Equestria will lie in the hooves of a pony just like you. And perhaps the push she will need in order to believe in herself is seeing the proof of your success.”

Fluttershy sighed, her gaze falling to the ground. She knew Celestia was right… and it was kind of maddening how she always seemed to be right, even about unpleasant truths such as this.

“Besides,” Celestia continued, a slight chuckle in her voice, “a big X drawn through your portrait will only draw even more attention towards it.”

Fluttershy blushed in shame. “I’ll clean it up.”

She only just barely heard the slightest of snaps, but it was enough to make her jerk her head up in surprise. Discord was craning his neck towards the panes, an almost cheeky grin on his face. “Too late!”

Fluttershy and Celestia both turned quickly towards the panes as well, only to find them all looking exactly as they were supposed to look.

Celestia turned back to Discord, still with a small, thin smile on her face. “Charitable,” she said simply.

“Well, even though this was her idea, I’m the one who did most of the defacing,” Discord said, also keeping his smile. “I had to assuage my besmirched behavior somehow. She’s clearly a bad influence on me,” he added in an over-the-top stage whisper. “But don’t you worry, I can get her to see the error of her ways and reform her.”

Fluttershy blushed again, trying to hide her smile in her mane.

“I suppose now that everything’s cleaned up, we’re all done here,” said Celestia, turning away from them and walking back towards the door. Before exiting, however, she turned and gave both of them a firm stare. “This had better not happen again, though.”

Fluttershy frantically shook her head. “It won’t. I promise.”

Celestia smiled. “Then, Discord, I trust you can escort her home?”

“’Escort’ is such an ostentatious way to refer to it,” muttered Discord, raising his eagle talons in the air to snap.

Seeing this, Fluttershy blurted out as fast as she could, “Goodbye, Your—“

Snap!

“—Highness.”

They were back at her cottage. “That was fun,” exclaimed Discord, still grinning widely. “The most fun I’ve had since the plunder vines!”

“Fun” wasn’t exactly how Fluttershy would refer to either of those things, but her rumbling stomach redirected her thoughts. “Oh, gosh, I didn’t realize how late it was.” She looked up at Discord. “Would you like to stay for supper?”

“Oh, absolutely,” he said, regarding her fondly. “After that wonderful bout of delinquency, I’m famished!”

…

Fortunately, since Fluttershy had gone grocery shopping earlier that day, she had plenty of food. She prepared cucumber sandwiches for them, allowing Discord to add eraser shavings to his—and even trying a tiny bit in one of hers, which she had to admit wasn’t that bad. She also brewed some chamomile tea and set out a plate of sugar cookies she’d bought from Sugar Cube Corner earlier that week, with Discord showing his approval of the desert by gobbling up nearly all of them at once.

Their conversation didn’t focus on their graffiti escapade, much to Fluttershy’s relief. Instead, they chatted some more about setting aside a regular date to meet up for tea, solidifying the Tuesday afternoons she had suggested in her most recent letter (and with today being Saturday, this meant that it was only a few days away, which they were both excited to realize). Discord told Fluttershy all about a lagoon in Chaosville that sang opera whenever the temperature was too warm for its liking and sang Gregorian chants whenever it was too cold, and the trees near it that grew upside down, with tangled roots spreading out all over the sky. Fluttershy giggled out loud when he told her about a flugelhorn bird nesting in its roots that tried to harmonize with the singing lagoon and got splashed with its warm water for its troubles. In turn, Fluttershy told Discord about helping out Celestia earlier that day with the eagle and the statue. She worried that her own story was rather dull in comparison to his, but he listened very attentively, and laughed uproariously when he heard about the eagle pooping all over Celestia’s sculpture.

“I suppose it was kind of funny,” Fluttershy admitted, sipping the last bit of tea from her saucer. Her dinner plate was long since empty, as was Discord’s, and the plate of sugar cookies had only one left. “Messy, though. It took awhile to clean.”

“Kept you out of the hall of windows for a bit, at least,” said Discord, popping the last cookie into his mouth (literally, like a firecracker).

“Well… yes, I suppose so.” Fluttershy sat up and began gathering the used dishes. “Until later… of course.”

Discord stroked his beard in thought, a devious smirk crawling up his face. “Next time we partake in a little stained glass vandalism, I’m going to draw a flock of seagulls crapping all over Celestia’s mane.”

Fluttershy shook her head fiercely. “No, we’re not doing anything like that again. I mean it this time,” she added with a smirk at Discord’s incredulous chuckle. “I’ve gotten it out of my system.”

“Just as well,” said Discord with an amiable shrug, standing up from the couch. “You’re already too late, anyway.”

Fluttershy stopped, giving him a questioning look. “What do you mean by that?”

“Your whole quest to try to be unimportant and forgotten.”

“I…” Fluttershy blinked rapidly. She wanted to okay with this, she knew she had to be okay with this, but… it was going to take awhile. “I’ll come to terms with those stained glass windows someday.”

“No, I mean even without those windows.” Discord hesitated for a moment, his face softening into a thoughtful frown. Fluttershy waited as well, surprised at his sudden vulnerability.

“Because,” he finally continued, looking her directly in the eyes, “even if those windows never existed, I can tell you that centuries, even millennia from now… I will still remember you.”

Fluttershy drew in her breath, her throat growing dry.

And Discord suddenly brightened. “Well! See you on Tuesday, then!” And with a snap of his fingers, he was gone.

And left alone, Fluttershy weakly set the dirty dishes down on the coffee table, her heart pounding with surprise.

Chapter 1 Author's Note

I write My Little Pony fanfic now?! Sure, why not, nothing else makes sense anymore. Heck, I made a profile on this site and everything lol

I simultaneously have a lot to say about this fic and also don't even know what to say. When I started writing this I fully intended for it to be just a character study one-shot, and I have no flippin' clue how it ended up over 23,000 words. I'm also well aware of how huge the fandom for this show is, and I am aware that I'm most likely not breaking any new ground with this story, but hey, my muse wants what it wants (points at overly bloated word count as proof). Also, this fic isn't really a romance in any sense, but you should know that I do indeed ship Fluttercord to a very strong degree, and that probably made a little bit bleed through in this, sorry not sorry.

I, uh, hope someone other than me likes this lol.

This is cross-posted to FFN, AO3, and Fimfiction, so feel free to read it in whatever format you prefer!

Thanks for taking a look :)

Chapter 1

The day that changed Fluttershy’s life was warm and beautiful.

After a restless, lonely night (as all her nights were), she fixed herself a quick breakfast and strolled outside, relishing the perfect weather. The birds that had already gathered about her front door were in agreement with her—the blue jays, robins, cardinals, and sparrows wanted to tell her all about it.

Fluttershy flew up to them in their perch on the tree, smiling warmly, happy for the company. “Can you sing to me about the clouds today?” she asked.

The birds chirped in affirmation and began to sing sweetly, and Fluttershy closed her eyes in bliss.

With their beautiful music, she could almost forget how lonely she was.

She had animal friends, of course, and sometimes she told herself that animals made the best friends. But animals tended to not stay around for too long. Animals were sweet, yes. And she adored them. And they (usually) adored her.

But in her heart, Fluttershy knew that they weren’t quite the same as having a pony friend. A real friend.

And it was very hard for her to make friends. With ponies, anyway.

But, well, it could be worse, Fluttershy thought to herself. At least she had this lovely cottage and all these birds and rabbits and squirrels and butterflies and ladybugs and every other creature who came by her house, however briefly. At least she had something. “Your song is so beautiful,” she said to the birds as they finished their tune. “Do you have a song about spring flowers?”

But then, she heard the horrifying, unmistakable sound of somepony—someponies, from the sound of it—coming up the lane towards her cottage.

Fluttershy squeaked in terror, already feeling her body freeze up.

Oh, come on, Fluttershy! she thought to herself. They’re not even in sight yet and you’re already tensing up! Maybe today, finally, it’ll be somepony who you can actually befriend!

Two seconds later, however, Fluttershy realized that her anxiety was more than justified in this case.

Because it wasn’t just any ponies.

It was Princess Celestia and two of her guards.

Fluttershy absolutely froze in place, her wings only barely keeping her afloat.

“Oh my! What lovely singing!” said Celestia, stepping up closer towards the tree and looking up at the birds. Fluttershy trembled, trying to very discreetly float back down to the ground without being noticed, which was a bit difficult given how her wings had locked up along with the rest of her body. She had never seen the princess this close before. She was so much taller than she’d imagined. Her voice and face were kind, though.

Celestia looked at Fluttershy, still smiling and ignoring how awkwardly she’d hit the ground. “Are these your birds?”

Fluttershy tried to open her mouth to speak, fully aware that it was probably dreadfully rude to not respond to a direct question from the princess herself, but her shyness that made talking to even normal ponies difficult seemed to be amplified tenfold by actual royalty.

“Because,” Celestia continued, thoughtfully raising a hoof to her chin, “they might be able to help me with a problem I’ve encountered.” Her eyes flittered upwards for a moment, thinking, before focusing back on Fluttershy. “I’m sure you know about the upcoming Summer Sun Celebration, yes?”

Still unable to make any sort of noise, Fluttershy simply nodded.

“Are you already involved with it in any capacity?”

What a ridiculous question; being involved would involve talking to somepony and Fluttershy tended to avoid that if at all possible. She shook her head.

“Oh, wonderful! You see, I had the singer Tess Sparkleberry booked to do the music, but unfortunately her grandmother has taken ill and she had to go to Manehattan to care for her. Caring for a sick relative is of course far more important than a summer celebration, but we’ve been scrambling to find somepony to replace her. I know it’s short notice…” Celestia glanced up at the birds, still perched on their branch, and smiled again. “But I believe your birds would be wonderful at the ceremony. Do you think you could help?”

Fluttershy wanted to say a lot of things—like, for one, they weren’t really her birds, and also she was absolutely sure that there was no way an insignificant pegasus like her could possibly help out a princess. But, instead, she forced her wings to flap and moved back up towards the branch, in order to ask the birds, in a very quiet voice that she couldn’t raise any louder, “What do you think? Would you like to sing at… the princess’s ceremony?”

She hoped they said no.

But their chirps said otherwise, and, turning beet red, Fluttershy landed back down on the ground, forced herself to look Celestia in the eye, and nodded again.

Celestia beamed. “Wonderful!” She turned to one of her guards. “Sojourner, do you have the paperwork?”

“Right here, your highness.”

Celestia took it from her and handed them to Fluttershy. “This is your copy to keep with the schedule all in place. I’ll just need you to sign this page and hand it back so we have it on record.”

Fluttershy only quickly glanced over the fine print before hurriedly signing it, wanting to move as fast as possible before she inevitably convinced herself to change her mind. She handed it back to Celestia, trying her best to hide her face in her mane.

“Thank you so much for your help…” Celestia glanced at the signature before looking back at Fluttershy with a grateful smile. “Fluttershy. Equestria is in your debt.”

Oh surely it couldn’t be that important, could it?!

Celestia and her entourage carried on down the path, and it was only until Fluttershy could no longer hear even the slightest hoof on the ground that she was able to breathe again.

Before hyperventilating again.

“We… we have a lot of practicing to do!” she cried to the birds, who all twittered excitedly. She rummaged through the pages, finding the assigned music, begging her heartbeat to calm back down. Accolades and honor from the princess? Any other pony would probably be delighted, but not Fluttershy. She just wanted to crawl into the shadows and hide. But… too late for that now. She had given her word. And her signature.

“What have I gotten myself into?” she whispered to herself.

…

As it turned out, a very good thing.

It took a few days for that to become clear, though. But, looking back on it later on, with the benefit of retrospect… if Fluttershy hadn’t taken up the musical assignment, she wouldn’t have been at the celebration that fateful morning. And if she hadn’t been at the celebration that morning, she wouldn’t have witnessed the return of Nightmare Moon. Which, of course, was terrifying.

But if she hadn’t witnessed the return of Nightmare Moon, she wouldn’t have gotten better acquainted with Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie. She couldn’t say meet because technically she had met all of them before—she’d known Rainbow Dash as a filly, after all; she’d stopped by Sweet Apple Acres to buy apples from Applejack for some of her animal charges (and herself, of course); she’d bought pastries from Pinkie once or twice before (all while trying to avoid her incessant, cheerful questions); her path crossed with Rarity’s every so often; and even the newcomer Twilight she had met the previous day by chance.

But, when the six of them were thrust together by fate and happenstance, the most extraordinary thing happened.

Fluttershy made real friends.

Which ended up being absolutely essential, not only for her own emotional well-being, but also for Equestria as a whole, for when they faced Nightmare Moon, it was their friendship paired with the Elements of Harmony that were able to stop her reign of terror. And after witnessing the cruelty from Nightmare Moon that Fluttershy knew had to be some sort of cry for help, and seeing Princess Luna emerge—confused, remorseful, hurt—Fluttershy felt a sense of relief on a more personal level. Yes, saving Equestria was good and important, but she had also helped to save this princess from… herself.

The Elements of Harmony were quite clearly very powerful, and Fluttershy offered no objections when Celestia had taken them for safekeeping in her palace. Rainbow Dash had protested a bit, and Rarity was a bit saddened to lose such a fabulously beautiful necklace, but Celestia was firm in her decision.

“The Elements must be kept safe. They are our most powerful weapon.”

Fluttershy shuddered. She didn’t like to think of them as weapons.

“Do you really think there’ll be a need to use ‘em again?” Applejack asked.

“I sincerely hope not,” said Celestia gravely, “but one can never be too careful.”

Fluttershy shuddered again and resolved to not think about them anymore.

This is not to say that she didn’t continue to face situations that were a bit frightening, mind you. But with the help and encouragement from her friends, Fluttershy found that she was able to face nearly everything that life threw her way. And she was able to return the favor to her friends whenever they faced obstacles.

Plus, life was now… interesting. She realized, now that her life was so much fuller, that she hadn’t just been lonely before; she had also been bored. And while this new life of hers could definitely get a little scarier than what she’d lived before, she still wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was all worth it in the end. She’d made friends, true friends, for the first time in her life. And hopefully things would never get so dire that they’d have to use the Elements of Harmony ever again.

…

“I’ve called you here for a matter of great importance.”

The odd happenings with the weather… and the animals… and everything else… had made Fluttershy feel uneasy, true. But she didn’t really start to despair until Celestia called all of them to her palace.

Because that could only mean one thing.

Celestia needed them to use the Elements of Harmony again.

Fluttershy fell back a bit as Celestia and her friends pressed onward through the hallway. She had never been here before, and the current circumstances were making her wish that the pleasure of the visit had been indefinitely postponed. The stained glass windows were colorful and immense, bathing the hallway in a prism of tones, but the images depicted all seemed to show battles, or frightening encounters of some kind. Even the fact that most of them showed the frightening entities being vanquished did little to assuage Fluttershy’s unease.

But through her fear, she examined the one that currently bathed her in its unearthly glow, depicting a strange-looking, mismatched dragon-type creature, and the sinking pit in her stomach told her that it was this creature who was responsible for the chaos that had brought them there. That this was who Celestia expected them to defeat.

“It seems an old foe of mine, someone I thought I had defeated long ago, has returned.”

Please, don’t, Fluttershy pleaded inwardly, unable to take her eyes off of the disturbing figure in the stained glass. Please don’t make us do this again.

“His name… is Discord.”

Fluttershy let out a shriek and scampered back in line with her friends. Please please please I don’t want to do this again I DON’T WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN…

But no… she had to do this again. She had to wield the Elements. Because, as Celestia explained, and the stained glass window pane that no one had noticed until now displayed… the six of them were now bound to the Elements, not Celestia and Luna.

It was almost funny, but that stained glass pane that depicted her own form dismayed Fluttershy nearly more than everything else thus far.

Seeing that pane of her “defeating” Nightmare Moon, with a calm and serene expression that she certainly hadn’t had at the time, frozen for any and all onlookers to gaze upon, for years and years and years and… ages…

Fluttershy was so troubled by the thought that she almost forgot why they were there in the first place.

But as Celestia retrieved the case that contained the Elements, Fluttershy swallowed hard and forced the thoughts of the stained glass out of her mind. Now that they all knew more-or-less how the Elements worked, hopefully they’d be able to stop Discord in, like, ten seconds, and it would be such an all-around uneventful affair that no thought of a stained glass window commemorating the occasion would enter anypony’s mind.

The case opened… and it was empty.

Fluttershy’s heart nearly dropped right out of her chest.

No, actually, this was not going to be easy at all.

…

She wasn’t sure how they did it, but after every terrible thing Discord did to them, they still managed to find the Elements—and rediscover their true selves, too.

It was like waking up from a nightmare only to end up in another nightmare, honestly. Fluttershy could hardly believe the horrible things she’d done and said to her friends while under Discord’s… rewriting of her personality.

There was no sugar-coating it—Fluttershy wasn’t scared anymore. She was just angry.

But, as she and her friends activated their Elements, as their power lifted them into the air, she did her best to push her anger down—if only for a moment. She wondered how Discord would act after the Elements worked their magic on him. Would he be remorseful? Petulant? Giddy? Would everything turn back to normal on its own, or would he have to do it himself? And how easy would it be for Fluttershy to forgive him, after what he’d done to them? –No, no, now was not the time to think about that…

The power and light shot from their Elements, and Fluttershy nearly winced at Discord’s terrified scream. Okay, so he probably wouldn’t be giddy… She kept her eyes shut, not wanting to open them until it was over.

When the stream of magic finally ended, she opened them… and nearly fell out of the sky.

This wasn’t at all like the first time.

Because, instead of the first time, when they had freed Princess Luna from herself, when they had helped her, when she had emerged from the magic of the Elements as a changed, benevolent pony…

…this time, they just turned Discord to stone again.

“Alright! We did it! WOO HOO!” Rainbow Dash crowed, flying triumphant cartwheels in the air.

“Equestria is saved!” declared Rarity.

“Great job, girls!” praised Twilight, grinning from ear to ear.

And as the five of them celebrated their victory amongst themselves, none noticed the small, horrified look on Fluttershy’s face as she gaped at their handiwork. At the very much not reformed Discord, trapped again in a stone prison, in a position that looked exceedingly uncomfortable, and already tipped over onto the ground unceremoniously.

And none heard the forlorn whisper that escaped her lips at the sight.

“We failed…”