And Show Her Every Wonder
Discord took a deep breath through his nose, then exhaled through his mouth, watching his warm breath steam out, only to be torn apart by the wind. While a small magical mote of flame was bobbing behind him, generating a magical field that shielded them from the worst of the cold and wind, there was still a chill in the air, and the snow was thick.
"Discord, are we almost there?" Fluttershy asked from behind him. He turned around. She was taking very large steps through the thick snow. Her thick boots, scarf, and coat might have been slowing her down, or maybe she was just moving so slowly because of the blindfold he had tightly tied around her eyes.
"Very nearly!" he said cheerfully, stomping the snow in front of him. Her ears perked and swiveled towards him, and she corrected her path slightly as she kept walking forward. "I think I might have finally found the perfect spot. Trust me, this will be the best surprise of your life!"
"You're sure you can't...give me a hint as to what it is?" she said, flapping her wings slightly to get a little closer to him. "You've been talking it up so much, but I don't even know where we are..."
"No hints!" he said, pacing in place and trying to find the perfect angle. "It's our first anniversary, and my marefriend deserves an amazing surprise! Telling you about it would ruin the perfection of it."
He paced around a bit more before adding, "I can promise it's a nice surprise, though. And I could tell you where we are, if you want to know that."
"It'd be nice to know," she said. "This snow is really thick...are we in the Frozen North?"
He chuckled a little. "Well, we're pretty far north, and the area is frozen, so that's not a bad guess...but no. We're actually much farther in the snowy tundra than the area you ponies labeled as the 'Frozen North'."
She stumbled on her next step, and he quickly teleported to her side, catching her before she faceplanted in the snow. "Really?" she said as he gently set her back on her hooves, kissing her forehead. "But...I didn't think anyone knew anything about anywhere further than the Frozen North! Except maybe Pinkie through her journeys in Yakyakistan..."
"And we're even farther than her travels ever took her," Discord said, guiding her a few more steps to the left. Ah, that was a bit better. "We're so far north that we're off any and every map. So far north, we're standing on a patch of snow that, as far as I know, has only seen myself and windigos as travelers."
He tightened the scarf around her neck, sending in another spark of magic that would keep her comfortably warm (even if he had already enchanted it enough to last another decade or so). "So far north, I can show you a beautiful sight that nopony has ever, ever seen before," he whispered.
“Oh…oh my,” she said with a small gasp. He smiled and flicked a couple of snowflakes out of her cold mane, briefly scratching behind her ear and making her smile.
He looked up at the sky above him. Though it was filled with quite a few clouds, he could see beyond them with his magic. He held his hands up like a picture frame, sticking his tongue out to judge the sky, before nodding in satisfaction.
"We're here," he said, turning towards Fluttershy and grabbing the knot of the blindfold. "You ready?"
"I think so," she said.
"Then...look up!" he said, whisking the blindfold off of her head. At the same time, he gestured towards the sky, creating a gust of wind that blew all the clouds away.
Fluttershy tilted her head up as her eyes opened...and gasped.
With no clouds, this was probably one of the clearest patches of sky in the world. No magic or light pollution, no alicorns twisting the rays of light to change what views ponies would be able to see…this was probably the purest night sky he knew of.
The sky was so dark and inky black that they could see every single star in the sky. They filled the entire space, shining brightly against the darkness, forming beautiful twisting and swirling patterns, or clumping together in bunches. A few shone more brightly than others, and the star directly above them shone brightest of all, like some sort of leader to the stars.
To top it all off, once Fluttershy had a second to see the stars in all their glory, the gleaming aurora borealis filled the sky.
He heard the breath rush out of her lungs, and turned to see her reaction. Her jaw had dropped, and her eyes were so wide that he could see the night sky clearly shining in her pupils. Her legs trembled underneath her, and after a few moments, she fell backward into the snow, her limbs sprawling out. All of her attention was still focused on the beautiful sight above.
After taking a moment to adjust the flame mote to make the area a little warmer, he grinned and sat down next to her. "I take it you like it?"
"Uh...Uh-huh," she said, giving a small nod. All of her attention was still on the sky.
He smiled. He had seen sights like this enough times that, while they were still amazing, the powerful wonder and awe had long since worn off. But seeing that amazement in her eyes as she saw it for the first time...it filled him with a surge of joy and pride that almost rivaled that feeling.
For a moment, his mind raced. How many other "first experiences" did he have that he could share with her? The first time he had wandered the surface of another planet, the first time he explored the darkest depths of the ocean, the first time he had ridden a comet across the night sky...
But he quickly blinked, filing those ideas away for later and bringing his thoughts back to the present. There was plenty of time to do all of those. But right now? Fluttershy was seeing one of the most beautiful night skies on this planet, and he didn't want to miss a second of that.
Her pupils were wide, fully focused on the stars and the aurora. He snapped up a steaming mug of hot chocolate with a dollop of marshmallow fluff on top. He snapped a no-spill plastic lid on it before pressing it into her hooves. “To keep you warm,” he said in a whisper, doing his best to not distract her.
“Thanks,” she said absentmindedly, holding it close to her chest. After a few more stunned seconds, she slowly raised to it her lips and sipped. She wasn't paying much attention, so a good amount of it spilled across her muzzle instead of into her mouth, even with the cap. Discord chuckled.
"I love you," he said, reaching over to dab some of the liquid off with a silk handkerchief.
“…love you, too,” she said, letting the cup rest against her chest again. “Thank you.”
Discord smiled, vanishing the handkerchief before staring up at the sky with his hands under his head. It was an amazing sight, he mused as a few shooting stars streaked across the sky, making Fluttershy gasp in delight. And he’d be sure to show her many, many more such sights.
