Seeing the Light

Chapters

Prologue
The dashing Draconequus rogue
Something that I Want
Outside the Tower for the first time
The Snuggie Bunny
Escaping the guards
Mother Knows Best
An Unlikely Ally
Visiting the Kingdom
All at Once, Everything is Different
For Love
Love conquers All
Epilogue
When Will My Life Begin

Prologue

A long time ago, in the land that would one day be known as Equestria, a war was raged between bug-like creatures called changelings and the ponies that lived there.

The changeling's queen, Chrysalis, refused to surrender to what, to her, was simply food. Changelings feed on love, and this land had more love than anywhere else she's ever been, so conquering it would give them more food than they could ever eat.

She was a cruel queen, even to her own subjects, forcing them to battle under the false pretense that changelings can only take love by force.

Unfortunately for the queen, her rule would not last. One changeling, Thorax, found out that they didn't have to drain love by force, but instead share it. As he never wanted to fight in the first place, he made an alliance with the ponies. Once the other changelings heard of this development, they, not wanting to follow in their queen due to her being a tyrant of a ruler, joined Thorax's side and made him their king. The queen was overthrown, banished and left alone to live out the rest of her days alone and starving. She vowed revenge, though she honestly didn't know how.

Several hundred years later, after Equestria had been established, the Pegasus Kingdom was excited by the news that the King and Queen, Whisper Willow and Gentle Heart, were expecting their first child. Whisper and Gentle were beyond overjoyed by the news themselves and couldn't wait for their foal to be born. The news soon reached the starving Chrysalis and she thought that now it'd been long enough that most ponies had forgotten of her existence, she could sneak into Equestria and properly plot her vengeance. Still, not wanting to be caught, she disguised herself, using her changeling powers of shapeshifting, into a pony with a long black cloak.

Soon, the foal was born. She was a filly with a buttery yellow coat, a soft pink mane and tail, and shimmering teal eyes. Even as a newborn, her mane and tail were long, long enough for her mane to nearly cover her eye. The King and Queen were beyond in love with their daughter. They held a ceremony to showcase their pride and joy to the world, announcing her to the world as Fluttershy, Princess of Kindness. Upon attending the ceremony, the disguised ex-queen felt a strong surge of love, more than any she ever felt before, coming from the tiny filly. It seemed impossible, but the princess had the purest heart, unable to be corrupted by hate, and had what seemed to be an unlimited supply of unconditional love available to all she could give it to, and only as a filly. Chrysalis realized that if she could just steal some of that love, she could gain enough power to rival the legendary Princess Celestia herself. Who needed an army when she could take on the mighty Princess Celestia and win on her own? She had to have this filly's love, no matter the cost.

Later that night, Chrysalis flew to the castle disguised as a fly and snuck into the bedroom window where the king, queen, and princess were sleeping. The princess was peacefully sleeping in a golden baby crib, wrapped in a pink blanket. Chrysalis quickly turned back into herself once verifying that the king and queen were asleep, though still wearing the cloak, and she tried to steal her love but found that she was unable to get as much as she hoped from a single feeding. The princess' heart, while flowing with nothing but love, only gave small douses when she tried to steal her power by force like she usually does. Her magic was being boosted, but not as much as she initially presumed.

This is problematic, she thought. While this filly was her best chance of gaining the kingdom of Equestria, she couldn't get enough of her power in one single sitting to make her unstoppable. So she did what she saw as the best option, steal the filly. Sure, she hated kids, but what else was she to do, just leave her biggest source of power behind and continue to starve?

Whisper Willow and Gentle Heart woke up to the sound of their baby crying and woke up, seeing a mysterious cloaked figure fly out the window with their crying daughter in its hoof. They were devastated. They asked everyone they could to search high and low for the kidnapped princess. Celestia even said she'd help find the young princess. But they couldn't find her and the king and queen's hearts broke at the idea that their daughter was lost forever.

Not wanting to give up hope, they started a tradition where, every year on Fluttershy's birthday, they send dozens of sky lanterns with patterns of butterflies on them in the hopes that their daughter would see them and come home.

The reason they couldn't find Princess Fluttershy was because Chrysalis had taken her to a rundown tower, hidden by a waterfall. Chrysalis planned to raise the princess as her daughter and keep her until she was strong enough to take over, then kill her when the princess' usefulness has run out.

She knew that it'd be unlikely to convince the filly that a changeling was her mother, so she used her shapeshifting powers to turn herself into a pony, a different form from the one she used to sneak into Equestria. Her new form was a tall slender unicorn mare with a dark crimson red mane and tail and a dark brown coat. The only give away for her true form was her eyes being the same shade of green.

She also changed Fluttershy's name to Posey to keep her true identity away from her and spent years feeding the child lies about the outside world and making it seem terrifying. As a result, the filly became shy and anxious and promised to stay in the tower for the rest of her life.

Every day, Chrysalis tried stealing more of her love, but only got a small boost of power each time she tried. She soon found that the most effective way of boosting her power was stealing it while the princess sang. It still wasn't as much as she wanted, but she grew stronger faster than before, so she adjusted her plan slightly. Every day, she'd try to convince her 'daughter' to sing with her, and although Posey was nervous about her singing voice, she'd usually sing eventually to please her.

Though the little pegasus loved her 'mother' and was frightened by the outside world, she was also fascinated by it, and often stared out the window in the castle to view the big, bright and beautiful world. As she grew older, she only hoped that one day, she'd be able to head out on her own, see the world, and maybe even check out those lights that seem to go off every year on her birthday.

Author's Note

I wanted to write my first actual story based fic around the time of February, the month of love, and thought "I don't think I've seen a Tangled Fluttercord AU story on Fimfiction, so I'll do it myself". Tangled is one of my favorite of the CG animated Disney films and outta all of the Disney Princes and Princesses, I think Eugene and Rapunzel are the best fit for Fluttercord.

I added my headcanon names for Mr. and Mrs. Shy in this story, Whisper Willow (Mrs. Shy) and Gentle Heart (Mr. Shy). I personally don't know why they never got proper names in the series, but I guess that just means we can have fun with the names, I suppose.

I changed the backstory and the villain's motivations in this fic, not only to not try and make it a carbon copy of the Disney movie, but also to better fit the MLP universe and allow Fluttershy to keep her normal hair color.

The form that Chrysalis takes when rearing Fluttershy as her "daughter" isn't that of any canon character, just my own design. And yes, the name Posey given to Fluttershy is a reference to her G1 inspiration.

The dashing Draconequus rogue

Meanwhile, the Pegasus Kingdom was still mourning the loss of Princess Fluttershy, even after King Gentle Heart and Queen Whisper Willow had a son named Zephyr Breeze a few years after her capture. They had a crown all set up for her for when she reached the proper age, but is now currently guarded by numerous guards. On top of the castle's roof, there was a brown earth pony named Caballeron and his main companions, a pair of unicorns known as the Flim Flam Brothers. They decided to go for theft after they heard of the Pegasus Kingdom and the crown that could sell for millions.

"Ugh, why am I here?" said a deep voice from behind them. They all turned and saw their newest accomplice, a being known as Discord.

He was a strange looking creature called a draconequus, not a single part of him matched with another. His head and neck were grey while his body was brown. His head was that of a pony and he has two appendages on the top of his head, his right one the antler of a deer and the left being the curling blue horn of an unidentifiable ungulate. His ears were floppy goat ears, one being slightly higher set on his head than the other. He had a large fang jutting from his mouth. His fluffy eyebrows and goat-like beard were pure white while his mane was jet black.

His right arm was that of a lion paw, while his left was an eagle talon. He had two wings on his back, his right wing being a purple bat wing, while his left wing was a blue pegasus wing. He stood on his two hind legs, unlike the quadrupedal ponies he was associating with, his right leg being a green reptilian claw, while his left was the hoof of a goat. His tail was a red snake tail with pink spines lining the top of it and he had a white feathered tail tuft at the end.

Despite his mismatched appearance, the most striking thing about him were his eyes. He had golden sclera and ruby red pupils, with one pupil being larger than the other. He almost always had an intense look in his eyes thanks to this color combination.

And right now, he had a rather bored looking expression on his face.

The trio looked at each other briefly before turning their gaze back to the draconequus before Flim spoke, "Well, we needed some assistance, and who better to help than the legendary Lord of Chaos? You'll be able to steal this crown before they knew what hit them."

Flam stepped forward to try and sweeten the deal further, his red mustache bouncing as he talked. "This crown is worth an absolute fortune to the right buyer and we'll generously pay you a strong cut of our earnings if you do your job correctly."

They both smiled, hoping that was enough to convince him. It was hard enough to try and get him to the castle in the first place.

Discord rolled his eyes before saying, "Really? A crown is what you're after? While I could steal the crown rather easily, I don't really see a reason for me to do that. I have no use for monetary gain, after all." He snapped his talon and bits rained on top of him.

Caballeron pushed past the Flim Flam brothers and walked to the draconequus before stating, "Listen, you despise royalty, right?" Discord nodded, thinking bitterly of his encounters with Celestia before Caballeron continued. "I do as well, so if you do this, that'll be a major blow to this royal family. It is said this crown here belonged to a princess that was lost as a baby. Losing such a precious artifact will certainly cause some good old chaos."

Discord's frown soon turned into a devilish smirk as soon as he heard the word "chaos". He loved causing, well, discord among any creature, especially royal goody two shoes who saw themselves as above it all.

Granted, he wasn't messing with Celestia, but it was almost as good, and that was good enough for him.

Admittedly, his heart twisted slightly at the thought of this crown belonging to a lost filly princess, but odds are that, if she was stolen as a baby and hadn't returned yet, she was either dead or the ponies who stole her weren't going to give her back.

Or perhaps she didn't want to come back after finding out the truth. Can't say I blame her if that's the case, he thought to himself.

He stretched, creating some abnormal noises from his joints before walking forward.

"Stand aside, ponies. Let the master of chaos handle this." They rolled their eyes at the draconequus' ego, but said nothing. Very few beings could give Celestia a run for her money (and numerous headaches from said encounters), so he was their best shot at stealing the crown.

He lower himself down by the skylight by using his tail like a rope and as he descended down, he noted that all the guards were, unsurprising for the Pegasus Kingdom, all pegasi. He grabbed the crown with his paw and thought how easy it was.

But to be truly chaotic, he thought, spooking the guards is a must. One of guards sneezed and he took his chance.

"Feather flu, huh?" He asked in a casual manner, as if he wasn't stealing the crown.

The guard responded, "Yeah, real pain. It seems to be going around." The guard suddenly realized the voice wasn't of any of his stallions and it was coming from above and behind him, right where the crown is. He turned around and saw Discord casually leaning against the pillar, crown in paw with a smirk on his face.

Discord saluted with his talon as he joked, "Welp, I'm on break. See ya later, captain." and reeled himself into the air back through the skylight before they could stop him.

The guards ran to the king and queen, interrupting their meeting with the delegates from the Crystal Empire. "Your majesties, the crown has been stolen." Willow and Gentle Heart gasped at this before turning to their friends from the Crystal Empire to apologize.

Before they could, Princess Cadence, a tall pink alicorn mare with a purple, pink and yellow mane and tail, said, "No need to apologize. In fact, why don't I have my sister-in-law, Twilight Sparkle, help track the bandits down?" The king and queen were apprehensive, but eventually accepted the help. Twilight Sparkle, a much shorter alicorn with a lavender coat and a dark purple mane and tail, stood tall.

"Don't worry, your highnesses. I've had special training from Princess Celestia herself. They won't know what hit them." She bowed to them before turning the guards. "Stallions, let's head out."

Caballeron, the brothers and Discord were all running down the bridge that left the kingdom and towards the forest on the border of the kingdom. Discord had stuffed the crown into a satchel whose strap was wrapped on his shoulder.

And he was laughing the whole way.

"Oh, sweet chaos, did you see the look on his face? He didn't realize he was being swindled until it was too late. I haven't laughed like that in a while."

Caballeron smiled in response. "Fantastic deception, Discord."

Film and Flam were decidedly less impressed.

"Do you really have to alert them to our presence? We could've snook in and out without them noticing the missing crown for hours. Why did you do that?" Flim asked.

Discord smirked as he responded. "Chaos, my dear boy. Chaos."

Twilight teleported herself and the guards to the forest. "We are gonna cut them off at the pass and capture them, alive. The king and queen want the bandits unharmed so they may face the appropriate punishment. Is that clear?" Twilight commanded.

"Yes, ma'am," the guards responded before they all spread out. The thieves were running down the path before a hoard of guards blocked their path.

"Welp, we're boned." Flam said in terror. Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his paw. A big trap door opened on the dirt path. The guards, stunned by this, fell without even trying to fly out of the pit. The door closed up and the misfit crew resumed running down the way they came.

More guards came out, this time from all sides and it was Caballeron's turn to kick butt. He punched and kicked his way through the lot of them, knocking them out with little effort. He had experience in hoof to hoof combat, much more so than the others in his group. The Film Flam brothers started firing spells from their horns, getting a good dozen themselves. Soon, they were defeated.

"Let's keep going, eh, Discord?" Caballeron asked. No response. "Discord?" He looked around and found that the draconequus was gone.

During the ambush, Discord was somehow separated from the group, currently being chased by a pair of guards. Discord soon realized what was happening and, upon berating himself on letting this last as long as it had, he stopped running, jumped off the path and snapped his paw. The dirt floor became slippery butter. The guards started sliding past the draconequus, who was waving a tissue at them before the two of them crashed into the rocky wall before them. Discord cringed at the impact. He snapped his paw again and the dirt path was returned to normal.

"Well, I suppose I should return to my partners in crime and help them out." He thought for a second longer before walking away from the others. "Oh, I'm sure I'll find them later. I never did like them, anyhow. Besides, that Caballeron fellow can probably take care of himself. Not sure about the other two, but it's not like I care." His monologue was interrupted when he heard a horn ready to cast a spell at his back. He raised his hands in surrender.

Of course I get caught by the one unicorn guard they seem to have. Not like they'll be a match for me, but it's just my luck. Or lack of luck, I suppose. Discord turned around to face the pony ready to fire at him. Once he saw who it was, however, he smirked.

"Well, if it isn't Princess Twilight. Personal prodigy of Celestia herself. Sister-in-law of Princess Cadence and sister to Prince Shining Armor. Whatever did I do for you to bask in my presence?"

Twilight's face hardened once she saw his face. "Discord, I should've known you'd be shifty enough to try something so underhanded." Her eyes narrowed at the bag around his body. "The crown's in the bag, isn't it?"

Discord gasped. "Why, Twilight, how dare you accuse me of such horrid crimes. I may enjoy chaos and disharmony, but I'm no common low life thief. I'm almost hurt by your accusation. And here I thought we were friends." Discord said while fluttering a pair of eyelashes he magically grew to complete his innocent facade.

Twilight stared at him in disbelief before she yelled, "In what universe were we ever friends?! You're crazy!"

Discord simply smirked. "I thank you for the compliment, but I'd prefer bonkers or perhaps insane. Really, Twilight, for a supposed nerdy bibliophile, you never seem to crack open a thesaurus."

A thesaurus fell from the sky and landed on her head before landing on the ground in front of her. It opened up and the page it landed on had her name in it along with a bunch of synonyms for her, 'buzzkill, nerd, useless princess, Celestia's obedient little puppy' and so on. Twilight was currently red in the face from anger.

Discord took great pride that he managed to make the great "Princess of Friendship" so annoyed.

"Well, anyway, I enjoyed this little chat, but I really must be off."

He teleported away as Twilight yelled in anger, "Diiiiscorrrrd!!!!"

Author's Note

Time for Discord's introduction into the story. Soon he will be meet his darling Fluttershy/Posey. How will their first meeting go? Who knows, but I bet it'll be cute.

Caballeron and the Flim Flam brothers are the Stabbington Brothers. I originally thought of just having the Flim Flam brothers for this role, but then I remembered Caballeron's existence and realized he fits almost perfectly for the role, so he's the leader of the gang here in this story.

Oh, and Zephyr? He doesn't really have that much of a role since in Tangled, Rapunzel was an only child, but I felt like I couldn't leave him out of the Fluttershy family, so he'll probably get mentioned here and there, but he won't be in it too much.

And yes, Twilight is Maximus in this story. Discord and Twilight's interactions in the show remind me a lot of Flynn and Maximus. It was too perfect not to cast her in the role. Sorry you're the horse, Twi. :facehoof:

Something that I Want

Discord reappeared in a random part of the forest right by a waterfall. He still had the smirk on his face from his messing with Twilight. He had a couple run-ins with her in the past, and she might've been ever more fun to mess with than Celestia. It took a lot to get Celestia to show her annoyance, but Twilight showed it right away, and it was satisfying.

He noticed a flash of purple light out of the corner of his eye and he knew Twilight had teleported as well.

Convenient that you managed to teleport into my area, Miss Sparkle. Too bad for you I'm not going to be here for much longer.

Discord cast an invisibility spell onto himself and dove past the waterfall just as a fuming Twilight came forward. He continued watching as Twilight walked past. He could even hear her muttering about how annoying he is, which made him smirk.

Once she seemed to be out of sight, he finally took notice of the cave he found himself in. There was a light emanating down the cave's path. He shrugged and headed down.

Not like I have anything better to do. Besides, gives me enough time to evade the grape princess.

Discord soon made it out the cave and found himself in a meadow full of animals. Ugh, all the cutesy animals are enough to make one gag. He then took notice of a massive lone tower.

Sweet Chaos, it looks like it hasn't been used in ages. A perfect place to hide until this mess blows over.

He walked towards the dilapidated tower and took off his invisibility spell, causing the animals to notice and flee from him. He rolled his eyes. It's not like this was the first time that's ever happened to him. Animals often fled from his bizarre appearance. He didn't much care for them either, so he didn't mind what they thought.

He made it to the tower and saw the door was about the only thing on this tower that wasn't old. It looked roughly 20 years old at most compared the tower that looked half a century old at the least.

He rolled his eyes and teleported straight to the top floor. After all, who needs doors and stairs when one can teleport all the way to the top?

Once inside, he couldn't help but notice all the fresh furniture and other items, as if someone was living here.

This better not be that cliche with the princess trapped in a tower. I so don't wanna deal with it. He saw a basket of mostly untouched blueberry muffins and helped himself to one, swallowing it in one gulp, wrapper and all. He then remembered his satchel and took out the crown.

"So you're the tacky crown that everyone is going nuts over." He said quietly to himself.

And then pain reverberated through his skull and the world went black.

The strange mismatched beast fell to the floor as Posey shakily stood on her hind legs wielding a frying pan in her front hooves. She woke up having heard some noises coming from the main room and thought it was mother coming home early. Once she saw the beast, she silently squeaked in fear before grabbing the nearest thing she could use to incapacitate it, which happened to be said frying pan, and smacked it behind the head.

Now that the creature was out cold, she fell backwards onto her back, dropping the pan and whisper screamed to Angel, "Angel, what is that?! I've never seen anything like it!" Angel only shrugged. Posey looked back over to the strange beast.

It was clearly sentient, as evident by her hearing it mumble to itself before she hit it. But none of her books had ever described this creature before.

Most creatures that looked chimeric were usually only two or three animals mixed together and were pretty symmetrical regardless of their chimeric quality.

This thing was neither. None of that really mattered though, as she had to make sure it wasn't a threat to herself or Angel.

She stood up on four legs, grabbed the frying pan with her hoof and sneaked towards the beast to get a closer look.

A good part of its anatomy was composed of carnivorous creatures and it even had a large fang jutting from its mouth. While that fact made her gulp, she also noted an almost equal number of herbivorous qualities. She pulled back its lips and observed that the teeth inside the mouth were mostly the molars of a pony, though she spotted the carnassials of a lion as well, making it an omnivore.

The thing that started easing her fear was the beast's head.

It was clearly that of a pony and looked somewhat attractive. She kept staring at its face in intrigue, wondering about its eyes in particular. They were closed, so she couldn't tell what color they were or if they were mismatched like the rest of the body.

The beast started groaning, clearly waking up. She squealed and knocked it out with the frying pan again. She wasn't ready for it to wake up yet. She needed more time.

It was then she noticed something shiny on the ground and picked it up. It looked like jewelry of some kind. It looked pretty, but she was never much for jewelry, so she'd likely never wear it. It was mostly gold with a green vine pattern around the rims and a teal jewel in the shape of a butterfly was in the center. She quickly glanced at her cutie mark and noted it and the jewel were the same shape. She looked back at the beast.

What would that creature want with this? she thought. After a minute or two of pondering about the beast's motives, she couldn't come up with anything concrete.

Posey looked at Angel and said, "Angel, can you find some rope, please? We, um, need to tie it up so we can safely talk to it when it wakes up." Angel saluted and went to find some rope.

While he was gone, Posey looked over towards the mirror in the room and saw the jewelry in her hoof. She wasn't sure why, but she has the strange urge to put it on. She lifted it up and placed it on her head, the jewel facing front and center.

It was clearly a crown of some sort and she noted how much it made her look like a princess, a thought that made her smile. A princess could do what she wanted to do, when she wanted to do it without fear of being stopped. She's read a couple fairy tales her mother had given her, and Posey was always slightly envious of the princesses in those stories.

Locked away in a tower like her, but eventually found and freed by a handsome stallion in shining armor, whom the princesses fell in love with and married as soon as they returned home.

It was a nice romantic thought, but she realized a long time ago that they were just stories after all.

For heaven’s sake, the guy who bursted into the tower just now wasn't a pony, let alone a stallion.

Still, it was a nice thought.

She took off the crown and helped Angel, who had returned with the rope, to tie up the asymmetrical beast.

Discord woke up to a throbbing pain at the back of his head. As he woke up, he noticed he couldn't move, so he looked down and saw himself tied to a chair in rope. Someone actually managed to get the jump on him! He might've been more impressed if he didn't still have his magic. Still, for the time being, it might be fun to let who captured him think they have control. He saw something white in his peripheral vision, and turned to see a bunny standing on the table nearby, glaring at him with the most intense look he'd ever seen a rabbit pull. It actually caused shivers down his spine.

"St-stay where you are!", called out a voice from the darkness. "I'm n-not af-afr-afraid of y-you." Discord looked towards the darkness and, having been recently knocked out, he couldn't see properly, as he had perfect night vision ordinarily. Discord rolled his eyes at the voice's pathetic attempt to sound tough.

"Really? Well, then why are you in the dark? Why don't you come out here if you really aren't scared of me?" Discord said. The voice squeaked in fear before stepping forward. Once she was in the light, Discord couldn't help but gawk. She was the most beautiful mare he had ever seen! Her soft buttery yellow coat, her long legs, her delicate looking wings, her long, lustrous light pink locks, and those absolutely gorgeous teal eyes!

Sure, she was a little plump in the midriff, but he didn't mind. She still seemed to be blessed by the creators to be absolutely gorgeous. Even her cutie mark seemed perfect for such a delicate looking mare. He'd never seen anyone like her.

He soon snapped himself out of it, though. Sure, she was pretty, but he's seen other supposed pretty females of all species. Just cause she seemed to stand out didn't mean anything. He certainly didn't like her romantically. As he learned a very long time ago, love, like all things warm and fuzzy, isn't real, and no mare, no matter how blessed by the creators in appearance she may be, is gonna change his mind on that.

The mare spoke. "Who are you? What are y-you? How d-did you get here? And w-why are you here?" Discord inwardly smirked at the mare's "bravery". Really, does this mare think she actually incapacitated the Lord of all things chaos? And despite that belief, she looked half ready to faint. This mare was definitely not Twilight Sparkle, which he supposed was a good thing.

He replied, "Oh, you wouldn't want to hear all about my escapades. It's rather long and arduous. As far as who I am, I'm surprised you haven't heard of me. That does hurt my ego slightly, but as you appear to be locked in a tower away from the world, I forgive you for not knowing who I am." He lowered his head and neck, trying to imitate a bow while still tied up. "The name's Discord, renown Lord of Chaos and Disharmony. The prevailer of pandemonium. Bringer of bedlam and doom. I also do stand up in the weekends." The mare blinked in response, having no clue what to say to that.

"Okay, Discord..." Discord's heart skipped a beat when he heard her sweet voice say her name. Her voice was like the soft baa of a lamb or perhaps the gentle flowing of the sweetest river of honey.

Great, not only is her appearance jaw dropping, but her voice is making my stomach do backflips. Are the creators mocking me or something?

"Why are you in my home?" Discord shook his head of these strange thoughts before he responded.

"Oh, this is your home?! I must say, from what I saw before you conked me on my poor cranium, it looks nice. Kinda spacious for just one pony and her lagomorph, though, is it? At any rate, I was running and came across your tower. It looked abandoned, so I decided to hide here until I knew it was safe and leave. Let me ask you this, though? Are you, by any chance, a pretty little princess locked in a tower by a horrible monster or warlock, waiting for a dashing knight to save you? Cause I'll tell you now, I hate that cliche. Too sappy."

The mare looked down almost sadly before saying, "No, me, my bunny Angel and my m-mother live here."

Discord sighed in relief. "Thank Chaos. At any rate, what's your name?"

The mare jumped at his request. "Um, excuse me?"

"Well, I told you my name, so it's only fair you tell me yours, my dear." The mare blushed at him calling her 'my dear' before she looked down to the floor, allowing her mane to cover her face.

Kinda cute, I suppose. he thought, before she answered and even with his amazing hearing, he still had to strain to hear her words.

"P-posey. My n-name is Posey." Discord was almost disappointed. The name sounded far too bland for such a gorgeous mare, but he took what he got.

"Well, Posey, if you don't mind, I'm going to find my satchel and get out of your cotton candy colored mane. It'll be like I was never here. What do you say?"

Posey looked over to Angel who made a gesture over towards him and made some squeaking sounds while she whispered to him, trying to keep the conversation inconspicuous. Discord rolled his eyes. Clearly, this mare was insane if she was taking advice from a bunny.

She turned back and said, "Alright. I'll give you back your satchel if you promise to take me to those lights the kingdom across the way does every year on my birthday. It's happening tomorrow, and I really want to see it. So, do have a deal?" Discord stared in disbelief at her. She wanted to make a deal? With him? He had just gotten out of a stupid deal with Caballeron and the moronic Flim Flam brothers, and now this mare wanted something from him in exchange for the satchel? The creators were mocking him, he sweared. And if she wanted to see that stupid lantern thing the Pegasus Kingdom did every year, why hasn't she gone before?

He raised his eyebrow at her before responding, "So, you wanna make a deal with me?" She nodded in response. He rolled his eyes as he said, "Of course, this can't be easy for either of us, can it?" He snapped his talon and the rope turned to glitter.

Posey gasped at this. "H-how did you-" Discord interrupted her as he stood up and brushed off the glitter on his fur. "You should've payed attention when I called myself the Lord of Chaos. I can do anything. Breaking free from rope is child's play compared to some of the things I've done, my dear. I was merely humoring you into thinking you had control of the situation." Posey held her frying pan in front of her to try and defend herself while Angel put up his fists. Discord folded his arms as he saw this.

"Oh, please. That was a lucky shot before. We both know you won't get me again, and it's not just cause I'm amazing. You're just a weak, helpless mare who'd run off at her own shadow."

Posey slowly lowed the frying pan as she said, "I am weak and helpless. But you know w-what? I don't r-really mind that too much. Sure, I want to be braver, but I'm pretty c-comfortable in my skin. The question I have is, are you?"

For what was the third time in the past several minutes, this mare has the mighty Discord flabbergasted. Of course he was comfortable in his own skin! How dare she make such an assumption when she didn't even know him. Before he could answer, though, he found himself staring to those big doll eyes of hers. He couldn't look away. They were like the purest ocean free of any pollution and seemed to just be full of love for all creatures, even the ones scaring her like he was doing currently. Posey, meanwhile, was staring at his eyes. She hadn't really looked at them throughout the entire time he was awake, having always been too nervous to look ponies in the eyes while talking to them. Now that she saw them, she was under his unintentional spell. One pupil was larger and a different shape from the other, giving him a unique appearance unlike anything she's seen before. But it was the colors that really made her heart beat. The sclera was golden in color, and while he lacked any iris, his pupils were a ruby red, her favorite shade of red. And they stared at her in such intensity that she was sure her face would be catching fire with the amount of heat she could feel on her cheeks.

The two continued to stare at one other with bright blushes on their respective cheeks before Angel ran towards Discord and bit his tail. Discord simply blinked before lifting his tail and saw the bunny holding on to his tail while glaring at him.

"I think you've been misnamed." he said, before looking back at Posey who was recovering from the staring contest they found themselves in. Now, though, Discord realized he couldn't say no to those eyes even if he wanted to. He sighed.

"Alright, I'll take you to the stupid lantern thing." He soon found himself being glomped by the mare.

"Really?! You'll do that? What are we waiting for, let's go!" She released him for the aggressive hug before picking Angel off his tail and heading towards the door. Discord stood there for a minute, unable to move. He had never been hugged before, and it was a strange feeling. Not bad, just weird.

He unfroze himself when he heard Posey say, "Um, are you coming or what?" Discord shook himself of this strange feeling before floating past her through the open door.

If only either of them knew what they were getting themselves into.

Author's Note

Yes, the title of this fic is based on the song in the end credits of the film. It was the best thing I could think of the chapter where Discord and Fluttershy/Posey make a deal.

It looks like Posey is discovering her true heritage, even if she doesn't realize it at the moment.

As far as the "blessed by the creators" line, it's like saying, "blessed by the gods". I kinda like the idea that for beings as old as Discord, Celestia and Luna in the main universe, instead of saying "Oh my Celestia" and things like that, they refer to the great creators of the world that they believe in. It's an idea I really enjoyed from Celestial-Rainstorm on DeviantArt that I decided to use for my headcanon on the main series, as well as here.

We occasionally see Discord with extra sharp teeth in his mouth, particularly when he's mad or evilly plotting (like here: ) Now, he could be using magic to make his teeth extra sharp in order to seem more intimidating, but I decided that, at least in this story, he has different teeth in his mouth that showed he was an omnivore (a rather extreme omnivore, seeing as he eats inanimate objects all the time, but still an omnivore), so I did that in this fic. I went with the molars of a pony and the carnassials (which are modified molars in Carnivora evolved for slicing meat and cutting tough sinews) of a lion, both animals he has on his body already.

Outside the Tower for the first time

How do I get myself roped into these situations? is something Discord would ponder on occasion. Though he had magic beyond even an alicorn's abilities, he occasionally found himself in a situation that he just couldn't think of a way out, even with his great power. He thought of himself as someone with good judgement on his actions. Sure, he liked taking risks, but since nothing the petty ponies could do could really hurt him, he was generally pretty safe no matter what he did. But now, he was being a guide for an admittedly pretty pegasus who was currently just standing at the door's base, all the while wasting his time!

"Come on, Posey," he said in an irritated voice, "you're the one who wanted to go so badly. And by my calculations, every second you waste standing there is another second we've could've been walking towards your precious lanterns, not to mention wasting my valuable time!" He stated, tapping his goat hoof impatiently while crossing his arms.

Posey knew she was wasting his time, but she couldn't help it. This was the first time in years she's ever left the tower and the first time she ever did it intentionally. She knew mother would be so upset with her, but she felt like she just had to. Besides, based on what she's seen from this Discord, he could probably teleport her back before mother even knew she was gone. What mother doesn't know won't kill her, right? Besides which, the world still seemed really intimidating. The one time she was out before was only for about an hour, if even that long. Barely a blip of time in her overall lifespan, hardly even noticeable compared to the years she's spent on marble flooring. She couldn't even remember the feeling of grass on her hooves. Would it be soft or hard? Would it be safe or hurt her? Would it make her itchy or make her feel like she's walking on clouds?

Angel hopped off her back and went outside to try and show her nothing was wrong.

"Angel..." she whispered before looking down at the grass. The grass blew gently in the light breeze. It looked rather inviting. Eventually, her want to see the world over powered her fear that her mother had placed on her all these years.

Taking a deep breath, she softly sang some words she remembered reading in a book about facing one's fears, "A hop, skip, and a jump!", closed her eyes and leaped in the air, landing onto the grass. She opened her eyes once she felt the grass and looked down at the grass as it made contact with her bare hooves. It...doesn't hurt. It kinda tickles, actually. A giant smile appears on her face as she starts giggling happily, dropping onto the ground and rolling around in the dirt.

Angel was smiling widely at his owner's enthusiasm, while Discord stared in bafflement. What was amazing about grass? It was about the most mundane thing he could think of along with the sky being blue or water being wet. Yet, the way she was rolling around, she was acting like it was the greatest thing in the whole cosmos! And I'm stuck with HER for two days?! He was getting very annoyed now!

Her roll came to stop as she landed on the bank of a pond. She sniffed the grass, it having a very pleasant smell that made her eyelids flutter. She sighed in bliss before looking at the pond. The water was clear enough that even from the bank, she could see numerous aquatic life going about their daily activities. Fish and frogs swimming, crustaceans walking on the soft sand floor, algae growing on rocks. All things she's only read about, but never seen. A shadow passed above her, and she looked up and saw a magnificent great blue heron soaring overhead. It landed in the water near her and took a moment to observe the curious pony before bending down for a drink. Posey took the opportunity to marvel at the bird's tall stature and fantastic plumage before she heard something else that caught her attention. In the meadow proper, there was lots of other glorious creatures.

Cute little bunnies were hopping together, adorable foxes were playing with each other, magnificent deer were grazing on the grass, even a powerful looking grizzly bear was enjoying itself, bathing in the sun's warmth. In the trees, squirrels ran around while birds of every color of the rainbow sat on the branches, singing their beautiful symphonies. Butterflies of equally varied colors fly without a care above the equally gorgeous flowers in the field. A badger seemed to be digging a burrow at the base of a tree and even a family of vicious looking pumas were at peace, the mother resting in the shade of another tree while her spotted cubs were feeding on her milk.

This is what my life has been missing! It's just so beautiful out here. I feel at peace here, much more than I ever did in the tower. At that thought, her mind began to spiral out of control.

"I can't believe I did this." She said softly to herself. "I can't believe I did this. I can't believe I did this!" She gasped in fear. "Mother will be so furious." She stopped her worrying as she kept thinking. "But, that's okay right? I mean, what she doesn't know won't kill her, right?" She stopped speaking as horror flashed across her face. "Oh my gosh, this will kill her! I am a horrible daughter, I'm going back." She stopped her self-worrying as she looked around. "I am never going back! WAHHOOOOO!" Posey screamed in joy as she ran around.

"She's a bit bipolar, isn't she?" Discord said to Angel, who rolled his eyes at the draconequus. Just because Posey trusted him doesn't mean he did. Discord stared at her as she started her self-worrying again and was now crying on the root of an old looking oak. He was at a bit of a loss on what to do, to be honest. He wasn't exactly use to trying and comfort someone crying. Heck, half the time he's the reason for them crying. He wanted to make her stop, but at the same time, he wanted a way out of this horrid deal. Just then, he had a wonderfully awful idea. He could scare her back home, find his satchel, and find that idiotic gang he was in and give them the stupid crown back and be back to his life of me, myself and I. And he knew the perfect place to scare her with.

He walked over as she continued to cry, leaning against the tree as he looked down at her.

"You know, I can't help but feel that you're a bit conflicted here." She look up at him, sniffing with her now reddened eyes. Discord tried to ignore the twist in his heart upon seeing her like this before he continued to ramble and put his plan into motion.

"Now, I'm only picking bits and pieces, but something about a controlling mother, you not wanting to disappoint her while wanting to see the world. I mean, worrying like this is not a healthy way to live, is it?" Posey shook her head.

"Of course not, but you know what might make you feel better? Some food. I bet you haven't eaten anything but those admittedly delicious muffins all day, huh?" Her stomach growled in response and she hid behind her mane in shame as a blush appeared across her muzzle.

"Well, it just so happens that I know the perfect place to go dine at and it isn't too far from here. Why don't we go down, have ourselves a proper meal, and we'll figure out this mess together, huh?"

Posey thought about it before replying. "Getting something to eat d-does sound g-good right now. O-okay, l-let's get g-going, then." Posey nodded slightly. Discord smirked in victory as he led her and Angel, who was suspicious of Discord's true motives to cheer her up, but ultimately forced along upon his owner's back.

Author's Note

The adventure begins properly with our lovely couple to be. How will things go from here?

The Snuggie Bunny

Meanwhile, farther out in the woods, Twilight was fuming something fierce. She had Discord cornered, but she let her emotions get the better of her, and now she couldn't find him. Now, he took that crown who knows where. What did he want with it, anyway? As much as stealing a crown made sense to her, Discord was right about the fact about him not normally being a common thief. He had no use for money, and if he wanted power over a kingdom, he'd spar with Celestia and take over there. The crown wasn't magical as far as she knew, so gaining power seemed unlikely. So, was she wrong about him stealing it or did he have an alternative plan for it?

She growled in frustration. Thinking about Discord often gave ponies a headache. He was an enigma wrapped in craziness and sugar. No way can anyone figure him out. Just then, she heard a stick snap behind her.

Is it him? she thought, even though she knew how unlikely that was. Discord could be halfway across Equestria by now and even if he stayed in these woods, he'd likely be floating above, not walking on the ground. Still, it could be Caballeron. The guards were able to catch the Flim Flam brothers due to them not really being threats. Caballeron escaped, however, and now he was out for vengeance, most likely. She lit her horn in retaliation. She didn't want to hurt him, hence the spell she planned to use was only to stun him. She turned around, ready to blast him only to find an older unicorn mare wearing a black cloak standing there, frighten by Twilight's lit horn.

Twilight discontinued the spell and coughed into her hoof as she blushed in embarrassment.

"Sorry, ma'am." She said to the frail looking unicorn.

The mare blinked before she spoke in a sweet tone, "Oh, don't worry about it. I'm sure you have a good reason to nearly blast a frail old mare like myself, your majesty." She finished her statement with a little curtsey towards the "Princess of Friendship". Twilight raised an eyebrow at the mare's sudden addition of venom and malice into the words 'your majesty', but didn't think too much of it.

Maybe she just didn't like royalty all that much. Can't please everyone, she supposed. "Oh, I was tracking down these bandits. They stole something very valuable from the Pegasus Kingdom, and my sister-in-law volunteered me to help return it. In fact, you should probably head home. It's not safe out here."

The mare's eyes widen at this news. "Posey..." she whispered in horror before running off, leaving Twilight baffled as she left.

"Weird mare." Twilight muttered before she headed off in a different direction. Maybe she'll find those fiends if she headed towards the kingdom.

Chrysalis ran straight home after hearing about those bandits. If those bandits stole, hurt or even killed her source of power, she'd never get strong enough to take over Equestria. Sure, no one had found her tower in the 20 years she raised the princess, but it's better to be safe than sorry. She ran through the waterfall and headed right towards the tower, frightening all the animals. She stopped when she noticed the open door. She never left it open when she left. Now truly worried, she ran inside and up the stairs into the tower.

"Posey!" she yelled once inside. There was no sign of her in the main room, so she went straight towards her bedroom, hoping the princess was there. She kicked the door open and used her magic to open the blinds to see inside. She rushed towards the bed and took off the comforter. She wasn't there. Chrysalis was beyond scared now. She returned to the main room to double check, but after searching everywhere, Posey wasn't anywhere to be found.

As she started plotting ways for finding those bandits and making them pay, she was blinded by a gleam underneath the staircase leading to the princess' room. She used her magic to open it up and saw a satchel. Curious, she opened it up and grabbed the shiny object inside. Upon seeing it, she gasped and threw it away. It landed a few yards from her, still shining as the sunlight hit it. She knew what it was, the princess' crown. She saw it when she visited the kingdom to buy food for the, at the time, 2 year old filly that the crown belonged to.

I guess that's what was stolen. she thought. Another thought entered her mind just as quickly. Did they come out here to hide when they found her, figure out who she was and ditch the crown in favor of kidnapping her for their own purposes? Or did she willingly go with them to see those lanterns like she said she wanted to see? Either way, she had to stop them. She took the satchel with her and stuffed the crown in it. Getting rid of this crown was a must. She couldn't have a reminder of the princess' true heritage laying around. Now, all she needed was a weapon. She looked into a cabinet and found a dagger.

Perfect, she smiled evilly. Now she could kill those who dared to take her only method of conquering Equestria.

As this was happening, Posey and Discord were walking, or rather, Posey was walking and Discord was floating above her, down the trail in the woods with Angel riding on her back.

"I swear, it was around here somewhere." He scratched his head before looking forward. "Oh, there it is, the 'Snuggie Bunny'. Very quaint place. Perfect for a reserved little pony like yourself. We can't scare you off now, can we? And I mean, honestly, who'd be so cruel as to scare a cute little mare like you?" Posey blushed at Discord calling her 'cute' as she looked towards the building. It seemed nice enough. There was a sign that said "The Snuggie Bunny" that had a picture of a cute little bunny on it and the building itself was small and it was way out here in the woods, so it was unlikely many ponies would be here.

"Well, I do like bunnies." she said sheepishly.

Discord smirked. "Trust me, you'll love it here." They made it towards the door and opened it.

Discord loudly proclaimed in a false Prench accent, "Garcon, your finest table, please!", as Posey stared in terror. Discord rolled his eyes at her reaction and pushed her in to guide her around.

"'Sup, everyone?! Just me and my new gal pal crashing the joint." He lowered down to her level and said," Why don't you find a table for us, my dear?" He patted her head then wondered off, much to her dismay.

"Capper! My main feline. How you've been?" Posey saw him going towards a tall brown Abyssinian cat wearing a patchwork coat, with purple hair and green eyes before she slowly walked further into the establishment to find a seat.

It was a bar full of some rather intimidating looking creatures. Most were ponies, but not the friendliest looking ones. At one table, a lilac unicorn mare with a purple and blue mane was speaking with a blue unicorn mare with a light blue and white mane. Another table had an orange unicorn mare with a red and yellow mane that was drinking from a mug and looking a bit miserable, if Posey was honest.

But when she noticed Posey looking at her in pity, she glared in anger and flashed her horn at her while shouting, “What are you looking at!?”

Posey squeaked in fear and ran off, colliding against another pony. She shook her head and looked up and found the most intimidating one yet. She was a dark purple mare clad in black armor. Her mane was a mohawk of two lighter shades of purple than her fur coat. Her right eye had a noticeable scar across it and her horn was broken. She looked at Posey with a sour expression and raised eyebrow.

On her back was a weird grey pug faced hedgehog with a mouth full of sharp teeth and white hair on his head. He stopped eating his nachos as he noticed the pony. Posey hid behind her mane at the gaze this creature was giving her.

"Hey, boss," he said, "can I rob her of her bits or steal the bunny on her back, or something?" The purple mare stared back with an intense glare that made him shut up pretty easily.

Discord floated over towards her as she shook heavily. "Hey, you don't look so good, my dear." He said in a false voice of concern. "Maybe we should get you home." He wrapped his paw around her neck and guided her shaky legs towards the entrance of the bar. "Let's call it a day. Probably better off. This is a five star joint after all. And if you can't handle this place, well, maybe you should be back in your tower."

Before they could leave, a red dragon with orange spikes slammed the door and glared at the two of them.

"We've told you before you ain't welcome here, Discord." the dragon hissed.

Posey squeaked before hiding behind Discord's tail. Discord was still taller than the dragon, so he wasn't so easily intimidated.

"If I'm not welcome, Garble, than why'd you slam the door closed instead of letting us leave?" He snarked.

The dragon, apparently named Garble, cracked his knuckles, "Because we are gonna show you what happens when you break our rules, by breaking your bones."

Many of the others soon rose from theirs seats and surrounded Discord, Posey, and Angel.

Discord rolled his eyes, "Really? You all think you can take me on? Well, then, bring it on."

Garble ran forward and breathed fire, but Discord turned into a grey elephant with his bushy eyebrows and multi-colored eyes intact before blasting Garble with water from his trunk, forcing Garble back into a wall and taking care of the fire. He turned back to normal and, without turning around, snapped his paw and turned the ice spell blasted at him by the lilac mare into sprinkles. He snapped his talon and the blue mare's fire spell froze, fell to the ground and shattered upon impact.

He heard a battle caw behind him. He turned and saw a brown griffin with a white head charging straight for him. Suddenly, a brick wall appeared between them and the griffin hit the wall, knocking herself out. Discord smirked at his trick, but was caught off guard by a mighty blast that hit him straight into a table. Posey gasped as the pug faced hedgehog laughed on a table.

"Nice shot, Tempest." The scarred mare known as Tempest blew the smoke that came from her broken horn, thankful that her uncontrollable magic was stable long enough for her to get a clean shot.

Discord started shaking off the lucky hit before he was lifted into the air by the orange mare's magic field. A soaked Garble flew up and smiled evilly at him.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Discord simply glared back.

Garble turned his head towards the crowd and asked, "What should we do with him?" Several voices went off at once, all of them suggesting ways to take care of the draconequus. The only ones not engaging in this were Tempest, who did not want any part of this nonsense and looked annoyed at her accomplice shouting suggestions, Capper, who actually looked sadden because he actually liked him, and, of course, Posey.

"Um...excuse me. Can you, um, put him down please?" Her voice barely carried over the crowd.

"Um, put him down please." she said a little louder. Still nothing. She took a deep breath and screamed as loud as she could.

"Put him down!" All heads turned towards her in shock. The orange mare dropped Discord who was staring in disbelief. He didn't think she could even be that loud.

"Okay, I'm sorry for yelling, but I don't know where I am, and I need him to take me to see the lanterns, because I've been dreaming about them my entire life. Yes, he made a mistake coming here, but he just wanted to help me and who hasn't made a mistake before? Haven't any of you ever made a mistake that you wanted to change?" She cried out.

The group continued staring at her until Tempest walked forward towards the mare. Posey hid behind her mane, no longer feeling very brave. When Tempest stopped in front of her, Posey wondered why she hadn't been hurt yet.

She looked up and saw Tempest wearing a smile, a stark contrast to her earlier frown. Everyone else in the room was equally shocked by this. They'd never seen her smile even once, so to see her smile was a special thing.

"Yes. I want to help those who were harmed by my misdeeds when I worked with the Storm King and maybe be accepted back into society again." Posey stared at her, wondering exactly what do say to that. However, more of them started to speak up about their dreams.

The orange mare, named Sunset, said, "I want to be forgiven for my transgressions with Princess Celestia. She was like a mother to me, but I let my anger and lust for power blind me and, when she didn't give me what I wanted, I ran away. But now, I just wanna see her again."

The lilac mare, Starlight, spoke next, "I just want to see my best friend again. When we were separated as children, my heart shattered and I got bitter and angry. If it wasn't for Trixie here, I'd might have made a strange removing cutie mark cult."

The blue mare, Trixie, said, "I've hurt ponies with an ancient artifact for revenge for exposing me as a phony magician. But, I soon realized I didn't wanna go down that path, so I removed the artifact and been trying to make amends ever since."

Discord stared at the group as his eye twitched. His perfect plan was failing! Instead of scaring her, she somehow managed to get these past criminals to share their feelings. Who in Tartarus was this mare? His ear flicked as he heard hooves outside. At that moment, the pug faced hedgehog, named Grubber, looked out the window.

"It's the royal guard!", he yelled. Discord grabbed Posey and hid behind the counter. The guards entered and were led by Twilight Sparkle.

Of course Princess Bookworm has found us. What are the odds? Discord thought.

Twilight stood tall before announcing, "We are tracking down two criminals that stole an important artifact from the King and Queen of the Pegasus Kingdom. Does anybody know where Caballeron or Discord are?" Posey looked up at the draconequus, but he shook his head with a look that said, 'don't ask'. Posey felt a paw on her shoulder before looking up at Capper, who gave a comforting smile. He gestured to a wall that, when he pulled a hidden lever with his fluffy, bandaged tail, opened up a secret passage. Posey and Discord looked into the passage, unsure of how safe it is.

"Hurry, I'll keep the princess distracted. Go live your dream." He said quietly as to not alert the guards. Posey smiled.

"Thank you." She said before dragging Discord into the passage by his paw, forcing the draconequus to form a blush on his cheeks.

Capper started closing up the passageway, smirking slightly at Discord's blush as he stood up to face the royal guard. By this point, Twilight was getting frustrated.

"Seriously, none of you know where they are?!" The gang of thugs all whistled innocently while trying to look discreet. Twilight growled in fury. As she was about to pack in the towel, her ear flicked at the sound of a secret passage closing. She turned her head towards the bar where Capper was standing, trying to look innocent. It was then she noticed the passage just as it finished closing. She glared at Capper before walking forward.

"Where is the lever for the secret passageway? Tell me."

Capper simply chuckled. "I have no idea what you mean, your highness. There's no secret passageway in this building." Smooth as that cat normally was, Twilight knew he was lying. She looked at a bunch of all the cider levers until she saw one that did looked different from the others. Testing her hypothesis, she pushed it with her hoof and the passage opened up. Twilight smiled in success.

"They went down here, boys!" The guards rushed into the cavern with Twilight taking up the rear of the cavalry.

Chrysalis had heard a ruckus coming from here when she was running down the forest looking for Posey and her kidnappers. When she got here, imagine her surprise when she saw the legendary Discord traveling with her Posey. She looked at her dagger, realizing it wasn't going to be enough to stop Discord. She'd need a new weapon. She saw them run off into the passage and wanted to cut them off at the pass and before Miss Sparkle catches them. At that moment, Grubber and Tempest walked out together.

"Remind never to smile again, Grubber. It hurts my cheeks." Grubber nodded before noticing Chrysalis' disguised self.

"Hey there, pretty lady." Grubber said while Tempest rolled her eyes at his flirting. "You mind dating a cool guy like me?" he said as he flexed his arm. There wasn't really any muscle to be impressed by, but Chrysalis saw an opportunity to find where the tunnel led to. She played along.

"Oh, stop it, you big lug." She laughed before pointing her dagger into his nose. "Where does that tunnel lead to?" She said in her normal, threatening voice.

"Knife." Grubber squeaked in fear.

"Really? You’re gonna ask that imbecile where that tunnel goes?" Tempest interrupted. Chrysalis looked up at her and before Tempest could react, she disappeared in a dazzle of green fire and reappeared in front of her, pointing the dagger at her.

"I don't suppose you know where it leads to, then?" she said with an evil smirk and glowing green eyes.

Author's Note

Ah, the bar scene in Tangled. The scene with one of the best songs in the film, but then, all the songs are great, so that's not saying much, admittedly.

Yay, more Twi horse. She must hate me for casting her as Maximus right now. And she began the catalyst for Chrysalis to be the main antagonist, though she doesn't know it yet. Speaking of antagonists, Caballeron is going to be the secondary antagonist along with Chrysalis, hence why I let him escape offscreen.

The bar in this fic is the hangout for the reformed villains in the series, hence why Discord knows about it. Mythology gags, huh? It was actually pretty hard to pick things for them to dream about, so I just went with them wanting to fix the mistakes they've made.

As the story goes on, Fluttershy will grow more confident in personality, going from the season 1 style portray I'm currently writing her as to her later seasons counterparts.

Escaping the guards

Unaware that the royal guards were after them, Discord, Posey, and Angel were standing in the secret tunnel. Discord cracked his spine and started glowing like a glow stick to help light the way. Posey looked around nervously, not liking how dark and creepy it looked in here, even with Discord's light. Angel pet her mane to try and calm her down while glaring at Discord. Angel thought this was all that draconequus' fault. He felt like he was right to be suspicious of Discord wanting to cheer her up earlier. He just wanted his stupid satchel back.

Discord, for his part, completely ignored the, in his opinion, misnamed lagomorph. While Angel was right to be untrusting of him, Discord didn't particularly care what a dumb bunny thought of him. He didn't really care what anyone thought of him. He was utterly fantastic from head to toe, after all.

"So, where does this tunnel lead?" Posey said, interrupting his thoughts. Discord opened his mouth, before closing it, unsure of how to answer that question. He walked forward, leading the way. Posey followed him, not wanting to be alone. It took him until she caught up that he decided to answer her question honestly, a rare moment indeed.

"No idea, but the way I see it, this is the best kind of adventure. One that throws you curves balls and isn't straight forward? I couldn't ask for anything more chaotic, except maybe cotton candy clouds that rain chocolate milk."

Posey smiled slightly at the silly image. "Or maybe pigs with wings?" she suggested. Discord smiled at her making such a chaotic suggestion and decided to keep listing chaotic things to see if she had any other ideas.

"Or perhaps rabbits with long legs and hooves?" he said, staring down at the grumpy lagomorph on her head. Angel squeaked, while Posey's smile only grew as she realized his game and decided to play along.

"What about ballerina bison, or h-how about sneezing piñatas?" Discord smiled, really enjoying that she decided to play along.

"Oh, teapots with wings." She said as she started giggling. This is fun!

"Oh, you like tea, huh?" Discord asked as he and Posey stopped walking. "Fine. Let's go for some proper tea, like green rose hip tea that turns your hips into roses and turns you green!" He turned himself different shades of green depending on his body part and his hips grew into red and blue roses as he struck a pose to complete the gag. Posey busted out laughing at his antics, making Discord feeling all warm and fuzzy at the fact he was making her laugh. He was also amazed that she had such chaotic thoughts hidden behind that timid personality.

Discord clicked his horn like a lever, which washed the green off him like it was just paint. At the same time, the roses rotted and fell off his hips, landing in a messy brown pile. He simply watched as Posey finished her laughing fit, before she looked up at him with those big teal eyes that shot through his heart. He turned his head and coughed into his paw.

"Well, I suggest we get going, then. We're wasting daylight." he said while walking forward to try and ignore the rising heat in his cheeks.

"How do you know it's still day?" Posey asked, obviously acknowledging the dark cave they were in as she went to follow him.

"Internal clock." Discord simply replied as he pulled an alarm clock from his chest and shook it. Angel rolled his eyes at Discord's visual pun. Posey meanwhile giggled.

The three of them continued to walk as the cave fell into silence. Posey's thoughts were drifting towards the draconequus next to her. No one had ever made her laugh like that before and she loved the feeling of laughing like that. She looked over towards him. In the illuminating light, Discord looked strangely handsome. He had a rather strong jawline, a bit like the stallions she's read in her fairy tales. His black mane wasn't the most groomed, but there wasn't a single strand of hair sticking out of place. Of course, there was his striking eyes that locked them in a gaze back at the tower. Though it was a color combo that was used for the villains in her tales, Posey didn't find them frightening, but rather inviting and perhaps the most attractive part of him. She noticed something on his right side, however, that made her curious. She looked over and saw something she never noticed before. There were a trio of slashes against his neck. She never noticed before due to them being old and mostly faded. Posey shivered. From what she has seen of him, he was very powerful and wasn't easily hurt. He seemed to have completely recovered from Tempest's blast from earlier with no lasting damage, so what in Equestria was able to give him scars that he couldn't heal? She almost didn't want to know.

Discord's ear twitched as he heard noises coming from behind them. They turned and saw guards coming down their way.

"There they are!" One of them yelled and they rushed forward.

"Run!" Discord yelled as he pushed Posey and ran alongside her. The two of them ran for a good minute until they found their way out of the cavern, only to be cornered by a cliff. The royal guards pushed through.

"Discord, who are they?" Posey asked.

"Well..uh..they don't like me." Discord responded. Twilight pushed through and glared at Discord.

"Who's she?" Posey asked.

"She really doesn't like me." he said, more irritated by her presence than frighten by it.

"End of the line, Discord." Twilight announced, spreading her wings out wide. "Surrender quietly, or we will use force."

"Oh really? I'm supposed to take orders from a pseudo-alicorn who didn't even earn her wings without learning about the magic of friendship." Discord said, while making quotations with his fingers on the words, 'magic of friendship'.

Twilight's eye twitched before she yelled, "Guards, get them!" The all rushed forward. Posey screamed but Discord rolled his eyes.

"I think you've forgotten something, Princess Bookworm." At that moment, he teleported from the cliffside to a wooded beam across the way.

"Discord!" Posey yelled. She saw the guards closing in on her and realized she had to get outta here. Looking to where Discord was, it seemed to be in jumping distance. I can do this. She took a deep breath, walked backwards to get momentum, and ran forward, kicking up dust as she went, blinding the guards. She kept running as Angel held onto her mane for support until she hit the edge, closed her eyes and jumped. For a minute, she actually enjoyed the feeling of adrenaline and wondered if this is what it felt like when flying. When she opened her eyes, though, she saw she misjudged how far the jump actually was as Discord looked in concern. Against her better judgement, Posey looked down and saw it was a 50 foot drop between her and the ground. She and Angel screamed as she fell down.

"Posey, flap your wings!" Discord screamed.

"I'm trying!" She yelled as she furiously flapped her wings, knowing she couldn't fly, but hoping to at least slow her descent and minimize the pain. Twilight saw her falling and opened her wings and glided down to go after her. Just because this mare seemed to be an associate of Discord, it didn't mean Twilight was going to let her die. Discord saw Twilight diving towards her. He didn't want Twilight to arrest her, so he dove after the both of them.

Posey kept flapping her wings in desperation as Twilight came to her.

"Grab my hoof and I'll fly us out!" Twilight screamed as she extended out her hoof. Posey looked to the hoof, realizing how fruitless what she was doing was and started reaching out her own hoof. Just at the moment their hooves touched, though, Discord grabbed Posey by her midriff with both hands and snapped his tail feathers, both teleporting them to the ground and creating a strong gust of wind that changed Twilight's trajectory. She yelped and focused her magic to teleport. She succeeded just as she hit a wooden beam. She reappeared back on top the cliffside with a strong pain in her chest from the impact, as brief as it was. She looked down and saw Discord, holding a blushing Posey underneath his eagle arm. Giving a salute with his paw, he ran off.

Twilight growled, but soon heard the cracking of wood. She looked up and saw the beam she collided with breaking from the impact. It snapped, causing the whole dam to burst and all the water to be released. Discord and Posey noticed and ran faster. They entered a cave that soon was closed by several rocks that were from a pillar that fell via the torrent of water. Twilight stared on disbelief. Discord was trapped in a cave with seemly no way out. While she much doubted he will drown, she wondered how he'd get out of this situation. And just who was that pegasus mare? Why was she with Discord and why did she seem to not be able to fly? And why did Discord save her, when his attitude has usually been 'I look out for me, myself and nobody else'? The more this chase was going on, the less things made sense, which while it may've been perfect for Discord, it was frustrating the living daylights outta her.

Meanwhile, in the cave, Discord and Posey were in deep trouble. The water was flowing through the cracks in the wall and it was quickly raising up.

Posey moaned, "Oh, this is bad. This is bad. This is bad. Bad bad bad bad bad." Discord rolled his eyes.

"I know it is, just let me think of a way out."

"Well, hurry! The water's rising!" She screamed as they went to the highest rock in the cave. As it rose higher, Discord stepped on the rock with her, and his antler and horn were pushed against the ceiling of the cave, hurting his neck.

"Ah, these things always get in the way." he complained as he unscrewed his antler and horn off his head so he'd have some head space. He placed them in the pockets in his chest fur so he could retrieve them later. He looked at the rising water and how quickly it was coming up.

"Alright, here's the plan." He said confidently, causing Posey to look at him. "First, can you swim?" Posey shook her head as the water hit her hooves. "Right, dumb question as you never left that tower of yours and you can't even fly. Not a problem. I'll hold you. Take these." He handed her two small little disks.

"Breath mints. My own invention. Pop one in your mouth, and you can breathe underwater for hours. I can do it for a long time without them, but you and your little bunny pal probably won't be too good at it. While we are underwater, look for a way out of here. Got it?" She nodded and put a mint in her mouth while handing Angel the other. Discord took a deep breath and dove under the water, which was up to her chest right now. She then was yanked underwater, causing her to scream. Once underwater, she tried holding her breath until she remembered the breath mint and took a deep breath, finding she could, in fact, breathe underwater. She then noticed she was pressed against his chest as his tail swished around in the water, keeping him steady. She blushed at the close contact but didn't object, instead wrapping her hooves around his paw for support.

Discord swam using his powerful tail like a serpent, gracefully gliding through the water. Most of the potential ways out were blocked by rocks. He soon felt a nudge against his arm. He looked down, seeing Posey poking his paw. Once she had his attention, she pointed to an opening in the rocks below them. Discord smiled and swam forward. Eventually, they found themselves swept up in a current and got pushed out an opening into a river. They swam to the bank and crawled out, Posey still against Discord's chest as he crawled out on all fours and she shivered from the cold of the water. She was gently placed down as Discord stood back up on his two legs. He placed his antler and horn back on his head before he looked around.

"Well, I don't know about you, but today's been going on forever. The sun's setting, so why don't we camp here for the night?" Posey, in no condition to object, just nodded.

Author's Note

Listening to the Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom soundtracks as I write this chapter. I'm a huge fan of the Jurassic Park franchise and I can't wait for Jurassic World: Dominion this year! :yay:

Also, the faded scars on Discord's neck is a homage to Celestial-Rainstorm's comic where Discord gets slashed by timberwolves defending Fluttershy and her friends. I adore this comic! You can read it here: https://www.deviantart.com/celestial-rainstorm/gallery/58870786/heart-of-the-draconequus-mlp-comic

The reason his scars exist will be different in this story compared to their comic, but I thought adding that homage would make this story a true AU from the main series and help give Discord a slightly different backstory to Eugene from Tangled.

Bless Twi for trying to save Flutters, even if Discord had to take her hero moment and replace it his own.

Mother Knows Best

Chrysalis was waiting for what felt like hours at the exit where Tempest told her the tunnel would lead to. It was imperative she found the princess. She didn't know how to take care of Discord, though. Even in her changeling form, Discord was a tough foe to beat. Even Celestia herself was only barely a match for him. She had to find a weakness in his power.

"I'll kill him for ditching me." She heard a voice say. She walked over to a small ravine and looked down. There was a dark brown stallion with a messy black mane and tail, obviously very annoyed. Chrysalis was about to leave him to whatever he was fuming about before he continued talking.

"I'll make Discord take the fall for stealing the crown and have the princesses use their magic to turn him to stone. Once he's up there, I'll smash his statue to bits!" Chrysalis blinked before grinning like a madmare. So, the princesses had a way of turning him to stone. If she can get her hooves on it, she can be rid of him. But she didn't know what it was. But this stallion likely does. If she can use him to get her revenge, she'll finally have her source of power back.

Pacing around in a ravine, Caballeron was very angry, assuming Discord had intentionally ditched them after the ambush. He was thinking of ways to get payback when he heard a voice above him.

"Oh, someone get me a glass, cause I found a tall drink of water."

He looked over and saw a brown unicorn mare wearing a black cloak standing above him.

He rolled his own green eyes and yelled, "Beat it, old lady. I have no time to deal with you."

But as he walked away, she appeared in front of him in a green fiery blaze.

"I get it, you're a very busy stallion, but I have a little something you might want to know about." She lifted the satchel with her magic and tossed it to him. He raised an eyebrow before rummaging through it, finding the very crown he was after. His eyes widen at the sight.

"How did you-"

"Not so fast." She interrupted. "I'll give the crown, but only if you help me take down Discord. I overheard you mentioned something about the princesses having a way to turn him to stone?"

Caballeron nodded. "Yeah, it's some sort of powder developed from crushed cockatrice bones made by Star Swirl himself. The princesses need it for truly troublesome threats. Surprised they haven't used it on Discord yet, to be honest." The mare gave a truly terrifying smirk.

"Get me that powder, and you'll have your crown to sell and we'll both have our revenge against the great Lord of Chaos." She laughed maniacally.

Caballeron took a moment to think it over before delivering a similar smirk to hers. "Ma'am, you are truly wicked. Let's do this."

It was soon nightfall. Out in the woods, Discord had set up camp to rest for the night. The kingdom was just past the hill from where they were resting, and in the morning, they'll head down and Discord said that they'll spend the whole day in town while waiting for the lights later that evening. Their stomachs growled after he explained the plan and he decided to make them food. Posey insisted on finding some food, but Discord pointed out she wouldn't know what was safe to eat and what wasn't, so he just created a small buffet for them. Although initially sadden that she couldn't help, that soon left Posey when she ate the food. It was the most delicious food she's ever had. As the two of them sat on a log and Angel slept on the moss, Posey just enjoyed watching the night sky with a full stomach and a blanket wrapped around her.

She thought about her day today. Though clearly chaotic and she nearly died, it was the best day of her life. It certainly was an improvement over her usual monotonous life in the tower. She wondered briefly about her mother, but that was a distant thought in comparison to how perfect her day was. And tomorrow was going to be even better. She almost didn't want to sleep, afraid that when she woke up, it'd all be just a dream and she'd still be in the tower with no way out. She noticed Discord looking at her with an intense look. She turned her head to hide her blush behind her mane.

"D-did you need something, Discord?" she asked. Discord shook his head.

"Oh, it's nothing. You just looked like you were deep thought." He tried to not tell her that he was just staring at her cause she looked absolutely gorgeous in the moonlight. Posey shifted in her blanket.

"It wasn't anything too important. Just thinking of our day today."

He simply smiled. "Oh, yes. The mess that was today. I'll admit, this is the most fun I've had in what felt like ages. I'll also admit that you're pretty okay…for a pony." Posey smiled at his sort of compliment.

She decided to ask him about his scars as she thought about them.

"Hey, Discord?"

"Yes, my dear?" He responded. He tensed at the feathery touch of her hoof landing on the scars on his neck.

"How'd you get these?" She asked as her hoof softly stroked his scars. Discord stayed quiet as she kept stroking him. Her touch reminded him of someone he only had vague and fuzzy memories of. He did remember how he got his scars, but it brought up deep pains he wanted to forget. He did successfully manage to mostly forget, but the most important parts of his life were something he did remember clear as day, and he did not want to talk about.

His face hardened and he stood up, making her hoof drop.

"Discord, I'm sorry if I brought up bad memories. You don't have to-"

"Oh don't be like that!" Discord interrupted her as he started to get angry. "We all know how this goes. You say I don't have talk about it, and then I feel bad, and decide to tell you my 'tragic' story and we become closer as a result. Well, I'm not doing it!" Posey felt like she should be scared at him yelling at her, but she was nothing but concerned for him.

"Discord, really, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to. It's really none of my business. I just saw those in the tunnel and was simply curious. But now I'm concerned. Are you okay?" Posey asked him. Discord was honestly starting to get angrier at her honest concern. No one has shown him such concern before and it infuriated him. Why can't she stay out of his business?!

"Well, you're right. I don't have to tell you anything! Why would I?! You're just a flightless pegasus who never left her tower, not even to just check out some stupid lanterns!" Posey started to get mad herself.

"Well, what do you know?!" she screamed, making Discord jump in shock. He honestly didn't expect her to start yelling. He didn't think she could even get angry.

"You just look out for yourself! Have you ever had someone care about you?!"

Discord yelled, "Of course I did. My parents did, but they're dead!" He closed his mouth, realizing he said the one thing he didn't want to say.

Posey looked at him with wide eyes before looking down with tears in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry I said no one cared about you. I didn't know about your parents." Discord's anger dissipated at the sight of tears in her eyes. He sighed.

"It's okay. I'm sorry I insulted you." He was surprised at how easy it was for him to apologize, but she seemed to look a little better, so he didn't think too much of it. He walked back and sat back on the log.

"You want to talk about it?" Posey asked. Discord sighed.

"Not particularly, but I think you deserve to know. Just so you know, you are the only one who gonna know outside of Celestia, her sister Luna and Star Swirl, so you better not go tell anyone else about it. Promise never to tell anyone." She scooted towards him and put a wing on his back.

"I promise." She finished by gesturing with her hoof and crossed an X above her heart. He wrapped his tail around her hips for support.

He sighed as he begin his tale, "Now, I don't really remember what my parents looked like, but I loved them. Draconequus don't normally have the powers I have, but I got them after my parents died. My dad was named Disarray and my ma was Eris. They were the first, and only, draconequus that made it to the land of Equestria shortly after its establishment cause their land was destroyed. They met each other where Canterlot would stand today and they fell in love. They married each other and, a year later, my ma got pregnant and had me. Most of my life with my parents is a blur, admittedly. I knew it was pleasant and that my parents loved me, but otherwise, completely blank. But I do remember what happened to them." He looked at Posey to see how well she was following so far and all her attention was on him. So he continued.

"My parents were actually good friends with Celestia and Luna's parents, the original king and queen of Canterlot and there was some sort of threat in Equestria, which I don't remember what exactly. They were asked to join them in battle. My ma kissed me on my growing antler bud before leaving with them. I was being watched along with a young Celestia and Luna by a young Star Swirl, before he grew his beard. When the king and queen came back, my parents came back on their backs. My dad was already dead and my ma was not far behind. She picked me up and sang softly to me before she died. The king and queen suggested that they raise me, but I ran off, not wanting to be where my parents raised me any longer." Tears starting appearing in his eyes, so Posey used her wings to clear them, something he appreciated.

"I don't remember how I got my powers exactly, but a few years later, I got them and then, when I was an adult, I met someone named Cosmos. She claimed to be the last draconequus, though she looked too symmetrical to be a pure blood. She was a little pretty, I guess, so I dated her for a while. After a while, though, I realized she was too clingy and far too psychotic, so I broke up with her. She didn't take that too well. She attacked me." He traced his scars with his paw. "She got my neck right here. I kicked her off and was able to defeat her. But she has magic of her own, and I couldn't heal my scars no matter what. After I dealt with her, I didn't want anything to do with romance ever again. And I roamed around causing chaos ever since. That's all the important stuff, I guess." He finished his story, hugging himself.

Posey herself had tears in her eyes as she stared at him with great sympathy. He seemed to have such a carefree attitude that she'd never guess that his past was so sad. Admittedly, she felt a little jealous of Cosmos for some reason she wasn't quite aware of. But she tried to ignore the feeling as she hugged him.

"I'm so so sorry that happened to you. And here I thought my life wasn't the best." Tears rolled down her face as she spoke. "You didn't deserve any of that happening to you." Discord sighed as he patted her back.

"You have nothing to apologize for. Sure, my life didn't start out great, but I truly am happy with my life right now. I certainly don't envy you, thinking you had a better life, what with you living under the control of a tyrannical mother and being locked in a tower all your life." Posey shifted slightly.

"My mother isn't tyrannical, she just wanted to protect me from the dangers of the world."

Discord rolled her eyes. "Uh hu. Sure. Hey, what about your father, anyhow? Come on, I shared my sob story, you share yours."

Posey leaned against him as she spoke. "It's not really a sob story. I just never knew him. Mother said he left her after she told him that she was pregnant with me. She also says they were never married and that I looked more like him, but I don't really know anything about him. Whenever I tried asking about him, she'd usually start crying, so I eventually learned not to ask her about him. To be honest though, I don't think I can hate anyone, I am a little peeved at him for leaving my mother." Discord stared at her slightly in shock.

"Sorry for my language." she said blushing in embarrassment. Discord smirked at her apology.

"Hey, you can say all the nasty words you want around me. I don't mind." He put his paw over her shoulders. She closed her eyes as he stroked her mane and thought about her story. What kind of father just up and leaves their pregnant marefriend to raise their kid by themselves? As much as he missed his parents, at least they loved each other and they wanted to be together and they raise him together as a couple and he got to know both of them, even if a lot of his memories of them were fuzzy. It honestly made him really angry someone could be so cruel to his marefriend and unborn daughter. So angry, in fact, he needed to go to take his anger out on something before he hurt Posey.

He stood up, causing Posey to open her eyes. She saw him walking off.

"I just...need to go for a walk. You stay there." He called out as he walked away. Posey stayed where she was as she watched him walk off. He was being so supportive of her, more so than even her own mother was. He let him lean against him as she talked, stroked her mane, and wrapped his tail around her. She loved that comfort.

Or is it HIM you love?, a stray thought entered her mind that made her pause and turn her face red. Was she actually falling for him? That honestly frighten her. She's never been in love before, so she didn't know what to do with that thought. On that note, what would her mother think? For goodness sake, he wasn't a pony. Would she even be able to see him once she went home? Did she even want to go home? Her thoughts were interrupted as she heard a familiar voice.

"Well I thought he'd never leave." Posey turned her head and saw her mother standing behind her.

"M-mother!" she yelped as she jumped off the log and hid her red face behind her mane. "How d-did you find me?"

"Oh, it was easy really. I just listened to the sound of complete and utter betrayal, and followed that." Chrysalis sneered, not really caring to disguise her voice so she can try and scold her 'daughter'. Posey looked down in disappointment.

"Mother, I'm sor-"

"You can apologize when we get home. It isn't safe here." Chrysalis commanded.

"Mother, you...You don't understand. I've been on the most incredible journey. I've seen and learned so much. I even met someone." She said the last bit with a bit too much bliss than she intended.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Ah yes, the Lord of Chaos. I'm so proud of you." She said sarcastically. "We are going home. Now!" Chrysalis turned to walk off.

"Mother, wait I...think he likes me." Posey said, trying to hide her own growing feelings for him. Chrysalis looked back at the princess, as Posey scratched her left foreleg with her right one and a ferocious blush was on her face.

"Like you? Now, don't be ridiculous. Look at you, why would he ever like someone like you? Don't be a dummy and come with mummy. Mother-"

"No!" Posey yelled. "I don't wanna!" Chrysalis blinked in surprise at Posey defying her. But then she glared.

"Oh, I see how it is." She said menacingly. Posey gulped in fear, very worried about her mother's tone, being nothing like her normal sweet voice.

"So, Posey knows best, huh? Fine, if you're so mature now, go ahead, and then give him this!" She tossed something towards her that Posey caught. It was the satchel she hid before tying Discord up. Posey pulled the crown out.

"This is the real reason he's here. So, why don't you give it to him and watch him leave you just like your father did. So if he's so great, put him to the test."

Chrysalis walked backwards as she sang, "If he's lying, don't coming crying. Mother knows best!"

And in a flash of green fire, she disappeared.

Posey stood staring at where her mother disappeared. She looked at the crown in her hoof. Was her mother right? Was Discord only playing along to get his satchel back? Was she getting her hopes up for nothing? Discord came back and she hid the satchel and crown by the log and she tried to lean against the log casually. Discord raised his eyebrow.

"Hey, you all right?" He asked as Posey tried to smile convincingly.

"Yes. Just um, lost in thought, I guess." She squeaked and gave a wide nervous smile. Discord stared at her, not quite believing her, but too tired to really try and push her into saying something she doesn't want to. He yawned, which was mixed with the roar of a lion.

"Well, I suppose we should sleep. We have a big day tomorrow, after all." He said as he laid down on the log. Posey climbed onto his chest as Discord dragged the blanket over both of them.

"Good night, my dear." He said. Posey kissed him just below his eye, right on the exact same spot where his ma kissed him before she died.

"Night, Discord." She said and then laid her head over where his heart would be and closed her eyes as her breathing slowed. Discord blushed at the fact that she actually kissed him. He looked down at Posey as she looked peaceful in her sleep. Discord smiled at her before laying his head down and closing his eyes.

In the bushes, Chrysalis glared at the happy pair, feeling the love they have for one another before Caballeron appeared with the powder and handed it to her.

"Here it is. But I don't understand why we can't kill him now. He's right there."

Chrysalis smiled evilly at the powder before saying, "Patience, my good stallion. All good things come to those who wait."

Author's Note

Ah, the romance is finally starting to bloom between the two, but Chrysalis' evil plot is also underway. Will their love prevail?

A reference to my OC parents of Discord and a bit on their death as he explained his backstory. Their history is slightly different and intentionally more vague compared to what I imagine happened to them and Discord in the main timeline, but it's a good hint to their ultimate fate. :fluttershbad:

Also, Cosmos, the Spirit of Malice and Discord's crazy ex from the IDW comics, is the reason for his scars in this story. I can imagine that her existence is the reason that in the series, he said love wasn't real. You'd probably have bitter feelings about romance too if this was your ex:

But of course Fluttershy is able to change his opinions on romance, both in this story, and the main series. :heart: :yay:

An Unlikely Ally

Discord woke up to the bright sun shining right into his eyes. He groaned in irritation. Why did Celestia feel the need to make the sun so bright? he asked to himself as he tried getting up. A strong pressure on his chest made him stop and look down. His heart practically stopped when he saw Posey sleeping peacefully on his chest, her hooves gently wrapped around his body as his paw laid over her back. She snuggled her cheek into his fur while giving off a sigh of bliss and slightly tighten her grip around him. Suddenly, the memories of last night rushed back to him and his whole body turned the same shade of red as a tomato. He teleported away from her and reappeared just a few feet away.

His sudden teleport didn't seem to wake her, much to his relief. He could at least have some time to think. He decided to go for a walk so he wouldn't disturb her.

As he walked, his paw went straight to where she kissed him the night before, just below his eye. It was the same place his ma kissed him before she died and it was just as soft, too. His ma was the last person to ever kiss him.

He never got to that phase with Cosmos, thankfully.

The kiss was so light; one could argue if it even counted as one. As light as it was, though, it stirred powerful emotions into him, ones he's never really felt before.

But what did he really think of her?

She certainly was pretty; he couldn't deny that. Even without makeup or jewelry and even with that little bit of pudge, she was far more attractive than any other creature he's ever seen. It was like she was supposed to be the princess locked in a tower, and the fact that she didn't seem to be made him all the more intrigued.

Beyond the shallowness of her appearance, however, there were other reasons that he liked her.

She had a creative personality hidden beneath all that timidness and her kindness was unlike any other. While most beings wouldn't comfort him based on his reputation, no matter what he went through in the past, she hugged him and comforted him. She listened to what he said and never thought he was lying. Though he did take advantage of her naivety earlier at the pub, she truly did seem to care about every living soul and her heart was truly pure. She even said she didn't hate her own father for ditching them before she was even born. She also defended her mother when Discord called her tyrannical. Heck, she carried around that jerk of a bunny and loved him like he was her only friend, probably cause he was.

Now that he thought about it, Discord never really had a friend before either. He had acquaintances (sort of) and allies (maybe), but no true friend. Was she his first one? Was he just misrepresenting her friendship for something more? In either case, he was pleased by the feelings Posey gave him, even if he didn't fully understand them.

At any rate, he soon decided to head back and make some food for them while she slept. Before he could, he heard a horn being lit behind him. He turned and saw a very angry looking Twilight flying in the air, ready to blast him all the way to Appleloosa if she so choose. Discord blinked slightly in surprise that she found him, but if anything could get him away from thinking about these thoughts, it'd be a sparring match with Princess Bookworm herself.

He smirked, "Well, I hope you're here to apologize." as Twilight's snarl grew even more vicious.

Posey's eyes fluttered open as she yawned and woke up. She used her wings to clear any excess gunk from her eyes. As her vision cleared, she noted Discord wasn't anywhere nearby. At first, she was sadden by his lack of a presence, she soon grew worried that he found the satchel and the crown her mother gave her and took off. She looked to where she stored it and it was still there. She sighed in relief.

He just went for a walk most likely. She decided she could use her alone time to preen her wings. Even though she couldn't fly, it was a regular part of her morning activities regardless. Can't have messy or broken feathers after all.

As she did, her thoughts drifted to her revelation last night. A small blush appeared on her cheeks as she thought about her growing feelings for the draconequus. While others probably wouldn't feel the same way, she thought he was attractive, in an unconventional way. He was the funniest person she's ever met and she enjoyed the feeling of laughing at his jokes, no matter how corny. He was also very powerful in terms of abilities, both with and without magic. Her blush grew as she recalled her tracing the muscles in his arms as they slept. And despite having a devil may care attitude, he was surprisingly sensitive to her feelings. He let her lean against him as she recalled her dad and he didn't push it when she lied about being okay after talking with her mother and hiding the satchel. She was happier when he was around, sadden when he was gone, even if he's going for a walk, and was jealous that Cosmos dated him, even if Discord said it didn't last and he didn't like the experience. For heaven’s sake, she kissed him! Not on the lips and she meant it like when she kisses Angel goodnight, but she kissed him. Her blush practically engulfed her entire face by this point, making her look more red than yellow.

Is this what love feels like? she pondered. If so, what do I do? That was the main problem. Discord probably didn't feel the same way and even if by some miracle he did, there was her mother to deal with. Should she just leave home to be with some guy she only met yesterday? She was turning 21 today, so she could leave home if she wanted to, but her mother seemed so heartbroken at the thought of her leaving earlier that Posey probably didn't have the heart to tell her mother she would be moving out to be with Discord. She sighed. She didn't know what she was doing at all.

Just then, she heard blasting coming from the forest. Discord! She ran towards the sound, hoping he was alright. Once she reached the source, her eyes widened. Discord was on the ground motionless as that purple alicorn flew over him. And it looked like she was about to blast him again. Posey gasped.

"Stop!!" she yelled. The alicorn turned her head towards her in surprise.

"Don't hurt him, please." Posey rushed forwards to check Discord's health. As she looked over him, there was no obvious marks, but she still didn't want to take any chances. Twilight landed on the ground and tilted her head in curiosity.

Why did she care about Discord? Doesn't she know who he is?

"Who are you?" Twilight asked.

Posey looked up towards her and said, "Oh, my name is Posey." before turning her attention back to Discord.

Twilight took a mental note of her name. "Okay...why are you helping him?"

Discord started groaning as he woke up.

"Discord!" Posey yelled in delight. "Are you okay?" Discord's eyes opened and he saw Posey perfectly framed by the rising sun to give her a halo of light around her as her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. He blushed heavily at the heavenly sight before he teleported from laying on the ground to standing between them, dusting himself off. He coughed into his talon, trying to get rid of his horrid blush before either Twilight or Posey saw it.

"I'm fine, my dear. Twilight here simply caught me off guard and got a lucky shot." Posey blushed slightly at his nickname for her as Twilight looked between them. Something's going on with them, but what? She ignored that as she turned towards the draconequus.

"Alright. You need to come with me, Discord. You're under arrest." Discord looked towards her and raised a brow.

"Under what grounds?" Twilight rolled her eyes at his statement.

"Besides all the chaos you've caused over the years? How about your latest crime, stealing a crown from the Pegasus Kingdom! I mean, it's one thing to mess with royalty like you normally do, but stealing a prized artifact from an already grieving family with that being their only memory of their lost daughter? That's low even for you." Discord sighed at the alicorn's accusation.

"This is what your worried about? Look, I wanted nothing to do with the crown. I was just manipulated by those idiotic Flim Flam brothers and Caballeron. I planned on finding them again, giving them the stupid satchel, which as you can see, I currently do not have, and leave them to whatever stupid thing they planned to do with it. I may be no hero, but even I have a heart for a grieving family, Princess. Even if I hate royalty at the best of times."

Twilight stared at him, clearly not believing his story. But one important question jumped out to her above all the others.

"Well, where is the crown?" At that moment, Posey spoke up.

"Um…I found it when he snuck into my tower and promised to give it back if he took me to see the lanterns today. So, if you hold off on arresting him, I can give you the crown and maybe Discord can apologize for his actions?"

"What??" Both Twilight and Discord yelled.

"B-but...I have a sense of duty. I can't hold it off for just anything. I certainly don't want to go anywhere with him willingly."

"It’s about time we finally agree on something, Miss Sparkle." Discord stated.

"Discord, please. You should try and make up for all the things you've done. And I think helping to return this crown will help. Please? For me?" Posey asked while batting her eyelashes. Discord tried looking away from her eyes to not give in, but ultimately failed.

"Oh, alright. I make amends. But only after the stupid lantern thing, alright?" Posey nodded, happy for the compromise.

Twilight, on the other hoof, was still very clearly upset, so Posey needed to convince her.

"Please, Twilight. You can even keep an eye on him so he doesn't do anything too crazy." Discord's protest of needing a babysitter were ignored. "Please, just for one day?" Twilight groaned, clearly trying to resist her puppy dogs eyes. But Posey pulled out her trap card.

"And it's also my birthday, just so you know." That did the trick. Twilight sighed.

"Alright. I'll wait until the lanterns are done. I'll even pardon him when we get back." Posey rushed forward and gave her a hug, shocking Twilight.

"Oh, thank you thank you thank you. I know you two don't like each other, but Discord really is a big sweetheart once you get to know him." Twilight looked unconvinced by that statement, but she bit her tongue. Discord teleported in between them as he floated in midair.

"Well, now that we are all the bestest of friends, how about we head into town? I did promise you to show you around, my dear."

Posey smiled. "That sounds fun. Oh. I need to grab Angel. Be right back." She ran off to get Angel as well as the satchel.

While she was gone, Twilight grabbed Discord's beard and brought him to her face.

"If you do anything, I will not hesitate to use my magic on you. That mare has her full trust in you and you better not break it." She let go, having said her peace. Discord rubbed his sore chin before he spoke.

"Look, I know you have every reason not to trust me. Believe me, I don't trust myself most days. But I don't want to break Posey's trust. But if you break her trust, I'll make your life a living chaotic nightmare!" He said menacingly as his eyes glowed and the tips of his eyebrows were on fire and he snarled, revealing his carnassials. Posey came back and Discord dropped the threatening display and quickly wrapped his arm around Twilight as he pretended to laugh.

"Oh my goodness, Sparkle. You are really funny." He 'laughed' then pretended to notice her coming for the first time. "Ah, there you are, my dear. Twilight and me were just having the most delightful conversation. Isn't that right, friend?" He said as he nudged her with his elbow. Twilight just stood there confused at what was happening.

"Anyway, shall we go?" He said. Posey nodded and Discord smiled in response.

"Well then, to see the lanterns, my dear." He gestured to the kingdom just down the hill. An enthusiastic Posey started down with a happy Discord right behind her and a baffled Twilight taking up the rear.

Author's Note

It seems Discord and Twilight have patched things up, if only for now. But how will Fluttershy/Posey's first day in town go and will she find out more about her true heritage while she's there?

Also, in the next chapter, I'll probably add cameos from the remaining mane 6 who haven't appeared yet, and a bunch of other supporting characters from the show.

Visiting the Kingdom

As they entered the Pegasus Kingdom as the kingdom had their annual festival before the lanterns, Posey looked around in shock and awe. She'd never seen this many creatures in one place. Not only were there pegasi, but many other creatures were joining the festivities as they waited for the lanterns. It honestly made her feel nervous to walk through such a huge crowd. Sensing her fears, Discord placed his talon on her shoulder. Posey looked over and saw him give her a comforting smile. She smiled back and, with a strong bit of confidence, walked further into the festival.

"So, we have all day to hang out before we see those lanterns. What do you want to do first?" Discord asked her. Before she could answer, her stomach growled.

Discord smirked before saying, "I bet breakfast is the right course of action since Twilight so rudely interrupted my plans to make you some food." Twilight's eye twitched, but she kept herself under control, as he clearly was just trying to push her buttons.

The four of them went straight to an apple cart being managed by an orange earth pony mare with a blond mane held in a ponytail by a red band, a brown stetson on her head, freckles on her cheeks and green eyes. She smiled as they walked forward.

"Well, howdy ya'll." She said with a Appleloosan accent that Posey thought was pretty cute. "Name's Applejack. What can I do you for today?"

Discord smiled. "What do you recommend?"

"Well, I've got apple fritters, apple dumplings, apple pie, apple fries, just some plain old regular apples. Basically, if it has apples in it, we sell it. A'int that right, Big Mac?"

A large red stallion with similar green eyes and an orange mane, who was helping unload some crates, replied in a deep, monotone voice, "Eeyup."

"Um, can I get some…Apple fries, please?" Posey asked.

"Of course ya can, sugarcube." Applejack replied, as Posey blushed a little at the endearment. Applejack grabbed some fries and handed them to her. Discord asked for 5 fritters and a pie while Twilight just settled for a plain old red apple. Posey also asked for some apple slices for Angel. Discord snapped up the appropriate amount of bits to pay (plus a small gem as a tip) and they left while Applejack called out, "Enjoy yourselves now, ya hear?"

The four of them found a place to sit and enjoy their breakfast. As Posey looked around the festival enjoying her fries, she saw numerous little foals running around laughing and playing. She smiled at their joy, having never had any experience like that when she was younger. Discord meanwhile saw some stallions walking around, giving the princess looks and he decided to tease Twilight.

"Hey, Twi, want us to find you some nice stallion to hook up with?" He smirked. Twilight rolled her eyes.

"Not interested. How about we find you a nice mare?"

"Nope. The bachelor life is the one for me, princess." Posey was sadden by his statement, but kept her mouth shut and continued to eat her fries. Just then, a gorgeous mare came forward. She was a white unicorn with a curled purple mane and tail with blue eyes and eyeshadow.

"Hello there." She said as she approached. "I don't believe I've ever seen you three at the festival before."

Twilight replied first, "I never had the time. Too many royal duties."

"Was never interested." Discord snarked.

"I was kinda raised in a sheltered home." Posey said last.

"Oh, I see. At any rate, my name is Rarity. I saw you three and wondered if you'd like to be my first customers at a new shop I'm managing throughout the festival. Make you look a little more festive."

Discord raised his eyebrow, but before he could object, Posey said, "Um, I guess so." Rarity squeed before composing herself and guided them to her tent.

Discord was soon standing outside the tent with his mane combed over and wearing a black cardigan with a white undershirt and light grey jeans, as well as a bow tie the same color as his red pupils and dark brown boots on his mismatched feet and matching brown gloves on his hands. He felt ridiculous. On the plus side, he took amusement at Twilight looking less than pleased with her outfit. Her mane was tied in a bun and she wore a light blue dress with big puffy sleeves and white frilly trims, eyeshadow and lipstick the same shade of blue as her dress, silver shoes on her back hooves and she had a silver tiara with a purple star shaped jewel on her head, obviously cause she was royalty. Angel was on her back with a glittery dark blue bow tie and a similar displeased look as Twilight. Discord chuckled at their annoyed expressions before a rather pleased Rarity and nervous Posey came out of the tent. His jaw dropped all the way to the floor at the sight of the pegasus he's been having strange feelings on. Posey had her mane done up in a braid and she had cherry red lipstick and light purple eyeshadow applied to her. Her dress was a lot simpler than Twilight's, but that just made it more pleasing to him. The dress was a lovely shade of deep violet with white stripes running down them, a semi-sweetheart neckline, and no sleeves, leaving her forelegs exposed. Her back hooves wore tiny cherry red shoes. She was stunning!

"Um, do I look okay?" she asked as if she wasn't the most gorgeous thing on four legs. Twilight noticed Discord gaping at her and smirked.

Bachelor life, huh? She used magic to roll up his jaw like a map on a teacher's board. Discord stopped his jaw and then looked at her, just barley stopping himself from melting on the spot from her cute little nervous lip bite.

"You, uh, look...good." He finally said, picking the best compliment he could think of without going overboard. Still, she blushed at his compliment. Twilight was starting to put two and two together on their relationship. Well, if romance is gonna keep Discord in line, then call me Cadence, cause I'm gonna get them together, even if I regret it later.

The four of them payed Rarity (even when she insisted on letting them have their outfits for free) and they continued on down their way.

"Hiya!" Said an earth pony mare outta nowhere as they walked down the path. She was bright pink with a darker pink mane and tail that were curly and frizzy and her eyes were blue. She was somewhat chubby and she bounced up and down like she was made of rubber.

"My name's Pinkie Pie. Who are all you?" She talked like she was on fast forward all the time.

"I'm Twilight, this is Posey, and he's Discord." Twilight responded. She yelped as Pinkie came close to her.

"Oooo, are you a princess? I mean, I guess you could not be one, but you're an alicorn, but that might be an unfair stereotype, I'm not sure, well, are you?!" Twilight blinked at the mare's energy.

"Uh...I am a princess and as far as I know, there aren't any non-princess alicorns, so I wouldn't call it a stereotype exactly." She looked desperately at Posey and Discord hoping they'd help. Pinkie backed off thankfully and Twilight took that as their cue to leave.

"Well, it was to meet you, Pinkie, was it?" She nodded her head. "Right. But we have things to do, so if you don't mind..."

Pinkie blinked before smiling widely and she said, "Oh, that's okay. I gotta get back to my stand before the oven burns it down."

But then she gasped, suddenly forgetting about the oven and jumping over Twilight as she yelled, "Maud! Limestone! Marble!" and hugged a grey mare with a purple mane and a stoic expression, even as Pinkie hugged her tightly as two other ponies stood by, one looking a bit angry, and the other looked with a shy smile. Discord, Posey, and Twilight all looked at each other, before walking away from them.

As they walked through the festival, Twilight saw a flower stand and smirked.

"Perfect." She whispered to herself.

But before she could hatch her plan, a voice called out, "Twilight!" She turned and she beamed. There was Cadence standing next to a large white stallion with blue hair and eyes. She rushed forward and hugged her brother and sister-in-law.

"Cadence! Shining Armor! What are you doing here?!"

"We could ask the same, Twilight." Shining responded.

"You never attend the festival and besides which, I thought you were tracking down the ponies who stole the crown." Cadence said with a raised eyebrow.

Twilight started sweating and she began laughing nervously. "Yeah, well, the trail ran cold and I just thought I could use a break. I work far too hard and I thought 'ya know, I've never been to the Pegasus Kingdom festival', so here I am." Twilight forced a wide smile hoping they'd buy her lie. Fortunately, they seemed to.

"I've told you, you needed to take breaks for how many years now and the one time you're doing something important, that's when you decide to? Your priorities are a bit messed up, Twi." said another voice walking up to them. It came from a small purple dragon with small wings, a green underbelly and spines, as well as green eyes.

"Spike!" Twilight screamed as she hugged him.

Posey and Discord walked up, having noticed Twilight's absence. Twilight noticed them and let go of Spike.

"Shiny, Cadence, Spike, this are my friend Posey and my kinda sorta acquaintance, Discord. Posey, Discord, this is my brother, Shining Armor, my sister-in-law Princess Cadence, and my adopted brother Spike. But I think of him as my actual brother."

Posey did a curtsy towards Cadence. "It's wonderful to meet you."

Cadence smiled. "Likewise. Discord, I'm surprised to see you here, not causing trouble for my sister-in-law. Or just in general." Discord summoned a halo that appeared over his head.

"I assure you, your majesty, I'm on my best behavior while I attend the festival today." Twilight rolled her eyes while Posey giggled.

"Well, since we're all here, why don't we all enjoy the festival together?" Shining Armor said. Everyone nodded as they soon headed out. Twilight pulled Cadence to the side.

"I need your help with something involving romance." Cadence raised her eyebrow. "Posey and Discord clearly feel something for each other and it might be the best way to keep Discord in line. Can we, you know, nudge them closer?"

Cadence smirked in response. "They don't call me the Princess of Love for nothing."

As the day went on, the seven of them had loads of fun. Plenty of food was eaten, jokes were said and laughed at, and many activities were done. Cadence managed to convince Discord to buy a bluebell flower for Posey, which she put in her mane with a blush, and Twilight convinced Posey to kiss him on the cheek as a thank you, causing her blush to grow deeper and his cheeks to turn red and not just cause of her lipstick leaving a mark. Late in the afternoon, the town started a dance where all the couples would dance around. Twilight pushed Posey towards Discord and likewise, Cadence pushed him towards Posey. Once they met, they both blushed heavily. Cadence and Twilight high five each other with their wings as Posey asked Discord to dance. He accepted and the two of them slow danced among the other couples. Cadence was asked by her husband for a dance and the two of them went as well. Twilight, meanwhile, simply enjoyed watching Discord and Posey dance and stare lovely into each other's eyes. The only thing missing was a kiss on the lips, but all in all, mission accomplished, she thought.

As the sun started setting and everyone was heading to the boats where they would watch the lanterns, Posey could hardly wait. However, a mural on a wall caught her attention. She walked to it. It was of an older green pegasus stallion with a light pink mane and mustache and blue eyes. He wore a golden crown with numerous blue gems shaped like clouds in it. The other was a dark yellow pegasus mare of roughly the same age with magenta eyes and a raspberry mane. She wore a silver crown with magenta gems shaped like flowers. In both of their wings, there was a tiny filly.

This must be that lost princess everyone's talked about. She felt very sad for them that they lost their daughter. One thing she did notice was how much the filly looked like her. Buttery yellow coat, teal eyes, pink mane that nearly cover her eye even as a filly. She started hearing whisperings from the locals.

"Is that her?"

"It can't be."

"Well, she looks like the princess."

"There is absolutely no way it's her."

"Mommy, it's the Princess of Kindness."

"Now, let's not get out hopes up, son. It's likely not her."

Posey started feeling very uncomfortable about all these ponies talking about her like she's royalty. She isn't! She's just a normal mare. She already had a mother; these weren't her parents. Besides, she heard they had a son after the princess was kidnapped. She was an only child.

I'm not the princess. Mother didn't kidnap me. I'm not her! She looked back at the mural, specifically the happy little filly that looked just like her. Right? Oh goodness, please tell me it isn't true.

As she continued to doubt her entire life, Discord and Twilight noticed she was gone.

"We'll be right back, Shiny and Cadence." Twilight said. "She probably just got lost in the crowd." They nodded as Twilight and Discord flew above the crowd. As they flapped their respective wings, they soon found her staring at a wall. Discord teleported them to her.

"Posey, my dear. Whatever are you doing staring at a wall when your precious lanterns is about to start?" Posey shook her head to clear her mind of her conflicting thoughts.

"Oh, sorry. I just got lost in thought." Discord nodded before looking at the mural himself to try and see what caused her to blackout.

"It's alright." Twilight said. "Let's get going." Posey smiled, happy for the distraction from her existential crisis and went towards the docks.

Twilight was about to follow her when Discord grabbed her, looking like he had a startling revelation.

"Twilight, look at the mural." She rolled her eyes, but did as he said. "Does that filly look familiar to you?" Twilight narrowed her eyes to the filly specifically. She shook her head.

"No." She said. Discord facepalmed while muttering about her supposedly being the smart princess before turning her head. Her eyes widened as she watched Posey walk over to Cadence and Shining Armor, who waited for them. Buttery yellow coat, teal eyes, pink mane, pegasus.

"You don't think..." she started to ask. Discord stood there in a deerstalker hat and a pipe he summoned.

"Elementary, my dear Sparkle." He blew chocolate bubbles out of his pipe. "What other explanation could there be?" He then made the pipe and hat vanish, leaving him in his original outfit.

"So she's..." Twilight said before they both spoke at the same time "...the lost Princess Fluttershy!" They looked at her as the pieces started fitting together. They found her. The only question is, now what?

Author's Note

Next chapter will be Discord and Fluttershy/Posey enjoying the lanterns during the famous romance scene from the film. For now, enjoy Posey's interactions with the kingdom, them falling further in love with each other with Twi and Cadence playing Cupid, referencing the bluebell Fluttershy wears in the finale, cameos from a bunch of characters, and Twilight and Discord figuring out Posey's true identity, Fluttershy, while Posey begins to doubt her entire life!

I'd really like fanart of their outfits in this chapter. I'd draw them, but I'm not great at it, so yeah. Fanart of my fic in general would be sweet. :twilightsmile:

Also, very minor Appleshy here. Applejack x Fluttershy is right up there with Fluttershy x Discord as the only ships in any media I go full fanboy on, but since this is a Fluttercord story, I kept it tame. But I couldn't resist adding a little tease to it regardless. I have no shame in doing it, either.

Appleshy is best MLP LGBT ship and no one can change my mind! :yay: :heart: :ajsmug:

All at Once, Everything is Different

As the night began and the lanterns starting soon, Discord walked back, not believing it. 'Posey' was the lost Princess of Kindness, Fluttershy! He didn't think too much of the lost princess even after he heard of it. He had at least some sympathy for the grieving family even if he didn't really like royalty, but he largely didn't care cause it didn't concern him and his selfish desires. But now there she was, standing not five feet from him. Has she really been in that tower since her kidnapping? What reason did her 'mother' have for taking her or did she find her from the real bandits and decide to take her in? If she was found rather than stolen by the mare 'Posey' calls mother, why did she lie about a deadbeat dad instead of telling her she was adopted when 'Posey' asked about her father?

But the most important question in his mind was, "is she figuring out the truth?" Based on her behavior as he observed her, she seemed to be, even if she was fighting it. Not that he blamed her for trying to deny the truth. Her whole life is starting to turn upside down and being unveiled as a lie. Of course she'd try and resist and keep her whole life intact. And now, Discord's feelings were getting even more confusing. He briefly lived the royal life when his parents were still around as they were good friends with the king and queen of Canterlot, but he was more of a commoner these days. He never minded that before, but now he was falling for a princess! And a gorgeous one at that. Was he really worthy of her? On the flip side, 'Fluttershy' was a much more beautiful name and much more fitting for her than 'Posey'. Maybe he should refer to her as that. In his mind, of course. Can't make the poor thing even more confused after all.

Tried as she might to be excited for the lanterns, Posey couldn't get the thought of the mural outta her head. It just couldn't be true! Her mother didn't kidnap her and she wasn't royalty. Yet the more she thought about it, the less confident she was about what's true. Her mother never really cared about her too much. And she didn't look like her really at all. Oh, sure, her mother said she looked more like her father, but there weren't any photos of him to confirm that.

Then again, if he ditched her before I was born, of course mother wouldn't want any reminders of his existence. her mind retaliated. But there was the fact that she looked like the filly in the mural. She knew some ponies could look pretty similar even if they aren't related, but that mural looked exactly like a younger version of her. How likely was it that the two of them just happened to look exactly like each other?

Then there was the matter of if it was true, what in Equestria was she to do about it? Run back into the hooves of practical strangers that are supposedly her real parents and try to be a princess? She didn't know how to be one. Could she even be with Discord if she became royalty as he's not royalty? For sweet sakes, what about her name?! I've been Posey my whole life, but I never really liked that name. Fluttershy is better. Should I go by Fluttershy? But I don't know if I'm really her and that feels disrespectful if I'm not her. But what other explanation is there? Oh, everything is different now. I wish things were simple. She has nothing but questions and doubts and no answers for any of them. As she heard Discord's booted steps and Twilight's hooves, she tried to ignore her doubts and focused on seeing the lanterns with her crush. She didn't want to worry him about her existential crisis after all.

"So, are you ready to see the lanterns?" Twilight said as they approached, trying really hard to not freak out about her being the Princess of Kindness.

"Um, I guess." the pegasus said honestly.

Angel, Shining Armor, Spike, Cadence, Twilight, Discord, and Posey made it down to the docks to get on a boat to see the lanterns. Cadence and Shining Armor shared a boat, while Twilight and Spike shared another for some brother-sister bonding (namely Spike teasing her about her outfit), leaving Angel, Discord and Posey to their own boat. She stopped just before her hoof set into the boat. Discord raised an eyebrow.

"What's wrong?" He asked. Not wanting to tell him about her identity crisis, she decided to tell him about her earlier fears from when she was heading down before she saw the mural. She was still worried about this fear, but not quite as much as the princess debacle.

"I've been looking out the window for 21 years. Dreaming about what it would feel like when those lights rise in the sky. What if it's not everything that I dreamed it would be?"

"It will be." Discord responded.

"And what if it is? What then?" She asked, terrified of her future. He gave the most genuine smile he had given any living creature.

"Well, that's the good part. You get to go find a new dream." She smiled in response. Discord lifted her into the boat and floated Angel in before jumping in himself, turning his tail feathers into a motor, putting his tail into the water, and drove them off.

Up in the castle, King Gentle Heart sighed as he looked at the butterfly covered lanterns. He couldn't believe it had been 21 years today and his daughter hadn't been found yet. He loved their son, Zephyr Breeze, but she was his baby girl.

"Honey?" asked a soft and kind voice behind him. He turned and saw his wife, Queen Whisper Willow, who looked just as distraught as he did. She walked forward and nuzzled him.

"It's time." She said.

"Where's Zephyr?" He asked. She smiled nervously.

"He, um, said he'd watch it from the docks. Something about hearing of it being romantic and him wanting a connection with a special someone." Gentle Heart smiled, if only for a moment. Their son was a bit of a womanizer. Nothing too bad, but he always tried to flirt with mares, especially that rainbow maned pegasus mare that was to be Fluttershy's personal guard when she and the rainbow mare both came to age. She wasn't interested, but Zephyr keeps trying regardless.

His smile disappeared as he thinks about their daughter. Whisper's smile also vanished when she saw his smile disappear. She nuzzled him some more and kissed his cheek.

"I know. I miss her, too." She said as tears started coming down. "Maybe this year will finally be the one and our baby comes home." He sighed.

"I hope so, Whisp. I hope so." They released the lanterns together as Whisper leaned against Gentle Heart and cried into his shoulder. He wrapped a wing across her withers for support as tears ran down his own face. If only they could see their daughter again. They wouldn't care that she'd be an adult by now, they just wanted to see their baby girl again. Their little Fluttershy.

Unbeknownst to them, their daughter, who was still debating whether she was the princess or not, had reached the center of the lake with Discord and her bunny. The boat stopped as Discord said, "It's the best day of your life. I figured you should have a decent seat." His tail turned back to normal as he lifted it out and laid it on the seat, and then he leaned back, crossing his goat hoof over his reptilian claw.

"Personally, I never saw the big deal with these, but I'd do anything for you at this point, my dear." Posey smiled before looking up, waiting for the lanterns to start. Her eyes widened as they started floating across the skies. They were even more beautiful up close than they were from her tower. She turned back to see Discord watching the lanterns wearing 3-D glasses and eating a tub of carrot flavored popcorn that he was sharing with Angel, who has his own pair of 3-D glasses. He looked her way and waved with his paw. She waved back before turning her attention back to the lanterns.

Meanwhile, on Twilight's boat, she was telling Spike about Fluttershy.

"So, you think it's her?" He asked as he watched the lanterns.

"I can't ignore how similar they look." She replied.

"Well, some ponies just kinda look alike, Twi. Like that story about the prince who found someone who looked exactly like him and switched places with them, but they weren't related at all."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I never liked that story. Do you know how improbable it'd be to find someone who looks exactly like you in every single way but be a different class from you?"

Spike shrugged. "Who knows?"

Twilight sighed. "But I'm sure it's really her."

Spike scratched his head. "Well, if it is really her, what do we do about it?"

Twilight stayed silent for a while before answering, "I don't know, Spike." She laid her head on the side as she sighed. Spike patted her shoulder with a sadden look on his face.

Back on Discord and Posey's boat, the lanterns were a perfect distraction from her dilemma. They were everything she hoped they'd be and more. The only downside was now she didn't know what to do with her life. But she knew that Discord should start his. She looked at her crush.

"Discord, I have something for you." He lowered his glasses and raised an eyebrow. She grabbed the satchel from behind her back (it was hidden in her unbraided tail) and gave it to him. His eyes widened. He looked inside and saw the crown.

"Now you can start being good. I should have given it to you before, but I was just scared. The thing is...I'm not s-scared anymore. You know what I mean?" She asked. He looked at the crown that belong to the beautiful mare across from him before looking at her. In the glow of the lanterns, she looked like a princess. Well, not yet. He leaned forward and placed the crown on her. She blushed. He smirked at her reaction.

"I'm starting to." He grabbed her hooves with his paw and talon and her blush increased. They stared into each other's eyes.

"Look look look, Shiny!" Cadence yelled from her boat. She'd been more interested in Discord and Posey than the lanterns themselves. He looked over and smiled while she could barely hold her squees. She couldn't help fangirling. She was the Princess of Love after all and she adored seeing a new couple form.

They continued to look to each other's eyes, each held by their hypnotic gaze.

They softly sang to each other, "All at once, everything is different. Now that I see you." They start to lean closer to each other as they finished singing. "Now that I see you." They continued leaning as Posey closed her eyes and puckered her cherry red lips. Angel squeaked and covered his blushing face with his ears. Discord was about to pucker his lips, until his gaze went to her crown and then to the castle.

No, this isn't right. He let go of her hooves and put his tail in the water. Once she sensed him not going for it, she fluttered her eyes open.

"Discord?" She asked in a tone that was like her heart was breaking. He ignored the twist in his heart that tone made and drove them to the castle. They could barely hear Cadence yell, "Oh, come on!" as they left.

He made it to the shore and hopped out.

"Is everything okay?" Posey asked.

"Huh? Oh yes. Uh, yes of course. Everything is fine. It's just..." he paused, not sure how to continue. He shook his head. "Listen, I just thought maybe I should start that "making amends" thing with your par-I mean, the king and queen." He finally settled on. It wasn't the whole truth, but it wasn't really a lie either. Her eyes widened as she believed his half-truth.

"Oh, okay. Do you want this?" She asked, starting to lift the crown off her head.

"No no. Just…leave it on. I want to bring them out here." She nodded and placed it back on her head.

"I'll be back soon, Fluttershy." He said softly, not realizing his slip up. Her eyes widen even more as he walked off.

Does he suspect I'm the princess? She sat for a minute until another big revelation hit her. She gasped as her entire face turned red and she put a hoof to her chest. "We almost kissed! On the lips!"

Does he like me, too? She pondered this and more as she watched him disappear into the shadows.

Author's Note

Aw, there're in love. :heart: How long till things go wrong? Next chapter, basically. Also, ain't I a tease for not making them kiss yet? Believe me, it killed me too.

Oh, Prince and the Pauper dis from Twilight! To be honest, I don't hate those kind of stories, but what are the odds of meeting someone who looks identical to you in pretty much every way but is in a different class than you? Probably higher than I think, to be honest. And it's more about the moral of the story, I suppose, rather than the logistics of the scenario, but I imagine Twilight would complain more about the logic of the story, so that's why I wrote her criticizing it. It's not meant to reflect my own opinions on the story onto a character. Same with Discord's dislike of the princess tower trope. It's just how I imagine that'd react to those tropes and stories than my own thoughts on them leaking into my writing.

Also, I gave Gentle Heart and Whisper Willow lines, unlike the king and queen in the movie! They still don't have many as they are still minor characters, but a few lines is better than no lines, right?

And, Zephyr Breeze and Rainbow Dash mention! They might appear in the epilogue. Who knows?

You have no idea how much it is a relief to start referring to Fluttershy as Fluttershy finally, if only for a bit. It honestly felt a bit like blasphemy to not refer to her as Fluttershy for basically 9 and a half chapters till now. Do you know how many times I nearly wrote Fluttershy instead of Posey due to base instincts? That's what I get for changing her name for my first major story fic. :ajbemused:

For Love

In reality, Discord wasn't confronting the king and queen, at least not yet. He was currently pacing the bridge that lead to the castle as he tried to think what in Equestria he was going to say to them. Not only was he normally terrible at apologizing for his actions (usually, he never wanted to apologize anyway), but he was about to talk to his crush's parents! Who were royalty on top of that!

"How am I supposed to do this?" He said quietly to himself. "'Hey, your majesties, you know that daughter of yours? Well, she's out back. She's wearing her crown and she doesn't quite accept the truth, but she's piecing it together. I also took her crown, but I'm sorry and hope the return of your daughter will clear that up. Oh, and I'm in love with her as well. You cool with that?'" He paused as he thought about how that would go. Then he slapped himself.

"Ugh, why can't things be simple?! If I didn't love her, this might not be so hard!" He sighed as he sat on the bridge, turning it plaid by accident. He didn't bother changing it back. As much as he tried to deny it, that secret princess had stolen his heart and wasn't giving it back. As they stared into each other's eyes on the boat, he then knew that he wasn't just misinterpreting friendship. No, he loved her, and she seemed to love him too, if their almost kiss just a few minutes ago was anything to go by.

If she wasn't a princess, maybe it wouldn't have to be so hard to be with her, but she was, even if she hadn't fully accepted it yet. He normally detested royalty, and nearly everywhere in Equestria was aware of his reputation. The Pegasus Kingdom was no different, if those stares he got from the locals from the festival were anything to go by. But he could take stares. He was used to them. But if he dated her, he'd be a prince, and would they accept the rogue Lord of Chaos as their prince? Would the king and queen even allow her to be with a lowly commoner? Some parts of Equestria were changing their views on that. The Crystal Empire being one such example. It's no secret that Shining Armor was not a prince nor proper royalty before marrying Princess Cadence. But not all kingdoms were so lax, and he didn't know if the Pegasus Kingdom was more strict than the Crystal Empire in terms of marrying their royalty.

He growled in frustration. "Someone just put me out of my misery!"

"That can be arranged." said a deep voice behind him. Discord recognized the voice and rolled his eyes.

"Caballeron. What an unexpected pleasure. And by pleasure, I mean not at all a pleasure." Discord didn't even turn around to face him. He had his own problems that didn't involve some low life thief. Despite this fact, Caballeron kept talking.

"Oh, poor little draconequus. In love with a princess you can't be with. But not only can I help you, I'll get my revenge on you as well."

Discord chuckled bitterly. "Oh, yeah? How do you plan on that? You're just an earth pony. No disrespect. I don't hate earth ponies any more than other ponies, but if I can give an alicorn a run for her bits, what could you do?" He could practically hear the stallion's smirk in response.

"Do you think cockatrice powder would stop you?" Discord's eyes widened and he turned around just as Caballeron blew the powder towards him.

Meanwhile, Posey was having a dilemma of her own. She paced around on the boat trying to figure out the enigma that was her draconequus she was sweet on. Easier said than done.

"I mean, ponies normally try to kiss the other when they like each other, right? That's what my books have said, or least implied. But then he turned away and it sounded like he was making an excuse and he's been gone a while. But, he's told me so much at this point, if he didn't like me, he'd tell me out right he didn't feel something, right? Maybe he's not sure yet. Or maybe he just wants to be proper since I may or may not be a princess. Or maybe...oh, I don't know." She sighed. It was all too confusing.

She heard footsteps coming towards her. "Oh, Discord. I was starting to think you ran off and left me." She said as she turned, but as the fog cleared, it revealed that, instead of Discord, it was a brown stallion she's never seen before. And he frighten her, what with his sinister grin, and his slow walk towards her.

"He did." He said simply.

"What?" she said in disbelief. "No, that's not true. He wouldn't. He's my friend and friends don't ditch each other." This stallion didn't need to know she was in love with Discord.

He laughed in response. "You are really naive, aren't you? He knew you felt something for him. Celestia knows why, but feeling nothing for you and wanting to break your heart, he flew off, but not before telling me I could have the crown. And the lost princess." She gasped as he rushed forward. She jumped from the boat and ran off. But he was faster and slammed into her, flinging her into the castle wall. She screamed as she felt her left wing break upon impact. She landed hard on the ground. She tried to stand, but yelped and collapsed when she felt a massive pain in her leg. She covered her face with her hooves and whimpered, wishing Discord would swoop in and save her.

Just then, she heard a horn light and the stallion yell, "we had a deal" before he yelled as she heard a blast.

"Posey!" said a very familiar voice. She peeked from her hooves and saw her mother standing above her.

"Mother?" she asked hesitantly, as if she wasn't really standing there.

"Yes dear." Chrysalis said, now using her sweet tone again. She picked her up and hugged Posey. Posey took a minute to try and find her footing with her hurt leg.

"I was so worried about you, darling. So I followed you. And I saw him attack you. Let's go, let's go before he come to." She let go of the hug and noted Posey's broken wing. "Posey, sweetheart, did that scumbag break your wing? Doesn't matter. You're safe now, my dear."

At the term of endearment normally used by her handsome draconequus, Posey's eyes widened and she tried to move past Chrysalis. "Discord! Discord!" she screamed.

Chrysalis raised her brow. "Discord?" She then put on a false look of sadness and sympathy. "Oh, my darling child. I'm afraid he left. He's probably halfway across Equestria by now." Posey was now crying, making her eyeshadow run down her face.

"No, no! I don't believe you! He wouldn't leave me. I know he wouldn't! I love him!! Do you hear me?! I love him, and he wouldn't leave me!!" She screamed.

Chrysalis could feel her love for the draconequus and his for hers, but she still couldn't believe it, even after she screamed into Chrysalis' face. But Discord was incapacitated, if Caballeron used the proper amount of powder, that is, and she needed to take Posey home. She put her hoof under the chin of her 'daughter' and looked at her tear soaked face.

"Oh, my darling, now you know what I what I went through when your father left. It feels like your whole world is falling apart, isn't it? I never wanted you to feel that pain. Never deal with love, it only sets you up for heartbreak. Now let's go home, throw away that tacky crown you're wearing, maybe sing a little, and forgot all about that Discord, princess."

At the nickname 'princess' Chrysalis had used on occasion, Posey's heart stopped. Now, all her conflicts about her true identity was flooding back.

"I'm the lost princess." She mumbled.

"What was that, darling? Please don't mumble." Chrysalis said.

"I am the Princess of Kindness, Fluttershy, aren't I?" She said as she lifted her eyes. Chrysalis' eyes widened.

"Did I mumble that time, 'mother'?" Fluttershy said threateningly. Chrysalis dropped her chin and backed up as Fluttershy's face hardened into a glare. "Or should I even call you that?"

Chrysalis started laughing nervously as she tried to reason with Fluttershy, "Posey, d-do you even hear yourself? Why would you ask such a r-ridiculous question?" Fluttershy's eyes narrowed even further.

"You stole me, didn't you?" She said menacingly. Chrysalis was honestly too scared at Fluttershy being so assertive.

"I don't believe it. What could you possibly have gained from stealing me from my family?! I was just a baby! What could you have possibly gained from doing something so heinous?! And don't you dare say 'you did it to protect me'! We both know that's not true. So why did you?" She was tired of all the lies. She needed answers. And she needed them, now! Chrysalis stayed quiet, too frighten to even move. More tears rolled down Fluttershy's face.

"Tell me!!" She screamed. Her breathing became heavy as she stared down her lying 'mother'. Chrysalis stayed silent.

"Fine, don't give me answers. I'm going back to my real parents. I may be an adult, but they'll take me back. I know they will. Goodbye forever, mother. I never want to see you again." Fluttershy turned from her and started down the path, limping slightly due to her leg injury.

She couldn't get far before in a blaze of green fire, the disguised ex-queen teleported in front of Fluttershy. Her bravery left her as she stared into the older mare's eyes, glaring and glowing bright green.

"You want me to be the bad guy?" Her horn lit up as her glare intensified. "Fine. Now I'm the bad guy." Her whole body soon lit up and transformed in a glory of green fire. Fluttershy's eyes widened as her lying 'mother' turned from a normal looking older unicorn mare into a charcoal black alicorn looking creature with holes in her legs, insect looking wings, long blue hair that looked like a cobweb, frightening fangs, a green chitin armored back and a crooked horn.

The only thing that matched her pony form was her green eyes, but even they looked more ferocious than a normal pony's, and not just because of her glare.

Fluttershy stepped back on her good leg as she stared in horror. Chrysalis smirked at the mare's previous assertiveness completely vanished.

"What's the matter, dear? Don't recognize your own mother?" Fluttershy shivered at the sound of Chrysalis' voice. Not only was it harsh, but there was a bizarre echoey effect that she didn't have in her pony disguise.

"W-what are you?" Fluttershy asked.

Chrysalis blew some of her cobweb looking mane out of her face. "Oh, that doesn't matter. What does is you are coming with me."

Fluttershy took more steps back. "I-I'm not going anywhere with you."

Chrysalis' smirk grew. "How cute. You make it sound like you have a choice in the matter."

Fluttershy's eyes widen in fear as Chrysalis' shadow engulfed her body.

Twilight was still trying to think of what to do about the princess, tracing the water with her hoof before she heard a scream. She looked around before seeing Fluttershy being taken by a black looking object.

"Fluttershy!" She screamed before opening her wings and launching into the air. Once she flew there, she glared at her kidnapper, recognizing her from the stories she's heard from Celestia.

"Chrysalis." She hissed. Chrysalis looked at her and smirked.

"Hello, your majesty." She said with the same amount of venom and malice as when she saw her in the woods.

"What are you doing here? You were banished eons ago." Twilight questioned. Chrysalis smirk grew.

"Oh, Twilight. The one thing you should know about us changelings is that we can hide right underneath your noses and you'd never know. Isn't that right, Fluttershy?" She asked her captive, even though she couldn't speak as she had a cloth gag in her mouth.

"Twilight! Help!" Fluttershy's voice was muffed by the gag. Twilight narrowed her eyes at Chrysalis.

"Whatever you want with Fluttershy, you won't get away with this." Chrysalis simply smirked and blasted Twilight with her horn. Fluttershy screamed against her gag as she watched her friend plummet. Chrysalis laughed evilly before flying off.

Just before she hit the water, Twilight's wings opened up and gliding against the water. She landed on the shore and turned to see Chrysalis' disappearing form. She panted as she stared at them. Angel rushed forward to Twilight, obviously distraught about his owner being kidnapped. Twilight turned when she saw something and picked up Fluttershy's crown and the bluebell. They were both surprisingly intact. They likely fell off when Chrysalis grabbed her instead of her forcible removing them.

"I gotta find Discord." She said before running off. Angel followed her.

"Discord! Discord! Where are you, you big idiot?"

"Over here!" She heard him call out. She ran towards the source of his voice. She turned a corner before heading towards the now plaid bridge. She made it midway before skidding to a stop.

"Discord, what happened?" Discord's lower half was turned to stone as he tried to support himself with his front limbs. Discord turned his head and actually sighed in relief at the sight of Twilight.

"Sparkle, I'm glad to see you." He said honestly.

"What happened to you?" Twilight asked. Discord sighed as his ears flopped against his head.

"I just went for a walk to clear my head when Caballeron ambushed me and attacked me with cockatrice powder."

"Sweet Celestia." Twilight whispered in horror. "But why is only your lower half encased in stone?" Discord actually smirked despite his situation.

"He didn't have enough to turn me completely to stone and he left me for dead once he saw me being encased, clearly thinking he had enough."

"Well, can you snap yourself out?" Twilight asked.

Discord rolled his eyes. "You think I didn't try that? This spell seems to block my magical abilities." Twilight started hyperventilating.

"This is bad this is bad this is bad. First, Chrysalis kidnaps Fluttershy and now you're trapped in stone and oh, this is terrible!"

Discord lifted his head up with wide eyes. "Chrysalis? She has Fluttershy?" Twilight nodded as tears entered her eyes. Discord growled as he reveals his carnassials.

"Twilight, break me out." He said menacingly.

"What?!" Twilight yelled incredulously. "Discord, we don't know what will happen if I break your stone half. I could destroy your entire lower half!"

"Well, I'll just grew my lower half back with my magic." He said casually, as if it wasn't a big deal he'd only have an upper half.

"Y-you're insane!" Twilight screamed.

Discord groaned and rolled his eyes. "Oh, come on, Twi. You've been so eager to blast me for years! Why is now any different?"

"Because I like you, you idiot!" Twilight screamed. Discord's eyes widened.

"You're my friend, and I don't want to hurt you or see you hurt." Twilight said.

"Twilight, thank you. No really, thank you. You're my friend too, which is why I'm asking you, as a friend, to break me out." He said. Twilight still looked unsure.

"Twilight, I need to get to Fluttershy. Please, I love her, Twilight." Twilight looked at Discord's face as he said this. Though she knew he had feelings for her, he was such a stubborn draconequus that she thought he wouldn't say it. And she knew he was right. They had to save her, and she had to bust him out in order to help her. Discord's magic is stronger than Chrysalis'.

I hope so, anyway. she thought to herself.

Twilight took a deep breath and lit her horn as she was ready to blast him out. She lowered her head and blasted his stone covered body. He groaned in pain before feeling his body being freed. He signed in relief and fell onto the floor. He turned his neck and saw Twilight rubbing her head from preforming such a strong spell. She shook her head and looked at him, smiling at his freed body. And he was in one piece to boot! He got on four legs before standing on his hind legs. He stumbled briefly before righting himself.

"Can you teleport us to where she is?" Discord snapped his paw, but it didn't do anything. He snapped it again. Nothing changed. He smiled sheepishly.

"Looks like my magic is still nullified for now. But I know where they'll likely be." Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, where?" Discord leaned down and whispered into her ear. She lit her horn and teleported them, while Angel hopped on her back. If someone told Twilight earlier this week that she'd be helping Discord, she probably would've laughed. But, now she was helping him. For Equestria. For her friend.

For love.

Author's Note

While I was taking a shower, I thought, "You know what, f*ck that break I was gonna take. Let's power through. Only a few chapters left. I can do it." So, here we are, fresh outta the shower comes a new chapter for all you lovely folks who have stuck with me through our Tangled inspired adventure.

I was originally gonna combine this chapter and the next for the final confrontation, but I decided to not make that chapter too long, so next chapter is the final battle against Chrysalis. Will love be able to prevail?

From here on out, expect no more mention of Posey. As Fluttershy fully embraces her true identity, the name Posey is gonna die along with the rest of her old life. About time, too. I was gonna go insane if I kept calling her Posey for any longer, I swear. Chrysalis is gonna be in her regular form from here on out as well. It'll be nice to see her in her proper buggyness instead of her old frail disguise from the past chapters.

Also, some nice character building between Twilight and Discord. As Taterforlife would say, "even in a romance story, gotta keep the friendship element strong due to the show it’s based on." After all, the show is 'Friendship is Magic', not 'Romance is Magic', even if in the show, it is magic as well. Whatever, you know what I mean, right?

Love conquers All

The clouds started going across the sky, making the dilapidated tower look even darker and more mysterious than before. There was no light coming from the tower and all the cute animals were nowhere in sight.

It was a setting perfect for a final confrontation. And Discord was sure they were here.

Twilight, Angel and Discord burst though the waterfall and came out of the tunnel leading to the secret meadow with the tower. Twilight's eyes widened at the sight of the old, abandoned tower, wondering how long it has been hidden here without anyone finding it. But now was not the time for such thoughts. They halted in front of the door and looked up at the 70 foot height of the tower.

"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, let down your hair, so that I may climb thy pink stair!" Discord yelled up. Twilight turned her head and raised an eyebrow. "What? I've always wanted to parody that."

Twilight and Angel rolled their eyes before Twilight lit her horn, and blasts the door open. Discord was about to walk in before Twilight put her hoof on his shoulder. He turned his head and saw Twilight looking concerned for him. That's a sight I never thought I'd see.

"Are you sure about this? Without your magic, Chrysalis could hurt you or worst." Her eyes lifted up to his faded scars. She'd seen them once or twice before in many of their rivalries but this is the first time she saw them up close. Discord saw where she was looking and turned back to the door.

"Twilight, the love of my life in trouble. I need to save her." Twilight nodded, if a bit reluctantly, and the three of them headed up.

Meanwhile, in the main room, Fluttershy was screaming through her cloth gag and struggled against her binds as Chrysalis dragged her with some rope. Chrysalis was grabbing some things from the tower that would've been hard to get where they planned to go.

"Oh, really, stop struggling, my dear." Fluttershy practically gagged at hearing the witch's usage of Discord's term of endearment for her. "You'll like where we are going. It's a beautiful jungle full of those dumb animals you love so much. And far away from everyone else. Oh, and don't worry about your friends, family and love. I'll make sure you forget all about them when we arrive. It'll be how it should've been before, just you and me...until I drained enough of your love that I don't need you anymore and...dispose of you." Fluttershy's eyes widened as she figures out what Chrysalis meant by 'dispose of' and struggled harder while screaming louder, though still muffled by her gag.

"Oh, stop making a mountain out of a mole hill, darling." She said casually as if Fluttershy was making a big deal out of missing toothpaste or something. Chrysalis' horn glowed as she lifted Fluttershy into the air. Once Fluttershy reached her face, Chrysalis' eyes started glowing a brighter green. "Don't you see? It'll be mother and daughter, alone on an exotic paradise." She whispered in a soothing, but insistent tone, "Doesn't that sound like fun? Just me and you. Together forever." Fluttershy tried resisting looking into her eyes, knowing she was trying to hypnotize her. Eventually, however, Chrysalis forcefully grabbed her chin, forcing her to stare into the changeling's eyes.

Just as her beautiful teal eyes started turning the same green as Chrysalis' and the past two days started to become fuzzy, the door burst open. Chrysalis dropped Fluttershy, surprised by the opening of the door. She turned and saw Discord, Angel and Twilight, ready to brawl. Fluttershy's eyes blinked back to teal and her mind cleared before she looked over at her friends and lover.

"Discord! Angel! Twilight!" She screamed into her gag, ecstatic to see them.

Chrysalis groaned in irritation. "Caballeron had one job, and he couldn't even do that right."

Twilight turned to Discord. "You two get Fluttershy. I'll distract Chrysalis." Discord nodded, not really wanting to argue.

Twilight charged forward and pounced on Chrysalis while Discord and Angel rushed to Fluttershy. Angel bit the rope to untie her and Discord took the gag off her mouth.

"Are you okay, Fluttershy?" He asked, not really caring he called her Fluttershy instead of Posey. It just felt right. Fluttershy jumped forward and hugged the base of his neck.

"I am now." She said with a smile and watery eyes, delighted to see her favorite draconequus. Discord wrapped his arms around his favorite pony and hugged her back just as tightly.

Chrysalis kicked Twilight off before standing up and charging herself. Twilight got up and counteracted Chrysalis' horn with her own. With horns locked, Chrysalis grinned evilly and started moving forward. Due to her smaller size compared to the changeling, Twilight started skidding across the floor, not physically strong enough to try and stop her. Realizing she would lose this strength contest, she lit her horn and teleported away to appear just above her. Chrysalis turned and started flapping her insectoid wings as she flew up to face Twilight. Twilight deflected Chrysalis' magical blows and Chrysalis blocked Twilight's as well for about a minute until Chrysalis got frustrated and started spamming her attack. Twilight blocked most of them, but one hit her right in the chest, sending her flying into a bookcase, promptly knocking her out before she hit the floor.

Chrysalis landed and turned her head towards Discord and Fluttershy, glaring at the draconequus. Discord glared back as he set his love down and stood over her on four legs, growling like a lion with his hair standing on end, his ears pinned against his head, his claws on his paw extend outward, and his carnassials exposed to show he means business. Chrysalis hissed in retaliation, revealing her long tongue before she charged forward. Discord roared with the ferocity of every creature his body was composed of before he leaped at her, wrapping himself around the ex-queen like a fuzzy boa constrictor, his claws digging into her body for extra grip.

Fluttershy stared in awe as she watched Discord wrestle with Chrysalis. Even without his magic, he was still stronger than a pony, and his animalistic body parts certainly help deal damage. Angel pulled on her tail and points to the kitchen. Fluttershy looked over to where he was pointing and smiled at seeing what Angel saw, kissing his forehead in appreciation before running to the kitchen, a little slower than normal due to her leg.

Chrysalis and Discord banged against walls and shelves for probably a solid minute before Chrysalis finally managed to dislodge the troublesome draconequus. She was surprised that he wasn't using his magic to fight her off, but no matter. Either way, he won't stop her if she had a say in the matter.

The two clashed again as Discord bit her horn with his teeth. Just as he was on the verge of breaking it in two, he felt an intense pain in his chest. He let go and dropped to the floor, Chrysalis holding the dagger in her hoof as she smirked at his collapsing body.

"Looks like Caballeron wasn't so useless after all," She said while laughing, "At least he managed to nullify your magic, it looks like."

She only really used the dagger to try and get him off her and keep her horn intact, but to have Discord dying on the floor was even better.

Just then, she got banged in the head by a blunt object. She yelled in pain as she backed up, holding her head as it rang. When her vision cleared, she saw Fluttershy standing over Discord on her hind legs, holding a frying pan in her hoof.

And she was mad!

"Stay away from him, you witch from Tartarus!" She yelled. Fluttershy looked down at her dying love and bent down to hug him, her chest on top of his. "Don't die, please. I love you." She whispered into his ear. She kissed the base of his ear, hoping he heard her. Just then, a bright pink glow emanated from their hearts. Chrysalis' eyes widened in fear.

"No..." she whispered in horror. She has heard stories of this, of love so strong, it could defeat a changeling, but she had always told her clan it was only a myth. She even started to believe that herself after repeating it so many times. But now, she was about to be defeated by such power.

The light soon blasted outward in the shape of a heart, a heart formed via a pegasus and draconequus.

As Chrysalis backed up in fear, Angel smirked and stuck out his foot, causing the former queen to fall out the window. She was still hit by the power of love and she screamed in agony as she began turning into dust.

As the light faded, the last remnant of her, a dust filled cloak, fell down the tower and landed on the ground just outside the broken door. And Chrysalis was gone forever.

Twilight groaned as she came to. She stood up on shaky legs, stumbling for a bit before righting herself. She shook her head to clear her vision. She heard crying and looked over, only to her horror saw Fluttershy holding Discord's lifeless body. Chrysalis was nowhere to be seen, but it was kinda hard to take satisfaction in their victory when she could see a little bit of her friend's blood staining the princess' chest.

"No no no, don't go, stay with me, Discord." Fluttershy cried, shaking his body, hoping he'd wake up. Twilight walked over to comfort her friend. Even Angel looked saddened at the situation, even if he didn't really like Discord still. Tears rushed down Fluttershy's face as she looked at his closed eyes. She felt his heartbeat slow down and stop against her chest just as Chrysalis was defeated, but she refused to believe it. She hugged him tightly, hoping some miracle could bring him back.

"Please. Don't go. I love you. You were my new dream." Her heart was breaking. She cried into his neck, not feeling anything but sorrow. She didn't even register Twilight's hoof on her shoulder. Her entire focus was on the draconequus laying lifeless in her hooves.

She lifted her head as a single tear ran down her face and landed on his neck in the shape of a broken heart. Once it did, it glowed bright pink. Magical tendrils flew around Discord's body, healing him. Fluttershy's eyes widened at the sight. Twilight herself couldn't believe it, but the princess' pure heart and declaration of love had magic strong enough to heal even the dead! Once the glowing stopped, Discord groaned and opened his eyes.

"Discord?" Fluttershy whispered weakly, hoping this wasn't some cruel trick. He looked at her and smiled.

"Did I ever tell you I prefer Fluttershy over Posey? It's much more fitting for a beautiful mare like you."

Fluttershy gasped in delight as she smiled widely and hugged him, tears of joy soaking his fur as she yelled, "Discord!" He smiled at her, happy to see her safe. Twilight walked over and touched his neck.

"You had us worried, you big lug." She has tears in her eyes looking at him, but a smile on her face. Discord smirked.

"Aw, you mean you actually cared? I'm touched."

Twilight shook her head. "You idiot." Discord's smirk grew.

"Still need a thesaurus, Sparkle." One fell from the sky, this time missing Twilight's head. It opened up, but instead of all the insults that were there before, her synonyms for her name were replaced by one phrase, 'Discord's friend'. Twilight's smile grew as she looked at the page.

Before Discord could say anymore, though, Fluttershy rushed over and kissed him on the lips. His eyes widened before closing them and enjoying their first proper kiss. Twilight looked away to give them some privacy, blushing a little, but happy for the couple. Fluttershy's grip slightly tightened against his neck as Discord held her head in his paw. They break off for air and leaned their foreheads against each other’s and gazed into each other's eyes, smiling at each other. Now that Chrysalis was gone, her old life as Posey was gone and Fluttershy's life can begin.

Author's Note

There's still an epilogue to come, where Fluttershy gets reunited with her parents, so stay tuned for that.

Oh, you thought the dagger wouldn't come back after Chrysalis finding out about Discord? Well, nope. Found a way to stab him like Eugene was after all. Sorry, Discord. You're my favorite character, but I had you be stabbed and nearly killed. Please forgive me!

Also, couldn't resist Discord making a parody of the original Rapunzel line of letting down thy golden hair. :rainbowlaugh:

Epilogue

King Gentle Heart and Queen Whisper Willow were listening to their son's latest escapades over breakfast (namely Rainbow kicking him in the stomach when he tried flirting with her last night), when they heard a knock on the double doors.

Gentle Heart called out, "Come in." and one of their guards, a pale blue pegasus stallion with a dark blue mane and green eyes, walked in, followed by Twilight.

Whisper nodded towards the stallion, "Thank you, Commander Soarin." He bowed and headed out. Twilight looked towards them with an eager look that didn't escape the royals.

"Did you find the crown, your highness?" Gentle Heart asked.

Twilight grew a grin. "Yes I did, but I found something even better. And she's waiting outside." The royals looked at each other in confusion before following her out.

Discord stood in front of the castle nervously, holding and wringing his tail in his hands. Once the sky cleared, Fluttershy wanted to finally meet her real parents as soon as possible and introduce them to her special somecreature. Still feeling a little weak from his stabbing, Twilight teleported them instead and was currently inside to get the king and queen. He didn't know how they'd react to him dating her.

He looked over to his marefriend. Her dress was dirty and ripped, her hair was messed up, she had numerous cuts and bruises, her leg and wing were in bandages that Twilight found in the tower and yet she was still the most gorgeous thing in the entire cosmos.

She was biting her now bare lip and looking even more nervous, though he was hardly surprised. She never knew her parents, and now was meeting them for the first time ever. She even has a little brother she never met as well! While neither of them thought they'd reject her, it was nerve wracking thinking how they'll react nonetheless.

She looked over at him and he smiled, extending his talon outward. She smiled back and put her hoof into his hand. He closed his hand and gave her hoof a supportive squeeze. It amazed Fluttershy just how gentle he could be even with those sharp claws.

The wide double doors opened and revealed Twilight as well as Fluttershy's real family. Whisper, Gentle Heart and Zephyr's eyes widened as they saw Fluttershy standing there, wearing her crown. Fluttershy let go of Discord's talon and limped over to them. Twilight moved off to the side, not wanting to get in the way of their reunion. The lost princess stopped just in front of her mother. She looked up towards her, smiling nervously. Whisper just stared in disbelief as her daughter started twiddling with her messy mane.

Finally, Fluttershy spoke. "Hi...mom." Whisper couldn't hold her tears in any longer as she cried and hugged her daughter in a vice-like grip, almost as if afraid she was just an illusion that would fade away as soon as she hugged her. Her tears soaked Fluttershy's already messy mane as she buried her muzzle into it. Fluttershy didn't care. She just was happy to see her mother.

Her father rushed over and hugged her as well.

"Hi, daddy." She cried into his chest.

"Oh, our sweet baby girl." He said with tears of joy in his eyes. "You're all grown up and so beautiful."

"Welcome home, sweetheart. We missed you so much." Willow said. Fluttershy's smile grew bigger.

"It's wonderful to finally see you."

"Sis?" Said Zephyr Breeze as he walked forward. Fluttershy was released from their hug as her little brother came forward. He had his father's green coat and his mother's magenta eyes, but also had a blonde mane and tail. He was taller than her and even their parents despite being younger, but Fluttershy just couldn't believe she had a brother. She hugged him.

"I've always wanted a brother." His eyes widen as his eyes watered before he hugged her back.

"And I've always wanted a big sister to annoy." Fluttershy giggled at her younger brother and hugged tighter.

The king and queen looked over to Twilight and mouthed "Thank you." She smiled in response. But their attention soon turned to the draconequus standing farther away. They walked forward and stood in front of him. Discord nervously bowed.

"Your majesties, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused with that crown, but I hope the return of your daughter will be a sufficient apology."

Whisper smiled up at him. "We forgive you. And you may court her if you wish. We don't mind."

He lifted his head and raised his brow. "How did-"

"I could tell. My daughter is quite fond of you if that hand holding is any clue. Welcome to the family." She said before briefly hugging him and heading back with her husband to see their daughter and son. Discord's jaw hit the ground and Twilight smirked at his reaction.

Whisper and Gentle hugged both of their children, happy that their family has been restored. Fluttershy looked over and waved Discord over.

Discord looked hesitant, but was lifted into the air by Twilight's magic and brought him over.

Soon, he was part of the group hug. And part of the family.

A few years later, and the kingdom was better than ever.

The thugs at the bar, with Fluttershy's encouragement, finally got their redemption.

Fluttershy met King Thorax who sincerely apologized for her kidnapping by their ex-queen. Fluttershy accepted his apology and even hugged him, much to Thorax's surprise.

The children of the kingdom all adored the princess, and she often played with them. She met Rainbow Dash and accepted her as her personal guard and the two became close. Rainbow even helped teach her to fly once her wing mended.

She still wasn't the best at it and she preferred walking, but she at least could finally fly.

Angel stayed with her as her pet as her family adored her special talent, even giving her a garden full of animals and flowers she can tend.

She loved her family very much. It was so wonderful to feel loved. Zephyr did annoy her a bunch, but she loved him all the same. She stayed in close contact with Twilight, who got a lot of praise for saving the princess. Discord was not entirely surprised that Twilight got all the glory for finding her.

Speaking of Discord, his life couldn't be better. The king and queen actually liked him a lot, never once thinking he was unworthy or he shouldn't be with her. In fact, Whisper seemed to encourage their romance. He remembered last Hearth's Warming when she shoved him underneath the mistletoe with her daughter. Zephyr still seemed a little wary, but not hateful, so that's a plus and the kingdom seemed to slowly accept him as a prince.

He even got to make amends with Celestia and Luna. Despite the trouble he has caused them, they still remembered him as their friend/brother, which is why they were not willing to punish him despite his crimes. They welcomed him back with open arms.

And of course, he had his darling Fluttershy, who had just proposed to him last month.

"Discord?" Speaking of his fiancé, he turned his head to see her walking towards him. As a princess, she wore a slightly more extravagant outfit than the one at the festival. The dress was the same color as before, but she had light green slippers instead of red. Her mane was braided again, but full of tiny little flowers, with her bluebell taking pride and joy behind her ear.

The train for the dress was slightly longer and she had rounded sleeves, but they were smaller and more tasteful than Twilight's at the festival. She wore no makeup and she rarely wore her crown, not really liking to wear it unless she had to. She was more reserved than most princesses, but she was still gorgeous.

Discord himself wore the same as before, minus the bow tie and he had a black crown with red gems shaped like tornados, though like her, he didn't wear it often. She flew up and kissed his cheek.

"I've been looking all over for you. Dad wants to run over the wedding plans with you."

Discord smiled. "Oh, I completely forgot. I was busy with something."

Fluttershy raised her eyebrow. "Not messing with the guards, I hope." Discord summoned a halo above his horn and antler with his wings turning into angel wings.

"Who, me? Perish the thought. I'm being very well behaved." He finished by turning his eyes an innocent shade of blue and batting eyelashes he magically grew.

Fluttershy giggled while shaking her head. "Either way, we should get going."

"Of course, of course." He said, getting rid of his little innocent act before grabbing her hoof and hold her close. "Have I told you recently, you're the most beautiful creature in the world?"

Fluttershy rolled her eyes while her cheeks turned pink. "You have. This morning, in fact."

Discord grew a smirk. "Well then, how about I kiss you to prove it?" Fluttershy pretended to think about it before leaning forward, kissing him and he kissed back.

She was once shy little Posey, trapped in a tower with no way out as part of a plot to take over Equestria. But now, she was Fluttershy, Princess of Kindness, living with her true family and her asymmetrical, but handsome fiancé.

And all it took was her seeing the light.

Author's Note

Aw, don't you just love happy endings? :yay:

Well, that's all. Hope you all enjoyed my Tangled Fluttercord story. I had fun writing it.

Couldn't resist a final cameo from Soarin as the commander of the guards.

One of the original endings was to have Fluttershy be pregnant during Fluttershy and Discord's little talk here at the end, hinting at my Next Gen Fluttercord OCs, but I decided to follow a little closer to the movie and just made them just happy finances instead.

From your friendly neighborhood Apprentice of Chaos, see ya later. :heart:

When Will My Life Begin

20 years after the princess' kidnapping, the ruinous tower hadn't changed much in all that time. Inside the tower, a small pure white rabbit was hiding behind a potted plant.

"Where are you, sweetie?" a sweet voice singsonged. The bunny stayed hidden while smirking to himself. He was going to win this time. A pair of hooves walked past the potted plant before stopping.

After a minute of standing there, the hooves started backwards as the voice called out, "Oh, well. I guess he's not here. Oh, where could my darling Angel be?" The bunny smirked in victory, thinking he has won, but then he was picked up by the nape of his neck. He yelped in surprise before looking up at his owner, a butter yellow pegasus mare with a long pink mane and teal eyes, holding him by the scruff and giving back her own smirk in victory.

The young pegasus now known as Posey had grown up into quite the beautiful mare, her long pink tresses acting like a curtain when she felt nervous, her lashes long and pretty, her eyes shimmer like the clearest pond and her tail was long enough to drag across the floor, yet somehow never gets dirty. She never wore any makeup or jewelry, but was gorgeous regardless. She was quite a rare beauty though she was far too modest to see her true beauty.

"Found you!" Posey said, her excited voice slightly muffled due to her holding the bunny in her mouth. She walked him over to a table while still talking to her little friend.

"That's 49 times I've won today." She put him down on the table before continuing to boast, a rare thing for the normally shy and reserved pegasus to do. "I mean, I never usually win at anything, so to do it 49 times is just…I don't even know. Wanna go again, Angel?" she asked with wide eyes and a big smile. The bunny crossed his arms in irritation and shook his head.

The pegasus deflated and asked, in a voice more akin to her normal soft speaking voice, "Oh, o-okay, Angel. Do you have any other ideas of what to do for fun?" Angel rubbed his chin before hopping towards the window and pointing to the outside world.

"Oh, no no no no no, Angel!" Posey exclaimed. She grabbed him by his neck again and set him back on the table. "We can't go out there, you know that. It's supposed to be r-really s-sc-scary out there. Mother said so and mother knows best, after all. There's still plenty of things to do in here." Angel squeaked in response. To any other pony, all they'd hear from the bunny were squeaks, but Posey knew exactly what Angel was saying.

She sighed while rubbing her foreleg against her other leg. "I do wanna see the world, but I don't wanna leave mother behind. I'm the only family she's got anymore. Being locked up here isn't so bad, anyways. I've got you and mother to keep me company. I'm happy, see?" Posey gave the most convincing smile she could to show Angel she didn't mind being up in the tower. Angel shot her an incredulous look, not buying for a second that she was actually happy, after all the times she talked to him about wanting to go out and see the world. Posey saw this and her facade dropped. She sat down on the floor, her long mane draping over her face, giving her a rather depressed look.

"You're right. I'm not happy. Not happy at all. For heaven’s sake, I can't even let mother know I have you. After all, she doesn't want 'filthy vermin' in the tower." Angel squeaked in anger. "Sorry for my language. I know you're not filthy vermin, but she never understood my talent for animals." She looked at her flank sadly and saw her cutie mark: a trio of teal bodied and pink winged butterflies.

The one time she left the tower was when she was a preteen. She fell out of the tower while she tried to practice flying, but was saved by a hoard of butterflies. As she looked around at the beauty of nature, all the cute little fuzzy critters, the pretty flowers and the gorgeous sky, she wondered why her mother wanted to keep it away from her. It was then she met Angel, who was just a tiny fuzzy baby that could fit in a single hoof. She gained her cutie mark after talking and caring for the animals in the meadow near her tower. She was at first surprised by the fact that she could talk to animals, but adjusted to that fact rather quickly. When her mother came home, she was furious to see her daughter out of the tower and associating with dirty animals, smashing Posey's initial joy. Not wanting to leave her friend behind, she hid Angel into her mane and followed her mother inside. Now, she had someone to talk to whenever mother was gone, which was often.

It was both the best and worst day of her life. She got a taste of freedom, but in that short time, she realized she wanted more than a taste. She wanted to roam free. She'd still visit the tower often, but she just wanted to do more than just sit around all day. Mother wouldn't let her, though. Yet, mother can leave all she wants. It's not fair! When will MY life begin?! Posey would often think whenever she did think about this. She stared with tears in her eyes at the unfair situation she found herself in. Angel saw her crying and soon grew a more sympathetic look. He didn't mean to make her cry. He just wanted to do something that wasn't in this dumb tower. Angel hopped forward and hugged her to try and comfort her. Posey started to calm down and hugged the bunny back.

"Thanks, Angel." She sniffed before continuing, "I’m sorry I broke down like that. I love my mother very much, but I want more outta my life, you know. M-maybe...maybe I'll ask her about leaving today, maybe to go see those lights I see every year on my birthday. That'd be a good first adventure, right?" Posey asked. Angel nodded his head enthusiastically. Posey smiled in response.

Their heartwarming moment was interrupted by a voice calling from the stairs. "Posey, darling. Mother's home." Posey gasped before hiding Angel under her bed, brushing her mane so it'd look presentable and rushed towards the door that led to the stairs and opens it, revealing her mother, a tall slender unicorn mare with a dark brown coat, dark crimson red mane and tail and dull green eyes. She always wore a black cloak, so Posey never knew what her mother's cutie mark looked like. Posey hugged her mother.

"Welcome home, mother." Her mother grimaced slightly at the contact, but patted her head slightly in response before pushing her away.

"Hello, dear. How was your day?", the disguised Chrysalis asked in a sickly sweet voice that was much unlike her real voice.

Posey smiled at her mother, very much unaware of her mother's true identity and said, "I'm good, mother. How was your trip?" Chrysalis set down the basket she was carrying on the table before replying.

"Oh, the usual. Boring, uneventful, aside from all the danger and terror, of course." At this point, she had enough experience in terrifying the poor dear that she didn't have too much thought into her words to scare her. Posey shivered slightly at her mother's tone of voice, but due to her bravery on asking her about going out, she didn't shiver as much as she normally would've.

"Um, mother-" but before she could ask, Chrysalis interrupted her. "I did, however, manage to get your favorite!" She opened the basket and revealed a baker's dozen blueberry muffins. Posey's stomach growled and she drooled slightly at the sight. Blueberry muffins were her absolute favorite food in the whole world. Posey didn't get them often, but when she did, she ate as many as she could, which probably explained her slightly pudgy belly.

Posey grabbed two muffins and sat down at the table before she started to eat them. Chrysalis smiled at her 'daughter' before sitting down with her at the table and grabbing a muffin herself. She didn't need to eat it, but it was best to keep up the illusion.

"Oh, but that trip was so long, and you know what I wanted to hear as soon as I got back?" Chrysalis asked.

Posey swallowed the last of her first muffin before asking her mother innocently, "What?"

Chrysalis smiled at Posey's naivete before replying in a slightly hammy fashion, "Oh, nothing much, just your wondrous singing voice. Will you sing for me, my darling daughter?"

Posey smiled in response and exclaimed, "Of course, mother!"

Chrysalis blinked in surprise. Normally, the princess would be too nervous to sing, thinking she wasn't a good singer and would only disappoint her. Chrysalis would then usually tell her that she was proud of her and her gift was something special to behold, as much as it churned her stomach to say such sappy things. It was then she noticed that Posey was happy. Too happy and Chrysalis knew it wasn't just the muffins that were affecting her mood. Something's going on here, but what? She quickly pushed that thought away as the princess started her warm ups and simply sat back as her 'daughter' sang:

There's music in the treetops

And there's music in the vale

And all around the music fills the sky

There's music by the river

And there's music in the grass

And the music makes your heart soar in reply

As Posey started vocalizing, Chrysalis started using her magic to steal some of her love. Just a few more steals, and she'd be strong enough to take Equestria by herself.

Took long enough, she thought bitterly. But she didn't focus on that. She focused on the fact that her power was slowly growing as the princess reached the song's climax by holding the last note. Once she finished and Chrysalis stopped the spell to drain her love, Posey put a hoof to her head.

"Ooo, why does singing always leave me so dizzy?" she asked. Her mother only gave a sympathetic look that Posey took as genuine, though it was anything but. Chrysalis knew that the princess' dizziness was caused by her stealing the love from her, which was a surprise to her. Most of her victims that she had fed on anywhere near this much before became so weak that without medical attention, they can't move for days, sometimes weeks. Most have even died from being drained too much before she could kill them herself. But the princess' love was so strong, it seemed, the most she gets is a mild headache that goes away in a few hours. Chrysalis didn't mind that, cause it just meant she could keep feed on her until her usefulness has run out and she just kills the princess herself.

Posey shook her head slightly to try and clear her headache before asking, "Um, mother, I have a question to ask you." Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at the request but let her continue speaking.

Posey cleared her throat and said, "Now, you know I love you very much and I never ever want to disappoint you. But, I'm going to be 21 tomorrow, a-and some of the books you gave me say that most ponies l-leave their h-home around that age or earlier. A-and I'd like to start by seeing the floating lights I see every year on my birthday." Chrysalis started choking on the muffin that she was eating. Posey gasped and starting to help her mother before the muffin piece flew from her mouth. The princess rubbed her back as she started apologizing quickly, "I-I'm so sorry, mother. I didn't mean for that to happen. I'll s-still visit you often and I'll love you forever, but I just want to be able to travel and enjoy the world, e-even if it is s-scary out there. Oh, please forgive me, mother."

Chrysalis eventually calmed down from her choking fit (she didn't even know she had the ability to choke on pony food) and soon stared at the princess as she finished her apology. She didn't doubt the honesty in her words, but she couldn't let her leave. Not when she was so close to being strong enough to take over Equestria. She had to keep her locked up for just a little longer.

"Oh, my dear sweet child. You could never disappoint me," she said, holding the princess' chin with her hoof and making sure to emphasize her sweet tone, "However, I just don't think you're ready to see the outside world. We both know you aren't exactly brave and strong, are you? For heaven’s sake, you can't even fly, darling."

Posey's ears pin to her head as her mother's words took hold. "I k-know, mother. But I t-think I am ready. Please, I don't want to leave you forever, I just want to be able to travel on my own and see the world." Posey said in response.

Chrysalis faked the saddest look she could muster before saying, "Fine, if you do think you're ready, leave me. Leave me alone, just like your father did before I had you. I'll just be here all alone and when you come back, I'll be nothing but dust." She finished dramatically before pretending to cry. Posey's heart broke at the sight. She never knew her father and when she asked, her mother said that her father left them when she told him the news that she was having a baby. Though she could never hate any living soul, she did resent her father for doing this to her poor mother. And now, her only daughter wanted to leave her too, so no wonder she'd break down like that.

Posey leaned forward and nuzzled her mother while she herself was crying before saying, "I'm sorry, mother. I d-didn't mean it like that. I'll s-stay and n-not ask again." Chrysalis kept an evil smirk from forming on her face before hugging her.

"Ssh, baby. I knew you didn't mean it like that. It's just me and my old worries, but I'm glad you want to stay with me for a while longer. I love you, Posey." Posey wiped her tears and gave a weak smile.

"I love you too, mother."

"I love you most, princess." Chrysalis replied. "Now, I'll be gone until later tomorrow evening. I only came back to give you a treat since you've been so well behaved lately. Eat as many as you want, but careful of getting a tummy ache." She poked the princess' stomach as she said this and Posey giggled in response. Chrysalis kissed her forehead and soon left, walking down the stairs before calling out, "I don't wanna see any filthy vermin when I get back, dear. Love you," before closing the door behind her.

Posey's smile disappeared after the door closed and she rushed to her bedroom, jumped on her bed and started crying into her pillow. Angel heard her and got from under the bed, hopped up and started stroking her mane in comfort.

"I guess I'm n-never going to l-leave. Why is life so unfair?" She looked up at the ceiling and her imagination spawned images of the lights she wanted to see. After a short while, she started to fall asleep on her bed. Before she slipped into unconsciousness, she softly sang, "When will my life begin?"