Fluttershy was preening, fluttering her feathers against the water surface while the drops ran down her buttercream coat towards the crystal clear water of the cenote. The sunlight filtering from the hole of the ceiling was intense and made her frame glow with ethereal delight.
She had such a long mane. Her hair had plastered down her neck and back like silk curtains, some strands framing protectively around her face. Recently she had been putting her mane up with the flower clip he had given her long ago; Discord wouldn't say she looked less than splendid, but he also wouldn't deny that he adored the sight of her pale pink mane down, free and wild against the wind and water, yet doing its best to cover her from sight in a temping invitation to take a closer look. And he longed to take a closer look of her beautiful face, her gentle smile, to bury his hands on her lovely mane and bring her lips against his own.
He was approaching her from behind with caution, his horns and the upper half of his face visible on the surface while the rest of his body hid below the water like a crocodile, although he might have looked more like a water snake. At some point on his path he had shrunk his size, enough to fit in the length of her back.
He reached her haunches and carefully slithered between her wings, all while his hands stroked her wonderful hide all the way up her neck until he could embrace her, earning a delectable surprised gasp as response.
"You look beautiful," he whispered in a husky tone in her ear and she let out a giggle, most likely by the funny voice he had due to his current small size.
"Why, thank you," she replied in that soft-spoken voice of hers. She looked back over her shoulder in an attempt to glance at him with flirty, half-lidded eyes. He left a small peck on her cheek before he slithered back into the water. Seconds later, he resurfaced below her, floating in his back in his standard size as she rested on his torso, exposing her drenched body out in the warm rainforest air. He leaned back on the water, resting his head on his arms with eyes closed, spitting a squirt of water as if he was a fountain ornament.
He raised his neck to look at her, inspecting her features and focusing on the path of a water drop sliding down the side of her muzzle.
"I had dreamt about this moment for a while," If for a while, he meant ten years, give or take. He wasn't great at keeping track of time; the time he had served his punishment for the 'Grogar disaster' had been that long ago and yet it seemed like yesterday for all he knew.
The thumb of his lion paw reached her scalp, gently sliding behind a pink lock and bringing its tip against his lips, smelling the faint fragrance of wild flowers stuck in it as he murmured his confession. "I have been meaning to take you here ever since you said you would love to visit the Yutucán peninsula."
That had also been a long time ago. A particular Tuesday under a hot summer sun where Fluttershy would ramble about exotic fauna like any other day and Mexicolt had taken her interest. Discord had whined about how he wished he could have been refreshing in the underground water bodies he frequented when he was younger instead of being trapped in the scorching oven that was Ponyville on summer time. He had quite some liking for them: some had been caused by the impact of the asteroid that sent the dinosaurs to extinction, and the existence of these underground lakes had served for a whole civilization to flourish and thrive in the wild, hot and dangerous environment of the jungles of the peninsula. One event that had destroyed, changed and shaped its surroundings in a magnificent example of chaos.
He had promised to take her there and show her all kinds of creatures and special places he knew about. He had to admit it had taken more time than necessary to fulfill that promise.
"What was your dream about, hm?" She interrupted his musing, asking curious and teasingly while resting her head in her hooves over his feathered chest. He could see a spark in her eyes expecting an obviously mischievous answer.
"Oh, y'know," He grinned, "It was about you, in a place like this, watching the small fishes swim by, doing some work on you feathers and mane before I arrived to help you, and we would end up tangled and doing the tango mambo at the bottom of the water."
She could have cringed at his response, sounding more dumb than the smooth he had intended, but she chose to look away with a blush and a soft chuckle to spare him the misery of making a fool of himself.
She slid up his body, trying to get closer to his face, reminding him how small she was compared to him, so tiny, so delicate.
She was a breath away from his muzzle as she glanced at his face with half open eyes. "Is there a dream of us you have that doesn't involve us making love?"
He closed his eyes and rested his head back on the water. He kept rubbing the single long pink strand of hair against his lips, devoting to the task as an attempt to distract himself from the imagery that her words arose on his frenzy mind, fighting the impulse of making them a reality; snatch her below the water and give her guills so she could breath and gasp as his claws and mouth took hold of every available spot of her wonderful body for hours, the salty taste of seawater and sweat melting in his tongue.
Sex was fun and felt nice, he was no stranger to it considering his lifespan; he would take as much as he wanted from the lucky bastard in turn and give enough in return and that was it. But with Fluttershy such intimacy felt different, like his mind seeked for more than the physical plane could afford and he had to look deeper in places only his inner emotions were allowed to see.
It was still hard to grasp the meaning behind -not just the intimacy but everything regarding their unconventional friendship. Relationship. Whatever it was.
The emotions behind were so intense and safe and scary and warm. Was it because they were friends but it felt like he wanted to give more, yet not get carried away in fear of running away? Was it because he cared for her well being and happiness in every possible way and he wanted to provide her with the best he could muster? Was it the need of showing her how much she meant to him above every other creature? Was it the feeling of belonging and acceptance despite each misstep that kept telling him to return to her even with whole unexplored dimensions at his reach?
He kept his train of confusing, thrilling thoughts until she poked his nose with a hoof trying to get his attention back, indicating her last question wasn't a rhetorical one.
He let out a snort. "Of course there are other dreams, like picnics and snuggles and that weird thing the mind does of putting information together that doesn't make sense, like, you had been a griffon with butterfly wings here once," he tapped his talon index on his temple before a smug smirk played at the corners of his mouth. "The sexy ones are just the more exhilarating of the bunch."
Her laughter echoed on the limestone walls, the vibrations filling his ears with a wonderful sensation he couldn't get enough of. The effect Fluttershy had on him was really a curious case: how easily she could disarm him with so little effort, how vulnerable he could feel yet not fearing being seen as weak, how safe he felt to say things he wouldn't tell anyone else.
He kept his eyes closed as he felt the lulling waves of the underground lake. "The first one happened at a time when I didn't understand what I felt about you. And once I did, I was far away, desperately trying to run away from feelings I didn't understand and that I thought would eventually go away. They became a constant reminder of you, a 'what could been if I just stopped being an idiot and went back instead of wasting time until you were gone' and they had hurt because I could make them real but they would never be the real thing,-"
A noise of complaint against the crook of his neck stopped his rambling on point. She was nuzzling her snout against his fur, silently asking him to stop, silently reminding him she was real and he was there and the past was gone. He knew she didn't want to take the sour route of remembering the drama of the years they had spent apart; that if they had just talked things through, they would have avoided the emotional wounds that took even more years to heal.
But he knew it had been necessary to end up where they were now. She had needed to experience the life lessons she had, to accomplish her goals and have the conventional life she had craved before they reunited. And well, he had needed to run away from her, too proud to admit he couldn't bear to see her being happy with something he could never give her but another stallion could. But it had also served to remind him what he was capable of doing with the knowledge of friendship he had acquired along the way, that he could use chaos for good, to benefit others as well as himself, in a whole world out there full of interesting beings and places yet to be known.
Discord let the pink strand slip from his fingertips and moved his paw to her chin, gently pulling her head in front of him to look into her eyes, offering a wordless apology through his own. So many years had gone by and those teal orbs would still take his breath hostage and make him want to be in their azure depths, shining with unconditional love and trust that until this day he wasn't sure he deserved. They were so clear and full of emotion, giving the sense of comfort of a tranquil lake when at peace, but he had dived deep enough to reach the river flow below where light rarely reached, the turbulent stream full of uncertainty and ferocity that could put someone in danger if they underestimated the waters.
She was doing circles in his feathers with a hoof, making the spot tingle like fizzing bubbles below his skin. A single drop slipped from her forehead into the water, prompting his head to move and give her a trail of tender pecks. She was soft and fussy even when her coat was wet, and he found amusing that he had several times spotted an incoherent yet expected detail that regarded her.
They stared in silence until she spoke up. "We could make those dreams real, you know." The implied suggestion that dripped from her lips in a soft whisper made him feel like he was about to melt and merge with the waters. Not a second after, she widened her eyes, realizing the words she had just spoken. "Um, unless you want to keep them to yourself, that is." She moved her face away from his view, embarrassed by her flirtatious attempt. He chuckled at her behavior, so many years, so many broken barriers, and yet she still blushed like a school filly without him needing to put much effort.
He smirked and stroked his goatee as if giving serious thought at her suggestion. "Maybe, but I would like to keep some ideas to my imagination. But right now, I wouldn't wish for any other moment than this one here, with you." He cupped her face with both hands and pulled her lips against his in a sweet kiss, swallowing the muffled moan that emerged from her mouth like honey mead.
Suddenly, Discord rolled on his side, catching Fluttershy off guard as she rolled off his body and splashed into the water. She resurfaced with a gasp and saw Discord laughing hysterically. She made an indignant yelp and swatted a wing against the water and splashed his face in playful revenge. They ended up laughing, playing and splashing water in the air, moving into a lighter mood until they somehow ended up kissing passionately, sinking below the water for more privacy.
Hours later, they proceeded to dry their hides with recently snapped towels on the shore, talking about what other wonders the rainforest had left before he had to teleport her back to the cottage, to her normal routine.
He could have easily altered time so they could spend more time together, or he could have stopped the sun from rising until a couple hours later than planned (even if that meant an enraged Twilight going after his neck). But as he gazed into the night sky bellow a tree's canopy, holding between his arms the sweet pegasus who was searching for signs of nocturnal wildlife with a spark of wonder in her eyes as a chill breeze rushed by, so opposite from the hot damp air from earlier, he realized he didn't want to change a thing, just dwell in the tranquil, refreshing, comforting moment that her company brought, even if it wasn't as extraordinary as anything he would appeal most of the time and that his chaotic magic could conceive, yet it was even greater and real than any wistful dream that his restless mind could ever come up with.
Author's Note
So, I finally took the courage to post a fanfic here. I first posted it on AO3 and then I said, "yeah, might as well give this site a shot", so, Yey! The initial sketch of the cover inspired this fic in the first place. Not a fan of the result but I hope it grabbed the sentiment of the reading.
Would copy-paste my original Author's notes but I feel quite embarrased to do so now, so I'm just gonna say that I like my Fluttercord bittersweet and angsty, and I have a weak spot for Mexico so I took the chance, after all, I tend to call Discord 'Alebrije imbécil' as a joke jaja.
Also the asteroid thing is a fact, google 'Chicxulub crater' if you want more information, my english is not good enough to explain the formation of the cenotes truthfully.
Thanks for your time!
