It was a beautiful day in the animal sanctuary, and Fluttershy hummed a happy tune as she went through her list of tasks. It was a relatively easy day today, but even an easy day had plenty of things that needed to be done.
She’d seen Discord, briefly, but he only stuck by her for a few minutes before he started diving in and out of closing portals, letting himself get flung around by the changing gravities for fun.
Only when she was nearing the end of her task list did she run into him again. There was a small commotion near the beehives, and she headed in that direction to see just what was going on. As she drew closer, she saw that it was one specific hive that the noise was coming from...the bees within buzzing something about an intruder.
A tiny Discord flew out of the hive, wearing a fake antennae headband and a yellow-and-black striped dress. As soon as he was outside, he flashed back to his usual size, discarding the uniform...
And was immediately swarmed by the bees still chasing him.
He screamed out as he was repeatedly stung on his arm and shoulder. Fluttershy immediately dropped everything and ran over.
"Oh, dear!" Fluttershy gasped. "Little friends, please don’t hurt Discord!"
The swarm turned to her, buzzing angrily. They didn’t attack her...they just wanted to complain about how the intruder attacked them. She turned her gaze to Discord. "Is this true?"
"...sort of," Discord muttered. When Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, he admitted, "I was trying to get a little bit of honey. I didn’t think they’d be so mad about it!"
"They work hard to make it," she chided. "You didn’t break anything in their hive, did you?"
He shook his head, and she turned back to the swarm. "See? He didn’t mean any harm. And I’m sure if you stop now, he’ll bring you plenty of pretty and tasty flowers later." She looked back at Discord. "Right?"
"...yes," he muttered.
With a little more coaxing, Fluttershy managed to get the swarm to calm down, and she gave them a daisy she’d picked earlier. The bees flew back to their hive, carrying the flower with them.
Fluttershy turned to Discord. His eagle arm had been repeatedly stung, and was now swollen enough to almost resemble his lion’s arm. He also had one sting on his cheek and a miserable expression on his face. "Please don’t try something like that again."
"Oh, believe me, I’m sorry," he muttered. "Owwww."
"You can just snap them away, though, right?" she said.
He frowned, snapping his fingers a few times. A few colorful sparks flew from his fingers, and scattered over his stings...but nothing happened. His frown deepened, and he gave Fluttershy a slightly guilty look.
"I’m...actually a teensy bit allergic to bee stings," Discord said. Fluttershy’s eyes widened, and he quickly added, "It’s not dangerous! The allergy just weakens my magic a tiny little bit whenever I get stung."
He winced. "...And with this many stings, it might take a while for my magic to come back."
"Oh, dear..." Fluttershy sighed. "Come with me, and I can help. ...you promise you’re not in danger?"
"No, it just hurts," he grumbled.
She guided the way back to her cottage, using the shortest route she knew. Once inside, she grabbed a spare towel and placed it in the fridge, then encouraged Discord to sit down on the couch. He did so, gingerly holding his swollen arm.
As quickly as she could, she filled a bowl with hot water and soap, dipping a hand towel inside and carrying it over. “I'm going to check the stings quickly, and make sure there aren't stingers left in them, alright?” she said.
“Fine…” His head dropped back, and he lifted his arm for her to inspect. Fortunately, most of the stings were small and shallow, and she only found a few where the stinger had gotten stuck. She used her feathers to gently pry those out.
“There,” she said, pulling out the last one. “Now I just need to clean it to prevent infections, then I can help make the swelling go down.”
He nodded in understanding, and she grabbed the bowl from earlier. She carefully washed his stung arm, rubbing the towel gently over his arm before washing the suds away with a bit of water. Then, she grabbed the towel from the fridge, wrapping it around Discord’s arm to form a cold compress.
"Leave that on for ten minutes," she said as she mixed some baking soda and water together. Once the goopy paste was ready, she headed back to the couch and sat by Discord, who was now much more relaxed.
“Feeling better?” she asked.
“A bit,” he said. “…I think I can feel my magic coming back, too.”
“That's great!” she said. “And I’m sure this can also help.” She pointed at the paste.
He stared at it. “…I don't need to drink that, do I? Because I’d rather have some tea. Or a tropical drink.”
She laughed. “No, it just goes on your stings, to help with the swelling!” She glanced over at the clock. “…and now might be a good time to take off that cold compress.”
“Oh, good,” Discord said. “My arms getting cold enough I think I could have a role in Trotanic.” He peeled off the towel, frowning at his arm. “Would need a bit of a touch-up though.”
“It looks better than it was,” Fluttershy said truthfully. The swelling had already gone down quite a bit…even if there were still some bigger stings, and a lot of his skin was red or pink. “I'll still add the paste.”
She started with the biggest stings, then worked on coating his arm. She tried to be as gentle as possible, whispering apologies whenever Discord winced or grimaced. He told her she was fine…though his tone was petulant.
"I just wanted some honeyyyyy..." Discord whined.
"I know, I know," Fluttershy said soothingly. "But you should ask them if you want something, alright? Politely."
"Yes, yes, I get the point now," Discord said...then grinned, waggling his eyebrows at her. "Get it? ‘Point’? Stingers are pointy?"
She couldn’t help but snort, unable to keep a straight face at that. Discord’s grin widened...at least until she dabbed the paste on a new sting, making him wince.
“Sorry,” she said.
“No, no…you're the expert.” Discord smiled at her. “And…I’m already feeling a little bit better.”
She smiled, carefully adding paste on the last of the stings. She then went to the fridge to retrieve the towel again, helping Discord wrap it around his limb again. “We'll keep taking it on and off for ten minutes at a time until the swelling goes down, or your magic comes back,” she said.
“Those should happen at about the same time,” Discord said. “…thank you, Fluttershy. You're a lifesaver.”
She smiled, gently kissing his arm, and then his cheek. He smiled bashfully, nuzzling her back. She went to make them a bit of tea, and they relaxed until Discord had enough magic to snap away any signs of the stings and to amuse her with small little tricks.
