At first, none of the five had noticed the mare who had approached their cafe table, standing there like she wasn’t sure if she should approach or not. Too busy chatting away to pay all that much attention to what was happening a few feet away.
The mane six made these regular attempts to get together, no matter how busy their lives had gotten, or what different directions they had gone in. Twilight hadn’t been able to get away from Canterlot this time, so they had all decided to meet her there, though she warned she would have to leave early. Unfortunately, Pinkie had to cancel last minute, as Little Cheese had been sick that morning, but she promised she’d attempt another get together later. Knowing her, she was planning a “Sorry I Missed the Get Together” party.
Everything was going normally otherwise, aside from the unnoticed interloper chewing her lip as she stared contemplatively.
AppleJack was the first to notice her stare, nudging her friends, and with a gesture of her head bringing their attention to the potential eaves dropper. They turned in tandem to look at the mystery mare, who was seemingly lost in thought, only noticing a second too late that she had gained their attention.
“Uh, can we help you?” AppleJack asked, understandably a little annoyed at having been stared at.
The mare, a mint green earth pony with teal hair, blushed, her cheeks nearly matching the dark pink glasses and matching pink sweater she wore. Apple Jack noted her cutie mark, a sewing needle, knitting needle, and crochet hook crossing over each other to form a star-like shape.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” She spoke with a slight stutter, and shuffled her hooves nervously.
“I mean, I did mean to interrupt, but I also didn’t want to bother you, but I didn’t know how else to contact him, and then I happened to see you come here and…” Her speech was getting increasingly quick and quiet, and the girls could no longer understand her as she rambled to the ground. They shared a concerned glance.
“Calm down darling.” Rarity said, breaking off the nervous mare’s run-on sentence. She stood up from her seat between Twilight and AppleJack to address her properly.
“Can we start with who you are dear?” As Rarity said this, she placed a hoof on the other mare’s shoulder. The mare looked back up from the ground.
“Oh sorry, I’m Needle Craft, I work at the yarn store a few blocks from here.” She replied, pointing the what was presumably the direction of the store, making eye contact for only a second before looking away again.
“And may we ask why you were staring at us?” Came Apple Jack’s drawl from behind them.
“Yeah, that’s kinda rude.” Rainbow added, sitting to Apple’s right, crossing her hooves, slightly suspicious of the newcomer.
Twilight and Fluttershy looked on at the exchange, sharing a concerned look, before turning back to the happenings before them.
“I’m sorry.” Needle winced, “I just wanted to ask a question, and it’s okay if you say no! I understand, but well, how do I put this? Oh gosh this is embarrassing.” She seemed to have trouble standing still, bouncing on her hooves like a spring.
“Well we can’t help if we don’t know what’s wrong.” Rarity said gently.
“It’s not that anything’s wrong exactly, it’s just, well, you all are friends with Discord right?” She finally looked up again, looking them all in the face properly for the first time.
“What did he do this time?” Rainbow asked immediately, scowling.
Fluttershy, who sat to her right, sent her a glare, but before she could say anything Needle Craft spoke up instead.
“What? No! He didn’t do anything.” She looked alarmed. “I just wanted to ask if you could give him a letter. I don’t know another way to contact him, and when I asked the mail pony he looked like he was having a war flashback and walked away. It was weird.”
She reached into her saddle bags and pulled out a slim envelope, covered in decorative stickers. She started to blush. The other girls all looked at each other, baffled. Needle continued as if she hadn’t noticed their looks.
“He came to my shop a few times to buy yarn. He’s really funny, and had a lot of great knitting tips. I…” She looked away, a shy smile on her lips. “I uh. Wanted to ask him if he, you know. Maybe wanted to meet up. Like a date.”
There was a beat.
“WHAT!?!”
It was loudly spoken in unison between four of the five other mares at the cafe, drawing stares from the surrounding ponies.
Rainbow Dash fell out of her chair, Twilight looked like she was gonna be sick, and Rarity’s jaw nearly hit the floor. Apple Jack’s eyes were wide, staring at Needle as if she had two heads.
Fluttershy was the only one who had said nothing, her attention was unblinkingly focused into the air in front of her. Dash climbed back into her seat.
Needle looked on at their antics, a mix of nervous and confused.
“What’s wrong? I mean, I know it’s a little weird to ask someone out though their friends,” She rubbed her hooves together, biting her lip.
“But he hasn’t come by in a while, and I didn’t exactly know his address.”
“Um, yeah, I can see why that would be a predicament.” Twilight supplied blankly, not really sure what else to say in such a strange situation.
The other girls glanced at Fluttershy, who had gone still as a statue, and continued to stare at nothing, unblinking.
Needle went on, looking a bit put off and uncomfortable. “You.. You ARE his friends right? I mean, I know about your adventures, I’ve heard stories you know? But he also said you were friends.”
“Um, yeah. We’re friends sure.” Twilight said. Needle looked a bit dubious at this point
“Well, then do you think you could give this to him?”
She held out the envelope to Rarity, as she was still closest.
“Um, sure dear.” She took the letter as if in a trance. It hovered in the air between them, glowing with her magic.
Needle Craft beamed all the same, bouncing in place. “Thank you so much! Sorry again that I interrupted your lunch. If you ever come by the shop I’ll give you a discount!”
With that, she bounced, waved, and trotted off hurriedly. Leaving behind a lot of questions and five baffled ponies.
“Well…that was…” Rarity started, staring at the letter like it was a time bomb.
Twilight shook her head, looking a little grossed out. “I know there’s not accounting for taste, but.. Discord?”
Rainbow agreed. “Ugh, I know they say there’s someone for everyone, but gross! What kind of weirdo would have the hots for Discord?” AppleJack glared at her and kicked her under the table.
“Ow!” Rainbow glared back, “What was that for?”
AppleJack simply pointed over to Fluttershy, still looking shell shocked.
“Oh. Um.” Rainbow looked awkward.
Fluttershy had never said anything for sure, but they all sometimes wondered if the pegasus had feelings for her draconequus friend. It was be hard to tell for sure, the shy mare often holding her heart as close to her chest as she could. Bottling up her feelings as so not to inconvenience anyone. It sounded mean, but to a certain extent, they also sorta didn’t want to know. It was a can of worms they weren’t ready to open, but it looked like the worms were squirming out anyway.
Dash moved closer to her oldest friend. Whatever her feelings, and even if she didn’t understand, she would always be there for her.
“Hey, you okay Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked, putting her foreleg around her.
Fluttershy finally blinked, looking around like she just remembered she was in public.
“Oh, I’m sorry, I zoned out there. What were we talking about?”
They girls shared a concerned glance.
“Um, that strange mare who wants to ask Discord of all ponies, on a date?” Rarity supplied with some hesitation.
Fluttershy nodded. “Ah.”
“Sugarcube, you okay?” AppleJack frowned.
“What?” She blinked. “Oh, of course I’m okay.” She flipped into a cheery demeanor with such speed that no one at the table believed it was genuine.
“I mean, I’m always encouraging Discord to make new friends. So it’s great. Perfectly fine he’s meeting people. He deserved love just like anyone else. It’s wonderful.” She stabbed her salad a little too aggressively with her fork and shoved a large portion into her mouth, chewing like she was mad at her food.
The girls shared a worried look. Ultimately, no one had the courage to properly address the elephant in the room.
“Right.” Twilight said. She did not sound at all convinced.
“You sure you’re okay? Because I hate to tell you this, but if we’re gonna hold up our promise to pass this letter on, you’ll have to do it. You see Discord more than all of us combined.” AppleJack felt bad for pointing it out as soon as it left her mouth, but it was the truth.
Fluttershy took another aggressive bite.
“Hey, we could always just not send it.” Rainbow suggested from her left. “If Discord wants to see her again he can just go to her shop. Then she can ask him. No biggie.”
AppleJack shot her a look. “Yes, and then Needle Craft will learn that we lied to her face.”
“It might not even go anywhere.” Twilight added in from her right, patting Fluttershy’s foreleg. “Discord probably isn’t even interested. He could get it and say no and that’s that.”
It was a reasonable assumption, and Fluttershy seemed to relax a little.
“No Rainbow, They’re right. I’ll pass it along to him. I can’t interfere with who else he spends time with. After all the times I lectured him about jealousy, I’m not going to be a hypocrite now.” She held out her hoof towards Rarity. “Here, I’ll take it.”
Rarity placed it in her hoof, but still looked concerned. “Darling, you know if you ever need to talk to us about something, you can right? We’re not going to judge you for having feelings.”
Fluttershy sighed. “I know. I just don’t know how I feel at the moment. I think this was just so… unexpected? I never thought about anyone else being attracted to Discord.”
Her face turned frantic, “Oh no, that sounds mean doesn’t it? I don’t mean to imply he’s ugly or unlovable, I just-”
“Shh, calm down sugarcube, we know what you meant.” AppleJack shushed her, patting her shoulder.
A thought occurred to Twilight. “Hey, how come he was going to a craft store anyway? Can’t he conjure anything he wants?”
This effectively helped start to steer the conversation in another direction as they all discussed their theories as to why he was even shopping to begin with, until the subject changed again.
Twilgiht had to rush off a short time later, the events having made her forget a meeting she was to attend until Spike showed up to get her. The others hung around a little longer, and left a generous tip for hogging the table for so many hours.
A train ride later, and it was now dark out. Fluttershy nearly forgot about the letter in her bag, but as she went to put her things away, she was reminded of the green mare who apparently had a crush on her best friend.
She held the letter up with a wing, it was covered in stickers and stamped on designs. Very creative. Very chaotic. He’d love it.
She wanted to rip it up. Then she felt guilty for even thinking about it. Needle Craft seemed nice, if a little strange. Just like Discord really.
She sighed.
She’d give it to him during their next tea party, if he didn’t pop up before then.
Discord stared at the letter in his hands, feeling a mix of flattered and baffled. He wasn’t sure which was was showing on his face.
He remembered Needle Craft, from that yarn store in Canterlot. She was nice enough, genuinely helpful, and laughed at his jokes. An uncommon combination, but he hadn’t thought of her since that last visit really.
While he could easily conjure anything he desired, things he made with his magic tended not to last over a long time. His was chaos magic after all, it didn’t like to maintain itself in one form very long. He wasn’t about to spends hours hand kitting a piece only to come back to the finish product a year later and find it’s turned into flying fish made of jelly beans. So annoying. Funny, but still annoying and not what he wanted for everything he made. Especially gifts.
Where was he? Ah yes, the letter.
Dear Discord,
Hi! You might not remember me, my name is Needle Craft. You know? From the yarn store. I wanted to know if you’d maybe like to go out for coffee or a movie or something sometime.
Hopefully the coffee, I love coffee ha ha.
You seem really fun and I’d like to get to know you, if that’s okay.
I wanted to ask you in person, but you haven’t come by in a while, and I didn’t know how else to find you. If you’re reading this, that means I finally figured out a place to send it to.
If you’re not interested, I understand. No pressure, if you don’t respond I’ll take that as a no. If your answer is yes, come by the store again and we can plan in person. Either way I hope your project is going well. Thanks for letting me talk you into giving crochet a try.
Sincerely,
Needle Craft
In truth, he couldn’t say he was interested in the mare, not like that. She did seem fun though, and Fluttershy was always telling him he needed more friends… It could be a good excuse to get out of the house more he supposed.
Discord noticed Fluttershy was watching him as he contemplated the letter, and turned to her. She blushed, embarrassed at being caught staring.
“So.. what does it say?” Fluttershy asked, as if she didn’t already know. She couldn’t quite look him in the eye.
“Well, it seems at least one other pony in this country has good taste.” he affected his usual smug grin, “I’ve been asked on a date.”
Fluttershy forced a smile. “Oh?”
Uh-oh. He knew that tone.
Discord blinked, and felt like this had turned into a test he needed to pass. His instinct was to say he was uninterested in the offer, but then, Fluttershy was always saying he needed to try socialize more…
“Yes… not really a fan of coffee, but I’m sure we can plan something better. Could be fun.” He folded the letter back up smiling. It turned into a paper swan and flew off. He had surely passed this test.
Fluttershy’s stomach sank.
“So you’re going through with it?” She couldn’t stop the frown that formed.
Discord noticed her fallen expression and paused. Was that not the right answer? That was confusing. He was messing up and didn’t know how or why.
“Do you… not want me to say yes..?” He tried, squinting.
Fluttershy felt guilty immediately and back tracked.
“Of course not! It’s your decision. If you want to date that’s wonderful.” she took a forceful sip of her tea.
It didn’t sound like she thought it was wonderful, Discord thought.
“Fluttershy dear, is something wrong? If you grip that cup any tighter it’s going to shatter.”
Fluttershy looked down to see that she was, in fact, close to crushing her cup, and set both it and the saucer on the table.
“Sorry,” She took a breath. “I’m not upset with you or anything. This is my own problem, and it shouldn’t affect what you do. You should go, it might be fun.” She looked up at him sincerely, and continued, “It’s just, well, I..”
She blushed and looked away.
She needed to tell him. She knew she did. It wasn’t fair for her to get jealous and upset when she hadn’t even worked up the courage to tell him how she felt. He knew a lot of things, but he wasn’t omnipotent, and he couldn’t read her mind. It was unfair for her to think he should just magically figure it out. Magic doesn’t work like that.
She was a grown mare. She could be mature about this, and act like an adult.
She twiddled her hooves.
Discord tried to be patient, but he was not the best as social cues. Her reaction was making him nervous, and he wished she’d just tell him what she wanted already. He started bouncing his dragon leg.
“Fluttershy?” He prompted, hoping she stop leaving him is suspense.
“...Discord, do you like Needle Craft?” she asked. She looked at him, trying to put on a neutral expression.
In lieu of knowing what she wanted to hear, he begrudgingly took a page out of AppleJack’s book and told her the truth.
“Not really. I barely know her,” He gestured with his cup as he talked. “She helped me picked out yarn a couple times, that’s hardly love at first sight. Anyway, I thought that was the point of dating, so you can do the “get to know each other” bit and figure it out as you go.” He took a sip of his drink.
It seemed to be the right answer, as she took a deep breath and seemed to calm down.
“You’re right.” Fluttershy admitted, “I’m just letting my thoughts run away again.” She picked her cup back up to have something to do with her front hooves.
It was quiet for a moment. Fluttershy took in a deep breath, steeling herself.
“Discord, the truth is, I already knew what Needle Craft wanted to ask you.” She looked up to meet his eyes. “And I guess I just got… jealous.”
“Jealous?” He replied incredulously.
What did Fluttershy have to be jealous about him going on a date? That would imply that she… That she…
No, that can’t be right.
He saw her face.
Oh.
He blushed.
“Oh.” He said it out loud this time.
Fluttershy blushed as well, that adorable rosy shade dusting her cheeks.
He was pretty sure he had turned red too. If he had a mirror he would have seen his head had turned into an actual tomato.
It was a rare moment that Discord was speechless.
Fluttershy was so good, so kind, so perfect, the thought that she could care for him beyond their friendship seemed so far-fetched he’d never entertained it. Their friendship meant more to him than anything, and he’d be damned if he ruined it all by falling in love with her. She deserved that much.
Then she beat him to it by ruining it first. She was always surprising him like that. He loved that about her.
“You…you like me?” It came out as a whisper. His head turned back to normal. He had let go of his cup, but it sprouted insect wings and flew off before it could hit the floor.
“I do.” She said, and she meant it. “And I’m also sorry.”
“Sorry?” He looked incredulous. “You have nothing to apologize for dear. I can hardly get mad at you for being mildly jealous for five minutes.”
“Not that.” Fluttershy clarified. “I’m sorry I took it for granted that I could wait to tell you. That it took me realizing that I’m not the only one in the world who might like you for me to finally say something.”
“Well, it was a fair assumption.” Discord tried to sooth. He was confident, not ignorant. He was well aware he was an acquired taste, and he hated to see her upset.
“No it’s not!” She said, her voice raised, getting up form her chair to pace around the living room.
“You deserve someone who isn’t afraid to say they like you!” She was getting louder and more frantic as she paced. “Who goes up to a group of strangers and announces it without even caring what they think! Who doesn’t care what her friends think or what her parents will think or-”
“Fluttershy.” He nearly shouted, breaking her out of her spiral. He floated out of his seat, placing his hands on her shoulders.
“Fluttershy dear, how about instead of trying to figure out what I deserve, you could ask me what I want?” He tilted her head up to look him in the eyes.
“Do… do you..?”
“I don’t what I feel for you. I was too afraid to fall in love to even consider it before now. I need time to think, but I’d rather drink tea with you any day than go out for coffee with a stranger.”
Fluttershy couldn’t hold it back anymore, and the tears fell. She wrapped her forelegs around him, and in turn she felt his paw and talon on her back.
Discord ran his hands through her mane as she calmed down. “Let’s finish our tea, shall we? We can figure the rest out later.”
She nodded. It felt like a good place to start.
Needle Craft almost didn’t see the letter that appeared from nowhere, engrossed in taking inventory at the yarn shop. The flutter of something in the corner of her vision had her turning around however, lowering her clip board to find a tie-dye envelope and a key chain on the counter.
Setting aside her work for a moment, she opened it and read:
Dear Needle Craft,
I know you said I could simply ignore this letter if I was uninterested, but I wanted to thank you for your help.
While I am very flattered, I’m afraid I already have feelings for someone else. Still, I am forever grateful for your attempt, as otherwise we would have never realized our feelings. Thanks for that. (Here a thumbs up had been drawn.)
Hope you find someone someday, even if they’re not as dashing or charming as me. We could still be friends if you like, my friend Pinkie was especially sad she didn’t get to meet you when we told her the story. So if you’re ever in Ponyville, be prepared to party.
Sincerely,
Discord
PS. I had some leftover yarn, so I made you this. Think of it as a consolation prize.
Needle put down the letter, picking up the odd-looking key chain. It took a moment, but she realized it was a very crudely made, but familiar looking crocheted draconequus. She laughed so loud a customer turned to stare at her, but she didn’t care.
“Consolation prize” indeed.
THE END.
Author's Note
It's been a long time since I've written, I feel out of practice. Ah well. Fun fact, I originally intended this to be longer. There's an alternate version where Fluttershy says nothing, and Needle and Discord go on the date. It also gave Pinkie some screen time, but I decided that less was more and those scenes were less interesting than just getting the main couple together already. Did leave me unsure how to end it, but hopefully it's not too weird a place to leave off. Hope you enjoyed it.