Chaos Inverted

Discord woke up slowly in a soft, comfortable bed. This should have been his first clue that something was wrong. He still slept on an old, lumpy mattress for the last six years, waking up to occasional back and neck pain that would disappear as the day went on. He kept meaning to switch to something more reliable, but he didn’t have the social energy for it. The process of going to a mattress store, ordering it, and setting it up always felt like something he could put off for another day.

Today, however, was different. He felt groggy and well slept, but also off somehow. He tried to recall his last few moments before going to bed, but all that came back to him were flashes of pain and the forest and running and…a booming voice in the distance. It all felt so uncanny and like a dream. Maybe he slept in instead of heading out and he imagined all of that. That had to be it, right? Discord gave off a series of grunts as he shifted himself to a sitting position. He was still wearing his old, baggy band shirt, but his jacket was missing. He never wore his old band shirts unless he was going out to the Everfree Forest. This was not helping his claim it was all a dream.

Discord inspected himself some more. There were small, green pieces of what looks like leaves covering parts of his exposed arms and neck. The areas felt tender to the touch. He guessed they were some sort of bandage for the small cuts he remembered getting from running through the thick bramble.

Discord let out a groan and rubbed his eyes. His brain felt foggy and distant, his palms were sweaty, his stomach tugged itself in knots. Things needed to make sense soon or he was going to not have a good time. When he pulled back the covers some more, he almost let out a yelp. Someone had stripped him to his boxers! A thousand scenarios started playing out in his head.

‘No no no no no! What happened last night? Was I drunk? I didn’t go to a bar, and I barely have beer at home. All I remember is the forest and those guys and-Wait, wasn’t there was that urban legend of stolen kidneys? Aren’t I supposed to be in a bathtub? Am I bleeding out?!’

Discord quickly felt around his torso for half-hearted stitches or signs of surgery. Thankfully, he felt nothing. When he glanced down at his legs again, he noticed a green bandage similar to the ones on his arms wrapped around his left thigh. That was one of the spots where he distinctly remembered being stabbed. He reached out and touched the affected area but felt only light bruising and the throb of a minor (yet long) cut vertically down the thigh. Once again, his thoughts raced around his mind like a tornado.

‘This should have been deeper. And more fatal. They also got my shoulder, but that feels fine too. That means it had to be a dream. So, what exactly hap-?’

His thoughts abruptly stopped as he finally took in his surroundings. As he glanced around the room, he formed a new theory to explain everything going on.

The new theory was Discord was out of his mind.

Or maybe he hit his head, and this was all a concussion dream, he wasn’t sure. But it for sure wasn’t reality, not in the way he recalled it.

For one, this wasn’t his room. He should have guessed from the bed and sheets alone, but his cloudy mind didn’t take it in until that exact moment.

Secondly, this “room” was not a normal room. Sure, there was a bed, a desk, a couple of chairs, and a closed door leading he assumed to another section of the “house.” The part that threw him off was the nature of the items, emphasis on “nature.” Everything appeared to be made from natural sources like tree trunks, leaves, moss, and vine. Different types of leaves and colorful flowers covered the walls, moving at the slightest breeze. His blanket and pillow felt like it was made of a super soft moss material, and the bed was carved into a large stump. The mattress seemed to be made of fluffy, tiered mushrooms that could hold his weight. It was like something he would see in front of a home design magazine, if that magazine was made for gnomes living in treehouses.

The third thing that made Discord think he lost his mind was the fact he was on the ceiling. The doorway, chairs, and desk floated above his head like stalactites. The only sign of gravity working properly was the strands of his straggly hair lifted away from his neck.

He couldn’t help but stare at the sight above him. Everything was out of his reach. At this rate, he wouldn’t be able to escape this dreamscape. Discord couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “How the hell am I supposed to get down?”

As soon as he said the word “down,” it was as if the magic spell holding him to the bed was broken. His stomach lurched as gravity yanked him off the bed and threw him to the “floor” above. The wind was knocked out of his lungs as he landed on his back on the ground covered in various petals and leaves. Discord moaned both in pain and in frustration. His body was still sore from the stab wounds, and now he had back pain added on top. If this was a dream, he hoped all the pain he was feeling would make him wake up soon.

Suddenly, the door to the room creaked open a crack. Tilting his head, he saw something unexpected. A tiny, pure white bunny was peering into the room, its nose twitching as if it were inspecting the area through scent. It hopped over to Discord after a few seconds and landed right on his stomach. It was so light it barely ruffled the t-shirt. The rabbit’s black, beady eyes stared the man down with either confusion or fascination. Not minding a fuzzy, little animal keeping him company, Discord let out a small chuckle and said, “Well, hi there.”

The bunny scoffed and said in a deep, masculine voice, “Oh good, you’re still kickin. I thought it was pointless trying to save ya, but you somehow won my human over. You better be worth it.”

Oh, Discord definitely lost his mind.

Fighting back a scream, he crab-crawled away from the cute, defenseless animal with the voice a of chain smoker. The rabbit jumped off as soon as he started moving, staring as though the whimpering man was the strange one in this situation. The animal rolled his eyes and muttered something inaudible. Discord fought to keep his breathing even. He did not need anything like talking animals to be added to his weakened psyche.

“Now, now, Angel, that’s no way to treat our guests.”

The voice was soft and teasing, and it didn’t come from the grumbling bunny. Discord managed to move his eyes away from the possessed bunny to glance at the only door in the room. Standing there was something he never would have ever imagined.

The figure appeared to be a woman, at least for the most part. She was humanoid-shaped, bipedal with a pair of arms and legs. She had light pink hair that partly covered her face and extended all the way down her back. She wore a simple dress with short sleeves and a tiered skirt that reached down to her ankles. Her eyes were wide and expressive as they stared down at Discord. Overall, she was the most normal thing besides him that was in this room. That didn’t mean much, though, since parts of her body stood out like a sore thumb.

Her arms had different textures and properties. Her left arm appeared to be made of a light shade of oak with tree knots and lines of bark. The right arm was covered in a thin layer of gray fur and covered in light gray spots like an ocelot or a snow leopard. The hands were shaped like they were from a human, but the feline hand had long, sharp claws while the wooden hand grew tiny, green leaves at the tips.

Discord couldn’t see the woman’s feet well due to the skirt, but he could make out hints of a hoof and a paw. A long, thin, yellow tail with a light pink feathery edge curled behind her. She had large butterfly wings on her back gently folded away. He could see one wing had a rich, blue color while the other wing was light green with a dark purple frame. On top of her head were two white antlers possibly made of a different wood material compared to her arms. The antler on her left side had cherry blossoms lightly falling from the branches, while the other antler was broken off near the base.

The woman(?) gave off a small smile and said, “Glad to see you’re okay. It wasn’t easy getting you here, that’s for sure. I had Harry carry you here-oh, Harry’s a bear, you see-and I just treated you the best I could. My connection to healing magic isn’t the greatest but I think I managed to put you back toget-”

“Where the hell are my pants?”

Discord wasn’t sure why that was the first thing to pop out of his mouth, but it seemed to be the only words he could have managed to audibly throw out. The draft on his legs were making him uncomfortable and he needed some semblance of control in this situation.

The woman slowly blinked at him and just pointed with her tree arm to one of the chairs in the corner. Sure enough, there was his pants over the back, along with his jacket and his flashlight, chair, and other items he brought with him to the forest. Discord awkwardly stood up, walked over to the chair and started getting dressed. He had his pants on and was in the middle of putting on his jacket when he heard the rabbit named Angel whisper to the woman, “Maybe we should have erased his memories or something. Or left him in the woods. He’s not taking being here too kindly.”

“I only do erasure if it’s a last resort,” the woman whispered back, but not quietly enough so Discord could still eavesdrop. “Besides, the healing tired me out. I need time to recharge. I’m sure we can talk this out. I have a good feeling about him.”

Now that he had some sense of decency, Discord turned to the two strange individuals and explained, “Look, please, you need to help me. I think I hit my head or lost too much blood. I need to go to the hospital. I’m seeing things that should not be there.”

The humanoid woman just stared back as if he spoke another language. Then she looked down at her hands, and a dawn of realization spread across her face. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “I get it. Forgot to put something on. Give me a sec.” She snapped the fingers of her feline hand, and a flash of light filled the room. It disappeared as quickly as it came, and what Discord saw before him did not help his unease. The unnatural features of the woman were gone and were replaced with a normal human woman. Normal legs, normal arms, no wings, and no spindly tail. She still had her long hair and the simple dress, though they were slightly altered with the lack of extra appendages. She gave a big smile showing her slightly fanged teeth and said, “There, is that better?”

Discord stammered random noises for a second and said, “N-no! No, it’s not! Y-y-you can’t j-just change things like that!”

The woman tilted her head. “Why not?”

“Why n-not?!” Discord groaned like a stubborn child and buried his head in his hands. This was going nowhere. He needed to get help. Somewhere far, far, far away from here. He tried again, “Please, may I borrow a phone o-or can you show me where my car is? It was in the Everfree Forest Reserve parking lot. It should still be there. I’ll drive myself.”

Angel scoffed at his pleading display. The woman gave the rabbit a disapproving glare and said to Discord, “I’ll take you back to your car in a bit, but maybe you should rest. You seem a little...agitated, and it’ll help if you took the time to calm down.”

The last two words set something off in Discord. He’s not one to lose his temper easily and more of the type to avoid conflict and any interaction in general. It was only when he was beyond stressed and felt pushed into a corner when he fought back. He raised his head to the woman and shouted, “Calm down? CALM DOWN?! I can NOT calm down! I have no idea where I am, what happened to me, and whether or not I’m insane! I am out of my element, I am at my limit, and all I want to do is get the fuck out here!”

Both the rabbit and woman froze in shock at his harsh words. The bunny moved a few steps closer as if to punch him out like a boxer, but the woman placed a foot to block his advance. Her shock slowly turned to annoyance. Discord could see the light in her eyes fade. “Figures,” she finally managed to say. “I thought you would be different. Guess not.” She snapped her fingers on her (normal?) right hand. A large click noise filled the room. The woman approached the door to the room and placed a hand on the handle.

The woman coldly looked back at the frazzled man. “This will lead to straight to your car,” she said in a neutral tone. “Never come back to the Everfree Forest and you’ll never see me or anything weird again. And don’t worry, you’ll be safe from those thugs. They only wanted me.” With that, she walked away from the door and turned her back to Discord. She tried to busy herself by cleaning up whatever was on the desk in the room, obviously waiting for him to leave. The rabbit gave Discord a look that was borderline murderous but soon followed the woman to give him space toward the door.

Discord quickly grabbed his things and rushed to the exit. He flew open the door and was almost blinded by the light. On the other side of the door was the Everfree Forest at what appeared to be the break of dawn. The exit seemed to be in the heart of the forest with no connection to a building or structure. Whether or not it was a magic portal didn’t even cross his mind. He just added it to the other things he couldn’t logically explain today.

Discord’s car was within view of the door, only a hundred or so feet away. There it was; Freedom. Sanity. A world where things made sense. No strange talking bunnies or women with branches in their heads or rooms made for tree spirits. He could go to the hospital, check on his wounds and mental status, and go home if he got a clean bill of health. He could never return to the Everfree Forest. He could let the memory slowly turn into a dream or a hallucination he could ignore as the decades went by.

He could leave it all behind.

Despite all reasoning, this thought created a twinge of guilt in the back of Discord’s mind. He was basically left for dead in the woods, and despite the strange circumstances, he was saved by this strange woman. The bandages and comfy room were all evidence of that. He knew if he left things off here, in this irritable state, he would be thinking back on this moment at 3 AM for the rest of his life.

Dammit.

Once again, Discord’s guilty conscience won the debate. He closed the door and took a few steps toward the woman. He took a deep breath and said in a soft whisper, “I’m sorry.”

The woman’s ears perked up at the sentence. She turned around and acted surprised to see the man still standing there. Quickly she put on a facade of annoyance and said, “You’re sorry forrrrr...?”

Discord harrumphed. So, this was how she was going to play this. Still, he understood why. He said through trembling lips, “I’m s-s-sorry for shouting like that. That was incredibly rude of me.” The Angel bunny scoffed and mumbled, “Bet your britches, it was.” Discord (begrudgingly) continued, “You...saved my life, didn’t you? You were that voice in the woods. The one that scared off the hunters.”

The lady shrugged, still playing nonchalant. “It wasn’t that hard. Don’t make a big deal out of it.”

“Still, you helped me, and I imagine these bandages were also from you.” He exposed one of his covered arms as if to give an example. “I...I should be grateful. Th-Thank you.”

The last comment made the woman relax her posture. She turned to Discord and softly said, “You’re welcome.”

Bringing up the hunters formed a new question in his mind. He asked, “What happened to the group, by the way?”

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I took care of it.”

He did not like the sound of that. “You didn’t...you know..?”

The woman took a few seconds to decipher what he meant. Her eyes bulged and she scoffed, “What, kill them? Don’t be daft. I may like to have my fun now and again, but it’s all for show. It was easy to scare them off. Some possessed vines, a few grabbing trees, a looming shadow here and there.” She paused and moved a bit closer to Discord. There was a new devious smile forming on her lips. “Except for their leader. He’s been on my ass for a while. Let’s just say he’ll have...a new perspective on life.”

The bunny jumped high in the air to add, “She turned him into a snail. Ha!”

Discord backed up a few feet. “W-w-what?!”

The girl made a pssh noise and waved him off. “Oh, he’ll be fine! If he stays alive for 24 hours, it’ll wear off on its own. All he has to do is find a mushroom or log to hide in and he’ll be good as new.”

Discord felt dizzy again. He tried to take deep breaths as this new information bombarded his sense of self. “Th-this isn’t a concussion or a dream, is it?” he whispered mostly to himself. “This-this is all real?”

“As real as me, buster,” she said with a toothy grin. A look of realization soon appeared on her face. “What’s your name, by the way?”

Discord froze. Should he give his name? He recalled in the fantasy books he read about fairies and supernatural creatures using people’s names to control them. But this woman didn’t look like a fairy. She didn’t look like anything he ever saw before. Honestly, he was too tired and frightened to think of a fake name. Without thinking, the words tumbled out of his mouth, “D-Discord.”

The woman laughed. It was light and airy and sent a chill down Discord’s spine (out of fear or fascination, he wasn’t sure). She said, “And here I thought my parents were the worst at names. Your name doesn’t exactly emit cheer and happiness, does it?”

He was sort of used to that response. It was an uncommon name. He remembered the story his mother told him on how she was an avid reader of horoscopes during her pregnancy with him. She read on the day he was born, “The world is full of uncertainty and chaos, but the path to change starts with a bit of discord.” And that’s how the name stuck. Not wanting to share his personal history, he gave a noise of approval and said, “I do enough of that on my own.”

The woman laughed again while Angel smirked in approval. Discord couldn’t help but join in the laugh. The previous tension in the air had vanished completely. The logic part of his brain suddenly kicked in and he thought, ‘Wait, what am I doing? I need to get out of here.’ However, before he left, he wanted to at least know who it was that saved him. He asked, “What about your name?”

The woman looked hesitant. “Fluttershy,” she drew out through closed teeth as though it was the most embarrassing name to admit to the world. “I think it was a hopeful wish on my parent’s end, but hey, I live to disappoint people’s expectations.” She said the last part with a light chuckle. Discord nodded in solidarity and said, “And this is your home? The Everfree Forest?”

“Yep, has been for a while now,” she said while patting the walls covered in leaves and flowers. “It has a natural magic that makes it easier to stay hidden. Let’s just say I like my privacy.” The newly appointed Fluttershy then turned to the man and gave another devious grin. “Think I’ve seen you a few times sneaking around at night. Not trying to hide dead bodies or something, are ya?”

Discord sputtered at the accusation. He could not get a good reading on her or what she would say next. He said as fast as he could, “N-n-no, no no! I-I just like to look at the stars and this is the best area for them! That’s all!”

Fluttershy paused and made a huh sound. “It is? I haven’t checked myself. Never caught my interest.” She stepped a bit closer to Discord and said inquisitively, “You’re a bit of a weirdo, aren’t you?”

“Uhhhhh...” Discord was at a loss on what to say next. It was bad enough he admitted his uncommon hobby, but now she was mocking him? Her, a woman with tree antlers and butterfly wings?! How was he still the outcast in this situation? Fluttershy saw the confusion in his face and corrected, “Relax, will ya? It’s a compliment.” She followed up this sentence with a light tap of his arm (the arm was still a bit sore from the cuts, but Discord hid his grimace).

Angel walked closer to the woman and said, “Fluttershy, maybe we shouldn’t fraternize with a mortal. We’re already taking a risk with saving his life an’ all.”

“Nahhh, he’s cool,” she assured the rabbit as she bent down to give a light head pat. “I can tell by his eyes.”

Discord rapidly blinked in confusion. His piercing red and yellow eyes? Usually that was what pushed people away. Though he guessed it made sense for a woman with non-human arms and legs to see the comfort in something unusual. Still, he felt his heart rate pick up in pace. This was enough social interaction for a lifetime. He needed to go. He grabbed his supplies, approached the door and said, “I should go. I’ve taken enough of your time. Thank you again, for everything. If there’s anything I can do to thank you, let me know.”

Fluttershy paused petting her rabbit and stood up. Her smile was gone, her face inexpressive. She quickly walked over to Discord and didn’t stop until she was a few feet away from his face. With her face this close, he could see her eye colors were slightly different to each other. Her left eye was a teal color with a touch of more blue than green, while the right eye was the same teal but with more green than blue. They almost looked like they sparkled like gemstones. She said in a light whisper, “You mean it?”

A light flush climbed up Discord’s neck and ears. He was not used to anyone being this close. He managed to say, “W-what?”

“Do you mean it?”

“Y-yes?” He was starting to wonder if he accidentally insulted her. If she could change her shape and create portals in doors, who knows what she would do to him. Would she keep him prisoner? Demand payment? Swear to secrecy or obedience through a blood pact?

Fluttershy smiled again, showing off her small, sharper than usual canines. “Alright, then take me wherever you go next time you’re here.”

That was not the answer Discord was expecting. “W-what?”

She continued, “How about next week, same time as the gang attack? They shouldn’t bug us anymore.”

“What?”

“Welp, you better get going,” she opened the door for Discord and started pushing him through the threshold. “Don’t want a search party to form, do you? Okay, see you later, thanks, byyeeeee!” And with that, the door was closed with a soft click.

Discord turned and saw his car in the distance. He turned back expecting the door, but there was nothing there except the endless, vast forest. He was all alone, with his chair, flashlight, and a million questions. He was back to the normal world. But nothing was normal. Not anymore. All Discord could do was yell a single word.

“WHAT?!”