All's Fair, In Love and War

The instant their deal is done, it's like the world around her erupts into motion. Fluttershy looks around in a frenzy, watching hedges stand up on gnarled legs and move to the diction of some unseen conductor. Statues crumble, trees shift, earth rumbles; without Discord's claws wrapped around her hooves, she'd have lost her footing instantly.

"Not to worry," he tells her, picking something out of his teeth. "The maze is just re-organising itself."

She blinks up at him, swallowing.

"Re-organising..? Why?"

Whatever he was picking at, it gets flung off to the side into some bushes. She watches, with wordless horror, as the lump grows a score of arachnid legs and skitters away.

She really hopes that doesn't find her later.

"Well," Discord huffs, looking down at her with judging eyes. "Obviously because one of us would have had an unfair advantage."

Fluttershy blinks up at him, weary, but makes an attempt regardless to ease his concern-- no matter how unfounded it might be.

"O-oh, I didn't get to see much of the maze before I, um, got here. You don't have anything to worry about, I promise."

He pats her head. She can't help but feel just a tad bit belittled.

"Yes yes," the draconequus soothes, "of course, my dear. I was, indeed, worried for myself and not for the tiny pegasus that's challenging a semi-god."

A frown twists her face.

"O-oh, but... I thought you were ju-- um, a master of chaos, rather than a god?"

"Well," he stops to think about it. "I don't know what I am, really. Besides, you said that whole sentence wrong! It's Master of Chaos! Not... master of chaos. Comprende?"

"Right." Fluttershy nods, affirmed. "You're the master of chaos!"

He frowns. "No, it's Master of Chaos."

"Yes, master of chaos."

Discord drags his eagle claw down his face with an immense sigh. "You have to emphasize it, Fluttershy! Put more heart into it; it's Master of Chaos!"

She nods; once, twice, and then three times, because the third time is always the charm. Then, she tries again.

"Okay, master of Chaos!"

A moment of quiet.

"You know what, I'll take it!" Discord cheers, raising his arms up in the air. Fluttershy, of course, went skywards with them; her hoof still clasped firmly in his paw's grip. Meanwhile, a celebratory multi-tiered cake appears behind them; it explodes with impeccable timing, optimized wholly for comedic effect.

Like most things around Discord are, she's starting to notice. It's a trend obvious enough that even she's picking up on the pattern.

"O-oh, um," Fluttershy tries, still hanging limply from his paw. "H-has the maze finished y-yet?"

The draconequus stops, squinting out over the hedge-tops to observe. Whatever he finds must have been satisfactory because, the next thing she knows, all of her hooves are back on the ground where they belong.

"Seems so, my dear!"

"O-oh, okay," Fluttershy stutters, shifting her hooves nervously. The adrenaline is starting to pick up again and, with her heart already pounding like a drum, she can only hope she doesn't have a heart attack once the game truly starts. "Where are the others?"

Discord juts a claw at the sky. She looks up.

A white blob with bits of purple pokes through the pink clouds. "You got this, darling! Show that ruffian what's what!"'

"Yeah," shouts another blob, rainbow hued and obscenely loud. "Cheer up, 'Shy! Show him that you're made of sterner stuff! Not just anyone is friends with Rainbow Dash, after all."

"Oh, oh, oh!" A pink speck cheers, jumping up and down on a particularly bouncy cloud. "Take him to Sugarcube Corner! Take him to Sugarcube Corner! There'll be fresh donuts~!"

"Pinkie Pie," sighs another, a happy orange this time. "Anywho's, don't you worry none about Sugarcube Corner! Just hustle as quick as ya' can to the cottage, y'hear? Ya' got this, Flutters!"

And, finally, somepony who could only be Twilight takes over next.

"Whatever you do," she shouts, her voice echoing for miles and miles, "don't go through the Everfree! Stay safe, okay? We'll figure something out! Be careful, Fluttershy!"

Warmth fills her, emanating from her heart like a furnace. She's reminded of the amount of awe, adoration, and love that she has for these mares, and the force of it is enough to make her eyes burn. She has to try. She just has to.

"I'll do my very best," she whispers to them, even if she knows that they'd never be able to hear her. "I won't let you down."

A moment passes.

"You know," Discord starts off conversationally. "I did say I'd give you a head start."

Fluttershy jolts back into the present. Her legs begin to move towards the nearest exit of their own accord, the mare skittish and eager to make this time matter as much as possible.

"Right," she tells him, nerves aflame. "S-should I go now?"

He shrugs. "Sure, after all..."

The draconequus turns to inspect an hour-glass that she's just noticed in the background. It's already been flipped, with fine grains of yellow sand filtering into the bottom chamber; the pile's deep enough to have counted the passing of a few minutes.

Suddenly, she feels very, very nervous.

"You've already wasted, oh," he squints. "I'll say... about five minutes of your head start?"

Her hooves move before the words even have a chance to settle in the air. A haze settles over her; like a vignette, one that's already darkening the edges of her frazzled mind. Thoughts fly around in her skull with reckless abandon, crashing from one side to the other, and she'd give anything to have someone, anyone, tell her what to do.

That is, of course, the instant that the universe decides to answer her: and it comes in the form of Discord's voice, low and manic, echoing out across the entire courtyard.

"That's right, my dear! Panic! Anarchy! Riot! Now..."

Someplace, somewhere, an alarm goes off. She can't help but liken it to a death knell.

"Here's Johnny!"

Fluttershy's thoughts still. Then, all at once, they come crashing together into a single collective: fleeing as far as possible-- and further yet, if luck is on her side.

Luck is not on her side.

"T-that wasn't m-much of a head start," Fluttershy hiccups halfway through her words, looking at every shadow like it's an enemy. Her legs ache so, so, so badly, but she can't stop-- she won't stop. He was inches away from her just seconds ago, and the lingering anxiety refuses to let her rest.

Nothing but silence answers. That, too, is enough to keep her on her hooves.

The game of Tag had started all of half an hour ago and, despite her head start, it's done nothing to keep her ahead of the Tagger.

Of course, she thinks to herself, that might be because most of that advantage had been wasted.

Some unknown prey instinct within her soul triggers and, for whatever reason, Fluttershy decides to trust it. She plants her hooves in the dirt and skids to a halt; using her hind-legs to push off and redirect her body down a new passage. Behind her, she hears the collision of a large body meeting empty dirt.

"Oh, very well played, Fluttershy! I wonder; does that lead to a dead-end?"

It takes everything in her to not start hyperventilating.

"There's only one way to find out, now isn't there?"

Heavy footfalls fall into place behind her, lofty and misaligned. Despite Discord's mismatched body, he's keeping up with her-- and, frankly, that doesn't fill her with any particular amount of joy. Though, the animal enthusiast within her is overjoyed to note that he's incredibly nimble on four legs-- similar to a ferret.

Of course, being chased by said overgrown mustelid does dim the experience somewhat.

"You've been in stone for a thousand years," Fluttershy cries out because, yes, she's very close to devolving into tears at any given moment. "How are you still so fast?!"

"I told you," the draconequus speaks, and he's practically next to her. He gives her a lazy smirk and the sight of it makes her stomach sink like a stone. "I have a lot of pent-up energy. And mental health issues! But we're not ready for that."

She blinks sweat out of her eyes.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry about that," he tells her candidly, "this author prefers romcoms."

Fluttershy throws her head back and screams. Except, since it's Fluttershy that's doing it, it's more like a very polite inside voice.

"You don't make any sense!"

"Oh, stop! You always know just what to say."

A muscle in his lion arm twitches. She drops to the ground instantly, the force of her speed still carrying her forwards.

Discord leaps at where she previously was, and goes tail over antlers into the bushes. Fluttershy straightens up, staring after him with concern, whilst panting in a desperate attempt to calm her pounding chest.

"Are... a-are you okay?"

His head pokes out of the bushes.

"Peachy!"

She screams and starts galloping back down the passage she just finished galloping up. At this point, it doesn't matter where she goes, as long as it's away from him.

"G-great!" Fluttershy calls behind her, out of a need to be polite if nothing else. "Feel free to stay there, then!"

Her ears swivel, catching the sounds of cracking branches and rustling leaves.

"I'll have to decline," he informs her, and she doesn't need to chance a look back to know he's taking the time to brush the leaves off his coat. "I much prefer the thrill of the chase, I'm afraid."

In a moment of hysteria, she ponders the merits of turning around and poking him in the eye.

The rhythmic beat of heavy steps chasing her resumes, and she drops that idea in Tartarus where it probably belongs. Her wings flap, instinctively trying to help her speed up, and something clicks into place in her head.

"Well, duh!" A tiny voice far above their heads rings out, "it's about time she figured it out! Go, Fluttershy, fly!"

Her wings outstretch-- and then abruptly stop. With growing horror, she realises her wings don't have enough room to fully extend. If she can't fully extend, she won't be able to take off at speed, if she can't take off at speed...

"Finally using that brain of yours, my dear?"

Fluttershy glances back. She sees shining red eyes swimming in pools of amber, and a muzzle twisted in a cunning smile. Her breath catches.

He knew the whole time that the passages would be too small to facilitate flight. That's what he was rearranging the passages for; to shrink the walls in so she couldn't fly.

"Too bad it kicked in a little too late!"

He leaps at her again and, for a second, she's certain that the game's about to finish as quickly as it had started. Fear, that same fear she feels constantly, all the time, over and over and over again, fills her, and it starts to tip the scales. She's always scared, always afraid of something, always, always, always--

Then, that fear starts bleeding into angry vindication.

What a trickster! And a jerk! He's a real piece of work; one that's constantly having fun at other ponies' expense and she's completely and totally over it!

When he comes flying at her, Fluttershy's wings flap at half extension; they're large wings, too large for a frame as light and willowy as her own. They take up so much energy just to move and it's part of what makes her such a weak flyer-- but. When she does decide to flap them...

Fluttershy rises into the air, easily clearing the air-space several hoof-lengths above him. She watches him go careening, once again, into the bushes.

She can't help it: a soft giggle slips out.

"I can hear that," comes his garbled response, punctuated by a sore groan. "Shouldn't you be running? Tick tock, my little pony."

The pegasus hovers in the peak of her free-fall and, with no small amount of displeasure, finds that she still falls short of being able to manage a second flap in the space around her. Her wings are just too big to fit in the confines of these cramped walls; she needs somewhere open, somewhere with a lot of space, somewhere...

She looks around. Then, she smiles.

Her hooves hit the ground again but, this time, she knows exactly where she's going. When Discord's footfalls resume behind her, still some distance away, Fluttershy can't help but feel a burst of manic laughter bubble out of her mouth.

She's being chased by a god. More than that, she's winning.

She chances a look behind her. The draconequus is donning what can only be described as a wreath of branches, twigs and dead leaves; a bird's nest stuck between his antler and horn, with a baby sparrow pecking away at his forehead.

And yet, despite that, his eyes are blown wide in genuine thrill, looking perfectly content to stay in her wake for a few moments longer. He sticks his tongue out and lets it flap wildly in the wind.

For some inexplicable reason, a twinge of sympathy reverberates in her chest. She wonders what it had been like, locked in stone, unable to move, or eat, or breathe, or...

Fluttershy blinks. Then, she shakes her head.

"Eyes on the road," comes an obnoxious holler, followed by an awkward silence. "You know, if I had my magic, I'd honk a car horn at you. Missed opportunities!"

Her face twists.

"Car--? Do you mean a carriage..? Discord, t-they don't even have horns!"

A scoff. "Ponies take the fun out of everything."

She tosses her head, electing to ignore him entirely instead. Veering to the left, Fluttershy chants the directions in her head, following the map in her mind's eye as closely as she possibly could. Left, right, right, left, center, and...

They burst back into the same courtyard they had started out in, that same hour-glass tick-tick-ticking away. Glorious, wide open space greets her eyes, marred only by the occasional statue and chaotic oddity. Her heart thunders away in her chest but she can't stop, not now, not when she finally has enough room to--

Her instincts scream. She leaps to the left and prays.

Discord's claws close around empty air but, as she's learning the hard way, he's too quick for her to celebrate those victories for too long. Powerful hind-legs hit the ground and push, his wings angling to let him correct his course that right enough amount to come barreling right back towards her.

"Game over, Flutters! I'd say best of three, but--!"

She jumps up onto the fountain, still spewing that same liquid concoction from before. Fluttershy dips her hoof in and, murmuring a quiet apology to Discord in her heart, proceeds to fling it into his eyes.

"Pocket chocolate, pocket chocolate!" Comes a cheer from above: "I taught her that one! Quick; combo him with the one-two-!"

The draconequus reels back with a cry, scrabbling at his eyes. He skids to a stop and hits the edge of the fountain with his head; just short of where she's standing. Fluttershy stumbles at the impact but, regardless, makes to take advantage of this moment--

"It stings--!" He howls, and she can't tell if he's being melodramatic or genuine. "I knew I should've reversed the fountain!"

Her heart twists. She looks back, staring down at him. Her raised wings twitch; she'd feel just awful leaving him like this...

Guilt floods her. She can't believe that she just hurt somepony; she's a firm believer in pacifism and, more than anything, refuses to treat anypony or any creature with anything less than absolute empathy.

Until right now, apparently.

She looks between the grounded draconequus and the open sky, listening to his pained grunts and grumbles. Freedom beckons her with a song that sounds eerily similar to her friends' voices; and yet, it feels a bit like taking the easy way out.

Fluttershy steels herself.

The pegasus looks around for anything that can help. She spies a low hanging cloud; one that's still, blessedly, a normal white. It's just a puff, barely enough to count as a cloud, but...

She looks down at Discord then up at the cloud. With a flap of her wings, she's skybound, hurtling towards the cloud at speed; it's all she can do to spread her wings and slow herself.

Thankfully, Fluttershy stops short of the cloud, grabbing it in her mouth. Then, she glides back towards Discord.

"Fluttershy, run!"

In her heart of hearts, she hates ignoring her friends: but, this time, she's caught between doing the right thing, and doing the kind thing.

She chooses the same one she always has, and always will.

Landing before him, balanced precariously on the fountain's edge, Fluttershy leans forward and bites down on the cloud; squeezing out the rainwater stored within until it's dribbling onto Discord's chocolate-crusted eyes. Soon, the sweetness melts away, leaving nothing but grey-brown fur behind.

"There," she tells him sweetly, "all better. I'm sorry; it's been such a blur, that I forgot you didn't have your magic anymore. Are you alright?"

Mismatched paws reach up to rub his eyes again. Gold and crimson hesitantly blink open, blearily looking up at her. There's an odd expression on his face: he looks gobsmacked, if she had to try and put a word to it.

"You'll lose if you keep doing this," he warns her, slowly getting to his feet. Then, Discord emphasizes his words with wild arm gestures, claws akimbo in the air. "Seriously, this is getting unnatural; and I usually adore unnatural!"

Fluttershy just smiles. It's equal parts tender relief and genuine good humour.

"Of course," she tells him, honey-sweet, and spreads her wings wide. An experimental flap proves that yes, indeed, she's got more than enough room to get going.

Then, she shoots a tentatively look back at him. Is he going to..?

Discord stares up at her, floundering, before simply giving up and throwing his arm up on the fountain's edge. He scowls at her, pulling a straw out of the ground and sticking it into the hot chocolate. He starts drinking; and he doesn't look particularly happy about it.

"You get five minutes," he deadpans, gulping down mouthful after mouthful of sugary goodness through his latest utensil. "It starts now."

Fluttershy giggles, soft and finite.

"Thank you, Discord," she tells him, and she hopes with all of her heart that he knows it's genuine. She turns then, wings stretched to the full length of their lofty, clumsy glory; Fluttershy shoots into the air-- and proceeds to overshoot by half a mile, crashing snout-first into the nearest palace wall.

Some ponies describe her as graceful and elegant; they, obviously, have never seen her fly.

Fluttershy plants her hooves against the wall and pushes herself back into the air.

"I-I'm okay, e-everypony--! Oh dear--"

In the clouds above her, Rainbow Dash winces. "Yikes. And they call me Rainbow Crash."

From the ground, Discord watches his challenger crash land against the side of Sunbutt's castle, peel herself off, and awkwardly resume tumbling her way through the air. He takes another sip of his beverage. With wordless fascination, he can only stare as the world's most flight-averse pegasi loses against a stiff breeze.

The draconequus checks his watch. It's hair past freckle; how predictable.

"Maybe make that ten minutes," he grumbles to himself. Then, with timing he can only describe as karmic on a cosmic level, a distant crash and soft, "sorry!" greets his ears.

Discord just groans in defeat.

"Fine! Take. Your. Time!"

A thick sheen of sweat coats every inch of her and, for a second, Fluttershy worries that she might start foaming with it. Her heartbeat hasn't calmed since this entire ordeal started and, though she's finally managed to find a hot current that she can glide on, it still feels as if her wings are about to fall off.

She looks back. The Canterlot castle has shrunk considerably; but she's still in the lower tiers of the city itself.

The pegasus starts biting at her lip, blinking away the droplets of sweat that have started to sting her eyes. Surely she's far enough away to land? She hasn't seen Discord since she'd first managed to escape the maze, and that was...

She squints thoughtfully. Twenty minutes ago; that sounds apt.

Fluttershy looks down at herself: she needs to cool down, that much is for certain, and she needs to find a way to tie her mane and tail. There were more than a couple close calls in the courtyard and, if Discord had been even slightly less merciful, she'd have lost the game within minutes.

And, with that logic alone, she makes up her mind. But an odd sense of trepidation fills her: the ground is where the hunter is. If the hunter catches her, it's not just the end of the line for one silly little pegasus.

It's the end of the line for all of Equestria.

She swallows. Weighing the two choices in her mind, Fluttershy lets herself soar for a few minutes longer: and then, her stomach rumbles. It's a ravenous reminder that the last time she'd eaten had been a piece of bread early in the morning, before she took the train and...

Well. And things went wrong.

Almost relieved that the choice had been taken out of her hooves, the pegasus banks right; easing into a shaky downwards glide that takes her closer and closer to the cobblestone. It'd be faster to dive but...

She shudders. The world goes by so fast when she dives, and it terrifies her. She never knows if, or when, she's about to hit the ground.

The closer she gets to the streets proper, she can see the madness that has overtaken it: chefs are being chased by their utensils, with sentient furniture reaping havoc on the local populace. It's all she can do to watch them, with terrified sympathy, as dogs take their owners out for a midday walk, and cats plot the end of the world.

Fluttershy's hooves alight gently atop brick and mortar. Her wings flap once, dislodging any debris stirred from her landing, before settling against her sides.

Her ears pin against her skull: it feels... quiet. Somehow, there's pans and pots using each other as war-drums, but it still seems far too serene.

Swallowing down her hesitance, the pegasus gingerly picks a path through the city. She comforts herself with the thought that, if Discord finds her, the streets are big enough for her to return to the skies.

Her stomach hounds her; she finds the remedy for it in the form of a restaurant, the scent of daisy and cucumber wafting from the door.

Fluttershy turns to it, ear flicking when the cast-iron hinges of the gate creak and moan.

The door before her seems endlessly large; like the mouth of a chimera with their jaws stretched wide, ready to swallow their prey whole. Darkness emanates from within, and it's as if all light, all sound, all life is entrenched within it--

She stares into it, and can't help but feel like something stares back at her. A shudder rocks her body, running from the tip of her nose to the end of her tail.

Cowering, the mare decides that she's not quite that hungry just yet.

Fluttershy continues on, finding a much friendlier establishment a mere few doors down. This one is well-lit, smells of a sugary-sweetness that reminds her of Sugarcube Corner, with a merry little sign on the front that had been flipped to 'closed'. She looks at the sign for a moment, humming.

In the end, it doesn't take her attention for too long, and she trots inside.

"H-hello?" The pegasus calls, looking around for a pony-shaped shadow. When nothing appears, she frowns and moves towards the display cabinet anyway. She's lucky that she had a few bits with her regardless.

"I'll write a note with my name on it as well," she tells herself. "That way, if it's the wrong amount, they can find me."

With that decided, Fluttershy produces a few bits-- this is one of the few times that she's glad her crow friends have such a fascination with her mane. Without their tendency to braid flecks of gold into it, she wouldn't have had the bits to get anything. Warmth fills her at the thought of her friends: she can't wait to return home to them.

Dropping the bits on the counter, she leans forward to peruse the goods display. Nervous about staying indoors for too long, Fluttershy decides on the first thing she sees and pulls it out of the cabinet.

"Strawberry croissant," she remarks happily to herself, taking a gloriously delicious bite. "I'm so lucky!"

And this is, of course, when it all starts going wrong.

"'Lucky' isn't the word I'd use, my dear, but..."

The door slams shut, startling the mare into dropping her treat. As her heart rate begins to pick up, slipping back into that rapid-rush tempo of thump-thump-thump, Fluttershy has enough sense left to realise she's made an incredibly bad mistake. She backs away from the cabinet, head swinging to-and-fro, only to bump into a serving table with a shriek.

"Well, who am I to judge, hm?"

Then, the blinds on the windows drop. She can't see a thing in front of her; can barely see her own hooves, much less anything lurking in the shadows.

Something behind her creaks. A table falls over and Fluttershy's mind is so overloaded with panic-panic-panic that all she can do is stand there and remember to breathe.

"Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy. Really, if you wanted to get me alone, all you had to do was ask!"

Static fills her head. Shame and mortification keeps her silent. She got caught so quickly; how could she have gotten caught quickly?

"And here I was," comes his taunting guffaw, and it's like something out of her worst nightmares, "thinking you actually wanted to win! Hah!"

A glass smashes under somepony's hoof. She raises her head from the floor, anxious to go somewhere, to go anywhere, but wary of the fact that if she accidentally brushes him in this darkness-- it's all over.

Fluttershy can barely make out Discord's silhouette in the low-light. Following the shape with her eyes, it's with growing dread that she realises he's coiled around her in a neat, perfect circle. There's an indolent quality to him, with his body and limbs stretched comfortably out like they are; it reminds her of a panther, indulgent and lazy after a successful hunt.

Her pupils shrink. All she feels is terror.

Glowing slits of ruby regard her with a languorous ease, swimming in pools of flashing gold. He looks down at her, so incredibly far down, that Fluttershy wonders how she could've ever felt like she was winning.

She swallows. Her voice is so quiet, so soft, she wonders if she even spoke at all.

"D-Discord..?"

"In the flesh, my dear," he purrs, pulling his face close to hers. She can't help but shrink away, desperate to put any amount of space between them. "Oh, I do love these games we play, don't you?"

If her heart weren't already going ten thousand miles per hour, she thinks it just might've frozen solid.

"Y-you're fast," she tells him, somewhere between statement and compliment, because her brain is too fuzzy to catch up with her mouth and she's terrified of anything, anyone, anypony-- "I, um, how'd you--?"

He silences her by raising his lion paw, a single digit held threateningly under her chin. Her mouth clicks shut.

"Golly, isn't this fun!" Discord giggles giddily, head propped up on his eagle claw. "A chance to spread my legs! A thousand years of imprisonment in stone, after all, makes it hard to get a walk in: wouldn't you agree?"

There's something venomous in his voice, then. The mania folded into his eyes sparks dangerously and, for some inexplicable reason, she can't look away.

Fluttershy trembles. She nods, nothing more than a twitch, far too hyper aware of the finger beneath her chin.

"I-It'd be a s-shame to end the game so early," she tries to casually remark, struggling to keep her breaths even and steady. She's terrified that she'll touch him; terrified that he'll lean down, touch her, and begin the end of the world as she knows it. "It's only b-been a, um, h-hour."

"An hour and fifteen minutes," Discord corrects her. "And here I thought ponies enjoyed keeping track of every, minor, detail."

He emphasizes his words with the slow encroachment of his head into her head space. By the end of it, she's trying her best to imitate a pancake against the bakery floor.

"I-I--!" Fluttershy stutters, then whimpers. "I l-lose track of t-t-time..?"

Looming eyes blink.

Then, the edges of his lips twist up into a smile-- a sharp, dangerous smile, but a smile nonetheless. Something like hope fills her stomach.

"Are you afraid?" Discord asks her, and that hope promptly turns into dread.

She can't look away, she can't move, she can't get enough air, she can't, can't can't--

"Yes," Fluttershy manages between panicked gasps for oxygen, hiccups bubbling up her throat and spilling over her lips. "I-I'm t-t-terrified, Discord. I can't fail! I-I can't!"

He tilts his head; in her crazed mind, she can't help but liken the motion to an owlet.

"But you already have," he tells her, startled. "My dear, you've been caught, there's no use crying over spilled milk! Honestly, you were doomed from the start."

Her eyes burn and she can feel tiny trembles begin to rock her body.

"Y-you mean," she stutters, feeling like her heart was withering away with each word she spoke. "You... y-you knew I'd lose, and p-played w-with me anyway..?"

Discord swallows, uncomfortably edging his face away from her.

"W-well! Of course! My dear Fluttershy; you're, erm... You're not..."

Her lower lip wobbles. "I-I'm not s-smart enough, o-or fast enough, or strong enough, a-am I?"

He looks back at her. Whatever he sees is enough to make him start panicking.

"No! No, of course not, you're all of those things! Just, erm," Discord starts coughing, swinging his head around to look at anything that isn't her. "Well. Alright, truthfully, you're something even worse. You're predictable, Flutters! Of course you were going to skip the scary sandwich shop and go into the sunny bakery. Of course, at the first sign of discomfort, you'd return to the ground where you're more comfortable! Fluttershy, you're a creature of, ugh, habit. Everypony who's anypony knows what you'd do, even me, and I've been trapped in stone for a thousand years!"

Oh.

Something in her cracks; then, liquid heat begins to spill over her eyelashes, burning bitter trails across her cheeks.

"I, I--!"

All of the stress and terror that's plagued her since this game- no, since this entire day started erupts at once. Her chest heaves with the weight of her emotions, loud sobs wracking the air as she struggles to breathe through it all. This is worse than the dragon, worse than even the crowded parties or Nightmare Moon. At least, then, she had her friends to help her through her weakness.

Because that's what she is, Fluttershy remembers between her whimpers. She's weak, and sensitive, and fragile. And she's...

"I'm n-not a good f-friend," she hiccups out, and that's somehow more damning than anything else. "A good f-friend would've f-fought harder. I-I'm not even a good p-pony, am I?"

What sort of pony dooms an entire country to chaos and ruin, for the sake of lunch?

And, with that, Fluttershy swears she can hear her heart break in half. Her tears double, coming down in ceaseless waterfalls, and soon she's starting to choke on her own whimpers.

Discord looks, for lack of a better word, absolutely bamboozled.

Fluttershy can barely see the draconequus stare at her with a slack jaw, his face swimming and distorting through her tears. It makes his eyes and cheeks stretch into shapes incomprehensible and, if she weren't so defeated, it might've made her laugh.

"Stop that," Discord demands. "Right now."

Her ears flatten; she makes a meager attempt to blink her tears away, but more and more keep tumbling down.

"I-I--!" Fluttershy whimpers, then shakes her head and breaks down into sobs. "I can't!"

"Just! I don't know, block up your tear ducts or something! You ponies can do that, can't you?"

She shakes her head at him, trying in vain to rub her face with her forelegs. All that does is smear the salty liquid over her face and let new rivulets pour down in their place.

She hates this. She just wants to go home.

A groan echoes in her ears. She's vaguely aware of Discord fumbling around in front of her, his eagle claw held up in a snapping motion, while his lion paw hovers uncertainly around her face.

Then, with a sigh, both appendages fall back to the ground.

"Alright," Discord sighs, and something in his voice has gentled. "Usually, I'm overjoyed when things don't go according to plan, but this is just..."

He looks back at her. A hiccup slips out of her throat.

"...Well," he grumbles. "It's just sad."

She hears a long, serpentine body uncoil from around her. Tables and chairs shift, their legs scraping against the lino, as something moves through them. Once retreating steps make a hasty return and, by then, Fluttershy has at least recovered enough to bring her breathing under control.

"Here."

Fluttershy looks up, startled by his offering of a serviette. Some impossible emotion stirs within her, something that's a bit left of confusion, and her lips part in shock.

"B-but," she manages out, eying the claws beneath with caution. "W-what if I touch you on accident?"

Discord just glowers at her.

"Would you prefer I put it on the floor?"

She sniffles. Looking between the serviette and his face, her hoof hesitantly reaches up to grab the corner of it. She tugs and, with no resistance, it falls under her control. With every swipe of the cloth against her cheeks, she can feel her emotions settle.

"..Thank you," Fluttershy murmurs and a smile flickers to life across her lips. "Thank you very much, Discord."

Quiet stretches out, longer and longer yet, until she raises her head to look at him.

He's completely still, staring at her. Even in the darkness of the bakery, she can see a war play out in his eyes; long minutes pass in stillness.

Discord looks away first.

"Well," he coughs. "I'm a gentlecolt at heart, you know. Bonafide heart of gold!"

For once, she doesn't find a piece of her that disagrees. Her heart calms, her eyes cease burning, and a tiny laugh trickles out of her mouth. She doesn't know why she's laughing-- there's no reason to, not in a situation like this, but for some reason she just can't bring herself to stop.

Soon enough, a low but booming laugh joins her own. It's nothing like that high-pitched hyena cackle she'd heard in the maze; this one is rich, like tempered chocolate, and the stress on her shoulders melts away.

"I-I have no idea why we're laughing," Discord wheezes, wiping a tear away. "I just didn't want you to start crying again. Yeesh!"

Fluttershy titters, crystalline and brittle.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about that, it's just been a very, um, stressful day."

A fresh silence springs itself upon them and the pair shuffle awkwardly, their myriads of hooves, claws and talons tapping against the floor. Fluttershy scuffs the ground with a forehoof, looking up at Discord through the gaps in her mane. Discord takes the time to find the bakery's clock and begin winding the arrows back until it's, apparently, two in the morning.

"Go."

She blinks slowly, ears swivelling towards him; disbelieving. "..Huh?"

"I said, go," Discord repeats, back still turned towards her. He moves away from the clock and begins messing around with the cash register; not quite pilfering, but instead reorganising the various iterations of currency until they're all in the wrong place. "You know, vamoose! Fly! Set sail! Abscond!"

"But," Fluttershy stares at him, her heart twisting. "But... I've already lost. You told me so."

He stops. Eyes like poetry turn to regard her over his shoulder, bright and impish. Something bittersweet twists in his expression until, with a puff of laughter, he turns back to his merrymaking.

"I haven't tagged you yet," Discord points out, shoving a gold coin inside of a cream donut. "Therefore, the game isn't over."

Her mouth opens, shuts, opens again-- and then, she realises she's speechless.

A multitude of thoughts cross her mind; she wonders if she's being tricked, wonders if he's going to lure her into another false sense of security, then tag her when her back is turned. She wonders if she should feel offended, constantly being given so many extra chances by her tormentor, or if he's got another plan tucked up his metaphorical sleeve.

One thought sticks out more than the rest.

"Why?"

Discord halts. There's a distinctive air of thoughtfulness about him as he thinks-- then, he just shrugs.

"Don't know, don't care," is all the reasoning he gives. "I want to, and that's that."

Fluttershy thinks for a moment, then accepts it with a bow of her head. She begins the trek towards the door, easing it open with a hoof, regarding the sign on the door with tranquil eyes.

She turns back.

"You flipped the sign to 'closed', didn't you?"

"Oh yes," the draconequus nods, moving on to filling various sweets with mustard. "I thought it'd be gloriously ironic!"

Staring for a few seconds longer, a huff of laughter works it's way free.

"Discord?"

His voice echoes from deep within the bakery's kitchen, following by the clanking of pots and pans. "Yes, Fluttershy? And, not to rush you or anything but, I'm quite quickly running out of things to do. Go fly, or dance with trees, or whatever it is you boring, peace-loving creatures do, won't you?"

Fluttershy smothers another fit of incredulous laughter, stepping through the doorway and into the sunlight. Her wings spread, wide and far, and a gentle heat alights upon each feather; tension drains from her like flour through a sieve.

"If I didn't know any better," she giggles, giving her wings an experimental flap, "I'd wonder if you were the Element of Kindness."

An enraged squawk reverberates from the bakery; by the time Discord scurries out from the kitchen, Fluttershy's already high in the air and tickled pink with laughter.

"I am Discord," he howls, waving a fist at her quickly fading form. "God or maybe Master of Chaos and Disorder! Spirit of Disharmony! Entropy itself! I don't do kindness--!"

"Bye, Discord! Thank you!"

There's nothing left but a smattering of feathers in endless blue and remnants of her laughter, carried on a skyward breeze. He stands in the doorway and stares after her.

An odd feeling stirs in his rib cage. It's a bit like how he'd imagine longing to feel; like a delightfully strange ache, one that catches him somewhere between melancholy and apathy.

A sigh slips out.

Discord sits in the doorway, and waits.