All's Fair, In Love and War

Somewhere between the howling wind and her terrified screams, Fluttershy is dimly aware of the fact that she's going to die.

Well. Mostly.

She's facing the wrong way, with her back towards the earth that's rushing up to meet her. Her wings are plastered to her sides, the wind pressure making them impossible to unfold, and her legs are in none of the places that they're meant to be.

In other words--

"Helpmehelpmehelpme--!"

-She's handling the situation with grace and dignity!

A shriek tears its way out of her throat, so loud and forceful that she can practically feel it rip her vocal chords apart. She can't breathe through her screams, can't think beyond the rushing wind and panic-panic-panic--!

"When I said I wanted to go home!" Fluttershy sobs, "this isn't what I meant!"

The world is sweeping past her in streaks of blue and white and, soon enough, hints of green start entering the equation and she's just waiting to die--

"Fluttershy!" A voice far above her screams. "Fluttershy, dive!"

Fluttershy rolls and rolls and rolls, spinning completely out of control. Recalling lessons from decades ago, she pieces enough of the fragmented memories together to at least flatten herself out. Limbs outstretched and face to face with her impending doom, she comes to a quick decision.

"I-I-- I can't--!"

Rainbow Dash's voice pipes up in her head, asking the one question that Fluttershy doesn't want to deal with.

Why not?

She falls quiet; she hears nothing but gale-force winds. Her eyes open and she's staring at a patch of beige, one that's slowly defining into the outer-city of Canterlot. She has enough distance to dive and regain control of her freefall, so why can't she?

Because I'm scared, Fluttershy reminds herself. I'm scared, and I don't know what to do.

It's true; she is scared. She's terrified to the point of numbness, and it's a wonder that she still hasn't passed out from sheer panic.

But it's also a lie.

Despite what her mind keeps telling her, Fluttershy does know what to do. She knows what to do, and how to do it, and so the biggest question really is, why isn't she doing any of it?

Nothing but the howling wind answers her.

Finally, a tiny voice in her head speaks up with a whimper. Because I'm scared. I'm scared of everycreature and everything. I'm scared of the world and everything in it, and I'm scared because I know I'm not strong enough to face it all, but I have to face it anyway and I have to do it by myself.

Fluttershy stares.

She wonders if Rainbow Dash ever has these fears. She wonders if any pony in the world ever has them. She wonders if she's the only pegasus in the entirety of Equestria that's afraid of flying.

Is her fear truly so strong, that she'd rather die than try and do something?

The ground gets closer, and closer, and closer. She's starting to realise that if she doesn't try at all, then she'll never get the chance to try again. She has a choice between doing what she feels comfortable doing, and doing what she knows she has to do.

Nopony else can choose for her. Not this time.

There's exactly one pony, one creature in all of Equestria that can save her right now. She has one chance and if she lets it slip away, then she might as well dig her own grave while she's at it.

Fluttershy takes a deep breath and closes her eyes.

They all believe in you.

"Your turn, Fluttershy," she whispers to herself, voice wrenched away by the zephyr. "Let's make it count."

Now, you just have to believe in yourself.

Her hooves are held out in front of her, breaking the wind, and she tips forward into a nose-dive. Wind, going by quick enough to cut, whips past her at a speed she's never experienced before. It almost makes her miss the speed of her free-fall; but only almost.

All the noise around her is muffled. She prays that's a good thing.

Something races, pounding away behind her eyes like a drum. It takes a moment too long to realise that it's her frenzied heart, with her pulse going absolutely rabid from adrenaline and stress.

It'll be okay.

She's going to be okay.

She doesn't want to open her eyes; doesn't want to face the world, to come back to reality, to partake in this stressful farce of a game that will change everything she ever knows. She doesn't want to be the deciding factor in anything at all, much less the fate of the world.

She wants to go home. She wants to cuddle with her bunnies and raccoons and bears. She wants warm water and a warmer fire, with freshly baked bread and cookies. She wants to go on a picnic with her friends, and she wants a world where Discord isn't--

Where Discord isn't so extreme.

A silence settles into place; fragile and tentative.

She wants a million and one things, anything and everything that'll take her away from here, but she knows that none of them will come true unless she makes it come true.

There's no one else that can do this for her; not anymore. No one else that can help her with the fear, with the terror, with the horrible uncertainty.

She'll just have to deal with it herself. And she's okay with that.

"I-If I c-can't do it," Fluttershy whispers, voice trembling. She swallows down her fear, breathes, and steels herself.

"Then... Nopony else will."

Fluttershy opens her eyes. The buildings are almost close enough to touch.

"Let's try, one more time."

Discord was, frankly, getting bored.

"Did she die?" He wonders aloud, claws tip-tippity-tapping away against the clock-tower roof. "I suppose that makes it my victory."

A scowl twists his expression; for whatever reason, the idea of her death doesn't bring any particular amount of joy. In fact, judging by the odd gurgles coming from his stomach, it inspires nothing but unpleasant and dour thoughts.

Then again, it could also be constipation. It has been a millennium, after all.

"But our game hasn't finished yet!" Discord announces to exactly no one, throwing his arms up in the air. "She can't die yet! Or ever! In fact, I forbid it!"

He grumbles, pacing around the roof in a circuit that's not quite circular, and not quite cubic, but still slightly short of being a prism.

"I wonder if she'd mind if I made another rule," the draconequus thinks aloud, absentmindedly climbing down the clock-tower. "After all, we never made any terms about accidental deaths. So, a new rule: if you die, you come back to life! Simple as appleberry custard pie!"

Nothing answers. Somewhere, a bird croaks like a frog.

"Genius," he announces to himself, crawling over the clock-face's rim. "Discord, you sly dog, you! I suppose I could go upstairs and grab her soul real quick. After all, as long as I'm communicating rules, I can use my magic. Oh, how wondrous!"

Once Discord's done with clambering over to his desired destination, he raises his claws high above his head. They descend with enough power to pierce through the clock's face, digits wrapping around his prize. A second later, the twisted hunk of metal is ripped out and resting in his hand.

Goodbye, one o'clock!

And, furthermore, It's always good to know that his glorious musculature is still in prime condition. Not that it was ever really in doubt. He is, and always has been, a complete catch!

"Surely I can extend that further," he scampers over to the other side of the clock, ripping out more numbers as he does so. "I should be able to use magic whilst enforcing the rules, yes? Otherwise, how would dear, sweet Fluttershy ever hope to escape from the afterlife? That reaper is always such a bore."

He takes the three next. It never stood a chance.

"I can see her now," Discord sighs, pausing in his property damage for but a single moment to swoon over himself. "'Oh, Discord! You're so strong and handsome! Of course you can sow chaos, mayhem, and mischief! Please, sign my forehead!'"

A pause. His expression twists.

"In hindsight," he groans, tongue rolling out of his mouth in a sign of disgust, "that sounds dreadful. She sounds like some kind of cretin."

The five is the next casualty. He takes the time to absolutely maul it, bending the steel until it resembles another three.

Discord clears his throat and tries again, locking on to his final target.

"'D-D-Discord!'" He gasps to himself, hiding his face in faux shyness behind his collection of numerals. "'O-oh d-dear--!"

He then slams his tail against the clock with a loud resounding thump. Steel groans, glass shatters, and the once-flat pane of metal becomes concave. The noise echoes for miles and miles, leaving nothing but an eerie silence in its wake. Even the birds are too terrified to make a peep.

"That's the sound she'd make as she faints," Discord tells himself dryly, moving on as if he'd done nothing odd or alarming at all. "Just, thump! And off to the races she'd go."

A lion paw flexes and then plunges into the clock-face. He rips it out and is now armed with a seven.

"...Honestly, how rude," he grumbles, looking up briefly to monitor the sky. "She's late! She's late to our very important date! Of, erm, Tag! Of course, we didn't set a time, but still. I can't believe I'm being stood up like this!"

Slithering up, he grabs hold of the hour and minute hands. With the air of someone who does this most Tuesdays, he rips them right off their hinges and coils his tail around them in a makeshift hold.

"Not that I care for her or anything," he hurriedly tacks on. "No, no, of course not! I couldn't care less about that bundle of flesh and feathers. I can have plenty of fun on my own."

Not even the wind responds to him now. Ha, cowards!

Discord clears his throat. "Yes, yes. See? I'm having plenty of fun as I am! But still, doesn't everypony have a right to monologue and languish?"

Discord mimes wiping a tear away.

"I'm hurt," he pouts to the abused clock-tower. "Really; truly! Heartbroken. Anguished. Desolate! If only the author knew more synonyms, because none of these are simply enough to describe my total devastation!"

The tower groans at him. Something inside the tower topples apart and falls down twenty stories.

"Chatty, aren't you," Discord scowls. Then, he wiggles his eyebrows. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say she's running against the clock! Eh? Eh?"

A steel beam unhinges and crashes through the clock-face, poking out of it like some horrible injury.

"Tough crowd," he mutters. "Honestly, I'd have better luck in a graveyard."

Discord proceeds to simply start shoving the numbers up against the clock-face, snapping the minute hand into small sections of metal using his teeth. Then, using those smaller sections of steel like nails, he impaled the numbers on them until they were secured in place.

He leans back and admires his handy work.

"Not bad," he observes, absentmindedly stabbing the hour hand into the clock-face and using it as a perch. "Oh, but some baby pink spray paint would be just darling--"

He's interrupted by the sound of something fast whizzing overhead. A blur of soft yellow and rosy pink enters his peripheral, and his heart rate unwittingly speeds up.

"Fluttershy?"

Discord stares. Then, he grins with all of his teeth. There's a sense of lethality in his focus, he knows: after all, not many things can withstand his complete and total attention.

"You should've stayed up in the clouds, my dear."

He throws the remnants of his playtime away, and they pierce the clock-face like pikes. His pastime feels like idle prattle now that the pegasus has returned, and his heartbeat picks up into that addicting rhythm of adrenaline and excitement.

"Of course," he graciously allows, stretching out all of his muscles and joints. "This outcome is much more palatable for me."

He catches a glimpse of Fluttershy's face, and there's something different in her stare this time. A hint of iron reflects in her turquoise depths, and her face is twisted in a look of determination. Her mane and tail are swept back from the wind, still bound in a braid, with her enormous wings tucked tight against her sides.

Solar hues of rosette reflect against her fur, making it shine like freshly spun gold. He watches her spin, increasing her drag just enough to let her wings flare out and fight against the current without breaking the limbs in half.

The pegasus lands in a great plume of dust and debris, her four hooves stable against the ground. Some of the cobblestone gives way under the force of her landing, crumbling to rocks and pebbles; but not her. She hardly looks winded.

She's just so interesting, he can't help but notice. A pegasus, who has more in common with earth ponies than her own kind.

Fluttershy turns to him, then, silhouetted by dusky clouds and beams of dying sunlight. Her mane and tail are frizzy messes, with the odd bit of detritus lodged between tangled hairs. There's a thin sheen of sweat that leaves her coat just shy of glistening, and her hooves are stained brown from mud and dirt.

For a moment, he thinks he's breathless.

She looks up at him. There's a great distance between the two of them; the stretch of an entire street, plus the twenty-something stories of the clock-tower itself. There's a million things between, a million other bits and pieces that should grab his attention.

And yet, all he can see is her.

There's a tranquility to her eyes this time, a sense of surety and strength, and it's as if he can see all of the world's oceans, rivers and seas within them. He wonders just what it'd take to see those placid waves get swept up into a maelstrom.

She smiles at him. It oozes with that same softness he's grown to expect from her.

Discord grins toothily in reply, his whole body pitching forward in eagerness to continue the game. His tail sways with a giddiness he hasn't felt in centuries, his heart feels as if it might beat right out of his chest, and he's never felt more alive.

"Very well, Fluttershy," Discord cackles, balancing on the very edge of the hour hand. "Let it be known that I, God of Chaos, will gladly pick up where we left off."

Her wings flutter, her body lowers to the ground, and her lips move. There's a sparkle to her gaze; a hint of playfulness nestled between the hardened resolve and nervous anxiety.

Ready?

His muscles tense, body held low to the ground as he prepares to jump who-knows-how-many stories to the street below.

"Set," he breathes out.

"Go!"

And, this time, the world's most important game of Tag truly begins.

"You know," Rainbow Dash comments, leaning over the looking hole to the game below. "I gotta ask: why'd she land, like, right in front of him? That's the worst place to land!"

Twilight shrugs.

"Who knows? Maybe her wings were tired?"

Pinkie Pie chews on her cotton candy with joy and relish, scrunching her face up. "I think she'sh havin' a cool hero moment!"

"Now Pinkie Pie," Applejack lectures, shielding her face from the bits of spittle coming from her friend's mouth. "Don't talk with yer' mouth full! It ain't right, and now I'm the one payin' the price for it!"

Rarity huffs, tossing her mane.

"Honestly," she reproaches, eyeing them with some small amount of disdain. "None of you mares understand the importance of making an entrance, now don't you! She's going through a rebirth! A resurrection! She must rise, like a phoenix from the ashes! And what's the point of all that, if no one's there to see it?"

"Gee," Rainbow Dash rolls her eyes, leveling her with a flat stare. "I dunno, maybe winning? C'mon, usually Fluttershy is a lot more practical than this!"

The unicorn just turns her nose up in the air.

"Oh, please. Fluttershy has to be the most dramatic pony I know. You've seen her! Why, I wouldn't be surprised if she had a fainting couch tucked away in her adorable little cottage. Could you imagine? I would never."

Five pairs of eyes turn to stare at her, disbelieving of the very words that dared to come out of her mouth.

"What?" Rarity asks, perfectly in the dark. "Is there something on my face?"

She stares up at Discord, eyes blown wide in a mixture of horror and fascination. He's currently teetering on the edge of some sort of pillar, looking at the ground as if he...

He wouldn't, the pegasus nervously tells herself. He'd just end up hurting himself!

"D-Discord," Fluttershy calls out tentatively, eying the distance between him and the ground. It's at least twenty stories, and she doesn't think she has the heart to watch him break his legs. "Discord, I-I think you should j-just climb--!"

He leaps. Her jaw drops.

She watches as he lands with a heavy thump; heavy enough to rattle the glass windows in their fixtures. The draconequus lands on all fours, his limbs soaking up the reverberations of the impact like they were nothing. Twin shards of amber stare back at her, sharp and gleaming, piercing through the smoke like javelins.

Oh dear, she thinks, vaguely lightheaded. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear--

"Flutterbutter," Discord purrs, rising up from the dust and ash like some eldritch dragon. The thought makes her shiver with fright. "I'm so glad you finally decided to show up, my dear."

Fluttershy just turns around and starts galloping.

High-rise buildings surround her like leviathans, enveloping her within their reaching shadows. A quick look at the sky gives her the time: approximately early evening, when the sun is just barely beginning to bathe the world in twilight hues. She's in one of the many business districts of Canterlot, beset on all sides by fashion stores, restaurants, and all the odd bits between. The hasty perusal of her surroundings is interrupted by the sounds of Discord's increasingly loud personality, filling the air with hoots and hollers.

She looks for something, for anything, that can give her an edge in the chase.

Be unpredictable, Fluttershy chants to herself, trying not to let her heart waver. What would he expect her to do in this situation?

Panic. Run aimlessly. Fly and fly and fly until she's exhausted herself, and then faint on a nice abandoned island somewhere.

Okay, she thinks. That sounds pretty on-brand. Now, what are some things she can do that aren't those?

She waits.

And, of course, absolutely nothing comes to mind.

Fluttershy groans, tossing her head. This almost proves to be a mistake as, in her moment of distraction, Discord seizes the opportunity to scale the walls of the nearest building until he's up on the rooftops-- still in hot pursuit. A quick sweep of the building reveals not-so-little holes; likely, where he dug his claws in to make footholds.

The pegasus tries a bit too hard to not think about the strength, dexterity, and sheer speed needed to do that. Instead, she settles on reacting in a way that simply won't open that can of worms to begin with.

So, she gawks.

"Y-you can run up walls?"

He preens, tilting his chin just-so as he looks down at her.

"Of course, my dear! A little jedi trick I've picked up in my travels. What, are you telling me that you can't?"

The word jedi echoes in her head, met with nothing but confusion. Not for the first time, she decides the mystery really isn't worth questioning.

"Oh, um, no," she tells him, vaguely apologetic for some indescribable reason. "I can't say that I can. That's... Amazing? Good job..? I think..."

Now, if he could just stop out pulling random and terrifying tips and tricks out of nowhere, that would also be pretty amazing.

"Well yes, it's true," he admires. "I am pretty amazing, aren't I? Finally, somepony else notices!"

And now that I've noticed, please please please leave me alone!

"Well, since you're so amazing! Maybe you could, um," Fluttershy swallows past the lump in her throat, trying to focus on running for her life at the same time as holding an idle chat. "S-slow down? Um, if you don't mind, and it doesn't bother you. Um. Sorry."

Discord pretends to mull over it.

"You're adorable," he tells her, and a squeak unwittingly slips out. Her face burns, her vision wobbles, and she narrowly avoids crashing into an outdoor table by leaping over it.

"Oh, um," she stutters, resisting the urge to stop and hide under the nearest upturned parasol. "Is... Is that a y-yes?"

He wastes no time in systemically shattering all of her hopes and dreams.

"Oh, of course not," Discord assures her, and there's a clatter of unholy noises as he takes the time to make some odd mess or another amid their chase. An apple pie goes flying over her head and splats against a store sign. "I wouldn't want you to think that I'm going easy on you, now would I? Perish the thought!"

I wouldn't mind, she thinks hysterically. I really, really wouldn't.

Instead of saying that, Fluttershy just whimpers.

Well, pleading didn't work. Of course it didn't work; why would it work?! She does that all the time!

She's blocked in on either side by great panes of glass, haute couture mannequins, and cafe-style eateries staring at her with apathy. Canterlot seems to be overrun with them. It feels as if, no matter which way she looks, there's always some store-front staring back. A whisper of an idea floats around her head, incorporeal and nebulous, and the thought of it makes her shudder.

She really, really doesn't want to go indoors again: not after what happened last time.

Think like somepony else, Fluttershy tells herself, focusing until her vision turns murky around the edges. Don't think like Fluttershy! Think like, um--!

Okay, okay, what would Twilight do! She'd... analyse? And... think! She'd plan! Obsessively! And in endless circles, until something either happened or everything went horribly wrong!

That isn't helping, Fluttershy almost sobs from frustration. Another toppled table bars her path, and she tenses her muscles to jump again. Think! Positive!

Hairs along her back rise. She doesn't think; just reacts and hopes it's the right move.

Something cuts through the air fast enough to generate sound, there's still a table in her way, and she's on an inevitable one-way ticket to Chaosville: and then, several things happen all at once.

Discord, predicting that she'd jump over the table as she did last time, leaps from his high ground to try and catch her in the apex of her trajectory. Fluttershy, with her hooves just barely still on the ground, has all of half a second to completely reassess her situation.

She doesn't reassess. Instead, she does what she specialises in: panic, react, and then run screaming for the hills so she doesn't have to deal with the consequences.

Fluttershy isn't small, not by any means. She's the tallest of her friends, with her frame lined with the type of muscle that comes from managing thousands of animals on a daily basis, half of them predators, on a sanctuary that's on the precipice of the Everfree Forest. She's tall, she's relatively sturdy, and she wrestles bears for a living.

But, also, she's the shyest pony around, and if anypony is capable of condensing all of that down into the tiniest ball of feathers and fur possible, then it's her.

So, the table.

She dives under it, a delirious part of her happy to note that it's made out of wrought iron, and promptly uses it as a shield. She curls up into some horrible mimicry of the fetal position, hooves held tight over her head, and goes through a bastardisation of her breathing exercises. Then, something heavy lands on it with a loud grunt, the metal creaking in protest, and the familiar tune of 'go-away-go-away-go-away--!' kicks up into a fever pitch in her head.

And, in her mania, Fluttershy plants all four of her hooves against the underside of the table, and pushes.

"Sorry," she screams it like it's a mantra, and it just might be, because she's panicking and pushing and panicking and pushing and panicking-- "Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm not home!"

Needless to say, the table, and the creature that had crash-landed on top of said table, go flying.

The weight pressing down on her like a guillotine is alleviated all at once, punctuated by Discord's startled shriek as he clings desperately to the table's rim. Fluttershy gapes, mouth open in wordless horror, with all four of her limbs stuck up in the air.

He's nothing but a streak of grey, brown, and red against the pink sky. She watches him go, and go, and keep going, right up until he crashes into a delivery wagon piled high with flour.

Her heart stops.

"D-Discord!" Fluttershy cries, struggling to get her hooves back under her. "Discord, oh my goodness, oh my goodness! Are you okay?!"

Her shouts echo along the empty street, answered by nothing but the wind and distant din.

She takes tentative steps forward, each one going faster than the last, as a heavy sense of regret fills her soul. A familiar burning lines her eyes, threatening to spill over into the beginning of tears, and her breathing turns ragged. Her lips wobble, already forming his name, before something finally, finally answers.

A goat's head pops out of the mound of flour, streams of white powder pouring out of his ears.

"Now that's more like it!" Discord whoops, kicking a bag of flour off the wagon so he can free his leg. "Fluttershy, my dear, that was astounding! Stupendous! Staggering!"

Fluttershy halts.

Her lips stop wobbling, and the sheer force of the relief that fills her is enough to make her legs wobble. She sits down, tips her head back, and lets a loud and relieved sob rock her entire body. Her ears slowly unpin against her skull, swiveling around to focus on the draconequus' voice because yes, he's okay, and breathing, and not hurt, and she's just--

"I-I'm so sorry," Fluttershy manages behind hiccups. "I'm so so so sorry, Discord!"

Discord, nearly finished with acquiring freedom, freezes like a bird caught in the canopy. He turns to her, notes her tears, and quickly starts shaking his head.

"No tears," he scowls, giving her the stink-eye. "Besides, I'm not apologetic in the slightest. That was an elementary display of chaos and unpredictability! Apologising for causing bedlam, honestly. Next, you'll be apologising for breathing."

"B-but," she swallows back a whimper, then whimpers anyway, because of course she would. She tries to pull herself together, fails, and hates herself just a little bit. "I-I thought I h-hurt you!"

A great big sigh fills her ears. She wipes at her eyes and barely manages to make out Discord's softening, if still exasperated, expression.

"Flutternutter," he tells her, staring blankly. "I just jumped twenty stories from the top of a clock-tower, and proceeded to chase you for the greater portion of a mile immediately after. You think that a table, a bag of flour, and a wagon are going to hurt me? I'm wounded, my dear."

Oh. Oh, he has a point.

"W-well, when you put it like that..." Fluttershy trails, staring at her hooves. The relief has given way to embarrassment, and she's not sure which is worse anymore. "I, um. I... guess it was a little silly."

"A little?" Discord repeats, seemingly astounded at her audacity. Her face burns. "My dear Fluttershy, it's astronomical."

"Well..." She scuffs at the cobblestone with her hoof, shrinking in on herself. "S-since you're okay and everything..."

He kicks another pound of dead wheat off of him, where it's quickly impaled on the lamppost at her side. Fluttershy eyes it with wide eyes.

"Yes, yes," the draconequus rolls his eyes, finally managing to free his upper body. "You may run now."

She brightens.

"Oh, thank you, thank you-!"

"And now," he shakes the flour off of him, setting off a cloud of white that lingers a bit too long in the air. Yellow and red cut through the smog like sinister jolts of lightning, and it's enough to make her swallow back a sudden uprising of fear. "You may also consider me interested in a little bit of payback. A bit of quid pro quo, if you will."

All colour filters out from her. She pales, swallows, and her answering grin makes her feel faint.

"Right," Fluttershy giggles. She thinks she's going to vomit. "Okay."

And she decides that right, okay, that's perfectly fine. Willful ignorance is her favourite form of stratagem when it comes to social interaction, so this works in her favour, really.

Spreading her wings and giving them a strong flap, she ascends into the air at speed. They burn from over-use, each tendon aching with a vengeance, and it's all she can do to catch the nearest hot current and glide along it. She knows that she can't keep going like this; just as much as she knows that she has to, or else she'll have to find a new country to live in.

She can't help but feel like she's been stuck between a rock and a hard place since she woke up. It's exhausting.

"I'll catch you yet, my pretty!" Discord howls, waving a fist rather comically at her fading form. "And your little dog, too!"

Fluttershy blinks, confused.

"B-but," she murmurs to herself in thought, "I don't have a--"

"Yet!"

Her lips twitch into a ghost of a smile. She quickly beats it down. Her friends would be so disappointed to know that she almost enjoys some of Discord's antics, so it's best not to feed the habit too much.

Scanning the streets of Canterlot for a good escape route, Fluttershy has never been more regretful of her hermit ways in her life. This whole city seems like a maze and, for the first time in a long time, she wishes she'd gone out of her comfort zone to spend more time in it. She recognises none of the streets, doesn't know any shortcuts, and feels about as surefooted here as she does in the Everfree Forest.

Nerves start getting to her; a look below shows that Discord is almost out of the wreckage. She's running out of time.

Fluttershy primes her wings, prepared to simply choose a direction and hope for the best, before a distant column of smoke catches her attention. It's directly west of where she is currently, with a good amount of cover between here and there.

A train whistle blows.

"Okay, Fluttershy," she tells herself, encouraging. Something that's a facsimile of a plan begins to take root in her mind, and she gives a hopeful smile. "Let's get back on track!"

A pun. Maybe Discord is rubbing off on her more than she thought.

The thought isn't as horrible as it should be.

Pinkie Pie is a curious, curious little pony. She likes watching, and she likes learning; she especially likes when she can do both at the same time. All the better, if she can do it and have access to unlimited sugary sweets.

So, when it's her turn to hoard their sole gateway to the surface, she sets herself up with a massive pink cloud of cotton candy, laden with chocolate milk, and resolves not to move for at least two hours.

"Pinkie Pie," Applejack groans, poking at her side until she finally shuffles over some. "I can't see nothin' over that big ol' hunk of cloud 'n sugar!"

"First in, first serve~!" Pinkie Pie sings, even as she reaches up and begins wrestling with the cloud until it's a bit flatter. "But still, here you go! Are you excited?! I'm excited! I wanna see what they're up to!"

The farmer is a bit more reserved in her emotions, wearing a small frown.

"I know, I know," Applejack says nervously, crossing her forehooves. They're lying side by side, close enough for their fur to touch, and it's a welcome bit of warmth as night begins to creep closer. "I'm just... worried 'bout her, that's all. She's gotta' be runnin' on fumes at this point. Hay, I know I would be."

Pinkie Pie nods, reaching over to tear a hunk of cotton candy off of the cloud.

"She'sh gonna be fine," she slurs, before swallowing her yummy snack. "No, really! Fluttershy is pretty nocturnal, from what I know. I think it's because of her cutie mark? I could be wrong though! I'm pretty sure it is; I think she mentioned it was so she could work with nocturnal animals, so her cutie mark lets her get away with not needing tons and tons and tons and tons of sleep, and she's got a lotta' endurance, kinda like you! But not like you, cos' you're an earth pony, and we're super endurable--"

Applejack, quickly overwhelmed, shoves another ball of cotton candy in her mouth.

"'Aight," she says, finally having an opening to get a word in edge-wise. "I get it Pinkie Pie, I do. But, y'know, she's been doin' an awful lot of flyin', and her wings aren't... Well, let's just say that, if her wings were as strong as the rest of her, there wouldn't be any issues about who's gonna' win."

Pinkie Pie just chews, shrugs, and chews some more.

"Fluttershy is gonna be fine; sides! Discord was being so nice to her," she manages between swallows. "You know Fluttershy, she's got that magical gift of everypony being super-duper nice to her; even if she is really, really shy and quiet."

"Yeah," her companion agrees after a moment, sighing. "Yeah, I know. I just-- hey, is that them? Why in the hay is Fluttershy gettin' on the train?!"

Pinkie Pie's eyes nearly bulge out of her skull.

She shrieks. "She's, what?!"

"Look!" Applejack points a hoof down below. Squinting harshly, the pair barely manage to make out a yellow blur diving into the train after a moment of talking with somepony-- presumably, the conductor. "What in tarnations is that girl doin'?!"

Pinkie Pie blinks. Her mouth drops open and her precious sugary sweet goes plummeting to the ground below.

"I-I dunno'!"

"Aw, hay," the farmer groans, pulling her hat tighter against her head. "This ain't gonna' go well. She was gettin' bull-dozed in an open city; like Tartarus goin' inta' some enclosed space is gonna' go any better!"

Pinkie Pie blinks. Then, with an almost morbid fascination, grabs another bit of cotton candy and begins draining the chocolate milk out of it.

"Pinkie?" Applejack stares at him, mildly horrified. "Pinkie, what're we gonna' do?!"

She just shrugs.

"Watch."

"Oh, for Pete's sake," the farmer groans, dragging her hooves down her face. "We gotta' help her! Look, Discord's already found her!"

True to her word, as per usual, an eerily draconequus shaped blob crawls out of the train station shadows. As the train gurgles and chugs, they watch Discord wait for the last possible second before jumping onto the caboose and slithering inside through the rear door.

She drinks some more chocolate milk, hums, and idly clicks her teeth.

"We can't~!" Pinkie Pie sings, bobbing her head to some catchy beat she's concocting in her head. "Besides, we all said that we believed in her, remember? What's the point of saying all of that, if we turn around and start doubting her, like, immediately. She's got a plan. All we gotta do is watch and, when the plan pays off, cheer our heads off!"

Applejack flounders for a moment, opening and closing her mouth. Then, with a great exhale, she slumps over.

"Pass me some o' that cotton candy, would ya'?"

Ever the dutiful supplier of snacks, Pinkie Pie tears off a good portion and hands it over. Her fellow earth pony receives it with open hooves and starts chowing down.

"I'm gonna' get an ulcer from the stress of all this," Applejack grumbles to herself. "Reckon I've gone 'n earned myself a vacation."

Pinkie Pie nods, empathetic.

"Oh, I know right? Though, to be honest, I might just get an ulcer from eating too much sugar. Can you get ulcers from that? I don't usually get ulcers a lot. I get a few toothaches, though! I think it's because I have too many sweets but, really, could you blame me, they're just so yummy-ummy-scrumptious! Oh, oh, did you know--"

With an expression so unmoving that it might as well have been carved from stone, Applejack takes two tiny puffs of candy and shoves them into her ears.

Glorious, sweet silence.

"C'mon, Fluttershy," she murmurs to herself. "Do me proud."

It's been centuries since he's tapped into his more physical capabilities: but, really, it's just like putting on an old coat.

Slinking along the darkened edges of the train cart, Discord can't help but think back to his distant youth. Hiding in the underbrush, cowering under shop stalls, spooking at the slightest non-draconequus-related sound; it makes something in his chest roll around in discomfort. His expression pinches.

"Good riddance," he sneers. "Now, onto more pressing matters."

The pegasus. Fluttershy. Yes, that one.

Night vision is one of the many things his interesting self has blessed him with, it's not too much trouble to navigate the darkness. It helps that the train carts he's come across, thus far, haven't been populated by a single soul beyond his own.

Discord snorts. "Ponies are so predictable: a hint of chaos, and they all start stampeding."

Still, his eyes and nose would never betray him. Fluttershy entered this train for some reason or another; the one train that's miraculously still running. She would only ever take the chance of being in an enclosed space with him for two reasons: one, it's a familiar and, therefore, comforting space, or two, it'll get her closer to that humble little quagmire in the woods.

He's willing to bet good bits on both reasons being at play.

And so, with his logic being disgustingly sound, he's almost overwhelmed by the sudden urge to throw himself overboard. He settles for chewing on a nearby curtain instead, trying to get the lingering taste of, bleugh, order out of his mouth.

It's a mixed success, admittedly.

"I knew I should've just thrown myself overboard," Discord grumbles to himself, shoving an abandoned thermos in his mouth. It gives a delightful crunch, and scrapes on the way down. "I suppose I'll have to settle for hors d'oeuvres instead."

A sound catches his attention. The draconequus freezes, dropping down to all fours in a low crouch.

Hoofsteps. There are hoofsteps on the roof.

His tail gives an eager flick and, likewise, his face stretches up into a wide smile. Discord abandons all forms of stealth and, with a cackle, he leaps out the nearest window and leaves a him-shaped hole in the wall. The metal gives way with a screech, and he wastes no time in digging his claws into the side of the cart; scaling up its side until he gets to the roof.

Fluttershy turns to look at him, an anxiously expectant look on her face.

"Oh, um, hello," she murmurs, bowing her head. She looks up at him through the gap in her mane, and he catches himself staring.

"Oh, well." Discord pauses, strangely off-beat. He coughs. "...Hello, Fluttershy."

A moment of silence.

He looks away from her, barely conscious of her doing the same. He straightens up onto his two hind legs, becomes incredibly aware of how that makes him tower over her, and promptly drops down onto all fours again.

Someone clears their throat. He's not too sure whether it was her or him.

"Shouldn't you be..." Discord trails off, rolling his lion paw in a vague gesture. "Oh, I don't know; running?"

"Y-yes, I... Should be."

He raises a brow at her. "And you aren't, because..?"

"Well," Fluttershy says, a considering look in her solely visible eye. "You, um, expected me to run."

"Right," he agrees, still hopelessly befuddled. He quite enjoys the emotion, he's starting to discover.

"And..." A cyan gaze darts away from his own, settling on the metal beneath his mismatched feet instead. "You're not chasing me. Right, um, now, that is."

Comprehension dawns on him all at once, with the relative force of a gut punch.

"You," Discord gapes, blinking owlishly. "You played me. Are playing me? Oh my Chaos, you're still playing me, aren't you? Egads, and they say old ponies can't learn new tricks, you sly minx!"

She shies away from his increasingly excited mannerisms with a tiny noise.

"I'm..." Fluttershy taps her hooves together; an anxious tick, he suspects. "I'm doing my best to. I hope you don't mind."

He squawks. The absolute audacity of this pony never ceases to astound him.

"Mind? Mind? My dear; by stepping out of your usual, you're willingly tapping into my domain, I am ecstatic!"

A tiny hoof scuffs at the floor, and he can't help but stare at the flush that's beginning to glow under soft, pinchable cheeks. His claws twitch with the urge to grab them and squeeze.

The thought is alarming enough that he almost chokes on the air he's breathing.

What.

"Oh, um, excuse me."

Fluttershy speaks up tentatively, taking hesitant steps closer. Discord stares at her, listless for the first time in eons, and can only watch as she delicately blows on the tips of his eagle claws. Tiny bits of crusted flour flake off, quickly swept away by speeding winds.

What is happening, he can't help but think. What has Celestia been feeding these ponies.

"Y-you had flour on you," she informs him, stepping back. "I hope you didn't mind."

Discord gawks.

The tips of his claws feel like they've been dipped in lava. A lot of feelings are being felt right now, and he doesn't know the names of half of them.

It's... unpleasant.

He's stuck somewhere between too hot and too cold; a perfect cacophony of confusion and chaos and newness. Where, usually, he'd find unparalleled joy in it; now, he feels nothing but the unfettered urge to jump into the nearest volcano. More than that, he wants to dive into the nearest ocean and give up on this hopeless creature entirely: he could become an ocean rancher or something, sending his jellyfish children out into the seven seas to prey on hapless yellow pegasi.

However, instead of doing any of that, Discord elects for the tactic of 'word vomit' instead.

"You're odd," he blurts out, graceless and frank and perhaps a bit too on the nose. "Possibly the oddest creature I've ever met. And I'm related to a black hole, so the competition is tough."

The pegasus just smiles up at him, still dripping in that horrible, horrible kindness that seems to permeate every inch of her. "I... I think I'm starting to understand you, maybe, just a little bit. So... Thank you."

Celestia is feeding them cocaine, Discord decides. It's the only explanation.

He turns away, unsure, and decides that he doesn't quite enjoy how off-kilter this interaction has made him.

"Yes, yes, well!" Discord snaps, backing away from her. He eyes her suspiciously, watching her retreat behind her hair again as she spooks. He tries not to care. He fails; just a little bit. "You..! Have... done surprisingly well. But don't think this means I'll go easy on you!"

He meant to come off as more villain-y. Curses. He, of course, blames the millennium-long bout of constipation.

"Oh," Fluttershy giggles, emerging from her cocoon with a twinkle in her eyes. "I wouldn't dream of it, Discord."

He straightens up and puffs out his chest.

"Of course, my dear! Let it be known; your Master of Chaos is a fair and able overlord, who has never fallen for the siren's call that is nepotism! We haven't reached the year 2077 yet, at least. Megacorporations shan't be nicking my credits!"

She blinks. It's a blink that tells him more than words ever could: largely, it tells him that she's hopelessly lost.

"Oh my."

"Oh my, indeed!" Discord espouses, getting well and truly worked up. He really is his own best hype pony, after all! He watches a tiny leaf lodge itself in her mane, mixing with the soft pink hairs, and it makes his stomach roil. "Well, anyway--"

He strikes, snapping forward with his teeth bared in a wild grin. Victory is in his grasp, mere inches away, and she--

Fluttershy ducks under him, just barely managing to get past his whipping tail without touching it. Discord lands and, in a motion so fluid and familiar it might as well be muscle memory, he whirls back around and levels her with a lazy smile, chin resting on a curled lion's paw.

"Oh," he teases, something vicious in his expression shining through. "She's learning."

That cursed leaf is still in her mane; something like mania flares up in his heart, and it makes him want to bite something.

"S-slowly," she tells him, always so boringly humble. "I'm, um, not the fastest learner."

Discord just laughs. He's not sure why, but it feels right.

"Well," he says with faux consideration, leaning back to hold her entirety in his wizened eye, "I'd say that it's suiting you just fine, my dear."

Fascination fills him when her face flushes, leaving the tips of her ears a glowing beacon. Something about the image makes him cackle, even if he's not entirely certain about what's funny enough to warrant it.

Oh well. He's always been a slave to his whims.

Fluttershy emerges from her shell of fur and feathers like a blooming flower; sluggishly, ripe with paranoia, and ready to retreat at the first sign of frost. He watches the process with no small amount of intrigue, wondering how such a twitchy creature could be so impossibly slow.

"T-this has been wonderful," she tells him eventually, voice almost swept under the train tracks. "I hope I didn't bother you too much."

That horrible leaf is driving him to do ungodly things. It's like a stubborn fly, buzzing around inside his ears: it demands all of his attention, even when he doesn't want to give it.

"You, bothering me? Why yes, I do see how you could come to that conclusion but! Fret not, my dear!" Discord throws his arms up in the air, casting them wide and far with a theatrical cackle. "You've truly set my soul a-flutter!"

She has the gall to roll her eyes at him. It makes his grin ease into a smile.

"I'm sure," Fluttershy tells him with a shy lilt to her voice, realising her exasperation had been caught. "So, um... I'm really sorry for this. I hope you understand!"

Discord tilts his head at her, quizzical.

"Flutterbutter?"

A sweet smile is all the response he gets for his wordless query: then, she flares out the full length of her wings, brings them down to bare, and rockets past him with all the fury of a storm. His jaw unhinges, practically drops to his feet, and he's left gawping at thin air.

"W-we'll talk more later," the wind carries her voice back towards him, a laugh folded within her words. "But I have a game to win, first!"

Discord stares after her. Then, that same excited smile pulls at his cheeks-- wide and genuine and painfully unfamiliar.

He doesn't waste a moment.

"So be it, my dear! Our battle shall be legendary!"

His heart feels full and warm, legs already moving to chase after her. His footfalls echo, foretold in the echoing creaks of metal, and he's itchy with the reminder of that stupid leaf, but he's too giddy with joy to even care.

Her laughter hangs on the wind like a chiming bell. For a single second, he wonders if she can hear his own.

He wonders if she can tell that it's real.

For the first time in centuries, time starts to find its meaning again.