"Well played, Fluttershy. Well played.”
Discord stared at the ice skates left with their laces tangled. Fluttershy had refused to be his friend after he had taken advantage of her.
Fluttershy was skilled in interpreting non-verbal communication. She had to be, since so many of her animal companions couldn’t speak. The tone she heard and the expression she saw on Discord’s face told her more than the words. Perhaps for the first time in his existence, Discord had been sincere.
He sat on a tree and held his claws together. Sweet Apple Acres was cleared of the ice. His voice distant, as if he was not fully aware of his surroundings, he muttered his realization that he couldn't have things his way all the time. Still in his trance, he skulked away.
Rainbow Dash took off. “Shouldn’t we go after him?”
“I will,” said Fluttershy, “but not to keep an eye on him anymore. I’ll follow him because he needs me, although he needs some space as well.”
Discord’s slow plod continued. As he traversed the field, one of the beavers that he had corrupted and restored crossed his path. “Excuse me,” he muttered.
Fluttershy made no attempt to conceal her presence. She let her wings flap and her hooves hit the ground, but it wasn’t until she hummed a tune that Discord turned to look. After giving her a soft smile, he kept walking, neither quickening nor slackening his pace.
He climbed a hill that overlooked the town, and Fluttershy took to the air to keep up. He stopped and sat down.
For a long time he did nothing but look at his claws. A breeze blew, and Fluttershy wondered if Discord got cold. She decided that she would have to be the first to speak.
“You won’t be turned to stone now. My promise not to use my Element stands.”
He looked up at Ponyville. He said nothing.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Fluttershy said.
She wondered if he was going to speak at all. Still staring at the town, he said at last, “I never liked being stone, of course, but all the same there was a kind of victory in pride and defiance. I lost, but I lost my way. I guess when you’re friends…”
Fluttershy didn’t want to make him repeat it. She rested a wing on his shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”
“Home?” He broke his gaze and looked at her.
“That’s right. You’re still my guest, and my house is still your home.”
“I’ve never had a home.” They walked back to town. “I’ve had realms, territories, empires, domains, demesnes, and dominions. Once I had a lair that I liked very much. But...a home?”
When they arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage, Discord looked at the rustic furniture as if seeing it anew. Angel Bunny emerged from some hiding spot, but he pulled up when he saw his tormentor.
Discord bristled, but feeling Fluttershy behind him, he approached the pet gently. “I’m going to be staying a little longer. I hope it’s all right with you. I’ll try not to get in your way.”
Angel turned up his nose and hopped up on the couch, as if daring Discord to kick him off again.
“There’s room for both of us.” He sat down next to Angel, not slouching or spreading.
“You see?” said Fluttershy. “If we all watch out for others, there’s always room. Just like there’s always room here for you.”
He took another look around, seeing all the pictures and mirrors and provisions for pets. It was a lovely cottage, but it was still a one-pony dwelling.
“Not always. Eventually you’ll want me to leave.”
“When you’re ready. Not before.”
“But where will I go?”
Fluttershy considered the consequences of Discord’s reformation. Where indeed would he go? What would he do with his life? She realized that his reformation was a long-term project. She would be needed.
“What if,” she said, “you stayed here? Not in my cottage, but in the area. You could build a home of your own, and then we’d be neighbors.”
“Neighbors?” Discord’s sincere face reappeared. “A friend, a home, and a neighbor, all in the same day?”
“Why not?”
“It’s fitting. You’ll be the neigh, and I’ll be the boor.”
Fluttershy shook her head at both the pun and the sentiment. “You won’t be a boor. I know that you’ll stick with this until you become nice. But let’s not worry about that now. For tonight, your home is here. We’ll think about what to do in the morning.”
She trotted to a closet and brought out a spare comforter and pillow, making up the couch for sleep. She wished him a good night and went upstairs to her own bed. Discord watched as she turned her back on him and fell asleep in his presence, showing pure faith that he wouldn’t turn the cottage upside down or make her into a sadist. He lay down on the couch. For a long time he stared at the ceiling.
In the morning he rose to find Fluttershy still abed. The dawn, ever the symbol of his archenemy, lit the room and shone on her eyelids. He adjusted the shades to let her sleep and slipped outside.
An hour later, she woke to find Discord staring at a clearing in the forest surrounding the cottage. There was hesitation in his voice as he said, “Do you know who owns that land?”
Fluttershy sensed his intentions. She decided to have a little fun.
“I do. It belongs to a friend of mine.”
“Do you think they could be persuaded to part with it?”
“No, I doubt that. He was planning to build a home there, I believe. His first home.” She let him in on the joke. “It’s part of the forest around my house, but it’s yours now. We’ll arrange everything with the mayor later on.”
Discord’s jaw dropped. “A-are you serious?”
“I can’t think of any better use for land than to have a good friend living on it, where I can see him every day.”
He stood up and hugged Fluttershy, spinning and making her wings spread wide. “Then what am I waiting for? I want to get started right away!”
He gestured at the nearest tree. An axe popped into existence and swung back and forth, taking a notch out of the stump.
As soon as the wood flew out, he heard her gasp and turned to see her pained look. The axe stopped in mid-stroke. Discord reversed his gesture, and the axe slid back into the tree. Like a video in reverse, the wood chips flew back into the notch. He teleported over to the tree and put a bandage over the spot the axe struck.
“Maybe I’ll make it out of brick,” he said.
Fluttershy hastened back into the cottage to make breakfast and attend to her pets. She returned to find Discord hard at work. Whether he had conjured the bricks or bought them or made them from scratch from sand and clay, she didn’t know. But he was laying them one by one, taking far longer than he would have normally.
This is probably the first honest day’s work he’s ever done, she thought, and he’s doing it because of me. What’s going to happen if I’m not around? Or if he gets bored? Can I really make him give up everything he’s had?
She found a piece of chalk. Without saying anything, she placed it on the ground and flew in a large circle. Discord’s impromptu building project was surrounded by a white ring of grass and earth.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
She put the chalk down and flew to him. “Being friends means not always having things your way. But it doesn’t mean that you never have them your way. I appreciate what you’re trying to do, but there’s no surer way to send you back to your old ways than to force you to be a normal draconequus all the time.
“So, how about this? Inside this circle, you can make all the chaos you like. If you want to make it rain chocolate or fill it with ice, that’s fine. But you have to make sure that none of that chaos ever leaves the circle. You have to promise, and you have to keep that promise.”
Discord spun around to survey the circle. Cautiously, he pointed at one of the bricks and snapped his fingers. It flashed with light and started dancing around. Fluttershy smiled and nodded. He swirled the mortar like an ice-cream fountain. Then, just to make the point, he splashed it against the side of the circle. The mortar struck an invisible wall and rebounded.
“So, does this mean that you...like my chaos?” he asked.
“I like that you like it. Even if I don’t understand why you do, and even if I wouldn’t want it in my house, I can tolerate it for something more important.”
Discord focused his power once again, and all the bricks disappeared. In their place, but entirely within the circle, was a squat building that was a near-copy of Fluttershy’s cottage. The only difference was the building material. She didn’t ask where the wood for the doors and windows came from. It was enough that he hadn’t hurt anyone to do it.
“That’s certainly impressive magic,” she said.
“Technically, it’s not magic.”
“It’s not?”
A light emanated from Discord’s body, and his house now boasted a curved patio that reached to the edge of the circle. He himself appeared in an apron over a barbecue pit, and he waved Fluttershy toward a wicker lounge chair. She took the seat, peering over to see that he was grilling vegetable kabobs.
In the relaxing setting, he continued the conversation. “Not in the way that Twilight Sparkle or Princess Celestia"—he swallowed as if the name still hurt—“...use magic. I don’t do what I do through study or talent or effort. I just…do.”
He demonstrated again by conjuring a picnic table with a large umbrella which opened on its own, then it turned into a dandelion puff and spread out on the wind.
Fluttershy watched in wonder. “It’s actually not so bad when I know it’s controlled. You can make some nice things when you want to. I know Pinkie Pie likes the chocolate rain.”
“I’m not actually evil, you know. I never have been. If I were evil and I had the same level of power, you’d never have beaten me.”
“If you were evil, you wouldn’t have had that power.”
Discord gave her a skeptical look.
"My friends and I have had to deal with quite a few troubles. Some had no mercy or reason, like King Sombra or Queen Chrysalis, but our friendship and our power were stronger. Other times, we faced creatures such as dragons or cockatrices that we couldn't handle with magic, but they could all be talked to. I may be simple, but I don't believe that there exists evil so powerful that it can't be beaten."
“I’m not sure I understand that. But you don’t understand me either.”
“No, not completely. But if you keep the commitment, we’ll have room to learn from each other.”
He made two glasses of lemonade appear, one for each of them. “Because there’s always room, right?”
“Exactly.” Fluttershy clinked her glass with his.
~~~
On the other side of town, Rainbow Dash was impatiently flitting about the library while Twilight marked the books that Discord had mutilated.
“We should get down there!” said Rainbow. “We haven’t heard from Fluttershy all night! Who knows what kind of weird things that creep could have done to her?”
Twilight stepped to the window and looked outside. “There aren’t any signs of Discord changing things. The animals are acting normal, and there’s no freaky weather. Maybe we should give him a chance.”
“I’ll bet that we haven’t seen the last of him, though. I’m going over to make sure that Fluttershy’s all right.”
“Let’s wait until this afternoon. If she doesn’t come back to us by then, we’ll investigate.”
Rainbow wasn’t entirely satisfied, but she nodded and left the library. Twilight remained to pore over the torn pages. She hoped that Discord could restore them, but feared that by eating the pages he had erased the knowledge forever.
Twilight was accustomed to working long hours at a desk without noticing much of the world around her. Her reverie as she made notes and shelved books kept her focused until lunchtime, and because of that she didn’t notice the weather.
“That’s funny. I don’t remember Rainbow saying anything about a storm scheduled for today, and certainly nothing about it being this cold.” Twilight slipped back into the library to get her coat before resuming her trip. She didn’t make it far before running into Pinkie Pie and Applejack.
“Twilight!” said Applejack. “A huge hailstorm’s come out of Everfree. It’s threatening the farm! Again!”
“And after all we went through yesterday,” said Pinkie. “We can’t be spending every day dealing with ice-based catastrophes at Sweet Apple Acres!”
Applejack hadn’t stopped, and was running toward Fluttershy’s. “It’s got to be Discord! Fluttershy might have gotten through to him, but he still don’t care about anypony else!”
Twilight hurried to catch up. “I thought that he really had reformed. And I’m not convinced that this isn’t just a coincidence. Let’s all try to keep an open mind.”
They reached the road that led to the cottage and skidded to a halt as they saw the new structure. “What in Equestria is that?” said Applejack.
Fluttershy heard the cry and walked out of Discord’s yard. “Isn’t it nice? He built it himself. Discord and I are going to be neighbors as we work on making him a better friend.”
“Well, your ‘better friend’ had better stop messing with my farm!”
“What are you saying?”
Pinkie jumped in front. “We’re saying that there’s a storm coming from the Everfree Forest that nopony planned on, and it’s dropping hailstones the size of cupcakes!”
Discord walked over, wearing a nervous look. Fluttershy said, “Are they the color or flavor of cupcakes?”
“No. If they were, do you think that I’d be here instead of in the middle of the storm with a giant washtub trying to catch as many as I could?”
“What Pinkie’s trying to say, in her Pinkie way,” said Twilight, “is that we want to know if this is Discord’s doing. You said you had a breakthrough, but—“
“And we did.” Fluttershy interrupted Twilight, a first. “He’s barely left my sight since yesterday. He’s been too busy. And most of all, he’s made a promise to keep all his chaos inside this circle. So there’s no way that this could be his fault. Isn’t that right, Discord? Tell them it’s not your fault.”
“It’s my fault.”
“You see? He—what?!”
His eyes shifting downwards, Discord drummed his claws together. “I don’t mean that it’s my intention, but I’m to blame. When I got rid of all the ice yesterday, it had to go somewhere. I’ve never bothered to care about where any of my little flights of fancy go, but now I do! I care!”
Before anypony could say anything else, they heard the hoofbeats of a fast gallop. Rarity, out of breath, her mane disheveled and wet, charged up.
“Thank goodness I’ve found you. I’ve been looking just everywhere. Rainbow Dash is trying to clear the storm all by herself, and it’s too much for her! We have to help!”
The ponies all ran back to town, but Fluttershy had to slow. “Aren’t you coming, Discord?”
“Me? You want me to help?”
“Of course!”
“But I’m the one who caused the problem.”
Fluttershy came to a complete stop. “And that’s why we want you to help fix it.”
Discord’s eyes opened, as if he was seeing something for the first time. “All right.”
The trees of Sweet Apple Acres were hardy, but putting up with a flood, then a freeze, and then being pelted with chunks of ice was testing their strength, with the apples showing their bruises. Big Macintosh was braving the storm, trying to tie tarps over as many of the trees as he could. He had had to admonish Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to stay in the basement until the weather cleared.
Above it all, Rainbow Dash was fighting a losing battle. For every cloud she bucked, two would take its place. Trying to fly through the treacle to get above the clouds had proved fruitless, and it was all she could do to stop the storm from blowing further into Ponyville.
Into this tumult ran Discord and the ponies. Applejack immediately ran to help her brother, while the others looked to Fluttershy.
“Go on,” she said, prodding him with a hoof.
“All right.” He took a deep breath, stretched his arms…and ran into the storm, grabbing one end of the tarp that Applejack and Big Macintosh were strapping down.
“Discord!” yelled Twilight. “This is not what we meant. Fix this storm!”
“Oh, I see!” He let the tarp go and flew as well as his unbalanced wings could carry him. With struggle and effort, he managed to reach the lowest hanging cloud. He gave an ineffectual kick.
“Arrgh!” Twilight stomped her hoof.
“He’s still messing with us!” said Pinkie Pie. “We should have turned him to stone while we had the chance.”
Fluttershy put her hoof to her chin. “There must be some misunderstanding. Discord, could you come back here for a minute?”
“Of course, friend!” he called from the storm.
“I think what Twilight meant,” she said once he'd landed, “was that you should use your magic to get rid of the storm entirely.”
“But you said I could only use my powers in the circle. I had to make a promise, and I’m going to keep it.”
Rarity rolled her eyes. “What a convenient excuse.”
Fluttershy was patient. “I did say that, but since you caused this to begin with, you should correct it.”
Still contrite and confused, Discord said, “Are you saying that I can break the rules if the situation dictates? That can’t be. If the rules are broken, then everything becomes anarchy and turmoil and...and chaos! I’m through with chaos.”
Twilight was busy trying to use her own magic to quell the storm, but since it was not a natural phenomenon, she was rebuffed. “Some friend you’ve made there, Fluttershy.”
“He’s not a bad friend. He’s just still learning. Some lessons are harder than others.”
She flew up until she was high enough to pat him on the head, then she turned around and headed for the storm clouds.
“Fluttershy, where are you going?” said Rarity.
“You can’t buck clouds!” said Pinkie Pie.
“Maybe not,” she said as the hailstones started hitting her. “But I—ow!—I’m the only one who—ooh!—can even reach them, and I—ugh!—can’t just let Rainbow Dash get hurt.”
Slack-jawed, Discord watched as his only friend was pelted by ice of his own making. Fluttershy didn’t have much wingpower in the best of circumstances, and the storm was only making it worse.
She could barely see, could hear nothing but the howling of the wind, and was already feeling the welts raise on her hide from the sharper strikes of the hail. She reached a cloud and flailed at it with her front hooves. A tiny piece came off and dispersed. She bit at it, tearing a tuft and spitting it toward the ground.
Rainbow Dash saw her futile efforts. “What do you think you’re doing?!” she screamed. “Get out of here and find shelter! You’re not helping, and you’re going to get hurt!”
“Trust me!” Even shouting as hard as she could, Fluttershy’s soft voice was stolen by the wind. “I have to do this! It’s the only way.”
She returned to her ineffective pawing at the clouds. Squinting to make sure she wasn’t hit in the eye, all she could see was a haze of dark gray. Each blow to her body was a new pain. And then the strikes ceased.
She opened her eyes. The storm was still raging all around. Rainbow Dash was still trying to tear through to the sun. Sweet Apple Acres was still being battered. Above her was a bearded face smiling painfully.
Discord was spread-eagled and struggling to hold his position, but the hailstones were hitting him instead of Fluttershy. “Doesn’t that hurt?” she said.
“Not as much as it did a moment ago. I don’t know why, but watching you out here, there was this awful stabbing pain in my chest. Normally I’d think it was indigestion, but all I ate was that paper.”
Despite the soreness, Fluttershy laughed. “I’ll explain about that later. Right now, you should use your powers to abate the storm.”
“But we agreed that—“
“We agreed that you wouldn’t use them outside of the circle. But we’re inside a much more important circle. It’s a circle of friendship, and it can’t be marked off by chalk. It’s with us wherever we go.”
Discord looked over at Rainbow Dash, who was just covering her head with her wings and hovering. Through the pain, a vision popped into his head. It was the first conversation he’d ever had with Fluttershy. I am weak and helpless, she had said. I think I’m awfully lucky to have friends who want me to be the best I can be.
And here she was, weak and helpless, being the best she could, risking everything for her friend.
A new strength came into his voice. “Then it’s all right for me to help you, because I am not helpless!” He opened his dragon mouth, and a great beam of light spewed out. It spread like a fan until it covered the entire sky. The wind died down and the clouds vanished. The hail already on the ground melted.
Discord put his head down and waved his claw over Fluttershy, healing the scratches on her hide. They came down and landed next to the others. Rainbow Dash stayed in hover, glad to be out of the clouds but still wanting to use her wings.
“Thank you, Discord,” said Twilight. “We’re all glad you came to your senses.”
He blushed, and then picked up Fluttershy. “I have to get her home. She was hurt a lot up there and I need to make sure she recovers.”
“Can’t you just use your powers to make her better?” said Rainbow.
“Oh, Dash,” said Rarity. “You don’t understand males. Of course he could, but he wants to be alone with his friend.”
Carrying her toward the sunset, Discord and Fluttershy headed for their homes.
Cradled in his arms, she said, “Um, one question: If the last time you made all the ice disappear, it went to the Everfree Forest, where did it go this time?”
“Don’t you worry your pink little head about it. It won’t bother anypony.”
They came round the bend, and Fluttershy gasped. The entirety of the storm had been contained within the chalk circle around Discord’s home. The brick structure was beaten down and already the roof had collapsed.
“Oh, no! Your home!”
“It’ll only last a few days. I can rebuild afterwards.”
“And in the meantime, you’re still welcome to stay with me.”
~~~
He had insisted on carrying Fluttershy all the way to her bed and tucking her in, then making her a hot chocolate and serving it to her on a tray.
“Can I ask you something else?” she said.
“Of course.”
“What made you save me? I had hoped you would, but I’m still trying to understand you.”
Discord sat in a chair next to the bed and was quiet for a long time. He stared into the distance. “I don’t remember where I came from. As far as I know, I’ve always been alive and I’ve always had the power I have. My earliest memory was that there were many ponies around, and they were all scared of me. Of what I could do. And I learned to be afraid as well.
“I could change anything, but I couldn’t change the ponies. I couldn’t make them what I wanted them to be. If I tried, as I did with you and your friends—I apologize for that, by the way—all I did was break them apart and hurt them, even if I tried to help.
“As I said before, you don’t know what it’s like to be me. When you’re so close to being a god, when you can have almost anything you want, when there’s just one small sliver of existence that you can’t control...well, you saw how dangerous I became. Watching ponies like Celestia and her sister inspire loyalty, engender honesty, bring generosity, and you know the rest—“
“You mean like kindness?”
He grinned. “I was planning on saving that for last. Watching them do what I couldn’t only sharpened my fear and made my vulnerability plain to see. I remember swearing that I would break that fear. I would bring chaos to the world and destroy Celestia, and then I would never be afraid again. It worked. My fear left me. I had plenty of anger—at Celestia for existing, at ponies for thriving while I was stuck as a stone statue, at you and your friends—but no fear. Until today.
“Watching you battle those clouds, hearing you scream in pain, and yet knowing that you didn’t want me to just wish it away, I was scared and didn’t know what to do. Jumping on top was all I could think of.”
Fluttershy sat up in bed. Discord tried to have her lie down, but she waved him off. “I know a few things about being afraid. We can work on that together. I’ll teach you all the tricks of how to deal with fear.”
“You know how not to be afraid?”
“No. Being afraid is something you just are. It’s as inherent to me as your powers are to you. But whether it’s power or fear, it’s what we do with it that makes us who we are.”
Discord looked out the window at the maelstrom. “I guess I haven’t been using my power very well.”
“Don’t beat yourself up too much. I had to work a long time and overcome a lot of challenges before I gained the confidence that I have now. My friends helped me as well, just like I’m going to help you.”
“And I know just how to start!”
“Oh?”
He stood up and stretched his arms. “I’ll make sure that you never have a reason to be scared again. I’ll make you the strongest pony in Equestria, impervious to damage, pain, or loss. Dragons and Ursas will run for the hills when they hear that Fluttershy is coming. You’ll be... Fluttershy the Fearsome!”
“No! Under no circumstances!”
“But why not?”
She smoothed her feathers and spoke slowly. “Because I wouldn’t be me anymore. You said yourself that trying to make ponies into what you wanted them to be only broke them. That’s just what would happen.”
“Then what can I do for you? I want to be good, just tell me how!”
“I can’t,” Fluttershy said. “Be there for me when you can, and if you’re not, don’t worry. If friendship means something to you now, you’ll have to give up always knowing the right path. Sometimes we can’t be what we want. We can only try. Even if what we want is to be good.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“I’ll tell you something that’ll help. Even if you can’t be perfect, you can never be completely evil either. Even if you backslide, even if you fall, you’ll always have a chance. And I’ll always be your friend.”
She got out of bed and hugged Discord. “Thank you,” he said. “That’s quite a lesson you’ve taught me.”
“It’s quite a lesson you’ve learned.”
He let go and stuck out his tongue. “Does this mean I have to write a letter to Celestia?”
Fluttershy chuckled. “Not if you don’t want to. But I’d like to write and ask her to come see how you’ll use your magic.”
“If you must. But as I said, it’s not magic—“
“Because it’s not done through study or effort, like Twilight’s. I saw a lot of effort today, and this is studying. Without even snapping your fingers, you changed yourself. I call that pretty darn magical.”
Discord’s eyes brightened. He had done magic for the first time.
~~~
The next morning, even though neither he nor Fluttershy wore clothes, Discord felt as if he were in a formal outfit. He groomed himself to look his best, and he kept consulting with Fluttershy about the encounter he was to have. Celestia had written back saying that she would be in Ponyville that day to check on Discord’s progress.
“But what if she says it’s not enough? What if she still harbors a grudge for everything I’ve done?”
“Celestia’s not like that,” she said. “And if she did, all she’d want is for you to fix it and do better. That’s why she tried to reform you in the first place.”
“I can do that, I suppose. But what if I have to fix things without you? I’ll be lost without you, Fluttershy.”
“Perhaps what you need is more than one friend.”
“More than one?”
She opened the door to reveal Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash, all waiting to escort him. “Why not start with six?” said Fluttershy.
