Chapter IV – Nightmare

Chaotic Love

Chapter IV – Nightmare

‘Dear Princess Celestia,

Well, it’s been one day and already the girls and I are feeling exhausted chasing after Discord. Fluttershy is the only one who still appears to be calm and collected over the whole affair, surprising given her nature.

Yesterday she trusted Discord to be alone in her house with her animals; I mean she must have been crazy to do that! But even though it was Discord, when we got there everything was well, normal. Except for Discord playing go fish with Angel, that’s Fluttershy’s rabbit, and some of the other animals had ice creams and sun hats and looked quite contented.’

Celestia paused to let out a chuckle at this, she knew Discord had probably done something wrong but from the sounds of it there was no physical harm done to anyone, given the animals had looked contented.

‘We’re still suspicious of Discord but Fluttershy seems to be doing well it seems, apparently he is calling himself Silver Tongue when he is in the town so the townsfolk will see him as another member of the town.’

“Silver Tongue eh? Clever Discord, clever.” Celestia chuckled.

‘I’ve told Fluttershy if she ever needs us that we will be there in a heartbeat for her, I will send another report on Discord’s reformation the next time something major develops.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.’

Celestia smiled and rolled up the scroll and placed it into a drawer next to another one where she kept Twilight and her friends reports on friendship, she then turned round and headed out of her room and towards Luna’s. It was getting late and Luna was preparing herself for her night duties in the night court as well as mentally prepping herself to cast her dream walker spell over the kingdom, Celestia knocked on the door and waited.

“Come in.” Luna called from the other side of the door.

Celestia opened the door and walked in, Luna was on the floor cross legged and had her eyes closed. Her breathing was slow and long as her horn glowed and a few objects levitated in the room, Celestia closed the door gently and stood waiting for Luna to finish, she knew Luna’s preparation for the dream walker spell should be finished first.

She waited a few more moments before the objects carefully landed back in their respective places and Luna opened her eyes, she smiled at her sister and rose to her feet.

“Had it not been your magic I sensed Tia I wouldn’t have let you in.” She smiled.

“Well aren’t I the lucky one?” Celestia said sarcastically with a teasing grin.

Luna giggled and threw a pillow with her magic at Celestia who allowed it to hit her and they both shared a giggle, Luna placed her tiara on her head before turning to Celestia.

“Is something on your mind Tia?” She asked.

“Yes there is, I was wondering if I can ask you a favour.”

“Oh? And what is that?”

“I know we said you wouldn’t and would look out for all our subjects’ dreams equally, but I would like you to monitor Fluttershy’s dreams, for obvious reasons.”

Luna nodded and was about to say something but Celestia interrupted.

“But under no circumstances must you enter Discord’s dreams, he knows you can walk in dreams and most likely will show you things that will mess with your mind. And you know as well as I do you are just as vulnerable as you are in a dream as you are out of it.” Celestia warned.

Luna didn’t need to be told twice, it was during the time before Nightmare Moon. She had been monitoring the dream of one of her guards who had been suffering from a severe case of paranoia and dementia and had nearly been fatally stabbed in the dream world, had it not been for Celestia waking her up she would have died in the real world. They two sisters may have been immortal, but that only applied to never dying from old age, they could however die from other means such as a stab wound or poison.

“I know Tia, and I’ll keep an eye out on her dreams as well.” Luna then gave a grin to her. “I’ll give you a scroll each night with my findings on the magic of dream walking.” She teased,

This time Celestia threw a pillow at Luna both Princesses sharing another giggle, Celestia then turned to leave with a smile on her face.

“Then I’ll leave it to you Lu-Lu, good luck!”

“Please Tia, I’m the dream walker, I don’t need luck.” Luna replied sticking her tongue out.

Celestia giggled as she closed the door and went towards her room to retire for the evening, confident in Luna and in Fluttershy.

‘Still…it would be interesting to see what Discord dreams about.’ She thought to herself as she walked down the corridor.

Fluttershy wiped her mouth daintily with her napkin and smiled up to Discord who had just done the same, they were sitting at her dining table with three candlesticks lighting the room, granted they were floating around and speaking in an odd language.

“Why are we candles?” One said.

“How the heck should I know? I’m more interested in how we can talk!” Another replied.

“Will you two shut up, you’re ruining their moment!” The last one whispered angrily.

Fluttershy stood up to clean he plates but Discord raised his hand up, he snapped his fingers but nothing happened and he groaned in frustration realising not enough time had passed for his powers to return to its limited strength.

‘’Crap, my powers are still drained; I knew the candles were a bad idea. Guess I’ll have to do it the…normal way.’ He groaned internally.

As he picked up his late he had it taken out of his hand by Fluttershy, she was smiling sweetly at him and had her own plate in her other hand.

“Please, let me Discord. After all you did make our wonderful dinner, which may I add, was simply delicious.” She said.

“Well…ok then, thanks.” Discord replied.

He watched as she walked into the kitchen, a happy sway in her hips and leant on the table resting his chin on his hand, a slight pout on his face.

‘I was sure the candles would of made her uneasy, she’s as stubborn to annoy as she was back then…and with my limited powers…’ He thought and then let out an irritated sigh. ‘This isn’t going to be as easy as I thought…’

Shortly afterwards the enchantment on the candles began to fail and Discord quickly leapt to grab them as the fell, he let out a relived sigh catching two of the candle sticks. Fluttershy walked back in and blinked at discord who was sitting on the floor, a candle stick in each hand. Before either of them could say anything, the last candle stick fell and hit Discord on the head and clattered onto the floor. He gave a yelp of surprise and growled at the candle stick, he was about to take revenge on the inanimate object but stopped hearing Fluttershy giggle.

He looked up at her and she was smiling from ear to ear and had her hand out to him, offering to help him up. Discord looked at her face for a moment in a near trance like state, something was different about her. He quickly shook it off and got himself up ignoring her hand; he dusted himself down and coughed.

“I uh…meant to do that.”

Fluttershy crossed her arms and raised her eyebrow, Discord mimicked her and the two stared at each other for a fair amount of time, each one with a serious expression. Soon though Fluttershy’s bottom lip quivered and her stare turned into a grin before she burst out into another set of giggles, Discord tried to remain serious but he couldn’t help chuckle himself, after all laughter can be very contagious.

“Well anyway, I need to feed and put my animals to bed now. Would you like to join me Discord?”

“I’m good; I think I just want to have some shut eye if that’s fine by you.” He replied.

“O-oh…”Fluttershy’s heart sank slightly; she still wanted to spend some more bonding time with him. “That’s ok…I can show you to your room if you want.”

“A room for moi?” Discord placed his hand on his chest in fake surprise. “Why, here I thought I was going to share your bed with you.” Discord smirked as Fluttershy went a shade of red.

“Y-yes I t-thought you would l-like to sleep on there r-rather than the sofa…” she murmured twiddling her hair in her hands.

‘So…that’s how I can get to you…good to know.’ Discord thought to himself observing her blush at his comment.

“Very well then, lead on my dear!”

He followed her out of the dining hall and through the living room into another room; inside were a simple bed and few other bits of furniture. There was a bookcase that contained several books, most of which he assumed were animal related. An armchair in the corner with a lampshade next to it and a dresser, he walked over to it and opened it up and inside was several clothes.

“When did you get me clothes?” He asked her.

“I…didn’t.” Fluttershy replied walking up next to him.

He noticed a note on top of the clothing and opened it up and they both read it.

‘Dear Discord,

I thought you may like some spare clothing. Even a meanie pants needs to have more than one set of clothes! Don’t worry they aren’t stolen and they’re all paid for.

Love, Pinkie Pie.’

Discord looked confused, he looked between Fluttershy and the note, one thing was on his mind.

“When did she do this?” Discord asked.

“Oh, that’s just Pinkie being Pinkie.” Fluttershy giggled.

‘…I must learn the secret to this power, my chaos needs it!’ He declared internally.

Fluttershy excused herself and left to go and feed her animals, leaving him alone to his thoughts. He paced back and forth in the room, every now and again glancing at the ring and sighing with irritation.

“So…you won’t come off until a certain thing has happened eh? And this…thing being my reformation?” He questioned it.
Naturally the ring gave no response to his questions.

“Well know this ring; I am the master of chaos. And I WILL find a way to get you off, without reforming!”

Again, no response came from the ring, only a little glow from the emblem of Celestia that was engraved on it.

“STOP MOCKING ME!” Discord growled at it.

From outside he could hear the sounds of animals making noise and walked to the window, he pulled the curtain back and watched as Fluttershy walked back and forth with different animals putting them into their respective homes. She looked up seeing Discord and gave him a friendly smile and a wave; he smiled and waved back to her.

“Such a lovely girl you are Fluttershy…shame you gave me the means to exploit how I can get to you.” He chuckled to himself and headed to his bed to sleep.

Luna once again walked through the fields outside of Ponyville, true to her word she was inside Fluttershy’s dream again. Though there was something about it she wasn’t happy about, the last dream she had been in it was happy and full of life, she could sense how a dream was affecting the dreamer and in that dream Fluttershy was extremely happy.

As she walked closer and closer to the last spot she had seen Discord and Fluttershy she heard the raising of voices, around her the trees began to lose their leaves, the grass began to turn a shade of brown and the sky began to darken as dark clouds rolled in from nowhere. Luna’s eyes widened and she hurried to the source of the noise; the dream was starting to become a nightmare.

“Don’t so stupid Fluttershy! You can’t be with him!” A voice shouted.

Luna didn’t recognise the voice and quickened her pace; she once again cast a spell to make her invisible so she could assess the situation first. She didn’t want Fluttershy to know at this point that she was aware of how she felt about Discord; she also didn’t want to hurt her friend by seemingly spying on her in her dreams afraid it might make Fluttershy think the Princesses didn’t have faith in her.

She hid behind a tree and peeked round and had to stifle her gasp of surprise at what she saw, Fluttershy was standing in front of the body of Discord, he was covered in blood and wounds and appeared not to be moving and Luna wasn’t sure if he was still alive or not. Fluttershy had tears streaming down her face and several cuts on her face, her clothing was ripped to the point where her bra was partially viewable despite her efforts to hide it and her dress was ripped off just below her waist. She was staring into an angry mob who Luna assumed must be the citizens of Ponyville, some of them were brandishing makeshift weapons and all had faces etched with pure hatred and anger.

“P-please s-stop this! H-he didn’t do anything!” Fluttershy pleaded.

“Didn’t do anything?! It’s Discord you stupid bitch! He turned out town into the chaos capital of Equestria!” A voice shouted back.

There was a chorus of agreements throughout the crowd, Fluttershy gasped when she felt something grab her leg and looked down to see Discord looking up at her.

“R…run….don’t w…worry about me.” He coughed quietly.

“Discord…” Fluttershy whispered.

“He has this coming Fluttershy, he always has!”

The voice resonated loudly and Luna recognised it immediately, her eyes widened as the crowd parted and the remaining elements stepped forwards, their eyes red and glaring with malice. Fluttershy shook her head and kneeled beside Discord putting her arms around him protectively.

“No! You can’t do this! He’s reformed!” She screamed at them.

A dark chuckle echoed throughout the dream world as the mob began to laugh, Twilight stepped forwards with a smirk on her face.

“Reformed? Oh Fluttershy…he will never be reformed.”

Twilights horn glowed and Discord began to choke, his eyes widening as Twilight’s magic began crushing his neck, Fluttershy charged at Twilight tears falling from her face.

“TWILIGHT STOP IT! PLEASE DON’T DO THIS-“

Fluttershy was smacked across the cheek by Twilight and landed on the ground with a hard thud, she shakily propped herself up to see Discord dangling in the ait almost lifeless, he looked to her a tear in his eye and gave her a smile before closing his eyes.

Fluttershy screamed in pain and Luna growled, she had waited too long and seen enough. She summoned every inch of her power and shot a barrier of blue energy that shot across the dream world separating the dream from the nightmare, once again the dream world began to close in on itself as Fluttershy woke up, and Luna closed her own eyes and began to vanish from the dream.

‘I’m sorry Fluttershy…you shouldn’t of been made to see that…I was to slow...’ Luna thought as she vanished.

Fluttershy woke up with a scream, her face was coated in tears and she panted rapidly her eyes wide with fear. She looked around to see she was no longer in her nightmare, she then had a flash back of it and tears began to well up in her eyes and she broke down sobbing hard into her hands.

‘What if there right? What if I can’t reform Discord? What if….I can’t be with him?’

The door to her room burst open and Discord stood there wearing a pair of black pyjama trousers and no top, he had a look of irritation on his face, he had happily been dreaming of the time he had managed to turn Ponyville into his little chaos playground when he heard her scream. No one to like being awoken rudely he went to go have words with her.

He stopped himself form saying anything as he watched her sob hard into her hands, he frowned and scratched his chin and leant on the door frame.

“Uh hey…you ok?” He asked.

Fluttershy sniffled and looked up, her blue eyes now red from crying and tears staining her face, she laid down and hid her face from him and sniffled again.

“I-I’m fine…I’m sorry f-for waking you up.” She whispered.

Discord sighed, as much as he liked to mess with people, he didn’t like seeing people this upset. It bothered him, he walked into the room silently and got into the bed beside her cross legged and rested a hand on her shoulder. Fluttershy gasped and looked up to see him looking down at her, the moonlight shone through the window behind him and illuminated his body, and she stared into his eyes that seemed to glow softly.

“Want to talk about it?” He asked softly.

Fluttershy didn’t answer, she felt her lip quiver and she let herself go. She got up and buried her face into his chest wrapping her arms around him and gently sobbed into his chest, Discord’s eyes widened in surprise. He hadn’t been hugged before and wasn’t one hundred percent sure what he was meant to do in this kind of situation, he blinked and decided to go with the flow.

He wrapped his own arms around her and leant back into the backboard of her bed and stretched his legs, he stroked her back softly and let her cry her heart out thinking it was the best thing to do.

‘Never let it be said I’m not heartless…’ He thought to himself.

Soon Fluttershy’s crying had stopped and he looked down at her, she was still awake but clung onto him. He tried to move but she held on tighter and looked up at him.

“Please stay...” She whispered.

Discord looked into her eyes and something inside of him clicked, he smiled to her and pulled the covers over her tucking her in as best he could letting her rest her head on his chest.

“Alright…I’ll stay, as repayment for letting me stay here.” He chuckled.

She smiled and closed her eyes; Discord looked out of the window and began to let his mind wonder.

‘Why am I being this nice to her? Granted I don’t like people crying, but I usually just offer them a tissue for their tears…then laugh as it explodes into confetti in their face. So…why am I doing this?’ He questioned himself.

He soon pushed the thoughts out of his head and looked down at her again; he smiled at the sight of her sleeping, from her facial expression she seemed to be dreaming peacefully. He leant his head on the backboard staring up at the ceiling and closed his eyes, listening to the sounds of her gentle breathing before finally falling asleep himself.