9:01 p.m.
~ 10 Hours Until Dawn
Snow drifted gently onto the window sill. Winter was one of Fluttershy’s favorite seasons. It was the time of the year when she would snuggle up in bed all day long, enjoying warm drinks and Christmas stories with Angel bunny. If not, she would be out having a wonderful snow day with her friends. Building snow animals, having playful snowball fights, sledding... The list went on forever.
But something about the snowy mountaintop just didn’t feel right to her. She stared at the dark forest that lay beyond the ski lodge, wondering about the mysterious woods that was right beyond her sight. Oh how she hoped that Spike and Starlight were safe.
“Fluttershy?”
Her concentration was brought back to her room where she and Discord were having a tea party.
“Care for another cucumber sandwich?” he asked, in a polite manner.
“It’s ok. I think I’ve had enough,” she replied, giving Discord a smile.
Discord pulled away, munching on another sandwich happily. “Suit yourself.”
Discord helped himself to another sandwich, as Fluttershy stared dreamily at him. Discord is such a gentleman. She thought. So kind and polite. If only other ponies could see that in him. They would see what a true sweetheart he is.
Fluttershy remembered the day Discord was brought to her. She wasn’t sure at first, but she believed that if she treat him with enough kindness, he would repay her someday. Sure it was tough at first, with Discord teasing and making fun of her, and she remembered wanting to cry at some point. Discord had turned her house upside down, literally. And he kept calling her weak and using her to do mean things to her friends. But she knew deep within the draconequus was a misunderstood soul, wanting to be set free. And she was right. The draconequus turned from his evil ways, and has now been her best friend ever since.
Discord noticed that Fluttershy was not responsive for a while.
“Fluttershy, is something wrong?”
“Oh no,” Fluttershy blushed, “I’m just… enjoying the atmosphere here. It’s so nice and quiet.” She gave Discord a cute little smile that could melt his heart.
Discord smiled back and the two locked gazes for a moment.
And at that moment, a large ringing was heard.
“Oh, this stupid little thing,” Discord muttered as he pulled out his personal clock. It was bent in different ways but it was very useful for a God of Choas as himself.
“Well would you look at the time. It’s time for our hooficures!” he said excitedly, snapping the tea party away.
“Now, where did I put that nail polish?” He fumbled through his bag before looking at Fluttershy sheepishly. “I don’t suppose you have any with you?”
Fluttershy looked disappointed. “I’m afraid not Discord. I was in such a hurry packing up yesterday I must’ve forgot…” She looked down at her hooves.
“It’s not your fault Fluttershy. We all make mistakes sometimes.” He leaned closer to her ears. “And if you’re me, you make mistakes ALL the time.”
This made Fluttershy giggled. She pushed Discord away from her as her face went red with blushing. Discord smiled contently at his best friend. He may not have gotten that kiss, but he was glad he was able to cheer her up anyways. She meant the world to him.
Discord went on with his usual ruse. “Well we have to find something!” Stopping for a moment, he tapped his talon on his chin, as if he was thinking for an answer he already knew.
“I know! Rarity always come packed with this sorts of stuff! I’ll ask her!”
“Are you sure she will lend it to you?” Fluttershy asked innocently.
“Don’t worry, I’ll leave all the talking to Discord here.” He pulled a clone of himself out of thin air, and they both waved Fluttershy goodbye as the left to the halls.
Fluttershy giggled. Discord had weird sense of humor. And she found that quite charming. Fluttershy laid quietly on her bed as she awaited Discord’s return.
She was about to close her eyes and rest when she heard chirping by the window. Being an animal enthusiast, she leaped off her bed to greet her bird friend.
“Hello there, little one. What brings you here?”
Fluttershy had a natural talent of talking to animals. She's had it since she was a little filly. One day she fell from her home in the clouds unto earth, where she met the most wonderful woodland creatures and they became her friends. Since then, she’s been spending more time with animals than with other ponies. Now, she can understand any animal and even communicate back to them. Because of this, she was always requested to solve animal conflicts in town.
Fluttershy listened to the bird, but her smile slowly turned into a frown.
“Danger? What kind of danger?”
Before the bird could tell her, a large thump came from the other side of the room.
It was Discord. In his hand were nail bottles of nail polish. He seemed pretty smug about himself, as he closed the door behind him.
Fluttershy looked back at the window sill, but the bird was gone.
“You know I have the greatest story to tell you about how I got these. So I was dropping by Rarity’s room and I saw that she wasn’t there. I was tempted to just take one for us but I was a GREAT FRIEND so I didn’t. But then I heard water coming from upstairs so I thought, ‘Maybe that’s where she is!’ So I popped myself upstairs and I peeked in and SCANDOLOUS! Rarity was not wearing any clothes! But none of you wear clothes anyways so it doesn’t matter. Anyways I gave her a polite knock before asking anything and she said it was okay if I took some so here I am! I know it took a long time but it was because of all this things I had to do and I swear it wasn’t because I was peeking at Rarity or anything.” Discord rolled his eyes as he mumbled smugly, “Not that it took that long anyways.”
He looked down at Fluttershy, who was still staring at the window.
“Fluttershy, are you... ok?” Discord leaned closer, his eyes looking more worried than Fluttershy’s.
Fluttershy broke from her trance and met gazes with him. “It’s just… There was a bird that was telling me about some danger on this mountain. But now... it’s gone…” Fluttershy’s gaze trailed off to the trees in the forest, she hoped her bird friend would come back soon.
“Is that all? Huh, I thought there was a real problem!” Discord laughed.
“Discord!” Fluttershy shouted at him, “I’m serious! What if there really is a danger on this mountain? We need to warn our friends, quick!”
Once again, Discord dismissed her. “Fluttershy, there are many birds in this world and they all tell you different things. Some may say ‘Good Morning!’ and some may say ‘You gotta get off this mountain or you die!’" He chuckled, "You really shouldn’t listen to any of them.”
“What are you saying?” Fluttershy took a heavy step towards Discord, never breaking her gaze away from him. She was feeling very, very peeved, at the moment.
“All I’m saying is that it’s in your head, that’s all.” He waved his paw at her.
Without any warning at all, Fluttershy leaped onto Discord, pinning him down. “But I did hear it! That’s what the little birdie told me! That there, is some danger on this mountain, and we need to get off NOW!”
Discord laid helplessly. He rarely seen Fluttershy so worked up. Except that one time he made fun of her friends. But that was a different time. He knew he had to choose his next few words carefully. He couldn’t just tell everyone to leave now, can he? Because what? Of some bird? And people called him crazy. But he couldn’t just out right call her crazy, he would die. He weighed his choices carefully.
“Fluttershy,” he started, looking deep into her blue green eyes, “I’m sorry about the things I said to you. You’re right, there might be a threat on this mountain that we don’t know of yet. But we can’t all just go out like this. It’s getting late and we don't know if that danger is hiding in the woods, waiting to attack us.”
Fluttershy blinked and after a very long time, noded. Her rage quickly subsided and she was now filled with regret of her rash actions.
So far so good. Discord thought.
“Fluttershy, I understand how you feel but we must wait until the morning if we want to get of this mountain. It’s getting darker outside so it’s not safe. We just need to stay indoors for now…”
Fluttershy seemed to have finally understood the dilemma she was putting him in. She didn’t want her friend to make hard decisions, she was scared, that’s all.
She looked down at his chest, “But how about Starlight and Spike? They’re out in the cold. What if something gets them?” Her eyes were watery, she was scared sick for her friends.
Discord held her closer to his chest. “Starlight’s a powerful unicorn. I'm sure she can protect the both of them. We should worry about ourselves, Fluttershy. We might not make it through this night.” Discord looked at Fluttershy once again and wiped the tear from her eyes.
"Shouldn't we at least tell Twilight?"
Discord didn't say anything. He continued to stare into her beady eyes, pondering what to say next. He was sure Twilight had been stressed out the entire night having him around, and he didn't want to stress her out some more. Fluttershy was just paranoid over nothing, so he didn't want to drag Twilight into this. She deserved a nice quiet night with her books. Discord smiled.
“We should just let Twilight rest. She's been through enough this week. Knowing there's a danger on this mountain probably isn't going to help. Don't worry, as long as everyone stays indoors, and Spike and Starlight return, everything will be fine."
Fluttershy still had many doubts, but she trusted Discord.
"I’ll tell Twilight all about it tomorrow. I promise.”
He lied.