The sounds of war reverberated through the chilly winter air that morning, as well as the high pitched squeals and screams of ponies as they ran for cover from the projectiles above. Victorious chants and battle cries echoed through out Equestria, and weapons flew through the air; a soft wet snow ball landing smack dab in the center of a certain draconequus's face.
"Oho, very funny," Discord muttered, swiftly packing some snow into a giant ball of his own. "This one is coming straight for your FACE!" He lobbed his weapon, which flew like a fast ball straight over Fluttershy's rosette mane. The pegasus only smiled and fluttered higher into the air, laughing as his aim missed again.
Everypony was out this morning; the air was brisk and frigid cold, decorated with falling snow, but nopony wanted to miss the biggest blizzard of the season. Snowballs were being lobbed everywhere in Ponyville, and everypony wanted to make good use of the snow. The quieter and calmer ponies built humble little snow sculptures out in their lawn, while the rest engaged in fierce rough and tumble play.
Originally sculpting in the snow was what Fluttershy had planned; she had wanted to make little snow dens for some of her animals. It all changed the moment she stepped outside and Discord had stomped on the roof of the cottage, shaking an avalanche on top of her. Then it was on.
"That all you got?" Discord shouted from behind his tree. "I've seen fillies do better!" Aptly thing to say considering he was the one getting pummeled by a little girl. The response was merely another wet ball to splash into his face.
He loved snowball fights. So chaotic, so free, so fun. It was always interesting to see how they would escalate and to what degree of violence they'd reach. He loved manipulating the soft white crystals under his fingertips and turning them into whatever shape he pleased.
"You've seen fillies do better? Really?" Fluttershy giggled softly. "I'm not the one under a mountain of snow, you know!"
The three had found a perfect, unoccupied area just in the outskirts of town, close to Everfree. There was nopony to butt in or distract them. Most were somewhere in town square. Originally Fluttershy had wanted to go there, but figured the town would probably run off in fear if they saw the spirit. Plus, there was no telling what trouble Discord could get into.
"Fluttershy, remember the techniques I taught you to making a perfect snowball," her mother advised, having parked herself under a tree with a canister of her daughter's tea. Snowflakes patterned the faded mane and the winter air made her look positively ghastly. The only part of her seeming to glow amidst the rest of her features were her vibrant and sparkling blue eyes.
Discord tried to get his mind off the mare; she wasn't his problem after all. He didn't show much compassion if a pony got terribly ill, even if he did agree it was a total waste of life. Even when he ruled Equestria, he never killed simply because it was completely wasteful when the ponies could have been useful for something, such as his own amusement.
His mind kept drifting to Fluttershy, sweet, naive, and ridiculously oblivious Fluttershy. He gazed thoughtfully at the joyous sparkle in the pegasus's eyes and wondered if the sparkle would still be there if she found out. Or would it extinguish forever?
His eyes drifted back to the sickly mare under the tree, and she smiled sweetly and waved at him, clearly not seeing the true nature of his expression. Her eyes widened and he was just about to question her and got his answer when he was suddenly tackled into the wet snow.
He muffled out curses and threats as the pony forced the freezing snow into his mouth. He swiped at her with a paw and managed to get a good hold of her mane, yanking her away from him by the hair.
Camellia only laughed through out all of this, merrily sipping at the steaming tea and watching as Fluttershy pinned the annoyed and struggling spirit into the snow, covering him with snow and pretty well burying him. The elder pegasus gasped, laughing as a snowball landed with a splash into her tea. She struggled up, backing away in alarm when her daughter charged towards her.
Discord furiously wiped the freezing snow off his face, glaring through the remaining white mess in the direction of the tree. He summoned some glue, made it into a ball and prepared to destroy that little pegasus with it. He lowered his weapon as Fluttershy tackled her own mother into the snow. The mare was laughing, but Discord could tell she was in quite a bout of pain.
"Mummy, I remember we always used to wrestle in the snow," Fluttershy giggled, effortlessly wrestling with the weaker hooves; her mother trying to keep the grimace of pain from showing as her daughter sat gently on her chest.
"A-and I always beat you," Camellia strained through her teeth, trying to make that fact true as she grappled with her filly. Eventually, she fell back in the snow, suppressing the groans. The oblivious pegasus laughed victoriously while Discord gave a cringe himself.
"Know what we should do tomorrow, Mummy?" Fluttershy had given up the roughhousing and only laid her head down on her mother's chest, nuzzling under the furry chin. "You and I should go skating like we used to." She didn't notice the look of panic on her mother's face.
"I mean – well, I still can't really skate... My legs still wobble terribly on the ice, but I know it will be ever so fun with you and Discord!"
Camellia bit her lip, easing her way out from under Fluttershy's gentle, yet still painful hold. "I...well..."
Say something, Discord tried to drill into the stupid mom's head. Tell her the truth! Anyone can see you've been lying; you're as see-through as a glass of water. He rolled his eyes when the mother forced out a cheerful agreement. Ponies were so stupid sometimes.
"FLU-TTER-SHY!" All three heads turned to the angry voice, which belonged to a steaming, pink earth pony. An earth pony glaring wildly as she approached them, a large frown on her face, somewhere through the snow covering her snout.
"Fluttershy and Discord and Fluttershy's Mom! You ponies know you're supposed to be at the party! I mean – your mom is the main GUEST at the party, so we can't exactly – like – have the party for your MOM when your MOM isn't there! It doesn't make sense! I love parties and when I arrange a party for my very best, terrific friends I expect them to show UP!"
As the pony finished her harsh scolding, all three heads looked curiously at each other. Then Fluttershy's eyes widened,
"Oh, goodness – the party!" She hopped out of the snow and trotted over to Pinkie Pie, nuzzling her side. "I'm so sorry; we all got distracted by the snowfall and forgot all about it."
The annoyed pout lasted only a few more seconds before that ever cheerful and goofy grin took hold. "Oh, that's okay~" Pinkie chirped, "Everypony makes mistakes. Anyways, come on – it's at Twilight's! It's gonna be supery-duper fantastic!" She gave an eager hop, before changing directions and promptly hopping back to the direction of the library.
"Well, who won then?" Discord asked, floating into the air and brushing the clinging snow off his body. There was a lot of it. Fluttershy effortlessly needed to simply give one shake to get the tiny amount of snow he threw at her off.
"I think it is safe to say that I won," the pegasus grinned triumphantly, holding her head high victoriously – just to get a ball of..marshmallows in the face. She glared at him through her sticky eyes, wiping a hoof over her face, just to get that stuck to her cheeks. Discord laughed hysterically as the pony tried yanking her hoof off, only to fail miserably.
"Yet I get the final blow," the spirit smirked, casually floating on his back with his hands behind his head.
Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes as the two jabbered on like siblings in a playful spat (if one could call it playful), and she led them through the plush snow. "It's so, sooo cold out today, I almost froze my poor hoofsies on the way here! They say it's supposed to get colder tonight, but I mean how could it get any colder than THIS!?"
Discord rolled his eyes, while Fluttershy and Camellia softly laughed, discussing their skating trip the next morning, debating on what lakes they'd hit. Discord stayed silent through the entire conversation; the urge to blurt the truth to Fluttershy overwhelming. It was a relief when they finally reached the library. Before even reaching the large tree he could hear the echoing dance music.
Usually when he entered a filled with ponies, they'd give him suspicious and hard looks, or they'd simply turn their backs. This time, however, he was trampled without a second thought as every pony hurried over and crowded around Camellia.
"Oh, Miss Camellia, we're so glad you came!" Twilight gushed, leading the pegasus mother through the door. "We went through a lot of effort to make you feel welcomed."
Indeed, the room had a distinctive partying atmosphere with floating, fat balloons and colorful streamers, but it also seemed to have some elegance. Instead of party food, there was a small table with biscuits and a steaming pot of tea. Twilight had set out a few parcels on another table, and the air smelled fragrant of tea. This definitely hadn't been Pinkie Pie's idea.
"Gee, that snow out there sure did cover ya whole, huh," Applejack chuckled, every pony waiting for the mare to shake the white snow off and step inside. Camellia smiled questionably as the ponies stared, and that's when it dawned on them: there was barely a speck of snow clinging to her, despite how sickly white her coat was. A few pairs of eyes subtly drifted down at the swollen limbs and they all exchanged glances.
Fluttershy, completely oblivious to all of this, smiled and tugged her sick mother into the house. "Oh, I know Mummy looks a little paler than usual. She has a cold, really." Her smile broke the hearts of everyone in the room. "She's getting better though, and she's on a lot of medicine."
The five pairs of eyes turned to Discord, who gave a helpless shrug and a look that said "what am I supposed to do?"
Twilight was the first to break the awkward and gloomy silence; her voice was slightly broken as she spoke, ushering Camellia to the guest chair of honor. No pony looked happy now, and their faces were full of questions.
Camellia was either oblivious to this or simply used to it as she nonchalantly sipped her tea, the rest of the ponies quietly following suit. She attempted to strike up a conversation with Twilight:
"You're Twilight, dear, am I right?" The lavender unicorn mumbled a soft 'yes, ma'am.' "I was told you knew a lot about gardening and could give me some tips from your book."
Twilight flushed with happiness, her face turning a happy pink. It was rare anypony expressed interests in her books, and she was always happy to share her wisdom with anypony that was willing to listen. Still beaming, the unicorn levitated the book with her horn, flipping through pages and using her magic to hover the hoofbook in front of the pegasus.
"It's not really anything, I guess," Twilight said shyly, scraping her hoof slightly against the ground and using magic to flip a few pages. "I didn't really have a gift for you, but I figured you could make good use of this book." She laughed. "Equestria knows I hardly get out to garden."
"Hardly?" Spike snorted, pouring them refills of tea. "Twilight, you never garden." He yelped as the unicorn lightly bucked him.
Camellia took the book into her hooves, carefully studying the pages and merrily flipping until she reached the carnation page. She sat there in the chair, as absorbed as Twilight was when she cracked open a good book. Suddenly the mother had to do a double take when the words subtly twirled on the page.
She didn't catch the soft snickering from high above the table where Discord was hovered at the ceiling. Rather fearing that her pain and the general illness were causing her to hallucinate, she dropped the book, watching as the words floated off the page.
Twilight's smile had faded by this point, and she gave a tiny shriek as the words drifted from the book and dangled in the air. "NO – that's bad! Augh-!" She jumped at them, trying to gather as much as she could and slam them into a book. "No..augh! Stay ON the page!" Discord had kept his magic ignited hand out of their field of vision, tears in his eyes as he fought to suppress the hysterical laughter.
"This is bad! Spiiike!" The baby dragon emerged from where he was stacking books on the top floor. He yelped, dropping them all and charging down the stairs and diving at the words. The more they slammed into the book the more that spilled out into the air.
Discord, by this point was kicking his legs and laughing like a child, holding his stomach as tears spilled down his face. "Perhihihihceless!" Twilight glared up at him furiously when she saw the dim golden coating around his talon.
"Discord! Stop messing with my books!" This earned only a belligerent "no" as the spirit smashed a cream pie into her face and turned a few of her books into bananas.
"Stop now or you won't get your Hearths Warming present!" Twilight warned, spitting out pieces of the pie, and was pleased to see that effectively shut him up, his ears perking up in excitement.
"A present?" Eyes sparkling, the spirit released his magic banana hold on the books and put the words back in, before darting over the table and towards the holiday tree. Twilight galloped after him, while the curious mother watched on and Fluttershy hid her face in her hooves.
"Hey – no - no!" Twilight angrily ignited her horn, a violet hue grabbing Discord's tail as she began to forcibly yank him out from under the tree by magic. Discord glared behind him, digging his nails into the wooden floorboards as she yanked at him. He gave a low growl, an involuntary shiver of fear riding up his spine as the unicorn that almost killed him grabbed at him.
"Let go!" he snarled, the shiver shuddering his body as he kicked at the unicorn. Twilight was really pulling now – it hurt. "Ow ow ow!" Getting his presents early was not worth it. Rolling his eyes, he let go, which ironically enough was a terrible idea. Twilight could feel her body being strained backwards as she pulled with all her might, and when he let go...
Both went flying backwards, nearly taking the tree with them. Twilight could see the blur of colored ponies in her field of vision rush up to her face fast, and she thrust her body sideways slightly, enough to dig her hooves into the wooden flooring. Her back barely tapped the table – and that's when Discord slammed into her. Both uttered cries of pain as they careened into the table. Every pony rushed to get up, and from the corner of his eye the spirit saw Fluttershy desperately try to tug her mother out of the way, but it was too late: the table splintered and both unicorn and heavy, full grown spirit crashed on top of her.
Camellia wasn't able to suppress the agonized gasp as the draconequus and unicorn both tumbled onto her. Tears stung her eyes, but at seeing her daughter's horrified eyes on her, she tried to quiver out a smile. It didn't work; the sobs threatened to over take her. It felt as if every bone in her body had been broken into tiny shards. The pain was just excruciating, and she knew pain.
Discord pushed himself off, backing up on all fours, and it wasn't just because he was currently in too much pain to stand. His ears inadvertently lowered and he chewed on the inside of his lip. Oh Equestria, this was bad.
Fluttershy was horrified, the look on her face easily showing her pain and confusion. Alright, sure getting crushed by a full grown spirit would hurt a little bit, but wasn't her mother being a bit over dramatic?
It was then the pegasus took in her mother's full condition; the swollen, throbbing limbs; the ghastly white face and sagging skin; the feeble looking bones. She backed up a bit, shaking her head. Was this common with a cold? She had taken care of enough animals to know that weakness was a common factor, as was paleness, but...swollen limbs?
"Fluttershy, dear," Camellia gasped out, squinting the tears away desperately, not wanting to make her daughter suspicious. "Please, can we go home?"
Fluttershy said nothing as she wedged herself shakily under her mother's chest, lifting the mare up onto her back as she shakily made her way out the door, feelings of dread racking her brain, twisting at her mind. She tried to ignore them; she needed to focus on her mother right now.
Discord's body throbbed and ached as he pushed himself up to a painful stand, flexing his sore tail and scanning his eyes over the damage he caused: the table was kindling, and dishes were strewn about, broken everywhere on the ground, food splattered about.
He hardly cared about the damage and in fact smirked as Twilight groaned in pain, but it faded as he looked over to where Fluttershy was taking her injured mother out the door. The mare looked terrible, even worse than last night, and Fluttershy was just...
Every step caused his abused body to throb; it was still pretty sensitive with left over scars from the ordeal nearly half a year ago. His body was slightly more fragile, making him more susceptible to injuries. He dropped unsteadily on all fours and began advancing towards the door once Fluttershy opened it. When she paused, he tilted his head curiously. To be honest, the sharp and cold tone to her voice gave him an eerie shiver:
"You're staying here." The door closed roughly, not a slam but not gentle either. Discord sat there at the doorway, flying himself to the window and peering out it. The cold eyes that stared back seemed completely devoid of forgiveness. For how long he would never know.
"You despicable varmint." Applejack was the first to speak, her tone low and icy cold. Discord didn't turn to her or even show a sign he acknowledged her. "Couldn't contain yourself, could ya? Ya just had to ruin a perfect day just like ya always do!"
Slowly, the spirit turned to her, silently, his eyes narrowed coldly, trying to shut out the pain he was feeling. It was an accident. For once - for the first time in his life - some sort of chaos he caused was not intentional. Even he would never stoop as low as to torment a terminally ill pony.
"It was an accident," he hissed, slowly raising into the air and hovering high over every pony, glaring down their accusing stares, trying to wipe them off their faces with a fierce look of his own. It didn't work.
"What a low blow!" Rainbow Dash added, "don't you have any class? Do you have to be pathetic enough to pick on a sick pony? What, were you just trying to hurt Fluttershy?"
Oh, that was it.
Twilight only had seconds to react as the honest to goodness animal snarl tore from the multibeast's throat, and his palms ignited with a crackling fire. Luckily, the unicorn jumped in between them just in time before the fatal tendril of magic almost singed off the horrified pegasus's face. She absorbed it with a strong magic barrier, and used magic to hold them both to the spot.
"That is enough, you two," Twilight ordered, taking the liberty to cast a soothing spell on them both. The anger seemed to diminish, as well as their desire to kill each other, and both shakily sat. "I'm sure...things aren't as bad as they seem."
"Oh come now, are you as naive as that dumb pegasus?" Discord snapped. "You're supposed to be the intelligent one of the bunch!" He knocked her on the head with a fist, her head making a comically hollow sound. "Hellooo? Anything in here?"
Twilight smacked him off. "What I mean is, well, maybe she looks really terrible, but, well – hey, I know I look pretty terrible myself whenever I get sick. I get very pale and-" She trailed off as Discord rolled his eyes and looked on disapprovingly.
"Twilight, she's dying," he said bluntly. "She's dying and she's dying fast. I'm sure we're both aware of it – matter of fact, I'm sure we're all aware of it. I don't know how long this pony has been sick, but from what Fluttershy has told me it sounds like she's been ailed with this since Fluttershy was only a filly."
Every one of the ponies exchanged looks and bowed their heads; some eyes brimming with tears. "There's gotta be something we can do," Applejack muttered. "There's just gotta be!" They all turned to Discord hopefully, and the spirit snorted.
"Oh, what, you think I can just wave a magic wand and make her miraculously well? Magic does not work that way – not even mine."
True if she died he'd have the powers to bring her back to life, but it was under certain conditions that he could do that. The spell had incredible drawbacks: though the victim would arise alive they would only stay alive if what they had was survivable. If a pony died from a heart attack, he could most likely bring them back and they'd live on happily, unless their heart attack stemmed from another illness, such as cancer. If he brought Camellia back to life she'd only be revived in a body of agony. He couldn't do that.
"There is nothing I can do," Discord's voice was angry, but it was soft, sorrowful even. Fluttershy would lose her mother...soon.
He pushed himself up on all fours, head bowed to the ground, eyes narrowed hatefully at the situation and at himself. "If you'll all excuse me, I believe I need to find a new place to live." He left without another word.
xxxxxxxx
Fluttershy hadn't had much time to think things over and reconsider her mother's illness; she had been on the go since she got home, boiling tea, wrapping her mother in blankets, giving her cough medicine, preparing some soup.
The injured pegasus wasn't faring the best as she laid there in a trembling heap on the couch, paler than usual, frailer too. She shuddered now and then from the pain, tears soaking her face fur, dripping down her muzzle from behind her glasses.
Her daughter was so sweet, so wonderful. She was the only – the last ray of hope in her life and had been since her husband died so many years ago. That little sparkle in those bright blue eyes kept her going. Yet...here she was lying to her face about her illness.
Darling, forgive me...
"Fluttershy, sweetheart, would you please do me a favor and fetch my book from my saddlebag please? I could do with some nice reading while I'm laying here" The mare failed to realize what else she had in that bag.
Fluttershy nodded to her mother, shakily trotting over to the bag, flipping open the leather flap and reaching in with her mouth. She yelped when something sliced into her nose, and she realized it was a piece of paper.
Oh no, Mummy's pages didn't fall out, did they? Her mother loved her books just as much as Twilight did. She'd be crushed if a page had ripped out. Hurriedly, the pegasus latched her mouth around both book and crumpled paper, and she pulled them out.
Smoothing a hoof to fix up the paper, Fluttershy tilted her head when she saw that this was a note from a doctor in Ponyville. Oh, it was a prescription; her mother probably hadn't had the chance to go get some cough medicine from the doctor. Well, Fluttershy would fix that. As she read the paper, her heart started to tie in painful knots, and her stomach twisted. What was all this? What were all these words? She hadn't ever heard of this medicine before!
"Mummy?" Smiling, the mare turned to her daughter, still holding her tea. When she saw the look on Fluttershy's face and the object she was holding she instantly dropped it. The tea exploded like a wet bomb as it slammed into the wood flooring; shards of the cup flew everywhere.
"Mummy, what is..." Fluttershy tried not to let her mouth tremble as she gripped the notice. After all, this weird fancy word could just be a doctor's fancy way of saying...medicine, right? "What is this? What is..a dialysis?"
The mare stood frozen for a few moments, voice held hostage by her fear as her coat paled a few lighter shades than usual. Her daughter stared at her, pleadingly, clasping her hooves together, eyes searching.
"That...that's my medicine, dear," Camellia said calmly, trotting over to the kitchen counter with difficulty and pouring herself another soothing cup of tea. The porcelain pot trembled in her mouth, but Fluttershy hardly noticed as the liquid spilled over the counter and burned the tips of her hooves.
"My medicine – that's all." It wasn't a lie – at all, really; it was medicine to help her, it just...definitely was not the kind of medicine her daughter thought she was taking. "It's the medicine the doctor gives me to help me feel better." She expected to get a relieved smile and a nod of the head, but not this time.
Fluttershy's ears flattened and her eyes narrowed. "I have never heard of this medicine before... I take care of all kinds of animals, so I know of every cold medicine there is," she hissed softly, and her mother shut her eyes.
It was then that it dawned on her when so far ago in her memory she recalled an incident that happened when she was a child. She was only young and had attempted a hoof at flying. She had crashed into other pegasi and broken her wing. When she was at the hospital, she had made friends with another young pegasus.
The pegasus had been on these peculiar tubes, and had told Fluttershy what was wrong with her, what the tubes did, what...a dialysis was... No – no, it couldn't be true, it was not true! Her mother would never-
"You...you LIED to me!" Fluttershy cried, fiercely backing away as her mother tried to put a wing around her. "All these years – all this time, you lied to me! You got sick when I was three – when I was three!!"
Her mother desperately tried to extend a hoof to her, but the distraught pony smacked it away. "How could you!?" she shouted, already starting to dissolve into sobs. "How could you lie to me!? Why wouldn't you tell me!?"
The elder mare was in sobs as well, and they shook her entire body. Fluttershy's trembling eyes scanned her mother's form; the swollen legs, the ghastly white coat, her entire trembling form. Fluttershy started crying harder, gripping at her head in grief. How could she have been so stupid? How could she not have seen?
...How could her mother lie to her?
Fluttershy had to get out of there. She scrambled past her mother, tripping into the table and sending dishes flying. She didn't even bother to look where she was going and disregarded everything, even the dishes she sent smashing as she burst through her cottage door.
xxxxxxxx
Discord had been walking for minutes. No, hours. ...Days? No, definitely not days – now he was being silly. Of course it wasn't his fault he was so incoherent, it was this deadly freezing night. His body was consumed in a cold numbness; the only indication his limbs were still in tact was when he saw them make their prints in the soft snow.
Every part of him throbbed with a sharp pain, and he felt like a statue (ha, he had experience with that!) with every step. Everfree's trees passed by him in an endless snow covered line, and he could no longer see a trace of Ponyville. His lungs burned as the frigid winds wrapped their steely, cold fingers around them, trying to siphon off his air.
What was he doing, he mentally scoffed to himself. Was he trying to run away? How childish was he? (One shouldn't ask for an answer to that question). No, he wasn't trying to run away per say, but there was no way in Equestria he was going to attempt to go back to the cottage tonight. Or tomorrow. Another Hearths Warming Eve alone; it wasn't like he ever wanted anything to do with the stupid holiday anyways. He was used to spending it alone in the courtyard, watching from behind stone walls as the Canterlot Palace shone with twinkling lights.
Maybe he should leave, it was probably for the best. After all, he needed to leave her eventually and what better time than now when she probably hated him? Where would he go, and what would he do? Psh, he had so little magic and no home; may as well turn himself into Celestia and request to go back into stone. At least there he had something to protect him from the weather.
His body had advanced as far as it could muster in the blizzard, and it was already injured and weak from the accident earlier. He collapsed in the snow, trying to weakly summon some sort of shelter. The golden hue glowed from the tip of his fingers...and then extinguished.
It was no use. He was too weak to use magic, and he definitely wasn't strong enough to withstand a physical attack if an Everfree monster tried to take him on. It didn't help that he was in the open, not even sheltered by trees, and with no hope of his brightly colored body camouflaging into the snow.
The spirit let his face fall miserably into the wet snow, ears flopping to the sides of his head, where they froze and stuck there. He never thought he'd die like this. He was so sure his death would be by the Elements of Harmony finally having sense enough to kill him. Nope, it was going to be the stupid, stupid cold.
He never even had the chance to apologize to Fluttershy. How strange, an apology...what did it feel like? It had been eons since he felt remorse for anything, and he was fairly certain he'd never apologize to some sniveling pony, for anything. Of course by now he had come to terms with the fact that Fluttershy meant much more to him than just a simple pony.
And here I never even had the chance to tell her that.
As he closed his tired, wet eyes, somewhere over the howling winds he could hear soft, sniffling cries. They were drawing closer. It didn't take much time to discern who they belonged to.
"Fluttershy!!" Discord yelled, snarling and fighting with the snow that had him pinned from where it collected on his back. Suddenly, he was no longer numb; his strength was back, as were a few sparks of magic.
With a blast of fire, he rid the small area of all snow and bolted up from the grassy spot, running through the forest. What was she thinking? EVERFREE? This stupid pony was afraid of her own shadow, let alone going to Everfree for whatever reason. With this weather, it was doubtless she'd get lost in the clouds of white.
"FLUTTERSHY!" He whirled around wildly in the air, panicking and searching desperately for any sign of her. It was no use, he could barely see a tinge of green from the trees; the blizzard was just far too severe to see anything. He groaned and had to resist the urge to shut his eyes as the snow whipped into them, searing his face with an icy pain. It was far too cold.
Finally there was a slight break in the frigid winds; the tempo of the snow at last slowing down some, and he could finally make out the traces of the rosette tail decorated with white. He showed no mercy and no restraint as his claw latched fiercely into the base of the tail, roughly yanking the sobbing and incoherent pegasus to him.
"What are you doing!!" he screamed harshly, needing to over the roaring winds and over Fluttershy's sobs. His claws latched into Fluttershy's shoulders, digging slightly into the flesh, but Fluttershy hardly seemed to notice, even as the dents were made in her frozen, honey colored skin.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Discord continued to roar at the trembling pony, giving her a fierce shake. "Get back to the cott-" His grip tightened as Fluttershy desperately fought against him, hitting at him in grief, thrusting back desperately, trying to scramble away. Discord fumbled and dropped the pony halfway into the snow, before pinning both her hooves together and jerking her roughly up to his face.
"FLUTTERSHY!" he growled sharply, "enough already! Stop it!" He was breathing harshly, still gripping the pony tightly as he shakily fell on his haunches in the snow. "It's over," he said, voice low. "There is nothing you can do..." His paw and talon moved behind her to support the broken pegasus before she collapsed in the snow.
"It's over, dear," he repeated softly, keeping the paw behind her. "It's over.."
Barely anything intelligible could be heard in between the broken, soft wailing as she cried, sinking deeper and deeper into the snow; the only thing keeping her from falling into it being that same, soft paw.
"No," she whispered hoarsely, the tears staining her candy striped scarf. "No...no..." She shook her head, dim blue eyes igniting with a slight spark of hope as she tried to stand, only to collapse against his arm. "No, m-maybe the doctor wrote the..the wrong prescription.. M-maybe dialysis really is just a fancy word for-for cough...drops?"
The spirit's glare deepened and he wedged a talon under her chin, forcing the trembling and tear filled eyes to meet his stern, harsh, yet sympathetic eyes. "Enough," he commanded. "Stop trying to fool yourself. Accept what's real and stop feeding yourself lies." A claw raked through the snow covered mane. "You may think you're shielding yourself from more pain, but you aren't."
Fluttershy's entire body quivered as she let this sink in. She had been lying to herself; she had known her mother was sick, but she was too stupid to believe it. So stupid and so...childish! So ignorant. Her mother had been showing her signs, and yet she had ignored it. All because she didn't want herself to be in pain.
Discord sat there as the broken, wailing pegasus buried into his cinnamon fur and drenched it; the howling winds and her hysterical sobbing forming to create a symphony of anguish, that broke the hearts of everypony that heard it carrying through the winds that evening.
xxxxxxxx
(All of my tears.
(To answer any questions, Camellia has a chronic and now fatal kidney disease, hence the swollen limbs.)
Have your box of tissues ready for the next and final chapter.)