Chapter 30
It was still a few hours before dawn, but despite this, the entire palace was awake and buzzing. Luna's royal guard were still on duty, but the day guard had now joined them. Orders were being passed around to patrol the Canterlot streets and spread the word, as well as keep an eye out for any suspicious unicorns who may try and use the sudden return of magic to make trouble before everypony else caught on. The advisors, diplomats, researchers and other members of the court were roused to be told the news. Some of them immediately went to work, writing to various ponies, gryphons, zebras and the larger horses outside of Canterlot to reestablish contact. Letters between cities, not to mention beyond the border, had almost ground to a halt, and many members of the court were anxious to hear from both other dignitaries, as well as distant families and friends. Even the palace staff, whose only duties were in basic domestic work, seemed to be running back and forth with renewed vigor. To do what exactly was not clear.
Princess Luna and Princess Celestia gave out instructions on what needed attention to the relevant guards, staff and researchers before the two of them began a more official audience with Twilight, her friends and Discord. A scribe was asked to be present to take down what was said, on Princess Celestia's insistence.
Celestia apologised to the group for keeping them awake after what was most likely an exhausting experience, but nopony seemed ready to go to sleep just yet. And so, the group proceeded to give a play-by-play of the face-off against Blue Jay, his bubble, and the Stone of Null.
This alone took a while as each pony would interrupt the other to add footnotes, personal reactions, or elaboration to whatever was being said. To add to this, Discord was eager to get some use out of his powers to make up for lost time. Almost every sentence spoken by one of the ponies would be emphasised with the sudden appearance or disappearance of props, costumes, sound effects, and at one point, a full puppet-show.
Once the recount of Blue Jay was over, the group rewound events and started the story from the very beginning once they left Canterlot. From the encounter of the basilisk in the abandoned antlion hive, to Oggie, the discovery of the cult in Falabel, the escape from Stoneflower, the dark woods, the meeting of the troll-woman, until they finally ended up back when they faced Blue Jay.
As the story wove on, the group started losing steam. Their adrenaline had run dry, and it was now demanding payment. What was first only a stifled yawn or two, devolved into tired eye-rubbing and blank stares into space.
When the basics of the adventure were over, and the Princesses had asked all that was immediately important, Celestia suggested they got some rest before any more was said.
The group was shown out and led to some guest rooms. Princess Luna took her leave as well. She wanted to get a report from her guards and the rest of the palace staff. As it was not yet morning, she insisted that the responsibility over the palace was still hers. The scribe also excused herself, wanting to write her shorthoof out clearly while the recount was fresh in her mind. Celestia, however, took note of the fact that the scribe was a unicorn, and could not help but wonder if this was just an excuse for her to use her returned magic again as much as she could.
Eventually, only Celestia and Twilight were left in the throne room. Celestia got up from her throne and came to stand beside her. Being alone together, the official atmosphere melted, and they slipped into the more familiar, and more comfortable role of mentor and student.
“Are you not tired, Twilight?” Celestia asked with a smile.
Twilight nodded, looking thoughtful. “I am. But... there's still a few things I don't think I really understand, Princess. If I may, I'd really like to ask you about them.”
Celestia gave a light smile. “And they can't even wait until tomorrow?”
“Well... I guess technically they can,” Twilight admitted, “But I'm worried I'll forget what I wanted to say if I go to sleep now. And then I'll remember when we're half way back to Ponyville. And I'm going to feel so stupid about forgetting in the first place! And then I'll have to write you a letter when I get back home but I'll probably forget again as soon as I sit down to write and then-”
“Alright, alright,” Celestia laughed. “I suppose we'd better discus this now then, if that's the case. If you don't mind, though, I would like to talk somewhere a little less formal.”
“Okay,” Twilight nodded, following the Princess. In truth, she was not sure why the throne room was not good enough for a talk, but she took Celestia's word for it. The idea that Celestia had noticed the tear tracks cut clearly over Twilight's dust smeared face, never occurred to her.
Celestia did not go far. She led Twilight to a smaller room meant to keep important guests comfortable while they waited to have an audience with her. It had a faint resemblance to a smoking room, minus the smell of cigars or pipes. The walls were heavy with tapestries and there were several large chesterfield sofas made of a thick, carpet-like material against the walls. In the center was a sunken, circular space which housed a large pillow. It had been designed with ponies, gryphons, and other creatures in mind who would be uncomfortable in chairs not designed for them. It was on this that Celestia sat herself down among a collection of expensive looking throw pillows. Twilight followed her. She meant to just sit, but the softness under her hooves made her flop to lie down instead as she gave a drawn out, tired sigh.
“Now,” Celestia said, pretending not to see Twilight's less-than-royal manners. “What was it you wanted to ask about, Twilight?”
Twilight seemed to almost have forgotten why they came to the room in the first place as she sat up. “Oh! Yes, of course.” She smiled in embarrassment.
Celestia, however, merely waited for her to start.
“Well,” Twilight said, pulling a face in thought. “The most important thing is, what are we going to do about Blue Jay? I mean... he just kind of disappeared after the stone broke. Rainbow Dash was circling the courtyard to find Discord, but if Blue Jay was around she should have seen him. It's like he just vanished,” Twilight bit her lip. “It's possible he was killed when we destroyed the Stone I guess, but that's not something I know for sure. I'm worried if we just assume that's what happened it'll come back to bite us later.”
Celestia nodded, her expression turning serious. “I agree, it's a loose thread I'm not happy with. Perhaps he really was destroyed with the Stone, but I would like proof of this before I accept it as fact. I will send a search party to Kerry Shire's ruins to track him, but I will speak to my court magicians as well. Perhaps they will have some insight into what dark magic Blue Jay might have used to keep his magic alive and what destroying the Stone might have done to him because of this.”
“What about Falabel?” Twilight said, the mention of a town triggering her memory. “Stoneflower and her group of cra-... of ponies were doing some pretty awful things there. The Stone may have killed her, but I'm sure there were a few other ponies in that place just as cruel as she was.”
“That is where things may be a little more complicated,” Celestia said.
“What d'you mean?” Twilight blinked at her.
Celestia lay down, putting one foreleg over the other. “Whatever the Defectors feel or felt their agenda was against Equestria, Falabel is outside the border. They are ponies who left to be free of my and Luna's rule. That is what they wanted. If I myself, Luna, or any of our guard were to infiltrate the town, it could result in more problems diplomatically.”
“Wait,” Twilight frowned. “You're saying you can't do anything about a group of crazy ponies killing each other because of politics?”
Celestia sighed, but it sounded more tired than impatient. “Politics are perhaps the most troubling, ruthless, and insidious part of ruling a country” She turned back to Twilight, with a small smile, “A Princess who has no country to rule would have more freedom to do what is right, than a Princess who needs to worry about all the paperwork and screaming officials that would come afterwards.”
Twilight did not seem satisfied with this. “That doesn't change the fact that there's some seriously messed up stuff happening in that town! Is there really nothing you can do?!”
Celestia's smile stayed where it was. “Not until now, at least. We have known about this group for quite some time, thanks in large part to Ogham Augur's infiltration a year or so ago,” something flashed across Celestia's face, but it was too quick for Twilight to fully understand what the emotion was. Celestia carried on. “We knew of their creed and of certain violent members within the group, as well as unstable magic practices they sometimes held, but nothing they did could justify an official visit by Equestria,” She focused back on Twilight. “It seems things are different now, though. If what you have told me and Luna is correct, and I see no reason to doubt anything you would report to us, then perhaps the time has come for diplomatic intervention. Before the situation gets any further out of control.”
Twilight let out a long, relieved breath at this. She sank into the soft mattress-like pillow, lying down again.
“That's good,” She mumbled.
“Is that all?” Celestia said, watching her. “You really should get some rest. It would be very sad for Princess Twilight to get sick when we should be celebrating her success and safe return.”
“Just... one more thing,” Twilight said, rubbing an eye with a hoof. “I dunno if you can even answer this one, but I need to ask just in case.”
“Yes?” Celestia said, smiling again.
“About the Stone of Null itself,” Twilight turned back to look at Celestia full-on. “I still don't really know what it even was. Why was it so powerful? Why did Blue Jay say he heard it talk to him? Why didn't the Elements of Harmony work on it the first time? Why could we only stop it when Discord helped us?”
Celestia said nothing for a moment, thinking this over. “Have you tried asking him yourself?”
“Who?" Twilight asked.
“Have you asked Discord why he needed to help you for your Elements to work?” Celestia repeated.
Twilight pulled a face. “No. I'm not really sure he'd give me a straight answer if I did. He said he remembered the Stone from somewhere, though. But it didn't look like he was very sure about that.”
“Perhaps that's why he knew he was needed,” Celestia said. “I can only give theories, Twilight. I'm afraid only Discord will be able to give you any definite answers.” She smiled again. “I apologise for that.”
“No, it's alright,” Twilight shook her head. “I'll ask him about it later.”
“And if he doesn't give you a proper answer?” Celestia turned serious again.
Twilight, however, just shrugged. “I'll have to get it out of him some other way. He likes tea. Maybe I can bribe him or something.”
“I wonder if you're not underestimating him, Twilight,” Celestia said with a guarded expression.
“I don't think so,” Twilight yawned. “He'll let me know if he really doesn't want to talk about it. If that's the case I can't really do much about it. But if he'll just try and double talk me because he thinks it's funny, I'm sure I can find a way to get him to tell me, if I keep trying.”
“Perhaps you're right,” Celestia said, although she looked doubtful. “At the very least, you could try. But I do not expect you to send me anything on what you may learn. Reformed, powerful and occasionally helpful as he may be, I know how frustrating Discord is to talk to.”
“He's not really that bad,” Twilight said, resting her head on her forelegs. “Annoying and frustrating, but not much worse than that. He's a good guy, really. Just immature.”
“I think it's time you get some rest, Twilight,” Celestia gave her a concerned smile.
“Yeah,” Twilight nodded, sitting up again. “I mean... Yes Princess.”
Celestia's smile warmed as she lead Twilight out of the room again. If she was not so tired, Twilight might have made something of the fact that Celestia showed her to a room for the night herself, but Twilight did not even notice this.
After they said goodnight, Twilight dragged herself to the large canopy bed in the middle of the circular room and collapsed on top of it. She did not even pull the covers over herself before she fell asleep.
When the morning sun started creeping across the bed, Twilight woke up again. She groaned and curled up, reaching around with a hoof to find the edge of the blankets to pull over herself without much luck. She pushed herself to a sit and looked around blearily. It took a moment for her to remember where she was and why, but when she did she was still too tired from lack of sleep to fully appreciate it.
Twilight did not feel very well. Her head was pounding, her hair felt heavy and in need of a wash, and her eyes burned from dust. Her mouth also felt dry. She dragged herself out of bed and stumbled to the door with the intent to find a bathroom and at least get something to drink, even if she was not ready to face a bath just yet.
It took a few minutes and Twilight had to ask a guard to direct her, but eventually she was able to get some water as well as wash her face. She felt better, but she was still tired. She wondered how much sleep she had actually managed to get, remembering it had already been night when they returned to Canterlot, before they even started their recount of what had happened. By the gentle warmth shining through the stained glass windows and the crisp air, Twilight could tell it was still early in the day. Habit was the only thing that had woken her up.
However, apart from a twitter of excitement running through every guard, maid and official she walked past, nothing in the Canterlot palace seemed out of place. If Twilight had not experienced last night for herself, she could almost believe it was just another normal day. As such she saw no reason to be awake yet, and headed back to her room.
Halfway there, a thought struck her. This was the first in a very long time Twilight had gotten some sleep in a room all by herself, and not as a group with her friends. In some way, having privacy again was extremely satisfying, and normally it would be all she would want after spending so much time in constant company with other ponies. However, with last night's memories and, more importantly, emotions still clinging to her, Twilight found the idea kind of lonely, and a little sad.
She found another guard and, after some brief directions, headed for the rooms her friends had been taken to. She headed for what she was told was Applejack's room first. If anypony was awake yet, it would be Applejack. She was a lot like Twilight in that, regardless of how tired or worn out the day before had been, she could not break free of her hard-wired routine of getting up early to start the day. And even if Applejack was still asleep, Twilight was sure her friend would understand if Twilight were to curl up on the end of the bed.
Twilight reached the door she had been pointed to and knocked. She waited a moment, but when nopony answered her, she opened it to peer inside as quietly as she could. However, Applejack was not asleep in bed like she expected. In fact, Applejack was not in the room at all. The covers on the canopy bed had been used recently, lying wrinkled and twisted as somepony had pushed them aside. The light green Saddlebags lay next to the bed. But there was no Applejack.
Wondering if, perhaps, Applejack had gone to get something to eat or maybe clean herself up, Twilight closed the door again. She turned to Pinkie's room instead, once again knocking before pushing it open. Pinkie would almost certainly still be asleep, but Twilight knew she would not even bothering asking why Twilight had crawled into her bed. Just like Applejack, however, Pinkie was nowhere to be found.
Twilight frowned to herself, starting to worry. She was not sure what it was she should be worried about exactly, but not being able to find her friends made her very uncomfortable, and somehow seemed to intensify her want to not be alone.
Twilight did, however, have enough sense to check on the others before she jumped to any rash conclusions that were spurred by stress and a lack of sleep. She moved on to Fluttershy's room. Once again, Twilight knocked on the door and got no reply. She pulled a face to herself as she pushed the door open, peering inside.
Fluttershy was asleep in her room, just as she should have been, but she was not alone. Twilight had expected Discord to be there, although exactly why she expected this she was not sure. But there he was, lying across the bed like a spilled noodle. Fluttershy was lying with her forelegs and head resting on his chest, fast asleep. Pinkie lay curled up against her, cuddling Fluttershy's tail as if it was a teddy bear. Rainbow Dash lay sprawled across the top of the canopy as if it was her own, personal hammock, snoring loudly. Rarity lay in the curve of Discord's tail, eye-mask and curlers set firmly in place. Getting attacked by delusional unicorns and their otherwordly stones was apparently no reason to neglect her looks. Applejack was lying on her back precariously near the bed's edge, her head dangling over the side.
Twilight stood in the doorway for a few moments, watching the mess of ponies plus one draconequus lying like a litter of stray kittens all over an exquisitely woven blanket in the finest palace in Equestria.
She then smiled as she closed the door behind her, walked over, and wriggled into an empty spot on the bed. As she fell asleep, she subconsciously curled her forelegs around Discord's tail, hugging it against her.
“Oh my,” Fluttershy said, coming to a stop.
The Ponyville market was much livelier than she had expected it to be.
All the usual stalls were there, as they always had been. However, the stall that she knew from memory sold lemons, was completely hidden behind a large crowd of ponies, all waving their coins in the air. They raised their voices above each other as they haggled, pushing and shoving each other to get closer to the actual fruit.
It had been about a week since Fluttershy and the others had returned to Ponyville, and things, for the most part, seemed to have finally gone back to normal. There was at first an extreme amount of excitement at their return. The town had obviously slapped together a welcoming party, because as soon as the group stepped off the train, they were accosted by half the ponies at the station while the other half ran into town. When they had finally pulled themselves away from the excited greetings, they were met by yet another group, apparently this time consisting of the whole town. They even had a banner welcoming them home.
After somehow moving through the crowd and avoiding a speech by the mayor, they finally started to find their friends and family. The Apple family had the easiest time making their way over to Applejack, as Big Mac simply used his size and pressed a path open for himself, Applebloom and Granny Smith. Spike was not far behind, barreling down on Twilight and throwing himself against her as if he was trying to tackle her to ground. Eventually, Twilight had to gently ask him to let her go, as his crushing hug was starting to hurt her.
The Cakes, with twins in tow, found and met up with Pinkie as Rarity had an extremely tearful reunion with her parents and Sweetie Belle. That is, until Sweetie Belle asked Rarity to stop because she was getting embarrassed. Scootaloo was all over Rainbow Dash and seemed to demand an instant recount of everything that had happened right that very second.
Fluttershy, however, was anxious to get back to her animals and make sure they were alright. She was also getting antsy around a large crowd of ponies all staring at her and trying to talk to her at once in louder and louder voices. She was not sure how to ask to leave, and when she finally got the courage to say so out loud, it did not look like anypony had heard her. Or if they did, they did not seem to care.
But apparently somepony had heard her. A moment after she managed to ask if she could go home, she felt herself getting picked up. She found herself dangling over Discord's head as he proceeded to stroll through the crowd, smiling widely at everypony he passed and greeting them with enthusiasm. This seemed to do the trick, as most ponies moved out of his way as soon as they saw him, giving nervous smiles in return or dirty looks.
What followed was a two day party. Fluttershy was not sure if this was Mayor Mare's or Pinkie's doing, but it was one of the biggest parties she had seen Ponyville throw in a long time. Ponyville seemed much more interested in having fun than staring at her, and she found herself fully enjoying it. She even managed to drag Discord away from turning the punch into tabasco sauce to dance with her. At least for a while. She lost of track of him, only finding him later with Pinkie as the two of them had started a mission of emptying all the piñatas they could find. This would not have been so bad if Discord had not decided to use a flamingo as his club. He insisted it made the game a lot more interesting, but the flamingo obviously had not agreed and seemed to have vowed to cause as much bodily harm to Discord as it could before flying away. They found it the next morning in Discord's swimming pool punch-bowl where it was trying to catch the ice-cube fish swimming in it.
Life settled down as days passed. Things went back to business as usual. Stores were open for regular business once again, the weather team had put an updated schedule on the town hall's bulletin board, and the night before, Fluttershy had been visited by a family of hedge-hogs from the Everfree Forest who she had not seen since the magic crises. She was relieved to see they all looked healthy as they snuffled around her living room and shed their leaves all over the place.
Today, Fluttershy had gone to restock her cupboards of the different foods she needed for her animals. Spike had done a great job looking after them, but the food he had bought had run out. Fluttershy had not thought much of going to market. It was something she had done almost every day. However, the over enthusiastic crowd nearly tearing the lemon stall apart to get to what it was selling was not something she could say she was use to seeing. She was only grateful she did not need any lemons.
She skittered past the mob and headed for the cucumber stall. Nopony else seemed even remotely interested in it, and the cucumber salespony was resting his cheek on a hoof as he watched the lemon stall with a bored expression.
“Uhm... excuse me?” Fluttershy tried to get his attention.
The Cucumber salespony snapped out of his daydreaming and turned to her, looking surprised. Nevertheless, he smiled and turned his attention to her fully.
“G'mornin' Miss Fluttershy. Lookin' for somethin' for that fussy-eater rabbit of yours?”
“Yes, I.. I suppose so,” Fluttershy smiled at the ground. “I've been gone for so long, I thought I might make it up to him.”
“If you're looking for cucumbers, you don't think you'd wanna come back tomorrow instead?” The stallion asked.
Fluttershy looked up at him again, puzzled. “No? I promised Angle I would fix him a salad with the freshest veggies I could find. I know it would break his little bunny heart if I went back on my promise.”
“Well, if you're sure,” The salespony said. He sounded reluctant, as if selling his goods was not something he wanted to do.
“Is... something wrong?” Fluttershy asked. A nagging thought had come to mind, but she tried to ignore it and hoped there was an innocent explanation to the salespony's behaviour.
“Well, not exactly,” He nodded his head towards the barrels in front of him.
Fluttershy turned to look at them. Cucumbers lay cooling in the barrels of water, just as they always did, except for one difference. Every cucumber was a completely different colour, or even texture, from the rest. And not simply singular colours, but eye-straining clashes of cyan, magenta, bright yellows, deep greens, luminous purple, criss crossing in plaid, or covered in paisley curls, or splattered with polka dots. One of the cucumbers looked like it was made from ostrich feathers, while Fluttershy was pretty sure another one was more crayon than cucumber.
Her ears flattened and she dropped her gaze, scratching at the ground with a hoof. “Oh.”
“If you come back tomorrow I'll be sure to hold some aside for you,” the stallion offered.
“No,” Fluttershy shook her head sadly. “I promised Angle I'd make him his salad. Do they... are they still at least cucumbers when you cut them?”
The stallion shrugged. “I wouldn't know. Nopony's bought any today.”
Fluttershy sunk in place, wishing the ground would swallow her. “I'm really sorry about this.”
“Oh?” The salespony cocked a brow at her.
“I'm sure he didn't think it would hurt anypony,” Fluttershy went on, meeting the salespony's eyes again with considerable effort. “If I ask him, I'm sure Discord will turn your cucumbers back to normal. He probably didn't realise nopony would buy them if they were strange looking. He really doesn't mean any harm. Really.”
Fluttershy was expecting, at best, a sigh and a sad dismissal. At worst, an explosion of anger and hoof pointing. What she was not expecting, was for the salespony to give a lighthearted laugh and wave the issue away.
“No need for any of that, miss. This's been happening all week.”
“Really?” Fluttershy asked. She was dismayed by the news, but the salespony's unusual reaction was distracting her too much to feel bad.
“Yeah. I mean it's silly and disruptive, and I ain't gonna lie and say the other stall owners were happy the first time their stock turned into cotton or grew legs or sang show-tunes to customers, but it actually turned out to be a pretty good arrangement. As long as ya didn't mind ponies actin' crazy and throwing their money at you the next day.”
Fluttershy stared at him, trying to figure out what on earth the salespony meant. Eventually she gave up and shook her head. “I'm sorry... I.... I don't think I understand.”
“You haven't been to market this week? At all?” The stallion blinked at her. He then grinned when she shook her head, pointing at the lemon stall. “Yesterday, Lemon Drop's stock was doing a scene from 'Reigning of the Shrew'. Today her lemons are back to normal, but from what I could see before the crowd set in, they've doubled in size. Same thing happened to Sweetberry the day before. Her strawberries are normal now, but the day after they declared marshal law on her stall, they were the sweetest, shiniest, most perfect strawberries I'd ever seen in my life.”
Fluttershy stayed quiet as she listened, turning to look back at the chaos over at the lemon stall.
“Happy to see your pet monstrosity has finally gotten to my cucumbers,” The salespony snickered. “I was startin' to worry he was gonna give me the cold shoulder. I'll have to ask the wife and my oldest son to help me with sales tomorrow, though. It's gonna get hectic.”
Fluttershy turned back to him. She watched him for a moment before dropping her gaze back to the disaster that was the stall's cucumbers.
“Then again,” The stallion said with a frown. “If I'm gonna have anythin' like what's goin' on over at Lemon Drop's tomorrow, it might actually be better if you buy them now. I know they're funny looking, but they should be alright. I'll try to find the least eye-straining ones for you, shall I, miss?”
“Yes,” Fluttershy said, breaking into a smile. “Thank you very much.”
As Fluttershy trotted over the bridge leading to her cottage, she nearly dropped her groceries when Discord's head popped down from a tree directly in front of her.
“Fluttershy!” He greeted happily, as if he had not seen her in weeks.
“Discord, you startled me,” She said, picking up a stray apple that had fallen out of her paper bags.
Discord dropped down from the tree, grinning at her. “Did you get me anything? Something sweet I hope. I've had this incredible craving for a chocolate banana all day! Of course, I don't expect you to be a mind-reader, but anything chocolate will do! Unless you bought some stuffed olives. I'd be fine with those too.”
“I'm afraid I didn't buy anything with chocolate in it,” Fluttershy said, giving him an apologetic smile.
Discord gave a dramatic sigh at this. “No. it's alright, my dear. I will just have to go on without it,” A handkerchief popped into existence and he proceeded to dab his eyes with it.
“You should have said something when I left,” Fluttershy said, heading towards her cottage, unmoved by his dramatics.
“I would have, but I just had so many other things on my mind it completely escaped me!” Discord said, appearing ferret-sized in her mane. He leaned over her head to look her in the eye. “Maybe we can go to Pinkie's cake-house thing later and buy something chocolate-y from her? What do you say? I'll even share it with you! Of course, you'll have to lend me a few bits to pay for it.”
“Can't you just make chocolate on your own?” Fluttershy asked as she pushed open her door.
Discord gave a drawn out whine, teleporting across the room to throw himself over the couch. “But it's not the same! Besides, do you know how much effort is needed to create chocolate out of thin air? I have to lift my arm, put my fingers together and snap them!” He acted out the motion as he said this, a large bar of chocolate appearing in front of him. He grabbed it and took a large bite, not bothering in unwrap it. “At this rate I'll starve to death!”
“Chocolate isn't really food, you know,” Fluttershy giggled as she put her groceries down and started to unpack.
Angel bunny came streaking across the room, as if he had never seen food before in his life. One look at what Fluttershy picked up out of the bag, however, and the rabbit threw his paws around his own throat, making a gagging noise before he threw himself to the ground.
“I'm going to make Angel bunny a salad before I feed the chickens,” Fluttershy said to Discord. “It may not be chocolate, but I can make you a cup of something if you want me to.”
“No thank you,” Discord grinned at her, rolling off the couch and bouncing to his feet. “In all seriousness, I need to get going. My day-planner is pretty full today.”
“Really?” Fluttershy smiled at him. “Do you need help with anything?”
“I doubt it,” He said, taking a fedora from a coat-hanger Fluttershy was sure she had never seen in her cottage before. “I have to meet up with Pinkie Pie. She's throwing a birthday for some five year old and asked me to join her. She said a birthday party with nothing but toddlers filled with so much sugar they inhabit another realm of existence was something she could use my help with.”
“Oh, I see,” Fluttershy looked nervous. She made a note to herself not to accept any invitations to a party today.
“After that, Rainbow Dash, the pegasus one, not the dragon one, wants me to join her over the Everfree Forest. She said something about dealing with strange weather patterns and being prepared in future if the weather team ever lost control or something of the like. I wasn't really paying attention. But anything Everfree forest is always a riot. After that Rarity and the dragon Rainbow Dash are going looking for gems, and I believe they were going to head into Diamond Dog territory and that did not sound like something I wanted to miss out on.”
“Did Rarity ask you to go with them?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well, not in so many words,” Discord shrugged. “But sometimes you have to read between the lines. But as I was saying; after that, I need to go to Applejack's and move her barn three paces to the left of where it is.”
“Uhm... why?” Fluttershy blinked.
“I want to see if she'll notice,” Discord grinned widely at her.
Fluttershy could not help but give a light laugh at this.
“And then finally, Twilight wants me to visit her so we can start writing those memoirs I mentioned a while ago.” He finished.
“Oh, I didn't realise you were serious about that,” Fluttershy said.
“Well, just between us,” he leaned forward to whisper to her, “I wasn't.”
Fluttershy giggled, pushing him away playfully. “And after all of that, what are you going to do then?”
“I'm going to come home, be a nuisance while you feed the squirrels, make us each a large plate of arugula salad for supper, and listen while you read to the injured sparrow,” His smile warmed at her, just by a fraction, “That's the part I'm looking forward to the most.”
Fluttershy smiled, “Actually, Mr. Sparrow needs to leave the birdhouse today. He's grown strong enough to go back home.”
“You could have told me that sooner,” Discord grumbled, looking disappointed.
“I'm sorry,” Fluttershy said. She tilted her head at him, watching him sulk. “If you want, I could always keep reading to you, even if Mr. Sparrow is gone.”
Discord stuck his tongue out with a noise as he moved to leave the cottage “I'll get my bib and rattle ready for it, shall I?”
“We don't have to if you don't want to,” Fluttershy said, walking him to the door.
“There is one more thing I really need to get to today,” Discord said, coming to a stop.
Fluttershy stood herself beside him. His tone of voice had changed slightly, and Fluttershy kept quiet, waiting to hear if he would continue.
Discord turned to her, but rather than face her, he started toying with one of his talons. “It's nothing all that important, mind you. I could always put it off. But it's becoming really boring to have to think about all the time. I might as well get it out of the way and be done with it.”
“Yes?” Fluttershy urged, wondering if Discord was going to manage to move past the wall of quantifiers and say what was on his mind.
“I was just curious,” He gave a shrug, as if he really did not care one way or the other, “You seemed rather angry back when we were cleaning up Blue Jay's temper tantrum. Not that I really blame you, of course. No pitchforks or torches were involved, so it wasn't the worst I've ever had to deal with. I was wondering about something you said though.”
“What did I say?” Fluttershy asked.
“Oh, nothing all that bad,” Discord grinned. He turned to meet her eye for a moment before he immediately became engrossed in filing his lion claws, an emery board appearing in his hand. “As I said, I'm just curious. Among the rather pathetic attempts at trying to call me names, by the way I think you could really use some tutoring as far as insults go, you mentioned you were upset with me for startling you.”
“I was,” Fluttershy nodded.
“Ah,” Discord's voice wavered, the emery board stopping mid-file. “I see.”
“Was there... something specific I said?” Fluttershy tried, taking a step closer to him.
“Just some of this and some of that,” Discord brushed it aside, turning to face her with a guarded smile. “You said something about detesting me at the time, but it's nothing I haven't heard from ponies before. No harm, no foul. Forget I mentioned it.”
Fluttershy thought for a moment, trying to remember the exact words she had yelled when Discord sprung back to life. The memory was a bit of a blur. She had been so choked with relief and anger, the words had just poured out of her on their own, and he could not fully remember what exactly it was she might have said. Something in her mind clicked though, and she turned back to Discord with large eyes.
“Oh dear! I just remembered!”
“Do try and keep up, my dear,” Discord gave a chuckle, turning to leave again.
Fluttershy, however, took wing and wrapped her hooves around his neck, giving him a soft squeeze. Discord stopped in his tracks, half-turning to look at her in confusion.
“I could never hate you, Discord,” She said, nuzzling him.
Discord froze at this. He said nothing for a moment before he slowly turned to look back to the front. Fluttershy gave him another squeeze before she let him go, hovering in front of his face with a warm smile.
“No matter what you could ever do, I would never ever hate you. Not really,” She beamed at him. “Even if I get angry, or upset, or even if you ever did something to hurt me, I would never hate you.”
Discord looked alarm for a moment. “Do you honestly believe I am even capable of hurting you, Fluttershy?”
“No,” She shook her head, wrapping her hooves around him again. “I know you, and I trust you.”
For a minute, neither of them moved. Eventually, Discord reached up and wrapped his arms around her in return. He held her tight for several moments, before he let her go again, smiling an honest smile, one Fluttershy did not see him use as often as she liked. He held her out at arm's length.
“Thank you, Shutterfly,” He stuck his tongue out at her playfully.
She giggled and flapped free of him, moving to land back on the ground.
“Now, I'd better get going before they send out a search party for me,” Discord said, clearing his throat and switching back to his usual bemused, but 'hinting at trouble to come' tone of voice.
Fluttershy nodded. “Pinkie probably needs your help with those fillies.”
“I'll bring you back some cake,” he said as he left.
Fluttershy gave him a small wave, walking to close the door behind him.
“And I get to choose the book tonight!” Discord called as he crossed the bridge.
“I know,” Fluttershy smiled.
The End