//------------------------------// // You Had One Job // Story: Breaking Habits // by Gosky3 //------------------------------// It was a simple task. Elementary. Infantile, even: Watch over the cottage while she was gone. But Discord had honestly never been alone on somepony else’s property before; no pony would ever dare leave him alone anywhere in Equestria unless it was within the perimeter of his own home. No pony except Fluttershy, of course. She trusted him entirely to watch over the cottage, keep an eye on the animals, and make sure that nothing went wrong while she went out on a series of errands. Even Discord himself thought it was a horrendous idea to be offered such a task, however Fluttershy insisted and said that she put her full trust in him. For anypony else, the job would have been nothing. But this was Discord. Thoughts of chaos engulfed his mind everywhere he went, and although he had learned to curb them ever since being reformed, it was still almost instinct to obey them. After all, he spent 1000 years ruling over Equestria with no inhibitions as far as chaos went. Looking around the cottage, a million opportunities made themselves clear: He could replace the bird’s wings with arms and see how they coped with it; maybe turn the chickens into eggs and vise versa; he’d always wanted to turn the tea pot just into the letter “T” (that was such an obvious one); and the walls were just begging to be turned polka-dot instead of their current monotonous color. Discord caught his talon right before it was about to snap and make one of those thoughts a reality. “No!” he hissed, taking his eagle arm off completely with a “pop”. “Fluttershy would never approve.” The talon started barking at him furiously and foaming at the mouth, demanding to unleash some type of chaos. After a moment of looking for a solution, Discord floated over to the couch and stuffed the claw underneath the cushions. “There,” he grinned. SNAP! The cottage was now covered in mismatch polka-dots all around. Discord turned to see that his tail had done the deed. Grinding his teeth, he tied the end of his tail into a knot. “Backstabbing rear end,” he remarked. Suddenly, the infamous sound of annoying squeaks reached his ears. He turned back around to see Angel Bunny bouncing up and down on the floor, clearly upset at the new mess. “Yes, yes, I know.” Discord motioned to snap it away, only to realize that his talon was still underneath the cushion. He cursed under his breath and formed another limb to snap away the chaos with. Despite his actions, Angel was still furious over something. “What could you possibly want now? There’s not a speck of chaos in sight!” Discord complained. The bunny then rubbed his stomach before opening his mouth and pointing inside it. Discord sighed, snapped up a carrot, and levitated it over to the little devil. Angel took one look at the carrot and smacked it away. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I do something wrong? Was it not the right size? Weight? Shape? Too orange? Not orange enough?” Snap. Two large, healthy carrots appeared. “How’s two?” Angel shook his head. “Five?” Three more carrots popped into existence. He shook his head more. “Ten?” He lifted his paw, signaling for Discord to up his price. “Oh, for Celestia's sake! You want carrots so bad?" Snap. A giant pile of carrots appeared over Angel. He reacted with alacrity and reached out to grab them, until the pile came crashing down on him. Discord began to let out a few snickers. The bunny’s head popped out of the immense pile of vegetables around him. He was about to give Discord a piece of his mind until he realized that there was now a whole mound of carrots to eat. Gleefully, he snatched one up and took a bite; but instead if hearing a crunch, he heard the hiss of the carrot deflating. Immediately, all the other carrots deflated, proving to be rubber. Discord burst into a fit of laughter. Angel began letting out annoying sounds of angry gibberish and bickering. The draconequus managed to stop laughing for a moment to stand over him. “Hmm, me and you alone while Fluttershy’s out on errands. I don’t think you’re in the position to be bothering me.” Regardless of his threats, the bunny clearly wasn’t backing down any time soon. Discord leaned in closer, and a mischievous grin that could only be described as pure evil formed on his face. “But if you insist…” Fluttershy hummed the same tune that had been stuck in her head all day as she made her way home. A small content grin was spread out across her face as she trotted cheerfully through the forest, bearing the products of her expedition, which merely included an assortment of vegetables, milk, and whipped cream. She planned on making Angel a grand dessert for behaving so well these past few days, especially considering that Discord had been visiting so often throughout the week. The two usually didn’t get along, but they hadn’t been doing that bad so far. Those thoughts quickly vanished upon arriving home. The cottage had grown wings and was now hovering several yards above the ground. From what she could hear, everything but what she expected was happening inside. She flew up to the door and knocked. “Disc - ?” Fluttershy didn’t even get the chance to finish the name before a loud crash signaled for her to come in. Inside, the house was a wreck: Dishes were breaking themselves, the furniture was sitting on the animals, and all of Discord’s previous ideas of chaos had become a reality. The spirit himself was playing a game of bowling, using Angel as the ball, and pin-shaped carrots as the pins. “What’s wrong, Angel? Losing your appetite?” he teased, glaring into the bunny - well, now bowling ball’s - scared eyes. Before Discord could finish his swing, Fluttershy interrupted. “Discord! Put Angel down this instant!” she yelled, which wasn’t very loud at all in her case, but it was enough to make Discord flinch and drop Angel in the process. Angel regained his original form, though he was still dazed from the whole process and stumbled about. Discord's expression snapped from entertained to horrified in seconds. “Oh, Fluttershy, you’re back early! My, how time flies!” He put on the widest grin that he could possibly wear, but even his charm couldn’t save him from Fluttershy’s anger this time. When she remained static despite his efforts, he dropped the smile and crossed his arms defeatedly. “Well, to be fair, I told you this was a bad idea.” “I just can’t believe you!” Fluttershy was still livid and berating Discord while flying back and forth. He shamefully sat on the couch listening to her, though he was more unamused at this point than ashamed. He had gotten the point fifteen minutes ago, about the time when his ear had been talked off...though he'd only added more wood to the fire when his ear actually jumped off his head and walked out the door. “I trusted you, Discord, and you tried to go behind my back, and torture Angel in the middle of it all!” By then, Discord was leaning over the arm of the chair, etching pictures into the floorboards with his claw. He was currently working on a derpy picture of Fluttershy. “Well, the little furball deserved it,” he mumbled. “What was that?” she snapped. “Nothing, nothing,” he covered up. Finally, the pegasus came down to the ground and walked up to meet Discord face-to-face. “I’m more disappointed in you than anything else. You always do so well controlling yourself, and then you just...relapse. Some worse than others.” “I’m well aware of those affairs. The seeds, the blue flu, Tirek, the smooze, blah, blah, blah.” “You never seem to want to talk about it, though. I know it must be hard giving up your life of chaos, but - ” Out of nowhere, Discord sat up erect, almost startling Fluttershy. “Hard? Fluttershy, my dear, it’s anything but hard. I wouldn’t trade our friendship for any amount of chaos in the world.” He gave her a reassuring smile, and she couldn’t help but smile with him. “But I’m still really worried about you…” In a flash of light, Discord was on the other side of the cottage, next to the front door. “Oh, don’t bother worrying about me. I’m honestly sorry. I won’t let old habits get the best of me again.” He was about to snap out of the home, but it seemed rather unfitting considering what they had just talked about, so he simply opened the door. Before stepping outside completely, Discord turned to face Fluttershy once more. “I promise.” With that, he left. Fluttershy’s worried stare remained even after his leave. She sighed and looked towards the ground. “That’s what you always say.”