//------------------------------// // Alone in the Castle // Story: A World in Chaos // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// Fluttershy gasped as Twilight vanished in a flash of light, the tile was missing and now a hoof deep drop in the otherwise seemingly perfect marble floor was laid bare. "T-Twilight?" she asked the missing space where the tile was. She whimpered slightly and shrank into herself as the weight of being alone crashed on her. Her legs tucked tightly beneath her body and her wings fell and wrapped tightly by her sides as her head lowered to the floor between her front hooves. She almost resembled a turtle with feathered wings. Her eyes widened and her breaths became shorter as she tried to focus on anything besides being alone in a castle haunted by a god of chaos but her mind wouldn't shake the thoughts of what may happen now that she was alone. "Fluttershy~," Discords voice slowly sang out from all around her, "oh my, are you okay? Perhaps you should take some of these." A small leather bottle appeared and rattled before her. My medication? How does he know I take it or even need it?" She reached forward with her right wing and touched it lightly with a primary feather and it fell to the floor clattering the pills inside. She crawled forward carefully and grasped the bottle in her mouth and pulled the cork lid to get the medication she needed so desperately. Reeling back in terror as a snake lunged out of the bottle slithering quickly into a coil, the bottle turned inside out to become a rattling tail that shook consistently as the snakes tongue darted out in her direction. Fluttershy backed into a wall and her wings flattened against it as the snake lunged at her. She winced and turned her head as the snake slithered faster than she had thought possible, the stained glass coloring it various shades of the broken rainbow as it reached her. With a final gasp Fluttershy waited for the bite and her life to end as the snake curled around her. She felt it tighten around her body and it's tongue tickled her ear. "Oh, where are my manners?" Fluttershy opened her eyes and released the breath she didn't know she was holding, she began to pant from the poor breathing she'd been doing. In front of her sat a table, seemingly set for two. The table was slanted from the height of two ponies tall where Discord sat in a tall chair where it cantered down to Fluttershy sitting at her end. The table was long and rectangular and decorated with linen and lace doilies. The stained glass windows were all covered by white linen curtains blowing in a wind that didn't come from anywhere as the night seemed to loom with a beautiful pale full moon outside. Candles were set on the table and smaller candles littered the halls making an almost romantic scene as she looked at Discord. The Draconequus was holding a glass of red wine upside down in his claw and a rose in his paw. The wine swirled slightly as he sipped it from the bottom of the glass while he stared into Fluttershy's trembling eyes. "Fluttershy, I apologize for rushing our courtship. Please, accept this as an apology," he extended the flower to the trembling mare a few pony lengths away across the table almost reaching her before she leaned back. With a blink there was a flash of light and the hallway was full of rose bunches. "Is this more to your liking? I really should find out more about you before I take this to the next level of our relationship, don't you agree?" "Um, I think I'd like you to put everything back the way it was before, if that's okay." "Oh, you think it's that simple? Just ask me nicely and meekly in your soft voice and poof," all the flowers popped into fully buttered tubs of popcorn that spilled across the floor suddenly, nearly burying the nervous mare, "it'll be all better? Mmm, cheese flavored," he smiled as he popped a popcorn puff into his mouth crunching loudly, the sound of breaking glass filling the area with each movement of his jaw. "Oh," he spit out Fluttershy's necklace bearing her element into the air before his face, "how'd this get in my popcorn?" he asked incredulously before Fluttershy perked up and jumped onto the table. With three beats of her wings she flew at high pace, her beating wings creating strong enough down drafts to make the popcorn roll away from where she sat a heart beat before. He lunged forward quickly forming a mouth like an alligator before snapping it back into his mouth and making a loud gulping sound. A yelp left her and she bumped into Discord as the gem slid down his throat, an obvious lump moving down. He wrapped her into his arms and batted his eyes, eye lashes longer than normal. "Oh 'Shy I knew we had a connection," he said falling back with her momentum into a pile of heart shaped pillows. "I'm sorry Discord, but I'm not interested in you that way. Please let me go," she asked trying to sound confident but the tremble in her voice was obvious. She placed her hooves against him and tried to push away but his grip was too strong her to free herself. She shut her eyes tight and felt a tear leave her right eye as she dug her fore hoof tips into his body and shouted loudly jabbing him repeatedly. He didn't resist her fighting as she opened her eyes and gasped. She was standing on a cloud in the sky over a town still jabbing her hoof tips into it before stopping suddenly and blushing lightly. She looked at the cloud and turned around on it watching as the Pegasus magic pulled the billions of water molecules together tightly under her hooves and supported her while thinning around the areas she wasn't touching. She sighed and laid down feeling the cloud resist her as she looked over the edge. I hope Rainbow is okay, I certainly didn't think this would happen when we separated and now I'm over some town somewhere in Equestria, alone, and without my medication. What if I can't fly down from here? What if I fall again? Who would help me and would I survive? No, stop thinking like this, she buried her head in the clouds with some force and groaned. I can't do this to myself again, not like when I was a filly. How many years did it take to heal my body? How many more to get me to go back to public school or make friends? How long to get me to leave the ground and take a trip back home to my parents' house in Cloudsdale, and to finally laugh again. No, she stood up as tall as she could and flapped her wings a few times feeling the air draft beneath her body and against her sides before she gritted her teeth and tipped over the edge. The feeling of air flowing across her face and mane was warm and fluid like swimming in a pool, and with her wings closed tightly to her body her speed increased until she reached terminal velocity. The ground sped closer as she held her breath and opened her wings quickly at a steep angle so they cut through the air. Carefully she angled them and began to change her direction until she carefully began to glide in a spiral descending around the town. 'Always angle slowly and keep the wind moving. Turn too fast or break speed too quickly without focusing your magic in just the right way and you risk breaking your wings.' One of the many things I learned at flight camp but only recently get to practice. Rainbow, I hope you're okay...