• Published 4th Mar 2012
  • 17,772 Views, 536 Comments

Broken Spirit - Cryssy-miu



A story of struggle, redemption, friendship, and forgiveness.

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Chapter 4 - A Spark Of Affection

It was silent outside the placid little cottage, and it looked like Princess Luna had raised a glorious moon once again as it passed the trees of the Everfree Forest, ascending over thin, stretching clouds and mingling with the stars. Bunnies and bears had retired to their dens, as had the residents in the cottage, and all was peaceful.

Well, almost all was.

Fluttershy was locked in the wicked grip of sleep and terror, legs kicking the air frantically and almost bucking the alarmed draconequus in the face. Like a frightened puppy, she rolled over, trying to bury into Discord's chest, attempting to muffle out the resonating, blood curdling screams and blot out the frightening visions from her head and mind. It didn't seem to be any use.

Her grip on the warm fur of his chest seemed to suddenly melt away, and all that her hooves felt was a frigid wind – that suddenly blasted through her mane. Screaming, the pegasus curled up desperately against the grass, covering her head and whimpering a soft, insistent prayer to the princesses that this horror would all end.

"He won't change," Celestia was saying from somewhere in that wind. Her voice was somber and Fluttershy could almost see her sadly shaking her head. In fact, she could make out the multi colored mane painted somewhere in the ebony clouds, and the grim faced frown as well. The princess silently turned her head.

"He can't change."

Acid rain was now mixing with the copious volume of tears glued to Fluttershy's face, and she furiously spat out strands of her drenched mane that had gotten into her mouth. On wobbling, dripping legs, the pony stood.

"You don't know that, and you can't say that about him, princess!" she cried out, struggling to get her volume to reach over the roaring wind. "You're the princess of all that is good and pure, and you – you should be able to see the goodness in everyone!" She stomped a hoof to punctuate her sentence, studying the translucent princess's reaction.

"He is the only exception," Celestia continued; "His being is all that is tainted in this world – the pain, the disasters. He thrives off it and he is born from it."

Fluttershy shook her head indignantly, wrapping her hooves around her shivering body and squeezing shut her cyan blue eyes. "I won't be..believe it! He may be bad..but-but he isn't all bad! I-I have taken care of him for weeks now and he has never hurt me or anyone.. Please, try to see this my way!" she pleaded into the gray clouds.

Celestia's sad, violet eyes bored into her, sympathetically shaking her head once more. "Fluttershy, you are letting your heart take over your mind, and it could be what will lead to your death."

A chill of fright zapped the pony from her spine to her hooves, but she forced herself to stand tall and not allow her knees to buckle once more. How sincere and convincing would she look to the princess quivering and crying like a filly?

"Your highness, please don't take him away.. Oh, pl-please don't encase him in stone again!"

Celestia's decision was unmoved by this pitiful prayer, and her ghost like form was beginning to fade out from the storm clouds, causing Fluttershy to panic and cry desperately to the sky, begging not to be left alone again. A pale hoof emerged from the cloud, and the little pegasus desperately tried to reach out to it, but an unseen force yanked her back.

"He's coming!" Celestia cried, voice shaking in fear. "Run, Fluttershy! Run! Abandon your kindness; it my be the only thing that will save your life!"

"No, listen!" Fluttershy hopelessly sobbed to the clouds, finally letting her fragile body crumble into the thick mud. "Please...listen to..meee.."

There was a sudden splinter, the tree slamming into the soft, wet earth before the pegasus could even move. She shrieked as her tail got caught under the cement like branch, but the little pegasus was too tired to fight. She only watched on in horror as a sudden domino effect occurred, and it seemed like the entire forest was falling in.

Then, he emerged from behind the shadows. His twisted and zig-zagged body towered over the tallest pine tree of the forest, and thick saliva stuck to a row of needle sharp teeth. His single snaggle tooth was accented by about ten others, and some thin and sharp, reaching over his chin and up into his nostril. Those tiny red flecks in his eyes now covered his sockets without an iris or a pupil. It was only a sea of blood red. The paper like spikes on his tail were now a barrage of thick pointed thorns; some reaching almost ten feet.

Fluttershy felt an eerie calmness; well, either that or her body was absolutely consumed in numbness by the sudden onset of fear. Her throat was sticky and her lungs twisted together, siphoning off almost all her oxygen. Still, the pegasus managed to gather enough to whisper this:

"That's not you."

He uttered a deep and sickening laugh, long snake neck slithering towards her, fangs bared and gently, teasingly, pricking her face.

"Oh, don't like the new look, my little pony? I could have sworn you were frightened of the way I looked before!" Without waiting for an answer, Discord blew a casual streak of flame into a few trees, engulfing a good portion of the forest in fire.

Fluttershy finally managed to force out a strangled scream as she watched the once beautiful and luscious green forest become a huge, smouldering ball of crackling fire, and she watched the animals screech, chirp, and squeak in panic as they stumbled through the bushes to avoid the deadly kiss of the embers.

"Discord!" she wailed, "please oh please, stop this!" Once again he only gave a throaty laugh and the pegasus screamed as his eagle talon – far sharper and curved than she remembered – slammed her into the tree, drawing blood. Her body jarred with pain, but the usually sensitive pegasus was completely wiped and could only give a feeble squeak of agony.

The monster laughed cruelly, watching as the pony slid limply down the tree and back into the mud.

"What's wrong with you, dear? Shouldn't you be happy? After all, all you wanted was for me to be better and I'm as healthy as a horse." He sneered down at the barely conscious pony. "Well, healthier than you, anyways."

Fluttershy's eyelids were getting heavy, and she seemed to have been slammed harder than she thought. She gave in to her impending demise, flopping onto her side and watching as his body slithered closer to her in the air, teeth prepared to sink into her butter colored flesh.

That's when the form swooped her up in his arms, his tail almost getting bitten clean off the bone as he did. He flew up, beating his mismatched wings against the wind and rain, holding the limp pony tightly in his arms. For just a moment, his eyes settled on the demon before him and he stared, looking as if he couldn't fathom what he was seeing. Finally, shaking his head, he disappeared past the clouds.

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Fluttershy was still screaming, and her voice was barely more than a raspy whisper by this point; gone from the nightmare and the day's traumatic ordeal. Still thrashing, the pegasus desperately and incoherently scrambled a hoof through the air, trying to find any familiar part of him to cling onto. Though – after that horrific nightmare – did she really want to?

Finally, she opened her blood shot eyes, realizing she was at the very end of the bed (no wonder she couldn't find him), and almost hanging off the side. Fluttershy was almost too terrified to turn back and look at him. What would she find? That demon with those massively sharp teeth and blood red eyes? Ready to rip off her legs and her flanks, and her-

She turned around. No. No demon. Just a very confused (and worried?) draconequus still bandaged, laying on his side and studying her horror stricken face.

He decided to state the obvious: "bad dream?" His only response was for the pegasus to sob and bury herself deep into his furry chest. By now, all her cries were barely audible squeaked out little wheezes, and she was utterly exhausted. Her entire body was shaking and the pegasus pony was ghastly white, looking ready to throw up.

"I..it was just..." Fluttershy shuddered down a sob and some bile, comforted by the warm cinnamon fur. "Just a little nightmare...it's over now." Her tone indicated that she wasn't trying to convince him, but herself. She repeated the mantra consistently, voice drowning out and slurring in exhaustion. Right before her head flopped back down into the blankets and his chest, a paw wedged itself under her chin.

"So, care to elaborate, my dear~?"

She immediately averted her eyes away from him, focusing them past him, towards the moon. There was no way she could tell him; he'd think she's completely lost her mind! Either that or..come to think of it, would he actually be..hurt she dreamed that way about him? Well she knew she had to say something fast; his expression was just becoming more and more suspicious.

There was no other choice but to fabricate a little lie:

"I..I just dreamed this weird furry l-little green monster chased me is all.. It was nothing too big, but-" she forced out a nervous laugh "-you know me and monsters!" She could tell he wasn't buying this lie, and his expression was becoming more and more grim looking, hard red eyes focused on her.

"Interesting.." he finally said; "Even if your Element isn't 'honesty', I still never expected you to be such a blatant liar."

Fluttershy cowered lowly, her lips squeezing shut so tightly it felt as if someone had pulled a thread through and was yanking it. "What?" she barely squeaked. "I-I'm not ly-lying!" Oh, she was horrible at this, and here ponies thought Applejack was the worst liar.

Discord smirked and laid back. "I'm not sure what's more insulting: the fact you dreamed me as such a hideous..creature, or that you have the audacity to lie straight to my face about it."

Now the squeak was probably only audible to the dogs and large eared animals outside. "What?"

The draconequus sat up, looking quite disgruntled and annoyed, twisted mouth turned into a slightly pouting frown. "I mean, fine, I understand you dreaming of me all...'evil' – but the drooling, foaming, and disgusting fangs? Oh indeed! You could have at least dreamed of a more gentleman rendition of my evil self~"

Still getting over the shock of what he just said, Fluttershy forced a smile when she saw that he was trying to make light of the situation.

"How did you even know?"

Discord blinked, then scoffed as if the pony's question was the most ridiculous he had ever heard. "Oh, what, how little do you think of my powers? Honestly, my dear; I can shape shift into a balloon, a butterfly – just about anything, and you think my power's influence don't go as far as to invade dreams as well?"

The pegasus lowered her head, conflicting emotions visibly going across her face. On one hand, it was incredibly sweet for him to enter her nightmare and save her unconscious state from being tormented further. On the other hand, well, she couldn't help but feel slightly freaked out and violated.

"Oh, well...th-thank you. I wanted that nightmare done as soon as possible."

Well, true that he had invaded her mind, her dream – one of the only places she could just be by herself without any worries (if a monster wasn't chasing her, that is), but he had only done it because he was worried about her. Oh, the racket she must have made for the past hour! Perhaps it would have been easier to simply shake her awake, but when it really came down to it she wouldn't want to have been jolted awake only seconds after the beast had consumed her.

"How..often do you invade dreams, may I ask?" she whispered. He turned sharply towards her and the pegasus immediately cowered again when she could tell she had offended him.

"Oh? You're implying that you didn't wish for me to end that horrific nightmare?" he asked casually. "Shall I send you back into it?" Discord smirked wickedly, teasingly pressing his fingers together, about to snap them. "Come to think of it, I am interested to see if that demon me was going to have you for a snack or not." He snickered at the pure pale horror on Fluttershy's face. "Shall we see how the events are going to pan out~?"

"No!" Fluttershy cried, grabbing his claw, not having realized he was joking. "No, please.. I am very grateful – I swear it! It was just a question, and I th-thank you again for taking me out of that nightmare." She lowered her head. "And I'm sorry I dreamed of you being so...such a demon."

The draconequus's playful smile dropped, replace by a look of solid confusion. He tilted his head, chuckling awkwardly. "You apologize for the weirdest things."

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The dream spasms seemed to become a regiment of life quickly for both Discord and Fluttershy, and they occurred almost every night. Discord was soon familiar with Fluttershy's screams – that could honestly reach quite a volume. He also grew accustomed with spending a portion of his night in her dreams to yank her out of them if things got too bad. More often than not, he'd usually just alter the dream and turn it into a pleasant little paradise.

Fluttershy had also gotten used to something new in her routine: pranks. Pranks, and lots of them. It became natural for food to turn into bouncy balls, and for plates to turn into pizza or pie. Banana peels on the rug and glue on chairs and couches was also a norm in the cottage. Fluttershy never complained too much. After all, he could do so much worse!

The question that both tried to avoid was inevitable to come up in their minds, but they tried to keep it out of conversation. ...What would happen when he got better? He was already getting much stronger, and had managed to take his first step down onto the ground after not even a month had passed. Soon, he wouldn't need Fluttershy's help anymore..but where would he go? For that matter, what would he do? Go back to planning to thrust Equestria in chaos?

...Or back into stone?

It was a question Fluttershy tried not to think of, but the possibility of her time with him coming to an end wasn't something she could easily stop from racking her brain. She wondered how her friends would take it; they had actually grown to kind of like him. Well, Pinkie had.

For that matter, how would he take it?

The pendulum of dwindling time was still ticking that morning when Fluttershy awoke early to go take care of her flowers. Light was already beginning to seep through the windows, so Discord was woken early as well, and just in time to see that rosette, curled little tail slip out of the door.

The draconequus rolled over (oh, how good it felt to finally roll over!), annoyed that the little pony just went out and left him. This was supposed to be his first day outside, and he wasn't sure if he could make it out there on his own; as degrading as it was having to resort to asking a pony for help.

The draconequus rubbed the sleep from his eyes, realizing he'd have to try and make it outside on his own, since the stupid little filly forgot about him. For the first time in weeks, he flexed his stiff, reforming wings, stifling a yelp of pain as they made a painful ping from having been neglected for so long. His legs lifted into the air, as did his tail, which he wagged excitedly. Oh finally – he could move again!

Fluttershy's eyes widened when she saw the slightly aggravated creature emerge from her cottage doorway. His wings were flapping insistently, happy to be flying. However, he was glaring, and the pony just sort of smiled nervously. She no longer cowered when he got angry.

"Forget about me, did you?"

Fluttershy giggled, absently turning to her flowers and pouring a clear stream of water into the soft dirt. "Oh no, not at all. I thought I'd come out here early to tend to my flowers and animals, since I'd be helping you the rest of the day."

She looked him up and down, beaming with pride, her heart swelling. She had feared he wouldn't ever be able to move again, and now he was flying! "Oh, look at you! You're flying again!" Gently, she grabbed and happily wiggled a blue wing.

"Flying, yes, at least that I can do," Discord muttered, glaring at his feet in contempt. "But I still can't put too much weight down on my feet, so I still can't walk." He then smirked, breezily floating upwards. "Thank Equestria for magic." To his chagrin, he noticed the pegasus had turned her head away. It was hard to keep Fluttershy's attention when she was busy caring for nature.

The pony dipped her honey colored head and rose mane, taking in a deep, heavenly inhale of her carnations. "Carnations are my favorite flowers, and these have come along nicely. What do you think, Discord?"

The spirit only gave a childish pout, crossing his arms and leering down at the delicate little flower. "It would look better as a lollipop." A mischievous spark alighted those ruby eyes.

"Oh, come on, Discord, for once just try and see the beauty in nature before you decide to destroy it." But her sentence fell on deaf ears, and the pony watched in annoyance as her beautiful little carnation became a carnival lollipop. Quite delectable looking. The pegasus only sighed and turned to the gleeful draconequus. "At least it's pretty in the garden.."

Discord sniggered, but it trailed off quickly as the meaning to Fluttershy's previous words ran through his head. She was right: he couldn't remember the last time he had actually looked at nature. Though he often admired Equestria's natural beauty, it never looked right to him unless it had some sort of unbalance to it. Such as fluffy white clouds turning pink and pouring chocolate rain.

"Oh come now," he grinned, getting back on track. "You must admit that it's much more pretty and-" he whisked the lollipop out of the ground, running his snake like tongue over its slick surface. "-much more tasty!"

The pony sighed, tentatively taking the lollipop flower back and tucking it back into the soil. Well, it did look pretty cute with all of the other flowers, and – albeit – tasty looking too.

"Well, alright...just one flower isn't too bad." Fluttershy noticed the playful smirk on his face as he slowly slunk away from her through the air. Feeling a tad uneasy, she tried not to think about it as she sprinkled some fertilizer into the soil. Still, from the corner of an eye she could see his twisted shape – then the talon reaching out as it slowly went to poke a carnation.

"Oh no!" Fluttershy reeled up on her hind legs, galloping towards the snickering draconequus, crying out in shock as a row of her beautiful carnations were turned into an assortment of lollipops. "Discord!"

Discord gleefully curled his tail out of her reach, laughing and smirking down at the frantic pony. "Oh come now, you really think I take orders from a little pony~? I abide by my own rules!"

"Heey!" Fluttershy squealed, watching as a few of her other carnations suddenly became dripping creamsicles. "Discord, my garden! Come on – stop it!"

Only snickering to himself, the spirit continued on with his work, only stopping long enough to turn one of her flowers into some sort of carnival treat, and then repeated the process over with another part of her garden, even turning her bushes into cotton candy, and the berries into gumballs!

Fluttershy panted, finally whipping out her wings and taking off after him. Oh, he was quick, zipping and zagging everywhere, up and down, and in circles to try and confuse her. Unfortunately for him, Fluttershy had practice with tricky fliers do to her many races and games of tag with Rainbow Dash in Cloudsdale. She caught up fast, and promptly latched herself onto the end of his tail.

Discord yelped at the sudden weight, snapping his head down to look at the gleeful and smirking little pegasus firmly wrapped around his tail. Glowering, he tried to shake her off and continue his flower make over, but the pegasus started to scale up his tail.

"Oh, I'll save my flowers if it is the last thing I do..!" Fluttershy panted, climbing further up the soft pink spikes.

The draconequus squirmed and wriggled in the air; her hooves tickled as they clung to his stomach. He flicked his tail desperately, an involuntary snicker bursting out. "Let go! Th-that tickles!" he growled, and the little pegasus drew back her hooves instantly.

"Oh, I'm very sorry..." Then, a devious smirk more fitting on Rainbow Dash spread over her face. "Ohhhhhh, does it?" Blue eyes sparkling with mirth, the pegasus – still keeping her back hooves wrapped around Discord's tail – dug her hooves gently into the furry belly. Giggles fizzed out when Discord gave a squeal that sounded like it belonged to a filly.

"No-!" He was really shaking his tail now, completely forgetting about his quest to 'edible-tize' all of the flowers. Fluttershy just laughed with the additive fun of the rocking tail. "You miscreant foal; I'll turn you into a rocking horse!"

"No, I don't think you will," Fluttershy laughed, her hooves migrating up his sides and back to his stomach. "You can barely stay airborne."

The laughter was no longer repressed as Discord finally lost his concentration on flying; all thoughts consumed by the torturous and gentle tickling. He tumbled to the ground, and Fluttershy still clung to his stomach, somersaulted with him.

When the rolling finally ceased, Fluttershy was standing on his stomach, gently pushing him into the grass so he couldn't move. She continued the playful assault; her tickling pokes and scribbles gentle and slow, but it still sent the draconequus into hysterical laughter. The spirit's claw ominously raising and briefly glowing - only to fizzle to nothing as the tickling consumed his concentration. This was horrible! Element of Kindness? More like Element of TORTURE!


"G-get o-hohoff!" the gasping and laughing spirit pleaded, vermillion eyes watering as the gentle hooves concentrated right in the center of his tummy. "Sto-hohohop!"

The garden struggle lasted for several minutes, until Fluttershy emerged triumphant, nibbling on a cotton candy stick that Discord had summoned as a last minute peace offering. The pegasus sat on the spirit's belly, drinking in her moment while Dicord laid there in the grass, voice nearly gone from his laughter.

"The clouds are beautiful today," Fluttershy mused, quite giddy for someone who's flora had all been turned into candy. (Well, how many ponies could say they had just forced the spirit of chaos himself mercilessly into the grass? In fact, who thought Fluttershy could ever say it?)

Discord was still nursing his poor voice as he gazed at the disfigured fluff the pegasus was pointing to. "Oh, for Equestria's sake – haven't you ever seen true cloud creations, my dear?" With a shaking talon, he snapped his fingers, and the cloud turned into a giant butterfly – a butterfly that was actually flapping through the air.

Fluttershy smiled at the soft misty form, and watched as he made two other baby ones appear. "Oh, those are lovely; you're right. I do love the natural beauty of the clouds too though.."

"Gag; you like all the natural beauty of things. Why can't you like a little chaos~?"

At that, Fluttershy had to smirk. "I would really like to ask you the same thing about natural beauty."

Discord casually shrugged, arms tucked nonchalantly behind his back. "It's just fine...it's just boring." He made a 'gag me' face. "Boring and too normal! Too much normality makes me shudder. Celestia has become so boring; she used to be so exciting and unpredictable when we were younger."

Fluttershy laughed. "Celestia isn't boring..she just – well, she likes having some order in her land."

"Order can't exist without some unbalance and chaos."

Fluttershy blinked, stunned. That was actually a valid point. It brought up another question – the one they had been trying desperately to avoid. "What's going to happen after this? "Are...you going to go back in stone?"

The smile had completely fallen from Discord's face, replaced with a grim faced and hazed over worry. "...I don't know."

The pegasus hesitated; she couldn't imagine the psychological torture one had to go through being paralyzed in a statue for thousands of years, not able to speak or move or blink, or sleep. It was like death. No, it was worse than death. On some level, the pegasus was actually wondering how Celestia had the heart to do such a thing to him.

"...Discord? What's it...like being encased in stone? What was it like..turning into stone?" If she really had to endure the pain of losing him, she just needed to know the process didn't hurt. His words did not comfort her:

"It's indescribable; the pain is unimaginable. It feels as if every muscle in your body is twisting into knots and ripping apart, and you can only watch in horror as you're paralyzed and your body grows colder.

What ever condition you're in when you go into stone, you remain when you come out of it. When I was first imprisoned, I was hungry...and I really had to go to the bathroom. Needless to say, the first thing I did when I broke free was run to the nearest courtyard bathroom." He quirked a smirk, attempting to coax a smile from Fluttershy, but the pony was positively heartbroken.

"It's really that bad?" Fluttershy whispered, eyes brimming with tears. She had begun to turn into stone she recalled from the cockatrice incident, but then again, the cockatrice was not an all powerful force like the Elements.

Discord sighed, trying to keep from snapping. He really hated talking about his punishment; it was a terrible experience that he never wanted to go through again. ...And it was one he probably would.

"Yes, Fluttershy, it's that bad. I wasn't kidding when I said I don't turn ponies into stone.”

A thought came to the pegasus's head: "Not even Celestia?"

"..." That mischievous sparkle came back to those red eyes. "No, I'd just send Celestia to the moon."

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Fluttershy quietly trotted over the stretching hills of Canterlot, scarcely remembering how tedious the walk was. Honestly, even flying it would be hard on her wings. She wasn't as good of a flier as Rainbow Dash. Doubtlessly, Rainbow Dash would have possibly conked out mid way through the journey.

A pastel glow was over taking the hills, bathing them in a rainbow hue, the golden sun becoming a sunset orange as it started to dip over the horizon. The moon was already slipping up from behind the palace, and distant stars dotted the twilight sky.

Fluttershy had to force herself to keep from collapsing as she finally reached towards the palace doors with a shaking hoof.

"Halt!" Fluttershy squealed as a lance almost came down on the tip of her hoof, and she cowered against the porcelain tiles.

"State thy name!"

Fluttershy's words came tumbling out. "I-Idunno!"

"I repeat," the guard boomed, stamping a hoof, "state thy name!" The stone look was mixed with confusion when the little pegasus started to cry.

"I-I don't have a name; I'll just go home..." She started to trot away, then it hit her. What was she doing? If she ran away now, then there would be no hope in saving Discord from his fate. After all these weeks of living with the spirit of disharmony, she should fear nothing! Standing up to a guard was a start.

"My-my name is Fluttershy." The pegasus stood boldly, proudly, puffing out her chest. "Fluttershy!"

Both guards looked at each other, awestruck. "Fluttershy? The Element Of Kindness? Helped bring Equestria's evil spirit to justice and defeat Nightmare Moon?"

The pegasus felt her chest tighten in anger and her eyes prickle at their little name for Discord. None the less, she shook it off; they didn't know him like she did.

"Yes. Th-that Fluttershy."

"Doust thee wish to have an audience with the princess?"

"Ye-yes, please. Is she available? Can I come in?"

The guard nodded, pulling open the large doors. Fluttershy forgot just how..spacious the palace was. It was pretty intimidating; the corridors seemed to stretch forever. She had been here before, but most of her attention had been directed to Celestia as she told them all the story of Discord. The spirit she was so sure was a vicious and heartless beast. Had this only been a month ago?

"Right in there." The guard's voice startled her out of her thoughts. "Through that door. We are sure the princess will be thrilled to see thee."

"Oh, well, that's wonderful to he-" Fluttershy turned, and they were gone. She was suddenly alone at the entrance to the throne room. Intimidated, the pegasus peered up, and discovered the door was so tall that she couldn't even see the top from where she was standing. Taking a deep breath, she pushed through the throne room doors. There was no turning back now.

Celestia's eyes had been scanning over a few scrolls when she heard the doors swing open and shut. The alicorn half expected it was her sister that had just trotted in, but her purple eyes were met with those green ones, burning with passion.

"Oh my, Fluttershy!" She smiled. "What a pleasant surprise." Fluttershy didn't respond, and the princess watched as she silently and nonchalantly strode towards the throne. "Dear? Is something wrong?"

Fluttershy took a deep breath, determination set on her face. "Princess, I need to speak with you."

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(Discord, you giddy little idiot. Probably made him too silly in this one, but hey, he just got out of bed for the first time in a month. XD What were you expecting? Dream scenarios will be a natural occurrence, but they're to get brutal and most will be Discord's nightmares of a few dark slivers from his past.

Even though I don't think there's really much more in the next few chapters, tickle punishments are a regular for Discord in my fics. XD Mostly by the feather duster, which I believe is discovered in chapter eight. Which is also especially true in "Payback Is A`" in which Discord torments the girls in a black out and with help of Fluttershy, they manage to grab, pin, and tickle him for a half hour. XD That's a collaborated story.

....Well, what else did you want her to do? Whip him? That's more a job for Applejack~)