Breaking the News · 5:51pm Jun 30th, 2017
If you're deathly afraid of even the slightest story spoiler, don't read past the break, at least not until you've read Shell Game. If you read Apple Knots and were wondering about Fluttershy’s planned night out, however, here's the start of the answer (and Shell Game is the rest of it):
Fluttershy sat at her dresser, studying her reflection. Hopefully she’d done everything right. Her lips were sparkly, her cheeks were slightly pinker than normal, and her mane shone like it was infused wth diamonds. Those were good signs, hopefully. The beauty supplies Rarity had lent her lay strewn across the bed. Some of the little bottles were now half-empty, their expensive and pungent contents lost down the sink thanks to her trembling, inexperienced hooves.
If it hadn’t been for Lotus giving her a massage a few hours before, even applying lipstick would’ve been an impossible task. Not that that really mattered, of course. He wouldn’t care if she applied the beauty products perfectly or mistook the eyeliner for blush. What mattered was that she’d said yes to a romantic evening at long last.
She leaned closer to the mirror, her attention drawn to a curious grey dot on her left temple. Where had that come from?
Two tiny yellow eyes with mismatched, red pupils appeared on the dot, and a wide grin followed.
Fluttershy gasped. “Discord!”
Discord appeared by her side in a lavender three piece suit, running a brush through his brushy eyebrows. “Oh my, is it time for the grand galloping gala already?”
“N-no… I’m just… going out with a friend.”
One of his hands stroked his beard, which promptly stroked back. “Hmm, no. That can’t possibly be true. Twilight is holed up in her letter-writing nook, Applejack is bucking trees in the dark for some deliciously bizarre reason, Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are off saving a friendship in who-cares-where, Rarity and Spike are committing disturbingly mundane crimes against natural selection, and unless I’m mistaken—” a small black book appeared in his other hand, its pages flipping back and forth at high speed, “—you haven’t asked me to RSVP for tonight.”
“I… um… I do have another friend.”
Discord’s suit morphed into a set of pajamas. He lay on his belly in midair, kicking his legs playfully. “Oooh, a secret friend! Do tell!”
“He’s not secret. It’s just… I wasn’t sure when to introduce the two of you.”
“Hmm, I do see how my greatness might be a bit much for the average mortal to comprehend… which is all the more reason for him to have a good dose of pure chaos in his life! Now who is this mysterious friend of yours, and when is he arriving? I simply must see the two of you off, not to mention remind him to have you home before midnight.”
He winked in such a normal, knowing way that she flushed bright red.
“Well… do you promise not to follow us, or scare him? I really wanted tonight to be for just the two of us.”
Discord nodded, again in such a calm way that Fluttershy knew he was being serious.
“Okay… It’s… kind of a long story.”
Fluttershy’s struggle with her crippling shyness seemed to be over, now that she had six best friends whisking her off on adventures on a regular basis. Her therapist had other ideas, such as her making a new pony friend all on her own. Her attempt to fulfill that challenge, by way of introducing herself to the first pony to cross her path, didn’t go at all like she expected.
A season one romance.
If you've ever wondered who Fluttershy was going on a date with in Apple Knots, wonder no more.
Thank you, JakeTheArmyGuy, for running a contest that finally gave me the impetus to get this story written.
I love Apple Knots !
That is a story I tend to re-read during times of stress.
Now let's see who 'Jittery' has a night out with.
It's exciting that "Shell Game" gets this nice little sequel, and I'm happy that the relationship progresses as this suggests.
I have to say, I'm not at all sure how to parse "disturbingly mundane crimes against natural selection." It's a great Discord line; I just can't make heads or tails of it.
Well, I can, I'm just not sure if I'm right.
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And your being mildly confused is probably exactly what Discord had in mind