Chapter 7
"Joy is gone from our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning."—Lamentations 5:15
Fluttershy whimpered in her sleep but quieted as Discord cupped the back of her head. He twined his fingers into her mane, pondering this new situation. He had dreamed about her many times over the past year but in his previous dreams she had always been awake. Why was it different this time around?
While he was considering the various possibilities, she suddenly began stirring as if waking up. Looking back down at her, he saw her stretching her forelegs as her eyes began flickering open.
But wait! Why was her body going transparent again?! He tried to hang onto her but once again she vanished right before his eyes.
"Oh, come on!" he howled, pulling at his face in aggravation. "All I want is to dream I'm with Fluttershy without having to worry about explaining why I left! Is that so much to ask?! Honestly!"
She had invaded his dreams constantly for the past year no matter how hard he tried to keep her off his mind and now when he did want to see her, he seemed to hit nothing but snags!
Fluttershy slowly stirred awake, feeling oddly refreshed. She couldn't remember many details from her dream the previous night, but she could remember a vague sensation that had almost felt like Discord holding her.
Then she lifted her head from the pillow and felt a familiar sense of disappointment as she realized that it was only her blanket wrapped around her. This was swiftly followed by a mixture of grief as the memory of her friends' murders came rushing back, and guilt that she could find the thought of their accused murderer's embrace comforting.
It's because your stupid heart still doesn't want him to be guilty. But what actual proof do you have that he didn't do it? She leaned back and covered her eyes with her hooves. She wanted to cry but her eyes felt dry and scratchy, as if she had used up all her tears the night before. Massaging her eyelids, she tried to remember details from the two murder scenes. What if there had been some clue back there to his innocence? Some clue that she had been too shocked at the time to recognize.
But all she could picture in her mind was a sort of gruesome haze. It was as if her mind had blocked out all the details to spare her the pain of having to see them again. Any other time, this might have been a blessing but now...
Now to think that there might be some vital clues in those scenes that she just couldn't remember was maddening!
You'll have to ask Discord to come help you take a look at those memories, a small sarcastic voice in the back of her head muttered as she thought longingly of that day when her former partner had first helped her discover clues that had been hidden in her own memory while they were investigating Applejack's disappearance...
Fluttershy's heart skipped a beat. Had Applejack been in the crowd the day before?! What about Rarity?! She couldn't remember seeing either of them and the thought sent an unpleasant chill rolling down her spine. Were they all right? Or would she later discover that they had been murdered in the same manner as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash?!
She sprang out of her bed and raced outside, spreading her wings and flying off in the direction of Sweet Apple Acres. Was it cooler today than it had been yesterday, or was it her own anxiety making her shiver? Either way, she was panting and trembling by the time she reached the farm and knocked on its house's front door. For a few tense seconds there was no answer, but then the door opened to reveal a surprised-looking Applejack.
"Fluttershy, you all right?"
Fluttershy visibly slumped with relief at the sight of her friend. "Yes, yes, I'm just glad to see you. I didn't see you or Rarity yesterday in town when..." She trailed off, wondering if Applejack had heard about their friends' murders and Discord's supposed guilt. How could she bring something like that up if Applejack hadn't heard?
At the moment Applejack held up her right hoof, revealing a pink heart-shaped charm attached to it. "When Twilight was giving these out? I wasn't there. I was hiding out here." Her tone took on an annoyed edge. "Trying to avoid a certain stallion that can't take a hint." Then her tone went back to normal. "But Big Mac was there and he brought an extra one of these charms back for me."
"So ... you know about Rainbow Dash and Pinkie?"
Applejack nodded sadly. "Rarity told me about Pinkie yesterday when she stopped by to take Apple Bloom to Amberlocks' Orchards."
That must have been why I didn't see Rarity yesterday, Fluttershy thought.
"And I heard about Rainbow Dash later from Big Mac," Applejack's voice cracked on the last syllable, but she didn't break down and cry. Instead she briefly looked away and shook herself before turning back to Fluttershy. "Say, you, uh, want to come in? It's pretty chilly out there."
"Sure." Now that Applejack pointed it out, it was rather cold. As Fluttershy came in, she noticed that there was a bunch of papers spread out over a nearby table. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, going over arrangements for Granny Smith's funeral."
"I'm sorry, Applejack," Fluttershy said, brushing her friend's shoulder with a wing.
"It's all right," Applejack murmured. "I'm just thankful Big Mac, Apple Bloom, and I all got to spend one last year with her." She hesitated a bit then added, "To be honest, I think I'm kind of glad she wasn't around to hear about Rainbow and Pinkie... It's ... kind of hard knowing they won't be there."
"Applejack ... do you really think Discord murdered them?"
Applejack looked at her questioningly. "Are you saying you don't think he's guilty?"
"I..." Fluttershy hesitated, then plunged on. "I don't want to believe he did it! I just... He saved my life, Applejack! He helped me find you—" And he also ran out on you right after that, a little voice in the back of her head pointed out.
"I know how you're feeling," Applejack sighed. "I'd likely still be hiding out at the Crystal Empire if it weren't for him, so I don't like the idea of him murdering two of our best friends... but I just don't see any other explanation."
Fluttershy lowered her head. She wasn't sure exactly what she had expected from Applejack. Maybe support considering that like her, Applejack was in the unique position of owing the draconequus. But it looked like Fluttershy was alone in her doubt regarding Discord's guilt.
"Say," said Applejack, trying again to break the awkward silence that was stretching between them. "I was just going to take a break from this," she gestured toward the papers on the table, "and make some cider. Would you care to join me?"
"Okay."
When she followed Applejack into the kitchen, Fluttershy noticed several cups and saucepans of cider along with several bottles of powdered gemstones.
"Are you making Sparkling Cider?" Fluttershy had thought that was a product Applejack made only at Amberlocks' Orchards, wanting to keep its high-class association separate from her simpler farm life at Sweet Apple Acres.
"Sort of. I'm trying to make some with extra gem powder in it called Dragon Edition. Rarity suggested it a while back as a gift for Spike since he likes the regular Sparkling Cider so much. But if I put too much powder in, it'll be like drinking wet sand so I haven't figured out what's the right amount to add yet. You'll probably just want regular cider," she added as she took two tankards from where they were drying by the sink. As she lifted them, Fluttershy noticed a tiny alligator was standing behind them, staring out the window.
"What's Gummy doing here?"
"Oh, Rarity brought him when she came to pick up Apple Bloom. One of us is going to try and take him back to Pinkie's family at some point. He's just been staring out the window like that since he got here. I think he might be watching for Pinkie."
Just like—Fluttershy's eyes went wide. Tank! Oh no! Oh dear! With everything else that had been going on yesterday, she had completely forgotten about Tank! Was he all right? Haystings had mentioned the tortoise was supposed to be getting ready to hibernate. Had the tech-ponies found him or was he still shut up in that room?
What kind of animal-caretaker are you to just forget about a poor tortoise like that? Fluttershy thought, mentally calling herself every foul name she could think of, which admittedly by most ponies' standards wasn't very many.
"I'm sorry, Applejack, but I have to go. I just remembered I need to check on something."
"Oh," Applejack looked surprised but quickly recovered. "Well, see you later then."
Fluttershy flew as fast as she could to the cloudominium. It was closed up with police tape, but several tech-ponies were coming out of it.
"Excuse me," said Fluttershy, landing in front of them, "but did any of you see a tortoise in there yesterday or today?"
"Oh yeah, we brought him out and that little masked pony offered to take him off our hooves."
Ah, so Highflyer must have Tank. But where was the wrestler keeping him? She didn't know where Highflyer was staying, but maybe she could check the gym. If he and Screwjob had been reserving that one room to work out in, maybe they had to give the gym some address or point of contact.
When she got back to Ponyville, she noticed that there seemed to be no ponies out and about. It also seemed much drearier than usual and the police tape closing off Sugarcube Corner didn't help.
The gym was open, but seemed to be mostly empty.
"Hello?" she asked, poking her head in. There was no answer, but then her ears picked up the drumroll of rapid blows punctuated with grunts coming from the direction of that room towards the back where Rainbow Dash had taken them...
Had it really only been two days ago?
She padded softly over to the room's double doors, and cautiously pushed one open. Peeking inside, she saw Highflyer at one end of the room, standing up on his hind legs in front of a punching bag, grunting as he throttled it with his front hooves. He had replaced his green mask and shirt from the day before with a mask and wrestling pants that were red with black-and-blue trim.
"No! No! No!" a voice Fluttershy recognized as Screwjob's suddenly shouted from the other side of the room. "That one goes there! That one goes there!"
She swung around in the direction of his voice to see him on a large practice mat with his purple-and-turquoise spandex-clad rear in the air and his bandaged forelegs stretched out in front of him. Scootaloo was sitting next to him with her forelegs around his neck. Suddenly in a move Fluttershy couldn't quite follow, he yanked his head out from under Scootaloo's foreleg, knocked her backward, and rolled her up, wrapping his forelegs around her hind ones in a way that prevented her from kicking out of the position.
"When you get bigger guys like me down on the mat, you have to flatten us out and you have to do it fast if you want to lock that hold in! Come on, Loo! Focus!"
"I'm trying, but it's not easy to concentrate on this after what happened to Rainbow Dash!" Scootaloo's voice was sharp but there was an undercurrent of tears in it.
Screwjob sighed and realeased her. "You know, maybe you should go find something else to do, kid. Rainbow Dash's death has made you too upset to focus on your wrestling moves."
"Highflyer's working out," Scootaloo muttered as she rolled into a sitting position.
"Yeah, but that's Highflyer. He always works out. If he's happy, he works out. If he's sad, he works out. If he's bored, he works out. If he's tired, he sleeps until he can go work out some more."
At this point, the tiny stallion in question suddenly made a noise that was half-grunt, half-growl, swapped ends, and began kicking the bag with one hoof and then the other, back and forth, back and forth, his tiny legs blurring with the speed.
Screwjob glanced over at him before turning back to Scootaloo. "He's a professional, kid, so all that working out is in his job description, but it's not in yours."
"I know, but I don't feel right just letting it slide after all the work Rainbow Dash went to finding him and getting things set up."
Then both their attention and Fluttershy's was jerked back onto Highflyer as he slammed both back hooves into the punching bag at the same time, causing it to swing even farther back than it had earlier. Fluttershy was afraid it would smack into him, but the tiny wrestler just spun around, leapt up and front-kicked the punching bag before bouncing off it and landing on all fours out of its reach. He was breathing hard and his wings were spread out from his body, rising and falling with each breath.
"Besides, what else have I got to do now?" The pain in Scootaloo's voice was obvious and Screwjob could only sit back on his haunches as well, unable to add anything. Watching Highflyer seemed to harden Scootaloo's resolve. "If he can keep going, so can I."
"Good, I knew you'd be able to," said Highflyer, giving the first indication that he had heard their conversation, and bounded toward the wrestling ring. He leapt up onto one of the top ropes and balanced there for a second before jumping down onto the mat. There was something almost defiant in his movements as he paced back and forth, waiting for Scootaloo to join him.
"High—" Screwjob started to say as Scootaloo climbed into the ring.
"Can it, Jobs," the masked pony snapped.
"O-kay."
As the two pegasi circled each other, looking for an opening, Screwjob glanced around the room, and noticed Fluttershy still poking her head in through the door.
"Ah, Fluttershy, come in," he said, going over to her. "What can I do you for?"
Fluttershy stepped into the room. "Actually I was here to see Highflyer," she glanced over at the ring where the two flightless pegasi were now grappling. "But it looks like he's a bit busy right now."
"Hmm, yes, busy," Screwjob murmured, looking back toward the ring as well. His thick black brows were furrowed in their usual upward worried slant but this time there was no smile to balance them out.
"Screwjob, do you think they should be sparring like that?" Fluttershy asked. "I mean you told Scootaloo that you didn't think she should while she's upset, and Highflyer... well—"
"I know. Considering he spent all last night breaking a stack of boards down to a pile of splinters, I wouldn't say he's taking your friends' deaths well." He glanced over at her. "Sorry to hear about that by the way. I liked those two."
Fluttershy nodded in acknowledgement before looking back toward the ring in time to see Scootaloo and Highflyer wrench apart and start circling each other a second time. Despite the fact that they couldn't have been sparring for more than a minute or so, both were already breathing heavily. And maybe it was just because he was wearing that red mask with the black lining around its eyeholes, but Highflyer's normally warm summer-sky blue eyes now looked icy cold.
Then the two ponies came together a second time and Scootaloo managed to catch Highflyer in a headlock. She was trying to force him down onto the mat, but instead the smaller pegasus was dragging her about as he tried to get loose, ramming both of them against the ropes and ring posts, almost as if he didn't care how much of a pounding he and Scootaloo both might get in the process.
Fluttershy winced at the sight. "Screwjob, don't you think you should get in there and stop them?"
"Maybe, but I never stop Highflyer when he's sparring. He's a pretty even-tempered easy-going guy except when it comes to two things. One is somepony playing mix-and-match with his wardrobe, and the other is somepony trying to tell him how far he can push himself physically. I can call him names and insult him with impunity, but if I implied that his emotions are preventing him from performing at his usual level, I'd get a kick in the head for my trou—"
At that moment, Highflyer twisted free of Scootaloo's grasp. She went after him, apparently intending to grab him from behind, but the masked pegasus ducked under her reach, brought both his hind legs up, and delivered a fierce kick. Screwjob and Fluttershy both gasped as the tiny wrestler's hooves slammed into Scootaloo's side with a loud Crack! The young mare cried out as the force of the blow lifted her clear off her hooves. She fell back to the mat in an awkward heap, moaning and clutching her side.
"Hold it!" Screwjob shouted, shot forward, and—despite his lack of wings—virtually flew over the ring ropes. In this time, Highflyer had spun around and gasped at the sight of Scootaloo lying there curled up. Then Screwjob tackled him.
"Get off!" Highflyer shouted but the bigger stallion just pinned him down.
"Fluttershy, check if that kid's okay!" Screwjob called over his shoulder. His command snapped Fluttershy out of her state of frozen shock and she hurried forward.
"Get off!" Highflyer shouted again.
"Forget it, pal!"
"Get. Off. Jobber!"
"Okay, one more peep out of you, and I'll bust that surgically-repaired spine of yours!" Screwjob shot back. "Fluttershy, how's the kid?"
"It's not so—" Scootaloo started to say as she tried to sit up, but then fell back. "Ow, ow, ow," she half-whispered, half-groaned, clearly trying not to scream.
"Don't try to move," Fluttershy warned her. "You've got some pretty nasty bruising where you ... got kicked."
At these words, all the fight seemed to go out of Highflyer and he slumped in Screwjob's grip.
"We should probably get a doctor to look at her," Fluttershy said, turning to the two wrestlers. "To make sure none of her ribs are broken or anything like that."
"Right," said Screwjob, letting go of Highflyer and jumping out of the ring.
The masked pony stumbled toward Scootaloo, then winced and looked away when he saw the bruises forming on her side. "Oh, kid, I'm sorry."
"Here, help me get her on my back," said Screwjob, walking over to the side of the ring. He had several towels draped over his back like a makeshift saddle. Together Fluttershy and Highflyer lifted Scootaloo through the ring ropes and settled her on Screwjob's broad back. They tried to be gentle, but Scootaloo still couldn't keep from crying out as they moved her.
"Kid, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Highflyer kept repeating the whole time.
Once Scootaloo was settled on Screwjob's back with her forelegs around his neck, the tall wrestler took a few experimental steps to see how quickly he could move without bouncing her about too much. Highflyer hooked his front hooves over the top rope, as if intending to pull himself up onto it and from there launch himself out of the ring, but then Screwjob turned around and shook his head.
"Uh, uh, you stay there. Fluttershy had something she wanted to talk to you about. Oh, and just to leave you with a little dignity," Screwjob leaned down, causing Scootaloo to groan as her position on his back shifted, ("Sorry, kid.") picked up one of the extra towels that had fallen to the floor, and tossed it so that it landed on Highflyer's head. "There," he said in a clipped tone. "You're covered. Now hand it over."
Fluttershy wondered what he was talking about, but then Highflyer reached under the towel now covering his head and neck. She heard the rip of Velcro strips being pulled apart, and when Highflyer brought his hooves back out from under the towel, one of them was holding his mask. He dropped the mask over the ring rope into Screwjob's waiting hoof.
"Thank you," said Screwjob. Transferring the mask to his mouth, he turned and headed for the room's double doors.
Fluttershy wondered why he had demanded his fellow wrestler's mask, but before she could ask, Highflyer turned his towel-covered head in her direction and pushed the towel back enough so that he could see out from under it, but not enough so that she could see his face. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"I was wondering if you knew where Tank is."
"Oh, he's here. Over by the water cooler. Come on, I'll show you." He hauled himself up on the rope again, and this time jumped to the floor, somehow managing to keep the towel on his head. Fluttershy fluttered after him. As they neared the cooler, she noticed a red, black, and blue lump next to it. She guessed the lump was one of Highflyer's shirts and this turned out to be correct, but the reason it currently looked so lumpy was because Tank was underneath it. The tortoise seemed to be asleep but as they reached him, he jerked awake, blinking and yawning.
"I'm worried about him," said Highflyer. "I tried taking him outside yesterday so he could hibernate, but all he did was keep wandering about, nodding off for a bit, then starting awake like that again. I tried to explain to him about Ray being ... you know, gone, but I don't think he understood. Maybe you can do something with him." Highflyer started to reach toward the tortoise, but then pulled his hoof back, retreated several steps and sat down. Trembling, he pressed his front hooves into the towel where Fluttershy guessed his eyes must be.
"Highflyer, are you okay?"
"I don't know." He sounded confused. "I've never just snapped and lashed out like that before."
"You mean with Scootaloo? Highflyer, that was an accident. Everypony makes mistake—"
"I don't! At least ... not like that. Not when I'm wrestling."
"Oh, now that's just ridiculous." Fluttershy said impatiently. "I may not know as much about wrestling as you do, but even I know accidents can happen and ponies can get injured." As she said this, Fluttershy suddenly wondered why she was defending Highflyer. Shouldn't she be angry with him for injuring Scootaloo?
Highflyer sighed. "You don't get it, Fluttershy. When I'm sparring or wrestling. I'm always focused and aware of what I'm doing. I have to be. I might not be that big, but my kicks can do some serious damage if I'm not careful to pull them. You saw what I did to her! I'd be worried about Screwjob if I gave him a kick like that and he's trained to handle it! What if I broke her ribs?! I've had my own ribs broken before and it's not pleasant."
"Maybe you should try doing something other than wrestling and sparring for a bit," Fluttershy suggested, trying to steer him onto a different, hopefully less upsetting, topic. "Like Screwjob mentioned to Scootaloo."
There was another sigh from underneath the towel. "I don't really know what else to do. Working out is how I've always gotten my mind off things in the past, and I was trying to do it now to get my mind off Ray..."
"But it's not working?" Fluttershy prodded gently.
"No, not really," he admitted, massaging small circles into the towel over where his eyes must be. "Ray and I had so many plans for how we were going to spend my time off and now there's just ... nothing. I had so much I wanted to tell her, and ask her, and—"
"Um, Highflyer, can I ask you something a bit ... personal?"
"I guess so."
"Did you ask Rainbow Dash to marry you?"
His head jerked up. "What makes you ask that?"
"Well, do you know Derpy?"
"No, but Ray mentioned that she wanted to meet me."
"Well, she told me that Rainbow Dash went to her for marriage advice, and I just wondered—"
"No, I didn't ask her to marry me, but I... Well ... I was planning to ask her to ... wait for me."
"Wait for you?"
"I know what being a Wonderbolt means—meant—to her, and I didn't want her to feel like she had to choose between that and me. So I was going to ask her if she'd be willing to wait on our relationship until I retired from wrestling."
Fluttershy raised her eyebrows. "Until you retired?" Highflyer wasn't that old—in fact, if she remembered correctly he was actually a bit younger than both her and Rainbow Dash—so how long had he been expecting her friend to wait? As if sensing this unvoiced question, Highflyer laughed wryly.
"I'm in pretty good condition considering what I do, but the fact is my body is beat up, Fluttershy. I've had to have surgeries on all four of my legs, and various other parts of my body, my joints and back often hurt, and I have to spend a lot of my mornings just trying to limber up."
This admission surprised Fluttershy, considering that over the past few days she had seen Highflyer tumble about with all the skill of a well-trained gymnast. "You don't move like your body hurts."
"Eh, high pain-tolerance," he said, shrugging his wings. They were hanging limply at his sides rather than folded in against his body, providing an unobstructed view of his spine and ribcage tattoos. Now as Fluttershy looked at his back—really looked at it—she noticed for the first time that underneath all that ink it was a virtual map of scars. "And I'm used to working through it, but it doesn't change the fact that my body takes a lot of punishment."
Fluttershy's gaze continued to roam over his scars. "Then why do you keep wrestling?"
He shrugged again. "I like it, strange as that might sound. I like it and I'm good at it. But I'm also aware of the fact that at some point I won't physically be able to do it anymore." He let out a shuddering sigh. "And I honestly thought I'd be out of it long before Ray retired from the Wonderbolts," he added almost to himself.
Fluttershy put a comforting hoof on his back, understanding how he felt. She and her friends had faced many dangers together over the years, but deep down she had never really expected a situation like this current one—that two of her friends would be ripped away so suddenly and violently—to happen.
At that moment the double doors opened and in came Screwjob with Scootaloo at his side. The young mare's middle was wrapped in bandages, and she was wincing and leaning against the wrestler, but at least her injury didn't seem so bad that she couldn't walk. Fluttershy noticed she was holding her wings low to her sides but then caught the edge of what were most likely ice packs held under them. Highflyer hurried over to the pair, and after pausing to pick up Tank, shirt and all, Fluttershy followed him. Screwjob tossed Highflyer's mask back to him. The tiny stallion caught it, and put it on underneath the towel before shucking off said towel. Fluttershy couldn't be sure but she thought his eyes looked wetter and shinier than usual.
"How bad is it?" he asked Scootaloo.
She forced a smile, but it came out looking more like a grimace. "Hurts."
"The good news is her ribs aren't broken," said Screwjob. "You gave her some serious bruising and maybe some cracks—we won't know for sure without x-rays—but nothing was actually broken as far as I can tell. Still, she should probably go rest at home and not do any more sparring until she's healed up. Which could be several days, if not weeks."
At that moment one of the double doors behind them eased open, and Tank—who up until then had been trying with little success not to fall back asleep—was suddenly wide awake and thrashing about, shaking the shirt wrapped around him off, and shoving his stumpy legs against Fluttershy's chest as if trying to get free of her grasp.
The four ponies looked to the door to see one of the gym's staff ponies poking her head in the room. "Excuse me, I couldn't help but overhear you mentioning that one of you might not be able to work out for several days, and if that's the case, you can probably get a bit of a refund by changing this room's reservation from 'reserved for three' to 'reserved for two.'"
"In that case, you can change it to 'reserved for one,' since I won't be working out here either," said Highflyer.
Screwjob raised one impressive eyebrow. "And what exactly do you plan to do with yourself in the meantime?"
"Leave Ponyville before I do something else I'll regret."
Scootaloo stared at him. "You're leaving?! You can't just leave now!"
Highflyer backed away from her, the expression in his eyes uncomfortable. "After what I just did to you, I'm not sure I can trust myself around other ponies right now."
"But what about Derpy and her girls?" Fluttershy asked, looking up from trying to hold onto the squirming turtle. "They really wanted to meet you."
Highflyer shook his masked head. "I don't think now is a good time for me to visit them."
"Oh, come on," said Screwjob. "You'd probably just talk with them. It's not like you'd suddenly flip out and start throwing kicks and punches."
"Up until today, I'd agree with you," Highflyer muttered, his eyes going to the bandages circling Scootaloo's midsection, before turning back to the pony still poking her head through the open door. "Change this room's reservation to 'one' if Screwjob's planning to stick around."
"Will do," she said, pulling her head back out of the room. As the door shut, all the fight seemed to go out of Tank, and he just hung from Fluttershy's grasp. She wondered if being so close to the open door had prompted him to try escaping outside to continue searching for Rainbow Dash.
"Fluttershy," Scootaloo said, jerking her out of these thoughts. "Can I take Tank home with me?"
Fluttershy's first impulse was to say no, that Tank would be best off with her, but this response died in her throat as she looked up to meet Scootaloo's gaze. The young mare had just lost her hero and been injured by a friend—even though Highflyer clearly felt nothing but regret for what he had done. Maybe ... maybe she needs Tank right now more than you do.
"Alright," said Fluttershy, setting Tank down next to Scootaloo. "You can take him for now, and I'll come check on him later, okay."
Highflyer retrieved the shirt that had fallen to the floor, and pulled it on before coming over to pick up Tank. "Come on, kid," he said, turning to Scootaloo. "I'll help the two of you get home. It's the least I can do."
"He is rattled," Screwjob muttered as the two flightless pegasi exited the room. "He never just throws a shirt on like that without changing out of his wrestling trunks. The trunks are business and the shirts are casual. He never wears them together."
"You're not just going to let him leave like that are you?"
"No, I intend to go talk some sense into his little masked noggin."
After leaving the gym, Fluttershy considered taking the train to see Rarity at Amberlocks' Orchards, but her visits with the other ponies had left her feeling oddly drained. Plus she kept thinking back to how Applejack believed Discord was guilty. Considering the fact that last year he had tricked Rarity into being the opposite of her true self, Rarity had even less reason to question Discord's guilt.
Now she lay on the floor of her cottage, staring up at the ceiling, wondering what to do. On the one hoof, she longed for the comfort and company of her friends, but on the other hoof the thought of being around them also reminded her just how alone she was in her feelings regarding Discord's innocence. Feelings that had no concrete proof to back them up!
Oh, if he's guilty, then please take this feeling away from me. Or if he's not, at least help me find some clue to prove it.
"Excuse me, gangway, coming through!" Screwjob cantered through the train station, dodging other ponies and keeping his eyes out for any sign of his masked friend. Finally he spotted Highflyer's trademark falcon motif in the bright reds, blacks, and blues the tiny stallion had opted to wear that day. Highflyer had changed out of his wrestling pants and was now sitting on the platform next to a trunk that Screwjob knew was loaded with even more pants, shirts, and masks of varying colors.
"High!" he barked, and Highflyer whipped around to see him. "Still set on leaving I see," said Screwjob, trotting up to his friend. "You feeling any better yet?"
"Shut up."
"Didn't think so. And you're not gonna feel any better getting on that train."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Because you're a natural-born face, High. You can't run out on other ponies without feeling like a louse. And that's just what you're trying to do now, running away with what's left of your sawed-off tail between your legs like a grade-A heel. And that's not who or what you are, son. Take it from somepony who's made a whole career out of being a heel. My advice to a face like you: Go visit that Derpy pony who wants to meet you. It'll do you some good. Plus, I think she might have inverted eye-crossarosis. How can you pass up an opportunity to see that?"
Highflyer sighed, and when he looked up there was a mixture of indecision and resignation in his blue eyes. "Thanks for the advice, Jobs, but I've already bought a ticket and the train's leaving in a few minutes. There isn't time to pay her a visit."
Meanwhile Discord was buried deep in his dream, trying to find Fluttershy yet again and getting more and more frustrated by the minute.
Alright! I'm not letting you disappear on me again! When I find you, I'm going to—
Boom!
Suddenly with no warning whatsoever, the draconequus was flung high into the air and came slamming down on a very uneven, very uncomfortable surface. Then he was snapped awake by sharp jabs of pain all over his body.
What was going on?!
Then he realized the tree he had been sleeping in had fallen over and since his bed had been straddling one of the tree's branches, the falling limb had taken the bed and his protective bubble down with it. The movement must have caused him to fall out of bed, and as he tumbled about in the protective bubble he must have flashed it away instinctively. And as if to add injury to insult, he had landed right in a large patch of brambles.
Upon realizing this, he flashed himself out of the brambles, but they had already given him plenty of scratches. Also all his tattoos had swarmed up his body to avoid the brambles and were now crowded together around the very top of his neck.
"Ugh! This is not my day!" he grumbled as he slapped at his tattoos to get them back into their usual locations, before he vanished in a flash of light.
Boom!
In her cottage, Fluttershy felt the same tremor that had rudely awakened Discord, though due to the fact that she was lying down on the floor, the results were not as dramatic.
What was that? An earthquake? Fluttershy rolled over onto her stomach and braced herself for another tremor, but none came.
At the train station, Highflyer and Screwjob also felt the tremor as did all the other ponies there.
"Woah! What was that?" asked Screwjob, looking around.
"I don't know," said Highflyer, also looking around. None of the other ponies around them seemed to know what was going on either.
Then the train's conductor came forward to address the crowd. "Everypony, I'm sorry, but it looks like the train won't be leaving for several hours while we send some ponies out to check that none of the tracks got torn up by that freak tremor."
At this news, Screwjob slowly turned to Highflyer, a smirk stretching across his face. "High, what was that you were saying about the train leaving in just a few minutes?"
"Shove it, Jobs," Highflyer muttered, but Screwjob's grin just widened. He could tell from Highflyer's voice that he had won.
"So you planning to spend the next several hours sitting here, twiddling your hooves, or you want to try paying Derpy a visit?"
"Well, there's just one problem with visiting her. I don't know where she lives."
Several minutes later Fluttershy got a knock on her front door and opened it to reveal Highflyer and Screwjob.
"Oh, come in."
"Can't stay long," said Highflyer even as they stepped inside and closed the door behind them. "We just came to get directions to Derpy's house."
"Then you are going to visit her?"
Highflyer nodded. "Me and Screwjob."
"Oh, that's so nice of you, Highflyer. She really has been wanting to meet you."
"What about me?" Screwjob asked in a mock-injured tone.
"And it's nice of you, Screwjob, to go along with Highflyer for moral support."
"Who said anything about supporting Highflyer? I'm just going for Derpy. I want to meet her and her eyes. You know I've never actually seen a pony with inverted eye-crossarosis before?"
"Jobs, that's not even a real medical condition," Highflyer muttered.
"It is so. My Aunt Moonshine has seen and cured multiple cases of eye-crossarosis. Both normal and inverted."
Highflyer snorted. "Yeah, and your Aunt Moonshine also doesn't believe in unicorns even though she is one."
Discord was far too ticked-off to put much thought into where he teleported to, and this turned out to be a mistake because when he appeared in the new location he was buried up to his ears in gemstones. On top of that, several parts of his anatomy had materialized through the gemstones! Not exactly the most pleasant experience so soon after getting raked by thorns. Yelping from the pain, the draconequus clawed his way to the top of the gemstone layer before teleporting out, leaving the gemstones that had gotten embedded in his body behind with the rest of the jewels. Floating above the pile of gems, he glared at them as he massaged his sore limbs and torso. His peripheral vision registered the fact that he was in a cave, and he felt an urge to start flinging the offending gems at the cave walls.
Oh, but that would be too good for them! he thought furiously and snapped his talons, causing half a dozen boots to appear and proceed punting the gems into the walls. While the boots did his grunt work, the draconequus allowed his feet to lower gingerly onto an undisturbed section of jewels.
His insides boiled with frustrated rage at the fact that he had been robbed of his opportunity to imagine he was with Fluttershy. He was angry at the way she had been snatched away from him not once but twice, and he was furious that he had been forced back awake before getting what he wanted. How had that happened anyway? What had caused—?
In the middle of this thought, he heard a deep rumbling growl behind him. Then he noticed that the boots were slowing their wild swinging down to an almost guilty prodding before stopping altogether. Discord grabbed his eyebrows and pulled them around to the back of his head. Each of his eyes moved with their respective eyebrows so that he was now looking behind himself without having to turn his head. Behind him were two large dragons, both of whom looked extremely angry at being awakened by his racket.
As he watched them, a sly smile crept across his muzzle. Perfect.
He let go of his eyebrows, and both they and his eyes snapped back around to the front of his head before he turned slowly on his heel to face the dragons.
"I know what you're thinking of doing, but I urge you to reconsider trying to eat me," he said conversationally. "Don't let this svelte physique fool you." He gestured sweepingly down at his long serpentine frame. "I may not look it, but I am loaded with nothing but saturated fat."
This did not seem to dissuade the dragons because one of them suddenly drew in a deep breath and launched a barrage of flames at the draconequus. All Discord's tattoos screeched and went scrambling down his body onto his hips and tail as the flames engulfed the top two-thirds of him.
Discord then proceeded to make a big show of running this way and that, comically screaming, "I'm on fire! Put me out! Put me out! Put me out!"
Finally he came to a sharp halt and dissolved into a pile of ashes. The dragon who had flamed on him snorted dismissively and started to turn away when the pile of ashes suddenly shot into the air and floated there like a cloud of flies before zooming up the dragon's nostrils. The dragon let out a loud sneeze that sent a second blast of flames through the cave and scattered gems into the cave's corners. The cloud of ashes reformed and glided toward the second dragon, who growled and swatted at the cloud with a wing. The ashes scattered out of the way only to reform their cloud seconds later. The cloud darted this way and that, jabbing tauntingly at the two dragons as they bit and swatted at it.
"What's the matter?" Discord's voice jeered, seeming to come from all around them. "Can't you hit me?"
Both the dragons roared furiously, and Discord responded with a mocking laugh.
"Oh, you can do better than that. Here, let me help you."
The ashes clumped together in a blob that unrolled into the draconequus. Scarcely had he straightened his long body out, then the second dragon lashed its claws out and seized him around the middle. The dragon growled in triumph, then suddenly realized it was holding only a clawful of fur and there was a half-naked draconequus floating just a short distance away.
Discord looked down at his de-furred body, shrieked in mock horror, and wrapped his arms around himself in false modesty. "Why of all the lowdown—I guess I'll just have to tail wrestle the pair of you." While he was saying this, one of his hands grasped his dragon tattoo and pulled it over his shoulder. Both the dragons bared their teeth and claws, ready to pounce on the draconequus as he pulled his tattoo hand-over-hand off his body. As the two dragons lunged, Discord gave the tattoo a sharp yank and it split into two dragon tattoos. Holding a tattoo in each hand, he drew them back like a pair of whips and swung them out toward the actual dragons. He released the tattoos and they shot past the dragons, snagging the two by their tails on the way. The dragons' jaws snapped shut just inches from Discord's head before they were suddenly yanked backward and flipped over by the tattoos. Each dragon tattoo morphed into a net that completely covered its respective dragon, before the two nets merged into one. Discord walked over to the trapped dragons, grabbed a corner of the ink net, and yanked it away. As soon as they were free of the net, the two dragons tried to lash out at him but neither of them could move!
"You didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?" Discord chuckled as the net shrank and morphed back into his dragon tattoo before he swung it over his shoulder and allowed it to wrap around his body. "Don't worry," he said as he retrieved his fur from the cave floor where it had gotten dropped during the tussle. "You'll be able to move again..." He swung his fur around his shoulders like a cloak and began doing it up in the front as if it had a line of buttons, then added with a chuckle. "In a couple of weeks. You might as well sleep until then."
Adjusting his fur, he marched over to the dragons—both of whom were still snarling in impotent rage—and bowed. "Well, it's been a pleasure, but I must be going now." As he straightened, a leather jacket appeared on his body and a motorcycle flashed into existence right next to him. He climbed aboard the motorcycle and a pair of folded sunglasses flashed into his hand. He opened the sunglasses with an exaggerated flick of the wrist and slipped them over his eyes. The motorcycle roared to life as he stepped down on the starter.
"Now if you ladies will excuse me, I have things to go and places to do," he said before he and bike vanished in a flash of light.