PAST
Fluttershy left Twilight’s library alone and terrified. She was very, very aware that Discord was still out there. She wanted more than anything to just go home and hide under her bed until this was all over but Celestia was counting on them.
She squeaked in terror when she slipped on the soapy road and landed on her face, sliding forward a few feet. A couple, much braver, ponies were skating on the road to get to their own homes. Fluttershy hobbled to her feet and attempted to do the same but as soon as she pushed herself forward, the soapy road vanished and again she fell over.
“Ow,” she muttered, gazing at the stone road that had reappeared. She didn’t trust for it to remain a stable walking path and flapped her wings to raise herself into the air and fly home instead. Luckily there were no longer any cotton candy clouds or chocolate milk rain, leaving the sky perfectly clear. She wasn’t the only pegasus taking advantage of the clear skies. There were a few helping their earth pony friends down from their floating houses or heading back straight to Cloudsdale.
As Fluttershy gazed at a few of the ponies, she noticed some of the floating houses began to wobble. She stopped and looked on in horror as one by one, houses fell out of the sky and onto the checkered and polka dotted ground. Ponies screamed and scattered, desperate to avoid the falling debris. The ground, which had been turned into multiple lumpy hills, was now flattening itself back to normal, throwing several ponies off balance as they ran. Ponyville was now in a completely different state of chaos.
As much as she wanted to help, Fluttershy grew concerned over her own cottage and all the animals she housed there. The idea of one of them being squashed by her home had her fighting back tears and she flew toward it as fast as her wings could carry her.
To her surprise, her cottage seemed…
Perfectly normal.
She landed in front of the door and raised a hoof to open it but was forced to the ground by a white blur. She would have screamed if she hadn’t recognized it had been Angel Bunny who had tackled her. Thankfully, his body had returned to normal. She didn’t have much time to think it over because Angel was bouncing up and down on top of her, squeaking frantically and pointing at the door to her cottage.
“Good heavens, what’s wrong, Angel?” Fluttershy asked. She realized that was a dumb question. What wasn’t wrong today?
Angel pulled up one of his hind legs and pointed to it frantically, then made a long gesture. He hopped off Fluttershy and jerked a paw at the door again. When Fluttershy just frowned and stood up, he displayed his buckteeth and used his paws to make a downwards triangle motion from his mouth and twitched his ears up so that they almost looked like horns. Afterwards, he pulled at his fluffy tail so it became just a smidge longer and bounced up and down, flapping his arms like wings.
“A…. animal?” Fluttershy asked.
Angel smacked himself in the face and took a deep breath and nodded. He pointed at Fluttershy.
“A pony?”
He nodded but then straightened his ears to look like horns.
“A… a ram? A goat? A deer?”
Another nod. He showed his buck teeth and made clawing motions with his paws.
“F-Fangs and claws?!”
Usually Fluttershy cared for all animals, but this seemed to be a predator that Angel was very scared of so his continuous nodding was beginning to make her shiver. He then began flapping his arms like wings, still showing his teeth as if fangs.
“Bat? A dragon?”
He pointed at her wing.
“Pegasus. No, a bird?”
He slapped his limbs to his side and went on the ground, slithering toward her.
“A-A snake?”
Fluttershy gasped when it all became clear. The head of a pony, horns, antlers. A snaggletooth and claws. A bat wing and a Pegasus wing. The body the shape of a serpent. This wasn’t multiple animals, it was all one being.
“It’s-It’s Discord,” Fluttershy whispered, her entire body trembling. “Angel you’ve seen him? Where is he?”
He pointed at her cottage door and Fluttershy’s legs gave in.
Discord. In her cottage. Why there of all places? She could feel the tears of terror welling up in her eyes and desperately tried to calm herself down. She had to stick to the plan.
“A-Angel,” Fluttershy called softly. “You have to get Twilight or Rarity. They have a plan.”
Angel gazed at her worriedly, reluctant to leave her.
“I have to stay and make sure he doesn’t move. Just hurry. Hop as fast as you can! Please, be careful.”
Her closest companion saluted her and darted away down the road to Ponyville, leaving her alone. Fluttershy swallowed and look back at the door to her cottage. It blurred and tilted and she squeezed her eyes shut a few times to keep everything focused. She had to keep an eye on Discord. Take a shuddering breath, she went to the side of the door and peered through the window.
She had expected the inside of the cottage to be a chaotic mess. Instead, it was just like the outside of her cottage. Normal, except for the creature floating in the middle of it who was far from normal as far as appearances went. She couldn’t tell what he was doing, but his body was surrounded by an aura of magic and his eyes were swirling black and indigo. He looked possessed and it did nothing to ease Fluttershy’s fear. What did was what she spotted on the table.
The Elements of Harmony.
Fluttershy gasped softly. They were right there! All the power they needed to seal Discord up for good was right in the middle of her home resting on a pillow. The Element of Kindness seemed to sparkle when her eyes landed on it specifically. A part of her wanted to creep inside the house and steal the Elements right out from under Discord’s nose but another part knew that she’d never be able to pull it off.
She squeaked loudly when the aura around Discord pulsed and spread out to Ponyville. From where she stood she could see the polka dots and checkerboard patterns had vanished and the natural Equestrian foliage had returned. What in the name of Celestia was Discord doing?
‘Is he… trying to put things back to normal?’
That seemed out of character for him but aside from the collateral damage, Ponyville was almost back to the way it was before. If he was really trying to put everything back to normal, she was sure he would have been able to do that with a snap of his fingers. She turned back to look through the window and saw the aura around Discord had dissipated. He was blinking his eyes multiple times until they swirled back to their original colors and met hers dead-on.
Fluttershy bleated and fell from the window onto her back, legs sticking out straight and stiff, frozen in fear.
There was a crack and a flash and Discord was hovering over her, long neck arched so that his face was only inches from hers. A jar that held some green goop hung from his neck and tapped against her chest.
“Oh ho, if it isn’t Fluttershy,” Discord crooned.
She tucked her hooves closer to her chest and stared up, terrified. Her thoughts had come to a halt and it was impossible for her to find her voice. All that went through her mind was his evil chuckle and her wings disappearing and him yelling at her and corrupting her to be the opposite of her true nature. She had no idea what to do and he seemed to be waiting for a reply she could not give.
“Somepony once told me that spying wasn’t a very polite thing to do,” he added. “No, not very polite at all. Downright rude even.”
Fluttershy whimpered.
He drew back immediately and gave her an odd look, then shook his head and sighed.
“I suppose you’re wondering what I am doing in your home of all places?”
She could barely manage a few squeaks and instead settled for a curt nod, completely thrown off by his conversationalist tone.
“I seem to have misplaced myself. I am very far from home, you see. I must return posthaste. A few friends of mine may be in terrible danger.”
Fluttershy’s ear twitched. Friends? Discord had friends? She still couldn’t find her voice to press for more information. She also couldn’t decide if this was a trick. How could Discord have friends if he had been imprisoned in stone for so long?
‘He looks sad, though…’
Sad or not, he caused Equestria and Celestia and her friends a lot of grief. He was mean.
“Anywhooo, I ended up at your cottage by mistake. I had no idea you’d be home so soon,” he continued. He flashed her a grin. “Tell you what, I’ll forgive your spying if you forgive me for trespassing into your home! How does that sound?”
She had no idea what to say to that. All that came out of her mouth were squeaks and whines. His grin faltered and he began to look frustrated with himself. His ears flattened and he cleared his throat.
“I’ll just get out of your mane then,” he said, floating a bit further back.
Fluttershy began to panic. He couldn’t leave! Not right now, not when this was a perfect opportunity to put that spell on Discord or even manage to take the Elements from him.
“Wait!” she screeched, shocking him and making him flip in midair to look back down at her.
She forgot she was still on her back and quickly righted herself. Discord was still floating in place, waiting (surprisingly) patiently.
“Wait?” he pressed.
“Yes! Wait. You have to stay for um… um…” Fluttershy kicked open the door to her cottage, her eyes darted around to find anything that’d make him stay. They landed on an empty teapot and she darted toward it, lifting it up high to show him. “Tea!”
“Tea,” Discord repeated. He floated into the cottage.
She nodded so hard she practically felt her brain rattle around in her skull. “Yes! Tea! It’s tea time and-and you can’t leave!”
“You want to have tea. With me.” She was awful at lying when she was terrified. It was obvious to her that Discord didn’t believe her for a second. She could not for the life of her figure out why he was going along with it. “Do you regularly have tea with anypony who trespasses on your property or put Ponyville in a state of pure chaos?”
“All-All the time!”
Fluttershy could have sworn she heard him chuckle as he went past her to take a seat on one of her cushioned chairs. It took a lot of willpower to get herself to start preparing the tea for her unusual guest and she was reluctant to turn her back towards him. She also knew she had to keep him from getting bored or else he’d either turn her house upside down or leave before her friends could get here.
“Do you have a preference of tea?” she asked after leaving her kettle over a fire.
“Anything you have is fine,” he said, waving a paw and looking around the cottage as if he hadn’t spent who-knew-how-long in it already. His eyes went over the Elements of Harmony and he frowned, snapping his fingers and vanishing them with a flash. Fluttershy tried not to show her wince and disappointment but she knew he caught it and that thought made her tremble even more. What if he got angry that this was all a ruse?
“Perhaps this is a bad idea,” Discord said, standing up from his seat.
“No!” Fluttershy shouted. In a fit of boldness, she rushed forward and used a hoof to firmly push him back into his seat, staring him straight in the eye. “Stay!”
Discord sat down roughly, eyes wide with surprise and mouth gaping as he stared at her. She was almost confident he’d stay in place until he blinked and snapped his mouth closed, scowling.
“Did you just try using The Stare one me?” he asked, sounding insulted. He stood up from his seat once again, this time at full height and the reality of his size crashed down on Fluttershy. She gasped and backed away swiftly. She hadn’t even been aware she was using The Stare but she knew it was true. Worst of all, Discord knew she tried using it.
He took a step forward and she cowered before him, covering her eyes with her hooves. “I-I’m sorry. I-“
“…This was definitely a bad idea.”
‘This is it,’ Fluttershy thought. ‘This is it. He’s going to destroy me.’
Crack!
“Fluttershy! Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy peeked from under her hooves from the familiar voice. Discord was no longer in front of her. It was a white unicorn. Rarity.
Fluttershy’s eyes watered as she stared at her friend and she scrambled to stand up straight.
“Fluttershy, you were so brave!” Rarity said, closing the distance between them and wrapping a hoof around her.
“Rarity,” Fluttershy whispered, unable to believe it. Angel was balanced on Rarity’s back and hopped onto the floor to hug Fluttershy’s leg. “What… happened to Discord?”
“He vanished,” Rarity replied. “I only just got here in time to see you stand up to that creature. It’s quite a shame the stare didn’t work but it did buy me just enough time to cast a spell.”
“You did it? That’s great!”
Rarity glanced at the ground. “I do hope it works. He didn’t seem to feel a thing. Like I told Rainbow Dash, I’m not at the same skillset as Twilight and that was a rather difficult spell.” She took a deep breath. “The only thing we can do now is wait and see. Perhaps Twilight will be able to reinforce the spell if she comes across him. More importantly, dear, are you alright?”
Fluttershy shuffled her wings and stretched her legs, making sure each of her limbs were accounted for. “I think so.”
“I wonder why he chose to come to your cottage of all places? I was sure he’d visit Twilight first.”
“He said he was misplaced.” Fluttershy frowned as she recalled what Discord said. “He said he needed to get home. His friends were in danger. It was so strange.”
“He certainly didn’t seem to be in any hurry when he was waiting for you to serve him tea of all things.” Rarity nodded to herself. “It must have been some kind of deception. A part of a scheme he is devising. We must keep our heads straight and tell the others what’s happened at once.”