Discord stood outside her bedroom door, his paw ready to knock. Knocking was not something he did often- whenever he didn’t just let himself in somewhere, he could come up with something more creative than knocking, thank you very much. But this was a very special circumstance, one that required more tact than he normally used.
Even knowing this, his paw still refused to budge. The quiet sniffles he could hear didn’t help- while he wanted to make things better, those mournful sounds made him want to crawl into a hole out of shame.
With a small grunt, he used all his mental strength to force his paw, making a dull thud against the wood. Fluttershy's sniffling stopped, and he could hear light hoofsteps approaching the door. He tried to look meek and ashamed, which wasn’t very hard, since he felt very meek and ashamed.
She opened the door a crack, gazing at the draconequus with hung head with her watery teal eyes. Discord opened his mouth, but quickly closed it once he realized he hadn’t planned on what to say. “H-hi,” he mumbled.
Fluttershy gave him a look, then shifted her hoof, as though considering shutting it again. “Do you wanna talk?,” Discord burst quickly, before she could do something like that. She paused for a moment before nodding, opening the door to let him in.
The two of them sat at the foot of her bed, neither making eye contact with the other. Discord rubbed the back of his neck, while Fluttershy fiddled with her hooves in her lap. Neither wanted to be the one to speak first. Discord mentally grasped for straws to find a way to start the conversation. When he had one, he ran with it without thinking. “So, did the dress come from Rarity?”
The millisecond after it left his mouth, he knew it was a bad hoof to start on. This was confirmed when Fluttershy began whimpering again, her eyes filling with tears. He went into a panic. “Mulligan! Mulligan! Let me restart! Um…,” he trailed off, unable to grasp anything else to redo with in his state of panic. “Okay, I got nothing,” he groaned to himself.
Guess I need to go with this, then, he tried to joke with himself. Any humor deflated at the sight of Fluttershy's tears. “Um, what did I do wrong? I mean, aside from snooping…Ack, just tell me what’s upsetting you!” Fluttershy looked up at him from her hooves, which she had buried her face in. “It’s…hard to…talk about it,” she mumbled.
Discord fumbled with his hands as silence returned. At least she stopped crying. “We don’t have to talk of you want,” he babbled. “I could go. I could come back this evening, or tomorrow, or next week…” Fluttershy looked at him in alarm. “Do…do you want to leave?” Discord began sweating. “Well, um, yes, well no…” he babbled, before taking in a deep breath.
“I thought if I left, maybe you could have a good cry, and then we could talk.”
Fluttershy rubbed at her eyes. “No, w-we can talk. I don’t even know why I’m crying really. I guess I’m just,” she blushed “E-embarrassed.”
Discord wanted to stroke her mane- a habit of his- but figured it might make this situation awkward. So he kept his hands clenched in his lap. “Why don’t we start from the beginning- how did you get those papers?” She blushed again. “W-well, I realized after our last Tuesday Tea that I, um, really liked you,” She took a deep breath. “And then when I really started to think about, I realized that I-I,” she gulped. Her breath quickened, and she seemed to be preparing herself for something. He leaned closer wanting to make sure she was okay.
This small act seem to ready her, caused to her steel her nerve. With another deep breath, she burst out,
“I love you.” Discord inhaled sharply and drew back, his organs tieing into one large knot. But he bit his tongue, because he didn’t want her story to get off track.
“So I went to talk to Rarity about it, but before I could mention who I was attracted to, she gave me this,” she held out clumps of dress fabric, “and was teaching me how to sashay and speak seductively, to ask those,” she blushed, “Q-questions the way I did.”
“And when I left, she gave me those papers, telling me they were guaranteed to ‘snare any stallion'.” She began to sniffle again. “Oh, I feel so foolish! I looked over those papers all week, and I still can’t do any of it right! And this dress is so itchy and this makeup is too much work to maintain and I had to kick out my animal friends to keep everything quiet!” She wept into her hooves, mascara running down her cheeks.
“All of that, and I'm still horrible at it all!” She blubbered, and continued to sob about how terrible she was. It killed Discord to see her so distressed. He knew her had to do something. His idea was bold and probably stupid- to him, that was perfect.
He slithered his neck under her hooves, and kissed her on the lips.
It was a small, chaste kiss, with barely any pressure. It was difficult to even call it a kiss- easier to call it a blunder, where his lips happened to brush against hers. But this was deliberate, and they both knew that.
Fluttershy pulled away her hooves, looking in awe at Discord, who had now straightened up. “Fluttershy,” he began, “I care about you. And you are not a pony who wears itchy dresses and suffocating makeup to snare stallions.”
“You are kind to every creature, be it your animals or some monster like me. Fluttershy, you- you are amazing, and you don’t have to change a thing about you,” he said as he embraced her. "You are not terrible. You are, in fact, absolutely wonderful.
She eagerly returned the hug, nuzzling her face into his fur. He reached down with his claw and undid the tie on the dress. She cast it off quickly and began to scratch herself, relief flooding her face.
“Fluttershy,” he said seriously, “I-I don’t know much about love.” He hung his head. “I don’t think I love you.” She turned away, disappointed. “But I do care about you. I'd-I’d like to give this a shot. If you’d like, why don’t we go back to our tea, and…call it a date?”
She gasped with joy and flung her hooves around his neck. She started to rush downstairs, a large, sweet smile on her face. “No candles, this time!,” Discord called after her. At that, she stopped and turned to look at him, seeming to be considering something.
“Is something wr-" he was cut off when she flew at him, kissing him quickly on the side of his lips. There was more pressure to this kiss, but it was still just as short, lasting little more than a second. But if he had to list some of his best seconds, this one was at the top of Discord's list.
Fluttershy's lips were soft and warm. Though he disliked the taste of the lipgloss she was wearing, he could taste her lips from under it. They were they sweetest things he had tasted in his very long life. For that second, the two were in a state of bliss.
As Discord began to add his own pressure to this wonderful, wonderful kiss, Fluttershy pulled away, her face completely red. She ran down the stairs, and Discord saw the smile on her still-red face.
Discord sat stunned. He summonded up a handkercheif to rid his face of the sticky lipgloss. Though he was glad to have it gone, a part of him was sad it took with it the lingering taste of Fluttershy's lips. A lightbulb went off over his head. Ponies kiss after dates, he thought. If I play my cards right...
A mischievous smirk crept on his face, though his heart had gone crazy at the thought, beating wildly in his chest. And within that beating heart, a small glimmer of warmth, a strong feeling, began to shine through. Discord floated off of the bed and flew down the stairs, eager to begin the date with his new marefriend, and perhaps win another kiss from her.