//------------------------------//
// The Storm 
// Story: Healing 
// by korrasami_is_canon 
//------------------------------//

It was nice, seeing her friends.  It was really nice.  She couldn’t imagine what she’d been so scared of before, she almost didn’t want to leave the market.  But the snow was falling more heavily now, and the winds were starting to pick up.  She parted ways with Rarity and Rainbow Dash with plenty of nuzzles, agreeing to visit the Boutique when the snow let up.  Aside from Discord the past few days, she’d spent the better part of the past few weeks alone.  It was amazing how just half an hour with her friends could energized her so much.  It was nice.

And being in Ponyville was nice.  The bodies rushing in the market, however crowded it was, was a much welcome alternative to her mostly desolate cottage.  Time was still moving.  Plants were still growing, flowers blooming outside Ponyville.  It was quiet at her cottage, but that didn’t mean the entire world was frozen.  Life moved on without her, and it was as comforting as it was distancing.  But it was something.  And Fluttershy latched onto that.





The rushing wind and falling snow had morphed to a billowing storm.  Angel was content with stuffing himself and resting by the fire Discord kept burning, or lounging in Fluttershy’s soft bed.  He was use to sleeping through winter storms, so the rattling of the cottage and roaring of the wind eased him into a cozy slumber.

Fluttershy had also slowed down in wake of the weather.  She kindled what energy she could from seeing Rarity and Rainbow with board games, Discord more eager to play than Angel, but the storm swiftly snuffed it out.  Discord was in the kitchen now, baking cookies for them to decorate.  It was a rather tame activity for the draconequss, but he figured something mundane would comfort Fluttershy more than a boisterous activity.  So she sat by the window, the smell of Discord’s unique gingerbread and low hum of his singing easing her as the storm raged outside.  Barren branches snapped and wind howled.  The contrast with the fogging window and thrumming fire wrapped her in a distorted blanket of comfort and melancholy.

Time was still moving, she reminder herself, and beyond the piling show the town was still living.  She stood and moved to the kitchen, taking a seat as she watched Discord wind around the cabinets, pulling bowls and ingredients from thin air, occasionally plopping some cookie dough in front of her to pick at.  He was so colorful, dancing reds and blues bending at impossible angles as he maneuvered around everything.  Fluttershy couldn’t look away.