//------------------------------//
// Chaos 
// Story: Kindness and the Heart of Shadow 
// by Raven-Flight 
//------------------------------//

Discord alone could get in or out.  Not even another creature with dimension-hopping powers could access him here.  They wouldn’t even know where to look, for he was nowhere.  Not in the pony dimension, not in his home dimension, not in any of the thousands of worlds he’d explored, and not even in the liminal space that acted as the hallway between all those dimensions.  Discord was nowhere but his own pocket.

He could shift and shape this pocket dimension in any way he pleased, and right now, it was simply a swirling background of dim colors, devoid of any solid forms or gravitational center.  Discord melted himself into the colors and floated and flowed with them as he contemplated his profound solitude.

Coming here to escape angry, order-loving oppressors had always been a solace to Discord.  He could create any chaos he desired, however extreme, without consequence.  He could become the chaos; not just the physical embodiment thereof.  It would recharge him, and fulfill him, and inspire him to go out into real worlds again to share his finely-honed craft with the unappreciative masses.

But this time he came here, the first time in a very long time by pony reckoning, slipping into unbridled chaos just made Discord feel more empty.

What had happened?  Why wasn’t chaos enough anymore?

The chaos knew the answer, much as its embodied personality tried to forget.  Beside the dull colors that were Discord in this sublimely smudgy sea arose a few bright ones that did not belong.  Sunlight yellow.  Wild rose pink.  Just a splash of glittering teal.

Discord had no eyes to close against the apparition.

And he knew what it meant.  It was the one creature—the one creature in the untold millennia of Discord’s life—that gave chaos a chance and enjoyed it.  Yes, she truly appreciated it, and therefore him, for exactly what it was.  She was unprecedented.

And worse, her acceptance taught him that it was possible.  Possible to be appreciated.  Possible for chaos to complement harmony, without either degrading because of the other’s presence.  Possible to belong.

Fluttershy had made herself more than just a friend to chaos incarnate.  She had made herself precious to him.  Necessary.  Indeed, her kindness unwittingly changed the nature of the chaos.  Discord could feel it in him, his essence remaining as it ever was but flowing in new, powerful directions, and he did not fight the change.  It was good for chaos to have a context.  He was part of a whole now; he mattered, in more of a way than a mere nuisance ever could.  That’s how he needed her.  His friend, his context.

His savior from eternal isolation.

And what did he do with this precious creature?  He delighted in her attention.  He sought out her kindness.  He learned everything she had to teach.  He lo… well.

For how much he needed her, for how necessary she had become to his new mode of existence, Discord could not fathom that Fluttershy could ever be taken from him.  Not by anything short of her own aging, which Discord wasn’t sure even he could reverse.  But anything else, he was sure he could protect her from anything else.  He was so sure…

The dim colors grew dimmer and dimmer until there was only darkness unbounded.  Discord did not resume his physical form; he let himself exist as pure darkness.

What could be done?  Discord had known the day would come when his Fluttershy, his context, his meaning, would be gone.  But he was supposed to have time to prepare.  Time to learn how to exist in this new way without her.  To be independent again, but still connected to the whole and in awesome chaotic harmony with it.  She was supposed to teach him how.

Then Discord in the blackness became a nebula of horrible mahogany-red, pulsing and pulsing.   Something had to be done.  But what could be done?

Nothing.  Nothing without risking her life.

Or his.