//------------------------------// // May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 2 // Story: The Wife of the Old Draconequus // by misskoifishpony //------------------------------// “We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.” Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn May Chaotic Showers Bring About Beautiful Butterflies Part 2 Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes, waking up from her dreamless sleep, only to immediately be met with a pounding headache. Practically slamming her head back down, she tried her best to ponder what could have possibly caused this. Was she catching a cold? Or the flu? Fluttershy had never been a heavy sleeper, always on the alert for any fae that could come for her in the night. Curiosity too much to resist, Fluttershy slowly rose up, and, working to ignore some of the pain, she started to understand where her headache might be coming from. Suddenly, the memories began to rush in, almost too fast for her to process. It was all just a series of flashing images, the Cheshire grin of the feline fae she encountered in her dining room, Angel running away from her, the pitch black forest, multiple glowing green eyes stalking towards her, and a mysterious, but powerful beast with beaming red eyes. CLANK! Fluttershy looked down and was bewildered by the sight of a heavy, iron collar around her neck, connected to some equally heavy looking iron chains. Looking down further, she saw that the chains were connected to a pair of locked, iron restraints on her wrists. Her horror continued when she found that she didn’t have her clogs on. Or even socks on her feet. Her face flushed with shock, and her heart raced as she discovered that she was no longer in her school uniform; but rather, a white, collared shirt-like dress. “Who?” Fluttershy panicked in her mind, “Why am I in these clothes? ….Did…. did someone undress me while I was unconscious?!” Fluttershy began to hyperventilate, and in the midst of doing so, the poor girl almost fell off the lavinish, red and gold, lounging couch she’d found herself on. As she caught herself by one of the plush edges, Fluttershy noticed the kind of room she had been occupying in. It was an office, an extravagant one at that. Far lovelier than her own aunt’s back at Crystal Prep anyday. It was a large, wide open room, with tall and expanding windows that let a fair amount of sunlight inside, practically removing the need for any kind of artificial lighting. The walls and floors were made of the purest white marble, with priceless and beautiful paintings hanging across almost every square inch, red velvet curtains accompanied the sides of the window, and all the furniture in the room looked to be made of gold and silver. Fluttershy began to suddenly cough, as she accidentally took in the intoxicating air that filled the room. For whatever reason, the air contained a heavy odor of smoke; like a type of hard tobacco. Fluttershy remembered that her great uncle on her mother’s side used to smoke cigars on a daily basis, even on his deathbed. She distinctly recalled that even back then, she still couldn’t breathe in the midst of it. “Oh good, you’re finally awake.” A conniving, nasally male voice resonated in her ears, coming from a golden desk just straight ahead of where she was sitting. Seated at the table was a stout, giant half man, half naked mole rat if she had to guess based on his appearance. He wore a very clean, dashing black suit with a matching bow tie that contrasted heavily with his rather unappealing face. Adding to his attire was a black top hat, along with some golden goggles, which oddly enough, had rather cloudy looking lenses. The fae had sharp, pointed, yellow buck teeth and chiseled but dirty looking claws. “I was worried for a moment we’d have to sell a passed out Sleigh Beggy.” The naked mole rat man replied with a relieved yet smirk on his face that only served to further unnerve her. Ignoring her for the moment, he put his claw into his jacket pocket and pulled out a portable, silver, carved box and a small silver lighter. He opened the box, revealing it was filled with Cuban cigars. The fae smugly placed one of the cigars into his mouth and lit it. Letting out a very contented sigh, he breathed in and out the expensive aroma of the cigar, before exhaling a thin stream of potent smoke from his mouth. Meanwhile, Fluttershy’s mind was in a whirl. She...she was being sold? As a slave? To another fae? Or something else far worse than a fae? How could this be? She thought her darkest nightmares would involve being eaten by a fae just like her mother. But this...this was far more dire. “S-Sell?! Oh no, no, please! Y-You can’t do that!” Fluttershy desperately and loudly pleaded, “I’ll do what you want, whatever you please! Just please don’t sell me.” When he didn’t respond, she swallowed her fear as she tried a different tactic. “I’ll…” Though she had another potential solution to her situation, she felt disgusted with herself at even considering it as this new plan ran through her mind. Never in her worst dreams had she even joked about such an idea. To submit to this idea would be to submit to her own horrible imaginings. However,...Fluttershy never considered she would be in a situation where she would be sold as a slave in an underground magical black market. So, desperate times...called for truly desperate measures. “I’ll stay here, with you. I’ll be your precious Sleigh Beggy.” “Just please…” Fluttershy began to choke up, fighting back the tears she wanted to release at being forced to make such an offer. “Please don’t sell me. Don’t make me a slave, I beg you.” “I’m not just a Sleigh Beggy… ,” She thought to herself, “I’m a person too. Please, why can’t anyone see that?” Even though she didn’t want to be a slave to this creature either, she could at least find out where exactly she was, and how they kidnapped her. But more importantly, how to escape. It wasn’t ideal, but she felt safer trying her luck with this fae, as opposed to whatever unknown creature so fit to buy her. “Hmm, that’s a very tempting offer my little Bright Eyed Child.” With wide eyes, Fluttershy observed the creature walk away from his desk and stroll towards the couch in a calculated and dominating manner. With each step he took, his smirk only grew, his eyes roaming across every inch of her. He clenched hard on his cigar with his buck teeth, smoke still leaking through. When he stopped just a few inches away from the trembling girl, he grabbed her chin and blew fresh, hot smoke into her face. Fluttershy, by instant reaction, struggled in his grip, tears from the smoke and her own terror leaking as she tried to breathe. She tried to wipe away his dirty looking claws from her face, but it was no use. “Sadly I’m afraid, it’s not quite tempting enough.” The rodent-like fae remarked sinsterly. “You’re a real commodity, my child. Not selling you to the highest bidder would be wasting such a promising opportunity for me. And I can’t have that now can I?” As if he was throwing trash upon the floor, he shoved Fluttershy back onto the couch. The second the fae turned away, Fluttershy began to cry soft tears into the frilly pillows and completely crumble into the cushions. In an unsympathetic, tone reminiscent of a con man, the fae tried to comfort her with. “Now now, there, there my little Sleigh Beggy. Don’t cry. You’re rare. And rare things only go to the most prestigious of buyers. You’ll be well taken care of, I do assure you.” As she cried, more images from last night flashed in random sequence in her mind. Images of first seeing Angel the previous morning, him giving her a thumbs up from her book bag, and her holding her dear bunny in her arms as a pack of fae came crawling towards them. Fluttershy quickly sat up and realized aloud, “Wait, where’s Angel?!” The front door to the office opened and two grey, four foot, humanoid mole fae walked in. Just like their leader, they were dressed eloquently, in black suits with wearing foggy lensed, golden goggles. The only notable distinction was the lack of similar top hats. “Off we go boys! May sweet fortune smile on us today!” The naked mole rat fae joyously proclaimed, completely ignoring Fluttershy’s question. He walked towards the opened door and lead the way. “Wait, where’s Angel?! Please!” Fluttershy called out again, loudly yet hopelessly. Her eyes never leaving the leader of these rodent men. Suddenly, her chains were yanked hard. She was pulled off the couch and she fell upon the long clawed feet of the minions. “Don’t rough her up too much gentlemen,” The fae with the top hat remarked while still moving forward. “We still need her in mint condition if she’s going to be useful to anyone out there.” One of the minions nodded, pulling her back up by her chain while the other pulled her up by the back of her collar. While one pushed her along slightly with their claw from the behind, the other tugged her slightly forward. With each step Fluttershy kept protesting, raising her wrists high and pulling on the chains. She tried as hard as she could to keep her feet planted on the floor, loudly screaming with each step. “Please! Just tell me where my bunny is!” Fluttershy cried out. But, all the fae ignored her pleas. The minions kept forcibly urging her forward and their leader kept strolling by with a satisfied smile on his face. Despite the fact that they didn’t pay any mind to her demands or cries, despite the fact that they would never answer her question, Fluttershy knew she had to keep trying. She had to keep fighting. She may be fated into this life with the fae, but Angel wasn’t. He was a victim to it because he was her friend. She dragged him into this, and so, she would drag him out of it. She may not be strong and agile in comparison to the fae, but she had the foolish hope that her bunny was alive. That’s all that mattered to her right now. “Please, tell me that he’s alright! Angel!” With each step she took, she struggled to weigh her feet down as heavy as they could be, yet was still dragged by. “Angel!” With every tug of her chain, she would tug back. “Angel, can you hear me?! Angel!” Despite their insisted shushing and annoyance in their tone, she would not be silenced. “Mommy’s coming, just hang on! Angel!” When they finally reached the end of the luxurious marble hallway, they opened another grand set of doors, revealing a dark, spiraling, wooden stairway. However, despite her fear of the ominous darkness, Fluttershy still struggled in her chains, calling out to her bunny, hoping that she could hear him and that they could find their way towards each other again. Her voice, the sound of the chains clanking about, the creaking of their steps, everything boomed and echoed within the spiraling stairwell. They eventually reached the end of the stairs and opened a narrow looking, wooden door. As they entered through, it revealed an alleyway, congested with various blunky items that were still hard to see in the darkness. The only source of light came from the bottom of the left wall. And… was the left wall looked like it was moving lightly? Fluttershy could hear distinct murmuring of a crowd. Before she could question this, she realized that the leader of the two minions was no longer in front of them. He had completely disappeared. As her eyes frantically scanned for him, the two moles pushed Fluttershy to the center point of the alleyway. Once there, she found herself harshly positioned, facing the left wall. Fluttershy squinted in the dark in order to see just exactly what these two were doing to her, yet the only thing she could process was that the chain was somehow extending and connecting to something else. If Fluttershy had to guess, they were likely chaining her to the floor or to some kind of heavy weight, ensuring she couldn’t run away. Once the chain was connected, the two minions quickly left her. Now alone, Fluttershy yanked on her chain to see if one of her theories were true. The floor creaked and squeaked when she pulled on the chain, confirming she was firmly bound to the ground. Before Fluttershy could come up with a plan for escape, bright stage lights shined through, blinding her. Her ears could softly pick up the sound of curtains being opened. When she slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted by the ominous sight of a crowded theatre, with her on the center stage. What Fluttershy couldn’t see was the kind of audience that was facing her in that moment. Each potential buyer wore a distinguished, long robe made of the finest fabric, colored in various darkest hues. They also wore full face masks, coming in many different shapes, sizes, colors and designs. However, there was one thing that the masks had in common: the masks hide the eyes of those who wore them. It had the effect of making each individual look like an eery, masked ghost. Fluttershy couldn’t tell if the strangers before her were fae, human, or something else entirely, though that hardly mattered now. She had a bad feeling that whoever or whatever bought her... they would give her a future far from bright. Worse still, she would most likely never see her Angel again. “No, I can’t think like that”, Fluttershy mentally chasing away her doubts. “Even if I’m bought, I’ll find a way to escape and find Angel. I’ve always find a way to escape the fae before, and I’ll do it again now.” However, her thoughts and attention were quickly diverted by the sound of someone tapping on a microphone. She turned her head to the left and saw the cigar smoking fae she met earlier standing behind a wooden podium, a black microphone in his claws. “Ladies and gents!” He announced to all those in the audience, “For the item you’ve all been waiting for! They say that it couldn’t be done! They say that you couldn’t even if you tried! But here! Standing before you! With your very own eyes, I present to you... a Beloved Child of Glass!” Fluttershy jumped a little at the sound of excited and shocked sounding murmurs coming from the crowd. She pulled her conjoined wrists close to her chest, turning her body slightly from the audience in order to try to hide away from their gaze. “Pretty isn’t she?” The fae emphasized, “Not only is she just as beautiful as legend foretold, but she is also just as powerful. Deep within her delicate body lies years upon years of untapped magical potential. With that kind of magic, any one of you could perform any spell of any sort. Even spells of the dark arts.” “Shall we open the bidding at, oh I don’t know,” The mole rat fae auctioneer paused with a greedy yet giddy expression on his face. “Let’s go with... five hundred thousand pounds?” “One million!” A male voice quickly shouted from the audience. Then, Fluttershy quickly heard the fae at the podium announce, “I have one million pounds, thank you sir! Do I hear one million and two hundred?” “One point eight!” A female voice quickly blurted out from the audience. “This can’t be happening!” Fluttershy exclaimed in her mind, and focused on pulling herself free from her chains, the bids being the final nail to dissolve any delusions she had this was some kind of twisted dream. Sadly, despite how much she clearly struggled and grunted, everyone in the room ignored her and the auction continued forth. “I have one million and eight hundred pounds, do I hear two million pounds?” “Two million!” “Two point five!” “Two million and five hundred pounds! Do I hear two million and six hundred, ladies and gents?” The auctioneer asked eagerly, hoping for the price to reach at least five million within the next two minutes. Fluttershy’s yanking and pulling on her chain began to slow in it’s momentum. Sweat dripping down her forehead, her heart pounding in her chest, hands burnt with the imprint of the chains, and her arms and legs growing weaker with each minute. Her heart may be telling to not give up, but her body had other plans. She wanted to cry. She wanted to cry so bad. Fluttershy could already feel some of her tears fighting to leak through. “No?” The naked mole rat fae questioned with a mischievous smirk. Feeling like he could still squeeze out more money he pushed just a bit more. “Alright then, going once? Going twice?” “Oh my my, what do we have here?” echoed a male, very eloquent, yet trollish sounding voice. This voice vibrated throughout all the walls of the grand, theatrical auction house. The fae auctioneer paused instantly; his gavel hovering just inches above the surface of his podium. His eyes searched in panic for the source; without moving a muscle. He wasn’t alone in this. Fluttershy and the rest of the attendants scanned the high rafters and every corner of the room in order to find where the mysterious voice was coming from. But, no matter how hard they looked, they couldn’t find the new mysterious guest. Excluding Fluttershy, every person in that building recognized the voice. They knew who he was. But it couldn’t be… it shouldn’t be… how was it even possible? Why was he here? The fae in charge of the auction, and the rest of the buyers, wished that this was nothing more than a bad dream. But, the voice of this nightmare was far too convincing to just be make-believe. It truly was him. “Why, it’s a Sleigh Beggy!” The mysterious voice continued, despite the deafening silence in the room, “No wonder there were so many hushed whispers and forced silence about in the community lately. You wanted this fragile little piece of glass all to yourselves. Tsk, tsk, shame on all of you. You know how much I hate being left out.” Fluttershy was shocked to find how quiet the auditorium got. This voice had a presence. It had a power. Even over her captors. Even over her potential buyers. These fae… these terrible fae… they were afraid. Was this mysterious voice fae or something else? Either way, Fluttershy found something new to be scared of. When the mysterious voice’s remarks were met with nothing but silence, it was urged to speak again. “Hmm? What’s this I hear?” The mysterious voice then recalled in a slightly higher pitch, “It says ‘If I don’t buy her now, it would ruin the entire story.’ Oh, very well. As much as I hate conforming to stereotypical story beats, as well as taking orders, I have some rather important things to attend to and this little lady is the guest of honor. Soooo, I’m taking her now! Bye bye my lovely little cretians!” POOF! Before any one of the fae could act, speak, or perform a spell, their rare auction item had vanished. And in its place was a sack filled to the brim with gold coins. The audience remained silent, caught between a mixture of shock at the stranger appearance and surprise that the girl vanished. None however, were more stunned than the auctioneer, whose eyes never left the massive sack of gold in the place of what had been his most valuable item. Yet he made no sound, content to slowly lift his gavel and delicately tap it against the table. “S...Sold.” “You can open your eyes now my dear, we’re here.” Fluttershy opened one eye at a time. It took her a moment to adjust to the sunlight, but once she did, she was met with the most beautiful sight they had ever seen. She was standing out in a vast, wondrous green field. From where they stood, they were able to look out and see a long but low stone wall following along a dirt country road, leading to a tan cottage. The cottage’s roof was completed covered by plentiful moss, grass, bushes, branches, and all kinds of foliage. In truth, the abode looked more like a magical tree home than a traditional cottage. It was seemingly protected by a border of a white picket fence, and a quaint but naturally beautiful garden surrounding it from all sides. The garden was filled with roses, peonies, daisies, pansies, and so many more types of flora. There was even a part of the garden that was solely dedicated to growing vegetables and it was just as plentifully diverse. It was like this house, the garden, the entire place had a life of its own. This space seemed so far from the touch of man, and so far from the touch of fae. To Fluttershy, this place was dream. “I’ve heard of the fae being clingy towards their precious Sleigh Beggies,” Her mysterious savior chuckled, “but I’ve never heard of it working the other way around before.” “Huh?” Fluttershy looked down and saw her fist completely white as her hands gripped tightly to the tail of a jacket. “Oh, um, sorry about…” The words on her lips began to die off as she was finally able to get a proper glimpse on her savior’s appearance. And this new revelation made her, not only quickly release her grip on her savior, but also take several steps back. Thus, creating a safe distance between her and this ominous being. It was a man, at least the body of a man, with a skull for a head. And this was no mask mind you, no, his head was quite literally a skull completely devoid of flesh. Worse still, this skull was not that of a human, oh no, but of an animal that Fluttershy has never seen before. He had a long muzzle, reminding Fluttershy of a horse, donkey or any equine creature for that matter. However, he had high cheekbones and a large set of jaws, shown at the tip of his muzzle. Peculiarly had one fang on the left side of his mouth that looked longer than the others. Atop his head were two antlers, one remincient of a stag’s and the other resembling an antelope’s, though it was oddly enough blue. On each side of his head, taking place of ears were two hollows holes, also mismatched with one being noticeably larger than the other. However, the most noticeable feature about his face to Fluttershy were his eyes, if one could even describe them as eyes. They were two individual specs of bright, eerie, glowing red light inside the man’s empty eye sockets. Curiously, the red spec of light that resided inside his left eye socket was slightly larger and brighter in comparison to the other, further adding to his peculiar, ill-matched appearance. “Those eyes”, Fluttershy reminisced in her mind as she looked over him further. Strangely, despite his, for lack of a better term, odd, head, his clothing was that of a gentlemen. He wore a pinstripe black riding jacket, with a fairly long tail in the back. Underneath the jacket, was a bright orange sweater vest and prim white collared skirt. Tied at the collar of his skirt, he wore a bolo tie, jeweled with a round, red gem. He also fashioned a pair of bright purple riding pants with black shining riding boots. To finish the outfit, he showed off a shiny golden cane. On top of the cane was a carved handle in the shape of a unicorn head. The unicorn head had a long mane with bangs, and a peculiarly happy but derpy expression on its face. At the bottom of the cane was a red ruby. Despite all the details and colors she had to look at on this fae, she would always return to his eyes. And it made her wonder aloud, without even thinking, “I’m… I’m sorry, but do I …?” Before she could finish her question, she heard a familiar yet loud squeak from behind. She quickly spun around and exclaimed out into the field, “Angel?!” As she kept calling his name over and over again, Fluttershy rummaged in hurry through various spots of tall and thick grass near her. It wasn’t until she saw her dear white puff of a rabbit jumping as high as he could over the grass that she was able to take a breath. His ears and his waving paws were the only things that could be seen over the grass. “Angel!” Fluttershy blurted out with joy, with tears in her eyes. He was okay! Her sweet bunny was okay! Despite the tall grass, despite the distance between them, Fluttershy and Angel happily ran to each other. Even Angel started to choke up a bit seeing his cherished girl again, as tears began to form in the corners of his eyes. But, once he was in her arms, he swiftly wiped away his tears and let the sense of relief and happiness take over his thoughts. Fluttershy happily sobbed into her bunny’s soft fur, “Oh Angel! I thought… I thought that I was never going to see you again. Oh Angel! My sweet Angel! I’m… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry! This was all my… this was all my…” Angel quietly offered a comforting paw, gently wiping away her tears and stroking her cheek. Angel smiled softly, letting his eyes tell her that everything was going to be okay. They were together now and that was all that mattered. “My my, what a fuss we’re all making here,” The unusual gentleman interrupted, approaching Fluttershy and Angel from behind. His shadow easily looming over them. “And over such an ordinary creature. How curious.” Then, he leaned forward and started to mockingly scratch Angel underneath his chin. This caused the bunny to growl and attempt to bite the strange man's finger off. But, the tall magical being was too quick as he pulled back his finger away. He brought his hand close to his chest. Then, he blew a quick raspberry at the bunny and Angel, without hesitation, returned the favor. The obscure gent shrugged this off smoothly and cleared his throat in a subdued tone. He reached into his jacket pocket and said to Fluttershy, “Anywho, I believe that this also belongs to you.” When Fluttershy turned around to face him, her eyes dilated and her mouth opened slightly at what he held out in the palm of his gloved hands. It was her butterfly hair clip. Her memories came back to her vividly. Her mind was no longer in a foggy blur, struggling to make sense of everything. Every detail from last night became clear to her. She had her normal day at school, walked home, but then encountered the spooky feline fae in her dining room. Her Angel foolishly chased the fae out of the house and into the forest near her neighborhood. In that instance, she allowed her fear for her bunny’s safety rule over the one thing she always told herself to never do: enter the forest after dark. Her hair clip must have fallen out when she was running after Angel. Fluttershy also remembered how her fear blocked her ears from the sound of the pack of wooden, wolf like fae that was clearly chasing after her. She didn’t remember how the feline fae disappeared, just that she was able to finally find Angel in the middle of the dark forest. More importantly however, she remembered meeting the pack for the first time; witnessing the hungry looks in their eyes and the terrifying glow that came from their gaze. Her mind recalled the fear she felt when she realized she had nowhere to go, and the dread, thinking this was truly the end for her and Angel. But, the most vivid memory that came to her in that moment was… the monstrous beast who dispelled the pack with bone chilling ease. It was inexplicable that, for as intimidating as he looked now, the form that he took last night was truly nightmarish. It was hard to believe that they were one in the same. The only thing that these two creatures had in common were their eyes. Their glowing, mismatched, red eyes. This contrast of clashing appearances urged Fluttershy to ask, just to be sure that what she remembered was true, “It… it was you, wasn’t it? Y-You were there… last night… i-in the forest… with those fae… “ All of the sudden, Fluttershy’s heart jumped out of her chest when the sound of loud party poppers popped in her ears and confetti exploded in her face. Balloons magically appeared behind her and float away as quickly as it came; appearing in the shape of stars and letters that spelt out “Congrats!” While Fluttershy panicked in the middle of this harmless surprise, he flared his hands out and confetti flew out of his palms. The sound of party poppers followed the magical confetti, and he congratulated Fluttershy happily with, “Ding ding, we have a winner folks! Congratulations lucky contestant! And since you figured out it so quickly, you just won yourself the grand prize!” “The grand prize?” asked Fluttershy, as she wiped away the confetti from her eyes and tried to pick out some of it’s scraps from her hair. “My name.” Fluttershy was soon taken off guard by his sudden gentlemen like bow. “I have been called by many names, but for you, my dear, you may call this Chaotic Mage… Discord.”