Darkness swarmed around Fluttershy. After her actions she was almost enthusiastic to be flooded by it. She idly wondered if she was being consumed by the Evanstallion again. Or if this was divine retribution for killing an angel. She still could feel the sickening pop and subsequent crunch of Rarity’s body under her hoof.
A single beam of light illuminated a chair. There was a small table with a pot of tea and a cup. She wandered to the only furniture and looked around hesitantly. The light wasn’t as blinding as it had initially appeared. It was a soft glow. She found the tea to be green jasmine.
“Please sit,” said a voice she recognized. “Welcome to the pony instrumentality project tea party.”
“Umm thank you,” said Fluttershy to the light. She was uncertain the etiquette for such an occasion but felt graciousness was the best way to go.
“You’re quite welcome. Now shall we begin?”
“Oh I don’t know. Is this going to hurt?”
“No. I at least I hope not. My goodness you have been hurt a lot during this travesty.”
Fluttershy sat down and found herself in front of a large table full of Discords. There were Discords of every stripe and color she could imagine.
“Oh my goodness,”Fluttershy said in astonishment. “Why are there so many of you?”
“Chaos is everywhere my dear. And so am I as a result. Obviously you don’t want me to be some where else when we have our little soirées so I have to delegate,” explained the red bespectacled Commander.
“Soirées? Chaos? I don’t understand.”
“We can’t do this to her any more,” scolded Blue Discord. “We must return her memories.”
“What did you do Commander?” the yellow pegasus asked, squinting her eyes in suspicion.
“Umm, well remember this was done with best intentions.” Commander Discord walked over to a large switch and pulled it.
The facade around Fluttershy started to shatter. The blackness, the light, even the chair shattered like glass. Fluttershy wrapped herself in her wings as it all came crashing down.
“What’s going on..,” she began to ask until the memories of Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash began to flood her. All her adventures. All her interactions. She remembered everything that had happened in her original life. She felt like her mind was going to burst.
Then Fluttershy remembered the wedding. Her wedding. She remembered all her friends gathering around her. She remembered trying to figure out who was who and what was what amongst the groom’s friends. She remembered the groom standing next to her awkwardly smiling. He was never very good at conventional gatherings but insisted that Fluttershy get the dream wedding she had envisioned as a foal.
Then she quickly put two and two together. The wedding last year, coupled with world they had just come from being very close to one of her favorite manga.
“Discord!” The annoyed pegasus shouted.
“Oh, hello my dear,” said Discord appearing in front of her upside down.
“Get down here right now, Mister.”
He sighed . “Very well, Missis.”
Fluttershy used to blush at that but now the anger steeled her nerve. “You have some explaining to do.”
“Well it’s hardly my fault. I didn’t write this complete downer you like so much,”Discord declared, throwing his mismatched claws in the air.
“Discord!”
“It was mostly Spike’s fault. He seriously has to learn to review books properly.”
“Start from the beginning!”
“Ok, ok,” Discord said and sat on a nearby elephant shaped chair. “I was a little... lacking in inspiration for our anniversary present so I talked to the self proclaimed romance expert, Spike. Before I could even ask he told me about this interesting manga that you lent him. He said it was about a young foal that was riddled with social anxiety and he learned to connect with others better. I thought it would be a wonderful anniversary present to let you live through a manga that will help you.”
“Did you read it before hand?”
“I might have skimmed it a bit.”
“Well? How do you think this gift is going? Do you think this is what I would have wanted?”
“See! You’re bolder already. Heh, heh, I guess that can happen after killing a friend,” he chuckled nervously.
Fluttershy’s left eyebrow raised slightly.
“Ok. I might have to put a little more forethought into gifts. It just sounded so perfect. But next time I will read the manga first.”
Fluttershy’s eyebrow continued to its zenith.
“Alright, alright. I’ll,” Discord struggled with the next word,” check with you first and make sure it’s something you will enjoy.”
“I don’t mind a surprise or two but you know me well enough to guess whether it would be something I would enjoy. I did enjoy this manga but not to live it.”
“Watching you suffer was not something I enjoyed either. Especially when you dated Rainbow Dash.”
“Here,” interrupted Rainbow as she emerged from the shadows behind them. “So you were watching the whole time?”
“Rainbow!” shouted Fluttershy. “There you are.”
“Yeah,” the speedster said, rubbing the back of her neck with her hoof. “I’m sorry I got kind of cranky back there but I was ,umm, asked not to ruin the surprise.”
“Wait, that’s why you changed suddenly?” Fluttershy gasped.
“Yeah that angel of light showed me everything. I’m sorry I didn’t deal with it well.”
“That makes sense. But now I’m confused as why you wanted to date me in the first place?”
Rainbow’s face fell. She tried to back into the shadows again but they seemed to retreat as she drew near.
“Well I ,umm, I,” Rainbow stammered and turned beet red.
“Oh come now, we can figure it out,” insisted Discord. “Just get it out already.”
“Ok ok,” Rainbow said placing her hoof on her forehead. “Fluttershy.. I..I've been in love with you for ,like, ever. I tried to fight it. I didn’t want to make things awkward. But once I realized what I truly felt you were already with Discord and I was trying to play catch up. It was the first time I realized that I wasn’t fast enough. I lost because I wasn’t fast enough.”
Rainbow looked at the ground and sat on her hunches. All the fight and anger she had before was snuffed out. She felt wrung out from the whole ordeal. But some part of her felt relieved. She finally said it in the real world.
Fluttershy stared at Rainbow’s face search for any hint that this was prank. But she found no trace of dishonesty. Fluttershy had spent most of her life studying pony’s reactions to avoid bothering them. She wondered how in Equestria she had missed it. Perhaps she had subconsciously knew but was waiting until Rainbow sorted it out for herself. As it happened Discord had struck first and Fluttershy had fallen for him.
But the yellow pegasus couldn’t ignore the horrible look on Rainbow’s face. She sat there with her heart fully exposed. Fluttershy couldn’t overlook her anymore. The timid mare trotted over to her cyan suitor and placed her hoof around her neck. She gently placed her lips on Rainbow’s forehead.
“I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered. Rainbow closed her eyes and nodded.
“Oh don’t worry, Dashie,” Discord assured with mock concern. “I’ll alter all your memories as well as your friends so you won’t have this horrid experience to carry around.”
“No!” shouted Fluttershy.
“What?! You want to remember crushing Rarity to death and dating Rainbow Dash?!” gasped Discord taken back.
“No, but I don’t think it’s right that every time your surprises back fire you can just alter our memories of it. There are many things in my life I’d rather not remember but I don’t have the luxury of forgetting them. Now I’ve had this experience. Though it was terrifying I don’t think it’s right just to sweep it away. We’ll get through the awkwardness of it together. As we always have.”
“Well this a fine how to do,” whined Discord. “Now every pony in town is going to give me the stink eye, and your friends are going to have trouble trusting me ....again.”
“You should have thought of that before,” explained Fluttershy.
“I did and thought, ‘oh, I’ll just erase every pony’s memories afterward and be fine.’ But now you’re not even letting me do that. Seriously Fluttershy, what sort of pony wants their friend to remember being crushed to death. I thought you were better than that.”
“Discord you understand why I don’t want you to do it right?” asked the scolding tone of Fluttershy.
“Just because I understand it doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’m not used to all these consequence things. I normally just change them into something more interesting.”
“You’re a good friend, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said turning towards her. “I feel awful I didn’t notice your ..um crush for so long.”
“Well duh! That was the point,”admitted Rainbow.
“You know I care for you and I wish I could have told me sooner but now I’m married to Discord and I take that seriously. You have your own relationship with Applejack, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I guess I do,” sighed Rainbow. “Guess I should apologize to her for holding a torch for you for so long.”
“It’s alright, Sugarcube,” assured Applejack as she entered the scene. “Ah know ya didn’t mean ta hurt me and shoot Ah ended up with Starlight somehow.”
“Yeah,” Starlight chuckled nervously. “So weird.”
“I think you owe Trixie an explanation, Princess,” echoed an accusing voice as Twilight and Trixie came into view.
“I um don’t really have one,” stammered a flustered Twilight. “For once.”
“Trixie thought you hated her. Then as soon as you forget the Ursa Minor incident and Alicorn Amulet issue, you ask her out?”
“It must have been the manga,” Twilight suggested hoping that would satisfy the inquisitive magician.
“But Twilight,” began Fluttershy. “You read that manga. You know Ritsuko never actually dated Maya in the book.”
“You’re not helping,” growled the embarrassed Twilight.
“Ha!” declared the great and triumphant Trixie. “As a pony who deceived others for a living, Trixie can tell when some pony is trying to cover up their true feelings for her.”
“You agreed to date pretty readily as I recall,” countered Twilight.
“Well I ..that’s not.. I mean,” stammered equally embarrassed and flustered Trixie.
“Fluttershy!” cried a white unicorn running towards the group. “Oh I do hope you forgive me. I knew the whole time what was happening thanks to being an angel. I hoped to free you all by merging with that my lovely pony thing. But I never wanted to put you through that awful ordeal.”
“Oh Rarity,” cried Fluttershy, “I promise I’ll never kill you again.”
“And I’ll never try to end all existence for everypony again,” Rarity sobbed while embracing Fluttershy.
“And I’ll never highly suggest you kill anything again,” blubbered Pinkie as she appeared from behind them and joined the hug.
“And I’ll never use science to without thinking of the consequences again,” confessed Twilight. “Though I really didn’t because that was in the book.”
“I’ll never get too ‘intense’ while making out with you again,” promised Rainbow Dash.
“Yer dern right ya won’t,” agreed Applejack. “An’ once again Ah learned nothin’.”
“Oh, all my little ponies,” said Discord in a Celestia suit. “You all learned so much about friendship and forgiveness and each other and forgiveness and whatever. The point is you never would have learned this without this wonderful gift I have given you all.”
The group stopped hugging and stared at him.
“Ahem, well pardon me for pointing out the silver lining,” he sighed. “Now if you don’t mind, you can take your accusing little stares home. I have a night of begging forgiveness planned for my special somepony.”
He snapped his fingers and all of Fluttershy’s friends vanished. Fluttershy found herself once more in her little cottage. She looked around in confusion and noted that hardly any time had passed since she was there last.
Discord sat next her on her couch. He had his glasses on and wore a bright red fez. He nodded to her as she looked around wildly.
“Discord,” she said.
“Yes?”
“I think it’s time for you to read my manga collection,”Fluttershy casually suggested. “ If you don’t mind,” she added shyly.
The End