"Oh, Fluttershy!" Discord said in a singsong voice. "If you're not busy...do you want to see the newest room I just made?"
Fluttershy glanced up from her birdwatching journal. "One second," she said. "I saw a pair of Mountain bluebirds in the sanctuary, and I want to write it down before I forget."
"Alright," he said, leaning against the wall. "What's special about these birds? I thought there were quite a few blue ones around here already."
"Yes, but Mountain bluebirds are unusual in this region," she said. "You usually find them further north, around the mountains." She jotted the birds she had seen, as well as the date and their names. "I want to make note of it, just in case."
"Fair enough," he said. "Now, if you're done, may I show you my thing now?"
"You may," she said, putting away her journal and quill and following him down the hallway. Discord creating a new room was always fun and exciting...he always had such creative ideas, and she loved seeing his enthusiasm whenever he showed off his latest creation.
They eventually came to a stop in front of a purple-and-pink door that had a few glowing dots on it. He grinned and opened it, while she leaned forward to peer inside.
The room was dark...although there was a faint purple glow throughout. That seemed to be coming from the walls and ceiling, which looked...almost transparent. She looked down and saw that the floor was far below the door, and glowed the same purple color. Each glowing surface appeared to be covered in faint lines and runes.
"Alright," she said. "I have to admit, I don't know what this is."
"Fair," he said. "It's not immediately obvious. A demonstration is clearly in order!" And with that, he took a dramatic step through the threshold...and fell.
She felt her heart jump—even as powerful as Discord was, she did fear for his safety if he was ever in trouble. She leaned further over the edge, watching him carefully, her wings tense as she prepared to fly down after him if she had to. But he simply stood still and let himself fall, a wide grin on his face.
Oddly enough...was he falling more slowly than he should have? Maybe it was his magic.
He was still speeding up, though, and getting closer to the floor. She flinched as he hit the ground...but then, before her eyes, the ground seemed to...give to his weight. A pink ripple spread across the floor, and he sprang back up into the air.
"It's a bouncy room!" he said with a laugh as he came back to the level of the door. As he traveled past, he shouted down, "And the gravity is only a quarter of Equestria's, so you can practically fly without even using your wings!"
"C'mon!" he shouted to her as he fell past the door again. This time, instead of just standing still, he seemed to be getting ready for impact.
Fluttershy hesitated for a moment...but only a moment. She jumped through the doorway, traveling forward and letting gravity take hold.
Falling felt...weird, since it was taking longer than she knew it should have. But that just gave her plenty of time to brace for impact, the way Discord was doing.
He hit the floor before her, and bounced off at an angle, sailing high into the air. He laughed loudly the whole time.
She landed just a second later. The floor bent underneath her, acting like a strange, glowing trampoline. Just before she was bounced up, she jumped...and soared even higher into the air than Discord.
"Show-off!" he shouted from below her, making her laugh. She had to admit...this was fun. She watched as Discord leaned towards one of the walls, bouncing off of it to reach her height.
"This is fun!" she told him with a laugh as he passed by. His grin widened, and he twirled in the air.
"Let's see if you can catch me!" he challenged. He rolled into a ball and spun, dropping back towards the floor.
She pedaled in the air, trying to move in his direction. Gravity being as weak as it was made it impossible for her to fall after him yet. She watched and waited as he uncurled just before hitting the floor, springing to the other side of the room.
Finally, gravity took hold once again, and she slowly fell. She got ready to jump, keeping her eyes trained on Discord the whole time as he took large leaps into the air, performing twirls and tricks as he soared.
With her next jump, she sprang right towards him.
He managed to see her coming, and twisted out of the way just in time. They both ended up running into and bouncing off of a wall—but she took advantage of it and used it to jump back towards the floor.
And so the chase began.
Discord was tricky, and knew just the right ways to twist and turn to dodge her. But she quickly began learning how to bounce off the walls and floor at the perfect angles, and how to reach the floor quickly without using her wings—mostly by using the walls to reach it.
The chase lasted for quite some time, as Discord seemed to narrowly avoid capture during most of her attempts. But though she was starting to feel a little tired...she could tell that he was even more so, panting heavily and sweating even as he laughed and grinned.
So she prepared herself for her biggest, fastest jump yet. When she hit the floor, she jumped from it and rocketed forward, directly towards him.
This time, he wasn't able to twist away quickly enough. She barreled into him, quickly wrapping her forelegs around his torso. "Got...got you," she panted, relaxing and letting her body become limp as they slowly fell.
"Yes...yes you did," he said, sounding even more out of breath than she was. He wrapped his arms around her, while she reached up to wipe some of the sweat off of his brow. He smiled softly down at her.
They fell and hit the floor together. They slowly bounced up...and then stopped and floated down. Up then down, up then down...when she closed her eyes and pressed herself against Discord, it actually felt kind of relaxing.
"This is...a really nice room," she said during the third bounce. "I'm glad that you thought of it."
"So am I!" he said, stroking his claws through her mane. "So am I."
They kept bouncing a few more times before Discord spoke up again. "As relaxing as this is," he said. "That exciting chase wore me down a bit. Care to relax with a bit of ice cream?"
"I'd love to," she said. She glanced up at the door, which had gotten further away as their bounces became shorter and took less time. "Let me guess...we have to jump our way back up there?"
"You got it," he said with a nod, slowly letting go of her. He tensed, ready to jump, and she got ready beside him.
He hit the ground first and jumped high, high into the air...overshooting his goal a bit. She jumped after him, also overshooting the doorframe. They both chuckled about it, and he offered her his paw.
She took it, and as they fell past the doorway, he grabbed onto the frame and pulled both of them through. "First try!" he said, dropping to his feet. "Now, let's...woah."
"What is...woah." She landed on her hooves and realized why he had that reaction. All of her legs felt...wobbly. Like they were now made out of rubber. Discord must have felt the same, based on the way his legs were shaking under his weight.
"This is...this is fine," he said. He took a few steps forward, but his legs were shaking enough that his path was about as far away from a straight line as possible, and he bumped into the wall.
She walked towards him, but found that walking wasn't any easier for her. In fact, she nearly ended up tripping over her own hooves.
Discord chuckled. "Forget 'fine'...this is actually kind of fun!" He took several more steps forward, weaving around the hallway and barely avoiding the walls.
She smiled and followed him a bit more slowly, struggling just as much with walking. The two of them stumbled and giggled on their way to the kitchen, bumping into and almost stumbling over each other several times.
The whole way there, even as her legs very, very slowly adjusted enough for her to walk normally again...she had a huge grin on her face, nearly as big as Discord's.