//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Meeting the Parents // by Animalman57 //------------------------------// Fluttershy was currently in Cloudsdale, having breakfast with her parents, Whisper Willow and Gentle Heart, at a diner. It had been a while since she seen her parents, so when they invited her for breakfast, Fluttershy was happy to accept. Her brother Zephyr was invited as well, but he declined, saying he wasn't hungry. Her parents, as usual, didn't push the issue, so only the three of them went. As she took a bite of her blueberry pancake, Fluttershy was asked a question by her father. "So, how have you been, honey?" He asked. Fluttershy swallowed the bite of her pancake before smiling towards her father. "Oh, I've been good. The sanctuary has been doing well. We recently got a baby lynx that lost its mother that I've been bottle feeding. But Dr. Fauna said she'd take care of the sanctuary today, so I didn't have anything to do today until you guys invited me." Whisper smiled in response as she grabbed her coffee she just finished mixing sugar into. "That poor lynx. I'm glad you're taking care of it, though." She took a moment to drink before looking towards her oldest child. "Oh, Fluttershy, I've been meaning to ask all morning, is there a reason for the flower in your mane?" She asked while pointing her hoof towards Fluttershy's mane. Fluttershy looked up at the bluebell barrette that held her mane in a ponytail. It was given to her by Discord at the beginning of their relationship and she has worn it ever since. It had been about 4 months since they started dating and she only now realized that her parents haven't met Discord yet. She blushed as she rubbed her arm and looked away from her parent's gaze. "Well, it was given to me by my coltfriend." Both of her parent's eyes widened before her mom beamed. "Oh my gosh! Our little girl has a coltfriend. Can we meet him?!" She said in a excited voice much unlike her usually reserved self. Fluttershy took a moment to think about it. Her family were aware of Discord and the fact that she reformed him. Her parents had been wanting to meet him for a while, but for one reason or another, she never got around to it, especially after she started gaining feelings for the troublesome draconequus. Now that they were officially dating, she wondered what their reaction will be. But she also knew she couldn't hold it off for much longer. "Um, how about I invite him for dinner at your house tonight?" Fluttershy suggested. Her father nodded in response. "That sounds good to us, honey. We can't wait to meet him." The rest of breakfast went on with Fluttershy worrying how it will go. It was later in the afternoon and Fluttershy was having her usual tea party with Discord at her house. She realized that she has to tell him about tonight and how her parents wanted to meet him. "Um, Discord?" She asked nervously. "Yes, my dear?" He replied while he dipped a sandwich crust into his tea and ate it. She rubbed her arm as she thought about how to tell him. "You know how I visited my parents this morning?" She waited for him to nod in response before continuing. "Well, I told them I have a coltfriend and now they want to meet you. We're having dinner at their place tonight." He spit out the crust and looked over at shock. "Really? Do they know it's me?" She shook her head. "Um, not really. They just know I'm dating somepony. But they've been wanting to meet you for a while even before we were dating, so I think it'll go well." She said this to try and reassure him, even if she herself was worried how they'd react. It was one thing for her to be friends with the spirit of chaos, but dating him? She was just pleased her friends accepted her feelings for him. Heck, she could've swore she saw Rainbow Dash paying Rarity after losing a bet about them getting together, but she eventually reasoned with herself that she was seeing things. Though he tried to keep his cool on the outside, Discord was really nervous. He had been worried about how her parents would react to him dating their only daughter for a while now. After all, not only was he a different species from her, he also used to be a villain. He knew they were aware of his reformation and based on what Fluttershy had said, they seemed to be accepting of their friendship, but he was still concerned about how they'd react to them dating. He could tell Fluttershy was anxious about it too, so for her sake, he stayed calm with his response. "Well, I suppose it's about time I met your family. Better late than never, right?" He said with a smile to try and convince her that he was fine. Fluttershy smiled at Discord's response and the two of them continued their tea party. Though both of them were smiling on the outside, inside, both of them were anxious about how dinner tonight will go. Fluttershy knocked on the door as she and Discord stood outside her parent's house. Though he tried to stay calm for her sake, standing in front of her house made him even more nervous than before. He largely didn't care about what others thought of his and Fluttershy's relationship. They were happy, so what did it matter what some random ponies thought? But these weren't random ponies, they were Fluttershy's parents. His entire future with Fluttershy relied on whether or not her parents accepted him. He soon felt a hoof on his lion paw. He looked down and saw Fluttershy flying there, rubbing his arm as she looked at him with concern. "It's going to be okay, Cordy. I'm worried too, but whatever happens, I love you. I'm not going to let anyone, not even my family, say I can't be with you." She reassured. His nervous expression slowly went away as he calmed down. Satisfied that he was simmering down, she kissed his cheek and flew down. As soon as her hooves touched the clouds below them, the front door opened up, revealing Fluttershy's mother smiling at the two of them. Fluttershy went over and hugged her. "Hello, sweetie." Whisper said. She broke the hug with her daughter when she saw Discord standing over. Her smile didn't leave as she went over to Discord, much to his surprise. "Discord. You must be Fluttershy's coltfriend. It's nice to finally meet you. Our daughter has told us so much about you." After a moment of hesitation, Discord reached out his talon and shook her hoof. "Dinner should be ready soon, so why don't we head inside and get to know each other?" Fluttershy and Discord nodded as they followed her into the house. Discord had to shorten his neck with his magic to enter their doorway. Once he grew his neck back out to normal length, he took a moment to look around. It kinda looked like what he imagined Fluttershy's home would be like if she lived in the clouds instead of being on the ground with her animal friends: small but peaceful and cozy. His eyes landed on a framed picture hung on the wall. He floated over and looked at the picture frame. He smiled as his eyes landed on the filly that was the younger version of his marefriend. She was smiling shyly, which emphasized her cute little cheeks, her hair was held up in pretty twin tails, her eyes were twinkling with nothing but childhood innocence, and her flank lacked her cutie mark. She was absolutely adorable! Standing right behind her was her parents. The spring green stallion that he suspected was Fluttershy's father had his wing over his wife's withers, smiling happily, while the mother smiled just as happily. She looked slightly younger with her raspberry mane being a big curly perm rather than the curls she has nowadays and she wore a silver peace sign medallion rather than the pearl necklace she has now. Her earrings in the photo were silver peace signs rather than her current flower earrings and she was holding a small seafoam toddler in the crook of her forearm. That must be her brother she's told me about. Zephyr Sneeze or something. He thought to himself. The one thing that stood out to him about the photo was how happy they were. He never really had a proper family himself, having only the fuzziest of memories involving his parents, who died when he was still young. He barely remembered what they looked like, let alone being raised by them. One could only wonder if things were different, maybe he wouldn't have tried to rule Equestria. He cleared his mind of these thoughts and flew over to the sofa where Fluttershy was sitting. Fluttershy smiled at him and patted the seat next to her. He smiled in response and landed on the sofa next to her. Whisper Willow was sitting in a armchair across from the sofa. "So, where's dad?" Fluttershy asked her mother. "Oh, he's upstairs. He said he wanted look his best." She turned attention towards Discord. "So, Mr. Discord-" "Oh, just Discord is fine with me, Mrs. Shy. I'm not that old." Discord joked. His beard grew longer and a pair of glasses appeared on his face. He grew even more bags under his eyes as his ears flopped against his head and even his antler and horn seemed to droop downwards. Whisper giggled at his joke and his ridiculous appearance. "Of course. As long as you call me Whisper Willow." I'm already on full name basis with Fluttershy's mother? This is going well. He smiled at the thought. He soon turned his attention towards Whisper as she began to talk again. "Anyway, Fluttershy had been writing plenty of letters telling us about you. To be honest, I should've guessed she'd date you, with the amount of times she's wrote about you. She was never like this with any other boys when she was younger." "Mooommm..." Fluttershy moaned as she blushed heavily. Discord chuckled at her embarrassment. "I'll admit, though, me and Gentle were worried about our daughter's safety when we heard that she was reforming you. The more letters she sent us, though, the more comfortable we were with the idea. She said almost nothing but good things about you. It's so wonderful she found someone that makes her happy." Discord smiled at the compliments Whisper was giving her. Everything seemed to going well. Maybe he had no reason to be worried after all. Their conversation was interrupted by Gentle Heart walking downstairs. Discord took note of the fact that Fluttershy's father currently had a mustache, which he didn't have in the photo and that he was much leaner than in the photo. Gentle Heart looked over towards the sofa. He looked surprised, though seemed to quickly get over it. He walked over towards Discord and smiled. "So, you must be the gentlecolt that's dating Fluttershy." He reached out his hoof, which Discord took with his paw. "I'm Gentle Heart, and you're Discord, right?" Discord nodded. "Indeed. It's a delight to meet you." They stopped their handshake as Whisper stood up from her armchair. "Well, now that we're all here, I'm going to check up on dinner. Fluttershy, do you want to help me set up the table, dear?" Whisper asked. Fluttershy smiled. "Sure, mom." She stood up from the sofa and followed her mom into the kitchen. After they left, Gentle Heart turned towards Discord. "So, Discord. We've heard a lot about you. I'll admit, I'm surprised you're the one who's dating Fluttershy, but as long as you take care of our daughter, I'm willing to give you a chance." Discord smiled lightly. He was willing to give him a chance, even if he was surprised. He decided to say something to hopefully keep him on his good side, just in case. "Believe me, I intend to keep her happy for as long as she'll be with me, which I hope will be for a long time to come." This seemed to satisfy the stallion, who smiled towards him. Whisper peaked her head past the doorway. "Dinner is ready. Come in." She called in her usual quiet voice. The two males walked into the dinning room. Discord had to duck slightly to get under the doorway. Gentle Heart sat at the end of the table, while Discord chose to sit on the opposite side. Discord took a moment to pull out Fluttershy's seat before sitting down next to her. She smiled in appreciation at his kind gesture. Whisper came over with a platter with a teapot and teacups and set it on the table. She filled up the cups and gave out the cups towards everyone else before she took her cup and sat down next to her husband. As they began to eat, Gentle Heart looked over towards Discord to ask him some questions. "So, Discord. What do you do for work?" He asked with curiosity. Discord smiled as he tried to explain, "Well, I don't have a job exactly, but I did work with the princesses on a couple of tasks that they needed my magic for. Admittedly, the first task they gave me didn't go so well," he thought bitterly of his team up with Tirek when he was supposed to apprehend him before continuing, "but they gave me more chances to prove myself useful. Now that Twilight's ruler, I'm working for her instead, and that's when I'm not on their little friendship council." He had initially rolled his eyes at the concept of a friendship council and he still found it a bit silly, though he was secretly rather touched that Twilight made him a member of the council. Not that he'd ever tell her that, of course. "Oh, that certainly sounds interesting." Gentle said, interested by his words. "It must be exciting to work with royalty." "There certainly are some exciting tasks they want me to do every now and again. But like I said, it's not exactly a job. They don't really pay me for my tasks. Which is fine with me. After all, I can just spawn as many bits as I need for any given task." He demonstrating this by snapping his talon, covering his body in loads of riches. Gentle had an amused smile on his face at the visual of Discord being covered in gold, while Whisper giggled with her hoof over her mouth. "Still, it sounds more exciting than my old job at the factory." Gentle said in response. "I do also help Fluttershy out at her sanctuary on occasion. Admittedly, I'm not a huge fan of animals, but as Fluttershy adores them, I've learned to deal with it." Discord said. Whisper smiled. "That's wonderful. I still work as a florist myself." Discord looked over towards her. "Oh, really?" Whisper nodded. "Mm-hmm. I don't mean to brag, but my shop seems to be the most popular place to get flowers in Cloudsdale. I do plant flowers around my house as a hobby as well." Fluttershy smiled as she drank her tea. This was going even better than she thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by her mother. "So, have you two thought about your wedding?" Whisper asked. Fluttershy looked up from her tea with a raised eyebrow. "Um, mom, we're still dating. We haven't even thought about being married." She said, ignoring the fact that she did have dreams about what their marriage would be like back when she had a crush on him. But the comment was still somewhat true as the two of them never talked about it. She looked briefly over towards Discord, who looked just as shocked (and had a small blush on his cheeks) before turning towards her mother. "My apologies. I was merely curious. How long have you been dating, anyway?" Whisper asked. Almost immediately, Discord replied. "Four months, two days, fifteen minutes, and..." Discord took a look at a watch that appeared on his talon, "...one hundred and nine seconds exactly." Fluttershy looked over with a raised brow. "You know the exact time?" She asked. Discord looked over with a smirk. "Of course. I also have the exact time for when we first became friends." Fluttershy closed her eyes and shook her head while smiling at her coltfriend's silliness. Gentle Heart gained Discord's attention with another question. "So, Discord," The draconequus looked over towards the stallion, "I'm rather curious as to where do you live?" Discord smiled widely. "Oh, I made my own personal chaos dimension that I placed my home in. It's quite impressive, if I do say so myself." He said proudly. Fluttershy smiled. "I've been there a couple of times. It's...a bit much for some ponies, but it's so very him." She looked over towards him, remembering the time she first came to his home. "Admittedly, my home is a bit hard to get to without my assistance, but I do get mail. After all, how else would I get my darling Fluttershy's wonderful letters?" Fluttershy blushed brightly at Discord calling her 'darling' and calling her letters 'wonderful'. Whisper smiled at the two of them. They were such a perfect couple in her opinion. She loved the fact that her daughter found someone special and she definitely didn't mind that Discord was a different species from her daughter nor that his past was...less than perfect. Now, if only Zephyr found a nice mare and both her kids gave her grandfoals, things would be perfect. After dinner was finished, they stayed for a little while longer, with Discord and Fluttershy's parents getting to know each other. Most of it was a blur, except for when Whisper Willow showed Discord their family album that had Fluttershy's baby pictures. Needless to say, Discord found them hilarious and Fluttershy covered her face with her wings to hide her shame, as well as her completely red face. Fluttershy and Discord were heading towards her cottage as the night turned darker. Discord could've teleported them straight to her house, but once they started dating, the two of them preferred walking with each other. "Well, I'd say that went rather well." Discord said, breaking the silence that had accompanied them in the night. Fluttershy looked up towards her handsome draconequus coltfriend and smiled. "I agree. That went pretty well. I was a little nervous on how it'd go, but my mom really seems to like you, and dad is willing to give you a chance. I just realized that we should've invited my brother to meet you, but I guess you'll meet him some other time." The two of them made it to the door of the cottage. Discord cracked his back before looking down towards her. "Anyway, I should probably get going." His eyes popped open as he felt Fluttershy press her lips against his. His pupils turned to the shape of hearts as he applied pressure into the kiss. They broke off the kiss and looked over to see her smiling widely at him. "Night, Cordy." She flew down and opened the door. Before she completely went through, she peaked through the creak of the doorway and saw him waving towards her. She waved back and closed the door to get ready for bed. Discord teleported away to his home. All in all, dinner with Fluttershy's parents went rather well.