“Thanks for helpin’ me with cleanin’ all these buckets, guys,” Applejack said to her friends, placing one last pristine bucket down on a stack of others, fitting into each other to make a tower. “Normally it’s just us Apples that do it, but Granny Smith didn’t get a wink of sleep last night ‘cause of a bad back and needed to rest today. And Cheerilee asked Big Mac an’ Apple Bloom to teach the class all about livin’ on a farm, so it was just me today. I’d do it myself, but then it’d take forever.”
“I don’t blame you for wanting help,” Twilight Sparkle said, using her magic to scrub off the last spot on her final bucket with a towel. “Using the buckets all season long to hold the apples makes them rather…”
She looked over to Spike, who seemed to be having trouble walking across the wooden plank floor of the barn. With each lift of his foot, a squelching noise emitted from the separation of his foot from the floor.
“Sticky.”
“You’re telling me!” Rarity complained, applying some sanitizer to her hooves. “I’m going to need one long shower to get all of the apple juice out of my coat and mane. But…” The glamorous pony turned her head to look at her cowgirl friend. “It was worth it, since it helped out a friend.”
“Well, I can’t thank all of ya enough,” AJ said again. “I’m mighty grateful. Especially since even Discord helped out without using any of his chaos or magic!”
Discord sat between Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie at the right side of the barn, his tongue temporarily at the side of his mouth in concentration as he cleaned the bottom of his last bucket. At the mention of his name, he stopped. “Hmm? Oh, what, this? Well, as much as I despise cleaning, I supposed it was the least I could do for you, what with all I’ve done in the past.”
As all the ponies and dragon started to protest that he should forget the past, he raised a paw. “I know, I know, the past is the past, blah blah blah. But trying to make up for it with good deeds, no matter how utterly boring they may be, can’t possibly hurt, can it? Although, I must say, Applejack, I still don’t see why I must refrain from magic. This could have been done in a snap had you not forbidden me from literally doing so.”
Rainbow Dash stacked a bucket on top of the one Applejack just placed. “Yeah, AJ,” the cyan Pegasus said, watching the tower for a bit to make sure it didn’t topple over before turning to her friend. “I mean, I get all about understanding the value of work, but c’mon! If Discord cleaned everything, we could’ve all hung out doing something a little more fun, and Discord’s magic would have actually made him useful for once!”
She turned to Discord and smiled mischeviously, making sure he heard her playful insult.
He did, indeed, and Discord grinned back, one eyebrow arched. “Why, Dashie, do I dare think that you are teasing me? You, of all ponies? After all, you’re always so polite! Perhaps you should go in timeout!”
He snapped his finger, and Rainbow Dash teleported to the corner of the barn with a bucket on her head. “I thought you might want to hide your face, since you’re so ashamed of insulting somepony as wonderful as I. You’re quite welco—“
The bucket came at him from above, Rainbow Dash flying as high as the ceiling, and it landed on the Draconequus’ head with a fwump.
“You were saying?”
Discord, forgetting that he could simply magick his new facial gear away, struggled to get the bucket off, and Fluttershy floated above him to help him take it off.
“Ak gin gif id!” he said, muffled by the bucket.
“Oh dear, oh dear, I’ve almost got it, just wait a second, Discord,” Fluttershy pulled.
It finally came off with a pop!, but its removal had been so forceful that Fluttershy shot backwards to the wall of the barn where all the buckets, minus a few, had been stacked. She crashed into one of them, and all the buckets were sent crashing down onto her.
“Fluttershy!” Discord and Rainbow Dash shouted as they moved in with the others to help the yellow Pegasus from under the mountain of apple buckets. Spike climbed to the middle of the pile and removed the highest one to reveal Fluttershy’s head, her teal eyes wide with surprise.
“You okay, Flutters?” Spike asked, throwing a few more buckets away from her so she could move. “Are you hurt? I-I could send a message to—“
But he was interrupted by the musical laughter of the Pegasus, suddenly finding the situation extremely funny.
Pinkie Pie, who firmly believed that laughter was the most contagious thing on the planet, started laughing too. “Hee hee hee!” the pink party pony giggled, her hoof on her chest. “I don’t know what we’re laughing about, but…Hahahaha!”
Suddenly everypony (and dragon, and Draconequus) found the whole thing a riot, and the entire barn was soon filled with laughter amongst good friends.
“You two really are a pair sometimes, you know?” Fluttershy said Rainbow Dash and Discord once the laughing started to dissipate. “It reminds me of that day Applejack and Rainbow Dash competed to see who the biggest daredevil was.”
“Oh?” Discord said, looking at the two ponies. “You two did that? Why, I wish I had been there! That must’ve been a sight! And I would have loved to compete.”
“We can have another contest then once the weather gets warm again,” Applejack said after one last chuckle, picking up her hat that had fallen off when she had been shaking with laughter. She firmly placed it on her head. “But with winter comin’, it’ll be hard to do that when snow is comin’ from the sky.”
“Yeah, but I’d totally be up for it after Winter Wrap-Up!” Rainbow Dash said. “Not only with AJ, but with the Master of Chaos himself? It’ll be fun to wipe the floor wit his face after I beat him!”
“Who says you’d win? Maybe I will, and show Mr. Big Stuff here what it’s like bein’ a daredevil!” AJ countered.
“Girls, girls, please don’t fight!” Discord said, but in a pleasant tone. “Especially when it’s so obvious I will beat you both!”
“No way!”
“Ain’t happenin’, Sugarcube!”
After Discord was allowed to use magic to stack the buckets back, and make sure that Fluttershy was without injury, they moved together out of the barn and moved into the Apple home for some cider and freshly made apple cider donuts.
Discord and Fluttershy were the last to go and grab some food from the kitchen, as the others had already taken their portions and headed to the living room carpet to eat and chat.
Fluttershy and Discord were in high spirits, smiling from such a good day with friends, even though bucket cleaning was surely an odd way to bond. Discord offered to carry her plate himself using magic, and she of course thanked him, and giggled.
“My, My, Fluttershy,” Discord said as their cups of cider and plates of donuts started to levitate in the air, thanks to the Lord of Chaos. “You sure are a chucklebox today. Care to tell me why?” he asked her, smiling.
She stopped giggling but smiled up at him, her grin reaching her eyes that were large and sparkling, as big as dinner plates. It made his heart jump.
“I’m just really happy Discord. It’s so nice to have all of us together, laughing and having a good time without having to worry about a thing.”
Discord nodded. “I will always love chaos, but I never knew how I could appreciate the niceties of peace as well. I’m coming to love it almost as much, in truth. It’s quite odd.”
“Maybe, but I’m mostly happy for you.”
He stared at her, and pointed at himself. “Happy for me? Whatever for?”
“Everypony has really started to accept you. And my friends, my best friends in the entire world, are now your friends too. That’s why I laughed so hard at the bucket incident. It wasn’t just funny, but it happened because you and Rainbow Dash have become such good friends. You’ve become good friends with all six of them,” she said, looking back at the room to see all her friends happily being together.
“I mean, look Discord.”
He turned his vision to where she was looking.
Spike sat next to Rarity. He ate his first donut too fast, and some green fire spit out of his mouth in a dragon version of a burp. “Oh, excuse me…” he said, blushing and looking at Rarity apologetically. Rarity only laughed. “Oh, my little Spikey Wikey,” she said, putting a foreleg around him in a hug. “You are just too cute and adorable when you’re embarrassed!”
Spike blushed even harder.
Applejack, Rainbow, and Pinkie discussed what AJ, Rainbow, and Discord could do to compete to see who was the biggest, bravest pony in Equestria, though this time it would be in good fun and wouldn't get out of control as it had the first time, with just the two ponies. Pinkie Pie had already made herself the judge, and was bouncing up and down at the thought of such a fun event while stuffing her face with donut.
Twilight Sparkle just sat contentedly in the middle of them all, sipping at some cider and delicately munching on a donut after giving Spike a small punch on the shoulder to tease him after burping in front of his crush. She saw the Draconequus and Pegasus watching them all. She just smiled and waved.
They waved back.
“See Discord?” she said, looking back at him. “A while back ago, none of them would have been so calm with you here in Applejack’s kitchen. But now you’re their good friend, and they treat you just like anypony. They’re beginning to love you, just like I knew they would!”
Discord smiled at her. “Ah, yes, well. I won’t lie to you, Fluttershy. It’s…” A small blush formed on his face, a sight Fluttershy had seen many times and was now familiar to her. “It’s rather nice…”
“And that’s because…?” she prompted him.
He chuckled, and brought Fluttershy up in his arms and gave her a noogie. It was a bit of déjà vu, since the last time he gave her a noogie, it had been when he had just been released from his stone prison in hopes that Fluttershy could reform him. That time, Discord had done it to make her uncomfortable and had rubbed her head a bit hard.
Now, Discord only teased her as a friend and maybe something more. “Because Friendship is Magic, I know, I know!”
She laughed, trying to get away from Discord’s noogie, though she didn’t mind the embrace. “That’s right, but Discord, stop, haha! The others are waiting!”
“Oh, alright!” He let her go. “So…You’re happy because…I’m happy?”
“Well, I’m happy that we’re all happy, Discord,” she corrected him. “But let’s just say I’m especially happy that you are.”
“Well, then, what else could I ask for?”
The two made their way over to the carpet, filling the gaps in the circle of friends, and Discord politely patted the space beside him for her to sit. He waited for her to get comfortable before he placed her food and drink in front of her with his magic.
“Thank you,” she said to him, a small blush on her cheeks. He was such a gentlepony, after all! “Very much.”
His pinky claw sticking up as he lifted his mug of cider, he said “You’re quite welcome, dear Fluttershy.”
They began to munch on Applejack’s gifts of thanks, and everything seemed quite normal to them at first.
“AJ, I do have to say, I could magick up any cider or apple I wanted, but I don’t think it’d be as good as yours, my friend,” Discord said.
“Oh, yes!” Fluttershy agreed. “No one can beat AJ’s homemade—“
She paused, noticing her friends peculiar behavior. For the past minute, they had all been staring at her and Discord, frozen in whatever they had been doing before they stared. Rarity and Twilight both had been levitating their drinks towards their lips. Spike had been holding his plate, already finished with his first serving of donut and had been licking the plate clean. Rainbow had obviously been chewing on a mouthful of donut before she started staring. AJ had just been sitting on her stomach, reaching for another bite of her snack, and Pinkie’s tongue was frozen as she had been licking the sugar off her face.
“W-what…What is it? Is something wrong?” Fluttershy asked. A hoof touched her cheek hesitantly. “Is there something on my face? Discord?”
“I don’t see anything,” he answered. “Are we having a staring contest? Because nopony told me about it! Isn’t staring supposed to be rude?”
“N-no, you…We just…Well…” Twilight began. “We’re not being rude, but…”
“You guys are holding tails!” Pinkie Pie shouted, suddenly springing up on all four hooves, pointing at them.
Startled and with wide eyes, the two looked at each other in surprise, and then looked at their tails.
They were indeed entwined.
The two were frozen.
“Well well well!” Rarity smiled furtively. “I don’t recall it being Hearts and Hooves Day, but you two certainly don’t care, do you?”
“We, uh…” Fluttershy said.
“Well…” Discord started.
“FLUTTERSHY!”
The Pegasus jumped in surprise as Pinkie Pie rushed up to her, putting her pink face so close to her that their snouts touched. Pinkie’s blue eyes were so big they seemed to take up half her face.
“Wh-what?!?” she asked her nervously. She wasn’t mad at her friend; she knew Pinkie Pie always meant well, even if her energy did sometimes go off the deep end and come off as jarring, maybe even rude. But Pinkie Pie always did the things she did because she loved her friends and always meant well. And what pony could be mad at her for that? But she still made Fluttershy uncomfortable or nervous at times. She just couldn’t help it. Fluttershy loved Pinkie Pie, though, nonetheless.
“Is Discord your special somepony?!?!?”
Fluttershy’s eyes couldn’t get any wider, nor could they look any more terrified. She started quivering, her body now covered in a cold sweat. She couldn’t have this happen, not here, not now…Not with the Draconequus she loved right beside her, who had no idea of how she felt for him! She hadn’t prepared for this!
Oh, what am I to do now?!? I’m not ready to tell him how I feel! I’m not ready to tell anypony how I feel! I need to sort it out first, prepare myself, because Discord could never love a shy little Pegasus like me…I just can’t!
Discord saw that Fluttershy was disturbed, but he mistook it for something else because he couldn’t read her mind.
It brought a painful feeling into his chest, as if Fluttershy had punched it with her hoof, though he knew she would never physically do such a thing.
Is the thought of loving somepony like me really that petrifying?
He caught Fluttershy gulping, unable to look anypony in the eye. He tried to catch her gaze, but she only jerked her eyes away from him.
Yes it is, he thought, and he felt like his heart had just plummeted into his stomach. Of course it is.
She spoke. “Sp-special somepony? D-Discord? With me? As my…?”
Before she could actually answer the question, Discord stood up, and Fluttershy could feel that her tail grew lighter as tension was released from it. She looked to her tail.
It had no scaly red swirl mixed in with her pink strands.
“No,” he answered for her. His voice was low, sad.
Hurt.
“We’re not like that. We are just friends. That is all.”
“Discord…” Fluttershy said. She knew what he said was true; they weren’t together as a couple at all, as she knew all too well. Sure, Discord was spending more and more time with her as time passed, and started sleeping on her couch or in her guest room rather than in the Everfree forest or back at the Royal Palace. He practically lived in her cottage now. But she never fooled herself into thinking it was because he returned her feelings of love.
And all they had done (that could be taken out of context as a romantic relationship rather than a platonic one) was nuzzle and hold tails. That wasn’t very much at all.
But hearing him say that they weren’t anything more than friends still cracked her heart, because she loved him so.
“We just hold tails sometimes, big whoop,” Discord said, his hurt look suddenly disappearing and shrugging his shoulders. “We didn’t even notice it, it’s so commonplace…”
He started masking his disappointment, and making things worse between them.
“I mean, I don’t have to hold Fluttershy’s tail. Really, as long as the pony’s my friend, I’ll hold anypony’s tail!”
The crack in Fluttershy’s heart started to lengthen, slowly tearing it in half.
“Discord, really, it’s nothing to be embarrassed of,” Twilight said, noticing the pained look on Fluttershy’s face and immediately wanting to come to the rescue. Over the years of gaining (and in Spike’s case, keeping) friends she loved and adored, along with keeping Equestria safe as an Element of Harmony and now as a Princess, she had developed a sort of a hero complex. But Rarity and Applejack noticed it too, and wanted to help. The three of them were the most perceptive when it came to tense situations, especially when delicate feelings were involved.
“Yes, yes, there’s certainly nothing wrong with affection amongst, um, friends!” Rarity said, faltering on what to name whatever relationship Discord and Fluttershy shared. She was sure they loved one another; it was unmistakable. But she couldn’t just say that to their faces now, could she?
Poor darlings are embarrassed enough as it is, she thought sadly.
“Yeah, y’all can hold tails all you want,” Applejack said. “We’re sorry we got so startled. We’re all just a bunch of silly fillies. We just didn’t know you were the tail-holdin’ type of friends, that’s all.” She grinned sheepishly.
“No no no, you’re right!” Discord said, holding his paw and claw out to silence them. “After all, Fluttershy and I are truly just friends! But we daren’t trick the public into thinking we are anything more than that. We understand the reason for your alarm! Isn’t that right, Flutters? Fluttershy, ol’ pal?”
She wanted to cry, she really just wanted to sob. But she held tears back, and just looked up at the Draconequus that was breaking her heart, because he thought she had broken his first.
“Y-yes…”
Discord sighed internally, but kept his eyes on Fluttershy without showing anything on his face. “And Celestia forbid that anypony think you would want such a thing…”
Then his face broke. “…With me.”
Fluttershy blinked. “W-what? No, that’s not…”
He floated upwards, shaking his head to get rid of the feelings he knew showed from his expression. “Well girls, it’s really been fun,” he said, a fake grin now glued onto him as badly as googly eyes on a rock. “But I’m afraid I have much to attend to, and I really can’t dawdle any longer. And Fluttershy…”
“Discord, wait, you have the wrong idea, really!” Fluttershy protested. “I was just—“
“I’m afraid I won’t be staying in your guest room tonight, nor your couch. As wonderful as it’s been, we just can’t do anything to risk the rumors you fear so much. And besides…I think I’m rather tired of you.”
He snapped his fingers, and he was gone.
“Discord!” she yelled one more time.
But it was useless. Discord left, with nopony knowing where he had gone.
“Discord!”
But he wasn’t joking. He wasn’t coming back.
Maybe even never! Fluttershy thought, imagining a future without Discord, without him as a romantic interest, without him as friend.
Had she lost him for good? Had they all?
“Discord!”
She crashed to the ground, hugging herself with her hooves and covering her face with her wings. “Tired of me! He said he was t-tired of m-me!”
Rainbow Dash scowled. “What a jerk!” she shouted, unable to see her oldest friend so upset without feeling enraged. “What the hay was all that for?!? You didn’t do anything wrong, Fluttershy!”
Pinkie Pie was frozen, a hoof on her mouth. “I...I feel like…this might have been my fault…If I hadn’t asked…”
Her poofy, curly pink hair suddenly went flat.
“This ain’t nopony’s fault, Pinkie,” Applejack said comfortingly. “Not yours, and not yours, Fluttershy!”
“Yes it wa-ha-ha-as!” she cried. “He-He-He got so mad, b-because I-I-I w-was s-so surprised by the question! And he thought…he thought…”
Her tears started to slow, her crying suddenly quieter, as she got lost in a revelation.
“He thought I was disgusted by the idea of him being my special somepony.”
She sprung back up on all four legs.
“He thinks I could never think of him that way, and that hurt his feelings! Oh no! I hurt his feelings! And not only that, but it’s completely wrong! I—“
She paused and suddenly saw that all six of her friends were inches away from her, waiting for her confession.
She decided to give them the satisfaction of knowing. They were her closest friends, and they were going to find out anyway. And besides, Discord needed to know—he needed to know now, so they could sort things out.
“I love him!”
“Ohhhhhh!” Rarity jumped, looking as if she just got an entire new wardrobe for Hearth’s Warming. “Oh, darling, this is so exciting! I mean, I must say, I had no idea Discord was your taste, but he’s turned into a good enough fellow, I suppose! Not really my cup of tea—he’s a bit too uncivilized and mismatched for my tastes, and he’s not even a pony, but he has the heart and soul of a pony, now that he’s truly reformed—but these aren’t the stone ages now, are they! These are new times, with free love and affection! Why, you could marry a dragon and no one would protest!”
Spike lit up at that idea.
Rarity rushed up to Fluttershy. “Oh, I’m just so happy for you, darling!”
“B-But he’s not my…special somepony…” Fluttershy practically whispered. “Why be happy for me?”
“Because he will be, as soon as you tell him,” Twilight said, a confident sparkle in her eye that suited her name. “He will be.”
“I doubt it…I’m nopony special…”
Rainbow laughed. “Yeah, you’re only the Element of Kindness, after all. Nothing special about that!”
“But what are we waitin’ for?” Applejack grabbed Fluttershy. “You got a Draconequus to find! Let’s go!”
“You’ll help me find him?” She asked them.
“I will,” Pinkie Pie answered her, walking up to Fluttershy shamefully, her lifeless straight hair covering her eyes in a way that didn’t suit her. “It’s the least I could do. I blurted out what we were all thinking. I’m the reason you fought. I’m so sorry, Fluttershy!”
Her eyes filled with tears. “I know sometimes I go a little nutso, but I don’t mean to make you sad! I just wanna make you smile!”
Pinkie Pie was soon wrapped in an embrace by Fluttershy. “Silly filly,” she said to her friend in a kindly voice. “I know that! I’m not angry at you at all. So you hush now about that, quiet now, it’s just as Applejack said. It’s nopony’s fault. There’s no reason to be sorry. We’re still best friends forever.”
A watery smile replaced Pinkie Pie’s frown. “Really?”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”
The Pinkie Pie Promise brought the party pony’s hair back to life again, curls springing back to place. The light returned back to her eyes, and a smile the size of an upside-down rainbow grew on her face.
“Well then, we have a search party to hold! I’ll get the cannon!”
He could have gone back to the castle, but he really didn’t feel like doing that. If he did that, Celestia and Luna would try to have some friendly conversation full of questions, and while he really did start to have a liking for the princesses, he didn’t feel like talking to anypony at the moment.
So the only place he could really think to go was the Everfree forest. Nopony ever dared to go in there unless absolutely needed, and he had no reason to fear a creature there.
He sat at the edge of a pond, staring at his reflection.
“Well, Discord, look where you’ve gotten yourself now,” he said, starting a conversation with himself. “Aren’t you just the clever one, allowing it all to come down to this. You know, your life never really seems to go smoothly, does it? And by smooth, I don’t mean a lack of chaos, but a lack of…happiness.”
The birds sang happily in the trees. Discord wanted to turn them into something that could sing a sadder tune for him, but he didn’t have the energy at the moment.
Well, actually, he did. He was just feeling a bit lazy.
“I mean, sure, you’ve had good times every now and again. Back when you were a villain, you would always manage to get in a little bit of fun before the ponies barged in and spoiled it. But now that I think about it…”
His ears drooped along with his eyelids.
“It really wasn’t all that fun, all by myself with no other creature to enjoy it with me. They didn’t appreciate it.”
He stuck his back legs into the water, and lay against the ground on his back. There was a clearing in the forest at the pond, allowing him an excellent view of the sky.
The clouds, white and puffy, were perfect for shaping them into whatever he felt like making them. Pointing at them with a talon, he moved the clouds with his magic, to and fro, until he made a cloud that resembled himself.
“You always thought you had everything you needed…As long as you had your magic, you thought you would be content.”
The cloudy depiction of himself had been made with a smile, and with a sweep of his claw, it turned to a frown.
“But you know better than that now, don’t you, ol’ Cordy?”
With his magic, Discord forced Cloud Discord to nod in agreement with him.
“Maybe it would have been better if you had stayed a statue of stone.”
The cloud suddenly reformed itself into a depiction of Discord’s pose as he had been turned to stone once again by the Elements of Harmony.
“At least then you would not have learned how to gain a heart. But then again, maybe I had a heart all along, like in that story with the scarecrow pony and that yellow brick road.”
A small heart showed up on the left side of Cloud Discord’s chest.
“Of course, you would not have noticed had it not been for her…”
He set his cloud self-portrait to the side and started on a new cloud creation. When he was finished, it was a flawless rendition of Fluttershy, though in Discord’s mind, it wasn’t nearly as perfect as the real thing.
“Ah, Fluttershy. Celestia just had to ask you to reform me, didn’t she? And if you hadn’t agreed, I wouldn’t have this problem. Really, darling, this is your fault. You should really stop being so nice and agreeable. And adorable. And appreciative of my magic. Oh, curse you, Fluttershy! Why do you have to be so…”
A cloudy outline of a heart surrounded the Pegasus cloud.
“Lovable??!??”
He grumbled to himself. He grabbed a small rock on the ground and started hitting himself in the head with it. To most ponies it would have looked silly, but Discord’s coping mechanisms were always…abnormal.
“Stupid!” Hit. “Stupid!” Hit. “Stupid!” Hit.
He thought of an event that occurred not long ago, back when Fluttershy had taken an emergency trip far across the Everfree forest to take care for an injured bear and her cub. The bears had turned out fine, thanks to her. They had even taken residence near her cottage with her other bear friend and made a little family together, visiting Fluttershy often. No, the bears hadn’t been the problem.
The problem had been when Fluttershy had tried to return home, when a windy, rainy storm had sent the weak-winged Pegasus down to the ground, injuring her to the point where she couldn’t move. Thankfully, Discord had been there to help. He mended her wounds with his magic and took her home. She had been shaken up, but mostly she had felt bad about herself as a weak Pegasus. Luckily, Discord had lived a long time, and despite the fact that he sometimes was a bit…absurd, that by no means meant he wasn’t short of wisdom. He soothed the pony, and it made them closer.
But Discord, sitting there in the dying grass as the weather grew colder with winter approaching, thought that perhaps the advice he had given her was slightly off.
“I lied to you, Fluttershy.” he said to the sky, staring at the cloud of her. “I lied. Not about you, of course. I would never lie about you.”
His face seemed to droop even more as his mood plummeted when he thought he couldn’t feel any worse. “But…” he began. “Mother Nature actually did make one mistake.”
With the raise of one talon, he made an abrupt slashing motion.
Cloud Discord broke in half, as if a sword had stabbed him diagonally. It disappeared forever.
“Me.”
Twilight actually had to keep herself from sniffling.
I had no idea Discord felt this way.
“Twilight, shhh,” Rainbow Dash whispered harshly, as she clung to a branch at the edge of the clearing. Discord was lying only yards away, staring at his clouds. “We can’t have him hear you.”
“I’m sorry,” she told her friend, wiping a single tear away from her hoof. “It’s just…He’s so depressed! Now that we’re friends, I can’t stand to see him like this.”
“There’s no need to worry, Twi. We found him, didn’t we? Once we get him to talk to Fluttershy, then he’ll be fine.” She paused for a moment, thinking. “’Course, I’m not sure I’ll be fine, if they end up being the kind of couple that makes kissy faces all the time, but at least they’ll be okay.” Rainbow shuddered at the thought of it. She wasn’t exactly a romantic pony.
The two had been listening to Discord talking to himself for only a few minutes. Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle had decided to fly over Everfree to see if they could find the Draconequus, since it was one of his favorite spots around Ponyville. The others were waiting outside the forest entrance, waiting for them to come back.
They hadn’t meant to really spy on him; they had only planned on finding him and then convincing him to go talk to Fluttershy.
But they couldn’t resist hearing Discord talking to himself and revealing his innermost feelings. It was so unlike him, after all. So they had ended up hearing almost everything Discord had said, and watched him use the clouds as his modeling clay in fascination.
“When should we go talk to him, anyway?” Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight again. “We can’t having him know we were spying on him. We gotta play it cool, act natural.”
“And spying on me from a tree isn’t natural enough, I suppose?”
The mares nearly fell off the tree as Discord teleported in front of them. Twilight had to clutch onto her branch to keep herself from flipping over.
“Oh, uh, hey, there, Discord pal!” Rainbow Dash said. She took out a pair of sunglasses from out of nowhere and placed them on her head. “’Sup?’
Twilight just shook her head, while Discord stared at her. “You’re kidding right?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Me and Twi were just chilling here,” Rainbow answered, now standing on her back legs on the branch and leaning on the trunk. She lowered the sunglasses to look at him. “But since we ran into you…”
“Stop right there, Joe Cool,” Discord said, putting a paw up as a signal to stop. “A bit of advice for the future though, Dashie: don’t tell other ponies to be quiet when you’re spying on somepony. I didn’t hear Twilight at all, but the sound of your whispers were about as loud as trumpets.”
For emphasis, a trumpet materialized out of thin air, and he blew on it.
“Ah!” they shouted in unison. Making his point, his instrument poofed into nothingness.
“Now, then. What are you two spying on me for? Because correct me if I’m wrong, but aren’t friends supposed to respect others when they want some alone time? Some privacy?”
“Discord, we’re sorry,” Twilight jumped in. She stepped off the branch and lowered herself to the ground, with Discord joining her. Rainbow stayed on her branch.
“We really didn’t mean to listen in on your…Uh…”
“Self-reflection?” Discord supplied.
“Y-yeah.” She nodded sheepishly at him for a moment. “Our intention wasn’t to spy on you. In all honesty, we were just looking for you.”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “Oh really?”
“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash jumped off her branch and spread her wings, gliding down to Discord’s eye level. “If you don’t believe us, ask Applejack! She’ll tell you the truth, you know that!”
“Applejack? And why, pray tell, would Applejack know of this? What is going on?”
The two ponies shared a look, and Twilight took a step forward. “We aren’t going to beat around the bush with you, Discord. Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy are outside the forest, waiting for us. Rainbow and I were flying over the forest to see if we could spot you. We told Fluttershy—“
Discord had a very good idea of where the conversation was going. “Oh no.” He held up his paw and claw, waving and shaking his head. “No no no no no no no. I refuse to speak with her.”
“But Discord, she only wants—“
He interrupted Twilight again, folding his arms. “Not no way, not no how.”
“Aw, c’mon, dude! This is getting out of hoof!” Rainbow argued. “You know Twi and me saw you totally going all gaga over Fluttershy, moaning and groaning about how much you love her. It was disgusting!” She put two hoofs together and tried to imitate Discord’s voice. “’Oh, Fluttershy, why are you so perfect? Oh woe is me, my life is so hard, wah wah wah wah!’”
She put her face up to his and poked him hard in the snout. “You completely flipped out over Fluttershy’s reaction to Pinkie’s question, a question that all of us had in mind!”
Her deep magenta eyes seemed to grow more intense with anger.
“And you think you’ve got it rough? What about her, huh? What about Fluttershy?! You were so busy being a jerk that you told her that you were tired of her, which makes no sense, because lately, it’s like you two are glued at the hip! Do you have any clue just how sad that made her?!?”
Rainbow’s fury only added to Discord’s own anger. “Oh, you’re lecturing me now, Rainbow Dash?!? It’s not like you’re known for always thinking clearly, or never acting on your anger without considering other pony’s feelings! You don’t have any idea—“
“Guys! Guys, stop fighting!” Twilight shouted, coming over to them. They were way too close to each other for comfort. Their snouts were crushed together, their eyes glaring at each other, their teeth grit. Twilight flew between the two and kept a hoof each against their chests, in order to keep them apart so they didn’t tear at each others’ throats. “We’re all friends now, remember?!? And Discord, don’t you care about what Fluttershy—“
“I told you, I’m not talking to her!” Discord exploded, his shout so loud that it left both ponies’ ears ringing. As the always-on-the-alert Rainbow Dash tried rubbing her hurt ears, she caught a bush at the side of the clearing shaking side to side. Was it an animal? A timberwolf, possibly?
“Why not?” Twilight asked him, who didn’t see the bush.
“I just can’t, okay?!? I can’t! How can I, after what just happened? How can I look at her, and tell her that I…”
The bush shook again.
His shoulders shook, and then they sagged, his arms drooping to his sides. “That I wouldn’t mind it…”
“Guys,” Rainbow said.
They paid no attention to her. Discord was too depressed, and Twilight was too excited about finally getting to the Draconequus. “Wouldn’t mind what?” she prompted him gently, smiling gently at him.
“Guys!” Rainbow tried again.
“I wouldn’t mind being her—“
“GUYS!”
“What?!?” They turned to look at her.
“Something's in that bush…” she whispered, using her eyes to point over to it. They followed her gaze, and Discord ‘harumphed’.
“More spies, I bet.” He gave the two ponies a dirty look as he snapped his fingers, and the bush disappeared.
The ponies gasped as Discord continued glaring at them, his eyes still away from the spot he just de-forested.
“Fluttershy?!?” They said in unison.
At the sound of her name, Discord froze.
“Umm…I-I’m sorry…”
Slowly, Discord rotated his neck, his face unchanging, his eyes wide with surprise and anxiety, towards the owner of the voice.
There she was, sitting on her haunches, making a circle of dirt in the ground with her hoof, holding all three of their gazes. “It’s just that, um, you two were taking a long time, and, um, I decided that m-maybe I should look too? I can at least fly over the forest, like you two, and I-I-I just couldn’t…”
She shrunk as she stared at Discord. “I got more a-anxious just waiting with the others…” She reverted her eyes from him to her hoof, pushing it harder into the dirt as she traced her circle. “S-so I c-convinced our friends to let me go, and I heard arguing as I f-flew over here, and I heard D-Discord, and…Y-you all started talking about me, but I d-didn’t want to interrupt, yet I w-wanted to hear…I couldn’t help myself…”
Discord was still frozen, staring at her in disbelief. She eventually raised her head to stare back, sheepish and blushing, and it remained that way.
The air seemed to grow thicker with tension, and Twilight put a hoof on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder. She could tell that Rainbow Dash wanted out of there just as badly as she herself did. “Ma—ybe we should leave you two alone to talk, since Fluttershy seems to be here already…”
“Y-Yeah!” Rainbow Dash said a bit too eagerly, and the two unfurled their wings and began to ascend to the sky. “You two talk and, uh, Discord, you’ll be able to protect Fluttershy, won’t ya? Since it’s the Everfree, and all…”
The only thing Discord changed in his posture, in order to acknowledge her question, was nod. Yes, of course he would protect her. How could he not?
“Great!”
“See ya!”
The two flew away as fast as they possibly could. “Come back and meet with us when you’re done!” Twilight shouted as they made their escape.
Her shout echoed, and then dissolved into quietness, the only ones left being a scared and heartbroken Draconequus and a nervous, infatuated Pegasus.
Fluttershy continued to say nothing, but she slowly walked over to the Draconequus as if he were a scared baby bird who had fallen out of the nest, away from his mother.
She stopped when they were only a foot or two from each other—it would take only a few steps for Discord to get close enough to touch her, but he made no move.
“D-Discord…”
Her voice suddenly brought him back to the world, no longer frozen in space. “I don’t want to hear it,” he told her, turning away from her and walking towards the pond. “I already know what you’re going to say, and I just can’t deal with that at the moment. I’m sorry.”
“Already know what I’m—“ A look of anger flashed across her face. “How can you say that?” Her voice didn’t rise in volume, but it was certainly sterner than it was before. “Can you tell the future now? Because I don’t think you can.”
She flapped her wings and flew over him, only to land in front of him before he could walk any further. “We were having a lovely time today,” she began, her eyes locked onto him. She didn’t need to use The Stare to get him to stop in his tracks. “We were having fun, and everything was going fine until they caught us holding tails, because we didn’t notice we were doing such a thing. And just because I got a little nervous from Pinkie’s question, you assumed what was going through my mind at the time, and because of that, you got angry and never listened to what I had to say. And now you’re doing it again.”
“I—“ he began to protest, but Fluttershy was up in a flash and shut him up by covering his lips with her hoof.
“But you will listen to me now, and we’re going to fix this, because I don’t like fighting with you! I don’t care if you want to talk to me or not, I’ll just keep following you until you realize that I’m not going away, not ever, until we make things right, because friends stick together, and I’m not going to give up on you. You might not think you’re worth it, but I do.”
She removed her hoof, and lowered her voice to a whisper. “So will you please just listen to what I have to say?”
He looked at her serious expression, and knew that she wasn’t kidding around nor backing out. He knew that while Fluttershy was a nervous, timid pony, she also had a stubborn resoluteness to her that was able to get things done when it was absolutely necessary. At that very moment, he realized he loved that about her, along with a thousand other reasons. A list of her lovable qualities went through his head, almost too fast to process, and he immediately started to soften, his icy attitude towards her melting away.
And because of that, his voice grew tender, despite his earlier harshness with her. “What is it, dear Fluttershy?”
“I…” She paused, and her face grew crimson. “I…I just…w-wanted to say…”
“Go on,” he prompted her, and took a hoof with his paw. “I’m listening.”
Though she found his sudden affection odd after all that had happened, it still soothed her, and she found her voice again. “I know you thought that I was maybe repulsed by what Pinkie Pie suggested. I could see that’s what you believed, when I looked at you then. You thought that I didn’t like the idea of…”
Her voice grew lower. “You being my special somepony. Is that right?”
I suppose the cat’s out of the bag, now. Normally he would have conjured up a bag to literally pull a cat out of it, but now was not the time for such tricks. Now was time for seriousness. “That’s right,” he confirmed. “And I got angry. But I couldn’t help but agree with you, because, well.”
He shrugged weakly, his body feeling ten times heavier than usual. “I’m me. You’re you.”
“What do you mean?”
“What do you think it means?”
She blinked, and then broke her gaze with Discord because a shape in the sky caught her eye. Discord followed her gaze, and his eyes landed on the Cloud Fluttershy that the wind had not yet broken, still under the rule of his chaotic magic.
“Is that…?”
“Yes.”
“Did you…?”
“Yes.”
“But why?”
“Because I could. Because I was bored. Because I missed you. Because I didn’t want to be fighting. Because…” I love you He stopped himself. “Just…because.”
She blushed again, and looked up to the sky. “I look awfully lonely up there.”
“What? Why?” he asked her. “And what’s that got to do with what you have to say?”
“I-I’m just saying that I think would be much better off if she had…somepony special with her.”
Discord’s mind was in a scramble. For once in his life, he was absolutely confused. Fluttershy was not one to play with words or play games. He was. No wonder he got under so many pony’s skins with his wordplay…
“Well…maybe not somepony special,” Fluttershy said, rubbing her foreleg, still looking up at her cumulus self. “Rather…somedraconequus special—“
Discord felt his heart jump. What?
She turned to him. “—with her.”
She scooted just a tiny bit closer to him. Slowly, but surely, she put a hoof on his arm, never breaking the gaze between them, despite her red face.
“You and me…”
His eyes dragged down to her hoof on his lion arm. With movement just as slow and gentle as hers had been, he removed her hoof with is eagle claw.
Fluttershy squeaked, thinking she had been rejected, but he only moved her hoof only to place it directly on top of his paw, and covered it with his talons.
“Fluttershy.” His red irises met her blue ones. “Are you saying what I think you’re saying? That you…you want to not just be my friend, but you want...you want to be with me?”
She smiled, though she broke their gaze and blushed while moving a strand of pink gossamer hair behind her right ear. “Make a Discord Cloud.”
“What?”
“Make a Discord Cloud,” she repeated, pointing to the sky with her hoof. “I’m not going to say anything more, mister, until you make a Discord Cloud.”
Blink blink. “Why? And besides, I already made one! But he’s gone now.” He waved his own comment away, as if it were nothing, but Fluttershy thought differently.
“Gone! So you took him away from Cloud Me?”
“Wha…? Fluttershy, it’s a cloud. I got rid of one that that I made to look like me, but I kept one that looked like you. Because they're clouds. Why does that matter so much to you? Why can’t you just, just, just…Tell me what you want me to hear already! Why are you torturing me so?!? You tell me to stop being stubborn and stupid and to listen, but now all you talk of are clouds! Tell me already!”
She straightened her spine, and sat on her haunches. Looked away and closed her eyes.
“No.”
“No?!?” She was driving him crazy!
“No. Make a Discord Cloud. I won’t be happy until you do. And then once you make a Discord Cloud, I’ll ask you to be my special somedraconequus. Because I will not have you put me on a pedestal, and make a cloud to look like me, when you won’t even do it right.”
Discord’s mouth dropped. “What did you just…?”
She stood up, and put her hoof under his chin. She popped his mouth closed.
“Discord…”
“….”
“Please?”
He had no idea what she meant by the please—whether it was to make a cloud, or to be her special somepony-draconequus-colt-draco-friend-whatever, but it didn’t matter, because his answer would have been the same.
“Of course, dear Fluttershy.”
He didn’t break her gaze though. He simply pointed a talon to the sky. He continued to watch her as she pointed her head up to look, and watched her smile as she saw a Nimbus Discord next to Nimbus Fluttershy.
“Just allow me to…dare myself to make one more adjustment.”
A spark of his fingers snapping, and an equal sign next to the cloud portraits appeared.
Another snap. Next to the equal sign was a heart.
“Just one more.”
A question mark.
Fluttershy Cloud + Discord Cloud = heart ?
Her smile only grew wider as she lowered her head to look at him for the millionth time that day.
“I was nervous from Pinkie Pie’s question because you weren’t my special somepony,” she began, voice low but as warm and smooth as hot chocolate. “And I was afraid they would ask questions, and you would find out how I felt. That I didn’t see you as just my friend. That I…”
As she talked, only Discord could see was her. Her. Beautiful, perfect, Fluttershy. Talking about him in a way he never thought possible.
This isn’t actually happening…
“Well…”
Because it definitely can’t be happening. Not to me. Right?
“I wish you were my special somepony. I want you to be my special somepony.”
Dear Celestia, it’s actually happening to me.
“So…w-will you?” Though she smiled, nervousness and uncertainly came to light in her eyes.
He wanted to shout. He wanted to scream. He wanted to jump. All of it he wanted to do, only in pure and utter joy.
But he had to keep calm. He had to hide his emotion. This was Fluttershy. He was Discord. They weren’t supposed to go together.
“If I did, things would be tough,” he told her in all seriousness. “As you’re all too aware, Fluttershy, I’m not a pony. I’m a spirit of chaos. You’re the epitome, the symbol, the embodiment of kindness. And not only do our personalities show it, but our physical selves as well.”
He pointed to himself. “We don’t match. We never will. And ponies will notice. They may try to break us apart, Fluttershy. If we take this chance, things could go sour between you and me. If we try this, we also tempt breaking up our friendship. And Fluttershy…”
He lowered his head even further, clutching both of her hooves now as firmly as he could without hurting her, and placed his forehead against hers.
“I can’t lose you. Ever. It would…”
His face resembled the day she walked away from him on the frozen pond, her skates alone in the middle of the ice—large, shiny irises, looking as if he were to drown himself in tears. “It would ruin me.”
He shut them to keep himself from crying. He wouldn’t do it, not now. It was all so strange. Fluttershy just admitted to having feelings for him. Why wasn’t he being selfish, and reveling in the joy of requited affection? Why was he approaching it all so cautiously, and giving her a chance to back out of this?
Just so he wouldn’t risk losing her? Because he would rather have her as a friend forever, rather than a marefriend for a while and then possibly nothing at all if the relationship ended? Was that why?
Yes, of course it was. He couldn’t imagine a life without Fluttershy now that she was in it, and he didn’t want his love for her to break anything between them.
“I need you...” he whispered.
He looked at the clip in her hair, and stroked the strand it held against her head. “I want to say yes, I truly and honestly do,” he told her. “But I don’t know what will happen. I don’t know if we’ll last. And that scares me, Fluttershy. Not much scares me, but that does—more than I care to admit.”
As his claw came to the end of a stroke in her hair, he moved it to under her chin, supporting her head. “Will we be able to be friends forever, no matter what happens?”
The anxiety from Fluttershy’s confession had left her eyes and left nothing but affection and love on her face. “Discord, I know we might not last forever…as a couple, if we become one. I’m not a filly anymore,” she said, and nuzzled his head. “I know that. And I know that…someponies wont’ approve of us. I know it might be hard. But…”
She stopped nuzzling him and instead put her snout against his. “I wouldn’t risk being your marefriend if I thought we wouldn’t always be friends, no matter what. But you know what?”
“What, dear?”
“For all these years, as I’ve become closer with Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, Spike…As I’ve made such best friends, I’ve learned many things. We’ve been through a lot. We’ve fought, we’ve argued, we’ve had our ups and our downs.”
She broke their noses apart and leaned against his chest. She smiled as he brought an arm around her, holding her close. He didn’t even think about doing it—he just did.
Their tails came together in a swirl of pink and red.
They did that without thinking, too.
“But we’re all still together. And me and you? We have been friends for little more than a year now, still together. We’ve been through a lot, you and me. And to me, that’s proof that we’ll always be close friends, no matter what.”
“…Even if we become more than friends? No matter how long that may be?”
“Yes…” she sighed happily. “Whether we last for a day or forever, Discord. You’ll never lose me.”
His other arm came around her too, and she found herself being pushed against him in an embrace.
“Fluttershy.”
She could feel him trembling, his shoulders shaking.
He was sobbing.
She said nothing. She only continued to smile, and wrapped her hooves around his skinny, snakelike body.
“Fluttershy.”
She rubbed his back.
“I love you, Fluttershy. I don’t deserve you, as a friend or anything more, but I swear to you, darling, I’m all yours if you’ll have me. I love you.”
She wasn’t surprised when tears came to her own eyes. She was so happy.
“Oh Discord…” She rose her head out of his chest and met his eyes. “You’ve got to stop putting me on a pedestal. It’s just me: Fluttershy. Your friend…No—“ Her cheeks turned pink. “Your marefriend. I don’t think I’m any better than you at all. You deserve to be happy, Discord, and I’m so, so glad that…that you love me…”
She held his face with his hooves. “Because I love you, too.”
“Dear goodness, Fluttershy,” he replied, using his paw to wipe tears away from his face. “That Celestia…She really knew which pony would be able to tug at mine heartstrings, hmm?”
She giggled. “Yes, but I’m sure this wasn’t part of her plan. Though I’m sure it won’t be a problem with her. You know, we won’t be the first couple that isn’t the same species, you know.”
“Really?” He seemed excited at the thought. He didn’t delude himself into thinking ponies wouldn’t be against it, but at least they weren’t the first to fall for another species.
“Oh, yes. There have been a couple marriages between species, all of which Celestia approved. I know, because I’ve read on them.”
“Oh?” he raised an eye on her. Though his heart still pounded and his adrenaline still ran, his humor started to return. “And what exactly would compel you to read such literature, Fluttershy? It doesn’t sound like the sort of research Twilight would recommend to you. Hmm?”
She blushed at him. “I might have been curious, since…I was experiencing it myself.”
“Hmm,” he nodded, grinning ear to ear. “If only I had known you were interested in such things. Then maybe I would have told you sooner.”
“W-well…At least you know now.”
“Yes.”
They shared a tender gaze at each other, before the silence started to feel a bit awkward.
“You know…” Discord broke the silence. “I may have lived a long time, but I have no experience in this…kind of thing. I’m not exactly a hit with the ladies. But then again, I was never interested…until I reformed and became friends with you.”
Fluttershy stared at the ground, hugging herself. “I don’t know anything about it either. I know all about friendship…b-but not about….l-love.”
As she had her hooves around herself, blushing, with a nervous frown on her face, but nonetheless happy, Discord found her irresistible.
“So you’ve never been kissed, I suppose.”
“Eep!” She jumped up, her hoof covering her mouth. “K-kissed?!?” she blurted. “Like….” She started to whisper. “…on the lips?”
Discord kicked at the dirt, staring at a rock. “Well…Yes. I wasn’t planning on kissing your ears or something. That would just be anticlimactic.” He looked at her again. “I-I’m just saying…”
He scratched his head, and Fluttershy was relieved to see him just as nervous as she was, as red as she was. “We could try it. Just for a second. Nothing fancy," he said.
Their eyes locked.
“Um.” She gulped. “O-on the c-count of th-three?” she suggested.
“That…sounds like a good plan. Shall I start?”
“O-okay.”
“E-excellent.” He massaged his throat and then cleared him. “Ahem. Well then.”
He laid on his stomach, so he would be easy for her to reach. They only stood a few inches apart now.
“O-one...”
He started stretching out his neck towards her, and she brought her face closer.
“T-two…” she whispered.
Only a moment more.
“Three!” they said in unison.
As fast as they could, they closed the distance between them, eyes shut tight. Their lips touched in a quick, chaste kiss. It was only a second, a kiss usually only foals in puppy love shared. But they were new at this, and that was all they were ready for at the beginning of this beautiful relationship. It resulted in a high clicking noise as they broke apart.
Mwah!
It ended as soon as it began, but for them, it was a big step, a step they planned on taking together.
Their eyes opened as they pulled away, followed by a bashful grin of Fluttershy’s, while Discord’s was just plain goofy, yet adorable.
“Well then!” he said, in such high spirits he felt he could fly to the moon and back. “Fluttershy, my beautiful darling, my partner in kindness and chaos…”
He offered her his arm. “Shall we go meet up with our friends now and subject ourselves to the torture of a thousand questions in regards to our new relationship?”
Fluttershy laughed, and she put her foreleg through the crook of his arm. “Yes, Discord. Let’s.”
Snap!
They disappeared from the clearing of the forest, as they teleported to their friends.
But little did they know that their friends knew that it had ended well.
Why?
Because, off in the distance, they could see two clouds—one resembling their beloved butter-yellow Pegasus, and the other their new friend of Chaos.
A large, cloudy heart encased the two.
And at the sight, nothing but cheering ensued.