//------------------------------// // Flutter Buddies // Story: A Chaotic Calm // by Betty-tea-dead //------------------------------// Discord curled up in a warm corner of Fluttershy's cottage lazily. He had found himself a little too bored playing in his pocket dimension, as there was only so much to do when you're a party of one. Here, however,it was only a little better. While he had the company of living creatures, he couldn't play quite as roughly as he would like. Fluttershy, sweet Fluttershy allowed him to do as he wished to the physical interior of her home. She barely seemed to mind when he would invert gravity or make one room into a million. This delighted him and allowed him to work off some of his pent up energy. It was always fun to make her little white rabbit, Angel, lost and dizzy, but he couldn't find it within himself to do the same to the fragile pegasus. Oh, he would play the occasional prank here and there, but he had learned the rough way just how sensitive she could be when he had made the bold mistake of creating the illusion of all her sweet animals dissolving into colorful sands. She had choked on the air itself and started to hyperventilate. The negative reaction had thrown the Prince of Chaos off his feet and quickly he had set everything back to what it was before. He had found himself in the difficult situation of liking the little pegasus, and he was still adjusting to his own self imposed limitations to keep himself from harming her or her feelings. Dragons were scary. Harming or pretending to harm any of her pets was an enormous no no. And he had to be sure nothing he caused would somehow make Fluttershy the center of attention. She hated it when all eyes were on her, and he had no idea why. However,he had to respect it if he wanted to maintain their friendship. Besides, after what had happened with Tirek? The last thing he wanted to do now was threaten their friendship, and that meant learning something about self control. Some days came easier than others, but this wasn't one of those days. He stretched out his back and let out a loud yawn and nearly whipped Angel with his tail. Whether or not he was aiming for the fluff ball was up in the air. "Oh dear, are you bored?" The gentle voice wafted from the kitchen as Fluttershy was heard closing the stove with a hoof. The little cottage smelled like cookies. Discord knew he could make a million cookies of all kinds rain from the sky if he wanted to. However, something was strangely nice about somepony actually making some to share with him. These were the little things that he found himself appreciating about Fluttershy's company. "Oh, no Fluttershy!" he chirped out happily. "Sundays always make me feel a bit lazy. Are the cookies ready?" He lifted his head with anticipation. Fluttershy entered the room, and laughed softly. "No silly, we need to let them cool. Soon though, I promise." She stepped over some skittering chipmunks carefully and nestled herself next to Discord, much to his surprise. The action seemed so natural, as if she didn't give the couch a second thought. Flustered, he just started to chuckle deeply. "Well if you insist on not burning your mouth on molten pieces of chocolate chips I suppose I can't fault you," he said, unfurling his tail so encircle them both. She just hummed knowingly. "Discord..." She said with a sweet voice that seemed to start to trail into something else. He was not sure why, but he felt nervous. It was not like she’d caught him doing something bad but... there was something he couldn’t explain. He was sweating a little, yet he kept up the pristine snaggle tooth smile. "Oh yes, Fluttershy?" "Something's wrong. Please tell me what's bothering you?" For some strange reason he felt disappointed, and yet relieved. He let out a long sigh and let his shoulders slump a little. "...Alright, you caught me. I am bored..." He caught Fluttershy starting to look down at the floorboards rather shamefully and quickly he wrapped his lion paw around her playfully. "Now stop that! It’s not because of you." Not really, anyways. "O-Oh?" She blinked in surprise. "Alright... but what is the reason?" He waved his talon hand around, causing an erratic pattern of checker marks and wobbly creatures of all colors to appear like a light show on the floor before them. "I appreciate you letting me do as I wish here Fluttershy, but I miss sharing my chaos with Equestria. But ..." He huffed a little, and suddenly the patterns straightened and the wobbly creatures stiffened and moved robotically like little jointless stick men across the floor. "Ponies like order. And if I want to be good...which I do...I have to play by everypony’s rules." "I see..." Fluttershy tapped a hoof to her mouth in thought. "But what about your pocket universe?" "Lonely." "Lonely?" He gently bopped her on the nose and just like that, the patterns disappeared. No ponies in the pocket universe. "No living creature in the pocket universe. It's like asking a fish to jump into a drawing of a fishbowl. So even if I invited you, your widdle self would stretch and pop into non existence! Not exactly a pleasant experience I imagine." Her eyes widened fearfully. The imagery did sound frightening. She was just about to offer to go along herself, but with that description she understood why he always left on his own. "I-I See! Oh how dreadful... But you are right. Ponies here don't like too much chaos..." Discord nodded in disappointed agreement yet froze up when she finished her sentence. "But maybe just a little is okay." Suddenly, in a whirlwind of energy he swept her off the ground and the two were inexplicably on top of some snowy mountain. "Oh! You are simply the best, I knew you had a little devilish side to you! What shall we do? Turn the water supply into chocolate milk? Have it rain upwards and make everypony wear umbrellas for shoes? Oh, or maybe-" He stopped short as Fluttershy quickly placed her hoof over his mouth, while she bore a somewhat serious expression, the kind a mother would wear when a child would start to act up. "Discord..." She says warningly. He sighed again, and they were suddenly back in her cottage. The scenery was completely normal now. She straightened up her wings, and offered up a small smile at him. "What I was going to say is... A little chaos is okay. A very little. Pinkie Pie is hosting Apple Bloom’s birthday today and I'm sure she'd be delighted with a cotton candy cloud or two. I was actually going to leave for it right after we had a little milk and cookies. We'd have to check with Applejack, of course, but a little bit of controlled chaos should be alright." It was better than nothing but something in that sentence really bothered him. Controlled chaos? Chaos was never meant to be controlled. That defeats the purpose! But he flashed a grateful smile at her, and gave her soft pink mane a quick ruffle. "Fluttershy, that sounds just delightful."