Fluttershy hummed quietly to herself as she went about her nightly routine. First, she took care of things outside. She first watered her plants, greeting each one and telling them about her day. She knew they couldn't hear her very well, and they would never respond, but she also knew that talking to plants helped them grow. Twilight once commented on the matter, babbling something about gases and how plants breathed. Fluttershy didn't like to think of Twilight as overbearing or annoying, but she was equally averted to the topic of science. She listened to every word her friends said, but sometimes it was difficult to remember or understand them. Twilight and Pinkie Pie had often confused Fluttershy, but they rarely followed up on what they said that had confused her, so she kindly listened and moved on.
Fluttershy took pride in her garden, as she could grow almost anything she wished. She even grew some of her own food for her animals, but because she had so many to take care of, her supplies fell short and she still needed to go to the market for the bulk of her supplies. It was a talent Applejack had taken notice of more than once, with Fluttershy explaining each time her earth pony lineage. It was her geomancy which made it easier for her to communicate with the animals and earth almost as easily as an earth pony with the same talent. Unfortunately, it also caused her to be slightly heavier than an average pegasus, a fact which contributed to her self-consciousness. It was Rainbow Dash who first took notice of that fact, just after they had both gotten their cutie marks, when Rainbow tried to carry the reluctant pegasus back to camp.
After she finished taking care of her plants, she moved on to the animals. Aside from her grandmother, an earth pony with a special talent in veterinary care, Fluttershy was the only pony she knew who could understand almost any language, be it by context, or physical cues. Fluttershy had never met her grandmother before, but was told of her when she got her cutie mark. Her mother was so proud to have a filly whose special talent was animals that she helped her find a place on the ground where she could take care of and be closer to her new animal friends. Her ability to analyze body language so well had earned her yet another talent of detecting deception. She was rarely ever aware of her doing so, but she knew when to doubt things her friends had said, keeping her positive when she could count on them, and less disappointed when she knew she couldn't. She was lucky to have Rainbow Dash and Applejack as friends because she knew she could always count on both of them, which strengthened their bond more quickly than with her other friends. It could be argued that Fluttershy trusted too much when Discord turned his back on his friends for what he thought would be a share for leadership of Equestria, but in truth, even Discord was surprised at his own changes of hearts, which meant that his closest friend couldn't even see the deception before it came.
As she checked on her animals, she came across a few that were injured or exhausted and needed a safe place to rest for the night. She was delighted to provide hospitality for any creature in need, and within a certain boundary of her house, each creature would respect the sense of security. The carnivores and those who would usually be their prey could coexist in harmony, thanks to their kind caretaker. In return, as part of their hospitality, Fluttershy would attempt to provide suitable sustenance for even her carnivorous guests. She was always reluctant to gather living creatures as fodder, but the balance of nature was something she had experienced all her life. Most animals couldn't outlive ponies for one reason or another, and so she was forced to see many come and go from the world. Her emotions weren't hardened by the cruel truths of the universe, only expanded upon. She was more in touch with her emotions, and even more understanding than most of her friends on the subject of death, among many other unpleasant things. If she ever needed to, she could overlook ending a less sapient life to help another.
She leaned into the stream that flowed near her cottage. She could see fish aplenty swimming upstream, and she reluctantly chose one as a meal for an injured canine friend. Closing her mind and willing malicious thoughts and intent away, she thanked the doomed animal out loud for its contribution to the continuance of another animal's life.
“Your life is no less important than any other creature's in this world, and it is with great regret that I ask you to pass on your life's energy to another. Without your contribution, some other may befall the same fate that you would have avoided, and it is with the deepest gratitude that we thank you for your life, and your energy. Your life will not have been lived in vain,” Fluttershy recited the thanks that she gave to every animal she had needed to take from its home to serve another. “Thank you,” she finished as she drove her muzzle into the water and retracted it just as quickly with a small bass struggling between her omnivorous teeth. She maneuvered the fish in her mouth until she could easily reach its most vulnerable spot, and bit down hard, separating the head from the lifeless body. It didn't carry an unpleasant flavor, as pegasi were often known for being able to digest smaller animals if the need arose, though most didn't in polite company unless there were nothing more suitable to their digestive system nearby. Other races of ponies could eat meat as well, in small amounts, but rarely found it appetizing or satisfying.
The new mother coyote gratefully accepted the meal Fluttershy offered, neatly devouring it while keeping still, so she wouldn't disturb her newborn puppies. The demure pegasus, finally finished with her outside chores, moved into the animal friends she considered pets inside of her cottage. Most of them were satisfied easily enough, with only a few complaints squeaked out by a bemused bunny who hadn't gotten his favorite salad that day. Luckily, his resolve was melted away by a loving hug and apology, asking him to understand that the market was closed already, and she didn't have the supplies on hand. “If it will make you feel better, we can cuddle later,” she cooed, making Angel shake his head vehemently and scamper away. Fluttershy giggled as she watched him taking off, knowing that she would get her way soon enough. She quickly finished feeding her pets, and grabbed a few daffodils to nibble on for herself, then scooped up a book and a reluctant rabbit before fluttering up the stairs to her bedroom. Settling into her bed, she slid under the covers, struggling with Angel to sit still, and finally, they were both comfortable. With one of her more dexterous feathers, she twisted the knob on her bedside lamp, brightening the room.
A lone canary whose feathers matched her own, followed by a sandy-brown jackalope scurried into the room after seeing the sudden illumination, taking the opportunity to join her in bed. Fluttershy graciously greeted them and dove into her book, reading aloud for the animals gathered. When she finished the long chapter and set the book aside next to the lamp, she noticed that they had all fallen asleep. She gave a contented sigh, blowing out the flame on the lamp, wrapping her wings around her bedmates for the night, and curled up herself.
Her peaceful slumber had not lasted long as the pink-maned pegasus was awoken by her bedmates. Angel made several panicked gestures, warning his caretaker of an intruder. Shortly after she got the message, a loud thud was heard from downstairs, eliciting a gasp from Fluttershy.
“Oh no! What if it's a burglar, or a serial killer? What if it's Rarity? I hope she's not mad at me for ruining my Gala dress. That happened so long ago, I thought she was over it.”
Angel Bunny facepalmed.
“Right, it could just be a burglar,” Fluttershy reasoned.
Angel needed to use two paws for the resulting facepalm.
Fluttershy hesitated, not willing to get out of bed to check downstairs. She was convinced that it would be much safer under her blankets. In the commotion, her other two bedmates awoke, querying Angel for answers. Fluttershy suddenly remembered that there were even more animals downstairs where the intruder could be lurking, and she didn't like that thought one bit.
She bravely rose to all fours, took a deep breath, let it out, and dashed down the stairs to confront the potentially dangerous intruder. In the dark, nopony could see anything, so Fluttershy had to resort to shouting blindly in all directions, “Who's there? You better not harm any of my friends! I'm so sorry about the dress, I promise I won't do it again.” For Fluttershy, it was a shout, but the intruder could just barely hear it from across the room.
“Fluttershy?” A voice similar to her own, only much less frightened and far more cheerful whispered, “I'm sorry I woke you up, I was just looking for somepony. I mean, some-draconequus. Where is he?”
“Pinkie Pie? Is that you?”
“Shh! Don't wake up the animals or Fluttershy will be upset,” she scolded.
“Pinkie, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”
“Technically, it's not the middle of the night. It's only the beginning of the night, but I'm looking for Discord.”
“Why?”
“Because after all that just happened, I figured he could use some cheering up! Remember how he was stone, and then he was really fun, and then he was really mean, and then he was stone again, and then he was mean, but you were being nice to him, so he was nice back, and then he-” Pinkie began a run-on so long, repetitive, and frustrating that the author had to find a way to cut it short.
“Pinkie, I was there,” Fluttershy interrupted with a hoof to Pinkies mouth. It was a gesture to which she only resorted in the most dire circumstances. “Why are you here?”
“Duh, I was just getting to that!” Pinkie began, still whispering in excitement, “When he was finally nice, and Tirek got him to betray us, I had the worst thought. Discord was probably only helping Tirek because he wanted more friends because he only had one, and that was you, and that made me so sad. So I thought I should throw him a party and then I would be his best friend too!”
“Oh,” Fluttershy said, surprised at the suggestion. “I never thought of that before. That's really nice of you, Pinkie.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So where is he? I thought he lived with you.”
“What?” Fluttershy blushed, “Why would you think that?”
“He was living here before. Jeez, Fluttershy, sometimes I think you have a really bad memory, or you haven't lived your own life up until this point. It's like you're a changeling, but you don't smell like one.”
“I... what?” The previously yellow pegasus became a yellow pegasus with a deep red face, not that anypony could see it behind her mane. She dropped eye-contact with her friend completely, eyes having adjusted enough to stare at a flattened tick on the floor. She would have to clean her house and find the rest of them later.
“Where's Discord?”
“He doesn't live here. He has his own home, but I'm not sure where. He kind of just comes and goes,” Fluttershy responded, her new color fading, but still refusing eye-contact.
“Well that stinks, I wanted to play! Now how else am I going to get chocolate rain at the party?” Pinkie's voice rose to a normal volume as she grabbed Fluttershy's withers and pressed their faces together, “I promised everypony chocolate rain and whipped cream! I made thirty whole tubs of whipped cream for this! This is a disaster,” she sighed in defeat.
Fluttershy wriggled out of her friend's grasp and was about to say something to console her when they both heard a familiar voice echo through the room. “Did somepony say disaster?” Between the two appeared a snake-like figure with a horse-like head and mismatched limbs. “I can assure you, I have caused nothing of the sort since the last time Ponyville was in danger.”
“Discord!” Pinkie cheered at full volume, causing several sleeping animals to stir and Fluttershy to jump back. The draconequus soon found himself wrapped in pink fur and his mouth filled with pink hair that strangely tasted like his own variation of clouds.
Realizing where he had apparated and how inappropriate this location was for conversations of the sort, Discord interrupted Pinkie's celebration. “Now Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy is kind enough to not interrupt you when you are sleeping, and there are other creatures sleeping here too. We shouldn't be doing this here,” He stated while pointedly looking at Fluttershy for acknowledgement. When Fluttershy didn't answer, he knew she didn't want to be disturbed.
Usually, if Fluttershy had the time, she would offer to let them stay. Noticing that she didn't, Pinkie apologized as well. “Sorry Fluttershy, I can leave now. I'll make it up to you later. You're totally invited to the party,” she whispered.
“Thank you,” Fluttershy thanked them sincerely, then turned to ascend her steps once more. “Good night.”
With that, Discord and Pinkie Pie let themselves out quietly, trying not to disturb the animals who were mostly asleep.
“So what is this I heard about a party? I do so love parties.”
*gasp* “So do I! I was planning this really big one for you with everypony in Ponyville. I was going to make it a surprise, but I needed your help to make it just perfect. I already have the whipped cream, I just need cotton candy clouds and chocolate milk!”
Discord was dumbfounded. Pinkie was being nicer to him than usual. The only pony who ever seemed this enthusiastic about spending time with him was Fluttershy. It was a pleasant change from the norm of exchanging letters with his best friend and attempting to create his own universe filled with and thriving from chaos. “Where exactly did you plan on throwing such a shindig?”
“At first, I wanted to have it at Sugarcube Corner, but the Cake's demanded I tell them everything I was doing first. They said I can't have food and beverages coming from the sky and making a mess indoors, so I had to move it outside. It's going to be right over there,” she pointed a hoof towards a hill nearby just underneath Rainbow Dash's cloud house. A solitary tree stood near the top, at which the element bearers had had several picnics and pet play dates. She was definitely going to invite Gummy to this party. He was sure to liven the place up enough to meet Discord's comfort.
“That looks like a lovely spot for a get-together. So when do the guests arrive?”
“Tomorrow. I put out fliers and I'll be sending out telegrams personally at the crack of dawn!”
“...”
“What is it? Are you busy tomorrow? I knew I should have done my research.”
“No, it's not that at all. I would love to hang out tomorrow. It's just...” Discord trailed off.
“There will be streamers, I promise! I'm only just starting to get ready! I just wanted to know what you thought....”
“Oh Pinkie Pie,” Discord started tearing up, “Why are you doing this for me after all that happened?”
For once, Pinkie lost her bubbly charm and looked Discord straight in the eye. “Everypony needs friends, and I want to be your friend too. Fluttershy and Twilight are nice, but they don't even like all of the fun things you do, and I really miss them. I want stalks of popcorn to burst unexpectedly and cotton candy clouds, and streets made of soap. I don't want every day to be the same length because I want to enjoy all of the great times of day at once, and I don't like it when things make sense for too long.” Pinkie began to lose tears of her own. Meanwhile Discord's concern grew. He had never met anypony who liked his magical nature, and here she was; one in a million. For centuries, he was forced to persuade ponies into being chaotic. They all had such a fondness for harmony that any disruption in their day-to-day routines and balances would cause them to be miserable.
For the longest time, Discord thought that his very existence was the cause of all of the misery and pain in the world. When he was finally reformed, he realized that it was only when he used his magic that ponies were miserable. He was now coming to terms with the hard truth. He didn't know what to think, but he finally understood something after hearing what this incredible pink pony was telling him. It wasn't him or his magic that made ponies miserable. It wasn't his fun that was bad. His fun was even enjoyable to some ponies. What he began to realize was that he had been doing things wrong his whole life.
“Do you see that tree there?” Pinkie asked, still serious and teary-eyed.
“Why, yes I do,” he replied.
“I never understood why all trees grew like that. I think that some of them should grow the other way. I've seen what they look like underground and it looks just as beautiful as it does above. Sometimes even more.”
Discord had never believed a metaphor from Pinkie would make sense. She was saying that she saw the beauty in the world the same way he did. Of course, he had years of experience to tell him that without accidents, there was no strife, and without strife, there was no growth. At first, he had only been trying to do good for ponykind, but soon he came to find out that they didn't see things quite the same way he did. Where he saw art, they only saw dysfunction. He never understood how an aether-wielding race like himself could not understand the intricacies and abstractions of nature and life the way he could. “Oh, Pinkie Pie,” he cried out. He had lost all composure and embraced the mare in a full-bodied hug. She gleefully accepted and they remained like that for a while. Seconds passed too quickly and turned into minutes that went by as if the two were long-lost friends meeting each other for the first time in 1000 years. Neither wanted to break away, but both knew that if they hadn't, nothing would get done.
Finally they parted, sniffling and wiping away tears as each looked into the eyes of their new friend. After only a few seconds, Pinkie perked up to her full potential and began hopping up and down. “So what do you say? Are we going to make this party the biggest bash Equestria has ever seen, or what?”
“I say we begin immediately!” Cackled the king of chaos and soon-to-be co-ruler of what Equestria was about to become. For the two of them combined could throw a party the likes of which nopony had ever seen before and never would see again. Somewhere in Canterlot, the Diarch of Night felt the deepest sense of dread befall her. She feared the return of Nightmare Moon, only to have the throne room's doors thrown open by the other diarch of Equestria.
“I felt it too, sister. We must leave now, for I fear we may already be too late.”
Twilight Sparkle was awoken shortly after she had fallen asleep to frantic knocking on her royal bedroom doors. Spike was still fast asleep, so Twilight, envious of Spike's ability to sleep through anything, reluctantly answered the door. She was instantly bombarded with confetti and streamers from what looked like Pinkie's new upgraded party cannon. Not wanting to deal with Pinkie's antics so late at night, she tried shutting the door, which was held open by a singing party pony. She didn't try making sense out of the lyrics, only hearing a few words here and there. “Sirens, blah blah blah, portal, blah blah blah, Discord, blah blah blah, party.” Typical Pinkie. Twilight simply waited for her to finish or run out of energy before trying the door again. Pinkie then said something that Twilight didn't register, to which she replied, “Yeah, sure. Do whatever you want,” and went back to bed.
Her rest was interrupted several hours later by the sounds of pitch-perfect melodic voices. She had sworn she defeated the sirens and took their powers away, but if that were true, then how could they be in Equestria now? She glanced around her room, which seemed in order, and hurried to the library to investigate any disorderliness. What awaited her was what she had hoped for, but not in the slightest bit expected. Every one of her books, save for a small pile held by Spike, was organized perfectly on the shelves, just the way she had instructed. Spike gave her a wary glance, seeing her worried expression. Before he had a chance to ask her what was wrong, she flew out of the castle and into Ponyville proper. Before her lay a sea of ponies cheering and galloping about, all facing the general direction of a massive gazebo that had not been a part of Ponyville before. On the stage of the gazebo floated three winged-seahorse-like figures singing the most beautiful and hypnotic tune she could imagine. On top of said gazebo stood the three other princesses alongside Discord and Pinkie Pie, all dancing. Luna was even head banging to the music and Cadance wore a lampshade on her horn as a hat.
“Sweet Celestia,” was all she could say as the Wonderbolts, followed by Rainbow Dash zoomed overhead. Several groups of ponies exited Twilight's castle, all clumsily stumbling about on their hooves like they had gotten sickly-drunk mere moments ago. More ponies arrived by the second, all in hordes and chattering amongst others about the greatest party in the history of Equestria. Neigh, the greatest party in the history of the universe.