Chapter Three: Part Three
Fluttershy let out a sigh, and almost a tear or two. Discord was a lovely friend, but sometimes he could be just so frustrating! For the past two days they had been here, and the entire time he kept trying to make little cupcakes from the waterfalls (this, of course, was in addition to the fact that he had already turned the entirety of Neighagra Falls into one giant souffle). Or was it the other way around? It was so hard to keep track of at times. And even then she wasn't fully sure it really had been two days. For all she knew, they could have just gotten there. But she was pretty sure that wasn't the case. After all, Discord didn't take control of the sun or moon, that she knew about.
THOUGH HE DID TAKE CONTROL OF THAT RABBIT!
“DISCORRRRD!” she bellowed, her voice becoming a little hoarse for the effort. “PUT THAT BUNNY DOWN!” she then paused, “Please?”
He paused as the rabbit (which was turning several different shades of tree) slowly rotated in the air. “Oh come now Fluttershy! He's having fun! Look at him. I bet he never knew he would make such a fine shade of pine, now did he?”
“No he does not. And it's not a he, it's a she!” Fluttershy argued.
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine. I'll put her down.” he said, rolling his eyes. He let the poor girl slowly drift to the ground, which was far below them.
“What's gotten into you Discord?” she asked.
“Why, whatever do you mean?” he asked, blinking his eyes innocently.
“Why are you causing all of this trouble all of a sudden?” she pleaded.
“Trouble?” he looked at her with surprise and pointed at his chest with his talon, “Moi? Never!” he proclaimed, shaking his head. “You know those days are behind me Fluttershy. I'm reformed, remember?” he said, all smiles and innocence (was that a halo over his head?).
She crossed her forelegs a narrowed her eyes a bit. “Then why did you make Neighagra Falls into a giant fluffy souffle?” she pointed with a hoof at the massive (though admittedly yummy looking) souffle that was gently oozing something that was either white chocolate, or cloud fluff. Not far from it, a large group of tourists had gathered and were taking pictures. Some of the more daring ones had even begun to take bites out of it only to discover that apparently it was a souffle in appearance only. Yet, oddly enough, only about two-thirds of them actually spit it back out. For the remaining one-third, it looked as though they found it quite tasty.
“Oh, that? Don't you think it looks better like that?” he asked with a grin.
“No, not at all.” she responded quite firmly.
“Bah! You don't know what you're talking about. I'd bet the pink one would agree with me!” he said, waving a dismissive paw in the air.
“Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy said, raising an eyebrow.
“Is that one one that liked my chocolate rain?” he asked, stroking his beard.
“Discord...” Fluttershy said in exasperation.
“What?” he asked, once again all innocence and smiles.
“You haven't answered my question.” she insisted. She was getting more and more used to this assertive thing. It wasn't always easy, and it scared her often more then not, but she did have to admit, it was kinda helpful.
“Come now my dear Fluttershy, do I have to have a reason to have fun?” he patted her on the head.
“This isn't fun Discord!” she objected. “Look at all of those poor fishies!” she pointed at the slow, but oh-so-tasty looking ooze that ran from the souffle. At a distance, a pony could think that it was filled with little bits of glittery candy or some such. But there was no candy in that. No, it was nothing but poor hapless fish caught in a slow fall to the river of custard and jagged gumdrop rocks that awaited them below.
“Oh, I don't know about that. I'd say they're getting a pretty sweet deal if you ask me!” He gave her a large grin. She simply frowned at him. “Well, it's hardly my fault if my artistic abilities are unappreciated!” he donned an indignant look and turn his head dramatically to the side.
“Discord...” she nearly pleaded again, but stopped short. Beyond Discord, and popping into her vision in a purple flash, was one of the strangest things she had seen in a while. “Discord?” she asked, looking behind him.
“Yes?” he asked, not moving from his perfect pose of despair.
“What's with the yellow Pegasus Pony carrying an Earth Pony in a large sack?” she asked, raising a curious eyebrow.
“Say what?” his eyes popped open and he looked at her, then his eyes promptly sunk into his head. “Well I'll be! Where did those two come from?” he asked. His speaking face was a bit unnerving without eyeballs. He then promptly vanished, and reappeared next to them. Much to their surprise.
So much so that the poor Pegasus Pony lost his balance and promptly dropped like a rock. It may not have helped that Discord had suddenly cracked a huge grin, snapped his fingers, and turned said pony into a rock.
“DISCORD!” Fluttershy cried in alarm. She hoped that he could hear her over the sounds of the poor screaming pony in the sack.
Discord, however, was laughing merrily. Fluttershy knew that she shouldn't be surprised that he would find this hilarious, but she was taken aback by his laughing all the same. “L-look at her FACE! PRICELESS!” he cried.
“DISCORD! SAVE THEM!” she cried, then dove as fast as she could after them. Sadly, she was no Rainbow Dash. Well, she was actually kinda glad she wasn't Rainbow Dash. T-that's not to say she doesn't like her friend or anything! N-no. It's just that Rainbow's life is a bit too exciting for Fluttershy. While Rainbow would love to spend the afternoon racing, Fluttershy was more then happy to simply sit in her little cottage sipping tea and enjoying the lovely weather.
As a result, she simply couldn't dive fast enough. And, as a result, they fell faster then she could fly. She out a cry and covered her eyes as the hit the grou-
The screaming suddenly stopped.
“Fluttershy! Come over here and look at this! This is great!” Discord from beneath her. She opened her eyes once more and saw him standing on the ground, with the poor pair of unfortunate ponies frozen in the air, just above the earth.
She flew down as fast as she could and landed next to him. He grinned at her and then pointed at the Earth Pony who's face was no more then a hoof off of the ground. She didn't want to look, but her curiosity got the better of her.
The poor mare's face was completely frozen in a look of pure terror. Her eyes were looking at the ground, and her pupils were all but completely gone. The poor stallion that was carrying her had a look of complete surprise on his rocky face. She marveled for a moment on how both of them were simply stuck there in the air, as if time itself had suddenly frozen around them.
“Isn't it great?” Discord put his talon on her shoulder, and pointed with his paw (while taking the opportunity to press the side of his face to hers). “Look at that her face! And his is great too! Oh I wish I had a picture of this!”
“D-Discord, what did you do?” she asked, her face slowly mirroring the frozen mare's.
“Relax. All I did was freeze them in time. They're fine.” He waved his talon dismissively. He then looked at Fluttershy, who was giving him a pleading look. “Oh fine...” he sighed. He snapped his fingers, and in a flash, both stallion and mare were lying safely on the ground. Though it did take a moment or two before that realization dawned on them (the poor mare was still screaming her face off for a good second or two before she realized that she was no longer falling to her doom).
“Better?” Discord asked.
“Are you okay?!” Fluttershy asked as she suddenly darted over to them.
“No appreciation.” Discord grumbled. Fluttershy ignored him.
“I-I think so.” the mare said, still a bit shaken from the whole thing (her voice was a fair bit sore as well).
“I-I'll be fine.” the stallion replied as he looked at Discord with concern.
“Oh gosh, I'm so sorry about that!” Fluttershy with as much sincerity as she could summon (which was quite a bit).
“What happened?” the mare asked looking about a bit confused.
“Well, Discord here turned your friend into a rock.” Fluttershy pointed to the stallion then shot a look at Discord, who simply shrugged in a 'What?' kind of way.
“I was wondering about that...” he mused.
“But it's okay. He's sorry for what the did, right?” she looked at Discord once more, with a bit more intensity then she realized.
He looked back at her, and paused a moment, then rolled his eyes, “Yeah, sure, whatever.”
“Anyway, what are you two doing here?” Fluttershy asked.
“We're looking for a pony named Fluttershy.” the mare answered.
Then, all at once, Fluttershy remembered that she was a very shy pony. Suddenly, she wanted to be anywhere else then right there in that spot. But, sadly, she was frozen to it(what with paralyzing fear and what-not).
“Oh? Is that so?” Discord asked, a devious grin on his face.
Please don't tell them, please don't tell them, please don't tell the-
“Well, I just so happen to be Fluttershy's very best friend in the whole world.” Discord proclaimed proudly.
“You?” the mare asked, both with fear and disbelief.
“What?” he snapped back, then regained his composure, “You think a draconoquis
like myself can't have friends?”
“Uh, not, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that, uh, I was wondering if you might know where she is?” the mare asked.
“That depends on who's asking and why.” Discord answered.
The mare looked mildly annoyed for a moment. “Well, my name is Litterbug, and this here is-”
“Yes, yes, yes, that's all very nice and good. But that's not telling me why you want to find my friend.” Discord interjected, causing the stallion to look a little miffed.
Her eye twitched slightly. She took a small breath, “We're here with a message from Princess Twilight-”
“TWILIGHT?” Fluttershy suddenly exclaimed. It seemed that hearing her name dispelled the fear that held her fast (or it might have been the overflowing warm fuzzies that suddenly filled her, but whatever).
Everypony around her suddenly looked at her in surprise. She then blushed, retreated deep within her hair, and started slowly walking back from the mare.
“Wait! Are you Fluttershy? Twilight needs you help!” Litterbug said excitedly, though as gently as she could.
Discord raised an eyebrow, and Fluttershy stopped retreating. “You know Twilight?” she asked timidly.
Discord opened his mouth to say something, but Litterbug cut him off, “She sent us to find you and all of your other friends. She said to tell you that she's currently being held prisoner,” she then quickly added (mostly due to the sudden look of worry on Fluttershy's face) “she's fine, but she thinks the Princesses ordered it. She also wants me to tell you that she thinks that all of the problems that each of you are dealing with are distractions to keep you busy.”
Discord let out a relived sigh. “Finally! I can stop doing what the,” he made heavy quotation signs in the air and donned a look of disgust, “'Princess' 'ordered' me to do! Can you believe that? She tried to give ME an ORDER! If it hadn't involved this,” he pointed at the 'falls', “I would have told her to distract my dear Fluttershy here herself!” Discord said, pointing at said pony.
“What?!” she nearly shouted. “Y-you did all of this to distract me?!” she was surprised, if not a little hurt. “And you didn't tell me? You lied to me?” tears began to well-up in her eyes.
“I-I … uh … I-It's, uh...” he stammered. He then bit his lower lip as he looked at her. “Oh please don't cry Fluttershy! I-I was just trying to help that Princess of yours! Blame her!”
“Why would you do that to me?” she wailed as the tears came forth.
“I-I...” he seemed at a loss for words, though Fluttershy didn't much notice. She was busy thinking about all of the poor animals that had suffered through all of this. “Okay, Okay, I'm sorry Fluttershy! I really am! Please stop crying. H-here, I'll fix everything! Watch!”
Fluttershy looked up and watched as he flew into the air, and began snapping his fingers. First, the river became water once more. Then the gumdrops became rocks. After that, the yummy looking ooze became water. And finally, after a brief pause in which Fluttershy was sure that Discord was hesitating (she could tell that he was rather proud of his work), he snapped his fingers once more and the falls became normal again. Even all of the animals he had turned into balloons and clowns became normal as well (wait, when did that happen?).
“There? See? Everything's better now! Right back to its old, boring, uninteresting self.” he said, slightly disheartened, as he drifted back to the ground.
Fluttershy wiped her tears, and gave him a little hug. “Thank you.” she said softly.
Unbeknownst to Fluttershy, this gesture caused Discord to choke up a little, and as a result, rather embarrassed him. “Uh, it was nothing! Oh my, I think I hear my dinner calling! Gotta go!” he said as a giant watch appeared around his wrist.
Then he vanished.
Fluttershy turned around to face the two ponies looking at her with hanging jaws. “H-how did you do that?” the mare asked.
Fluttershy simply smiled and said, “Always works.”
“I-I see.” said the stallion. “Anyway, I think we're almost done here, yes?” he said somewhat impatiently.
“R-right.” Litterbug answered. “Anyway, she wants you to meet up with the others at the princess's conference and ask them why they are holding her prisoner. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are already on their way, so you should hurry as well.”
“You already talked to them? Wow.” Fluttershy was amazed.
“Yeah, and we were wondering of you could tell us how to get to Manehatten from here.” Litterbug looked at her with eyes that spoke 'please help'.
“Oh, no problem! Just head east until you hit the shore then go south! You can't miss it!” she responded cheerfully. “And thank you for finding me! This is a very brave thing you two are doing.”
Litterbug rubbed the back of her head, “Just following orders.” she said softly.
And with that (and a friendly smile), Fluttershy took off, and began her long flight.
*****
“Three down.” the stallion commented after Fluttershy was out of earshot.
“Let's hope the others won't be as scary, eh?” said Litterbug.
The stallion simply rolled his eyes and took off once more as a purple glow encased the both of them.