//------------------------------//
// Day 21 Part 2: Confession 
// Story: Ponyville the Town of Youth 
// by Ironskull 
//------------------------------//

Fluttershy watched silently as Discord used the oar to move the boot up the invisible wall.  Discord was aware of her staring.  He kept glancing back at her every once in a while, but he would quickly turn away again, staying silent all the while.

As Fluttershy watched Discord's motions, she realized that the way the paddling moved the boat was beginning to make sense.

Which, naturally, was unusual.

"Discord..." she began.

"Yes, Fluttershy?" asked Discord.

"Why are you using that oar to paddle the boat- I mean, the boot along?  Couldn't you make it move all by itself?  Or just teleport it to where you want to be?"

"I could," answered Discord without stopping his rowing.  "But that would go against the whole point, wouldn't it?"

"It would?  What point?"

"It would," confirmed Discord.  "While I could bring inanimate objects to life and not have to lift a claw to do anything for myself, it takes a lot of the fun out of everything.  I like to give things a personal touch."

"But I thought you like watching others create chaos without your help."

"I do!" he declared.  "What I don't like is for chaos to happen automatically.  It doesn't tend to be very creative that way."

"But this seems... somewhat normal?"

"Well, I could fire an anchor from a cannon and then use a winch to pull the boot toward the anchor, but I think that would be a little loud."

"Oh.  I would prefer if we don't do that, if that's alright with you?"

"I thought you would say that."

"Discord, um, if I accidently fall out, will I fall to the ground, or will I be stuck here on the... the dome?"

"You won't fall out," assured Discord.  "Not unless you climb out on purpose.  And if you do, you'll turn upright as soon as you leave the magic field."

Fluttershy watched Discord for a while longer.

"Um, Discord?"

"Yes?"

"I'm really sorry, I just have one more question.  I promise I'll stop bothering you after-"

"Please ask away!" interrupted Discord.  "I love to be pestered!  Anything you like, as many questions as you want!"  His tone was completely without sarcasm.

"Oh.  Um...  Everything outside of Ponyville.  Is it all fake?"

"Yes, actually, it is," said Discord in surprise.  "How did you figure that out?"

"Your oar goes through the wall," answered Fluttershy.  "And it went through everything on the other side of the wall too.  But it doesn't go through anything on this side of the wall."

"Well, yes, it does that because, as you guessed, nothing that you see outside of Ponyville is real.  I can't push myself to create the entirety of Equestria for real.  It's much easier to just create an illusion."

Fluttershy thought for a moment.

"What about the sun and the moon?" she asked.  "Are they illusions too?"

"Actually, no.  They're completely real.  They're not nearly as big as the real real things, but I need them to physically exist, otherwise they don't do their jobs."

"But they're behind the wall."

"They're allowed to be, are they not?" asked Discord.  "My world, my rules."

"I guess so."

Fluttershy fell silent again and considered her fellow passenger.  He was clearly trying very hard to make sure she was comfortable.  He had even made sure that she had her own personal space.

She was beginning to suspect that the chaos lord wasn't just putting on an act. 

"We're getting to be quite high up," remarked Discord.  "Oh, look!" he cried.  He stopped rowing the boot and pointed upward.

"Your friends are up to something down there," continued Discord.  "Maybe if we watch them for long enough, they'll do something hilarious chaotic.  Do you want to get a closer look?  I can give you a spy glass."

"Discord?" asked Fluttershy.

"Yes?" asked Discord, now holding a spy glass out to Fluttershy.  She made no attempt to take it.

"Where are we?" asked Fluttershy.

"What do you mean?" asked Discord, confused.  "We're in the sky over Ponyville.  Or a recreation of Ponyville, anyway.  Upside-down, I might add.  Did you notice?"

"But where is everything else?" asked Fluttershy.  "Is there really nothing behind the dome other than empty space?  Is any of this even real?  Or are we in a dream?"

"Well, you are a clever one," remarked Discord.  "I can't do the dream thing.  That little trick is something that only Luna could pull off, and I don't think you could ever convince her to do anything like this.  Yes, everything here is real.  I created it, but it is all real.  If you want to know where we are in relation to the original Ponyville however, that... could be difficult to explain.  We're in another world, in a manner of speaking, but this world is inside of Equestria.  It's a part of Equestria, in fact.  I don't really like it very much."

"You don't like it?" asked Fluttershy in confusion.  "But it sounds like you're saying that we are in that world!"

"We are," answered Discord.  "It's called the Realm of Reorder.  Which explains why I don't care for it.  However, it's also the only place in Equestria where I am free to create whatever chaos I want without getting in trouble for it.  So, I live there."

"You live in a realm of order?" cried Fluttershy in astonishment.

"The Realm of Reorder," corrected Discord.  "I can understand why you are so surprised.  I did say that I don't like it in there.  It's called the Realm of Reorder because everything in it tries to 'fix' itself all the time.  Equestria is the opposite.  Things fall apart around you ponies all the time, and it produces the most hilarious reactions from everypony."

"Everything fixes itself?" asked Fluttershy in confusion.

"You know how your dishes get dirty after you use them, and how dust builds up in your home over time?  I have the opposite problem.  I have to really work to keep the chaos.  Of course, the one upside is that I can really make a humongous mess and everything will go back to the way that they used to be and I don't even have to do anything to clean it up.

"Sometimes, when I get really mad, I just start smashing things in my house.  Not very creative, but it is strangely satisfying.  Everything fixes itself pretty quickly.  Sometimes I set my house on fire.  It goes back to the way it was after that too."

"That sounds very useful," said Fluttershy.

"All things in moderation, dear Fluttershy," responded Discord.  "If left unattended, it gets bad.  I could scarcely entertain the thought of going back there after being trapped in stone for over a thousand years for thought of what a mountain of cleanup I would have to do if I did.  In fact, I wouldn't have even considered it if you didn't tell me one day that I couldn't keep sleeping over at your place forever."

"You stayed at my house after your reformation?" cried Fluttershy, shocked.  Why did the others leave that part out when they told me about Discord's reformation?

"Yes, I did.  Thank you again for that, by the way.  But, as I was saying, eventually I worked up the nerve to go into the Realm of Reorder and assess the damage.  And it was dreadful.  Everything had crystalized.  I mean everything!  Sombra would have been in heaven.  There was literally nothing but crystals left.  And all of my beautiful creatures?  They were simply gone!"

Fluttershy gasped.

"So, naturally, I spent the next few days shattering everything and turning it all into piles of slime or lava or pineoctopi, things like that."

"But isn't that the kind of thing that you enjoy doing?" asked Fluttershy, confused.

"Maybe in Equestria," Discord admitted.  "It's not very much fun when there is nopony around to watch though.  It's even worse when you know that all of that hard work undoes itself eventually, even though there's nopony who dislikes it.  All things considered, I much prefer Equestria over that place, if I can help it.

"It's ironic, actually.  Equestria is naturally a world of entropy, and yet you ponies have gone to great effort to make it a place of peace and harmony.  In a way, I have done the same thing.  This realm is one of perpetual order, and yet I have made it a place of chaos through my efforts.  The few ponies who have seen my realm, not counting this false Ponyville, will tell you that it is the realm of chaos, and they are right.  But not because it is that way naturally.  It is the realm of chaos because of my efforts.  And Equestria is a realm of harmony through the efforts of ponies."

Suddenly, Discord stopped paddling the oar.

"This seems as good a spot as any," he declared.  He jumped out of the boot heel and laid himself out across the foot of the boot and put his paw and claw behind his head.

"This is an excellent way to relax," he remarked.  "We can lay on our backs and look up and see all of Ponyville and admire all that everypony has accomplished.  That's why this is 'Discord's All Seeing Boot'.  Which is to say, Das Boot.  Well, the boot itself isn't all seeing, but good enough.  You notice anything?"

Fluttershy looked up at the town.  "I can see the tree sap all over town square...  My goodness, there is a lot of it, isn't there?"

"That was a masterpiece, truly," said Discord nostalgically.  "But there's more to see than that.  Here, take this spy glass and see!"

Fluttershy finally accepted the spy glass and held it up to her eye and began scanning Ponyville randomly.

"What if somepony sees us?" she asked.

"They probably won't," answered Discord.  "We're just a speck in the sky to them, and you ponies don't look up very often.  Well, actually pegasi do.  If one of them comes flying up here, I'll just figure out what to do as it happens, just like I always do.

"You can't see from where we're at," continued Discord as he pointed a claw skyward, "but right there is the hospital, and that's where Rainbow smashed the vending machine!  And over there is where the bell tower used to be.  It still is, in a way."

"Discord," began Fluttershy as she continued to spy on the town.  "If this Ponyville is in the Realm of Reorder, then why don't all of these disasters fix themselves?"

"Ah, that.  I'm using my own power to counteract the effects of this Realm of Reorder.  I can't do it forever, however.  Even my energy isn't endless.  In fact, I had to save it up to do all this.  It took quite a bit of preparation to make all of this happen, you know."

"Did you freeze time?"

"Freeze time?" asked Discord, surprised.  "You've managed to list one of the very few things that I can't do.  The Realm of Reorder does have a funny idea of time though.  You'll find that several rules about how the world works are a little bit different here.  If you compare it to time in Equestira, sometimes it speeds up, sometimes it slows down, and sometimes it even runs backwards for a little while, and it doesn't stay the same time in all areas, which is a handy little trick for creating the illusion that no time has passed from the perspective of ponies in Equestria, if you know how to utilize it correctly.  But I can't actually make time stop.  No more than I am capable of true time travel."

"What?" cried Fluttershy, putting the spy glass down.  Now she was really confused.  "But I thought you had to travel into the past in order to bring me here!"

"It doesn't work like that," answered Discord, shaking his head.  "It would be more accurate to say that I pulled you from a memory.  You are the adult Fluttershy.  I just...  shall we say, reminded you what being a filly is like again."

Fluttershy said nothing as she processed this information.

Discord sighed.  "I wish I could do that for myself.  I don't even remember if such a thing as a juvenile draconequuis exists!  You wouldn't like the old me anyway."

Discord groaned and put his paw over his face.  "Not that the new me is so great," he muttered.  "I don't even know how to control myself anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know," continued Discord, "thirty days seems like a lot less time when you aren't waiting for the last one.  I thought I could keep myself from doing something stupid for thirty days.  But then I started getting bored and I started meddling when I specifically said I wouldn't meddle."

"I don't understand."

"At first, I only cared about proving a point," explained Discord.  "But as time went on, I realized that- I don't know.  Maybe, maybe I could show you that I could make you my friend, just like how you made a friend out of me.  Guess I proved myself wrong!  I went and did something rash, and stupid, and now you're terrified of me, and everypony else hates me!  What else is new?"

"Discord, I don't hate you!"

He looked at her.  "But you are terrified of me."

Fluttershy hunched down a little in embarrassment at this.  "Maybe a little," she admitted.  "but you have been doing your best to be nice to me."

"Fluttershy, I invited myself to your bowling party," Discord pointed out.  "That wasn't very nice of me."

"You were just lonely!"

"I was making everypony uncomfortable!"

"I'm sure everypony will forgive you if you apologize."

"I was cheating!" Discord cried out.  "I was making sure that you got a perfect score with every throw!  I was trying to help you to have fun by making sure you won!  Too bad I was thinking of what would make me happy instead of you!  And what did I care about ruining it all for all of your friends?"

"I know."

Discord looked at Fluttershy in surprise.

"You do?"

"I know you cheated.  I just didn't know why."

"But... but... but-"

"Come on now, Discord," said Fluttershy, smiling despite her uncertain feelings.  "You're starting to sound like a motor boat."

"But Rainbow Dash told me that you didn't know!" cried Discord.

"Rainbow Dash isn't always correct," reminded Fluttershy.  "I just didn't want to accuse you of being selfish.  I was sure that you had a reason for it."

"Fluttershy I..."  Discord stammered for words.  "I have known you for quite some time now, and you have left me astounded by your kindness once again!  But I can't let you just pretend that I wasn't being a jerk!"

"I almost set your boat adrift!" pointed out Fluttershy.  "I'll forgive you if you forgive me."

"What?  No!" cried Discord.  "There was no comparison!  The boat problem was solved just like that!"  Discord snapped as he finished, miniature fireworks shooting from his claws.  "Relationships are not so easy to fix!  I would know!  I told you, I don't care about some silly boat!"

"Then why won't you accept that I don't care about what happened in the bowling alley?"

"Because!" cried Discord.  "Even if I did care about you bumping D.A.S. Boot and setting it adrift, the transgression is utterly miniscule compared to what I did!  It's not a fair trade!"

"Friendships are not about keeping track of who owes who," answered Fluttershy.  "I feel awful about what I did.  I think you feel awful about what you did.  Can we both agree to forget about both of those things, for both of our sakes?"

"But... I-"

"Please?"

Discord considered.

Why is it that she always wins? he thought.

Probabily because she's an expert at this and you're not.

"Alright, Fluttershy.  I can do that."

"Thank you, Discord."

Discord sighed in relief.

"You know, I tried thinking of over a dozen different ways I was going to apologize to you.  I never thought it would happen like this."

Discord started stroking his beard again.

"Of course, I never expect that anything that I do will happen the way I plan it out.  Which is why I only ever make very loose plans."

"Well, with that off your shoulders, what do you want to do now?" asked Fluttershy.

"I suppose I should bring you back to the ground where you belong," said Discord with a sigh.  "Strictly speaking, I'm not supposed to have you up here.  It goes against my own rules.  I have been doing entirely too much of that recently, for selfish reasons."

"But I was just starting to enjoy this!" protested Fluttershy.

"You were?" asked Discord in mild surprise.  "You see, this is just another part of the problem with me!  I can't tell what kind of chaos you enjoy and what kind I should leave at home!"

"Well, this is harmless enough.  Look at us!" said Fluttershy, a small amount of laughter bleeding into her tone.  "We're boating in the middle of winter!  It doesn't make any sense!"

"Exactly!" cried Discord.  "You know, forget my rules.  We can stay up here for as long as you want."

"Could I try the oar?" asked Fluttershy.

"Of course!  Actually, how about-"

Discord vanished and then suddenly a second boot appeared next to the first.  On the side was written 'Das Other Boot'.

"Every boot has a partner!" declared Discord, now in the heel of the other boot and holding an oar of his own.  "Why don't you lead the way and I'll follow you?"

Fluttershy almost missed dinner that evening.