“So, tea? If that’s okay with you. We could have a nice picnic, too. I’d like that. Maybe I could invite my animal friends!” She rubbed her forehooves together, anxious. “Oh, I don’t know, though. It’s very dark in here. Maybe we could have the picnic outside, on the grass?”
Discord didn’t listen. The pegasus hesitated, then followed him deeper into the prison. Cell 146, 145, 144…
All his bad thoughts went here. After he reformed—after she redeemed him—the place had gotten crowded. But that wasn't why she was here.
Together, they walked past nightmares. Discord kept them walled up, trapped behind steel doors, but it was never enough. Ideas leaked out.
Celestia, knife in her—no. Discord tried to block the idea, but he still heard the princess crying through the prison bars. Just a thought, just a thought, he told himself. I'm a hero, now, remember?
“Oh, oh, I’m scared…” She shriveled up against Discord, her warm body pressing into his fur. “Can’t we leave?”
111, 110, 109… Still not there. He needed an old thought, an idea he buried very far back in his mind.
“You know you shouldn’t be in here at all.” His first words since he entered the Restricted Zone. “This is place is a cage for my… viler ideas, and you’ve never been much of a villain.”
“But you have, Discord.” She felt his face fall slightly, and was quick to reach out a comforting hoof. “But that’s okay, because I saved you. And I’m going to save you again.”
A stallion, thorns sprouting from his—stop. Discord's scales crawled as he felt the idea through the prison wall. He kept them locked up for good reason.
“I think enough ponies have tried to save me. It’s time I returned the favor.” Almost there, just a few more doors. Don’t listen, don’t listen. Twilight needs you. Cell 101 was just around the corner.
A half-smile crept onto her face. “That’s very noble of you, Discord. I always knew you would be a sweetheart.” A wing stroked his back. “Now, how about we celebrate with a nice coffee cake outside?” Her eyes fluttered down to the ground, a blush growing on her face. “I mean, I’m no Pinkie Pie, but I think I can still bake a…”
“No.”
Her pale blush became a bright red glow. “Oh, you’re right, I’m not very good at that at all. I’m sorry…”
Discord’s hands clenched into fists. “No. You’re not Pinkie, and you’re not Fluttershy.”
“What… what do you mean? I try so hard—”
Discord took her head in his hands. “You are a memory. You’re a dream I keep having.” His claws dug deeper into her coat, almost breaking the skin. “And it’s time I woke up.”
He felt her flicker like a candle flame. A shaking forehoof wrapped around his arm.
Screams and shouts came from the locked rooms, but she could still hear Discord’s whisper. “You know why I’m here, don’t you?”
Her head nodded twice, barely moving at all. She was scared. Which meant he was scared. “You don’t have to do it,” she pleaded with shining eyes.
She was right. He didn’t have to. But he wanted to. “Fluttershy’s saved me enough. It’s time for me to be the hero, now.”
Her body flickered again as Discord reminded himself that this wasn’t her. Just a ghost. Just a dream.
A dream with very strong forelegs. They wrapped around him, locking him in place. Her voice hardened like a stone as she muttered “I won’t allow it.” Discord tried to pull away. “You always thought I was a push-over, but not today. When my friends need me, when you need me—” Her sky-blue eyes trapped his gaze. “—I’ll protect you.”
Discord finally shook himself free. “You know that stare doesn’t stop me.” He stood up, slithered towards Cell 101's black door—
—and fell to the ground as an angry pegasus slammed into him. Four powerful legs pinned him to the cold floor as her shouts splashed hot breath over his face.
“I won’t let you!” Her body flickered again, but she stayed solid enough to keep him down. “I won’t let you sacrifice a million years of your life for a few dozen of mine. It doesn’t make sense!” Tears crept from her eyes. No. She’s only a memory. The real Fluttershy needs you.
She clamped down harder. Discord pushed, squirmed, contorted. No good. She was strong.
“You are not. Opening. That. Door!” Heavy punches punctuated her sentence. Her forelegs bent, dragging him to his feet. Without a moment’s hesitation, she bucked him into the wall. Discord fell a rib pop out of place as he hit the concrete.
“Oh, I’m so, so sorry! I hope I didn’t hurt you.” She apologized, but kept her body firmly between him and the cell.
“Well,” Discord wheezed when his breath finally came back. It hurt to talk. Discord didn’t know how his memories could hurt him, but then again, he never understood how his mind worked. “I don’t remember Fluttershy ever doing that.”
“She would if her friend kept insisting on dying to save her.” Another flicker ran through her body. “Can’t you see I’m gone, Discord? Just… remember me, please. Remember what I would say to you.”
She took a deep, shuddering breath and continued. “I feel terrible for doing that.” A hoof stretched out to help him up, but quickly pulled back. “I’ll get you an ice-pack once you agree to leave. Just, just promise me first you won’t...” She quavered. “Open it.”
“You’re really going to stay there forever and keep me out?”
She grimaced and nodded her head.
“You know the bad thoughts get restless at nightfall. Very scary, too. They rattle the cages, whisper ideas to each other…” Discord checked his wrist as if it were a watch. “Should be starting soon. Usually, the Murders get noisy first, followed by the Mutilations, and then… well, after that, everyone wakes up. You planning to stay for that, too?”
She flickered again, but stood her ground. Discord saw her throat working hard to swallow her fear. “Yes,” she barely managed to gasp.
She was telling the truth, Discord realized. As long as her memory remained in his mind, he’d never reach that door. It seemed that the only way to get her away was to give up.
“Well, Fluttershy, I guess this is going nowhere. You know, and I know because you’re me, that you’re not going to let this go.”
Suddenly, the pegasus seemed more solid, less flickering. He hadn’t called her “Fluttershy” before. A ghost of a smile traced across her lips.
“So how about we go have that picnic?”
The ghost became a full smile, wide and bright enough to light up the torchless prison. Discord always loved that smile. “I’ll see if I can get the bluejays to sing. Oh, I’m so excited!”
You can go with her. You can keep her—Discord reached out a furry hand, and she gladly put her forehoof in its warm grasp. All was right. She was holding his hand…
Discord’s other hand clamped down on top. Confusion flashed over her face; she tried to pull her hoof free, but—gah!
“You know, Flutters, the first time I dreamt up the Plunderseeds, they were meant to kill the princesses. But even when I was evil, I wasn’t that evil. So down that idea went, to the prison where all the bad thoughts go.” He slowly pulled away his hands, revealing the black mark on her hoof where a thorn pierced her skin.
Color bled from her, like squeezing out a sponge. Her mane faded to gray, her eyes lost their light. The plunderseed Discord had hidden in his hand now sprouted from her hoof, as lethal in his mind as it would be in the waking world.
The draconequus stepped over her barely-alive body, already starting to seize up. Cell 101. Discord flittered his fingers over the keypad, punching in the combination. Slowly, slowly, the steel door slid away, magic fields dropped, defenses disabled and tripwires disarmed.
It was a lot of security for a piece of paper covered in crayon scribbles. They were very important scribbles, though. Draconequus spells might not be written in calligrapher’s ink on fine parchment, but they were no less powerful for it.
Stay alive for a few aeons, and anyone would start thinking of ways to end it. Discord was no exception, but in this case, his suicide might be Fluttershy’s salvation. Carefully, a claw reached out and snagged the paper, holding it well away from his body as if it could burn him. Another hand prepared to snap its fingers and bring him back to the real world, but a hoof around his leg stopped him.
She was still alive, barely. “Discord…” Don’t forget me, she wanted to say. But she couldn’t. She knew he would now, very soon. Instead, her wings reached out for him one last time. “Save them.”
He met her gaze, nodded, and snapped.
Discord woke up. And vomited.
After a while, his stomach emptied and he stopped. There was something… something important, but he couldn’t quite recall. Maybe it was a someone?
Didn’t matter. He remembered one thing. Save them. He had to do it, had to do… what? Discord lifted a claw to his head, scratching his scalp as he thought. His hand brushed against something crinkly.
A few more exploratory prods, and he discovered there was a long paper scroll poking out of his ear. He grabbed it, unrolled it, and began to read the inelegant crayon scrawl.
Oh. That.
He looked up. The journey into his mind, the Restricted Zone, the prison… all for this. A secret he’d hidden even from himself. But he needed it. He needed to save… someone important. It would be worth it. Discord knew it must be.
“Well, now that that’s settled,” he muttered to himself. His yellow-red eyes scanned over the cottage. “Who decorated this place? I’ve never seen a hovel so boring.”