Fluttershy walks down the streets of Ponyville, two saddlebags strapped to her, one is full of groceries and has a loaf of beard sticking out of it. The second one is closed and even has a lock on it, Fluttershy stops walking and looks down at the closed bag to make sure it's still sealed she shakes the bag slightly, she can feel the tulle's of fabric bounce around as she does so, she smiles happily satisfied that all the fabric is still there. She looks forward once more, she raises an eyebrow as a mare with a grin on her face seems to be walking directly toward her. What interests Fluttershy about the unicorn that stops right in front of her is that her silver fur seems to glow and her short black mane twinkles like the night sky. She scratches her chin trying to think of where shes seen this mare before, she so wrapped up in thought that she almost doesn't notice the mare has started to speak.
"Good day ma'am." The unicorn gives Fluttershy a slight bow, Fluttershy hastily returns the gesture.
"Oh, um, hello." Fluttershy stammers out, confused by the sudden conversation. The unicorn mare smiles at her sweetly.
"You see miss I'm going around selling flowers for the Total Botanical System." Fluttershy returns her hoof to her chin, where have I heard that name before? Fluttershy shrugs and looks back at the mare, she looks at the mares back, she couldn't see it before but now that the mare was closer she can see a small basket of flowers sitting on her back, the basket is full of pretty red roses. Fluttershy smiles at the mare.
"I'd love to take a flower." Fluttershy says opening her grocery saddlebag, she pulls out a small bit purse. "How much for one?"
"Um... just one bit." The silver mare says after rubbing her chin, after she speaks she shrugs her shoulders and holds out a hoof to take a bit. Fluttershy smiles as she plops a bit into the mares open hoof. The mare smiles happily as she stuffs the bit in her own purse. One of the roses glows with a shimmering red magic aura, the rose fly's out of the basket and toward Fluttershy. She smiles happily as she reaches out to take the rose, Fluttershy doesn't notice that the mares smile has turned fiendish.
"Thank y-" Fluttershy is suddenly interrupted by a familiar voice.
"FLUTTERSHY DON"T!!!" Fluttershy and the mare jerk their heads in the direction of the voice. Discord zooms up to the pair and grabs the floating rose with his paw, he grips it hard and swiftly flings it straight up into the air. The aura around the flower dissipates as it soars through the air, Discord grabs both mares and tackles them to the ground, he covers their ears and shuts his eyes tight. Fluttershy she stares at him in bewilderment, shes about to speak when the rose lands on the ground a few inches away from them, Fluttershy stares at the flower with a raised eyebrow.
"Was something suppose to happen?" Discord opens his eyes and looks at the rose in confusion, he stands up from the ground, no longer holding onto the two mares. He floats over to the fallen flower and picks it up. He flinches seeming to think something was gonna happen when he did so. He turns a puzzled look at the silver unicorn, who is now standing next to Fluttershy.
"Moonlight I thought these flowers-" Discord is interrupted from his question, by the flower in his paw suddenly exploding into maple syrup and marshmallows. Discord scowls as he and a small circle around him is now covered in the sticky mess, he turns his scowl at the mares, Fluttershy is covering her mouth with her hooves a look of shock on her face, while the unicorn is clutching her sides laughing. Discord glares at the laughing mare.
"Moonlight I thought I got rid of all the syrup bombs." Discord says raising an accusing eyebrow at her, Moonlight just grins at him.
"Well I may have hid just one." Moonlight's grin turns smug, Discord lessens his glare a little.
"And what pray-tell was wrong with the other rose bombs I made?" Discord asks putting his hands on his hips, Moonlight rolls her eyes at him.
"Please Discord." She waves a hoof at him. "I just wanted to see the syrup bomb once, before having to use these stupid things." She gestures to the basket of roses she is picking up off the ground with her magic. Discord puts a talon to his chest in mock hurt.
"Hey I like the chocolate bombs." Discord grabs one of the roses out of the basket and chucks it at Pinkie Pie, who was walking up to talk to them, she catches the flower and it immediately explodes into a mass of chocolate that traps the party pony in a cage of chocolate and peanut-butter, Pinkie Pie smiles and starts devouring the confection prison. Moonlight gestures a hoof toward the display.
"Yeah and so do other ponies." Moonlight places a hoof on her forehead. "What's the point of a prank if the pony getting pranked likes it?"
"So everypony will enjoy it?" Moonlight and Discord turn toward the soft voice that had spoken. Discord brightens up upon seeing the pale yellow Pegasus standing in the road, after a quick cleaning spell Discord zips over and scoops Fluttershy into a big hug.
"Oh Fluttershy I'm glad your okay, when I saw Moonlight handing you that flower I felt the syrupy magic I placed in it." Discord doesn't seem to notice the big smile and the blush that appeared on Fluttershy's face, she giggles happily as Discord gives her a quick twirl through the air. After one rotation Discord gently puts her back down on the ground. Fluttershy smiles up at Discord, she can feel the warmth on her face, she looks down at the ground, she also feels a warmth in her chest, What is that? Fluttershy shakes her head deciding to think on that later. She looks back up from the ground, she looks past Discord, she gasps as she suddenly remembers where she had seen the unicorn mare before. She hadn't seen her before but the mare matched Discord's description of his new friend, she walks around Discord and sticks a hoof out to the mare.
"Hello you must be Moonlight my name is Fluttershy it's a pleasure to meet you." Moonlight takes a step back out of surprise, she grabs Fluttershy's hoof and shakes it.
"Yeah I'm Moonlight nice to meet you." The two break their hoofshake, Fluttershy is about to speak but Moonlight walks past her and begins talking to Discord.
"Hey buddy where you been?" Moonlight lightly punches Discord with her hoof. "You were suppose to help me out with the Total Botanical System."
Discord laughs and rolls his eyes. "Ah yes the Total Botanical System, or as I like to call it." Discord and Moonlight grin at each other, Fluttershy's face lights as she remembers something else.
"TOTAL-" Discord and Moonlight begin to shout in unison but are interrupted by a quiet voice finishing their sentence.
"B.S!" Discord and Moonlight turn to look at the pale yellow pegasus who had just spoken, Fluttershy blushes and averts her gaze. "Sorry I just remembered the joke name Discord gives to fake charity's to prank ponies."
"I can't believe you remembered that." Discord chuckles as a large grin appears on his face, Moonlight just rolls her eyes. Moonlight smiles up at Discord and pokes him in the side getting his attention once more.
"So buddy wanna go to sugar cube corner?" Discord blinks at her, Moonlight frowns. "You promised to show me the other flavors of cupcakes they have there."
"Oh right, of course." Moonlight smiles and begins walking down the road, but the next thing Discord says makes her frown return. "You coming Fluttershy?"
"Huh?" Fluttershy hides herself behind her mane. "I wouldn't want to impose on you guys." Discord waves a talon dismissively.
"Please and miss out on the chance to have my two friends become friends." Discord shakes his head disapprovingly. "Now what kind of Princess of Friendship would I be if I missed this opportunity."
Fluttershy giggles at him. "Discord Twilight is the Princess of Friendship." Discord puts his hands to his face and gasps.
"What!? If that's true then what am I?" Discord asks pretending to have a crisis.
"I believe you're the spirit of chaos." Moonlight chimes in, Discord slaps his forehead with his paw.
"Oh right duh." He smiles brightly, Moonlight shakes her head.
"What was all that about?" Moonlight asks raising an eyebrow, Discord chuckles.
"Oh that was just a distraction so you gals wouldn't notice that I transported the three of us to sugar cube corner."
"What?" Moonlight and Fluttershy both look around, it was true somehow they had arrived in sugar cube corner without noticing. Discord picks them both up and places them in a booth in the corner of the room.
"Now you ladies get to girl talking or whatever, I'll go get us some cupcakes." Discord happily fly's off to the counter after he's done speaking. Fluttershy looks nervously at the pony sitting across from her, Moonlight is just staring at Flutters, her face not revealing what she might be thinking. Fluttershy looks over at her friend ordering cupcakes, she steels her resolve and turns a happy smile back to Moonlight.
"So Moonlight it's nice to meet you. Discord told we so much about you when I got home yesterday." Moonlight smiles happily at Fluttershy's comment.
"Oh that's nice I'm glad he told you about me." Moonlight's smile fades, and she looks away. "Although.."
"Although what?" Fluttershy asks confused and strangely nervous. Moonlight looks back at Fluttershy and shakes her head.
"Oh nothing I shouldn't say it." Fluttershy's happy smile disappears.
"Um... what do you mean?" Moonlight looks at the confused pegasus with a sympathetic look.
"Well it's just you say Discord told you all about me and..." Moonlight averts her gaze. "He didn't tell me anything about you."
"W-what?" Fluttershy whispers, Moonlight doesn't seem to hear her, Fluttershy looks down at the floor her long mane hides her face and her hooves, she clutches her chest as the pain from last night returns, she wipes a tear from her eye, she shakes her head and pushes away the feeling in her chest. She looks back up at Moonlight, who doesn't seem to have noticed Fluttershy's reaction, Fluttershy tries to give her a smile but she barely manages to not frown. "That's ok, I'm not really that interesting to talk about."
"Oh don't say that Fluttershy." Fluttershy brightens up at Moonlights very friendly response, the unicorns smile makes Fluttershy feel a bit better... until she keeps talking.
"I mean Discord was probably just so excited to have some pony want to be his friend who hasn't turned him to stone." Fluttershy's heart sank at her words, she opens her mouth to speak but stops when Moonlight's smile seems to get sweeter.
"Yeah Discord told me about the elements of harmony turning him to stone." Moonlight frowns. "Can you imagine being turned to stone just for being yourself, and being aware the whole time? How awful."
"Y-yeah... must have been." Fluttershy looks down at the floor, suddenly very interest in her hooves. hidden under her hair once more she puts a hoof to her chest, the terrible feeling in her chest nearly doubles as she closes her eyes and sighs. At least this feeling can't get any worse.... But Moonlight keeps talking.
"Oh and did you hear that the element of kindness, whatever her name is, was charged with befriending Discord." Fluttershy brightens up from the comment, she looks up from the floor and smiles, the feeling in her chest lessens some what.
"Yes that's right I-" Moonlight pouts as she interrupts Fluttershy, she doesn't even seem to notice that Fluttershy had begun to talk.
"How bad must that make Discord feel?" Fluttershy blinks in confusion unsure of what Moonlight means.
"W-what do you mean?" Fluttershy stammers out, her heart aching in fear of the response.
"I mean the element of kindness, the pony that embodies the very idea of being kind and friendly to others." Moonlight looks seriously at Fluttershy. "Had to be ordered to even try and be friends with Discord."
Fluttershy averts her gaze back to the floor, the feeling in her chest intensifies, tears begin to form in her eyes. Moonlight doesn't seem to notice as she continues talking.
"I mean come on she was ordered to be friends with Discord so the Princesses could use his powers, some element of kindness." Moonlight grunts in anger. "I mean she couldn't even be a fake friend well enough to stop him from betraying Equestria to-" Fluttershy slams her hooves down on the table.
"I'm sorry I have to go!" Moonlight flinches at the sudden outburst, Fluttershy quickly hops out of her seat and runs out the front door of the building, Moonlight can hear some soft sobs and she notices some tears fall on the floor. Discord zips over to the door, a tray of cupcakes in his talon and looks out the door.
"Fluttershy!" Discord calls out the door, but Fluttershy keeps running without turning back. Discord looks over at Moonlight who is still sitting at the booth, he floats over and stops right in front of her, he raises an eyebrow and his voice is full of concern. "What happened? Why did Fluttershy leave?" Moonlight smiles up at Discord.
"I have no idea. She just said she had some something to take care of and ran out." Moonlight grabs the tray of cupcakes from Discord, Discord doesn't notice her take the tray his attention is on the door.
"That's unlike her I should go check on her." Discord goes to leave, but he turns back toward the table. "You understand right?"
"Of course that's what friends are for." Moonlight says as she waves a dismissive hoof at him, Discord smiles at her.
"Thanks Moonlight you're awesome." Discord turns to leave once more, but he flinches and turns back once more. He points at a pink frosted cupcake. "Oh yeah, don't eat that one it's lemon flavored. I know you hate lemons."
"Thanks Discord you're so sweet." Moonlight and Discord share a smile. Discord snaps his fingers and disappears in a flash, Moonlight smiles sweetly at were he had been standing. She turns her attention to the cupcakes in front of her.
Moonlight's horn glows and the pink cupcake Discord had pointed too lifts into the air, she uses a hoof and removes the wrapping paper. Her smile gets even sweeter as she gazes at the fluffy yellow cupcake with pink frosting. She floats the cupcake up to her mouth and takes a bite, her smile remains through her puffed out cheeks, she turns her gaze back to where Discord had been standing.
"Mmm." Moonlight moans, her smile gets wider as she savors the terrible taste in her mouth.