Chapter 4
"A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger."—Proverbs 15:1
Derpy's extra early morning mail delivery was uneventful until she reached Sugarcube Corner. She had just landed near the bakery's mailbox and was checking through her mailbag when she heard a scuffling sound coming from behind the bakery. Squinting her oddball eyes, she glided around the building to see what was causing the noise, only to see Pinkie Pie trying to pull a large covered cart out through the bakery's back door.
"Pinkie?"
The earth pony let out a startled screech and jumped about two feet in the air.
"Oh, sorry!" Derpy folded in her wings and dropped to the ground. "I didn't mean to startle you."
Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her chest, taking deep breaths and laughing weakly. "Oh, Derpy. Didn't see you. What are you doing here?"
"I had some mail leftover from yesterday and didn't want to get it mixed up with today's mail." She looked toward the cart. "What are you doing?"
"Oh, I got a note from the Cakes asking if I could meet up with them and bring this cart to help them carry back some extra supplies they brought."
Derpy raised her eyebrows. "That's a pretty big cart. You could probably fit three or four ponies in it. What kind of supplies are they bringing back?"
Pinkie shrugged carelessly. "All I know is that's the cart they told me to bring in the note."
Derpy nodded thoughtfully. "Speaking of that note, when did you get it? I don't remember seeing any notes from the Cakes the last time I delivered mail here."
"It was a little itty-bitty note tucked in with a lot of other mail so you must have missed it when you put it in the box."
"Ah," Derpy nodded again. "Well, I have done that before with other mail. I need to be more careful about that." She moved closer to the cart. "Um, would you like some help moving that?"
"No, no, I got it!" Pinkie moved quickly between Derpy and the cart, took the pegasus by the withers, spun her around, and pushed her back around to the front of the bakery. "You've probably got a lot of deliveries to make and you don't want to be late! Go ahead, I'll be fine. Don't worry about me!"
"Pinkie, are you okay? You seem a bit nervous."
"Well, you did just spook me," Pinkie said in a 'Thank-you-Captain-Obvious' voice.
Derpy blushed. "True. Sorry about that." She glanced from Pinkie to the rest of Ponyville then back to Pinkie. "Well, if you're sure you don't need any—"
"I don't! Thanks! See ya!" And with that, Pinkie zipped back around the building. Derpy frowned after her, debating whether to follow the pink pony back behind the bakery or continue on her mail route. After a few seconds the mail route won.
The sun had just started peeking over the horizon when Derpy flew to Rainbow Dash's cloudominium, intending to drop off her last piece of mail, a postcard from Rainbow Dash's mystery penpal.
She was just musing on the fact that it would be a bit of a squeeze to deliver it, return home to grab some breakfast, then get to the post office to collect that day's mail, when Rainbow Dash suddenly flew out of the cloudominium and pulled up right in front of her, causing Derpy to flap backward to put some space between them.
"Woah! Rainbow, didn't think you'd be up this early."
"I didn't think you'd be either."
"No, actually I'm late. This is leftover mail from yesterday."
Rainbow Dash shrugged dismissively. "Eh, whatever. Is there any for me?"
"Yep, that's why I'm here." Derpy started reaching into the bag. "Another postcard from your mystery buddy H."
Rainbow Dash suddenly looked a bit nervous. "Uh, Derpy, about that... Can I talk with you inside real quick?"
Derpy paused in reaching for the postcard to give Rainbow Dash a puzzled look, then shrugged. "Okay."
"What did you want to talk about?" she asked when they were inside.
"Well, my 'mystery buddy' as you called him—"
"Ahh, so it's a 'him.' I was wondering."
"Yeah, well, about him. He ... well ... his name's Highflyer."
Derpy's eyes widened and temporarily straightened out. "Highflyer? The Highflyer? That wrestler who's also a flightless pegasus? That Highflyer?"
"Wait, you know who he is? I didn't think you were into wrestling."
Derpy shrugged. "Normally I'm not, but I've heard about Highflyer and how he's used his 'weaknesses,'" She made a hoof gesture for quotation marks, "to his advantage. I admire that."
This surprised Rainbow Dash considering the fact that Derpy never tried using her vision problems to get special treatment. Few ponies were even aware that Derpy's crossed eyes were a true handicap because she rarely talked about them.
Years ago when they had first met as fillies, Rainbow Dash had just written off the then-named Muffins as an annoying klutz, and had saddled her with the title "Derpy" after the gray pegasus had accidentally spoiled several of Rainbow Dash's flying stunts. However this changed when Rainbow's need for speed had once sent her headfirst into a wall and left her with her eyes crossed for several days. During those several days she had gotten a taste of how Muffins saw the world on a daily basis, and just how hard the gray pegasus had to work to compensate for her poor vision. By the time Rainbow's sight had returned to normal, her annoyance with Muffins had been tempered with empathy, and she now felt rather protective of Muffins, or Derpy as the other ponies had started calling her by then.
She was pulled away from these recollections when Derpy said, "Hey, if he's writing to you ... does that mean you've met him?"
"Yeah, I have actually." Rainbow Dash quickly explained her situation with Scootaloo and why it had led her to contact Highflyer in the first place.
"Hmm, I've kind of had that situation with Dinky and Amethyst a couple of times. Except it's more the fact that they're such low-level unicorns that gets them down. Hey, maybe you could introduce us to Highflyer the way you did with Scootaloo. I'd like to meet him and I think the girls would too."
"I think he'd be up for that," Rainbow Dash sounded a bit uncertain.
"Is something wrong?"
Rainbow Dash looked about as if to make sure nopony could overhear them before leaning in to whisper, "Derpy, the reason I was up this early was because I was waiting for you to show up. I've got a bit of a ... situation and you were the only one I could think of to talk to."
"Oh. Well, what is it?"
Rainbow Dash hesitated, then blurted out, "How'd you know you were making the right choice when you got married?"
"Huh?! How'd I—? Uh, well..." Derpy fidgeted. "Rainbow, I'm probably not the best pony to ask, considering I've been widowed longer than I was ma—" She broke off as she suddenly went still. "Wait..." She narrowed her eyes at Rainbow Dash though the effect was a bit spoiled by the fact that only one eye was focused on Rainbow Dash while the other was pointing at the ceiling. "Did Highflyer propose to you?"
"No!" Rainbow Dash blushed at her own outburst and quickly lowered her voice. "No, he didn't, but..." She looked down at her hooves. "We ... kind of ... like each other." She looked away and rubbed the back of her neck. "Okay, it's more than kind of, and even if he hasn't proposed, I..." She lowered both her hoof and her gaze. "Think he ... might."
"Okay..." Derpy said slowly. "Is that a problem?"
"Well, I'm a Wonderbolt and he's a wrestler. It's hard enough just getting letters to each other because we both travel around so much, and ... well..."
"You think one of you would have to give up your career if you wanted to be together?"
"Yes!" Rainbow Dash whipped her head down in an emphatic nod, her expression relieved. "That's it exactly! I'd love to be able to spend more time with him, but I've also dreamed of being a Wonderbolt all my life. I can't just give that up, but I also can't ask Highflyer to just give up his career." She hesitated then added almost under her breath, "And that's before even adding foals into the mix."
Derpy's crossed eyes widened in surprise. "Do you want foals?"
"Well, it's not that I don't like them, but..." Rainbow Dash looked up and there was fear in her eyes as her voice came out in a whisper. "What if I'm no good at being a mom? What if I make the wrong choices? What if—?" She groaned and let her head droop in frustration. "I don't know! I just don't!" She chanced a peek up at her cross-eyed friend. "What do you think I should do?"
Derpy didn't answer right away. She gnawed on her lip in thought as each of her eyes rolled in opposite directions like a chameleon's. Then she sighed. "I'm not really sure what you should do, Rainbow. I didn't really have to make a choice like that when I got married..." She trailed off, then brightened as a new idea seemed to occur to her. "Rainbow, have you ever heard that saying: Don't marry somepony you can live with; marry somepony you can't live without?"
"I think I've heard that somewhere before."
"Do you feel like you can't live without Highflyer?"
Rainbow Dash hesitated. "I ... I'm not sure. I mean I really like him and everything, but I don't know if he's at 'can't live without him' status."
"Well, unless you're absolutely sure he is at that level, don't give up being a Wonderbolt to be with him. I wouldn't have married my husband if I—" She halted as moisture suddenly welled up in her crossed eyes. She sniffed and her voice came out choked. "—hadn't been sure I..."
"Couldn't live without him, huh?" Rainbow Dash muttered, brushing a wing against her fellow pegasus in a comforting manner.
"Yeah, I guess it didn't really work out that way." She sniffed again and wiped at her eyes. "Sorry, that just hit me kind of hard." She forced a shaky smile. "The girls helped me so much after he died. You know it was his idea that we adopt Amethyst after we'd been told I couldn't have foals." Her shaky smile steadied at the thought of her first daughter. "And we loved her as our own from the first day we brought her home." A soft affectionate laugh bubbled up from her throat. "And then just a few years later I got pregnant with Dinky. Happiest accident that's ever happened to me. I wouldn't trade my two girls for anything in the world. You know I can still see bits of him in both of them. Dinky obviously got some of his looks, but I can also see some of his manners in Amethyst, so in a way it's like he's not completely gone." At this point one of her eyes drifted toward the clock. "Oh my goodness, I've got to get home if I want breakfast! Maybe we could talk about this more some other time?"
"Yeah, I'd like that," said Rainbow Dash as Derpy started moving toward the door. Then the blue pegasus remembered something else. "Oh, wait Derpy!"
Derpy halted. "Hmm?"
Rainbow gestured toward the mailbag. "You didn't give me the postcard."
"Oops, my bad. Forgot it was still in there." Derpy fished the card out and handed it over.
Rainbow Dash frowned at the oily stains covering the card. "What happened?"
"Oh, it blew out of my bag and got covered in sauce when I got caught in that tornado yesterday. I thought I cleaned that up—"
"You got caught in that spaghetti tornado?!"
"Yeah, me and the girls." She smiled affectionately. "They tried to pull me out, bless them. Ended up getting sucked in themselves. Don't worry. Thanks to Discord, none of us were—"
"Wait, Discord! You saw him?!"
"Yeah, we crashed right into him in the tornado actually, and he was kind enough to teleport us out."
Oh, "kind" was he? Rainbow Dash mentally sneered. Just like he was "kind" to Fluttershy when he ran out on her last year?
"Um, Rainbow are you okay?"
Rainow Dash shook herself, realizing that the sneer wasn't all mental. "Yeah, just ... uh, thinking on something."
"Oh, well, I gotta go. I'll see you later!"
"Yeah, later."
After Derpy left, Rainbow Dash looked down at the postcard to read its contents:
Ray,
Meeting with the S's at work this Wednesday. Hope to see you there.
—H
Well, I guess that takes care of setting up a meeting time with Highflyer. I can just bring everypony to the gym today.
Crud, I should have read that card sooner, then I could have told Derpy to go there.
Then another thought occurred to her and she added, Double crud, I should have asked her what Discord did after teleporting them out of the tornado since he wasn't in it when it reached Ponyville.
Derpy looped past Fluttershy's cottage on her way home. As she flew over the garden, she noticed that it was mostly bare, save for an arrangement of cut-off leafy carrot heads marking a small mound of earth. Wondering why Fluttershy would put such a thing out when nearly all her animal friends were in hibernation for the coming winter, Derpy flew to the cottage and peeked in the window. She spotted Fluttershy lying curled up on the couch. The pale yellow pegasus was asleep but her face was blotchy and tear-stained, and a lumpy multi-colored scarf was wrapped loosely around her body. There was no sign of Angel Bunny either in his bed or near his owner.
By the time Amethyst shuffled into the kitchen that morning, Dinky was already up and frying potatoes on the stove. Amethyst yawned and rubbed at her eyes as she sat down at the kitchen table. She wasn't much of a morning pony normally and the little incident the previous night (or maybe earlier that morning) had thrown her internal clock off by several hours. She heard the drip-drip-drip of coffee in the coffeemaker, and looked about blearily for a coffee cup, but before she could locate one, Dinky slid a plate of cookies in front of her.
"I made some coffee-flavored cookies. See if they wake you up before you try the actual coffee."
The kitchen timer pinged and Dinky pulled a batch of muffins out of the oven. Setting them on the counter to cool, she went outside to see if her mother had returned yet. No sooner had she stepped outside then a pink cloud drifted down in front of her face. She tried to bat it away but it stuck to her hoof. She tried to pull it off with her teeth and when the taste of sugar filled her mouth, she realized the cloud was made of cotton candy. When she had finally freed herself from the sticky fluff, she stepped farther outside to see where it might have come from.
She spotted Discord pacing back and forth on the roof, apparently deep in thought and sucking on a candy stick clamped between two of his fingers. Pausing to take the candy stick from his mouth, he tipped his head back and blew a stream of cotton candy into the air. He glanced back over his shoulder, but Dinky wasn't sure what he was looking at. Then he flicked the candy stick away almost absentmindedly, and it sailed out over the edge of the roof. Dinky caught the stick magically and brought it close to her face to study it. It looked like just a regular old candy stick and after a brief hesitation she put her tongue out, intending to give the candy a tiny experimental lick.
"What do you think you are doing?!"
She jumped and looked up to see Discord's face just a couple of inches above her, his long neck stretching down over the edge of the roof. She quickly tried to hide the candy cane behind her back.
"I just wanted to figure out how you did that cotton candy thing." No sooner had she said this, then Discord's eagle claw stretched down next to his head. She felt the candy stick vanish from her magic's grasp, then saw it reappear in Discord's hand.
"Well, don't. It's a disgusting habit."
"Then why do you do it?"
"No idea." And with that, he parked the candy cane in his mouth, took a long pull on it, and sent a particularly large cloud of cotton candy pluming into the air before letting his arm and neck snap back to their usual lengths like a pair of tape measures.
While her head was still tipped back to watch him, Dinky caught sight of her mother flapping toward them out of the corner of her eye, and turned to wave up to her.
Derpy waved back. "I'll be down in a bit, Dinky, but first I need to talk to Discord."
"Okay, I'll see you inside."
As Derpy neared him, Discord plucked the candy stick from his mouth with the tufted end of his tail, "No, you don't!" and spun around so his back was toward her.
Derpy flew around in front of him and hovered at his eyelevel. "You still look uncertain and confused."
He reached over and pulled her eyelids, which he transformed into tiny window shades, down over her eyes. "And you still need your eyes checked because I am most definitely neither."
She shook her head and the tiny window shades turned back into regular eyelids as they opened. "Discord, do you want my advice?"
"No." He turned his back to her again.
"Okay, here it is."
Discord whipped his head back around to face her, intending to cut her off before she could offer her unwanted advice—
"Go to her, Discord."
At those words, the tufted end of his tail tightened on the candy cane, shattering it. The broken pieces slipped out of the loosening tuft, but he didn't seem to notice as he stared at the cross-eyed pony.
"Go to who?" he asked, trying to feign ignorance. "Who are you talking about?"
Derpy's eyes straightened just long enough to give him a 'Don't-play-dumb' look that all mothers are famous for. "I think you know."
Discord attempted a scornful laugh but it just came out sounding nervous. "I can assure you I don't."
"Fluttershy, Discord! Go. To. Fluttershy." She leaned in until they were almost eyeball-to-crossed eyeball, her voice soft but firm. "She needs you."
The draconequus extended his neck so that he put some space between them, before turning his head back around to the front to free his gaze from hers. In the process he found himself once again looking in the direction he knew Fluttershy's cottage lay. Derpy's words seemed to echo in his head. She! Needs! You!
He shut his eyes and shook his head so hard his multiple earrings clattered against each other. Well, I don't need her! I don't want her!
Oh yes, that was quite obvious in your dream last night, the little mocking voice in the back of his head scoffed.
I don't want her!
Then the words he had been puzzling over earlier floated through his mind: Do I do something to be loved or in order to love?
What difference does it make?! I don't want to be loved or to love! I've never needed either one before and I don't need either one now!
But she needs you.
Suddenly Derpy put a hoof on his shoulder and he flinched.
"Maybe you should join us for breakfast first," she said. "You'd probably feel braver with something in your stomach."
Discord tried to act scornful again. "Tuh! I don't know what gave you that impression. ... Buuuut I wouldn't object to some breakfast."
Dinky and Amethyst were sitting at the kitchen table, eating toast and fried potatoes when their mother and their draconequus guest joined them.
"Morning girls," said Derpy. "What's the meal plan?"
Dinky looked embarrassed. "Well, I have a whole batch of orange mint chip muffins." She tipped her horn toward a dozen orange-tinted muffins sitting on the counter.
"Orange mint chip muffins?" Derpy repeated, her muzzle wrinkling in uncertainty.
Even Discord raised an eyebrow. "That sounds fascinatingly disgusting."
Dinky's expression was a half-grimace, half-rueful grin. "Yeah, they are. That's why I still have a whole batch."
Discord raised a hand with the palm upward and one of the muffins flashed into it. He turned the muffin this way and that, examining it before taking a curious bite. He gagged and spat the bite out.
"I know, I know, they taste like toothpaste soaked in orange juice. You don't have to be so melodramatic." Dinky muttered, rolling her eyes as the draconequus flung the muffin back onto the counter, grabbed his forked tongue, pulled several feet of it out of his mouth, and began scouring those several feet of tongue with a freshly conjured belt sander.
"Um, what prompted you to make orange mint chip muffins, hon?" Derpy asked.
"I didn't plan for them to turn out that way! I wanted to surprise you and Amethyst with some orange chocolate chip muffins, but..." She levitated an empty brown plastic bag for her mother to see. At a glance, it might have been mistaken for a chocolate chip bag, until one noticed that it had the words "mint chips" printed on it. "I grabbed the wrong bag of chips," she muttered dejectedly.
At this point the belt sander disappeared. Discord let go of his tongue and it reeled back into his mouth. He turned back to the muffin-covered counter and snapped his talons, causing the muffins to briefly be obscured by a flash of light. When the light vanished, he picked up the muffin he had bitten into earlier and took another bite. "There. Much better."
"What'd you do?"
In response he tossed a muffin toward Dinky, who caught it with her hooves. "See for yourself."
She took a cautious nibble and her eyes widened. "You fixed the chips!"
"Well, I had to get that taste out of my mouth somehow." He took another bite of muffin, and flashed himself closer to the table. "So, what else is there for breakfast?"
Amethyst took a sip of her coffee before rattling off the list. "Fried potatoes, coffee cookies, pancake cookies, and toast."
Discord eyed the "toast" curiously. "Sugar and peanut butter on burger buns?"
Dinky shrugged. "I used what was left of the butter to fry the potatoes, and there was no jelly in the fridge or regular bread in the breadbox, so I had to improvise."
Derpy grabbed several muffins and cookies, stuffing them into a small shoulder bag that had been sitting on a counter. "I'll eat these on the way to work."
Amethyst downed the last of her coffee and backed away from the table. "I have to get going too," she said, sticking two of the muffins and several coffee cookies into a saddlebag before throwing it across her back. "See you later," she added, giving her mother and sister quick hugs, and acknowledging Discord with a nod before galloping outside.
Derpy slipped the small shoulder bag over her head so that its strap crisscrossed with the strap of her mailbag. Then she pulled her younger daughter in for a quick hug. "Love you Dinky." She released her daughter and turned to go. "Oh, and Discord..." She paused at his side. "Think about what I said."
At that point Discord had been lifting a pancake cookie toward his mouth, but at her words he froze in mid-gesture and his expression, which until that moment had been mostly neutral, promptly soured. "Yes, yes," he said irritably.
After Derpy left, the draconequus noticed that Dinky was squinting at him.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" he snapped.
Dinky winced then glared at him. "What'd Mom say to suddenly make you all edgy?"
"I am not edgy!" No sooner had he said this (in a decidedly edgy tone) then his dragon tattoo pulled its head free and head-butted the side of his neck. He slapped at the tattoo in retaliation and cleared his throat. "I am not edgy and what your mother said is between me and her," he said in a much calmer voice before cramming the pancake cookie—which turned out to be a sugar cookie with swirls of maple syrup baked into it—into his mouth to dissuade the young unicorn from trying to question him further.
This turned out not to be necessary because after an uncomfortable pause all Dinky said was "Well, thanks for fixing those muffins."
Swallowing the cookie in his mouth, Discord responded with a dismissive "Oh, it was nothing." But deep down he felt an unexpected bubble of pleasure at the young unicorn's gratitude. Helping himself to another pancake cookie, he watched as she moved about the kitchen, looking into the fridge and different cupboards, before pulling out a stack of cookbooks. "What are you doing?"
"Trying to figure out what to make for lunch, supper, and possibly dessert." She set the cookbooks on the table and began paging through one. "Amethyst will probably like something with peanut butter in it..." she muttered, evidently thinking out loud. "Maybe peanut butter brownies? No, you need butter for those. Hmm, there's a recipe here for chocolate avocado cookies that don't need butter... And it'll probably be garbage stew for supper."
Discord cocked an eyebrow. "Garbage stew?"
Dinky started at the sound of his voice, then quickly explained, "It's basically stew that's made out of whatever stew ingredients we happened to have in the house at the time."
Discord flashed himself into a standing position behind her and made aprons and chefs' hats appear on them. "Well, let's see what you have then."
"Wait a second. You want to help me bake?"
He chuckled. "You may have scratched the surface when it comes to unusual combinations, but now you are in the presence of a master. Watch and learn."
Fluttershy was awakened by a knock on her door. Stretching and rubbing at her eyes, she plodded over to the door, and opened it to see Rainbow Dash.
"Hey, Fluttershy, I just wanted—" Rainbow Dash broke off as she caught sight of her friend's disheveled appearance. "Ooh, you don't look so good."
Fluttershy quickly ducked her head so that her mane fell on either side of her face. "I guess I didn't sleep all that well last night."
Rainbow Dash stepped forward, wrapping her friend in a warm hug. "Missing Angel?"
Fluttershy nodded as she returned the hug. "Yes, and wondering where Discord is now."
Rainbow Dash felt a pang of guilt over not thinking to ask Derpy about Discord when she had the chance, and quickly tried to cover it by bringing up the reason she had stopped by in the first place. "Well, I just wanted to tell you I found out Highflyer will be at the gym today so if you go there after lunch, I can introduce you to him."
Fluttershy forced a smile as she pulled back. "Okay, just give me some time to freshen up, and I'll meet you there later."
It didn't take Dinky long to realize that Discord's alleged mastery of strange combinations was largely in his own head. He certainly had no shortage of creativity, but unlimited creativity did not automatically equal edible food. At least not edible by pony standards.
Her eyes widened when she saw him pushing pieces of silverware into a pan of peanut butter brownie batter they had mixed up. (He had conjured extra butter and a few other necessary ingredients.) "I don't think that's a good..."
She trailed off as Discord raised one of the remaining forks and casually bit the tines off it.
"Well, I guess those can be your special brownies," Dinky said quickly. Maybe we can dig that silverware out after they're baked. I can call them ... demolition brownies!
By lunchtime the garbage stew was simmering on the stove, the brownies were in the oven, bread dough was rising on the counter, and several types of cookie dough were chilling in the fridge.
"Whew!" Dinky pulled off her chef's hat and ruffled up her forelock in an attempt to cool off before putting her cheek down against the table top. "Do you want anything for lunch? I'm not even sure what we still have."
"Might I interest you in some hors d'oeuvres?" Discord asked in a mock snooty voice as a large tray of what looked like small fancy sandwiches appeared in his hand.
"What's in those?" Dinky asked, lifting her head from the table as he set the tray down.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he chortled as he picked up one of the sandwiches and tossed it, toothpick and all, into his mouth. He chewed thoughtfully. "Hmm, needs more salt."
Dinky selected a sandwich that seemed to have lettuce poking out of it. She peeled the layers apart to check its contents, but decided against trying it when she saw that its insides were soaked in hot sauce.
The two chefs worked their way through the sandwiches. Discord scarfing them down without checking their contents, while Dinky went much more slowly and cautiously. Finally she found a sandwich she decided to chance trying. She bit into it tentatively and her eyes widened in surprise as she chewed.
"Hey, this one is ... surprisingly good. I need to remember this recipe."
"Ohhh?" Discord grinned, stretching out the syllable as he leaned across the table toward her. "Which one?"
She held up the sandwich for him to see and his grin fell. "Oh."
Dinky frowned at his tone. "Is something wrong?"
Discord seemed to be fumbling for words. "I ... uh ... I'll be right back. I need some air." With that he vanished, leaving Dinky sitting there, holding a half-eaten peanut butter and pickle sandwich.
"Was it something I said?"
Discord appeared outside the house, now no longer wearing his apron or chef's hat.
Think about what I said. Derpy's words rang through his mind, seeming to mock him.
He had been trying to do just the opposite by distracting himself with the baking, and for a while he had succeeded. But then he saw Dinky enjoying that peanut butter and pickle sandwich he had inadvertently conjured up, and memories of Fluttershy enjoying the very same sandwich had come rushing back. And with those memories came the words: Go to her, Discord. She needs you.
She needs you.
She needs you!
She! Needs! You!
The draconequus groaned and kneaded his forehead with both hands, feeling torn between wanting to go to Fluttershy, and wanting to feel completely indifferent to her situation.
"Discord!"
Startled at the sound of the sharp voice behind him, he whipped around to see Rainbow Dash hovering just a few feet away from him, her expression fierce.
"What are you doing here?!" she demanded. "Why aren't you at Fluttershy's, explaining why you decided to just abandon her last year?!"
Abandon—?! I didn't abandon her! She's the one who broke my—
He abruptly cut this thought off because finishing it would mean admitting to just how strong a hold he had allowed Fluttershy to have over him. He glared at Rainbow Dash. What with her accusations and Derpy's unasked-for advice, he suddenly wanted to avoid Fluttershy simply out of sheer contrariness.
"What are you playing at?!" Rainbow Dash stormed. "Do you have any idea how hurt she was by your leaving?!"
"No, and I don't care, because I never want to see her again!" No sooner were the words out of his mouth then he suddenly wished he could snatch them back. They startled Rainbow Dash into silence and that gave him a brief flash of satisfaction, but that satisfaction was swiftly buried under regret. However he was not about to let Rainbow Dash know that, so before she could recover he vanished in a flash of light.
Rainbow Dash stared at the spot where Discord had been mere seconds ago. She hadn't intended to pick a fight with him. She hadn't even expected him to suddenly appear outside Derpy's house, but when he did, the sight of him had reminded her of all the pain and confused misery his disappearance had caused Fluttershy the year before. Pain and confused misery Rainbow Dash had been unable to fix, and her angry frustration at this had prompted her to verbally lash out at Discord on Fluttershy's behalf. But now her anger began to cool and she started to wonder if her harsh approach might have been a mistake.
Then another voice calling out caught her attention. "Discord, are you—?"
Rainbow Dash looked down to see Dinky Doo, dressed in an apron, walking out of the house. The teenage unicorn jerked in surprise at the sight of the pegasus. "Oh, hi, Rainbow Dash. Have you seen Discord?"
Rainbow Dash bit her lip nervously. "Y-yeah, he appeared out here for a few seconds, but then he disappeared again." She dropped down to land next to Dinky. "Why were you calling for him?"
Dinky quickly explained how she and Discord had ended up doing some baking together; she even invited the pegasus in to see the results of that baking.
"Then when I showed him which sandwich I was eating, he went all weird, said he needed some air, and disappeared. He did say that he'd be right back though..." she trailed off doubtfully, realizing that Discord had not put in a return appearance in the several minutes it had taken her to tell her story.
Rainbow Dash shifted uncomfortably, not wanting to mention her possible part in Discord's disappearance, and quickly tried to change the subject. "Dinky, the real reason I came here was to see if your mom was here." Then she gave a quick version of how she had met Highflyer and how Derpy had mentioned wanting to meet him. "I was going to see him today, so I wanted to see if you guys wanted to come along. But I guess your mom and sister are both at work now, huh?"
Dinky nodded. "They should be back around suppertime though."
"Well, would you like to come meet Highflyer in the meantime?"
Dinky hesitated, glancing toward the stove. "I'd like to, but I've kind of got some stuff on the stove and in the oven that I can't really leave right now. But maybe some other time. Hey, maybe you guys could stop by for supper?"
When Fluttershy arrived at the gym later that day she saw Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Twilight, Spike, and Rarity waiting for her.
"Where's Pinkie Pie?" she asked, glancing around for her energetic friend.
"She left a note at Sugarcube Corner saying she went to meet the Cakes and would be back later," said Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, speaking of notes, we also got one back from Princess Celestia," said Twilight. "She wants us to wait and see what Discord does before we decide what to do."
Fluttershy thought she saw a flash of guilty discomfort on Rainbow Dash's face, but before she could be sure, Rainbow Dash's expression brightened and she asked, "So, who's up for meeting Highflyer?"
"That room is reserved!" shouted one of the gym's staff as the group of friends moved through the gym to a set of double doors.
"That's fine." Rainbow Dash called back. "We're meeting with the ponies in there. They won't mind. You can just throw us out if they do."
As they drew closer to the doors, Fluttershy heard a thumping and scuffling sound coming from behind said doors followed by the loud smack of a body hitting a mat.
"Nice takedown, girl. Now go for the cover," said a voice Fluttershy recognized as Screwjob's when Rainbow Dash pushed the doors open for them. Applejack groaned softly and quickly dropped to the back of the group as they entered the room.
The room's floor and walls were covered with padded mats and there was a wrestling ring in its center. Fluttershy saw Screwjob perched on top of one of the ring posts, watching as two other ponies grappled with each other in the ring below him. She recognized the pony on top as Scootaloo, dressed in a blue-and-yellow top and shorts, but she couldn't see much of the other pony except for a small pair of kicking hind legs covered in long black pants with a blue-and-yellow design on them.
"Keep him on the mat, Loo," said Screwjob. "No, don't let him get his legs around you or he'll—" Whump! "—do that."
Now Scootaloo was lying on her back and her opponent was up on his feet, legs braced apart in a defensive crouch. He was a tiny light brown pegasus with zebra-like stripes on his back, dark markings on his forelegs, and wearing a mask that covered his whole head.
"Is that Highflyer?" Rarity whispered up to Rainbow Dash, and at the sound of her voice, Screwjob looked up from watching the two ponies in the ring, spotting the newcomers.
"Woah! Time out you two. We've got company," he called, raising his forelegs in a time out gesture.
Scootaloo raised her head from the mat, and her masked opponent relaxed his stance as he turned to see who their company was. His eyes swept quickly over the group, his expression impossible to read through the mask, before they settled on Rainbow Dash hovering a bit above the other ponies.
"What's up, Ray?" he asked in a soft raspy voice before laughing and adding, "Besides you?"
Rainbow Dash swooped down into the ring and landed next to him. His head barely reached her shoulder. Nudging him toward the group with a wing, she said, "Highflyer, I'd like you to meet my friends."
"Screwjob finally blackmailed you into it?" he asked, his tone joking as he bumped his hip against hers.
"I heard that!" Screwjob shouted from his spot on the ring post.
Highflyer shrugged his flightless wings. "I said it for you to hear." Then, looking over at where Scootaloo was still lying on the mat, he added, "Good bout, kid. You can get up now."
"Thanks, High," said Scootaloo, swinging her back legs up into the air above her head and twisting her hips almost one hundred and eighty degrees to bring her back hooves down on the mat and spring up onto all fours.
"Hey, that's my hip-swivel you're doing!" Screwjob shouted.
"You don't own that move, Jobs," Highflyer said mildly. "If you didn't want her using it, maybe you shouldn't have taught it to her."
"Good point. Hey, Loo! From now on when we work out, do as I say not as I do. You got that?"
Scootaloo saluted. "Clear as mud."
"Smart-aleck. High, is she learning that from you or me?"
Highflyer ignored Screwjob's question, focusing instead on Scootaloo as she dove under the lowest ring rope, and landed neatly on the floor mat. Chuckling he glanced up at Rainbow Dash. "She's already exiting like a wrestler," he said, sounding almost like a parent proud of his child. Then he sprang up onto the top ring rope and from there jumped to the floor, landing in front of Rainbow Dash's friends.
"Showoff," Screwjob muttered, spinning around on the top of the post, so he too could also jump to the floor.
Rainbow Dash fluttered out of the ring, landed next to Highflyer, and began introducing him to each of her friends, starting with Twilight and finishing with Fluttershy.
Highflyer's eyes seemed to narrow thoughtfully behind his mask as he peered at Fluttershy. "I think I remember you from back in Cloudsdale. Tall, long-legged, not a very good flyer." Glancing back at his own wings, he laughed ruefully and added, "Then again who am I to talk?"
"Yes, that was me," Fluttershy admitted, blushing as she studied him. He was still small and his eyes under the mask were still bright blue, but apart from that he was unrecognizable as the tiny colt she remembered seeing in flight camp. What she had first thought were zebra stripes were actually a highly detailed tattoo of a spine and ribcage covering his back from neck to tail; both his forelegs were also covered from shoulder to fetlock in tattoos; and one even circled his throat like a necklace. As a colt, his dark wavy mane and tail had been even longer than hers, but now his tail had been docked down to a stump, and from what she could see of his neck, his mane seemed to have been sheared off to the point of being non-existent.
The mask he was wearing was black with blue and yellow trim on the forehead and around the eyeholes, and with a blue-and-yellow lightning bolt on each side of his face. At least Fluttershy thought they were lightning bolts at first glance, but on closer inspection, she realized they were actually stylized falcons.
Her gaze drifted back toward his wings, noticing that they didn't seem to be an odd shape or size, or have any other visible indicator that they didn't work. "Um, Highflyer, can I ask you something a little personal? If that's all right."
He shrugged. "Go ahead."
"How come you can't fly now if you used to be in flight camp?"
He laughed sheepishly. "I wasn't there long. When I was younger I used to be so small and skinny I weighed next to nothing. I managed to fool everypony for a while by jumping really high and letting the wind blow me about like a leaf." He glanced down at his still-small, but now-heavily muscled body. "I can still do the high jumping, but that getting-blown-about-like-a-leaf business is over. Of course even back then it didn't fool them for long. Word got out that what I was doing wasn't genuine flying, and that's about when the teasing started." He ducked his head as if embarrassed, adding softly, "And that's actually how I first met Ray. I was getting picked on and she ... stuck up for me."
"Oh, was that how you two became friends?" Fluttershy asked, remembering how Rainbow Dash had stuck up for her when they were fillies.
Suddenly Screwjob burst out laughing. "Not even close!" he howled, burying his face between his forelegs in a vain attempt to suppress his laughter. Rainbow Dash blushed and swatted at him with a wing but the wrestler just continued cracking up.
Fluttershy looked from him to Rainbow Dash to Highflyer and back again in confusion. "What's so funny?"
Suddenly Screwjob stopped laughing, sat up, grabbed Highflyer in a headlock, and rubbed the smaller pony's mask between the ears, as if ruffling the now-nonexistent mane. "Believe it or not, when your friend stuck up for him, this little shrimp was not one bit grateful. Told her to go jump in a lake."
"I told her I didn't need somepony else fighting my battles for me," Highflyer grunted as he squirmed about in Screwjob's hold.
"Eh, same difference—Oof!" Highflyer had just jabbed him in the ribs. Reaching up, the tiny stallion wrapped his forelegs around Screwjob's neck and yanked him forward, causing the bigger stallion to flip over him. Screwjob landed on his back on the mat and Highflyer promptly twisted one of his forelegs up into a submission hold.
"Ow! Hey, we're supposed to be taking it easy! No wrestling!" Screwjob shouted, trying to tap out by pounding his free hoof against the mat.
Applejack smirked. "Rainbow, I like him already."
At the sound of her voice, Screwjob twisted his head around in her direction. "Ahh, there you are, you lovely flaxen-haired thing, you—"
Highflyer snorted as he released the bigger stallion. "Give it up, Jobber."
"Jobber!" Screwjob rolled onto his feet, and went nose-to-mask with Highflyer. "You shopping around for a pair of black eyes, pal? Because I'm giving out free samples."
Highflyer coolly sidestepped him. "No thanks. They'd clash with my mask."
"Your mask is black!"
"But trimmed with blue and yellow." He gestured toward Rarity. "We're in the presence of a famous fashion designer. At least try to pretend you have some sense of style."
Screwjob rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, the pony who wears a mask every day of the year is going to lecture me on fashion. I don't think so."
"Hold on a second!" Spike interrupted, silencing the two wrestlers. "If you're not supposed to be wrestling, then what were you doing with Scootaloo when we came in?"
"Well, 'technically,'" Highflyer seesawed his hoof back and forth. "We're supposed to be taking it easy to let some injuries heal up more fully, so 'technically,'" He repeated the seesawing gesture. "We're not supposed to be doing any actual matches. But we can show somepony else how to practice certain bumps and submission holds, which is what we were doing when you showed up."
A few minutes later, Scootaloo left to meet up with some of her friends and Highflyer went to change out of his wrestling gear.
While he was in the locker room, Applejack turned to Rainbow Dash. "He seems like a nice fella. Why didn't you want us to know about him before?"
And how come you never mentioned that you knew him in flight camp? Fluttershy wondered.
Rainbow Dash looked uncomfortable. "Well, after that whole thing with the bullies, I ... just kind of let them pick on him. I never tried to help him again even when they started beating him up. And after he dropped out of flight camp I never even bothered to find out what happened to him until Scootaloo started feeling depressed... And I'm not really proud of that."
"Well, it did sound like he didn't want your help the first time," Twilight pointed out. "Did he ever ask for it later?"
"No, but..." Rainbow Dash sighed. "Part of me just feels like I should have helped him back then anyway. You know, showed I was the bigger pony."
Screwjob snickered. "Everypony is the bigger pony when you stick them next to Highflyer."
Rainbow Dash fidgeted with her mane nervously. "And I guess I was worried that if you found out I used to ignore him and let him get beat up, and only became friends with him now, that you'd think I just latched onto him because he's famous now." She blushed and quickly added. "Which I guess I kind of did, but not for the usual—"
Before she could finish this sentence, the rest of the girls and Spike pulled her into a group hug.
"We'd never think that about you," said Twilight. At these words, Rainbow Dash looked both relieved that her fears had turned out to be groundless, and at the same time rather embarrassed that she'd given her friends so little credit.
"Did I miss something?" asked a soft raspy voice behind them, and they turned to see Highflyer trotting back from the locker room. He was still wearing his mask, but had swapped the wrestling pants for a sleeveless black shirt similar to the one Screwjob was wearing, except that Highflyer's shirt had slits for his wings, and the back sported a blue-and-yellow falcon identical to the ones on his mask. The mark on his now-exposed hindquarters was an identical falcon design.
As he neared them, Applejack frowned at him. "I think you forgot something."
Highflyer halted. "What?"
Applejack gestured to her face, and Highflyer patted his masked forehead.
"Nope, I'm not missing anything."
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "You're planning to go out wearing that wrestling mask?"
"Why, of course he is," said Screwjob, feigning shock. "Can't have him traumatizing you ladies by forcing you to look at his ugly mug now, can we?"
"It can't be that bad..." Fluttershy said tentatively. Highflyer hadn't been an ugly colt, but then again—
Highflyer snorted and rolled his eyes. "Don't I wish."
"Oh," Fluttershy suddenly felt sorry for him. "It ... is that bad?"
The tiny stallion laughed. "Worse. I've been told I look extremely cute without the mask, and as long as that's the case, it's not coming off."
Spike smirked. "Not even to sleep or shower?"
"Only if I'm changing it out for another mask. Well, how about it, Ray?" He bowed in her direction. "Shall we?"
She bowed back. "Ready when you are."
With that, Highflyer sprang into the air and landed on her back, wrapping his forelegs around her neck, and his hind legs around her middle. He noticed the surprised looks on her friends' faces and lifted his head long enough to say, "Oh, didn't Ray tell you? We have a deal. I teach her and Scootaloo to wrestle, and in return she takes me flying."
"Hang onto your mask, High," said Rainbow Dash, snapping her wings open. Then she and her passenger flew out through the room's side door, causing it to swing open dramatically and bang shut equally dramatically.
Spike glanced at Twilight. "You think those two are serious?"
Screwjob snorted. "He's not. He just wants somepony to chauffeur his runty rear all over the sky." He glanced toward Applejack. "Unlike me." Climbing back up onto the edge of the wrestling ring, he stretched the ropes up to make an entrance. "How about it, Apps? Care to step in the ring and see if you can take me?"
Applejack glared at him. "I don't want to have you."
"Earlier you said you weren't supposed to wrestle," Spike pointed out dryly.
"Hush! Come on, Apps. I'll go easy on you."
At that, Applejack's stance tensed and her lips pulled back from her gritted teeth. "I don't need you to go easy on me!"
Screwjob's grin turned devilishly gleeful. "Prove it."
Incensed, Applejack started charging toward the ring, but Twilight suddenly yanked her magically off her feet, and held her floating in the air. "Hey, Applejack, don't you have some urgent business to discuss with Rarity?"
Rarity frowned at the alicorn. "No, she—" Twilight nudged her and she quickly caught on. "Oh! Oh, yes, darling, we do have some urgent, um, urgent things to discuss. Yes, very urgent! Can't wait!" She beamed at Screwjob. "So sorry, but we really must get going. It was wonderful to meet you. Bye-bye now!" She and Twilight started hurrying toward the door Rainbow and Highflyer had left through earlier, with Applejack floating along after them. After exchanging a quick glance, Fluttershy and Spike followed them.
"Aww, come on, Apps! Just one quick round! I'll even let you win!"
"I wouldn't need your help to win!" Applejack gritted through clenched teeth, but it was more to herself than to anyone else, and she made no move to struggle out of Twilight's grasp.
"Think about it, Apps! You know what some ponies would give to say they took on Screwjob Superstar Showstopper and won?!"
"You heard Rarity!" Applejack shouted back to him. "We got urgent business! This will have to wait!"
Up until that moment, Screwjob had been looking crushed, but now his expression brightened. "I'll hold you to that, Apps!" he called just as the door banged shut.
Applejack looked over her shoulder at Twilight and Rarity. "Thanks for getting me out of that," she whispered.
"No problem," said Twilight, setting her down. "Though you might want to get out of here before he gets suspicious."
"You don't have to tell me twice," said Applejack, galloping away toward Sweet Apple Acres. Shortly after she left, Twilight and Spike flew off toward the library, and Rarity was about to head to her boutique when she noticed that Fluttershy was just standing there looking lost.
"Is something wrong, Fluttershy?"
"Oh, I guess I don't really want to go home just yet."
Rarity drew closer to her. "Is it because of Angel?"
"How'd you know—?"
"Rainbow Dash told me earlier. Darling, I'm so sorry." She put a foreleg around Fluttershy's withers and the pegasus leaned into her friend's embrace.
"That's part of it," Fluttershy admitted, and Rarity pulled back a bit to study her.
"Only part of it? What's the other part?"
Fluttershy hesitated, ashamed of her feelings, but also longing to confess them. Finally she blurted out, albeit in a very soft tearful voice, "I think I'm jealous of Rainbow Dash, and I don't want to be. I want to be happy for her, but I just... seeing her with Highflyer..."
"Did you have feelings for him back in flight camp?"
"No, it's not like that. I mean, I used to think he was cute in flight camp, but not in a crush way, more like a baby-animals-are-cute way. And I don't wish he was with me instead of Rainbow Dash or anything like that. I just..." Fluttershy trailed off as she struggled to put her feelings into words. Maybe it was the fact that Highflyer now had all those tattoos, maybe it was the fact that he and Rainbow Dash had not started out on the best of terms, maybe it was both those things and more, but whatever it was, watching them had reminded her of her relationship with Discord. Or at least of the one she had once thought she had with him.
Rarity mulled over what Fluttershy had told her. Such a situation would normally call for a round or two of intensive ice cream therapy, but with the weather getting steadily colder, the idea of ice cream currently didn't sound very appealing. But if they had something else sweet... "Fluttershy, how about we head over to Sugarcube Corner and if it's open let's get something nice, sweet, and freshly-baked to eat while we discuss this?"
The idea of visiting with Rarity while enjoying some warm cake or cookies certainly had its appeal, and Fluttershy managed to smile through her tears. "Let's do that."
The sun had started sinking as the two friends made their way to Sugarcube Corner. They could see the lights on in the bakery and felt this meant there was a good chance the Cakes and Pinkie Pie were back.
Rarity knocked on the door. "Hello?"
"Wh-who's there?" said a shaky voice that it took Fluttershy a moment to recognize as Mrs. Cake.
"It's Fluttershy and Rarity, Mrs. Cake," said Rarity. "Is Pinkie Pie there?"
"I-I don't think now is a good—"
Rarity frowned at Mrs. Cake's tone. "Is something wrong in there?" She pointed her horn at the doorknob, intending to twist it to see if it was locked. Not only was it unlocked, but the door swung open much faster than Rarity had expected it to considering she had barely pushed it. As the door swung open, a powerful smell hit the two ponies. Not the warm inviting smell of baked goods, but the stench of blood.
"Don't come in!" Mrs. Cake shrieked. "It's too horrible!"
Fluttershy took one look at what was inside that bakery, and one look was far too much. She felt her legs suddenly go weak and she stumbled backward. She was vaguely aware of Rarity beside her, also stumbling back, but her eyes were glued on the terrible sight in front of her, no matter how hard she tried to wrench them away.
"What-what h-h-happened?" It took her a second to realize that question had come out of her throat.
The Cakes peeked over the counter, their eyes wide with horror.
"It was him!" Mr. Cake squeaked. "It was Discord!"
"He just flashed in here with no warning and ... and ... and murdered Pinkie Pie!"