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// Chapter 1-Fluttering Randomness 
// Story: The Fluttercordiest 
// by D Historian 
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Chapter 1: Fluttering Randomness


Fluttershy beat her wings rapidly, her muscles screaming at the ache that had begun to gnaw its way up her outstretched feathers during the physical exertion. The pain was ignored by a determined Fluttershy, who only bit her lip as her only reaction to the discomfort she was putting herself through. Still, she flew on, her strained wings flapping and fluttering, much like the butterfly her heart had become.
A gigantic goofy smile adorned her beaming face, her grin outshining the sun and her teal eyes glassy, lost in her own little world, entrapped by her thoughts that kept her busy as she flew. This proved to be a rather dangerous sport, as she narrowly missed colliding with a high speed Pegasus with a spiked prismatic mane, the blue mare hastily performing a neat mid-air somersault that would have made even Spitfire jealous, her quick skill with acrobatics saving her the embarrassing humiliation of crashing into the other mare. Her head twisted to glare at Fluttershy, her magenta eyes piercing. Her mouth opened to speak, her tongue and lips already forming the words she was going to say at her friend’s obliviousness.
“-!“
A few droplets of spit managed to find their way out of the best flier in Equestria’s mouth, right before Rainbow Dash crashed, her gaze still fixed on the disappearing back of one of her best friends. The mare groaned from her position, perched in an awkward angle, her body half-embedded into a tree. Her wings twitched weakly against her sides, beating gently into the rough bark of the tree. 
A blue bird, noticing her predicament, hopped out of its sheltered nest, which had surprisingly survived the invasion without being too badly damaged, and starting flapping in slow and lazy circles about the Pegasus’s reeling head comically. A resigned sigh drifted through the occasional twitters the bird made.
Meanwhile, Fluttershy was still thoroughly immersed in her daydream, her wings now quivering from the uncommon exercise, her muscles once again sending out a distressed call, before they shut down automatically, the blissful relief of the hard work out replaced instantly with panic as Fluttershy at last took notice, snapping out of her trance, as she began to get closer and closer to ground, which welcomed her with a grassy bale. Time froze, its snail-like agonizing pace crawling forward slowly.
“Oh no, no, no, no…”
Her meek and useless protests were left unheard as she tried to right herself from her plunging head first position towards the face of Equestria, and succeeded, somehow, manoeuvring herself with her flailing hooves away from the grassy slopes of the ground and shattering a pale tinted glass window in the process of entering the Carousal Boutique the hard way.
“Ow…”
A clopping sound of delicate hooves that galloped at the speed a lady would, alerted Fluttershy that her friend was coming up the stairs. An elegantly coiffured mane, the deep rich shade of royal purple revealed itself, along with a pale white face, crowned with a single swirled horn. Rarity blinked her dark sapphire eyes, her long lashes framing her inquisitive and startled gaze.  
“Fluttershy, darling!” The unicorn gasped loudly. “Whatever are you doing, coming in through the window! I expected such roguish behaviour from Rainbow Dash, but you?”
The well-mannered mare shook her head gracefully in disapproval, her eyebrows rising as Fluttershy gave no answer, her only response being to stare blankly. The Pegasus shook her head quickly, dispelling the last traces of the haze that her brain had been trapped in and looked toward Rarity apologetically. She shuffled her hooves awkwardly, scrutinising the Boutique’s fascinating floorboards. 
“Sorry…”
Rarity hmphed, shaking her head. She adjusted her work spectacles, their bright frame having been tilted jauntily to one side from when the fashion designer had rushed to see the commotion that interrupted her work. “It’s alright, darling, but why did you crash? Surely you…” The unicorn trailed off as she turned back to face the wreckage that once was a proud Boutique window, one of the few to have survived the common Creature-Villain Rampages, and noticed that there were a few motes of dust where Fluttershy had been previously, the Pegasus now nowhere in sight. Rarity frowned and shrugged. Seemed like random things were common nowadays. Speaking of random, she could hear Pinkie Pie yelling in the distance, wailing mournfully that Fluttershy had turned into dust and oxygen. Rarity whirled around to exit the room and get back to the entire wardrobe’s worth of dresses that she had been planning for the past five months, hesitating to think out loud.
“I wonder what had gotten Fluttershy so excited?”
The flapping of wings outside was barely audible.
Fluttershy’s wings protested and faltered for the umpteenth time. She glided to the ground, her stalling wings clamping tightly to her sides, refusing to move anytime soon. The Pegasus shifted her wings slightly, starting to trot quickly to her destination instead. The busy market space moved into view, the streets full of bustling ponies swerving left and right in a hurry, carefully avoiding each other and they galloped by. The brightly coloured stalls and signs lay in neat rows, the sound of ponies haggling, as well as the general stagnant smell of sweaty fur and fragrant food filling the air. The equines hurried along, heads lowered, each to their own business and not pausing a moment for idling, not even batting an eye when Pinkie showed up and started handing out pink ‘R.I.P Fluttershy Dust’ flyers with a single logic-defying hoof, her midsection amazingly squeezed through a small mare-hole in the ground, the silver metallic lid clattering to the road beside it. Reality hiccupped.
Despite the other distractions, Fluttershy quickly spotted her target.
A pale green mare rearranged several palm leaf wrapped boxes, each wrapped up with a braided string of fraying threads. Neat white labels waved at Fluttershy from where they were attached, flashing various tags and words, some in strange cursive symbols, their content unknown to her. Fluttershy cocked her head, her interest piqued. The Pegasus darted nervously through the milling crowd with few mishaps, the ache in her wings fading with each passing moment, hopefully recovered enough when it was time for the mad flight home.
The earth pony noticed her, her dark grey eyes shining happily at the sight of a usual customer. She tucked errant strands of her pitch coloured mane back into its perfect oiled bun, beaming at Fluttershy. By the time the mare reached the stand, she was done re-arranging the boxes, and turned to her.
“Hello Leafy Brew!” Fluttershy greeted her cheerfully.
“Ah, Fluttershy! The usual?” The accented voice breezily addressed her.
The Pegasus blinked, a slight frown forming at the little dilemma playing in her head. As a way of answer, she tapped the strange boxes and tags with a hoof. The smell of strong leaves and herbs washed over her.
“What’s this?”
The tea-seller nodded in approval of her query. She lowered her voice dramatically, pushing the box towards its potential buyer.
“It’s from the East! Made from green tea leaves and jasmine extract.” She wrinkled her nose. “It’s called green tea, but I’m sure you figured that.”
Fluttershy grinned at the exotic tea in anticipation. “I’ll take it.”
The shop keeper clapped her front hooves happily, slipping the strange resourceful box into a brown paper bag and accepting the hoofful of bits her customer passed her.
As soon as the little package was safely tucked behind her wings, where it would not fall easily, she was a dot on the horizon to the market, making a beeline straight for her cottage.
Fluttershy pushed her cottage door open, breathless from her flight back. “I’m ba-ack, Angel!” She wheezed.
The usual cottage occupant, a white fluffy fur ball of attitude, was nowhere in sight. The Pegasus scanned the empty cottage quickly. Worry etched in Fluttershy’s face. She raised her voice slightly higher than it had been. “Angel?”
A glance at the hanging wall clock told her she was late despite her rush to and fro. A mass of animal chittering and roars was the other indicator that her visitor had arrived and was participating in one of his favourite pastimes. Antagonizing animals.
“Oh dear.”
~~~ 
General Angel tapped the bowl-helmet on his head, the chink sound attracting his little platoon’s attention. They stood in a fairly orderly row, not a toe or tail out of line, paws and an assortment of limbs lifting to brows in a furry salute.
“General Angel, sir!” They squeaked, eyes shining with what Angel could only imagine was admiration for their awesome leader.
Once the occasional titters had died down, the armoured bunny nodded, lifting a chewed carrot to point at a hastily drawn map on a piece of wasted green lettuce. He tapped to a scratched out circle, his voice yelling, menacing and high-pitched.
“Our target is here! We must-“
A loud war cry pierced the animal’s meeting, scattering startled critters. An asymmetrical chimera shrieked at them, waving a Swiss cheese blade, sharpened in the bluntest way possible.
“Attack from behind!”
General Angel scowled at the unwelcome interruption, grabbing a carrot stick and meeting the draconequus’s mad thrusts with a blow of his own.
“Hiiiiiyaaaa!”
The two creatures fenced, each parry and strike drawing more cheer from the other watching animals. The little furries and non-furries oohed and aahed at the fight, some unfortunate ones ducking or jumping out of the way when the enormous smelly sword swung near them.
Sweat dripped down the bunny’s back. The cheese rapier slashed at his ears, dangerously close, too near for the rabbit’s comfort, even as he hit it away with a twist of his vegetable piece. He squeaked again when his opponent ducked his blow and hit Angel on this furry head with the blade’s flat end.
“I need back-up! Pronto!”
A couple animals rushed to help the rabbit general, just as the backyard’s gate swung open and an angry Fluttershy stormed through, nearly every creature freezing at the sight of her furious stare, even if her heart was doing barrel rolls in her chest at the sight of the Lord of Chaos.
“Angel! Discord!” She snapped.
An innocent smile flew to the Lord of Chaos’s face, his maniacal grin twitching at the corners of his mouth, the Swiss cheese sword vanishing in a flash of white light. Angel continued whacking at the chimera’s dragon foot with his broken carrot stick, oblivious to his owner’s anger until one of the squirrels swiftly snatched it from his paws and ate it in a weak attempt to get rid of the evidence. A heavily thick awkward tension ensued, the only movement being the squirrel’s chewing. The atmosphere lightened slightly when the poor thing started choking on the stale vegetable and had to be saved by its fellows and given some water. Then the three creatures, the bunny, draconequus and mare went into the house, the previous two cowering away from the latter.
“Sit!” A yellow hoof pointed sharply to the poor but well-loved green couch, who, in its defence, had done nothing wrong, which Discord thought cheekily in his head, but did not say out loud in fear of adding to Fluttershy’s fire.
When both of them had settled down on separate corners of the sofa, Fluttershy turned to grab a tray of flowery porcelain tea cups, each filled to the brim with yellowish and strong liquid that put to mind bamboo and walls. In the split second her back was turned, Discord’s and Angel’s eyes met, their expressions mirrored. We’ll finish this later, Angel mouthed, a threatening white paw, clean even though it was invisibly stained with the blood of vegetable massacres, drawing across his windpipe, which was met with Discord’s scowl, baring sharp canines.
“Tea?” Fluttershy sweetly offered them each a cup, which they accepted graciously, the tiny thing being comical in contrast to the large lion paw that held it. The three beings sipped simultaneously. Then Fluttershy opened her mouth, getting straight to business.
The knocking sound of a hoof against wood saved the two misbehavers, who sighed in relief at the mercy of the visitor. The buttery mare must have been thinking the same thing, for she told them, “We will continue this later, don’t think you are getting out of trouble, misters.”
She opened the door, revealing a lavender alicorn, her navy bangs with pink and purple highlights windswept from walking briskly. 
When the alicorn saw Fluttershy, she sighed. Seeing the Pegasus’s raised eyebrow, Twilight explained. “I know I shouldn’t have listened to Pinkie, but she said you had transmogrified into dust.” Twilight rolled her eyes at how silly the words were coming out of her mouth. She then continued. “Also, I need to pick up a new feather brush for Owlicious.”
Looking over her friend’s shoulder and spotting Discord, Twilight stiffened reflexively, frowning.
“Why is he here?”
Fluttershy matched her frown, her eyes narrowing in warning, her expression uncharacteristically serious. “He’s my friend and he was here for tea, but I was late and found his making fun of the animals again, so I was trying to make him and Angel apologise.”
Twilight looked back at the chimera, who was most definitely not apologising, but throttling Angel, the bunny in turn chewing his claw, hanging a few feet above the ground as his captor hovered. The draconequus, noticing her, mouthed ‘not a word’ to his observer, who relented, in fear of being targeted for a week of chaotic pranks, the Master of Chaos’s usual punishment for tattletales, she knew from her own experience. 
Twilight nodded. “I’ll come back later, then.” She left quickly, glad she would not be caught in the mayhem. Sure enough, when she was meters away from the cottage, Fluttershy’s enhanced shouts predictably caught up to her, blasting her a few feet, her hooves clapping over ears immediately.
“ANGEL! DON’T PLAY WITH-…DISCORD! NO! PUT DOWN THAT CHAINSAW!”
Twilight whistled slowly, shaking her head. “Yikes, tough love.”