Fly
Anypony who knew Fluttershy knew she was a weak flyer.
But today—this average, ordinary day---by golly, she was going to really soar, as if her life depended on it.
But it wasn’t her life she was concerned about.
While Angel Bunny was known to be a somewhat selfish and easily angered creature, he did have his virtues—good points that made him Fluttershy’s most valued animal companion in the first place. One of them was that he was always there to bring messages to Fluttershy for any living thing—no matter what it was—that needed her assistance. For that, the little furry guy always had his ears perked up and open. He was Fluttershy’s loyal messenger.
And that morning, as Fluttershy examined her honeysuckle plants while speaking with her hummingbird friends, Angel Bunny had a message for her.
The message had been carried for miles and miles of forested land, all the way across the innumerable acres of the Everfree Forest. Animals all across the land knew of Fluttershy’s kindness and caring attitude towards all living things. Gossip was not only a pony practice.
From an eagle, to a deer, to a fish, to a squirrel, then a bluebird, a turtle, a cricket, a snake, and finally a cardinal, the message was brought to Angel in a frenzy. After speaking with the cardinal (who had been named Rose after meeting Fluttershy, who fixed her broken wing a few seasons ago), Angel had rushed to his pony’s cottage, hopping as fast and furious as possible.
His legs burning and aching with overuse, Angel Bunny huffed, but didn’t waste any time when he finally got the Pegasus’ attention, interrupting her conversation with the hummingbirds.
“Angel! Oh my goodness, what’s gotten you all excited?” she asked her fuzzy baby, nuzzling him in hopes of comforting him. “What’s wrong, sweetie?”
All of his squeaks and peeps meant nothing to the average pony, but Fluttershy was special—she understood any animal’s chatter, almost as well as her own language.
Fluttershy gasped. “There’s an injured bear? In the mountains?”
He continued to tell her the story, animated in his jumping, paw flailing, and nose twitching.
“And she can’t move and leave her cave? Oh no, that’s horrible! I’ll be there right away, and I can—“
She turned to leave and pack her things, but Angel wasn’t done yet. He clicked with his teeth, uttered a few more squeaks, and looked at her with worried eyes.
“There’s a cub?!? Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Why, if the mother isn’t fit to protect her cub, then anything could—“
She didn’t dare finish her sentence. She shared a look with Angel. They knew what it meant.
She rushed into the house as fast as she could. Carefully, but as fast as she possibly could, she gathered everything she would need for her rescue trip—formula, food, bandages, antiseptic fluid, a first-aid kit, cloth, medical tape…The mother had a sprained leg and flesh wounds, and Fluttershy not only needed to wrap and bandage her, but care for the cub as well.
A few more supplies, and she was ready. There was no time for a petsitter, no time to let her friends know what was going on. She was already a slow flyer, and needed to leave effective immediately. Hastily grabbing a piece of paper and a marker, she took the writing utensil in her teeth and wrote a message on the page for anypony who may come to visit.
Had to leave for an emergency. Will be back as soon as I can, might be a week or two. If you could, please check on the animals. Thank you so much!
Fluttershy
She quickly taped it to the door, and Angel stood there waiting for a goodbye.
She kissed him on the head between his ears. “Thank you so much, sweetie,” she said, her voice warm but urgent. “Look after the house for me?”
The bunny saluted her, nodding vigorously.
“Thank you!” Her wings flapped open, and a rare determined look was set on her face. She took off. “I love you!” she yelled back at Angel.
Fluttershy’s friends always secretly thought that Angel Bunny didn’t care for Fluttershy. He was selfish, irritable, cranky, and somewhat unappreciative of what the Pegasus did for him. Angel knew that’s what they thought of him, too.
But they were wrong on one thing.
Fluttershy meant everything to him.
Fluttershy heard him squeak back to her, the words sincere and affectionate in his rabbit language.
Only she knew what he said.
Be safe! And I love you too!
She flew high above the Everfree forest, higher than she normally dared to. But she had to stay clear of this foliage; the dangers hidden in all of the vegetation could easily hurt the Pegasus, or even worse…
And if something happened to Fluttershy, the bear and her cub wouldn’t have a chance.
It took her the entire day to fly there, all across Everfree to a cave just outside the opposite side of the forest. Had it been Rainbow Dash, she would have gotten there hours earlier. But Fluttershy was not Rainbow Dash, and it took her a great deal longer to get there.
Almost there…Just a little longer…
When she finally arrived at the cave, her wing muscles screamed with overexertion. Fluttershy wanted nothing more than to collapse right where she landed and sleep until dawn.
But she had a job to do, and it was important enough to keep her awake and alert—one of the reasons she deserved the cutie mark she proudly showed upon her flank.
She found the bear cub first, a curious little thing that walked clumsily over to her at the entrance of the cave, curiosity and fear both easily seen in it’s dark, innocent eyes.
“Hello there, small one,” she said to the cub, her voice soft and sweet. “Don’t worry. Fluttershy’s here now. Everything will be alright.”
The baby bear, at the sight of Fluttershy’s motherly presence, immediately felt calm and safe. Grateful for her appearance, it stood up on two legs and placed his paws on her chest, something resembling a hug, but not quite.
“That’s a good little boy,” she cooed, putting a hoof around him. The bear sniffled, emitted a high-pitched whine, so relieved that he couldn’t help but let out some of his stress. “Shh, hush now, quiet now, sweet baby boy.” She stroked his fuzzy little back, already in love with the cub. She released her hold on him and looked at him, a smile still on her lips. “Now, where’s your mommy, sweetheart?”
She followed the cub, now back on all four of his paws, a little farther into the cave, where his mother lay in a corner on her side. Her body was covered in scratches and bodily wounds, but she obviously was not able to put any sort of weight on her back left leg.
The bear, hearing about Fluttershy from other creatures, felt immediately saved at the sight of the pony. She could see what the other animals saw in her—kindness seemed to radiate from the pony’s eyes. She felt no need to protect herself or her cub, and the panic she had felt the whole time, useless and in pain, immediately disappeared.
“Hello there, Momma Bear,” she greeted, slowly walking up to her with a gentle smile. “You know who I am, don’t you?”
The bear nodded; at least animals could communicate with at least a nod yes or a shaking no with ponies. She tried to further communicate: “Rrrrr…”
“Yes, I know, it hurts, doesn’t it? Poor girl! You fell down a hill by accident and rolled into a thorn bush, didn’t you?”
“Grrraaah.”
“Yes…It must’ve been so difficult to try to walk back here and keep an eye on your baby. It’s a good thing you weren’t far away from home! You are a wonderful momma. And now you can rest a bit, and let me take care of you. Everything’s all right now.”
In her own bearish way, she seemed to smile weakly, and laid her head down on the ground. “Hurrrrrr.”
“Yes; I’ll feed him first, and then we’ll take care of you. It won’t be long, I promise.” She turned to the cub. “Are you hungry, little fella?”
With a higher-pitched sound matching his mother’s, he eagerly replied that he was more than ready to have some milk. In a smaller compartment of Fluttershy’s pack were ice packs in which Fluttershy stored milk. Sitting on her hindquarters and holding the cub by supporting his back with one hoof, she brought a bottle to his mouth and he sucked one entire bottle empty. Luckily, Fluttershy was prepared for that, and had plenty more in her bag.
The next thing she did was give the mother some berries, enough to fill a good-sized bowl. “I know you must be hungry too; please, eat. It’s all for you.”
Gratefully, the mother dug into the berries, and Fluttershy took the moment to address to her sprained leg. After cleaning up some of the minor injuries on the superficial skin layers of the leg, she wrapped it in a roll of adhesive bandages, thick enough to add more support to the leg if she needed to use it. Luckily, Fluttershy guessed it wouldn’t be too much longer before the bear would be on her feet again, and Fluttershy could go home.
Because she wasn’t leaving until she knew they were going to be okay.
She stayed for three days. She constantly cleaned, re-bandaged, and cared for the sprained leg of the mother; Fluttershy had named her Faith, since she had trusted the pony since the very beginning. She also cared for the cub she now called Bounce, a creature that enjoyed romping around with Fluttershy after she fed him.
Fluttershy had been able to get by from some food and water she packed herself, and also from foraging outside the cave. Since the cave was outside the perimeters of Everfree Forest, she was free to roam around the area beyond the cave and forage for berries and other edible plants. Fluttershy had a vast knowledge of forest life, for she read all about it in her free time over the years, so she was able to tell the edible from the inedible.
Thanks to the Pegasus, the mother healed quickly, just as Fluttershy had guessed, and the bear was able to walk well enough to finally fend for herself and her cub on her own.
Fluttershy was free to take off.
But the day was not a forgiving one. A terrible storm raged outside the cavern. Rain pounded against the ground, but that wasn’t what concerned Fluttershy.
The problem was the wind.
It was blowing so hard it echoed inside the cave with a reverberating volume so high that it was hard for her to speak as she gave her farewells to her new friends. Despite her fear, Fluttershy put on a brave face; she couldn’t have Faith worry about her, and Bounce was a perceptive cub that could sense tension well. So, she hid her worries.
“When the storm calms, please, make your way over to the cottage. I know you bears don’t need to worry about the creatures in the Everfree forest like ponies do, so if you just go north here, it should take you about three days to get here. I want to be able to keep an eye on you two, and I have another bear friend that would love to have some company.”
Faith growled a friendly agreement to do just that, and Fluttershy hugged the two of them.
And then, gulping while they weren’t looking, she warily flew into the blurry skies.
Five minutes. As the wind blew south, against her path of flight, Fluttershy
lasted only five minutes before the wind overwhelmed her and sent her into the ground.
She crashed, hit, and bumped against tree and branch, back and forth like the metal ball of a pinball game, screaming the entire time. She landed to the ground with a thud, and she groaned in pain, gasping and shuddering in the wind.
Right in the Everfree forest.
I have to keep going… she thought, trying to get up on her legs. I can surely do at least that? I’m not that…
The wind whistled as it whipped against her body, trying to resume her desperate flight back home. Her wings ached and burned with overuse, tired from the strain against the wind, and the rest of her body suffered with it, and she tumbled back to the ground before she could rise even six feet off the ground.
“N-No…” she whimpered, her eyes shut tight in efforts to keep tears from flowing.
“Why?!?”
Why am I so weak? If I were Rainbow Dash, or any other pegasus, this wouldn’t be happening. Twilight would do better than me, and she hasn’t even had her wings for a year!
An old familiar feeling of self-pity and hatred welled up in her stomach. She was good with animals, sure, but what good was she as a Pegasus? Why was she born with such useless wings? She didn’t deserve them; anypony else would do better with such a gift.
All I do is flit around and talk to my bird friends and sing like some silly schoolpony.
Once again, she steeled herself to get up, and though she felt she would buckle over from pain and exhaustion—the wind was just that strong enough to exhaust her—she decided to hoof it. She was so tired and miserable that she didn’t even have as much room in her heart for other feelings such as fear.
Though in the back of her mind, she knew that the condition she was in made her the perfect prey.
To Fluttershy, she was a daughter of the sky who had failed her lineage. No matter how hard she tried, she would always be weak. Old memories of her as a filly, being bullied for being unable to fly well during her foalhood, haunted her mind.
Though many of those memories included Rainbow Dash protecting her from such bullies, many of them ended with a small Fluttershy hiding somewhere far away from everypony else, crying to herself. Her parents weren’t around anymore to comfort her, and she had been alone, sad, useless, and weak.
Just as she was now.
A sudden, wooden crack in the bushes brought fear back to Fluttershy’s attention, and she attempted once more to fly despite her self-loathing towards herself due to her weaknesses.
Her wings flapped out, desperate for the relative safety of the sky—surely if she was scared and determined enough, she could overcome this weakness, just this one time?
Just once, just once, I just need to be able to fly well just one time!
A large stick that had been picked up the wind hit her side by her wing, and she was startled. She went down, down, down, once more under the dark canopy of the forest…
Her wings were frozen, unable to fold themselves in. The force of Fluttershy’s fall was too great; the gravity working against her seemed to double in power two-fold…
“Ahhhhh!"
She landed on her right side. Her wing had still been unable to fold in from the shock, and it had been crushed on impact. Her wing was broken.
A homemade hairclip tumbled to the ground beside her.
And Fluttershy, unconscious, was stuck in a world of darkness all on her own, darker than the cave from whence she came.
She was done for.
“Ohhhhh, windy day, windy day, carry me away away! Wind, wind, I love the breeze, with more power than a draconequus sneeze! Windy day, windy day, the best kind of weather I say! Wind, wind, in the sky, take me up high, high, high!”
Discord seemed to be having a grand time letting the wind carry and drop him to and fro, as he sang his own original and badly written little ditty. He had decided to spend the day to himself outside of Ponyville, for the storm was so full of craziness that he didn’t even need to create any chaos himself for enjoyment. The only thing he needed his power for was protection, since the wind was alarmingly fast and could easily smack him around were he not capable of controlling his own direction. Luckily, his powers allowed the draconequus to move any way he wanted, allowing the wind to toss and turn him when he wanted, but able to go against it should he need to.
It was as if the wind were his own roller coaster ride, and it was free of charge.
“Ah,” he breathed in happily, allowing a sweep of wind to cushion and carry him northwards, and he moved his body horizontally as if he were lounging on a couch, his arms crossed behind him to support his head. “Now, this…This is the life. Those ponies must always control the weather, and never let Miss Mother Nature take care of her world by herself. Well, she needn’t worry; I appreciate her. Hoo hoo!” He slid down another breeze as if it were a slide, and another gust caught him.
“If only my friends would give such weather a chance. They would love it! Well, perhaps not all of them, but certainly Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie would, and perhaps even Applejack would enjoy romping around in it. Rarity would just worry about her hair getting messy, and Spike would be clutching onto his dear mommy Twilight while she tumbled to and fro worriedly, along with dear Fluttershy…”
Fluttershy…
Despite her lack of appreciation for the chaos of the natural world, Discord’s heart thumped at the thought of the pale yellow, pink-maned Pegasus.
He laughed at the thought of her out here with him. Surely she would be scared out of her wits, trying to get Discord to be sensible so they could head back home, to where things were safely monitored by weather Pegasi.
“She’d be all, “Oh no, Discord, th-this is far t-too dangerous! A-Aren’t you terrified?!? Ahh, help meeeee!’” he mocked her, his magic transforming his voice to the high-pitched silken voice of Fluttershy. He pretended to plummet towards the ground, as if he were to fall to his death, screaming in his imitation voice of his pony friend.
“But then I’d heroically capture her before I let the world take her away from me and our friends, and she’d look absolutely astounded, her eyes filled with adoration!! Adoration—for moi!”
He stood now on a cloud, keeping flurries from breaking the cloud apart. “But of course, I would be oh-so-humble, and take her back home so she needn’t fear anymore, because that’s the kind of guy I am. And she would make me something delicious to eat, and I would make us some cocoa, and then we’d stay up all night and talk, and she would most definitely…most definitely…”
His face almost unbelievably switched to one of delighted mirth to a hopeless kind of sadness. “She would most definitely not…fall for me.”
He let his magic go, and the cloud was quickly brought apart by the winds. Discord started to free-fall.
“I must be practical,” he started talking to himself, his voice very matter-of-fact as an effort to ignore the emotional ball of disappointment he felt weighing against his newly-formed heart. “Though practicality is not really my style, I cannot let such a thing as love allow me to forget who I am and what I represent. Though I am the Lord of Chaos…”
He did a perfect 360 degree flip and landed to the ground lightly on his feet, using his magic as a shield against the wind.
“I am not so great as to pursue those I see as even greater. And Fluttershy, as I see it—“
“Ahhhhhh!”
Discord’s ears popped up, upright and stiff, searching for sound. “Ah, what was that, I wonder? It sounded like…No, no!” He waved the idea off. No way would she be here, he already had established that! It was too scary for her.
“Just an echo, Discord. Just an echo.” After all, he had just imitated her voice not only a few minutes ago.
But did echoes even last that long? And why didn’t he hear it before?
“I really must be going crazy. I mean, I was always crazy, but now I’m legitimately out of my mind. I wonder if I’ll find that fun or not…”
Another scream. “Ahhhh!”
His ears went erect again. He didn’t dare say another sound.
The scream continued, and though the wind picked up in gusto, and in turn grew louder as it shook the foliage and tumbled rocks about, Discord couldn’t mistake the owner of the sound. The scream tore his heart in fear.
“Ahhhhhhhh!”
She was here?
Of all places?
Why in the world was she here?
”Fluttershy!”
He flew to the sky so fast that a cloud of dirt was left in his wake, soon evaporated by the violent winds of Mother Nature.
She wasn’t far away, and her bright coloring made her easy to spot. She wasn’t even half a mile away before he saw a tiny yellow dot against the ground, the wing on her visible side at an awkward angle away from her body.
He positioned himself like an arrow, darting towards her, and landed with a thud.
Fluttershy did not go unconscious for long. The sound and force of Discord’s landing was enough to wake her up, and she moaned.
Her body ached, but her side with the broken wing stung and burned with pain. She yelped in agony.
“Fluttershy, Fluttershy! My dear Fluttershy!” He sat on his back legs and lowered himself a bit to make himself more level to her. “Sweetness, what’s wrong?” His voice lowered to a pitch with a softness only Fluttershy got to hear.
She looked at him, and her large teal eyes widened in surprise, her hair and tail whipping with the wind. “Dis---?” She moved slightly at the sight of him, excited, but that irritated her more and she gripped her teeth. “Annnnngh!”
“Hold on, wait,” he said to her, laying a paw on her to keep her still. “Your wing, it’s broken, isn’t it?” He had to make sure, so he could use his magic properly. When Fluttershy could only nod, a snap quickly followed.
Before Fluttershy knew it, she experienced no more pain. Her wing wasn’t broken anymore; it had healed, and her minor wounds also disappeared, as if they were never there.
But before she could try to see if she was well enough to walk, she felt herself slowly rise from the ground. At first she thought maybe the wind was even stronger than she thought, and was about to bring her back up into the sky with its own grip on her, just so it could scrape her up and break her more. Then she found herself against a soft, brown, furry chest, and a claw came up to keep some of her flowing mane out of her eyes. Another snap, and her missing hairclip was suddenly in the draconequus’ paw, and he clipped her prized hair accessory back into her hair where it belonged.
“Discord.”
He looked back down at her. “I don’t know what happened, nor do I know why you are out here, outside of Ponyville. But I don’t care if you have the most urgent, most important business in the world out here. I don’t care if you have an animal in need. I don’t care if you have a MILLION animals out here in need!”
His voice had risen with each word he spoke, and while Fluttershy looked at him with a surprised look from the sudden anger, she felt no fear. No; she was safe now.
“I’m taking you home, right now! Where you’ll be safe!”
Snap!
A flash of light, and Fluttershy found herself still in Discord’s arms, but in another place entirely. A familiar place, warm and safe, surrounded by various food bowls, cages, and furniture.
“I’m…home…” She couldn’t believe it. Was she not in peril just minutes ago, with a broken wing, unable to fly or do anything?
“I’m home!”
She jumped out of Discord’s arms in joy, her wings unfolding as she flew around in her cottage, twirling and swooping around, while miraculously not running into anything.
But Fluttershy knew her home better than anywhere else, and there was no wind here to bring her down.
“I’m home I’m home I’m home I’m home I’m home!”
While Discord had originally planned on talking with her (sternly) about what exactly had happened, he couldn’t help but grin at her. It was rare to see her so energetic, even if it was just the energetic residue left from her earlier terrors.
”I’m home!”
Discord wasn’t paying enough attention to himself, and Fluttershy bolted straight to him with a speed great enough to impress even Rainbow Dash. She put all four hooves against Discord’s chest, and he found himself suddenly against his back, Fluttershy on top of him—the victim of a tackle. “Umph!”
“I’m home, Discord!”
Before he could react, Fluttershy put her nose against his. It wasn’t an eskimo kiss; she just touched hers to his gently, gratefully. A nudge.
“Thanks to you.”
Discord’s face turned red. “Ah, ah, well, ah…” Quickly he grasped her by the torso and set her back on the ground, quickly sitting up. “I couldn’t just let you suffer out there on your own now, could I?’
Shaking himself out of his funk, he gave her a serious look and resumed what he had planned on doing. “And speaking of which, what were you doing out there? Do you even realize what kind of danger you were putting yourself in, outside of Ponyville, alone? And in a storm? I mean, had you asked me to come along, you would have been fine, and nothing would have happened. I would have been able to protect you. But you didn’t! And the wind was too much for you, wasn’t it?”
It looked as if a stallion were admonishing his foal, Fluttershy suddenly full of shame and sadness as she looked to the wooden floor.
“Fluttershy, you and I both know—Goodness, all of Ponyville and maybe even Equestria knows—that you are a weak flyer! So tell me, what in your mind told you that you could even fly out there without harming yourself? Hmmm? I mean, do you know just how terrified I was when I heard you screaming? Why, if luck hadn’t been on our side…Well, I could have lost you! So, please, Fluttershy, do enlighten me on why you had such a ludicrous idea? I’m the one who gets those, not you! And that’s because I have the magic to be safe! You put yourself in danger! And I simply cannot tolerate—“
He had gotten so wrapped up in his lecturing of her that he didn’t register her sniffling until it was too late, and fat tears suddenly plopped against the floor, while some continued to race each other falling down her face.
“Fluttershy?”
“I know.” Her voice didn’t tremble. Her crying was abnormally quiet. She was sniffling, but that was all there was to it. She cried without a high whine from her throat, as she usually cried when she was upset. “I know I’m a weak flyer. I’ve always known that. After all, if I had been Rainbow Dash, would you have been so worried?”
He blinked at the question. “Well, I would have worried, yes. You ponies, no matter who it is, are not used to such weather.”
“But would you have been as worried? She’s a strong flyer; you know she would probably make it home okay. She probably wouldn’t have gotten her wing broken. She wouldn’t need help. So you wouldn’t be as worried. Don’t you agree?”
She had a point. “Yes, of course. But I’m afraid I don’t see where you’re getting at,” Discord answered. “We’re talking about you, Fluttershy, not Rainbow Dash. She was, as we all know, built for speed. You were not.”
She still refused to meet his gaze as she hoofed at a stray piece of loose string on the floor—probably from one of Fluttershy’s throw pillows. “No, I wasn’t. I wasn’t built for speed. I wasn’t built…”
Her tears suddenly increased two-fold. “I wasn’t built for anything!”
She suddenly started sobbing hysterically. “I don’t deserve to have these wings! I don’t deserve to be a Pegasus!” She was wailing, louder than Discord had ever heard his friend say anything. Her snout started running, her whole body shook with the pain of sadness and feeling meaningless. “I’m just so useless!”
“What? Useless? You?!? Why, Fluttershy, you are going absolutely bonkers! Calm down, my dear, p-please…” He hesitantly put his arms out to comfort her, but somehow was unable to go ahead and embrace her. He wasn’t exactly good in these kinds of situations.
He wished he were. He hated seeing Fluttershy like this. The last time she had cried from sadness was when he had broken her heart when he betrayed Equestria by helping Tirek. The familiar pang of hurt, with a tight throat and a heavy heart, returned to Discord, though this time he wasn’t sure what the cause of her pain was.
I didn’t do something…did I?
But he didn’t have to reach out for her. Instead, she came to him. She crashed against his stomach and clutched at him as if he were her life support and couldn’t live without him. Discord, whose tail had been lying on the ground to the side of him, suddenly felt her tuck her tail under his.
“W-w-why,” she said, still crying as hard as she could, stuttering and gasping for air. “Why, Disc-c-cord? Why was I b-born a Pegasus when I c-can’t ev-ev-even fly?!?”
Without hesitation, Discord finally got to his senses and embraced her, his arms around her torso and his tail twisting around hers. He said, with his voice much warmer and without anger, said,“Now, now, Fluttershy, what kind of a question is that? You were born a Pegasus because your parents were Pegasi. What you can and cannot do has nothing to do with that.”
He pulled back enough for her to look at him, and he couldn’t help but mess with her a little and grinned teasingly. “Need I explain the birds and the bees to you? Because I must say, that is not a conversation I planned on having with you today. But if I must, I will.”
His magic magically brought birds and bees into Fluttershy’s cottage, and the bees buzzed around her head, gently touching their bodies against her face—little bumblebee kisses. Birds landed on her mane, but were careful not to mess it up or loosen her hair clip.
Despite the embarrassing subject Discord brought up, especially considering the feelings that brewed between them, Fluttershy giggled despite her mood, and her tears let up a bit. “Oh, y-you cute little bees, you’re t-tickling me, hee hee…”
“Well?” Discord pushed, extending a talon to let a bluebird land on his claw. “Need I explain how all the little fillies and colts are brought about, Fluttershy, or can you spare me the strangeness of having such a conversation with you?”
She blushed, and wiped her teary eyes. The bees moved themselves away from her face, and she shook her head. “N-No, please, I know all about, um…” she glanced at her flying insect and avian friends. “The birds and the bees.”
Both Discord and the flying creatures satisfied, Discord magicked them back outside, silently thanking them for cheering her up. “In that case, there is no reason for you to be upset. What’s so bad about being a Pegasus? It’s not that you cannot fly at all; you just don’t fly all that well. But you fly well enough to fulfill your purpose of helping your little animals. Is that what you were doing out there in the forest, Fluttershy? Helping some of your creature friends? Because I honestly cannot see any other reason you would venture outside of Ponyville alone unless there was a crisis.”
She nodded, and told him of Angel Bunny’s message and the dire incident regarding the bear and her cub. “I had to help them. If I hadn’t…Oh, I don’t even want to think about it.”
“And you were there for a few days, so it wasn’t that you left during the storm; you had to come back?” Discord reasoned.
“Yes. Faith got—“
Discord wrinkled his brows. “Faith?”
“The mother bear. I named her Faith.”
“That’s a little adorable.”
Fluttershy allowed herself to smile a little. “Isn’t it? She was so cute. Her cub was even cuter, and I named him Bounce.”
That wasn’t exactly what Discord meant, but he let it slide, and let Fluttershy continue.
“Faith got better, and there was no more reason for me to stay. I was running out of food and water, and I had to get home anyway to care for the other animals and see my friends, like you and the others. But—“
“—But that was today, when the storm started,” Discord finished for her. “But you felt the urgency to get home and went gallivanting into the storm anyway? And it was too much for you, and you got hurt, and then nearly gave me cardiac arrest?”
He pulled her closer to him, tighter. They had never broken the embrace, simply loosened it. Now, he wanted her closer to him again, closer to the heart she almost stopped, but made more alive as she cuddled against him.
He wondered if she could feel how fast it was beating.
In return, she hugged him tighter as well, and brought her head against him, under his chin.
“Yes. Because I’m a horrible Pegasus.”
“You are not a horrible Pegasus.”
“Then why can’t I fly as well as most Pegasi? Why was I bullied so much as a filly because I couldn’t do as well as the rest? What’s the point of it if I can’t even use my wings correctly? Oh, Discord, sometimes I just feel so…so…”
He felt her slump against him.
“Worthless.”
His eyes widened. Her? Worthless? His Fluttershy?
No.
“That is positively the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of,” he responded. “You are not worthless Fluttershy. Perhaps crazy, after what you’ve just told me a second ago, but you are not worthless. You are the most valuable of us all. Do you not remember me telling you, after you told Twilight you and the others weren’t worth risking Equestria for, that you were worth it all? All the magic, all the power, all the world? Why, I would give it up in a second, just to protect you and make you happy.”
He admitted this without shame or embarrassment, and Fluttershy’s mouth dropped open. “You…would? For…For me?”
“As Pinkie Pie taught me…” He released her for a moment, and put a paw to his heart. “Cross my heart…” He then flapped his miniscule wings. “And hope to fly…” A cupcake with icing the color of Fluttershy’s coat materialized into thin air and smashed into Discord’s smaller eye. “Stick a cupcake in my eye.”
“Pinkie Pie Promise…” she muttered. If she hadn’t cried already, she felt she would have, right then and there. She was touched, thrilled by this confession of his.
“I…would do the same for you too,” she said, blushing. “Cross my heart…” She crossed hers with a hoof. “And hope to fly…” she flapped her wings. She grabbed the remains of Discord’s cupcake on the floor and squashed it against her left eye. “Stick a cupcake in my eye.”
He smiled at her tenderly. “Well then, what do you have to worry about? You have the Discord stamp of approval…”
A stamp of Discord, popping out of a black circle with a silly look on his face and his arms in the air, appeared on Fluttershy’s forehead.
“So how could you possibly feel worthless?”
Sitting on her haunches, her tail still around Discord, she sighed. “I guess…it’s just hard, having something you can’t use as well as you should…Something that’s a part of you, something you can’t change. I’m a Pegasus; Pegasi are supposed to fly. Only a few Pegasi have troubles flying. Scootaloo still hasn’t learned, but late bloomers are common. I’m certain she’ll fly eventually, and well. Her wings beat as fast as a hummingbird’s. She just needs to grow a little more and she’ll be a fine flyer. But me…As a filly, I couldn’t beat my wings as fast as Scootaloo can at her age. I couldn't do any of it. I can only fly fast enough in times of emergency, like the time I had to save the Breezies from tumbling to the ground and I had to catch them. Adrenaline can make anypony do that for a few seconds. But with my own strength…Well…” She unfolded her wings. “They’re only good enough for showing baby birds how to fly.”
“Well, I’d say teaching baby birds to fly are pretty important, especially the orphan ones you look after. That makes your wings pretty useful,” Discord offered, firmly believing his speculation.
“But it’s not enough. Sometimes I just sit in my bed at night, and think that I wasn’t meant to be a Pegasus…That somepony else deserves my wings more than I do. I’m the only Pegasus who lives on land. I should have been an earth pony. Goodness, I’d probably even make a better unicorn than a Pegasus!”
She started to slump again. “These wings are the reason I don’t like myself very much, sometimes.”
“Well, I love your wings,” Discord said almost immediately after that. “They make you who you are, my dear. And let me tell you something missy, if Mother Nature didn’t want you to be a Pegasus, then she wouldn’t have made you one.”
“Mother…Nature?” Fluttershy looked at him quizzically. “Who is that? Does she live in Ponyville? Why does she want me to be a Pegasus?”
Discord sighed. “I must say, I really must be old, to still remember the concept of Mother Nature. It’s an idea all creatures had before the Pegasi developed and fine-tuned their methods for controlling the weather, a long time ago, far before you were ever born.”
“Wait…” Fluttershy adorably brought a hoof to her chin. “So Mother Nature isn’t a pony?”
“No, no, no, my dear.” He took her back in his arms again. It was storytelling time. She complied, more relaxed than before, and leaned into him.
“Mother Nature is just a name for the idea that nature is mysterious and has its own ways of doing things. Nature does what it wants, and it is the only true order of the world. Nature is all that happens everywhere without being controlled. Nopony can truly ever take hold of Mother Nature and tell her what to do.”
“I’m…not sure I understand.”
“It’s complicated, but also very simple,” he continued, and began stroking her mane. The pony sighed, allowing herself to smile a little. For being the entity of chaos, Discord always comforted her.
“Think of Mother Nature as a kindly old mare who takes care of all the living things in the world—ponies, plants, bunnies, dragons, timberwolves…Everything with a life, including me. She brings water to all life with rain, warms them with the sun, cools them with the wind, and gives them the means to continue life on the world forever—as in offspring. She is able to overlook all of it, almost like a god. Does that make more sense, Fluttershy?”
“Yes, I think it does! So she’s like a princess. She’s like Celestia and Luna, only…She looks over everypony and every animal and every plant and everything, even Celestia, Luna, Twilight…and you? And she has powers greater than anypony, or draconequus? And she’s the reason there are foals, and babies, and plants…all of it?”
“Ah, yes, now you’ve got it!” In his glee, he picked her up, releasing her tail with his own, and twirled her around, and she laughed. They landed on the floor, with Fluttershy on his lap. “That’s exactly it, Fluttershy. And the most beautiful thing about Mother Nature…Can you guess what it is?”
Putting a hoof to her chin again, with Discord silently praising her for how cute she was, she thought about it. “I don’t know. Is she perfect?"
“Oh, she is, Fluttershy. She most certainly is, but that's not what I meant. She knows everything about how the world works, and she knows of what has come and what is to be. And she makes no mistakes. And if she makes no mistakes, but controls all that is brought into this world, then what does that make you, Fluttershy? You were born a Pegasus, and Mother Nature knows what she is doing. You have a purpose, my dear. You are a Pegasus because nature made you that way, and nature is incapable of making a mistake. We call it Mother Nature, but there is nothing sentient about nature, in all honesty. Only sentient things can make mistakes.”
Holding her by the shoulders, Discord looked at her seriously.
“You are not a mistake, Fluttershy. You are not a ‘bad pegasus’, by any means. Anypony that has told you that has a serious misunderstanding of how this world works, and if anypony tells you differently, I will be more than happy than to add some destructive chaos into his or her life. Because no one makes my Fluttershy feel worthless when she is the exact opposite. She is, in fact, the best of us all.”
Fluttershy’s face flushed red, and she smiled so sweetly that it took all Discord’s strength not to risk to take the relationship further by kissing her, even though she was too embarrassed to look at him. “I’m not truly the best, Discord…Nopony is.”
“Oh, I dare to challenge anypony who says that, even you. But what I must know, Fluttershy, is this: do you believe my words? Do you really and truly believe that you are a mistake? Or do you now believe me when I say that you are fabulous?”
Fluttershy giggled. “You sound like Rarity!”
“Well, she has a persona that spreads like a disease. A fashionable disease, but it’s an illness all the same,” he said, chuckling himself.
“Well, I think you’re right, Discord. I really can’t control that I was born a Pegasus…” She glanced back at her wings, but no contempt for them was reflected in her eyes. “But if I was meant to be one—and I must have been, because I am a Pegasus…Well, then I’ll just be the best Pegasus I can be.”
“And you are the best Pegasus, Fluttershy. Don’t tell Rainbow Dash, we can’t hurt her feelings—but you are.”
Her hooves cupped his face suddenly, and he just stared at her.
“And you,” she returned, nuzzling him. “Are the best draconequus.”
“Uh, well, that really doesn’t mean much,” he pointed out. “I’m the only draconequus.”
“That’s because Mother Nature only needed one, because no other one could compare.”
Though she blushed knowing what she was about to do, she kissed his cheek with tenderness and certain boldness. And this time, it was Discord’s turn for his mouth to drop.
It was only a second, a moment too short for his liking. She pulled her lips away from his face, and she crossed her left foreleg over her right and rubbed it, shy again with all boldness gone. “Was…that okay?”
He didn’t make her shyness better right away, as he stared at her in disbelief for a while longer, making the moment more awkward and embarrassing rather than warm and loving. But then he broke into a grin, and suddenly he slipped under Fluttershy, and she found herself against his back.
“D-Discord!” she yelped, her hooves wrapped around his neck to stay on top of him. “Wh-what are you doing? What’s gotten into you?”
A flash, and Discord magicked them outside. The sun shined above them, and the sky was clear with swirls of cloud on a blanket of baby blue.
“Nothing’s wrong, Fluttershy!” he said, and suddenly he shot himself into the sky. “Hold on!”
“What? Wait, Discord, I can—“
“No, I want you to ride on my back,” he said as the wind blew against them. “We’re going to leave the Ponyville borders, and I’m going to show you more of Mother Nature’s work without the work of Pegasi interfering with her weather. Nature still has a hold on Ponyville, making things grow and change, but she has the strongest hold on the earth without the magic and Pegasi work of the pony world. I want to show it to you, and you’ll be safest on my back.”
“Oh, well…Okay…” She smiled. “I trust you.” Still hugging him to hold on, she laid her head against his neck. “I’ll be safe out there if you’re with me.”
He turned his neck and head to look back at her. “Yes, you will.”
“But why did you suddenly want to? What’s the rush?” she asked.
“Oh, there’s no rush, Fluttershy, no rush at all. It’s just that…” He looked back towards the sky ahead, so she wouldn’t see the red on his face.
“It’s just what?” she pushed him.
“It’s just that, well, Fluttershy…”
“Yes?” She rubbed her head against his neck.
“You make me want to fly.”
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Awwww! I love this!
I liked this chapter a lot, especially the little look into how Fluttershy can care for distant animals, but there were some <i>italics</i> format errors here and there.
4508302 Oh, trust me, I know. I've been spending the last ten minutes fixing those stupid italics. This site's formatting and everything always screws me up.
But I'm fixing it as we speak. Thank you for your comments! And I'm glad you liked my look into Fluttershy's caring for animals. I felt it was necessary, and wanted to try it out. Thanks for appreciating it! 
4508294
Thank youuuuuu! I love readers like you too!
Darn it! Kiss already!!!!! You and your teasing with friendly kisses. I love this anyway ^_^ sooooo cute!
I LOVE IT YOU MUST COUNTE YOU
I can't what for the next chapter, I hope to see a relationship blooms in the next few chapter. Keep up the good work
4508790 You are one of my favorites on this website, but please forgive me for the following:
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
*Ahem* Mayhaps I'll throw something in something to sate your hunger for a real kiss, as I experience the same things with other ships of mine. Maybe not the next one, as I'm currently obsessed with the idea of tail-holding between them, but the next? I anticipate the next one not being nearly as long, so I could try to get it done. All joking aside though, thank you for the continued support and super kind words!!! You keep me going, DemonWriter, along with the other fans, so thank you!!!
MORE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4509214 More there shall be, I just need a bit of time. Thank you for the enthusiasm!!!
I'm guessing that the next chapter theyre gonna confess their
For each other just a guess
out of 
4509741 First off, thank you! And you'll just have to see, hehehe! If you didn't see, I put a little preview description for the next chapter on the story info page...thing. lol!
Also, I love your rating system. But is that a 3 out of 5 or a 5 out of 5? The way it's writtten, I'm not sure. Either way, thank you!! 
YES! YES! YES!
4511944 Um, yes what?
lol! 
This is too precious, I absolutely adore these kinds of stories. You have such an amazing talent, please keep it up
4513653 Excuse me while I put a thousand blushing Twilight's on here from the flattery you give me from such an nice compliment.
Thank you!!!! <3
Hmmm, nature doesn't make mistakes? That's how evolution works, by trial and error. But I get what the point was. And the chapter was pretty good.
Sadly, I think it was best before the talk about Mother Nature and Shy being so angsty about her wings is a but much in my opinion. Still, other than that, this is a great chapter: Shy and Dissy are great and adorable, particular the Pinkie Promise is incredibly cute, and a lot of the dialogue and interactions in general are great.
Three specific nitpicks:
"do enlighten me on why you had such a cacophony idea" "Cacophony" means racket, noise, not stupid or senseless.
"Despite the embarrassing subject Discord brought up (especially considering the feelings that brewed between them), Fluttershy giggled despite her mood," Please avoid parenthesis' unless they are a big part of the style, particularly here, where you could just have used commas instead and had the exact same structure.
" You are the most priceless of us all combined. " Seems you combined two expressions. It should either be "most priceless of us all" or "more priceless than all of us combined." And you should use something other than "priceless", as that is a adjective that can't be "more" or "less", by definition. Valuable can be used with "more", "most" and "less" and "least", but "priceless" can't.
Still, good chapter, all in all. Got a little shaky at times, but fun to read.
Now write the next chapter.
Happy writing.
4519716
You are right, when it comes to evolution. I'm a psychology major in a bachelor of sciences, so I learned all about those in biology. But considering how illogical the world of MLP is, I didn't really think of the science that's applied to this world when writing about the world of magical, flying, and hardworking ponies. But I see your point; you're quite the thinker, much like I am. I'm just going to leave it as it is--I think as long as readers get the point, then it's fine. I do disagree on the whole nature thing being too much...Perhaps I preached it a a lot, but I enjoyed writing it, and I plan to refer back to it later in the next chapter. But I respect your opinion, as I must do if I ever write a novel and need to face an editor. (Dun dun dun!)
Ah, true on the vocabulary bit. And Fluttershy doesn't make much of a racket, for the most part. I think I will go back and change that part. I hate using a word wrong, and now I can't stand keeping it that way. Thanks very much!
Parentheses and commas...Grammar is such a fickle lady, is it not?
I'm also aware that my writing gets shaky. I think that's part of the reason why fanfiction is so attractive to me: I get feedback that helps my self-confidence as a writer and encourages me to write more, and I get practice. But I know I get tripped up in the words, and have difficulty at times explaining what I'm trying to get across. Maybe one day I'll get closer to mastering the craft, though mastering writing is impossible, as perfecting anything is impossible.
But thank you for sticking with me despite my setbacks; it means a lot!
Fixed the mistakes you pointed out! I think. XD Oh my gosh, I just saw a 'discord' without a capitalized D! Ah!
4521519
Yeah, I realized some time after posting that talking about evolution and MLP in the same breath just might be very silly. And I don't mind the Nature talk much, it's just a bit much and somehow slightly off in tone from the rest.
And, really, it's no problem sticking with you. You portray the characters very well and keep a fairly high standard, which is more than can be said for a lot of fanfic. As such, I simply must support those that are worth reading.
Particularly when they are so polite and accepting of feedback.
Happy writing.
4522461
And I wouldn't call your original thought silly--you're just doing critical thinking, and I could see myself doing the same thing. I mean, everyone does it--like when you watch a movie, and you say to yourself "why did they do that when they could have done this?" or "that's not right, it isn't possible". But I'm glad you don't see it as a big deal...I hope my writing has shown some considerations towards the critiques I've been getting--especially breaking up dialogue and such. And your support is so valuable to me as well, you think so much about my little fanfiction on this corner of the internet. I try to keep my stories up to a high standard, since my writing is one of the few things I'm told I am good at. I'm also an avid reader so I like to make my stories as enjoyable as others' have brought me joy. And I could never be impolite and not accept your feedback--first of all, you're very kind with it, and it's definitely constructive, rather than just bashing it like so many other people do. And when it's constructive, then nothing is deserved more than a 'thank you'! And second, if my story is worth reading, then your reviews and feedback are definitely worth receiving, and I have always kept your comments in my mind for future reference! And if you write any Fluttercord fics or whatever, you let me know, okay? 
Oh, thanks, Frazzled Pony!
4523250
Gulp. Me, writing romance, based on this show? I can hardly do dialogue, much less something as snappy as Discord's needs to be. But yeah, if I do that, you'll know.
that is the most beautiful thing i have ever read.
BRAVO
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I think Fluttershy has trouble flying because her heart is so big, it weighs her down
I just exploded FROM CUTENESS
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
! This is just gushing adorableness
I love this STORY!!!
5607725 So true...
And she also has a fear of heights, as we learned back in Dragonshy.
Oh, so cute!!!!! Best one yet!!!!!!! However, I didn't think the whole "Mother Nature" thing fit the tone, and it did drag on a little. The way they spoke in that section did kind of remind me of God, though. Not all of it, but most. Hm... Huh. Funny how that works. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that this was, as Discord said, "fabulous"!!!!!!!!!
It's in my headcanon that Discord is in tune to the weather.
I think you made his heart soar...
HAHA I love this!!
11008484
It really is. This was my first fic when I first got into shipping yet and it's very saccharine. My depiction of Discord wasn't very good yet. Go figure.