The Haven

by Original Usermane

I Knew That Was a Great Idea

She was extremely quiet when she came in, almost like she was avoiding him.

“The fundraiser was a huge success,” he praised, clapping for her. “Congratulations.”

She didn’t respond, tucking her face into her hair.

“What’s wrong?” Discord asked. “Everything went according to plan, right?”

“Not exactly,” Flutterguy responded with a sigh. Discord jumped.

“What happened to your voice?” he asked worriedly. “Is your throat sore? Are you sick?”

“No, no,” Flutterguy said. “Big Macintosh lost his voice and couldn’t sing the bass part, so Zecora gave me Poison Joke so I could sing for him behind stage. I would have already taken the antidote, but the Ponytones got asked to perform at a cute-cinera tomorrow, and I’d hate to disappoint the little filly.”

“Poison Joke did this?” Discord asked. “As in, a little blue flower in the Everfree forest?” Flutterguy nodded, and Discord burst out laughing. “Oh, I knew that was a great idea!”

“You… made Poison Joke!?” Flutterguy exclaimed. Discord nodded happily.

“A product of the first time I took over. The forest was protected from the Elements turning everything back to normal because the Tree of Harmony grows there, natural immunity and all that, so a few of my finer inventions survived in there,” Discord chuckled.

“Well, I suppose it worked out for the best,” Flutterguy sighed, not wanting to push the issue. Discord smirked again at her voice.

“So how long are you keeping your voice like this?” he asked merrily.

“I should be back to normal by tomorrow,” Flutterguy stated.

Five days later…

“Well so much for back by tomorrow,” Discord said amusedly. “You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?”

“Well… yes,” Flutterguy admitted timidly. “It’s nice to be able to sing without drawing attention to myself. Are you going to come this time? I’ve been working on a bit of improv that’s different from what we rehearsed, and I thought maybe you’d want to hear…”

“I’d love to come. I’ll tag along in your mane,” Discord said. So, that night, at Sugarcube Corner, a tiny Discord hid away in Flutterguy’s mane, and was there to hear that Big Mac’s voice was better and this would be Flutterguy’s last performance.

“Funny how one performance turned into nearly a week,” Discord said jovially in her ear.

He had to hold on tight once the song started, because, out of the spotlight, Flutterguy was getting into the song a bit too much and dancing around. The song was wonderful, unsurprising since Flutterguy was singing, but her enthusiasm was going to make him sick if she didn’t calm down. He poked his head out just in time to see her about to run into the curtain, but he was too late to warn her and instead ducked hurriedly out of sight again as the curtain came crashing down and revealed her.

“Fluttershy!?” her friends all exclaimed in shock. The audience burst into applause, and Discord told them off in his head. They were only going to make things worse! Sure enough, a distressed Flutterguy ran off, sobbing. As soon as he was able to without giving himself away, he left her hair and picked her up, stopping her sprint and grappling with her while she struggled and cried.

“Fluttershy, calm down, it’s alright,” Discord said soothingly. “It’s just me.” She calmed down enough to stop squirming, but silent tears were still coursing down her face while Discord flew her home.

“Everypony saw,” she moaned, hiding her face.

“It’ll be okay, Fluttershy,” he said calmly. “It’ll all blow over in no time, and you know your friends will be here to support you. Now let’s get you into that healing bubble bath, hmm?” She nodded, sniffling.

Just when he’d gotten her calmed down and sounding like herself again, her meddling friends turned up and ruined his hard work, causing her to run off again. Luckily they fixed it themselves. He found his respect for Pinkie slipping, though, as it was mostly her fault.

“Well, thank you all. I’m glad you all enjoyed it,” Fluttershy said. “Because I’m never going to sing in front of anypony ever again!” She ran off again, and Discord flew to keep up, going unnoticed by the ponies, who were also running after her.

“No!”

“Are you kidding me!?”

“Can we please stop running!” Rarity begged. Fluttershy drew to a halt near the stage. “I just don’t understand why Fluttershy.” ‘Because she has stage fright you idiot! I thought we’d established this!’ “After all, you’re the one who wanted the Ponytones to sing for every silly thing that was requested of us.” ‘Never mind, she has a fair point. Continue.’

“You mean, you knew I really wanted to perform?” Fluttershy asked shyly.

“Of course I knew!” Rarity said.

“Oh,” Fluttershy sighed.

“And, for all her babbling, Pinkie Pie was right about one thing,” Rarity continued.

“Only one!?” Pinkie exclaimed.

“When that curtain fell and everypony saw you singing, you lived your worst nightmare!” Rarity said dramatically. ‘Is that supposed to be encouraging?’ She paused and looked at Fluttershy. “Was it really that bad?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said, crying again.

“Well, what was so bad about it?” Twilight asked, always one to dissect a problem.

“The thunderous applause?” Rainbow Dash suggested.

“The praise for your fantastic singin’?” Applejack asked.

“The screaming fans!?” Pinkie asked loudly, causing Fluttershy to jump back. ‘Yes, all those things, because she has STAGE FRIGHT! Goodness, what kind of friends are they?’

Evidently, though, their comments helped her realize that she was being unnecessarily afraid, because she landed back on the stage and smiled at them, and then up at Discord.

“What do you say to making our quartet a quintet?” Rarity suggested. Fluttershy hesitated, with a slightly panicked look on her face. “Just for us and your animal friends?”

“Well… alright,” Fluttershy agreed timidly. Her friends cheered, and Discord smiled. ‘I suppose they’re alright, then.’

The next day Discord settled in with the animals to watch, in disguise of course. Luckily, after living with Fluttershy so long, the animals tolerated him, especially since he knew better than to mess with them and earn Fluttershy’s vengeance.

The moment she began singing Discord wished she’d do it more often, like he always did. She always got that happy glow about her when she did, and the sound itself was painfully beautiful, too. He clapped along loudly with all the other animals and ponies when they finished. They immediately tried to convince her to perform in front of a larger crowd, but that idea was shot down.

“Can I have the Scrapbook of Har- I mean, can I have the scrapbook to write about this in?” Fluttershy requested of Twilight. “I think this qualifies.”

“Of course,” Twilight said with a smile, giving Fluttershy the book. “We’ll leave you to it then. Goodbye Fluttershy!”

“Bye, girls!” she said happily, waving them off. She sat down to write, and Discord watched from a distance. Not a very long one, though, since he was hiding in some bushes less than fifteen feet away. He watched her nose scrunch up as she tried to think of what to write. ‘I really do have it bad, don’t I?’ he thought to himself with a sigh. Fluttershy finished writing and closed the Scrapbook of Harmony gently.

“You really do have a beautiful voice, you know,” Discord said, slipping out of the bushes and landing beside her on the stage. She blushed prettily.

“Thank you,” she said shyly. It made her very happy when Discord said things like that. Her feelings only intensified every time, reminding her what it was about the chaos spirit that she loved.

“Let’s head inside,” Discord suggested. “Dinner’s on me.” Fluttershy laughed and agreed.

Comments

[Phoenix Nebula]

Dinner’s on me.

They walk inside and Discord turns himself into a table with a three course meal on top.

[Carnation83]

ACK! I thought of Discord inventing Poison Joke flowers for my WIP Fimfics too!