Chapter 12
“And you may be sure that your sin will find you out.”—Numbers 32:23
For several seconds the pegasus and draconequus just stood there, staring in disbelief at the room that had been stripped of all their investigation results.
Then Fluttershy felt a cool breeze rustle through her tail and jerked her head around to look behind her. Whether Discord felt the same breeze, or her movement snapped him back to reality, Fluttershy wasn’t sure, but he suddenly leaned back and phased his neck, shoulders, and upper body through her as if they were made of air. She pawed at the air as the neck her forelegs had been wrapped around was suddenly behind her instead.
Before she could fall to the floor, Discord wrapped his lion arm around her, tucking her against his chest, before snapping his talons.
“There,” he said, before swatting the door shut with his tail. “Now nopony can get in or out of here except us.”
“And ... you’re sure there aren’t any other ponies in here?” she asked, leaning forward to look up at him. “What if they’re using some sort of invisibility spell?”
He turned her about and set her down facing him before conjuring a pair of glasses into his claw and holding them out to her. “See for yourself.”
He disappeared in a flash of light as she took the glasses. After glancing quickly around the cabin, she slipped the glasses on and promptly jerked back in surprise when she saw him standing just a few feet from her. She lifted the glasses and no longer saw him. She lowered them and he was there again.
“Those glasses will reveal anything currently invisible in this cabin. Do you see any ponies?”
She looked around the cabin’s main room and peered into the other rooms as well, but saw no sign of any other ponies. As she moved back into the main room, Discord reached down and removed her glasses. Fluttershy watched the glasses float across the room to settle on the fireplace mantel.
A second later Discord reappeared beside the fireplace. He swept the room with his own gaze before conjuring a candy cane into his paw. Biting the curved end off, he spat it out and it hit the floor with a small explosion. Repositioning the remaining part of the candy cane so that it was clamped between the first two fingers of his paw, he stuck one end of it in his mouth and sucked it briefly before taking it back out and exhaling a stream of pink vapor that congealed into a floating cloud of cotton candy.
“Discord...?” Fluttershy started to ask as the cloud drifted toward the ceiling, but he silenced her with a raised talon.
“I’m thinking,” he said, moving away from the fireplace. He began to pace the room, sucking on the candy cane and blowing more clouds of cotton candy out through his pierced nose. When he’d covered a good portion of the ceiling in the clouds, Fluttershy pulled off her winter jacket to free her wings and moved to hover in front of him.
“Discord?”
He halted and gazed at her with one brow cocked, the candy cane still in his mouth.
“Um, the fact that our records were stolen... It really isn’t that big a deal, is it?”
He plucked the candy cane from his mouth. “Well...” he said uncomfortably, turning the candy cane over and over in his taloned fingers.
“I mean, you probably have all the information stored in your head, right?”
“Well...”
“So you could just conjure up some new records for us.”
“Well...”
Fluttershy frowned at his repeated utterance of that word. “Is something wrong?”
“Well...”
“Don’t you remember the information you put in the Apple Family Tree?” she prodded gently.
Discord made a sound that was half groan, half sigh. “I put that information in the Family Tree so I wouldn’t have to remember it.”
“But I thought your memory stores all those details whether you want it to or not.”
“It does that most of the time, but there are occasions when it just seems to shut off for a bit. I can’t make it do that on command and I still haven’t figured out what triggers it. When it does happen, I still store the memory but the details are much fuzzier than anything my cinematic memory records when it’s on.”
“Oh ... Well, could you maybe conjure some documents from what you do remember?”
“I could ... but my memories on several of them are pretty fuzzy. Trying to conjure anything from those could result in some documents with mistakes in them.” He gave a wry smile. “And of course most of those fuzzy memories are of the Apple unicorns.”
He stuck the candy cane back in his mouth, took a quick pull on it, turned his head so that he was looking over Fluttershy’s shoulder rather than straight at her, and exhaled one more cloud of cotton candy through his nostrils. “Looks like our best option is for me to go out and track down some new copies of those profiles. But first some precautions.”
A light flashed around Fluttershy’s neck and the purple whistle he’d given her earlier was back in place. He flashed the candy cane away before snapping his fingers. The cotton candy clouds above them all contracted into tiny pink sugar cubes that tumbled into his open paw.
“Save those for later,” he muttered, tucking them into his scarf. “Now to ensure I can still keep an eye on things while I’m gone.” He smacked the back of his head, causing one of his yellow eyeballs to fly out of its socket and land in his palm. Fluttershy grimaced at the sight of his empty eye socket before she could stop herself.
Seeing his reflection in her eyes, Discord snapped a pair of dark wraparound sunglasses into existence and slipped them over his eyes, or rather eye.
“Better?” he asked, arching one shaggy brow.
Fluttershy blushed, but before she could reply, Discord had already turned away and flashed the glasses he’d set on the mantel into his claw.
“Wear these while I’m gone,” he said, holding the glasses out to her. “That way if anypony tries to sneak up here while invisible, you’ll be able to see them.”
Fluttershy took the glasses and fluttered back down to the floor. Looking back up at Discord, she saw him conjure what appeared to be a contact lens into his claw. He jammed his eyeball into the contact lens before vanishing in a flash of light and reappearing a few seconds later. He was no longer holding the eyeball, but was still wearing the sunglasses so Fluttershy couldn’t tell whether or not he’d put the eyeball back in its socket.
This mystery was solved when Discord said, “I put that eye outside above the door. It will record what it sees, but I’m not going to be paying attention to it while I’m gone. So I’m going to rely on you to call me with that whistle if you see anything, understand?”
“Yes, but Discord, wouldn’t it be better if I went with you?”
“No, I’ll be able to find what we need much quicker alone, and you’ll be safer staying here.”
“But there must be something I can do to help.” Fluttershy couldn’t deny that her recent experiences had frightened her, and that the thought of just being able to hide out in the cabin had its appeal. But it didn’t feel right to just stay there and twiddle her hooves while Discord went out to continue their investigation.
“Darling, need I remind you that as of this morning, somepony beat your pet’s head in and just tried to do the same to you? If that doesn’t confirm that we’re on the killer’s trail, I don’t know what does. You can help best by staying here and keeping an eye out for any ponies that might try to break in here again.”
Bending his long body over to bring its upper portion down closer to her level, he pushed her mane back with his paw, letting his fingers brush lightly across the bandage that circled her head.
As gentle as his touch was, Fluttershy still felt a twinge of pain go through the wound on the left side of her head. And yet, despite that, she still found herself leaning her head into his paw, as if drawing comfort from it.
Then, after a moment’s hesitation, Discord slipped his fingers further into her mane, moving his paw to more fully cup the side of her head, and brought his mouth close to her ear. “I’ll be back soon.”
“Discord, please be careful,” she said, putting her hoof on his wrist.
When they had first met he would have responded to this by scoffing at the idea that someone with his abilities would have to be careful, but now he just responded to it with, “I will.”
He started to draw his head back from hers, then on a sudden impulse leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on her bandaged forehead before slipping his hand back out of her mane and vanishing in a flash of light.
Fluttershy put a hoof to her bandaged forehead. Did he just...? It had happened so fast and hadn’t felt like much more than a faint pressure through the bandages...
No, she must have imagined it. He’d probably just bumped his muzzle against her forehead by accident when he’d pulled back from her.
But the way he had pressed his mouth there had felt too gentle, too controlled to be an accident.
And why did some part of her wish it hadn’t been an accident?
She sighed. You’re probably making a big deal out of nothing, Fluttershy. Even if it had been intentional, he was probably just trying to fluster you like he did at breakfast.
At the thought of breakfast, Fluttershy realized with surprise that she hadn’t eaten a thing since that morning. On the heels of that thought, she also realized that she didn’t feel the least bit hungry, even though she knew that logically she should. She could almost hear the small voice in her head snorting, You’re trying to apply logic to this situation? Just look at who you’ve been hanging out with for the past several weeks.
Then she remembered that she was still holding the glasses Discord had given her and put them on. Now wearing them, she moved to look out the windows, both hoping and dreading that she would now see somepony looking back in at her. The sun had started sinking, turning the sky a soft orange, and below it the landscape looked just as empty as it had every other time she’d looked out there. She felt that this should have reassured her but instead it just made her feel more uneasy.
Discord had pointed out that they were getting close to pinning down their quarry, but that quarry had been desperate enough to steal their information, attempt to kill her ... and succeed in killing Angel.
Her heart clenched at the memory of seeing her pet lying in the snow with his head smashed in. Turning toward the fireplace, she saw the urn Discord had conjured to hold what was left of Angel, and realized that she hadn’t thanked him for doing that, for sparing her from having to look at her pet’s mutilated corpse. She made a mental note to do that as soon as he got back.
Flying up to the urn, she lifted its lid and looked inside at a mound of dark ashes that looked as if they could have come from a wood fire rather than from a rabbit’s corpse.
“I’m sorry, Angel,” she whispered, tears pricking her eyes as she closed the urn and cradled it to her chest. The bunny had been a hoof-full (mostly when he was younger, he had mellowed quite a bit in his old age) but Fluttershy had loved him regardless.
After the initial shock of finding his body, things had happened so fast that she hadn’t really had a chance to adjust to the fact that her pet was now gone. Now it truly began to sink in. Pulling off the glasses to wipe her eyes, her gaze drifted toward Angel’s empty basket. Over the past year he had done rarely more than sleep and occasionally eat. By the time she’d arrived at the cabin, she knew in her heart that he probably had only a few months left at the most. She had expected to wake up one day to discover he had died in his sleep. She hadn’t been looking forward to that day, but she had resigned herself to the fact that it would come eventually. But the thought that somepony would murder him to send a message to her—
“Fluttershy!” shouted a female voice with a country accent.
Apple Bloom?! Keeping the urn tucked in one foreleg, Fluttershy put the invisibility glasses back on and flew to the door. Pulling it open, she saw Apple Bloom standing five feet from it, striking an invisible wall with one forehoof.
“What are you doing out there?!” Fluttershy whisper-shouted. “I told you to stay inside until you heard back from me.”
“I know, but look what we found.”
Then Big Mac appeared over the hill, holding a struggling white something in his mouth. As he drew nearer, Fluttershy’s eyes went wide and the urn slipped from her hooves to roll across the floor.
Thrashing all four of its limbs about like an overturned cockroach was a very familiar-looking bunny. Fluttershy’s wings folded in unconsciously and she landed, staring at the struggling bunny. It couldn’t be. It just couldn’t be! He was dead! She’d seen his corpse herself!
Then the bunny landed a kick on Big Mac’s jaw that caused the stallion’s mouth to pop open, dropping him. He hit the ground and bolted toward Fluttershy, only to bounce off the invisible wall. He picked himself back up and began clawing at the wall.
“Angel?” Fluttershy breathed, stepping out of the cabin, moving to the edge of the force field, and crouching down to peer into the bunny’s cloudy eyes. “Is ... is that you?”
Had the corpse on her doorstep been some sort of cruel trick? Before Fluttershy could give this much more thought, Apple Bloom took several steps toward the bunny and he bolted away from her, bounding off through the snow.
“Wait Angel!” Fluttershy shouted after him, dashing through the force field after him. As she passed the Apple siblings, she shouted to them, “Stay close to me!” As she galloped after Angel, a small voice in her head was warning her to get back inside and call Discord, but she was afraid to let Angel out of her sight. Afraid that if that happened, the killer would catch him and she would have to endure the horror of finding his trampled body on her doorstep yet again.
“Come back, Angel! Come back!” she shouted. She heard hooves pounding behind her, and chanced a glance over her shoulder to see Apple Bloom and Big Mac hurrying after her, both with branches clutched in their mouths for protection.
Good, she thought before turning her attention back to the bunny in front of her. In the dim light his white fur was almost invisible against the snow. Beating her wings to try and put on an extra burst of speed, she lunged for Angel ... and grabbed him!
She hit the ground running and tried to slow down so the Apple siblings could catch up with her. Hopping along on one front leg, she tucked Angel into the crook of her other front leg, and raised the whistle to her mouth, intending to blow it to alert Discord wherever he was...
Then something large and heavy slammed into the back of her head! Stars exploded in her vision and she felt Angel slip from her grasp. She tried to hold onto him, but it felt as if her legs had turned to water. She stumbled and pitched forward into the snow. She lay there, trying to will herself not to pass out, but knowing that she was losing the battle.
The whistle... she thought dazedly. Have to blow it ... Have to let Discord know...
Then black nothingness.
5764730
Chaos is not inherently good at putting things together. In my headcanon, Discord can heal himself, but he can pull that one off because of transformation magic and the fact that he knows his own body so intimately. He cannot easily heal a pony. He could try to heal deadly injuries, but if he healed something lesser there's a risk of cancer or of things going wrong (there's a risk with deadly injuries too, but there, it's worth taking the risk.) So if you did something like that you could have Discord taking care of Fluttershy when she's injured without his nigh-omnipotence getting in the way.
As for Discord losing his powers... well, hard to tell for certain but it sure looked like he couldn't use his powers when he was sick. Maybe whatever the tatzlwurm did to him shut down his powers, and if so, something like that could happen again. Discord does assume he's pretty much safe everywhere, after all. (Or given what happened when you hit him with a tsunami, you could have rocks fall on him during an avalanche or something.)
Your reviewers called the last chapter's ending a cliffhanger?!? THIS, MY FRIEND, IS A REALLLLL CLIFFHANGER!
I'm so full of questions now, it's ridiculous.
Was that REALLY Angel Bunny? Or was the dead one the real one? Which one's the trick, and which one's reality?
Why does Discord keep leaving when bad things always happen to Fluttershy alone?!?
Why is Discord's version of smoking so much more fun than the real thing?!? If that's how it really worked, I think I'd be a smoker. : /
Should I be suspicious of the siblings, or not?
Why didn't I tell you wayyyy earlier in the story that I love how the tattoos can move on their own, sometimes even with their own personalities and/or sass? I LOVE THAT.
Did she blow the whistle?
Who is it?!? Ae there more than one?!?
DISCORD WHY YOU GIVE HER CONFUSING KISSES?!?
How'd you get so good at writing this stuff?!?
HOW DO YOU UPDATE SO FAST, UNLIKE ME?!??
GAHHHHH
Gyahhhhhh so gooooooooooooooooooood.....
Sucky review, perhaps, but it describes mine feelings well...Awesome job!
Oh, and by the way, I call girls 'dude' sometimes, which is why I sometimes use it when I don't know how to address the person. I call everybody 'dude'. XD
5766314
dude, spoilers!
5766396 That's ok. We're talking through private messaging.
5766406
Cool, no worries then. Just with a story of this nature (and this good) I want to keep things clean here.
5766414 *chuckles* And I thank you, good sir, for looking out for my story's best interests.
5766247
True, true. In my head it was more that it was the fact that Mother Nature hit Discord with a tsunami that he felt the effects of it, and she is one of the few beings more powerful than he is. Other immortal beings can cause him injury or in the case of Tirek take his magic. I dunno why I like the idea of fic where one character takes care of another so much. Maybe it's because I'm a chronic sicky myself and reading it is comforting.
NNNOOOOO!! FLUTTERSHY!!!! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! OH MY GOSH!!
AWESOME CHAPTER!.....and scary
Dwaa! Discord kissed her on the forehead SQUEE! Love it! Absolutely love it!
Is either Apple...
an Unicorn...?
This new Angel... an Unicorn could pull off an illusion quite well...
Oh dear.
Now all we need is Applejack's location.
(and I should mention that despite haveng read the source material, this story is still as gripping as the original. Damn you're good.)
I'm surprised that they haven't looked up the apple family tree like pinkie did when she thought she was related to Applejack.