Chapter 7. Psalm 38:18
Chapter 7
"But I confess my sins; I am deeply sorry for what I have done."—Psalm 38:18
As Fluttershy collapsed across Discord's foot, he could feel her heartbeat and it was much more erratic than when he'd felt it earlier. He heard her straining to get back on her feet only to collapse again. Then he heard her murmured apology and he would have swung his head down to stare at her if he could have moved.
It's not your fault, he found himself thinking to her. You did the best you could.
Then Fluttershy's heartbeat seemed to slow and the last of her body heat seemed to flow through the ice toward him. Her earlier blows had put shallow scrapes and dents in the ice but hadn't managed to fully penetrate it. Now that last tiny bit of heat suddenly seemed to punch through the ice like an ice pick and Discord felt the ice imprisoning his foot crack! At the realization that they could now move again, his foot claws twitched spasmodically. Then, as if that first crack had set off a chain reaction, the rest of the ice around him starting at his legs and traveling up, began breaking as well. As the ice around his legs shattered, he swung his right foot up and off the ice, forgetting for the moment that there was a pony lying across it. He repeated the process with his other leg, then twisted his body as one would a towel to wring it out, feeling the ice break away from him in large chunks.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Fluttershy once again trying to stand, only to once again slump face-down on the ice. Then looking down, the draconequus saw that once again the ice on the floor was creeping toward him! He shot into the air so fast he slammed his head into the cave ceiling. His horn and antler got stuck in the ceiling so he detached them from his skull, yanked them free from the ceiling, and jammed them back on his head. Looking back down, he saw that the new layer of ice had closed over where he'd been standing just seconds ago. And it was now creeping toward where Fluttershy lay.
Without thinking about what he was doing, Discord whirled his long body around and darted back to the ground, scooping Fluttershy into his arms. Grabbing her coat up with his tail, he brought it around and hastily bundled it around her like a blanket before teleporting the both of them out of the cave.
He was so intent on getting them out of there that he overshot the distance to the cabin and they appeared on top of it rather than inside it. He'd barely had time to register this when a strong wind yanked him off his feet and sent him spinning through the air. As large snowflakes pelted him, he thought he caught glimpses of ghostly pony-like shapes but they were so faint and moved by so quickly that he couldn't be sure. The wind buffeted him this way and that, and Fluttershy was almost torn out of his arms. Squeezing her tight against his chest, he tried to teleport them inside the cabin and this time he succeeded.
They went tumbling across the floor and ended up in front of the fireplace. Discord dumped Fluttershy on the floor, sat up, and snapped his fingers, causing a fire to roar up from the fireplace. Making his coat and scarf disappear, he flashed himself into a standing position in front of the fire and turned his back to it, writhing ecstatically as the fire melted the snow that had gotten both trapped in his fur and stuck to his scales. He moaned as it sent waves of heat running up and down his back. His dragon tattoo seemed to relax and stretch across his body like a lizard basking in the sun. Then he turned to face the fire so he would get done all over, and stood there until steam had started curling up from his fur. Feeling much better, he stepped back and looked over at Fluttershy.
The pony hadn't moved from the spot where he'd dumped her. Her padded coat had flopped off and she was curled in a loose ball, trembling. She did not react when he approached her, so he put his foot on her side, intending to roll her over. But as soon as he touched her, his eyes widened and he jerked his foot back. The pony's body was as icy cold as the world outside had been!
Crouching down closer to her, he reached out his paw, this time ready for the cold, and pushed Fluttershy onto her side before quickly withdrawing his paw again. All this time the pony's eyes stayed shut. Now on her side, she tried to curl up again, still shivering.
As he gazed down at her, a strange heavy feeling settled on Discord's heart. It was a sensation he could never remember feeling before but he knew where it was coming from. It was coming from the knowledge that Fluttershy would never have gone out in that blizzard if it hadn't have been for him; that she wouldn't be in her current condition if it hadn't been for him.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a white shape moving and looked up to see Angel hopping over to where Fluttershy lay. The old bunny patted at the pony's head, repeatedly pulling his paw back as quickly as Discord had. Then he fixed his cloudy eyes on the draconequus in a disapproving scowl. If he had tried that a few days ago, Discord would probably have turned him into a cookie jar, but now the draconequus just looked away guiltily. When he chanced a glance back, he saw Angel disappearing into Fluttershy's room. A minute later the bunny reappeared, lugging the blanket from her bed. With a snap of his talons, Discord flashed the blanket away from Angel and onto Fluttershy. He'd done it partly in hopes of annoying Angel, but the bunny just ignored him and began tucking the blanket more securely around his owner. Rankled at this, Discord picked up Fluttershy, blanket and all, and moved to set her in front of the fire. He could feel her shivering through the blanket and he held her out at arms' length, not wanting her cold body to touch him even through the material. He placed her right where he'd been standing earlier so she could get the full benefit of the fire's heat and stepped back to study her.
As he gazed at her it began to sink in that he was now in an awkward situation. She'd risked her life to rescue him, something nopony had ever done before. Granted he couldn't remember the last time he'd ever been in a situation where he'd needed to be rescued but that didn't change the fact that he was now in her debt.
He shut his eyes and pinched the skin at the bridge of his nose. "What have I gotten myself into?" he muttered. He wanted to get back to his plans for taking back Equestria, but if he did that now his triumph would later be marred by the fact that he owed his freedom to Fluttershy. On the one hoof, there was a wonderful sense of irony in the idea that in freeing him, she had essentially helped hand Equestria over to him.
But by accepting that, I might just as well admit I can't conquer Equestria on my own. And I can! he thought to himself, mentally shouting the last bit for emphasis. Then a new idea popped into his head: He would pay off his debt to Fluttershy and as soon as they were even, he could cheerfully go back to planning his hostile takeover!
But how do you plan to pay her back?
He looked back over at Fluttershy, who currently looked like little more than a dark shivering lump silhouetted against the fire. He flashed closer to her, startling Angel who had been crouching beside her, and lifted the blanket to examine her. The blanket felt warm and toasty, but underneath it Fluttershy's body still felt as cold as it had earlier. Frowning, he snapped several more blankets into existence and wrapped them around her as well.
As he stepped back again, his thoughts returned to the matter of paying off his debt. Just tending to her like this didn't feel like it qualified. What else could he do?
Then he remembered the reason Fluttershy had tried to contact Twilight in the first place. He snapped his talons and the stacks of Apple family documents flashed into the room. At the sight of them, he fought the urge to groan. Going through those documents was not going to be fun but the sooner he got started, the sooner he'd be done; and the sooner he'd be done, the sooner he could get back to the fun stuff. With a flick of one talon, he sent several pages swooping up into the air where he could look at them more easily. His eyes zipped back and forth over them while his hands flexed and flourished as if molding an invisible mound of clay.
After several minutes, he decided to take a break from absorbing information to check once again on Fluttershy. Angel had climbed on top of the blankets covering her and had fallen asleep there. Discord absently flashed the bunny back into its bed, not in the mood to deal with it waking up and glaring at him, even if such a reaction normally brought a smirk to his face.
The extra blankets hadn't made the slightest difference. The outside ones had been heated just fine but none of that heat seemed to have reached Fluttershy.
Maybe she needs something warm closer to her, he thought, conjuring several hot water bottles and shoving them underneath the blankets with her before going back to studying the documents. Several minutes later, he checked on her yet again.
The hot water bottles had all gone cold and Fluttershy was still shivering away. Seeing this, Discord was sorely tempted to stomp off in a rage.
"You're doing this just to annoy me aren't you?!" he snapped at the shivering pegasus. "Stupid pony," he muttered.
That stupid pony is the reason you're in here instead of still out there stuck in that ice, a little mocking voice in his head pointed out. Discord sighed and crouched down next to Fluttershy again. He put his eagle claw under her chin and turned her face to study it. He could feel her jaw vibrating as her teeth chattered, and she still felt as cold as she had the last time he'd checked, but this time he kept his claw on her face regardless of how unpleasant it felt.
What am I doing wrong? he mentally asked her shivering face. Why can't I get you to warm up? I give you a fire, blankets, and hot water bottles. What more do I have to... Suddenly another possibility occurred to him.
Oh no! I am not doing that! He yanked his claw away from her and crossed his arms over his chest, shaking his head like a stubborn foal. No, no, no, no! I won't do it! You can't make me! Then he made the mistake of looking back down at Fluttershy's pathetic, shivering form.
He groaned. Alright, I'll do it. He crooked a finger and the blankets all rose up into the air. Grimacing, he dropped to the floor, slithered across it to Fluttershy and coiled his body around and around hers. Gritting his teeth and wishing he was doing almost anything else, he tried to get reasonably comfortable considering it felt like he was coiled around a soft vibrating block of ice.
He cocked an eyebrow. Now that was an idea: Ice cubes that looked like regular old ice but felt soft and squishy to the touch. Imagine dumping a load of those on ponies and seeing their reactions when they expected to be hit with something hard and got something soft instead. And for that matter why would the ice cubes have to be cold? They could be warm instead. Hmm. I'm going to have to remember that one, he thought, mentally filing the idea away for later use.
But this thought could only temporarily distract him from the unpleasant coldness now pressed against him. So to get his mind on something else he began working his way through more of the Apple family documents. That worked for a bit as well, but eventually the cold emanating from Fluttershy's body began to gnaw at him like an itch. He'd gotten through a good-sized chunk of the documents before the cold finally became too strong to ignore. He sent the last page he'd been reading into the finished stack and twisted his neck around to glare at the pony that had remained stubbornly cold despite all his efforts to warm her.
"What more do you want from me?!" he demanded. "Do you want me to admit I was stupid to go out there? Is that what it's going to take? Fine! I admit it! I was stupid for going out when you said it was a bad idea! This whole stupid situation is all my fault! There! Happy?!"
Fluttershy's only response was continued shivering, and yelling at her hadn't felt nearly as satisfying as he'd thought it would.
He sighed and spoke in a softer voice. "Look, Fluttershy, I..." he stopped, suddenly unsure of what to say. "I ... I'm-sorry-this-happened!"
He winced. Ooh, saying that had hurt! Swallowing, he tried to get the rest out. "I guess ... what I'm trying to say is ... I don't want you to die because you came out looking for me." Hearing himself say it out loud, he realized that it was surprisingly true. He had no problem tricking, brainwashing or otherwise manipulating ponies, but he didn't want this one's death on his conscience. It was strange, even to him, but that didn't make it any less true.
Unsure of what else to do or say, he reached over and placed a paw on her shivering brow as if bestowing a blessing and, trying to express all the regret he was feeling, whispered, "Please don't die because of what you did for me."
He couldn't tell if Fluttershy could hear him but then he noticed a sudden change in her breathing. It had gone from shuddering respirations to quick shallow puffs as if something was keeping her from being able to breathe any deeper. Discord's eyes widened in alarm and he moved his paw from her forehead to her throat, thinking to check if something was blocking it, when Fluttershy's head suddenly lulled back and her shivering lessened. For a brief terrible moment, he thought she had died, but then his paw—which was still on her throat—felt a steady pulse. He used both his hands to cup her face and examine it. She still felt cold and shivers still racked her body, but they were not as bad as they had been earlier and her teeth no longer chattered. Then he noticed that her body no longer seemed quite as cold as it had earlier. Loosening his coils, he reached into them and pressed the back of his eagle claw against her side to make sure that the cold hadn't just numbed his body and fooled him.
No, he had not been fooled. Her body was definitely getting warmer. Withdrawing his claw, he tightened his coils back around her. He wasn't sure why sharing his own body heat seemed to be working when nothing else had but he didn't intend to leave her until she'd completely stopped shivering.
Waving a claw toward the Apple Family documents he continued going through them.
Several hours later, Discord flicked the last paper into the finished pile and let his head flop down to the floor on top of his crossed arms. "Whew! Finally."
Then he noticed that Fluttershy was no longer shivering. Shortening his coils, he settled his shoulders against the floor so that Fluttershy's head was resting on his chest. Looking down at her, he saw that she was fast asleep, her breathing deep and regular. Gently putting his paw to her forehead he found that it was now pleasantly warm.
"Mmmm." Still asleep, she rubbed her cheek against his chest and stroked his fur with a hoof.
An involuntary smile twitched across Discord's mouth at the sensation. He'd been debating whether to go put her in her bed or to keep her in front of the fire which had burned down to glowing coals. Now he decided to do both. With a snap of his fingers, her bed materialized underneath the two of them, and with another snap the blankets (which until that point he had left floating in the air) lowered to settle over them. Discord shifted enough so that he could drape an arm over Fluttershy, conjured a pillow for himself, and drifted off to sleep.
When the sky outside lightened from a pitch black to a medium gray, Fluttershy woke to find herself wrapped in a cocoon of warmth and wondering where she was. She saw fat snowflakes swirling against the cabin window and remembered vaguely being out where it was so terribly cold but the current warmth was making her brain feel sluggish and she couldn't seem to recall much more than that. Plus, she was currently much too comfortable to get up. When she put her head back down, her cheek pressed against something furry that was rising and falling in time with the sound of someone's deep breathing. Then her sluggish mind registered the fact that there was an arm draped across her withers. Maybe she'd taken shelter with Harry the bear...
Then the warm tunnel around her shifted slightly and she felt the arm across her withers slide farther around her until its hand came into view. Looking down at it, all her vague dreaminess vanished when she saw that the arm was a scaly yellow eagle's limb with a barbed tattoo around its wrist. Looking back up, she now noticed a long gray neck draped over a large pillow that prevented her from seeing the head attached to that neck. But she didn't need to see his head to know who that neck belonged to. Twisting around to look at her body, she realized to her horror that it was wrapped in furry serpentine coils that could only be Discord's.
Fighting against her rising panic, she put her hooves against one of the coils and tried to squeeze her way out of it. Scarcely had she started then there was a loud snort from behind the pillow and Discord's body suddenly shifted so that the length she'd been lying on was now beside her rather than under her. Before she could pull herself free of his coils, his arm suddenly tightened around her, pinning her upper forelegs to her sides. She froze as his neck curled around on the pillow and brought his head close to hers. He grunted, flicked an ear causing the earrings in it to jangle slightly ... and slept on.
Fluttershy slowly let out the breath she'd been holding, relieved that she hadn't woken him up. Though there was still the mystery of how they had ended up in this uncomfortably close proximity...
She watched his face for any sign that he might be waking up but saw none. Up until that moment, she'd never really had the opportunity to actually study his face in great detail. Now, as she took in the rings puncturing his nose, nostril, and lower lip; the studs hooked through his shaggy eyebrows; and the multiple earrings looped through his ears; she noticed that they had all been rammed through their respective flesh in a way that seemed specifically designed to look painful. Before she could give much thought to this observation, one of his eyelids suddenly twitched and she froze, waiting to see if it would open. It didn't, but it did remind her that she needed to get away from him before he woke up.
She tried to pull her forelegs out from under his pinning arm. Finally she got them free and began using them to try and lift his arm enough for her to wiggle out from under it. Her hooves pressed against the bicep of his eagle arm with its jaggedly barbed tattooed loop, and as she pushed at it, her hooves parted the fur, allowing her to more clearly see the ink scratched deep into the skin below. Like with the piercings on his face, the tattooing looked as if it had hurt, and she couldn't help wondering what had possessed him to mark-up his already hard-to-overlook body in this manner.
Suddenly one of Discord's eyes popped open behind her. "Good morning," he said cheerfully.
Fluttershy froze again. "Um, good morning?" she said uneasily. She'd come to realize that whenever Discord sounded that cheerful it always meant bad news.
"How are you feeling?" he asked and to her surprise he actually sounded like he genuinely wanted to know rather than like he was mocking her.
"I—" she broke off as the events of last night all came rushing back: going out in the blizzard, finding Discord in that cave, trying to break him out of the ice, believing herself done for... But then how had she gotten back here? Had—?
She looked up to meet Discord's yellow eyes. "Did ... did you bring me back here?"
"Not only did I, but I did," he said, propping his head up on his lion paw and lifting his eagle arm off her. He didn't seem to be in any hurry to start messing with her so Fluttershy wondered if maybe she could get a chance to make sense of at least a few of the Apple Family documents before he decided to resume tormenting her. Oh, she was really starting to regret worrying about him enough to go out after him.
She began wiggling out of his coils. "Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Really I do. But I really have to go through those records. Please excuse me." She leapt to her feet ... only to have her legs give out from under her.
"Oh, there's no rush," Discord said, studying his talons before flashing himself into a standing position beside the bed. Reaching over, he pulled the four or five blankets over Fluttershy, tucking them around her so that just her head was poking out.
"No, I can't wait," Fluttershy said, struggling out of the blankets. "I have to—" With a great effort she pushed herself into a sitting position ... and with very little effort, Discord pushed her back down.
"You stay there," he said, holding her down with a finger against her chest.
She tried to push his paw away. "But the records—"
"Already taken care of."
She stopped struggling. "Wh-what?"
He took his finger off her chest and moved to prop his left arm on the bed's headboard. "Watch this," he said, snapping the fingers of his lion paw.
The wood ceiling above them seemed to bubble as if it were made of liquid. Then a large portion of it descended, looking like an upside-down tree stump. This "tree stump" then proceeded to sprout branches. The branches spread out to cover most of the ceiling. Apples started growing on most of those branches. In the space of just a few minutes it looked as if someone had removed the cabin's roof and jammed an uprooted apple tree upside-down in its place.
Fluttershy looked from the tree to Discord in confusion. "What is this for—?" she started to ask when Discord suddenly stretched his arm out over her and up toward the tree. Except instead of stretching his arm out the way she would have stretched out her foreleg to reach something, his arm literally got longer as if it were made of rubber. He snapped an apple off one of the branches and, retracting his arm back to its more usual length, dropped the apple in Fluttershy's lap. Looking down at it, she saw an image of Applejack on its shiny red skin. Discord reached down and gave the top of the apple a sharp smack with his paw. The apple broke in two neat halves and Flutteshy could now see a much clearer picture of Applejack in one of them as if the apple were some sort of giant locket. Her hooves automatically put the two halves back together and they joined seamlessly becoming a single apple again. Then she pulled experimentally at the apple's sides and it split into two neat halves again. Looking back up at the tree she now noticed that all the apples had similar images of ponies on them.
"This," Discord said, jerking his head in the direction of the tree. "is our new version of the Apple Family Tree. All the information in those documents is up there." He raised a paw and seemed to be studying its claws. "I figure that as we eliminate suspects, we can pluck their apples off there, and by the time we're down to one apple, we'll have found our murderer."
This statement was greeted with silence and when Discord turned his head enough to look at Fluttershy, she was sitting there, gaping at him, her expression clearly saying: Who are you and what have you done with Discord?
He mentally chuckled. Oh, I haven't done anything with him, my dear. I can assure you he's still right here, right where I'm—
"You did this for me?" she asked softly, and Discord suddenly lost his train of gloating thought as he realized he'd misread her expression.
He let out a quick cough as if clearing his throat. "Of course." He coughed again, trying to maintain his composure. "I just started looking through those papers and I got a little curious and I thought this would be easier to work with—" His rambling broke off as Fluttershy suddenly reached over and grabbed his paw in both hooves.
"Thank you for making this," she said, letting go of his paw with one hoof to gesture toward the tree. "This will be so much easier to work with than just those stacks of paper," she continued, lowering her hoof to grasp his paw again. "I really can't thank you enough for it."
Discord had gone completely motionless at her touch. Physical contact was nothing new to him. When interacting with other creatures he seldom kept his hands to himself, but up until now he had always been the initiator. He couldn't remember the last time anyone had willingly reached out and touched him except possibly to smack him away. Certainly nothing like the way Fluttershy was holding his paw now.
Not knowing how to deal with this new feeling, he tried changing the subject. "You're probably hungry. I'll get you some soup."
With that he flashed out of her grasp and into the kitchen. Three more flashes and the stove was lit, a pot of soup was sitting on it, and a floating ladle was stirring said soup. He could have just conjured a bowl of hot soup for her right there beside the bed but he had wanted an excuse to get away from her a few minutes to collect his thoughts.
He raised his paw in front of his face and flexed the fingers as if to make sure Fluttershy's touch hadn't changed it in some way. Then remembering the surprise and gratitude he'd heard in her voice, he lowered his paw to rub at his chest, trying to understand the new emotion that was growing there. The closest thing he could think of to compare it to was when he'd been ruling Equestria and remaking it as he chose, but even that comparison didn't quite fit. He let the soup stir itself, paying just enough attention to it to keep it from sloshing while he continued to ponder his feelings.
Thinking back over his life, he realized that he could recall no instance when he'd used his magic solely for someone else's benefit. Anything he'd done had been for his own enjoyment and he had never cared one way or the other whether anyone else liked it or not. Then again he'd never been in anypony's debt before either. It had always been him against the rest of Equestria with the rest of Equestria decidedly outclassed.
But last night he had started going through those records not for his own pleasure but to try and even things up between himself and Fluttershy. He'd gone in expecting to hate every second of it, but when he'd come up with that idea for the Apple Family Tree, constructing it from the information in those documents had turned out to be ... surprisingly painless.
Plus, reluctant as he was to admit it, reading up on the family really had hooked his interest. They seemed so close that the idea of one of them being a murderer that had managed to hide all trace of the crime and spent the next ten years tormenting an old pony with it just didn't seem to fit ... just didn't seem to make sense.
Thought you liked things that way, that little voice in his head taunted.
His brows pulled down in an annoyed frown. Sure, he did like when things didn't make sense, but on his terms. And the fact that this case had managed to baffle several ponies without his involvement made him feel insulted, as if this killer was encroaching on his territory, or cutting into his business.
Yes, that was it! He just didn't want this killer taking his title of Confusion-Causer. That was all.
Really that was all.
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I loved Discord throughout this whole thing. From his slow deliberation over what to do for Fluttershy, to his pained reluctance to cover her up with his own body...His thought process was strikingly in-character, more so than in most fics. You can see both sides of him self fighting each other, only for the good in him to triumph at the moment--just as Fluttershy had hoped. And there was one thing I you wrote that was worded in a way I could never figure out myself. This:
That's it! He loves chaos and invading everyone's personal space and chaotic things, but on his terms. Gosh, I can never think on how to explain that, but that's it! Favorite chapter so far!
5708739 Thanks for the comment. Glad to hear you felt Discord was in-character cause that's one thing I was a bit worried about when I started this story. (*chuckles* In my mind Out-of-characterness is the Ultimate Fanfic Writer's Sin.)
*chuckles again* Yes, the good in him ultimately triumphed but not without him fighting it every step of the way.
Also glad you liked that bit about him liking things on his terms.
I like how the story goes and love the fluttercord
YES! New chapter and it was awesome!! Absolutely loved it and I just can't wait for the next chapter! This is very interesting!
My gosh I love this! It works so well when it seems it shouldn't!
Also now very tempted to draw a pierced tattooed draconequus!
Also, I hope you don't mind, but I just had to:
s14.postimg.org/ahqt6mooh/dwtdt.jpg
5717699 Ha, ha, oh my goodness, that's awesome! Thanks for the art, thanks for the comment, thanks for the fave, and thanks for the blog post.
5718703
Glad you like! Look forward to reading more!
And then they kissed~
Wait, we're not at that part yet? Aw...
I'll admit that I REALLY and truly don't like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or the other books, but this story stood out to me and I couldn't resist it's temptation! So...here I am... *goes back to reading*
Hmm, yes.
I like what you have done with the place.
And by place I mean the story.
And that feeling is compassion!
One is the Element of Kindness, the other is the spirit of chaos and disharmony. Together they solve crimes!
7930270
They need a theme song STAT
...
and its called the shark files