Lost and Found
Fluttershy sat at the counter in the kitchen with a plate of apple cinnamon muffin near her. The Cutie Mark Crusader all rushed through the main room, filling up their bags with distinct items to go to town. Fluttershy never really bother what those items were since her mind was instead occupied and the fact that she didn’t get any sleep.
Her mind went back to yesterday’s events; from Discord’s rampage through the treehouse to her emotional breakdown to her meeting with Zecora. She felt awful exploding to Discord and the girls like that, even though it was the right thing to stop him before it got any worse. Zecora did remind her that it is okay to express your emotion whatever it might be, but still, she couldn’t shake off the guilt she felt earlier.
Then she remembered the words that she had told her: “The truth I’m giving you is the most sincere; they are as lost as you are, my dear.”
Was everything she said true? Were they as lost and confused as she is right now? From what she was told, it’s possible that the girls wouldn’t know their special talents and they might think that their search could be pointless.
But they wouldn’t, right?
All the while, she still had her doubts about Discord. With the way he treated her and the girls, she doesn’t think she would reconsider him being other than the villain that ponies say he is. Yet again, could there be something more to him than she thought?
“Fluttershy?”
Bab’s voice broke through Fluttershy’s thought and looked to the filly beside her. “You alright?”
“Oh, yes. Sorry; I’m just a little tired,” Fluttershy answered quietly.
From seeing the slight dark circles around her eyes, Babs can barely believe that “tired” was an overstatement.
“You barely even ate your muffin,” she pointed her plate, still untouched.
“I don’t like eating right now…. If that’s okay.”
“That’s fine, hon; you don’t have to eat it if you don’t want to,” Babs assured, “And one thing: don’t feel bad about yesterday. You did the right thing standing up for yourself.”
“Heh, yeah,” Scootaloo chuckled, “It’s about time somepony teach that no-good monster a lesson!”
Fluttershy slightly winced on that remark that Scootaloo made. Luckily, it gave her an idea and she spoke out, “Um, ‘Monster’ is a harsh word, don’t you think?”
The other grew silent and gave her confused stares.
Fluttershy continued, knowing the awkward silence surrounding her, “I mean…. Don’t you think there is something we don’t know about him? Something we never thought of? Do you think that perhaps, maybe he is more than a… ‘monster’?”
There was a pause while the fillies gave each other unsure glances for Fluttershy to see. The silence was finally broken when Diamond Tiara suddenly burst out in laughter.
“M-More than a monster?” Diamond laughed hysterically, “Y-Your—you’re really that naïve enough to believe Discord could be anything but a no-good wanted criminal?!”
Fluttershy felt foolish for asking such a question but she wanted to see if it might be true, “But there might be a possibility…. Isn’t it?”
“Sweetie, he almost tore this tree-funk down, tortured you for almost the entire day while also giving Apple Bloom a wardrobe mishap? I say he deserves that title,” Diamond chuckled sarcastically as she wiped away a small tear out her eye.
“As I hate to admit it, Diamond does have a point,” Apple Bloom said while giving her a stink eye from her remark about Discord’s trick on her.
Babs gave Fluttershy a curious look, “Why did you ask that anyway?”
“It’s just a thought. I know for a fact that I don’t like him. But…do you think somepony like him could change?”
“Well….” Apple Bloom was the first to reply, “I do believe at that chance on anypony. Applejack has taught me that anypony has the right to change if they try to do good things to help others and themselves. And sometimes, I think, the help from others might just to do that as well.”
At the moment, Apple Bloom glanced over to Diamond Tiara behind the other three girls and noticed her soft, melancholy expression. Diamond took notice of this before resorting back into a frown and looked away from the group.
“But with Discord’s case, I don’t think he has either the drive or the capability.”
Sweetie Belle then stepped in to support her friend, “It’s not that we don’t think it could happen. It just seems unlikely for him since he used to conquer Equestria and now spends his time playing with his magic and torturing ponies.”
“Well, if such a thing ever happens to him, it would take a miracle,” Scootaloo stated, “Do you think it’s possible, Fluttershy?”
“Oh, umm I’m not really sure…. But like I said, it’s just a thought,” Fluttershy replied, feeling somewhat disappointed from the results.
“So, are we going back to Ponyville or not?” Diamond Tiara asked huffily.
“Alright, we’re going, chill!” Scootaloo exclaimed, “Babs, want to carry the bowling pins?”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow, “Bowling pins?”
“Since this is a weekend, we spend most of the day finding our special talent,” Apple Bloom replied, “The first thing we’re going to test is street performing.”
“You can come along if you like,” Sweetie Belle insisted.
“Oh, uh… I don’t feel like going out today. Maybe later,” Fluttershy answered shyly.
“Alright, well, we’ll see you later. If you need any help, come over to Sweet Apple Acres and ask Applejack,” Sweetie Belle said as she and the other had grabbed their things, including her bag full of bowling pins and went out to the door.
“Bye!” a few voices said before disappearing to the other side of the door.
“Bye,” Fluttershy said quietly, finally feeling the loud silence of loneliness that she’d grown accustomed to. Still sitting on the counter with a muffin near her face, she is left with her thoughts.
She wasn’t sure why she asked about Discord. Was it because she was curious about the possibility of finding his true nature? Or was because Zecora’s words had flooded her senses and judgment? Either way, she can’t decide whether the answer she wanted was. She is truthful about her feelings for him and she doesn’t think that wasn’t going to change at all.
Besides, even though she didn’t want to admit it, but she wished none of those answers were true.
She looked around the room and saw the things from the closet the girls left on the floor. Feeling the need to move around, she got off the chair and walked to pick up the various items and putting them back to their spots. One of the items caught her interests though and she picked it up to see the cover of a thin and wide white book that reads:
“Equestrian Animal Encyclopedia”
The cover contained pictures from animals that she recognized along with those she has never seen before. With curiosity pulling her further, she flipped through the pages. Animals through A to Z went by through the pages like a wind. When the last page was flipped, she saw a black ink stamp addressing to the Golden Oak Library in Ponyville. From what had seen from the book, she was fascinated by the creatures she’d briefly saw.
While she’s holding the book in her hooves, she noticed a hook at the door holding a long brown cloth. She held it from the hook’s grip finding that the cloth was a cloak with a hood attached to it. She looked between the brown, rough cloth, the book and then the front door.
She recalled from by Sweetie Belle’s statement that she can go over to Applejack whenever she needed help. She felt the need to go over there and asks her about the book and its library, but at the same time, she felt nervous. She was all caught up with all the thoughts she’s processed in her brain that the idea of going outside made her uneasy. She could think up all the situations that could happen to her if she does go to town by herself--the worst being either the ponies staring at her or seeing Discord again.
But then she thought back to one memory; the one that he remained herself never to back look back at again. Though thankfully, she only thought about the happy part of the memory.
She remembered being bathed in sunlight lying on a grassy area. From the bushes and trees, she saw the animals very shyly but eagerly scattering closer to her. She remembered the contagious warmth that she felt inside of her and the joy that she felt being in that moment. It was in that moment that she had gained her cutie mark, sending her a revelation that to this day sends chills to her spine.
That moment was the only memory she can recall that animals ever surrounded her-- at least before she was forced to flee from her mother’s grasp. As a filly, she was curious about the creatures that calmed her that day. She wanted to know more, but it was deemed dangerous considering the environment she lived in.
Maybe now she’s out of the place, she can have that chance.
So, feeling both eager and hesitant, she grabbed the cloak from the hook and wrapped it around her body. She found a small saddle bag to put the book in before she would muster up some courage and walk through the door.
“Applejack, I need permission from the mayor to send in these applications!”
“Applejack, I need more seeds for my garden!”
“My crew and I need more supplies to cut the weeds from the Everfree!”
Already in the crack of dawn, Applejack is met with ponies needing her assistance. She didn’t really mind though, since she’s always open to help anypony in need. Plus, they were all the issues she needed to get done today.
“Okay, settle down, everypony!” Applejack exclaimed before pointing to one of the ponies, “I write a letter to the mayor my permission to your applications to import your sister to here from Saddle Arabia….”
She then points to the mare who complained about her garden, “I’ve already sent in a request from Rose Luck to send in more flower seeds at the market….”
And finally, she points to the stallion who she recognized is from the Forest Protection Force, an organization she’d made to keep an eye out on strange growing activity from the Everfree forest, “And I will need to look over the inventory at Canterlot to see if we can get any more. I will leave for it first thing in the morning.”
Satisfied with their answer, the ponies left Applejack and the Apple Farm in peace again. At least she can relax for a bit and return to her chores before more ponies come.
“Applejack!”
Applejack’s face jerked up with the voice from afar, Geez that was sooner than I thought it’ll be. She then turned around to see a pony with a hooded cloak around her body. When she squinted her eyes further, she recognized who that pony was and greeted her with a wide smile.
“Hey, Fluttershy! Good to see you here again.”
Fluttershy greeted her friend with a small smile and said a ‘hello.’
Applejack then asked at her with interest, “Why are you wearing a cloak?”
“I just thought that I better hide from anypony if I were to be out here like this. Don’t think that I don’t trust you or anything; it’s just I’m a little…. Nervous around strangers.”
“Aw, that’s alright, sugar; I understand. But I must warn you though. The ponies here… are a little antsy, with the harmony from the land being wonky and all…”
Fluttershy slightly frowned with confusion when she said that last line. Harmony? Was she talking about the supposedly missing bearer to the Elements of Harmony?
“…You better be careful of how ponies perceive you in that cloak. The same thing happened to Zecora when she came, and they didn’t take her appearance well.”
Fluttershy shook her head, “I’ll keep that in mind. Right now, I need to ask you something.”
She took out the book from her small saddlebag, “I found this in the closet and there’s a stamp on the back.”
Fluttershy gave the book to Applejack and she inspected the book until she reached the back cover. “Oh, this must be from the library! I remember Apple Bloom saying something about being animal explorers one time. I think she must’ve forgotten all about this.”
“Do you know if there are any more books like these?” Fluttershy asked with interest.
“Sure, they do. There’s a whole section of these. Why do you ask?”
Fluttershy grew nervous. She didn’t want to tell her how exactly she got her cutie mark, so she tried keeping it vague much as she can. “Well…I got my cutie mark from understanding animals. I had never seen them back at home, but I like to know more about them.”
Applejack was a little confused when she said that she got her cutie mark from being around animals but then heard that she’s never seen one. But when she noticed that she was uncomfortable talking about it, she decided to not ask about it. “I think that’s a great idea, Fluttershy. I have enough time in my hooves right now; so, if you want, I can take you to the library where it came from.”
“Oh, that would be nice. Thank you,” Fluttershy smiled excitedly.
“Your welcome. I just need to ask Big Mac about my chores. You stay out here, okay?”
Fluttershy nodded her head as Applejack walked towards her house. She stayed exactly where she was and waited for Applejack to escort her to Ponyville.
But then she heard voices coming from the apple trees.
“Ugh! Why are we doing this here? Shouldn’t we do this dumb trick back at the square?”
Fluttershy recognized that whiny voice as Diamond Tiara’s. The girls must’ve stopped somewhere in the orchard. She carefully listened and followed their voices until she reached closer to them.
When she reached to where they are, she hid behind a tree to avoid them seeing her.
“We just wanted to practice before we do this for real. Every street performer must always have some rehearsal,” Sweetie Belle replied.
“Besides, we don’t want any pony to see some accidents if we do perform for the first time,” Scootaloo stated.
“Okay, let’s just take it from the top,” Apple Bloom exclaimed, “You remember the steps girls?”
Babs, Sweetie and Scootaloo all gave Apple Bloom a confused look.
“Uh, Cuz? We’ve never learned the steps,” Babs stated.
Apple Bloom’s grin disappeared, “Oh.”
She then shrugged and asked optimistically, “Well, we better start learning them now. Just follow my lead.”
She pointed to Babs and walked towards her, “Babs, you stand there while I try to get to your shoulders.”
She climbed onto her cousin’s back and stumbled a few times before she managed to get her balance right. “Okay, Sweetie, Scoots, could you climb up and sit on my shoulders? And bring the bowling pins with you?”
Both girls gave each other unsure expressions before replying, “We guess?”
They tried to crawl over Babs and Apple Bloom before settling to get onto her shoulders. They mostly struggle to get there, hurting some sides all up to the way. At one moment, the bag containing the bowling pins smacked against Apple Bloom’s leg, almost causing her to lose her balance.
Once they sat on her shoulders, Apple Bloom then grabbed both Sweetie’s and Scootaloo’s hind legs with her two front hooves, “Okay, hold on.”
Apple Bloom then used all her strength and gradually started to stand up to her hind legs. She stumbled a little bit, especially since she had two extra weights lodged onto her shoulders, but she managed to regain her balance as much as she can.
Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo tried to hold onto their friend as much as they can, but Scootaloo managed to look down to the ground and started to freak out. She knew that a pegasus like her shouldn’t be afraid of heights because she’s not. She’s simply afraid of falling with wings that are not strong enough to support her!
Apple Bloom noticed her friend’s distress when she heard her muffled squeal and the fact she was shaking so much that it almost lost her footing, “Scoots! Hold still!”
“I can’t,” Scootaloo said fearfully, “It’s so high up here!”
“Sweetie, grab her hoof to keep her steady.”
Sweetie Belle did as she was told and grabbed Scootaloo’s hoof, helping both of their balances.
Apple Bloom then called out to her cousin below, “Alright Babs, I need you to stand your hind legs.”
Babs, feeling all the weight from her companions, wrapped her front hooves onto Apple Bloom’s leg and gathered up all her strength to gradually lift herself higher and standing on two hooves. All the while, she didn’t realize that she was going a little fast and Apple Bloom almost lost her balance from being lifted more into the air.
“Not so fast, Babs!” Apple Bloom screamed, colliding with the small screams coming from the other girls.
Scootaloo accidentally looked down and saw the universe so blurry that she could barely see the ground below her. Overwhelmed with fear, she quickly threw her arms around Sweetie’s arm that was holding her, causing them both to stumble on Apple Bloom’s shoulders.
“Scootaloo!” Sweetie Belle screamed, “Let go of my arm!”
Fluttershy watched in dread and held her breath as the scene unfolded to her. Diamond Tiara, however, reacted in hysterical laughter.
“You four look so ridiculous!” Diamond cackled before laughing even harder. Some of the girls bring out sour scowls on their faces.
“Don’t listen to her!” Apple Bloom exclaimed, trying so hard to keep her friends and herself balanced. “We can do this! Sweetie, bring out of bowling pins and wait for my signal!”
Sweetie, who had been using her magic to grab the bag, quickly brought out the bowling pins and rested one of them into her free hoof.
“And at my signal,” Apple Bloom continued, “Scootaloo and Sweetie will toss the pins around. Okay… ready…. Now!”
On cue, Sweetie Belle threw the bowling pins, one by one, over to Scootaloo. Her partner quickly grabbed them and threw them underhand to Sweetie and they continued throwing in a never-ending cycle.
Down below, Babs, still holding onto the others, is now sweating from exhaustion. Her muscles ache and she doesn’t know how much longer she can take. Without even noticing, she slightly lowered her body down, causing the girls up above including herself to lose their balance. At the motion, Sweetie Belle threw one of the bowling pins to hard that Scootaloo missed it and it landed on the floor. Babs was now stepping in places to keep herself steady until her hind legs stepped onto the fallen pin and slipped onto it!
At that instant, the girls fell on the ground with the bowling following after.
Groaning in pain, the girls rubbed their head and checked for injuries while Diamond Tiara laughed merrily.
“Oh, that was quite a show,” Diamond Tiara exclaimed mockingly, “I sure every pony is going to shower you with praises—when they visit you in the hospital!”
Gritting her teeth in anger, Scootaloo pulls herself off the ground and stomps towards Diamond Tiara, “What is your problem?!”
Diamond Tiara stopped laughing but looked at the orange Pegasus with a frown.
“Look—it’s fine that you decided to come with us today, really it is. But you didn’t have to mock us like that!”
“Well, excuse me for being honest to my opinion that your rehearsal was a total failure and you’ll mess up your chance for getting a cutie mark if you perform that mess,” Diamond Tiara said in a fake innocent matter.
Sweetie Belle and Babs try to talk Scootaloo out of the argument and forget about it, but she wouldn’t have any of it.
“You know, we didn’t know about your parents until Silver Spoon moved away. We decided to help you and let you in our group because we felt sorry for you. We thought you would need some company!”
Diamond was taken back from the painful remainder and talked again in defiance, “Well, I guess you’re ‘helping’ isn’t just working for us, now is it?”
“Why do you hate us so much? Why are you so against the idea that we’ll ever get our cutie marks?!”
“BECAUSE I’M JEALOUS!”
That response shocked Scootaloo and the girls, including Fluttershy who covered her small gasp.
Diamond Tiara continued in frustration while tears started burning in her eyes, “I’m jealous! Okay?! I’m jealous of you, jealous of your little group—jealous at the fact that you are so determined to find your special talent no matter how many times you failed! I am not a member, but I’m the only one with a cutie mark. Did you ever stop to think that I was proud of it? That I was proud of having a cutie mark that came literally out of nowhere?! You’d think I liked not knowing what my special talent is and who I really am? That it was all because I was doing it for my parents’ approval? You are very lucky that you get to explore and learning who you are before you get the chance to be stuck with something that you DON’T UNDERSTAND!!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders stared at Diamond Tiara in shocked silence. It lasted until Diamond Tiara suddenly broke down and ran away from the group and from the orchard. The girls stayed and looked down at the ground even after she left.
“I… I didn’t realize she felt that way about us,” Scootaloo uttered.
“I think we all didn’t,” Sweetie Belle stated sadly.
“Guys,” Babs asked uncertainly, “How are we going to fix this?”
They all gazed at each other for hopeful answers, but they’d found that they had none.
Fluttershy still hid behind the tree, looking away to contemplate Zecora’s words about them once more. Maybe she was true when she said that they are struggling to find their purpose. She felt horrible when she didn’t think that they have felt this way for all those years. She even felt bad for Diamond who was never grateful for her arrival. She does admire their determination, but she didn’t think that they would face failure as if they kept on running into a wall of bricks.
She quietly left her spot away and walked back to the main field where Applejack might be.
When she reached there, however, she suddenly bumped into something and fell while her hood went off her head. When she looked up, her eyes widen when she sees a huge figure wearing a terrifying mask looking down at her, making weird breathing noises and lean in closer to her.
She was completely frightened of the creature in front of her that she started shaking and her eyes started stinging with tears. She didn’t even bother to hear what the creature was saying to her.
Before it got a chance to touch her, she screamed and ran as far as she could into the Everfree forest, still ignoring the voices of the creature from a distance.
Applejack saw just in time to see Fluttershy running away from a stallion wearing a gray jumpsuit and a gas mask. Concerned, she called out to the stallion, “Sir! What just happened?”
The stallion then took off the gas mask from his head and replied to her, “I don’t know; she just bumped right into me. I asked if she was okay but then she ran off screaming.”
Applejack looked out the distance in concern while the stallion spoke out again a moment later, “Anyway, I need help fixing this tie for my presentation on ghost-hunting…”
She turned to look at him with a frown.
“What?” the confused stallion uttered.
Fluttershy kept on running and running. She was so scared that she didn’t realize where exactly she was going.
When she stopped, entirely out of breath, she noticed that a funky smell surrounded her. She saw that a patch of land was covered by murky brown waters, with cattails growing out from it and buzzing dragonflies flying over the surface.
Fluttershy looked around the area in alarm; her anxiety grew more and more as she wandered around.
Where am I?
At one point, she stepped on what she thought was a root of a plant and tripped. But when she saw a huge shadow looming over her, she realized that she didn’t step onto a root-- but the tail of a giant three-headed hydra!
Discord was hanging around a tree in a deserted part of the forest. For one thing, he was bored out of his mind, but he didn’t feel that since his head was puzzling on the event that happened yesterday.
For an entire day, he had a blast ruining the poor fillies’ little treehouse and messing around with the small pegasus, even though her terror didn’t give him the satisfaction he would’ve liked. Usually, ponies would be scared out of their wits whenever he would pull out tricks off his sleeves and surround them with it. With her, with the exceptions of one or two hilarious reactions, she stood onto her ground while fearfully watching over his chaos raining down on her. While it could’ve been the lie he told her to have her obey him; it was like all his work had almost no effect on her.
And to make things even more astounding, she stood up to him in anger when he threatened that red-headed filly.
SHE stood up to HIM, the lord of all things chaotic, and told him to get out!
Nopony has ever stood up to him before, let alone annoying princesses and element of Harmony bearers!
After he left them alone, this was all he could ever think about. If he weren’t turned into stone the first time, he would’ve now counted her confrontation as the only humiliating thing he has ever experience. That small, meek, pathetic, pretty little---
What? Did I say pretty? Well, she is a little bit--
Groaning with frustration, he covered his face with his hands.
I swear if something doesn’t happen right now, I am going to lose my mind over that little—
AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!
He stopped as he heard a high-pitched scream coming from a distance. He sat up and poked his head out of the treetops to see the same yellow Pegasus running. He twitched his eyebrows with confusion until a hydra came into view, chasing after her.
Seeing the sight before him, he had an idea.
Fluttershy is trying to run as her dear life wanted to; but no matter how hard she tried, the creature is still catching up with her. Their heads kept on roaring at her, giving her a little boost to run faster. It is at the point that she is out of breath, sweating and her body aching that she doesn’t think she has much longer.
Suddenly, she then heard another gasping sound and turned to see Discord running beside her, wearing a jock sweatshirt with a red ‘#1’ on it and white and red sweatbands on his head and his two wrists.
“Lovely day for a run, huh?” he pretended to pant.
“You!” Fluttershy gasped.
“I can see you’re excited to see me?” He said with a smug look.
The hydra roared again, and Discord pretended to take notice of it. “Cool, you made a new friend! A hydra, nice!”
“This is no laughing matter!” Fluttershy said hastily, “I accidentally stepped on his tail, and now he’s going to eat me!”
“And you’ve been to the Froggy Bottom Bog! Very nice place, love the smell. Though I prefer the fire swamp better; they make jogging a bit more exciting!”
“If you’re trying to push my buttons now, I don’t think this is the right time!”
Discord scoffed, “What buttons, you don’t have any— “
Fluttershy then gasped “Look out!”
Before he could react, he was slammed face on against the stone wall, which indicated a dead end.
Fluttershy covered her mouth concerned for him, which came out of nowhere for her. But the feeling quickly vanished as she heard the low growling of the hydra and turned to see the creature closing in on them. She inched herself away from it until her back was against the stone wall, cowering in fear.
Discord groaned in pain as he rubbed his face from his injury. He took notice to the stone wall before him and then the trembling Fluttershy and the hydra leaning towards them.
He then turned to the hydra with a crossed expression on his face.
“You dare try to hurt me?” He growled, “Me? The master of Chaos?! The owner of the face you just mushed?!”
The hydra screeched at the draconeqqus, leaving no effect on him.
“Well, if that’s what you feel about me, then come prepare to face your doom!”
The creature roared and then leaped forwards its victims.
Discord quickly whispers at Fluttershy’s ears, “Duck!”
Without any warning, he pushes her body down to the ground and lands on top of her before lifting his eagle claw into the air to rip out a portal. Before the hydra realized what was happening, it fell through the portal and Discord snapped his fingers to close it.
Fluttershy looked back to where the portal was in shock.
“What….” she breathed as she is almost out of breath, “What did you do?”
“Oh, don’t worry,” Discord said in satisfaction while getting up the ground and brushing off the dirt on him, “I just send him to a place where he’ll be…. Quite well-known.”
The hydra blinked his eyes as he found himself in the middle of a city, with ancient buildings, part of him fallen to pieces due to its enormous size. Down below, far from his eyesight, he saw strange creatures that stood on two legs, had fur on top of their heads and while showing off its pale skin on everywhere else despite being clothed in togas and sandals.
“AHHH! A HYDRA IS ATTACKING ATHENS AGAIN!!!”
“ALRIGHT, MEN! YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!”
The Hydra’s eyes widened as he saw an army of those creatures dressed in bronze armor along with red cloth showing underneath it. Among the army were lines of catapults with boulders in each one.
At one of the creature’s signal, the others drew their swords out of their scabbards and raised it into the air, “CHARGE!!!”
The creature along with its army screamed as it runs towards the hydra. In a moment of confusion and panic, it screamed and ran as far as it can to get away from these monsters.
Fluttershy still stared at the spot where the hydra had vanished; her expression changed from shock to disbelief and awe.
Discord continued in his rant, “Honestly, you believe that I’m not capable of doing more than teleporting and performing magical gimmicks? Considering I am— “
“You…. You saved me.”
He stopped when he heard the small pegasus’s voice.
She then turned around to look up to his tall, frightful figure with awe, “Why did you save me?”
She has a hard time to believe that he-- the very creature who had caused nothing but trouble from the start--ultimately rescued her. In her mind, he would’ve probably ignore her and left her alone with that hydra. She hadn’t expected that and from that look he now gave her, one full of bewilderment and awe, he hadn’t expected that either.
Discord also was having a hard time believing himself too. Although he did push her down while he opened that portal, he didn’t realize that he was saving her. He was only trying to show the creature which one of them had the upper hand.
But now, as she stared at him, surprising him with her big, innocent eyes; he found himself feeling…. Warm. And a little out-of-place.
He then cleared his throat and replied to her, “Well, I can’t just have you screaming and bothering everyone in the forest. And that hydra had it coming when it hurt my beautiful face. Besides, even though I enjoy what I do, murder and death are way out of my league.”
His eyes then narrowed at the mare, “Speaking of death, why were you doing here in the Froggy Bottom Bogg?”
Gone was her amazement as she gazed away from Discord in unease, “Oh. Well—umm…. I was just leaving Sweet Apple Acres. I was heading for the treehouse, but… I must’ve got lost.”
“Heh, yeah you are” Discord scoffed. “Your little hut is waaaay back over there.” He pointed his thumb to the back of him, emphasizing his words, “You must’ve missed it and walk further.”
“Oh, right, heh, walked,” Fluttershy said, her cheeks burning with embarrassment, “I guess learning about this forest would take me longer than I thought.”
She then asked him rather shyly “Umm—you wouldn’t mind if you help me get back to the treehouse? I wouldn’t want to get myself killed the second time” she ended with a small nervous chuckle.
Discord at first looked at her as if she were crazy to ask any help from him, but when she mentioned the possibility of a second near-death experience, he admitted that she was right, even though he really didn’t want to.
With that, he snapped his fingers and they transported back to the CMC treehouse. Then before Fluttershy could react, Discord snapped his fingers again and a compass materialized from his hand and hands it over to her.
“That compass has the power that’ll help your way back here or any other place you want. I assure you this is not a prop or a trick; this is just to make sure this doesn’t happen again.” Discord quickly said, meaning every word of it. He really doesn’t want to make another unintentionally heroic scene.
Fluttershy nodded in understanding. She then opened the front door and stepped inside before she said to him, “Thank for saving me and… I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble.”
Then she closed the door and Discord teleported himself away from the treehouse into the middle of nowhere in the forest.
But a second after he got there, he felt… weird. And he really doesn’t know why.
Everything was fine—for the most part—until he went up and did that. Then that weird feeling came and then she had to say these last words before she can leave him alone: “Thank you for saving me and… I’m sorry if I caused you any trouble.”
Why would she say that to him? She didn’t have a reason to apologize to him-- He’s the one who caused her trouble, that’s his job!
But then he thought back of how she looked at him. Her face completely full in awe, staring up at him with her curious shade of teal eyes as she quietly thanked him with bizarre gratitude.
Funny, I didn’t realize her eyes were teal…… Dear lord, what’s wrong with me?!
He groaned in frustration as he tried to get rid of these petty little thoughts out of his head.
He wanted to blame her. He wanted to blame her for standing up to him. For making him think about small moments that really shouldn’t matter at all.
But at the same time…. He can’t. Needless to say, he was intrigued.
Nopony has ever thanked him in any way. Though, it was understandable that his past deed towards them wasn’t really…. Appreciated. No one ever talked to him to a soft, gentle manner or even stood up to him or given him a small look that was far different than frowns and tears.
She has shown him that she was unique from the others.
Although the notion of the idea seems very unrealistic, even for him; there is one thing that was on his mind right now. He needs to see her again.
Fluttershy sat on the couch with the Animal Encyclopedia in her hooves and tried looking through the pages—if she didn’t have other things in her mind.
First, Zecora had been right about the girls and their struggle for destiny, but now she could be right about him?! Something must be very suspicious about her; there must be some way she knows about this. It’s nothing to say that she is ungrateful for it; she was surprised that he would save her life like this.
But then she recalled how he looked when she turned to see him above her. He had shown a soft, startled expression that he soon tried to hide after a moment. She could tell from it that it was surprisingly genuine. It was almost like nopony has ever thanked him for anything in his life and he didn’t know how to react.
Since then, the more she thinks about him, the more of an enigma he has become for her.
She heard the door open to see the girls walking through the door.
“We’re home!” Apple Bloom exclaimed.
“And we brought food from Applejack!” Scootaloo exclaimed excitedly.
Fluttershy smiled until she noticed that Diamond Tiara was not with them; she must’ve have forgotten suddenly about her breakdown earlier, “Where’s Diamond?”
Sweetie Belle replied with a soft yet sad grin, “Diamond went back home. She… got upset when we were exploring.”
The rest of the girls had a small, sad frown before they tried to hide it.
“But don’t worry; she’ll probably come back when she feels like it.”
“Oh! Also…” Scootaloo said as she grabbed something from her saddlebag. They were a small collection of animal books and she handed them out to Fluttershy, “Applejack wanted me to give you these. She told us how you came over but then gone all the sudden. What happened?”
Fluttershy didn’t want them to get upset about her encounter with Discord so she lied a little, “I don’t know…. Something must’ve frightened me, and I decided to go back. I’m sorry if I’d upset her.”
“That’s fine; she just wanted to know if you were okay. But now the past is over us and we should start eating! I’m starving!”
With the cheers of agreement, the girls launched off to the kitchen and placed the containers full of food on the wood-craven counter. Fluttershy followed them and then thought a little of Discord, not knowing that even though the moment has passed; this was just the beginning.
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Nice! Can't wait till Queen Chrysalis discovers where Fluttershy is.
Glad that Fluttershy and Discord are no longer foes.
The song, Someday My Prince Will Come was playing in my head as I was reading your story.
Wait, did Discord just give her Jack Sparrow's compass? A compass capable of guiding you to wherever or the location of whatever you want?