How'd She Do It?

by BrilliantCreativity

Sentiment

Fluttershy was walking back towards her cottage, recalling the recent events that had taken place. Earlier that day she had been assigned to reform the Lord of Chaos himself and, at first, was very worried. How could she, Fluttershy, reform the Lord of Chaos? She hadn't had the slightest idea, but she was the Element of Kindness, this should've been easy. Right? Princess Celestia seemed to think she was fully capable and for that, Fluttershy did her best. There was a few minor bumps in the road, eating spells on paper, turning her cottage upside down, a dinner party that practically attacked the guests, flooding at Sweet Apple Acres and then turning it into an Icy Wonderland but she did it.

Soon after, Discord left with Celestia to talk about how he can use his magic for good. But before he had left he whispered something in Fluttershy's ear.

"If Celestia goes on about politics for too long, I'll need you to distract her with your 'stare' so I can make a break for it." That had made Fluttershy stifle a giggle, in that moment it was like Discord was just a casual and funny
guy/Draconequus who had never had anything to do with taking over Equestria. He wasn't a villain and he wasn't a bad guy, he was just a creature who had been misunderstood and never been shown kindness. Until now. Fluttershy managed to get through to him and melt part of the stone around his heart, managed to shine a light through his dark vision on the world and managed to give him something he never thought he could have, a friend.

Fluttershy was proud of herself, she may have helped save Equestria a few times but for her, this was big. This was something she had done all on her own, by following her own instincts, gut and judgement.

A smiled had spread across her face as she trotted down the dirt path. The sun was starting to set but she didn't seem to mind, she had high spirits. The Everfree was to her right, the trees were peaking over and almost looked looming. Usually the sight of the forest would frighten her but...that didn't happen this time. She could only look at it as a forrest, see it as it is. She found no reason to hide or cower. She found these sudden observations strange but didn't give it much thought.

She started humming a song by Pony Simpson, La Da Dee, until she came to the bridge that went over her small stream. She could see Angel Bunny in the window staring at her whilst holding up an empty food bowl. Fluttershy couldn't help but giggle at his attitude. Despite his nagging, she kept the same pace while seemingly smiling at the ground.

Angel Bunny was confused at this reaction to him being his usual annoying and demanding self. Usually whenever he was hungry, she would rush around the house to get him food...but today was strangely different. He started rapidly stomping his foot on the counter. He then heard the door latch, click. He faced the butter cream pegasus that stepped through, looking pleased and very serene with herself. This just annoyed the bunny.

He charged towards her and slammed the empty bowl in front of her, murmuring a bunch of noises that nopony, except Fluttershy, could understand.
"Oh, sorry Angel. Just a second," she said, reaching down and picking up the bowl with her mouth. She carried it towards the the kitchen and placed it on a counter. She put her hoof on the counter top and stretched to open a cupboard that held rabbit food. She brought it down and poured the contents into Angel's food bowl.

She carried it to the floor and placed it in front of Angel.
"There you go. All settled," she said. Angel examined what had been laid before him and, immediately after, shoved the bowl to the side. His actions were followed by some angry squeaks.
"Angel, you need to eat your food."

"*squeak *twitch."

"No, it's either this or nothing." The rabbit slammed his fist onto the floor in anger which was also followed by some more squeaks and twitches.
"Angel, either eat it or not. I'm going upstairs to have a bath. If you finish all your food by the time I'm done, you can have some carrots or lettuce. It's up to you," she finished and then headed up the stairs towards her bathroom.

Angel Bunny was stunned, Fluttershy never said 'no' to him. She always gave him whatever he wanted to eat. For her to act like that was highly unusual.

Fluttershy turned the knob to turn on the hot water, it didn't take long for the room to be clouded in steam. When the tub was filled to Fluttershy's liking, she slowly climbed in and sank in with a sigh of relief. So much had happened that day and it felt nice to just sit back and relax.
"I reformed the Lord of Chaos and Disharmony," she whispered. "Me...I Fluttershy the weakest pegasus in all of Equestria...reformed Discord."

"I did it!" she jumped while raising her voice.

"I Fluttershy, the Element of Kindness, reformed, Discord, the Lord of Chaos and Disharmony!" she practically yelled, in her own sheepish voice. She sighed and quieted back down.
"And I did it on my own," she whispered.

"Well, I don't know about that," said another deep but familiar voice. Fluttershy squeaked and, for some reason, ducked under water so that only above her muzzle was showing to try and hide her 'naked' body. Even though ponies walk around naked all the time.

"W...who said that? Who...who's there?" she waited a while for a response, but when she got none she slowly started to raise her head out of the water.
"M...maybe it was just my imagination," she said quietly but aloud.

"Oh, I doubt that. Because if that were the case, you would have a very creative imagination my dear," said an invisible voice. Fluttershy's eyes widened.

"D...dis. Ahhh!" she leaped back into the water as a familiar draconequus swung from the ceiling and met her eyes, upside down and face to face. It took her a while to recollect what just happened. Discord swung down from the ceiling and floated down to her floor. He took a bow a swayed both of his arms to one side.
"Good evening my dear, so sorry to interrupt your zenlike bath time but I do believe I heard my name being summoned."

Fluttershy shook her head to come back to reality, in time to hear what he had said. Her cheeks started to turn a light red.
"Oh, I...umm. I didn't call your name o...or anything. I...in fact I'm not too sure what you mean, heh," she said, not meeting his gaze as she 'casually' stroked the back of her mane.
"Ah, huh. Well, it's a good thing you're not the Element of Honesty because I can't see that going too well for you. Because honestly you suck at lying," he smirked while raising one of his fluffy eyebrows.
"Soo, why were you saying my name?" he asked casually as he leaned in towards her with his mismatched hands behind his back. Fluttershy tried to go to the very back of the tub, which wasn't very far. She tried to cover up the top half of her body with her hooves but that only caused Discord more curiosity.
"Umm, may I ask exactly what you're doing?"

"Well, umm you see...you're kind of in my...my bathroom...with me, while I...I'm having a bath..." she stuttered, hoping he'd understand what she was trying to say.

"Uhh, yeah." He looked her up and down, trying to figure out exactly what she meant. "Oh, are you...ha ha ha...are you weirded out because you're naked in a bath or something?" he took the red expression on her face as a yes. "Seriously? Don't you ponies walk around naked, I mean the only difference is from when I've seen you before is that you're in water. Besides, you called me here, I mean, personally, I should be the one whose weirded out right now."

"I...I I didn't mean to call you. I'm so sorry, you were probably ver...very busy. You...you can return to whatever it was that I...I called you from," she said nervously.

"So you admit to saying my name? May I ask exactly why?" he inquired further. Her face was crimson from embarrassment. Why wouldn't he just give up?

"I was just...*sigh...talking to myself," she breathed with a small chuckle. "It's nothing you need to worry about, I was just happy because of what happened to day," she finished and then took a deep breath and lounging back in her bath tub.

"I see," he said. He backed away from her and stood up on his mismatched feet. He started stroking his beard and looked up at the ceiling. "And what exactly was it that you accomplished today?" he asked, looking her right in the eyes. She returned his gaze, but then looked down and began fidgeting her hooves.

"You...you know."

"I might, but just incase I'm wrong...why don't you say it?" he gave a toothy grin and moved his eyebrows up and down. Fluttershy giggled.

"Well...I mean, you and I became friends and-" she took a deep sigh, "I don't want to say that I...exactly reformed you because you're still a free being and have total control over what you do...but I...I helped you find something, other than chaos, that you care about...my friendship. *sigh. There I said it, I'm proud of myself for befriending you...the Lord of Chaos," she smiled at the last part. She raised her head to look at him, she met his eyes and just gave a swift nod.

"See, that wasn't so hard now was it?" he slightly laughed. She shrugged her shoulders. "Although I still have one more question for you?"

"Yes?"

"Why? Why are you proud of that? I mean surely this isn't something new for you, don't you tame animals all the time?"

"This was different?"

"How so? I mean, I'm practically made up of different animal parts."

"Because you're not just some bunny or deer, you can actually talk and have a much more viewed and distinct outlook on the world...and you do have magic, so I think that should make you different from just any animal I tame. Besides, I didn't necessarily tame you."

"Why not?"

"Because you aren't domesticated or anything...you still have the freedom to make your own choices, good and bad. All I did was show you the consequences of one of those paths."

"Ah huh...I see...but haven't you saved Equestria a few times or something, including me?" when he said that last part, Fluttershy thought she saw a pang of distraught in his eyes.

"Discord...I would like to talk more but I think we should do it...ahem...somewhere else?" he smiled mischievously.

"As you wish," he said taking a hovered bow. He snapped his fingers, draining the bath tub with small whales that had large elephant trunks and teleported them to her living room. Fluttershy was instantly dried off and was wrapped in a white, fluffy robe.

"There, now you were saying?" he inquired. Fluttershy was still a little stunned from being teleported but quickly shook it off. Discord made a professional looking suit appear on him as he held a clipboard and pen.

"Right...umm, well that is true, about saving Equestria and all, and I just hope that you don't reminisce about what you did in the past because it's ok and-" she was cut off.

"Wait wait wait wait...what did you say?" Discord made his outfit disappear.

"I said it's ok."

"For taking over Equestria...twice?"

"Umm...yeah."

"Why and how is that ok? I mean, I'd love to agree with you and just let bygones be bygones but it seems that everypony else doesn't exactly agree with your statement my dear," he said with a click of the tongue and had a puzzled and confused look on his face.

"Well I don't really blame you, per-say, I mean I know how it feels to be called names and thought to be something that doesn't really matter, and I can only imagine how far that went for you to have the mentality to take over Equestria," she said explanatory. He was silent and for a moment, stunned.

"Not that it was the best decision but if you've never had a friend before and haven't ever been shown kindness, I wouldn't necessarily say that it was totally your fault."

"...I see...Let me ask you this Fluttershy. If nopony had told you to, and I hadn't taken over Equestria twice and even perhaps I wasn't as..." he made a thesaurus appear along with glasses and browsed through the large book. With a loud slap, he closed the book and made both it and the glasses disappear. "...Parsimonious as I am and/or was..." he leaned in closer towards her which caused her to hold her breath. Something about this situation, about the way he leaned forward and whispered into her ear, causing her to gently tremble, though it was not out of fear; she hoped he knew that. "If you took all that into account and pretended that it was all true, would you have dared approach me by yourself," he breathed before backing up slightly so that his face was directly in front of hers. "Would you have greeted me by free will and shaken my deformed hands without screaming, sit in my company without shaking, speak to me without that little voice in your head telling you to run?" his voice was gentle but corse but his eyes held...something different, something mysterious.

Fluttershy gulped, though not intentionally. She could feel her fur stand on end but she prayed that he wouldn't notice, in fear that he might think that she was afraid of him, but she wasn't. She was far from it and could see the eagerness in his eyes to hear her answer.

He thought he already knew the answer. It was the same for everypony. She was the same, simply trying to do whatever the Princess demanded. Sucking up to her good-will. They all thought her a beauty and beacon of hope and wisdom with no more flaws than a god. Where ever he went, whichever timeline it was everything was always the same and this buttercream mare, this Element of Kindness, this flightless pegasus was no different. He knew it, he dared not think anything else. She was the same as-"Yes."

Her small voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking towards her, he noticed that she was biting her lip and her eyes were large. Why?

"Don't lie," he snared, backing away and sitting back in his chair. The whole time he had been by her neck, breathing heavily. Fluttershy hadn't known what to do. Why was he acting so...strange all of the sudden?

"I-I'm not lying. You're saying that if you had never taken over Equestria, I had never been told to befriend you and if you weren't as..."

"Parsimonious," he finished. She nodded. "If all that were true, your asking me if I would have befriended you on my own if we had met in town or bumped into each other while heading somewhere...and I said and still say, yes. Yes, I believe that I would-"

"Fluttershy, come on. While I admire your kindness, I think we both know that you're just saying these things, these words of utter nonsense, to spare my feelings. Well save your sentimentality my dear, because I don't want your or anypony else's pity!" he surged, his voice raising with each word.

"Discord I'm not-"

"Don't...just...don't. Goodbye my dear." And in a snap of his lion paw fingers, the Lord of Chaos disappeared, leaving the Element of Kindness in confusion as soft and pondering tears left her angelic teal eyes.

Author's Note:

Helpful criticism is always appreciated!

Comments

[axelsempai]

I see he's already learned the art of unnecessary guilt trips. He's gonna fit right in.