Kindness and the Heart of Shadow

by Raven-Flight

Aftermath

Princess Luna was inconsolable, but Celestia tried her best anyway. “You sacrificed yourself for me, little sister, and everything that happened after you put on that helm was not your fault.”

“It was an impossible choice!” Luna leaned into her sister and sobbed for a minute. “How could I have known which path would be worse? I knew the depth of pain and regret the Helm of Shadows would bring, and even for how desperately I wanted never to experience it again, I still couldn’t bear the thought of you having to live with that pain! But now in sparing you that, I’ve brought you to grief anyway! Why, why does my every decision always result in suffering?”

As the sisters continued to wet each others’ fur with tears, Fluttershy whispered into Discord’s ear. “Isn’t there anything you could do?”

“It may be within my power to put it back, but that would accomplish nothing. Her magic would have to pass through a strut of chaos magic every time she tried to cast a spell, and you can imagine how that might go. Better let her adjust her magic to the broken horn than try to fix it.”

“Oh.”

---

“Starlight!”

The pony in question moaned as she awoke.

“Starlight, oh my gosh, are you okay?”

“Trixie, am I ever glad to see you.” Starlight tried to rise, but the changeling slime still anchored her to the ground.

“Here, let me help.” Trixie dug away some of the goo with a stone, then pulled her friend until she popped free.

Starlight moaned again, rubbing her head. “I thought I was dead.”

“Well you’re not, and I’m not! The Great and Powerful Trixie was so worried!” The two shared a hug. Her friend’s affection perked Starlight up considerably.

“Thanks for coming for me. I’m feeling much better! After Queen Chrysalis left me trapped, I must have fainted, and all the brainwashed ponies moved away.”

“Well, however it happened, Trixie would certainly have saved you from those meanies herself if she had gotten here sooner!”

“I know you would have,” Starlight smiled, hugging her Great and Powerful friend once more.

---

Twilight finally spoke up. “Princesses, what do you think we should do with these other three villains? We can’t just lock them up and risk their escaping and banding together again.”

Celestia and Luna now stood beside each other, still grieving but reconciled. The former raised a hoof to her chin in thought.

“Pardon me, Princess Twilight,” Discord interrupted, “but I believe I have the solution to that. Princess Celestia, if my perception is correct, you are in possession of a pocket dimension, yes?”

“I, well yes, but what does that have to do—”

“Suppose I gave you another.”

“What?”

“I can create pocket dimensions at will. I have multitudes already, in fact, but the point is I can rig them such that I and only I can enter and exit or allow entrance and exit. You understand?”

Celestia looked foggy, but Luna lit up. “You’re saying we could incarcerate the villains in limited-access pocket dimensions! Why, that could work splendidly!”

Now Twilight interjected. “But can we trust Discord to be the sole guardian of three of Equestria’s greatest villains?”

“Oh no no no! Only one! I’ve captured King Sombra already, you see. I would simply furnish a few more pocket dimensions and bequeath them upon every princess with the power to manage them, and four of us will each bear only one. That’s fair, right?”

Celestia stepped forward. “Let’s do it.”

---

Shining Armor’s eyes came into focus, and he immediately dropped the spell he was preparing. “Cadence! Cadence, are you hurt?”

The alicorn stood. “Oh, Shiny, you’re back! I’m fine.” Cadence rested her head on her husband’s shoulders, and he reciprocated the gesture. “How about you?”

Shining Armor pulled back and looked himself over. “A couple of bruises, but yeah, I seem to be okay. Were you battling me the whole time?”

“Yep.”

“Wow. We must be pretty well-matched.”

Cadence giggled. “Of course we are! I wouldn’t have married you if we weren’t a good match!”

They laughed and embraced, and for a moment, they knew nothing but relief and peace.

---

Twilight and her friends all walked back toward Canterlot Castle, except for Rainbow Dash, who had a broken rib and was being carried by Applejack. As they went along silently, Twilight tested the magical sensation of the new pocket dimension tethered to her. The weight of it felt great; her former student Cozy Glow was trapped inside. She hated to lock the filly up once again, but at least in this situation, the Princess of Friendship might be able to give her proper counseling. One day, even, Twilight might be able to reintroduce Cozy Glow into society as a changed filly. Or a changed mare, depending on how long the therapy would take. Everycreature was lost in such somber thoughts of their own, but finally, Applejack spoke up.

“So Fluttershy, now that all that’s over, wanna tell us what happened to ya? Why do ya look so different?”

“Oh, well, when Sombra ponynapped me, he locked me up in this cold, dark cell. Um, to leave out all the details, he, um, he tortured me. Physically and emotionally and mentally, until I didn’t know what was what anymore. Twilight, remember how you accidentally transformed me into a bat-pony?” The alicorn nodded, and Discord raised an eyebrow. “I think my body remembered that, and a bunch of those bat traits came back as it tried to cope with all the abuse. I must have been almost dead when Discord rescued me and brought me to a hippogryph hospital. When I got kind of recovered, he brought me to all of you, and then I guess we’re all caught up!”

After such a story, the ponies walked quietly for a few minutes.

Rainbow Dash broke the silence. “You sure are tough, Fluttershy!”

“Thanks Rainbow.”

An expression of surprise flashed across Rarity’s face, and she piped up. “Discord, where were you these last few moons while everypony here was suffering?”

Discord mimed offense. “Just because you never saw me doesn’t me I wasn’t helping, you know. I couldn’t interfere openly for Fluttershy’s sake, so I cloaked myself and searched for her in stealth. Once she was back with all of you, I figured you’d have no trouble doing your little friendship magic thingy and setting everything back to normal, as you prefer it. But then I found Fluttershy nearly dead, so I had to do something. And then Sombra showed up to try to steal her back again, and then we battled, yada yada, and that’s how I came up with the pocket dimension prison trick and kept ol’ shadow boy out of the battle we just finished up.”

“So what you’re saying is,” Pinkie Pie bounced up, “you’ve been hard at work behind the scenes without any thanks this whole time and in addition to the big super-fun congratulations-we-saved-the-world-again party I’m gonna throw for everypony, I should also throw a big MVP party to celebrate you!”

“I don’t know, Pinkie,” mused Discord, trying to hide how touched he felt, “I can only let you throw me a party if you can bake me a cake in a flavor I’ve never tried before!”

“Dealio! Wanna shake on it?” Pinkie Pie moved in front of the draconequus and extended her hoof. Discord took it and immediately convulsed in a giant twitch.

“Gotcha!” Pinkie Pie revealed the joke buzzer she’d been hiding, and the seven friends all shared a much-needed laugh.

---

Everypony had retreated to their rooms in Canterlot Castle for the night. Fluttershy was designated a room to herself, but there was no way Discord was going to leave his friend’s side so soon after rescuing her. He snuck into her quarters and reclined on the ceiling as the two stayed up late in conversation.

“Why did our hearts switch again?” Discord asked.

“Your heart had stopped, and Twilight and I couldn’t revive you the usual way.” Fluttershy sat on the edge of her bed, craning her neck to look up at the upside-down draconequus.

“Twilight?”

“Yes, Twilight. She gave you shocks to try to restart your heartbeat.”

“Okay, so what did you do?”

“I, um, I tried to, um, help you breathe.”

“Ah.” There was a tense silence. Discord glanced at Fluttershy’s lips and she was looking away, already blushing. “Well,” he finally coughed. “That—that did it, then?”

“No, it didn’t!” Fluttershy immediately recovered herself. “I was so scared, and you were turning blue, and I thought you were going to die! Then I remembered how you switched our hearts to save my life, and I thought maybe if we did that again, I could save yours! But Twilight didn’t want to perform the switch because she didn’t understand. I was so desperate, and then something compelled me to throw myself on top of you. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Maybe Twilight switched our hearts when you were unconscious?”

“Maybe, but… I think my magic as the Element of Kindness had something to do with it. You see, when I have a deep connection with something, either emotional or physical, my body starts to assume characteristics of that thing. That might be why I transformed back into a bat-pony after all this time.”

“Right, I wanted to ask you for that story. It sounds most fascinating...”

“Sure, another time. I was just thinking, since your heart had been in my body once already, maybe my body still had some chaos magic in it. Maybe the memory of your chaos magic in me is what allowed me to switch our hearts and save you.”

“Incredible. Well, after you fell unconscious and I woke up, Pinkie Pie told me what you said and did. I realized you must have my heart and gave you a little jolt of chaos to get it going again, and voilà, you woke up too.”

“So, um, do I still have your heart in me?”

“Goodness me, how could I forget? Yes, you do! Shall I switch them back now?”

“That might be best.”

He snapped. “There we go! Does that feel okay?”

Fluttershy inhaled and exhaled. “Yes, all back to normal. Thank you.”

What can be said after switching hearts with someone twice? Another silence fell. Fluttershy took her pulse as if to double-check, and while she did, she thought she heard Discord sigh and whisper “Incredible...” again.

“Hey Fluttershy, uh,” he started, aloud, “That Sombra guy was a fool, but he seemed utterly convinced that you were in love with him. Is—is that true?”

“He got me totally delirious, Discord. That’s the only way he could have persuaded me of anything. He made me believe I loved him after making me believe that you had abandoned me. I’m sorry I lost hope in you.”

“Don’t you apologize to me, Fluttershy. Really, it’s I who should be apologizing to you! I should have found you sooner and rescued you before you had to endure all that!” To demonstrate his sincerity, Discord materialized a big, fluffy teddy bear with a pink bow around its neck and set it next to Fluttershy. She took it and hugged it up against her chest.

“No, but you have to let me apologize. I, he—he tricked me into thinking I was in love with him. You were always in the back of my mind somewhere, but I couldn’t bear to let myself think of you. It was like, it was like somehow, in feeling love for Sombra, I was betraying you. But you know, I don’t think Sombra could have gotten me to love him if he hadn’t, um, well, he took feelings of love I already had, and um, displaced them onto himself.” She tried to keep going, but her voice was rising in pitch and her mane fell in front of her face to hide the growing blush. “Love for, y-y’know, um...”

As Fluttershy trailed off, Discord’s eyes grew wide and his face taught, neither smiling nor frowning. Slowly, he floated down and seated himself on the end of her bed. Then he got up and moved, hesitating, like he didn’t know what he was doing, to sit beside Fluttershy instead. They were so close, they were touching, and Discord brushed back her mane and fixed his eyes on hers.

“My search for you took so long because I almost died. I had to suppress my magic so I couldn’t be found, and you remember what happened last time I stopped creating chaos. My body started dissolving and I couldn’t stop myself from sinking deeper and deeper into the ground. With every mile I fell, my existence faded more and more and more. And then right before the end, somehow, I received a letter from Twilight. She must have sent it using chaos magic, and it had just enough residual chaos for me to use it to teleport to a pocket dimension and recover myself.”

Fluttershy stared, so transfixed and horrified by his story that she dropped the stuffed bear. Discord stared back silently for a second and then shook himself. “But that wasn’t my point! My point was, through all that, I didn’t care what happened to me. It was all for you, and you’re worth dying for, and my only regret was that if I died, I would have no way of knowing if you were rescued, if you would ever be safe and happy again. I spent all those weeks searching, endangering myself, because I realized how much you mean to me and how much I need you. Fluttershy, I realized...”

A panicked look spread across Fluttershy’s face even as she blushed, but still they were locked in each others’ gaze.

““I love you.””

They both froze, and the same shade of deep red painted both of their cheeks. Fluttershy looked terrified.

And Discord looked surprised. “Y-you said it too!”

She nodded, now smiling meekly. “I love you, Discord. I don’t ever want to be separated from you again.”

Discord threw his arms around the mare so eagerly that he knocked them both over on the bed. Exhilarated, ecstatic, exuberant, they savored the embrace and the new freedom to express a need that had long been growing in both of them. Fluttershy, however, was also exhausted. Her body was beaten up, the weight of the admission she’d just made had sapped all her mental strength, and now she was lying down and warmer and cozier than she’d ever been. She soon fell asleep.

Magically blowing out the candles that lit the room, Discord gave his beloved Fluttershy one more smile and likewise surrendered his consciousness. The two slept peacefully in each others’ arms.

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The FEELS!!