Reflection
Fall. Out of all the seasons, Discord could surprising tolerate the most in comparison to the seasons like Spring and Summer.
Spring to him suffered too much of the ponies trying to hard to make the world perfect, pretty, and boring. Summer, while slightly being better than Spring because it has more heat to it, still looked too much like Spring for his taste. Winter, while having a variety of creative uses for it like making ponies slip on the ice and snowball fights, has too much white in it. Winter wasn’t colorful enough for his taste, but it was enough to name Winter as his “favorite” season.
As for Fall, it had more color than Winter. But, the colors of Fall faded too soon and the colorful leaves become something dead and boring, and cover all the road in this depressing boring-ness. Although, he did take some sweet joy from the slight annoyance that leaves could bring to ponies’ yard and their feeble attempt to cleanse their personal area from this dead foliage. He also took some sweet joy from how cold Fall can get and how this harsh cold air can easily push ponies over. Not to mention how much he would crack up every time Nightmare Night would come around, on account of how much it would make fun of the serious Princess of the Night herself. Discord can always approve of a holiday that allows creature to scare each other and prank one another on purpose. Although, such a holiday does take away some of the fun of terrifying and pranking ponies in the first place.
The one thing thing that Discord truly didn’t understand about Fall was why everypony was obsessed with pumpkin themed drinks and foods during this time of the season. Was this a spell that Celestia casted long ago in order to help ponies accept and overly love Fall? The world may never know...for now.
This was what Discord was thinking to himself as he pretended to clean Fluttershy’s tea dishes and cups, as he subtly used the snap of his magic to make new but identical tea dishes and cups. Once he was done making the dirty tea dishes and cups even dirtier than they were, he poofed them out of existence. Going to either his home dimension or some other dimension entirely. Discord couldn’t decide.
As he was walking back to Fluttershy’s living room from kitchen, he received a judging and disapproving tapping of the foot and stare from Angel. Discord responded by sticking his tongue at him, turning his tongue into party blower that blew into Angel’s face. This made Angel swat the end of the party blower away and scurry away in a huff. With a satisfied smirk on his face, Discord walked towards Fluttershy, who was sitting in her chair near the living room. When Discord set his gaze on Fluttershy, he immediately got that gut feeling that something was wrong.
Her ears were softly pinned back, her eyes were dazed as they focused on the fall scene outside, and her wings were weeping off to each side of her back and thus allowing her feathers to fan out lazily. Discord turned his head out a little to see what was going outside that grabbed Fluttershy’s attention so much. The scene outside, from Discord’s perspective, was nothing special. Just a boring, grey, fall day. It was getting towards the end of the season, all the leaves have fallen, and the weather out there just looked simply monotone. Absolutely monotone. Her animals were out there as usual, doing what boring things that animals do. Though, they weren’t as active as they usually are. These days, they’ve been busy stuffing their faces from sunrise to sunset. Even Angel has been too preoccupied with eating to even get on his case sometimes. Discord had even noticed that her animals were picking up some weight.
Discord mentally sighed to himself because he never thought it had come to the day where he was paying so much close attention to animals before. Fluttershy really had an effect on him.
“Fluttershy?” Discord asked as he quietly took the chair next to Fluttershy.
“Hmm?” Fluttershy muttered, his simple question instantly drawing her out of her melancholy day dreaming.
She turned her gaze to him, wide eyed and slightly concern, “Oh, did you say something Discord? If so and if I missed it, I’m so sorry.”
Discord warmly chuckled and assured her with, “Don’t worry, my dear. I didn’t say anything.”
“Oh, that’s a relief,” Fluttershy sighed, releasing some tension from her body as she breathed out.
“Is there something on your mind, my dear?” questioned Discord, removing the top of his head like a top hat and showing/revealing to Fluttershy the pink brain inside his head.
This chaotic display didn’t faze Fluttershy, but rather, it was her question that was giving her concern. In order to hide this concern, she tried to softly smile at him and say, “Oh no, nothing in particular. Just enjoying the lovely weather today.”
After he placed the top of his head back into its rightful spot, Discord mockingly but playfully shamed Fluttershy with, “Tsk Tsk Fluttershy! I’m surprised at you! What would dear ole Applejack say if she caught you lying to me right now?”
“Oh no, I wasn’t-” But then, Fluttershy caught herself in the middle of her excuse and stopped herself. She let out a defeated sigh before replying with, “Is it that obvious?”
“Just a tad,” Discord comforted her with a non-judging and friendly smile, “Now, tell me, what’s going on in that lovely head of yours?”
In a reflective tone, turning her eyes back to the scene outside her cottage window, “I was just...thinking.”
“About what?” Discord inquired further in a cheeky tone.
“A-About winter...and winter set-up coming up.”
“And this causes you distress because?”
“Well, it’s not causing me any distress, don’t worry. It’s just that...when winter set-up comes up...when winter comes...it’s my duty to help the animals prepare for winter.”
“And how do you do that?”
“It’s a bit of a multiple step process. Something that starts in the beginning of fall actually. You see, during the winter, birds fly south for the season in order to stay warm. While the mammals and reptiles start building and storing fat for hibernation. And hibernation is when the animal goes into a deep sleep for a season. My job first starts with feeding the mammals and reptiles with as much food as possible, so that way, they can have enough fat to help them survive during hibernation without food or water.
So that’s why the animals have been looking so chubby lately, Discord thought to himself.
“As for the birds, I help with their flight practice and encourage them to strengthen their wings for the long flight.”
“And then what do you do during winter set-up then?”
“Once the beginning of winter comes, I help find proper dens for all the mammals and reptiles to hibernate in and I see the birds off as they begin their journey.”
“My, you ponies sure go through a lot of work just to maintain your own seasons.”
Fluttershy chuckled slightly and agreed, “We sure do.”
“So, when you mean by mammals, do you mean ALL mammals? Even rabbits?” Discord asked, keeping in sight of Angel Bunny in the corner of his eye. He could see the devil rabbit stuffing his face with more carrots.
“Yes, even rabbits. My dear Angel even gets to hibernate with the rest of the animals once winter comes.” Fluttershy sighed sadly, as she softly closed her eyes.
Yes! Discord rejoiced inside his head.
But, this rejoicing didn’t last as Discord took another look at his friend beside him. It seemed like talking about all this has made her look even sadder than before.
“Even though, I do this every year,” Fluttershy finally uttered, “it still doesn’t get any easier. It’s not like I feel like my animals won’t be safe, they will be because this process is natural and true to how they live with or without pony influence. It’s just that...the garden...the cottage...everything around the house is going to feel so...empty. Even though I don’t have a large home or garden, their absence will only make this place feel bigger than it actually is. Especially without Angel around.”
Then, Fluttershy was slightly surprised when she felt something soft caress the bottom of her chin. She opened her eyes and allowed her head to gently turn away from the window. She saw that was Discord’s tail under her chin, and he was smiling at her with that cheeky, signature smile of his.“In that case, why don’t I move in? Just for the winter season? Once your little critters wake up, I’ll be out of your hair before you can even say ‘hibernation’.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly ask such a favor from you.”
“Why not? You have every right to. It’s the least I could do for you after you allowed me to crash at your place when you were first befriending me.”
“But, what about your house? Your dimension? Are you sure things will be okay without your presence?”
“Of course it will! My magic is far more flexible, powerful, and vast that you think it is. I don’t always need a snap of my talon to make things happen. Just one thought can blossom one flower of chaos. In other words, if I think no place like home, then my home shall stay safe and sound.”
A smile slowly but gently formed on Fluttershy’s face as she turned away from the window. She reached her forelegs towards Discord’s stomach and gave her good friend a warm hug. It didn’t take too long for Discord to give into the hug, let himself to smile, and close his eyes in order to enjoy the loving gesture.
“Thank you Discord. Thank you for staying with me.”
“Always my dear, always.”