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"I don't give up," Fluttershy said.
In a sight few had ever seen, Rarity's face flushed, turning light pink with anger. "Do you even know what you're saying? He...literally tried to steal all the magic in the world. If that wasn't enough, he assembled an entire team of villainous creatures to do it. What would he have to do, to make you see reason--"
"Come outside with me, Rarity." Fluttershy walked towards Carousel Boutique's exit. "I want to show you something."
Rarity followed Fluttershy outdoors.
The night sky was patchy with clouds, which moved slowly across the heavens. "Look up," Fluttershy said. "What do you see?"
Rarity's gaze lifted. "Clouds. The moon. And darkness, of course. But dark and cold as it might be, it's nothing to the darkness of Discord's heart."
Fluttershy shook her head. "You're missing something very important. Not something...a LOT of somethings. For so many sailors and travelers and poor lost ponies, the difference between being lost forever, and finding their way to where they should be. Sometimes, even, the difference between life and death."
Rarity's eyes studied the heavens. "The stars. Sailors navigate by the stars."
"Yes."
"But what do the stars have to do with you and Discord?"
Fluttershy took a deep breath. "The moon is so big and bright, it seems by far the most important thing in the sky, doesn't it?"
Rarity sighed. "I think you're about to tell me otherwise."
"Rarity...I suppose the stars are tiny little things, from our point of view. Compared to the moon they seem so unimportant, so...dim."
Rarity grimaced. "You are NOT dim, Fluttershy. Don't let anycreature tell you that. You're so kind, and beautiful...you light up the world around you more than Discord ever could. As if HE would even try. Hmmph."
"It's kind of you to say that about me. But look at the stars again. Can you find the North Star for me?"
Rarity looked up at the cloud-patched heavens. "Let's see...I learned in school that the Ursa Minor's tail points to the north, but..." She uttered an unladylike word. "I don't think we can see it, with all these clouds in the way. I suppose I can't find the North Star, not tonight."
"If you get to know the stars well enough, you can recognize which way is which, even without seeing the North Star itself." Fluttershy pointed at an open patch of sky. "There's Celestia's Champion. If you look along the line of the Champion's Spear, about seven spearlengths this way...the North Star is behind that cloud. You don't need to see it with your own eyes, to know it's there. You need only learn to trust the stars you CAN see."
Rarity chuckled bitterly. "So if Discord can't see what's good with his own eyes...you want to be the star who points the way to what he can't find on his own."
"Not only me, Rarity. You, Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, even Rainbow Dash--"
"I suppose if anypony can understand Discord, maybe Dashie would be the one. They're both egotistical enough. But Discord is infinitely more selfish and self-centered than Rainbow could ever be."
"You forgot some ponies, Rarity. Or I should say, somecreatures."
Rarity thought for a moment. "Spikey-Wikey? And Big McIntosh?"
"Yes. Among others. But those two are very important. Dragons can live for many hundreds of years, you know. Much longer than ponies can."
"With the exception of alicorns. I wonder...someday, when you're gone...when old age takes you, or when some thoughtless, foul act of Discord takes you earlier than that...what would Twilight do to him? Maybe he would finally get what he deserves."
"Don't say that. Don't ever say that. In an all-out battle between Discord and the alicorns...I'm not sure how much of our world would even survive it."
Rarity bared her teeth in an angry grimace. "So that's why you won't leave him. You don't love him at all, do you? He has the entire world as a hostage, and he makes you dance to his tune." She stomped a hoof. "I would kill him. He's lucky that I don't have the power to. To free you, Fluttershy...I would kill him without a second thought."
"I know," Fluttershy acknowledged.
"I would do it for you." Rarity insisted.
Fluttershy shook her head, part of her mane waving in front of her face. "I know you would. But it wouldn't be the right thing to do."
Rarity sobbed. "I want you to be free."
"I know you do. But do you want me to be free only for my own sake, to do whatever I please...or do you want me to be free to love you, and only you?"
"I would accept whatever I could get. Your freedom. Your love. Your freedom AND your love. I would that you could choose for yourself..."
"I HAVE chosen."
"Celestia DAMN you and your choice!" Rarity shouted. She blushed hotly, although Fluttershy couldn't see the color through the darkness. "I mean..."
"I know what you meant. Rarity, I think I should go. I have things I need to do. You aren't the only creature in my life, you know."
"Oh, how well I know that. Only too well."
Fluttershy nodded. "I would hug you goodbye, but I'm afraid it might only make you feel worse, in the long run. You need to learn to let go, Rarity."
Rarity growled, "Damn you and your foresight. Your...looking ahead. I don't give a broken bit for the distant future. I only care about you. About you and me, and trying to give you the kind of love you deserve."
"I know, Rarity. I'm sorry." Fluttershy spread her wings, and took to the air. The pale-coated unicorn beneath her gazed skywards, as the beautiful pegasus flew away.
***
On the outskirts of Ponyville, Fluttershy descended towards a cottage.
In front of the cottage, a tall, serpentine creature who seemed to be made from an assemblage of miscellaneous, mismatched parts waited for her. Pony parts, dragon parts...was his left arm made from some giant bird's lower leg, or taken from some especially unusual kind of dragon? How many different kinds of animals were in the mix? With Discord, you could never expect to have all the answers.
Except sometimes, Fluttershy hoped. For a few of the most important questions, she hoped she'd already found answers that would work. Day by day, year by year, she groped and struggled towards applying those answers to her unholy paramour.
Fluttershy landed in front of the creature. "Discord," she said.
"Fluttershy, my dear." Discord bowed deeply, waving one arm towards her.
"Shall we do this?" Fluttershy asked.
"Let us go inside. Out here, it would be so...embarrassing. So undignified."
Fluttershy snorted. "Do you think you deserve any dignity?"
Discord shook his head. "I suppose not. But please do this little thing for me. This tiny indulgence, a scrap of privacy."
"Hmmph. Yet another undeserved indulgence, out of so many."
"Please. Pretty please, Fluttershy. I beg you."
Fluttershy stalked past the draconequus, and nosed her cottage door open. After she entered, she looked back and gestured with her delicate snout. "Inside, you beast."
"I thought you'd never ask," Discord said, with a voice that sounded as cultured and urbane as his twisted personality wasn't. He followed the pegasus into the cottage.
All around the cottage's main room, little animals scattered in every direction. Some ran out the door, and some ran up the stairs, or found holes in the walls. One little white rabbit gave Discord a nasty look, full of loathing, before he scurried away.
"I don't think you're a good influence on Angel Bunny," Fluttershy said. "Just being around you...even before he met you, he was sometimes a very naughty little creature. But now you've given him cause to hate. Hatred is bad enough, but knowing that his hatred is justified? That's even worse for his little soul, I think."
"So," Discord said. "You recognize that even the beasts of the field, and the very nastiest creatures, have souls."
Fluttershy looked him in the eyes, her face stony. "How not? I know YOU, don't I? I know you very well."
"Do it," Discord said. "I need to know the truth. I need to know there's somecreature who can--"
Something changed in Fluttershy's eyes. A normal, full-blooded pony might not have recognized the alteration. It was Fluttershy's Stare, her special power to intimdate any animal.
As she glared at the draconequus, he sank to the floor, lowering himself more abjectly than any pony had ever done for Celestia. "Yes. I can feel it. There IS a creature who can do this to me. Somecreature who can make me submit. Somecreature stronger than me.
"I beg you...please make me your slave, Mistress Fluttershy."
"Discord," Fluttershy said. "You should think about the things you've done. Do you have any idea how many ponies and other creatures you've endangered? You have been a VERY bad draconequus."
"Yes," Discord half-sighed, looking up at the pegasus. "Make me know it. Yes, please." He trembled, his stomach touching the ground, as his sinuous neck bent farther to let him keep looking up at Fluttershy's face. "Yes, I deserve this. Please tell me, Mistress Fluttershy, how very bad I've been. What a lowly creature I am. Make me feel it. Perhaps, someday, I'll be able to remember for longer than a little while, what it is to be good."
"So you think you DESERVE my attention, do you, my wretched little worm?"
"Fluttershy...I need it so much. Without you...I think I would die."
Fluttershy nodded. "At least that's a start, you little shit. Let me tell you some more things you need to understand."