"You really are the nicest ponies I've ever met."
- Fluttershy
So many things began with rain. Days, contemplations, events in the waiting, but she thought of this as something right and good. No matter how often the rain pooled on a lily pad, played music on a lake, or applied its vibrant makeup to the leaves of a tree, it never felt trite to her. It never grew boring or felt old. Rain was life and brought a gentle quiet that filled her heart. Rain was the gray caress of a world that cared. Even now, so many decades into her life, rain was a comfort and a companion.
Fluttershy sat beneath a giant taro leaf and watched a family of frogs play in the puddles. Taro wasn’t native to the Everfree, nor to Ponyville, but Discord had made a row of them grow temporarily at the edge of the ancient forest near her cottage so that Fluttershy had something to sit beneath to keep herself dry. She knew he’d have preferred multi-colored umbrellas, but it meant a lot to her that he was willing to maintain the aesthetic integrity of the moment.
Though she couldn’t see him, she knew he was there, waiting for her to call his name or to just think loudly enough that she wished for his physical presence. There were always telltale signs whenever he was near. A strange shimmer in the wet grass, a drop or two of water that fell up instead of down, the faintest smell of burnt sugar and allspice in the air, unnoticed by all but those who knew to look for it. It made her chest feel warm and her breath flow free to sense him like that.
Her cheek muscles twitched, forcing her face into a sort of mock grin, and it was a struggle not to fight against it. Fighting the spasms just made them worse. Instead, she took several long slow breaths through her nose, smelling the wet grass, trees, and dirt that surrounded her and doing her best to center herself. She felt the warm and familiar paw of her husband settle on her shoulder.
“Let me get you something soothing to drink, Fluttershy. I know you hate the poison joke tea, but it does help.”
Fluttershy placed her hoof over the disembodied paw and closed her eyes.
“Sit with me for a while. It helps more.”
“Of course.” Like a giant serpent, Discord emerged from a hole in the air and coiled himself around his wife so that his body supported her back and his head rested against her right side. He didn’t press her on the tea, didn’t ask her how she was feeling, or suggest they go somewhere warmer and away from the rain. He just sat with her, and that was all she needed.
After many long minutes, the frogs seemed to have tired themselves out. They lined up in a neat little row, waved goodbye to Fluttershy–all the while ignoring Discord–and then hopped off towards the larger pond behind Fluttershy’s cottage. They had a little home there.
There was no grace in their jumps. As frogs tended to do, they’d bump into each other or land awkwardly, but it didn’t seem to matter to them at all. They’d land on a friend who’d croak indignantly, and then launch themselves immediately into the next jump without any forethought to where they might land. It made her laugh, and it made her wish to be freer than she sometimes felt she was.
Once the frogs were out of sight, she sighed and leaned her head against Discord, closing her eyes for a moment and enjoying his warmth.
“I’m going with her,” she said, and felt Discord tense beneath her.
“I don’t trust her,” he growled, “not like this.” He snapped his claws, and a miniature Twilight made of small purple lights appeared in the air before them. The Twilight facsimile furrowed her brow in rage and began to silently yell at nothing in particular, all the while her eyes shone blue.
Fluttershy opened one eye to look at his creation, before sighing and closing it again.
“Pinkie and Rarity need our help regardless.” Then, after a moment, she added, “and I… I want to make things better between us again. I want to try to talk to her. It’s been so long…”
“Not long enough,” he growled. “She’s as bad as she ever was. You saw her try to dispel my magic. That look in her eyes, the magic she was using. She’s erratic, Fluttershy. Unstable. I’ve never met anyone whose emotions are in such a constant state of chaos, and coming from me, that means something.” He gently moved a strand of her mane from her face and tucked it behind her ear. He looked pained, and when he spoke again, his voice was rich with concern for her.
“I’m afraid she’ll hurt you again.”
“I am too,” Fluttershy admitted after a moment. “Sometimes, when I see her in the castle, she seems almost monstrous. Then I blink, and she looks like herself again. Tired and sad, but still just Twilight Sparkle. And when I see her like that–as just Twilight–I get so angry. Angry that I have nightmares about her and that I wince whenever I see her unexpectedly. Angry that I’ll always be in pain because of her. I want to yell at her, and sometimes, I even…” she let the thought hang in the air for a moment, then took a steadying breath and closed her eyes tight. “Sometimes, I even want to hurt her back, Discord. I think about how I’d do it, and it makes me feel strong, even good, for just a moment…”
He tightened his coiled hug around her, and the pressure was comforting.
“She needs my help, and I know that helping her back from whatever this is she’s been going through for the last ten years will help me too. But I’m still so mad at her, and I don’t know how not to be.”
Discord didn’t say anything for a while. He didn’t try to fix her feelings or tell her she was justified, nor did he give any advice on whether or not she should try to reach out to Twilight. Fluttershy loved him for it. He trusted her implicitly, and he was confidant in her in ways she had never quite been able to be in herself.
If she said she would do a thing, he never questioned her, never tried to sway her this way or that, but he was always there beside her. And if she ever stumbled, or struggled, or fell down, he was there to lift her back up, and that meant more than the world to her. She tried to do the same for him, to be his pillar. She thought she did a pretty good job of it.
“I love you,” she said, resting her head against his body.
“Hmm? Oh, yes, I love you too.”
Fluttershy raised an eyebrow at her husband. “You seem distracted.”
“Something Twilight said is bothering me. I think… well, I don’t know what I’m thinking. It could be nothing, but if it isn’t nothing, it’s certainly something, and that something might or might not explain some other things. Do you think Twilight chews sweet marjoram?”
“The herb? She probably makes tea out of it sometimes. It’s pretty common. I’ve never heard of anypony chewing it on its own.”
“Hmm…” he hummed but left it at that.
The rain continued to pour over the edge of her protective taro leaf. A heron stalked through a small pond not far from them, rummaging through the shallow water with its long beak for something to eat. Fluttershy had never seen him before, but it wasn’t uncommon for birds to pass through this area.
In general, birds tended to be split on how comfortable they were getting close to the Everfree. Larger birds had few concerns, and most hunting birds, like owls, crows, vultures, and hawks ventured in gladly, but a lot of smaller birds and waterfowl tended to give the dark woods a wide berth.
Of course, the area around Fluttershy’s cottage was a safe place for all animals regardless, so for a couple of acres spreading in every direction from her doorstep, you could expect to see any and every possible combination of both mundane and magical critters, birds included.
She would miss it, but as much as she preferred to stay home, going on this adventure felt both necessary and right to her. It seemed to call her much like Twilight’s old map once had. Besides, she could use the trip to check in on some of her hospitals and animal shelters. There was one near Baltimare she hadn’t visited in a long time.
She leaned over and planted a kiss on Discord’s nose.
“Come,” she said. “We should probably head back home. I don’t know when we’re leaving, but it couldn’t hurt to pack some.”
Discord yawned and stretched and disentangled himself from Fluttershy.
“I don’t understand why you always bother packing for these things,” he said, then reached through a hole in the air and pulled out a jar of cloudberry jelly that had just moments ago been sitting on the top shelf in Fluttershy’s pantry.
Fluttershy shrugged her shoulders and made a non-committal noise.
“It’s just nice,” she said. “And I can’t just rely on you for everything.”
“I suppose,” he said, sounding anything but convinced. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly the taro they’d been sitting under teleported into his hand and transformed into a cute green umbrella. Fluttershy nestled in close to him, and the walk back to the cottage was just as still and pleasant as the rest of the day had been.
The heron squawked as it watched them go with its keen yellow eyes, ignoring the prey that scurried about at its feet, and in the distance, the frogs croaked.