Flutter On
Chapter 1: Flutter On
I recently discovered SandJosieph's Daddy Discord and liked the concept of the relationship between the characters, and the idea came to me of how Discord might have used Screwball to his advantage if the relationship was canon. This is not a "Keep Calm and Flutter On" novelization with Screwball's dialogue added in, but rather a story in its own right. Constructive criticism is appreciated, especially concerning characterization.
MLP: FIM © Hasbro
A vision of ponies flashed across her mind - six ponies to be exact and all connected by a rainbow and surrounding a familiar statue: Screwball could not understand it. One moment her dream was following a lone pony pulling a cart with milk - without a companion to talk to or anything to look at but rock farms on either side - and now she saw this strange sight of bright colors, floating ponies, and a certain draconequus encased in stone. That was interesting, but interesting things never happened in her dreams. Whatever the reason for its sudden appearance, Screwball felt as if a great weight was lifted, and she sucked in a deep breath. Her eyes opened, and she found herself staring at the ceiling of a semi-dark cave - an ordinary, seen-one-seen-them-all hole in the earth. A wave of disappointment flooded her small being. She was still dreaming.
One might have thought that a filly who had been exposed to chaos since her first breath would dream of even zanier things, but this was not an ordinary sleep. In an ironic twist of fate, it chose to show her the mundane. Her dreams could involve a mother and colt sitting in the waiting room of a dentist office or shelves in a library with books arranged in alphabetical order and by the authors' last names. It stood to reason then - not that Screwball knew much about reason, but it was a given that if she were now looking at an ordinary ceiling of a cave, then she must still be dreaming. If this were reality, then the walls of the cave would be polka dotted with candy-cane stalactites, and maybe the bats would break out into a barber-quartet rendition of "Winter Wrap Up". This had to be a dream because if she were awake, then that meant that he was free, and he would have already begun to make everything chaotic again. So, since he had not twisted the norm into a confusing parody of itself, then he was still in stone, and she was still dreaming.
A yawn escaped her mouth, and she ran her lavender hooves along the cool floor, enjoying the feel of the grooves within the rough stone. She had been in a cave when she had fallen into her sleep, but back then there had been a river of limeade flowing through the caverns, and all the rocky inclines were covered in butter which made the earth-bound spelunker ponies slip and slide into the cave walls made of chocolate and bits of marshmallows. The latter of which would pop out and begin to chase the ponies while making turkey calls. Screwball had been on a ledge near the mouth of the cave watching the fun when she felt the shift that told her that in another part of Equestria a certain draconequus had begun to change into stone. Then she had fallen asleep. She had never once saw anything so colorful as that cave in her enchanted dreams, so she wondered why she would remember it now in great detail. Maybe because the sounds of a rushing river deep in this false cave was so much like the stream of limeade that had been in her reality.
She was enjoying the smell of the cold air when she found herself suddenly and violently drawn out of her reverie by the sensation of something crawling on her foreleg. She uttered a yelp, jumping to her back hooves as she shook her limbs to get the intruder off. A figure of a spider flew into the air, smacking against the cave wall, and little yellow stars suddenly appeared swirling about its small head. Screwball rubbed her foreleg rigorously, trying to rid herself of the creepy-crawly feeling that still lingered.
Wait a minute...
Screwball looked herself over. She had never once dreamed about herself. She was always an observer as if she were in a theater watching a dull play. She quickly patted her mane, her belly, her back hooves, her tail - yes, that was right. She had a long purple tail with white streaks, didn't she? And that was her cutie mark - a gray screw and a baseball! Screwball flipped into the air, letting out a shriek. "I'm awake!" she whooped, cartwheeling and twirling for joy. "I'm awake! I'm awake! I'm a - "
" - Took you long enough to figure that out, silly filly," she said to herself dryly, plopping on all fours. "The reader already guessed it several paragraphs ago." Screwball enjoyed conversation with herself when she had no other companion (which was often), but she frowned at her own tone. Such a rude thing to say after not speaking for such a long time! She promptly retorted, "You're one to talk. Remember flying into the gumdrop twister?"
She immediately stomped her hoof. How dare she! "You really had to bring that up?" she demanded. Screwball blew a raspberry in response - she could not really see herself, but she was sure she had learned her lesson.
The purple filly looked around and quickly spotted the circle of light that could only be the mouth of the cave and took to the air, speeding toward the exit. She was sure she would pop out and see a green sky - or maybe a pink one with purple swirls or polka dots or stripes - and windmills doing cartwheels across the checkered earth and an avalanche of watermelons the size of boulders, but she was surprised to see a blue sky with white clouds and a green valley spread out before the mountain that housed her cave.
She stood gazing at it for several moments, trying to figure out what was happening. If she was awake, then he was awake, but if he was awake, then why weren't fish flying in the air? Why weren't the birds doing a tap-dance routine? But she knew, knew, knew she was awake, so he had to be awake too.
He must not have gotten here yet, she decided. Of course, he was probably raining chaos in a different part of the world. There was a method even in his madness - which really meant he followed his whims. He might turn all the watering holes in Appleloosa to cola first, then make the grass in Ponyville chocolate frosting, then turn the buildings in Manehattan to sock puppets before going back to Appleloosa and replacing the apples with chattering teeth.
She took to the air, setting the propeller on her beanie cap spinning. "I'm coming!" she called out. "Don't forget me! I'm coming!"
"He can't hear you, you know," she said under her breath.
She snorted in disdain. "Who asked you?"
Bearington was one of the many predatory creatures that Fluttershy had befriended over the years. Despite his gruff manners, the pegasus had helped him get along with the meadow and woodland creatures around Ponyville. He was a bear of few words, but right now he had quite a number of them to say about Fluttershy's new house guest and about the alicorn princess who thought it would be a good idea to release the Master of Chaos and Disharmony from his stone prison.
The yellow pegasus narrowed her flashing eyes. "Beary! She's your princess too," she scolded. She had to hover in the air to meet his gaze since the brown bear usually insisted on standing on his back paws. She shook a stern, albeit gentle, hoof at him. "Don't forget that she's ruled Equestria for over a thousand years, and she wouldn't have asked this if she didn't think it was possible."
The bear folded his arms and grumbled a growl, which was his way of saying, "Do you remember what happened when that nut job was loose?"
Fluttershy sighed and gave his hairy shoulder an empathetic rub. "Yes, yes. I know. He made you wear that silly outfit and swing on the trapeze." He growled again. "Yes, even though you hate heights." Bearington was not the only one of her animal friends to feel this way. Nearly two years before, Discord had been the dark tormentor who had plunged Equestria into a chaotic nightmare. He had oppressed ponies and animals alike for his own amusement. The robins had complained that draconequus had made them swim through the dirt while the rabbits remembered how he had stretched their legs to six times their body lengths and had forced them to stampede all over Ponyville like wild deer, hurting many of their friends. The hummingbirds had swelled like balloons and had been in danger of popping each other with their pointed beaks, and many a cloud that had not contained cola or chocolate milk had instead rained literal cats and dogs.
However, the pegasus took a deep breath to calm the rise of anger in her chest and straightened her shoulders. "But Princess Celestia thinks Discord can be reformed, and she's counting on me to do my best." Though Fluttershy felt for each of her friends who still shuddered with terror and outrage at what had transpired, she still had a job to do, and... though she was still tempted to hold onto her doubts, if her beloved ruler had faith in this mission, then the younger mare would have to trust her judgment - no matter hard it was.
Bearington muttered a begrudging resignation. He gestured a thick, furry arm toward the mouth of his cave. The message was clear. "You're welcomed to crash here if you like."
Fluttershy quickly shook her head. "Thank-you, but that won't be necessary." The pegasus forced herself to grin and turned away with a wave of her hoof. "I'll be by tomorrow with your breakfast, but don't be worried if I'm a few minutes late, okay?"
Bearington muttered something, but Fluttershy thought it was best not to ask him to repeat it. The mare flew for several yards in order to put enough distance between her and the cave before she landed and turned her sights to home.
She slowly released the breath she had been holding. Bearington's was not the first invitation she had received from the animals to escape spending an indefinite number of nights under the same roof with the Master of Chaos, and she had a feeling that it would not be the last one that she would be tempted to accept before this was all over.
Fluttershy shook her head and quickened her steps. She could not allow herself to lose her nerves on her first day. She had been given a job by the princess in person, and Celestia had said that she had confidence in her, of all ponies, to know how to convince Discord to do good instead of his rambling, chaotic evil. As much he had scared her then... and now... if she demonstrated a genuine kindness and solicitude to Discord in spite of his past, then maybe he would start to see the value in harmony that came with friendship.
That had been her strategy when she had befriended Bearington. When the brown bear first appeared, he had been a reserved, cynical creature, unwilling to let anyone into his territory. It took awhile to win his trust, but Fluttershy had given him a peace offering of honey and berries, and Bearington begrudged his acceptance. Bit by bit, she was able to work her way past his armor, and in the end her patience paid off. Then, she had set to work with helping him interact with the other animals, who had been terrified of him until Fluttershy had helped the bear show them that he was more interested in making friends than a snack, and now he was a beloved member of the woodland community. Why couldn't she do the same for Discord?
...Because Discord is not a woodland animal, the still timid part of her said. He was an intelligent chimerical draconequus who could have whatever he wanted appear at the snap of his fingers. He was the creature of chaos who ran his clawed lion paw against her furry cheeks and who had those big, yellow eyes that got very close to hers when he addressed her. He was the one who would be staying indefinitely with her in her house - just the two of them.
A cold shudder ran down her spine before she could stop it, and her hoof went to the golden band around her neck as if the butterfly-shaped jewel could give her strength. At the moment it was the only thing protecting her from her new house guest. Before Princess Celestia had left that morning, she had explained to the ponies that she had cast a protection spell on the Elements of Harmony. This would keep Discord from stealing them as he had last time, but the protection extended as well to the ones wearing the Elements. As long as this pink stone was around her neck, Fluttershy was shielded from any action borne of malicious intent, and it was some comfort to know that Discord could not remove her wings with a snap of his eagle claw again, or create a boulder to drop on her, or creep into her bedroom when she was asleep and manipulate her thoughts...
Fluttershy shook the image out of her mind. The point was that she was safe both in body and soul, and that gave her a lot more confidence than she would have had. If worse came to worse... if Discord could not and would not reform, they could do what it took to protect Equestria and turn him back to -
"Buck up, Fluttershy," she urged herself. "Sure, he's horrible, but if you don't give him a chance, then who will?" Regardless of her personal feelings, she had to try to reach him. Once she got home, maybe she could offer to make him something to eat. He could make anything with his magic, but if she took every opportunity to demonstrate a genuine effort to make him feel comfortable, eventually he would begin to see there was something to her kindness and compassion. Maybe then she could give him a few suggestions for how to use his magic for good, and then he would start wanting to help others.
Her ears perked as a strange, rumbling sound pulled her out of her thoughts. The pegasus turned her head as she looked for the source - and her feet stumbled as she came to a sudden halt. Her eyes opened wide. She still a little ways from her destination, but she could already see her house.
It was in the air, several feet above the treeline, and rolling.
There was nothing like some reform spells to tide oneself over before dinner.
Discord chuckled inwardly at the thought but kept it to himself as he shoveled in another mouthful of the torn spell-book pages. He could gloat later when he had the proper audience for it - namely the purple unicorn who had planned to use the reform spells on him in the first place. To Twilight Sparkle's credit, though, if he had not stopped to eavesdrop on her little plans, she might have actually surprised him with the enchantment (he had not expected Celestia's star pupil to stoop so deliciously low), and then he would have ended up just another goody two-horseshoes. Still, he hoped he was around to see Twilight's face when she discovered what had happened to those precious pages - it was likely to be even more hilarious than Fluttershy's face right now as she watched helplessly while her entire cottage revolved around her.
"Oh, dear," he heard the milquetoast pegasus mumble, still near the moving door, and he smirked as her large teal eyes took in the sight of her pottery, ceramics, several lamps, and furniture being tossed like laundry in a dryer. If it had been any of her friends, they would have begun screaming and making threats against his person, but the little doormat seemed determined to stick with her plan of reforming him through hospitality, and so she said nothing even as she had to dodge to keep the logs she had previously stored for firewood from blooding her delicate face.
"Well, I'm back," Fluttershy said, finally addressing him as she came over to the draconequus on the floating couch. She hovered by his feet. "I just needed to tell the animals about the changes in the feeding schedule. I don't feed them at the cottage when I have company," she explained. "I wouldn't want them to disturb you."
I'll bet. He gave her a disarming grin as he paused in his collation. "And what a wonderful hostess you are, Fluttershy. Already, I feel so much at ease around you."
"I'm glad to hear it," she said, her soft voice shaking. She winced as what looked like a favorite teapot broke free from the china cabinet and led its fellow service pieces in a descent that threw them into the shifting wall-turned-floor.
Discord hid his smirk as he slurped up the last pieces of torn paper. With little ado he chucked the brown bowl over the side of the couch - Fluttershy still said nothing - and waved a cloth napkin into existence. He patted his lips clean before tossing the dirtied fabric into his mouth.
He turned his attention to his reluctant hostess once more with a congenial grin. "Are you sure this isn't overdoing it?" he asked, finally addressing the elephant in the rolling room. "You said to make myself at home while you were gone, but I wouldn't want to overstep my bounds," he added, slipping in a note of concern.
The pegasus mare gave a weak smile. "I - I did say that," she affirmed with a note of reluctance. "So, if this makes you more comfortable, by all means, please f-feel free," she finished even as she dodged a cascade of kitchen ware.
She was making this too easy. Discord lay a claw against his forehead, taking on the air of a weary soul. "Oh, well, it does. Very much so." In half a blink, he snaked his lengthy frame around her until his head was by her opposite shoulder. If the painfully shy mare was bothered by his close presence, she gave no indication. Discord formed an appreciative smile. "You're so very kind, my dear Fluttershy," he said, adding a touch of the figurative honey to his voice, and he deftly laid his hands on her small shoulders. "I always knew you were the understanding one, not like those nasty friends of yours."
Her little hoof came up, pushing him back as she gave him a stern frown. "My friends aren't nasty!"
"Well, of course you'd say that," he grinned without losing a note of his silky tone as he zipped around her, and he took the opportunity to place his hands on her again. "It just goes to show how understanding you truly are." He gave her an insinuating look, but it only served to make the pegasus frown. That was right, he reminded himself. Fluttershy was not so easily manipulated when it came to turning her against her friends - a fact Discord had learned the hard way the last time he had been free. In a flash, he was back on the couch, stretched out and adopting a look of contemplation. "You know, I think Princess Celestia is right when she singled you out as the one who could reform me," he lied easily. "You're off to such a good start, I"m seriously considering actually being reformed." Just as he expected, her little smile widened.
Sucker.
Amidst the din of clattering pots and falling furniture, a familiar voice managed to make itself be heard, an impressive feat considering the owner was on the ground several feet below the floating house. "Fluttershy! Fluttershy, can you hear me?"
Fluttershy started. "Goodness! I hear Twilight!" She zipped away with a cloud of dust, returning only to catch her falling brat of a bunny.
Discord stuck out his tongue at her retreating back.
He had to hand it to her though. The whole point of the tumbling house was to set her up for a few warm fuzzies at his "sincere" appreciation and to ready her for the next part of his plan, but the fact that the little coward had lasted this long almost interested him. It might actually be fun to see how much she could take before she lost her marbles - if he were not so determined to keep the Element bearers from shipping him back to the Canterlot statuary.
He glanced out the front windows as they rolled past, and he caught sight of the swelling river. The beavers' work with their dams seemed to be going swimmingly. (Two drumsticks appeared in Discord's hands, and he played a sting in the air.) If Discord played his cards right, Applejack would have quite a surprise at sundown.
However, he still had a few variables to work out. When the flooding at Sweet Apple Acres was discovered, the six mares would be after him. True, Discord could just poof himself to some mountain and spread his chaos from there, but he was not one for self-imposed exile, and the pony pests would hunt him as long as they had breath. (Heroes tended to have boring habits like that.) If it were not for that little spell Celestia put on the Elements, which prevented him from doing harm to either the magical stones or their wearers, he would have just turned them all into dogs and reclaimed his throne within the first second of his release. However, if he could get just one to remove her trinket, then he would not need to bother with the other five. He could stuff that mare into an unbreakable bubble, and he would be free forever.
He knew Fluttershy was the weak link; the kindness which she believed could reform him would instead insure his victory. If there were a big enough disaster, say helpless beavers doing bad things against their nature, she might be inclined to sacrifice herself for their welfare, but there were still uncertainties. Which would be stronger? Her compassion toward animals, or her compassion toward pony-kind? Even though Fluttershy was complacent enough to allow her house to be uprooted, that did not mean that beavers would convince her to take off her necklace voluntarily. If her concern for animals did not put her in a fighting mood against him, then peer pressure from the other bearers could probably convince her to use her Element. No, there had to be a way to assure Discord his eternal chaos, some way to make her think that keeping that jeweled butterfly would not be the moral high ground.
And, frankly, even his intellect was at a lost to figure out what it would be.
He did not have long to focus on it though because Twilight's exploding voice suddenly rang out, "He ate them?!"
Discord burst into laughter. So, it had not take long for the unicorn to find out about her reforming spell after all. Well, he could always look into the past to see her expression. Meanwhile, he snapped his fingers, and a large horn appeared, and he promptly put it to his ear.
He was about to eavesdrop on the ongoing conversation when he suddenly felt something else. As a being of chaos, he could feel certain imbalances in order, and right now he felt a very familiar disruption enter into his range of awareness, faint as it was. It was like a blip on a radar screen, drawing closer in sporadic patterns. A feeling of excitement here. An imploring thought there. Always searching, seeking.
"By the pricking of my thumbs, something chaotic this way comes," he murmured to himself. Discord stroked his chin, a contemplative smile forming on his face. So, the little monstrosity was awake; he had almost forgotten about her, but then she did have a way of popping up when he needed a good laugh.
Ever the opportunist, the draconequus began to assess what this could mean for him. Perhaps he could get the tyke to create a few well-placed distractions around Ponyville to keep the other ponies occupied while he worked on Fluttershy. Or maybe he could still spread his chaos and use her as a scapegoat: those mares would be less likely to injure a child, or something that looked like a child regardless of how many centuries she actually was.
Or maybe...
He grinned. It looked like he could save the beaver scheme for a back-up plan. He snapped his claw, reversing the spell just as he sensed the yellow pegasus returning.
Fluttershy managed to zip through the opened half of her front door before her tumbling cottage and gravity worked together to close it again. The sight of her spinning cottage had given her trepidation at first, but after her recent conversation with Discord, it now seemed a thing of beauty - okay, not really, but it gave her reason to press on with her plan. The lean draconequus in question was where she had left him. His mismatched hands were locked behind his head, and a pleasant smile appeared when he saw her. "I trust Ms. Sparkle is well?"
The pegasus wasted no time hovering beside him. "Discord, I have the most wonderful news!" she beamed. "If you really meant what you said about wanting to be reformed, then I have just the thing to prove yourself to the others." Though she had meant it when she had told Twilight that she would give Discord the benefit of the doubt, she chose her words carefully to reflect his choice in the matter; she would not gain his trust if he believed he had no free will.
An appreciative expression came upon his long, gray face. "My, aren't we the busy, little miracle worker!" he praised, raising his head. "I am so glad to have you in my corner, Fluttershy. I truly am."
She found that her smile widened by itself. "I told Twilight that we're going to have a dinner party!" She could never throw a lavish spectacle like Pinkie Pie, but she loved small picnics, teas, dinners, and anything that involved close friends sitting down together and having pleasant conversations. Quiet parties were easy to control and allowed everypony to talk, or not talk, with little pressure. If she could get Bearington to be genteel at a picnic tea, then she was sure she would be able to help Discord shine. "We'll need the cottage back on the ground for tonight," she continued, "but I'll do all the cooking. I even have a few ideas of how you can make an impression on everypony."
She waited for him to inquire for more as she resisted the urge to clap her hooves together like a filly. However, Discord pushed himself into a sitting position, suddenly looking awkward. "Oh, pooh! Is really that going to be tonight?"
The pegasus blinked. "Something wrong?"
He steepled his fingers, and his face took on a reluctant expression. "I'm afraid it's just not a good time for me. It's been many a moon since I was not a tourist attraction, my dear, and there are some things I wanted to attend to on my first night free."
Her face fell. "Oh, I'm sorry. I should have realized that you would want to settle in," she said, looking at her hooves. "We can reschedule."
Discord waved a dismissive paw. "Believe me, child, after being part of a landscape for more than a millennium, a dinner party is a welcomed change of pace." He shook his head. "I feel terrible about this since you're being such a big help for my cause, but it's just that I have some more pressing issues that must be taken care of. I have a lot of lost time to make up for, and my parental duties must come first before my own well being."
Fluttershy nearly plummeted to the rotating bottom of her house as her wings momentarily stopped flapping. "Your paren- what?" she gasped, managing to recover her altitude.
Those thick eyebrows rose high. "What? Did Celestia never tell you? No?" A grin stretched across his gray face, revealing teeth besides his lone fang. "Believe it or not, even the Master of Chaos has familial ties, few as they are."
Fluttershy stared, scanning his face to see if this were some kind of joke. "Y-You really have children?"
"Is there an echo?" Discord cocked his head to the side, laughter in his yellow eyes. He was obviously enjoying her flabbergasted state. "I'm well over several millennia, my little pony. Is it so very odd to think that I might be a daddy?" he asked, saddling the last word with a patronizing inflection. His expression suddenly changed to one of hurt feelings. "Do you think I'm just not handsome enough?"
Fluttershy felt her face heat. "N-No, it's just..." She hesitated. She did not know what she could say without sounding rude.
Discord did not seem to be waiting for an answer though. He pulled out a wallet from thin air, and a long roll of what looked like photographs unfurled. "Would you like to see my pride and joy?" he asked eagerly. He patted the spot beside him on the couch.
Fluttershy hesitated, but she finally landed on the green upholstery and looked at the plastic thread. In each photograph slot there was a flashcard with the words PRIDE and JOY written in jumbled letters.
"Oops! Wrong one!" Discord tossed the wallet over his shoulder, and he fished his eagle claw into the folds of his brown fur and pulled out a photograph from a pocket that had suddenly appeared in his chest. "That is my little Screwball."
Fluttershy accepted the picture and glanced at it - and immediately felt her eyes widened. She had expected to see a miniature draconequus with some outlandish combination of animal parts and a pony's head or maybe even some nightmarish creature with long rows of sharp teeth and curled horns. What she saw instead... well, it was not that. The photograph was actually a family portrait. Though he was sitting in a wingback chair, the long, thin Discord still took up most of the space. He was dressed in a red smoking jacket and fez, and in his lap, looking quite content with her hooves on her father's chest and a silly, sweet smile on her wisteria face, was not a little draconequus, but a filly.
She looked nothing like Discord, Fluttershy noted. The young earth pony had a mess of dark purple and white curls which resembled candy, and her mane was topped by a yellow beanie with a set of green propellers. Her pose revealed that she had a short torso and long legs that would stand her a few inches taller than little Apple Bloom. However, the most noticeable detail was her eyes. The rest of the picture was a still frame, but by some magic, the eyes were clearly moving: not left or right, but rather the irises were movement unto themselves. She had no pupils, but instead she had two swirling purple whirlpools that made her look as if she were always dizzy.
"She's very cute," Fluttershy said at last, forcing a polite smile.
She turned and saw that Discord had puffed himself into a sweater vest and a pair of reading glasses, and he was now blowing pink bubbles out of a pipe. "She gets it from me," he bragged, pocketing the photograph with a tap of his index digit. "I haven't gotten to see her since our last little adventure together: you know, after I was freed from spending a thousand years as a pigeon perch?" The draconequus straightened his shoulders, and with a snap of his claw he was back to his normal fur and feathers. "So, do you see why I'm not in the mood for a dinner party?" he asked sadly. "We've been apart for so long, it would be a shame to waste any more time."
Fluttershy bit her lip and rubbed her hooves together as if it would better help her to process the information - if it were actual information. Could somepony who gagged at the thought of tender feelings really be a father? Besides the eyes, Screwball looked normal and was nothing like - no, no. she had decided that she was going to give Discord the benefit of the doubt. She supposed that if dragons (one of the few creatures that scared her to her core) could be parents, then even Discord could have a family. Anything was possible with him, even if it was strange that his child would be a pony - but then, Discord reveled in the strange.
At her silence, Discord wrapped his feathery arm around her shoulders. "Would you like to meet her?" he asked, raising an encouraging eyebrow.
"Um..." She hesitated and then made herself smile once more. "Why, of course I would."
Oh, she was close! She could feel it in her hooves - and part of her tail. Screwball flitted about the landscape, using her teleportation to jump from side of the valley to the other as her vortex eyes scanned for even a whisper of chaos, but so far she kept seeing mile after mile of pony-maintained trees and long stretches of grass betwixt the dome-shaped mountains. Her brow was already drenched with sweat from the extensive use of magic, but she pressed on, determined to reach her ever-nearing target. In the approaching distance there was a town of brightly colored, but noticeably ordinary, buildings. Screwball zipped toward it regardless. He had to be there. Chaos was not fun without an audience as he always said.
Within minutes she saw it. Beyond the normal-looking town and at the edge of a large forest, there was a tree suspended in the air - and rotating. There was no colored glow surrounding it that suggested unicorn magic: that was an act of chaos! With a squeal, Screwball increased her speed, teleporting as much as her limited magic allowed to tackle the distance.
Flash! She soon saw that the tree had windows. It was actually a house. Flash! However, before she was even a hundred yards away, it suddenly straightened and lowered, re-planting into the ground. Screwball barely had time to wonder about this restoration to normalcy because - flash! - suddenly she saw a burst of yellow light in front of the house tree - flash! - and there on the lawn was none other than -
"Daddy!"
She uttered a shriek of excitement, and she saw him turn his head toward her. "There's my girl!" he called when she was close enough. Her father spread his hands apart, a look of pride on his long face. "Come to my arms, my beamish foal!"
She did not need to be told twice. She mustered as much magic as she could to cross the last forty yards. She came short ten feet, and she all but crash landed into his waiting embrace, throwing her forelegs around his thick, gray neck with a delighted squeal. His own mismatched arms enfolded her as she rubbed her cheek against his fur, and she felt him lift into the air and spin her fast, sending a sensation of butterflies that tickled her insides and made her giggle as she clung tighter to him. Then he slowed, and she felt his bearded chin pressed against the back of her head, and his eagle claw moved to pet her tangled mane. A stray thought surfaced in her mind and asked her point blank why he was showing so much PDA, but she pushed it aside and nuzzled deeper into his furry neck.
"Oh, isn't she just a little angel!" a mare's voice suddenly cooed.
Screwball raised her head and looked down at the owner. A pegasus the color of lemonade with pink hair was on the ground and gazing back at her with a small smile. Screwball loosened her hold. Well, that explained the hug.
"You must have missed each other so much," the mare went on, addressing her taller companion with a look of compassion.
The draconequus gave a seemingly sad nod. "You don't know the ache a parent feels being separated from their young," he replied, suddenly tucking Screwball under his eagle arm as if she were a teddy bear, which freed his lion paw to rest itself against his forehead for dramatic emphasis. "Oh, where are my manners? Screwy," he said with affection, "this is Auntie Fluttershy. Daddy is going to be staying with her for awhile."
Screwball glanced at the lean face for clues, but he placed her on the ground and gave her a push toward the taller pony, who formed a smile. "Pleased to meet you, Screwball," she said sweetly, holding out her hoof. She sounded sincere.
The filly gave her a sweeping glance, trying to assess how this grinning pegasus factored into whatever game her father was obviously playing. Her large, teal eyes showed no guile or great intelligence, and her - oh, what was it called? Congeniality? Yes, that was right - her congeniality would not have lasted this long unless her father had a reason for not changing her into a sadist (or clown or coffee table). So, she was either a game piece her father was preparing for his latest divertissement or a soon-to-be erstwhile ally who would be a game piece when he had no more use for her. Well, there was one way to discover which she was.
Screwball cleared her throat, a little longer than necessary, and then took a deep breath - and in a flash, she grabbed a hunk of the pink mane and clamped her teeth around the tips. Fluttershy immediately gasped and jerked back, a look of total shock on her furry face - but Screwball was more interested in the guffaws coming above her head.
"She likes you!" No public scolding. No fake apology.
Fluttershy managed to yank her hair free, and Screwball took to the air once more with a raspberry, enjoying the laughter that still shook the draconequus' frame.
Meanwhile, the pegasus gave her mane one worried look before turning again to the filly and giving a weak smile."It's okay," she said. "I get nervous when I meet new ponies too." She cleared her throat, and the polite expression returned. "Where did you come from, Screwball?"
The filly smiled and pointed behind her. "That way."
"Fair enough," Fluttershy said sheepishly.
Her father had calmed by this point, and he slung his arm around the flying filly's small shoulders. "Together again after such a long time," he said. "What has it been, princess? A year and a half? Two? And that's not counting the millennium we were apart." Screwball saw that he shot a deliberate glance at Fluttershy, who suddenly looked uncomfortable.
Ah, that was his game. She did not understand what was going on, but she knew when her father wanted her to put a pony on a guilt trip. She snuggled closer to him, giving him a sad look. "It seems much, much longer, Daddy!" she said pathetically, sticking out her lip with expert ease - and that was when a loud grumbling came from Screwball's abdomen. The filly look down to see the skin of her purple belly ripple violently. Oh, yeah. She used to eat when she was awake, didn't she?
Meanwhile, the guilty expression on Fluttershy's face gave way to another kind smile. "Here," the yellow pony said in a gentle, encouraging tone, "come inside, and I'll make you something yummy." The pegasus broke into a little trot, heading through the red door of the cottage.
However, Screwball remained where she was in the air and turned to the draconequus, who had not moved to follow Fluttershy either. The filly would have liked to throw her forelegs around him again, but he would probably push her away without an audience available. So, instead she jerked a hoof toward the direction of the now vanished mare. "She's a sap?"
"Yep."
"You're playing her?"
He flicked a bit of her bangs. "Like a record at full volume," he replied. "So are you, by the way."
"Is that why everything's so... normal?" she asked, gesturing to the surrounding landscape of green grass and blue skies.
"A minor set-back, my dear," he said with a dismissive wave of his paw, "but let's just say that if we do this right, you'll never have to sleep again."
Screwball felt a grin stretch across her face, and she gave a bow. "Lead the way, maestro."
She was thrilled to see him smile - well, smirk, same difference - and in a flash they were both in Fluttershy's kitchen.
.
A/N:
* I know that having the Elements protect the bearers contradicts Discord's attempt to remove Twilight's tiara at the dinner party scene, but for the sake of filling in what would otherwise be a hole in this fic's plot, I decided to put that in. Discord already showed that he could change Fluttershy by touching her forehead, so how would the ponies in the canon have protected themselves during, oh say, sleep?
* Screwball talking to herself was inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.