Walking around in the dust is a surefire way for a person to get lost. At least it would be if I was anybody else.

The only way I knew which direction we were heading in was the pull from Nature, which felt like an internal compass.

"What do you think will happen when we get there?" asked Fluttershy, her ears pinned flat against her head. I could tell she felt worn out from walking for hours.

"Not sure," I said. "We can talk to her, but she might not talk back."

I mused to myself that I had never taken a girl home to meet my mother and snorted a little at the thought. Actually I've never brought anyone home to meet my mother. I've known people who already knew my mother, but that isn't the same thing.

Eventually the dim light faded and night fell. The howling wind didn't bother me--in fact I quite liked it, (it's a very chaotic sound of course) but I could tell the sound was starting to get to Fluttershy. I snapped my fingers and the sound of birds tweeting replaced it inside the bubble.

"I guess we'd better get some shuteye," I said, and pointed to my face. "This stunning visage does need its beauty sleep you know."

Fluttershy didn't laugh. She still looked nervous.

"It does feel like we're being watched."

I sniffed the air and scryed for anyone nearby but felt nothing.

"We're safe, Fluttershy," I said reassuringly. "We should try and get some rest."

I dimmed the light, but only a little so Fluttershy could still see and feel reassured. She curled up inside the coil I had made with my body and we fell asleep, listening to the birdsong.

I woke up feeling like There was something at the peripheral of my memory and it made me freeze in that indefinable state between being awake and asleep. I tried to cry out but couldn't move. A strangled whimper managed to emerge from my throat.

"Discord? Discord!"

Then my muscles suddenly regained control of my limbs and I woke up, shivering.

"You were crying out in your sleep," said Fluttershy.

"What did I say?" I asked, alarmed.

"I couldn't make most of the words, but one of them sounded like a name. Sho...Shu...?"

"Xolotl." I finished for her.

"Who or what is a Xolotl?"

"It doesn't matter," I said, fluffing up my feathers and flattening them against my body again. "It was just a dream. Let's just try and get a bit more sleep, eh Flutters?"

"If there's something you're not telling me to protect me, I'd rather know," said Fluttershy.

I knew what she was thinking--that because I had displayed distress that meant I was putting on a brave face to protect her. She was half right. I was putting on a brave face, but it wasn't to protect her.

"You've got it all wrong, Flutters," I said. "I just had a nightmare about something, that's all."

"If it was just a nightmare then why won't you tell me what a Xolotl is?"

"Because I don't feel like talking about it!" I said a little too snappily. I instantly regretted the tone of voice I had used with her when her ears flattened against her head.

"Oh, no. No, no, Fluttershy. I'm sorry, please. I didn't mean to yell at you, it's just not something I've really discussed with anyone. It happened long ago and occassionally I guess my brainweasels come after me." I reached inside my ear and pulled out a long , muscular mammal. "Oops, no. That's a brainstoat," I said and it vanished as I threw it over my shoulder.

"Did someone hurt you?" Fluttershy asked.

I said nothing,  and looked at the ground.

"Oh, Discord."

"I...I've never told anyone this." I said, softening a little.

"Discord..."

She put her arms around my neck and pulled me downward, and I was suddenly looking up at her, my head resting in her lap.

She stroked my mane and it felt like salve on a fresh burn.

"It was long ago, really." I said. "I was barely out of colthood." I squirmed a little.

But I told her everything.

Xolotl and I had never had what you would call a calm relationship. Actually, that's an understatement. We both had fiery tempers, but Xolotl always managed to somehow stem his easily whereas I struggled not to on an almost daily basis. I got angry when he didn't understand me. I got angry when he was rough in bed. I got angry when he didn't listen to me, and then I got angry at myself for getting angry.

We had arguments almost daily, and then they would usually end in hate sex, which would usually end in another argument.

It didn't start off that way. I guess it never does in these types of relationships or people wouldn't be so eager to stay in them. Xolotl was encouraging towards me, and he liked making things mutate so I could watch.

But one day I found a bird whose life Xolotl had ended. I didn't like that the bird was dead. It was static, and final. Yes, it would rot but then that would be it. It lay there, unmoving and stiff with rigor mortis. Ants were already beginning to nip at the edges of its feathers.

I put my paw on it. "Wake up," I said softly. The bird blinked, then I watched its body soften as the rigor mortis faded away, then it fluffed up its feathers, looked at me and flew up into a nearby branch.

"Hey, where are you going?" I laughed. "I'm not done with you."

I snapped my fingers and the bird's beak grew to the length of its body, causing it to promptly fall off it's branch.

"Oops!" I said. "Better make that a bit lighter."

So I did, and the bird flew back up into the tree. It seemed quite proud of its new multicoloured bill.  I tilted my head at my handiwork and smiled. "I dub thee, Banana Beak!" I said triumphantly.

Xolotl was not at all happy at me when he saw what I had done.

"You can't just go around doing things like that! It isn't natural!"

"I've heard no complaints from Mother Nature. Besides, what did YOU do today? Go play with some slime mold?"

"I've told you to watch that smart aleck mouth of yours."

I smacked the back of my head and my eyeballs popped out into my paw, facing me.

"There, I'm watching my mouth now. Happy?"

"Oh good grief. Nevermind. Just don't do it again."

I laughed. "Why wouldn't I do it again?"

"Because I told you not to."

My temper flared.

"Oh, so now you're King of the Jungle? I think you'll find I'll do what I like," I said, and got up to storm off.

Except Xolotl's paw was on my tail.

"You ruined my work," he said. "Bit rich of you to whine about 'doing what you like' when you've just crapped all over what I did."

"If I wanted to crap all over what you did, it would have been an improvement," I said, curtly.

"I said watch your mouth!" barked Xolotl and he went for me.

His weight crashing into me sent me smashing into the forest floor on my back.

"What's the matter wi...?"

His paw covered my mouth.

"I think this has gone on a bit too long, Discord. It's time you learnt some respect."

I struggled, tried to use magic. I realized to my horror that I couldn't. It was only later that I realized I had been so surprised and terrified--not to mention hurt--by Xolotl's sudden desire to take me by force that something in my brain shut down.

I was vaguely aware of Fluttershy's voice, and I realized I'd almost been recounting the story in a monotone while staring into space.

"Discord, it's okay. I'm here."

"Fluttershy?"

I sat upright and she put her hoof on my lion paw.

I cleared my throat. "Ahem...I'm sorry you had to hear that," I said. I felt ashamed somehow. How could I have been that stupid? How could I have not remembered that?

"You have nothing to apologize for," she said softly, and rubbed my paw. I looked down into her beautiful, teal eyes, her softness and sweetness. She held her arms out and suddenly I was back in her lap, my paw on her leg as I tried not to cry, but inevitably my shoulders started to shake.

Like salve on a burn.

The dim light gradually returned around us as morning came, and with it came the calming of the dust storm.  The sky was surprisingly clear in all directions and the horizon showed something different and welcoming--the glint of the sea.

"We're almost there!" I said happily.

The last mile was a bit strenuous after all the walking we had done, as the ground began to rise up a steep incline. Vegetation was a more common sight the higher we climbed.

Eventually we reached the top of the cliff face and were greeted with the beginnings of a forest. Red flowers grew everywhere and dragonflies flew back and forth, hunting for smaller insects. From the top of here was a view of the sea, stretching for miles.

"It's beautiful," whispered Fluttershy.

"Come on," I said, bouncing ahead. "Let's go talk to Nature!"

Fluttershy followed me with an uncertain look on her face. Though she was clearly amazed by her surroundings, I could tell she still felt nervous about talking to the Nature.

"Hello?" she said.

I stopped and stared at her, then realized what she was trying to do. I bit my lip so I wouldn't laugh. Laughing would have upset Fluttershy.

"It's not like actual talking," I said. "The Old Girl prefers to communicate through your other senses."

She waited. I could tell she was beginning to worry that Nature wasn't going to speak to her.

"Relax, Flutters," I said gently." Just let it come. "

I pressed my body along the ground and looked up at her. "Sometimes that helps," I said.

She followed suit, listening intently with a confused look on her face.

"You're trying too hard," I said.

Suddenly a lizard ran out of the bushes and Fluttershy was on it like a shot. "Oh!" she exclaimed, her face bursting into a smile. "That's a blue striped Anugyptian skink! Wow, I never though I'd see one of those in my lifetime."

And they say Twilight is booksmart.  (Not that she isn't. I was just very impressed with Fluttershy's recall of animals she had only seen in books.)

She followed the skink until it melted away on the opposite side of the clearing into the bushes and she could no longer see it.

"Wow, that was just...wow!" she said, rearing up on her hind legs, her front ones pedalling in the air with joy.

I stared at her. "Discord! That was so amazing! I never thought I'd see one of those!" She was bouncing up and down like a mad thing and clapping her hooves together with joy.

"Wow, you're such a nerd!" I said teasingly.

She laughed joyously at me, then suddenly stopped as if she had heard something.

"I...I can feel her" she said, a look of awe on her face.

I watched Fluttershy percieve Mother Nature. Her left ear flicked forward gently, then back again as she listened.

"She...she says that the reason for the storm is she feels stifled."

"Yes?" I said.

"And that ponies are not giving her enough room to breathe and be herself. They aren't living in harmony with her, and they need to start doing that."

"Okay, so that's what we need to relay to everyone? Tall order."

"She says it can be done. It will just take work."

I stroked my beard. Would the ponies be willing? They seemed to be everywhere now. To the point where other species were suffering in their wake. But maybe with a Princess of Friendship and one of the Elements of Harmony already connected so close to the natural world things could change. I liked change.

"She also says we should stay for a few days," she said.

My ears pricked up.

"Well, she didn't exactly say it, it was more that I felt it."

"I know exactly what you mean," I said, smiling.

Fluttershy continued to bask in Nature's waves and then an expression of deep serenity appeared on her face.

"I've felt this before!" she exclaimed. "When I fell from the sky and all those butterflies caught me. I...I had no idea that was her I mean, I knew it was her, but not her her! Oh, sorry that sounds so nonsensical!" She laughed.

The sight of her basking in the glow of Nature was beautiful. She looked giddy with happiness. All of a sudden she threw herself down on the grass and giggled. She was like an adorable filly who had tried their first puff of Poison Joke Weed. Gone was the heavy-hearted Fluttershy who had lost her mate and foal. Instead she was now filled with joy as her eyes followed a flock of birds across the sky.

I had to laugh. "I guess she likes you," I said.

Fluttershy and I spent the next few days observing nature. Well, I actively participated in some of it. I made new kinds of mushrooms. Mushrooms that glowed, mushrooms that sang, mushrooms that exploded, releasing glowing spores everywhere that fixed to the sides of trees and grew to the size of truck tires.

Fluttershy tirelessly recorded everything in her notebook. I have to say, for all the time we spent observing nature, I was much more interested in observing her.

I know I'm a frisky old debauchee of a  draconequus, but it was almost as if I couldn't help it.

My eyes kept moving in a pattern--from her lovely face to her wings, to her tail. Dreams were one thing but I was going to have to be a gentlecolt. This I could do, but my eyes seemed to have a will of their own. At one point they exited my head to go wandering themselves and I had to blindly chase after them.

Then there was the urge I had to go collecting. I wanted to pick things up and show them to Fluttershy, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why. At least, not at first.

In the evenings Fluttershy would make a fire and we would sit around it and eat and she would show me her notes and sketches. I told her stories about when I used to live in the Land of Manticoria, where all creatures were made up of different animal parts.

She was very astute at picking out what parts of my stories were exagerrated or just outright lies and the evenings often ended with belly laughs.

One evening I was observing Fluttershy out of the corner of my eye when she suddenly got up and ran into the darkness of the forest.

"Hey, what's up?" I said, running after her.

I heard her voice in a small clearing. "I wanted to check something," she said. I found her looking up at the sky.

" I can see the milky way, just like you said!" she shouted happily.

"It's just like you described. Like someone poured psychedelic glitter everywhere..."

She flopped down on her back so she could better observe the heavens.

She looked bright and alive and full of wonder. Sometimes I live vicariously through Fluttershy's wonder. I've lived a long time and seen a lot of things, so very little surprises me anymore, but seeing the surpise on Fluttershy's face was a joy to behold.

I balanced my head on my eagle arm and faced her as I lay down beside her.

"I've NEVER seen so many stars," she whispered.

"Isn't it great?" I said. "It's just pure chaos up there. All those stars being born and dying and collapsing and it just goes on and on, maybe forever."

"Chaos can be beautiful," said Fluttershy, and I felt the hairs on the back of my lion paw arm stand upright at that statement.

"I'm very glad to hear you say that," I said.

I snuck a glance at her. Her eyes and mane shone in the starlight.

She scooted over the short distance between us and hugged me.

"Thank you for telling me about this. It's even nicer to see it in person."

"You're welcome," I murmured, surprised though certainly not disappointed at her sudden urge to hug me.

I wondered if she was going to let go. When she lay her head down on my my chest I had my answer. My arms seemingly snaked around her of their own accord.

"Hello," I said.

"Hello," she whispered.

She snuggled into my feathers. I wondered if I would ever tire of the feeling of that action.

"I...I'm tired," she said.

"Then sleep, you daft pegasus," I said, holding her close to my chest and stroking her mane.

"Hmm," she sighed and soon her breath was steady as she drifted off.

Her mane and tail were tangled up in my neck and legs, her muzzle pressed against my neck. I could have lain awake all night just to listen to the sound of her sleeping; her calm heartbeat, the gentle snoring.

I was never this patient.

"What are you doing to me, Fluttershy?" I whispered.

I was well and truly scuppered. I was gone. Lalala, Discord is smitten. Twitterpated. Screwed. Up the Neighle without a paddle. Wholly  and completely lost and drowning.

Not only that, but being so close to a place of natural raw power and scenery was...well. How can I put this?

I was starting to behave oddly. No, I mean moreso.

I realized this one morning when I got up earlier than Fluttershy and felt the urge to present her with objects.

While she was sleeping I left a blue feather (one of my own) a flower, a pile of fruit and an iridescent shell in front of her.

I knew what was happening to me. I had done it once before with Xolotl. He had taken one look at the assemblege and asked me "what is this rubbish?" then shoved it out of the way with his paw thus breaking my naive, young, utterly stupid little draconequus heart.

I was behaving the way male draconequii do when they're enamored with the object of their affection. "Be mine," says the assemblege. "I think you're pretty smokin'."

Except it says more than that.

I watched her from a tree nearby when she woke up. At first she looked puzzled at the assemblege before her, but as she started examining the objects in her insatiably curious Fluttershy way, she was smiling. I secretly thanked the ether that little to nothing was written about draconequus mating rituals, or someone as savvy with the natural world as Fluttershy might have figured it out.

I watched her examine the feather, and she ran a hoof up and down it, smoothing the barbs.

Yes, it says much more than "I think you're pretty smokin'." It says "I want you to be my mate."

A roll in the hay (and I've had many) and wanting to mate with someone are different things. Choosing a mate is a complicated process throughout much of nature, but basically it entails certain wants and needs and depending on what said animal needs it can be fleeting or lifelong--but it's always special. Sure, it's about two organisms with different blueprints for making another organism, but I'm not really talking about that, and I can't give Fluttershy foals regardless. (I honestly am not interested in having foals anyway. Sure, they're wonderfully chaotic, but they also require...ew...responsibility.) If mating was merely about baby-making then there wouldn't be ponies who preferred the company of their own sex. No, wanting a mate means "You understand me enough that I want to bare my soul to you to examine your soul and crawl inside it for a little while, please let me."

And if they let you, then bliss. But if they don't, well. I explained what happened with Xolotl.

Fluttershy had no way of knowing what the gifts meant, so by default she could neither reject or accept me. I was stuck in a limbo, and perhaps that was best.

I continued to look up at night sky as Fluttershy dreamnt.

Or was it? My paw ran itself through her silky mane.

I thought of Spike and Rarity.

Why should you care what a bunch of asses with sticks up their asses think?

Why indeed? What was the point in fighting it anymore?

I leaned forward and softly kissed Fluttershy on the forehead.

"I love you," I said.

And maybe tomorrow I would tell her that when she was awake.

Morning came, and I woke up without Fluttershy in my arms, making me ponder for a fraction of a second whether or not I had been dreaming about having her wrapped around me. Then I remembered where I was. I remembered she had said I was beautiful. I put my arms behind my head and pondered the situation. I was going to tell her how I felt, no doubt about that now. I found myself actually practicing what I was going to say out loud.

"Fluttershy...I. Hmm. Fluttershy, you've come to mean a great deal to me. Not that you didn't before! I just mean a greater deal..."

I sighed and pinched my brow with my talon. I felt like a giddy schoolcolt having his first crush.

I sat up on my elbows and looked around. Though I couldn't see her I knew she was nearby as I could smell smoke and the scent of breakfast coming from further down the beach. It was possibly because of these olfactory distractions that I didn't sense the dog god before his huge, twisted paws plowed into my back, knocking me flat on my chest and crushing the wind out of my lungs.

I wasn't sure what sound I made at that point, but it probably was spelt something like "hhrrrrggglle."

"Hey, Discord," snarled the voice next to my ear.  I felt my body go numb with fear, and not just for myself. He was going to hurt her. He was going to hurt her and I couldn't move. I felt useless and pathetic and angry.

"Fluttershy, run!" I managed to shout, before Xolotl's paw pushed me down on the ground again and his second paw pinned my arms behind my back.

"Not a chance, Huehuecoyotl," he said, using one of my old names. "I've been tracking you for quite some time. It was easy, to be honest. You always were a show off. I just had to go wherever chaos went. Had to get a look at what sort of delectable dish you were keeping from me, and I must say I'm not disappointed.  My, my, you're punching above your weight there, aren't you?"

"Have you ever looked in a mirror, or is it just that the glass breaks before you can see your reflection?" I snarled back, though my magic was still paralyzed with fear.

"Discord?"

No. No, no. Run away!

"And here's the little lady," grinned Xolotl.

I was filled with horror for Fluttershy. Had it been anyone else threatening her they would have been turned into dancing sea monkeys by now, but no. It had to be Xolotl. My only hope was for her to get away. Her look of terror mirrored mine.

"Run, Fluttershy, for the love of Celestia, run!" I shouted.

"Oh, I don't think you'll be able to run far from Old Xolotl, will you, gorgeous?"

At the sound of the name, Fluttershy's expression transformed into one of cool resolve, her eyes hard.

"YOU." she said.

"Oh, you've heard of me?"

"Yes, I have." She started to walk towards him.

"Nooo," I groaned. I was starting to struggle in the manner of a fish out of water, flailing on the ground but the paws pushed me down again and again. Xolotl always was physically stronger than I was.

"I've heard a LOT about you."

"Is that so?"

I continued to smash the unpinned parts of my body on the ground in frustration and fear. I growled with rage through gritted teeth as I tried to break free, but Fluttershy continued advancing towards Xolotl.

"You should feel ashamed of yourself," she said angrily. "Ashamed!"

I felt Xolotl freeze, and despite myself I raised an eyebrow.

"We all know why you act the way you do, destroying everything. It's because you can't help your nature, and because of that you think everyone else should have to suffer, just like you."

Fluttershy was on a roll.

"You're just jealous. You're jealous that Discord can see the beauty in things and you can't. Because you're not allowed to. The only thing you can see beauty in is decay. So you have to make more of it!"

"You," shouted Fluttershy--and Xolotl cringed further and further with every syllable-- "Are a BAD DOG!"

I felt his paws go loose around my sore wrists and I quickly crawled away from him. Xolotl had his tail between his legs and his ears were flattened against his huge skull. With a strangled whine he ran towards the sea and jumped off the cliff face. I heard a splash as he hit the water.

When I had picked my jaw from off the floor I stood up.

"Fluttershy that was AMAZING!" I exclaimed, then I fell on my back, cackling with glee. "I knew you were good with vicious, snarling beasts but that just takes the biscuit."

"The dog biscuit!" she exclaimed cheerfully and we rolled over laughing until our eyes were streaming and my ribs hurt.

I flew off towards the ocean.

"Where are you going?"

"To gloat, of course!" I laughed.

In hindsight this has always been a failing of mine. I just can't help poking things with sticks, even long after they're dead. I just can't let things stay dead.

I found Xolotl clinging to a piece of driftwood.

"So, Xolly!" I grinned. "Got your butt whipped by a pony, eh? And a mortal one at that! How does it feel to be on the receiving end of the equine form of a rolled up newspaper? No, no, no--wait, don't tell me. She 'ruined your work'. Boo hoo hoo!" As a final indignity, I turned around in mid air so that my back was to him, and lifted my tail, effectively mooning him.

"You think you're so different from me?" he snarled. "Do you think creatures like us are meant to love? Have you ever loved someone and had them love you back?"

"What are you yammering about," I sneered.

"What are you, what is your purpose?"

"Not this again. I know what I am."

"Which is?"

"Do I need a name badge? Do I have to staple it to your forehead? I'm the Spirit of Chaos!"

"...and Disharmony."

That's my title. Do you need my Curriculum Vitae?"

Xolotl flashed his white teeth at me. "You're not getting it, are you?" he said.  "Has it ever occured to you that the reason you're and will always be alone is because you are disharmony?"

"Are you still talking?" I said, looking at my talons.

But Xolotl was on a roll. "It's always one-sided because you are disharmony. And I'm decay. Everything I touch will rot..."

"Do you expect me to feel sorry for you?" I growled.

"...and everything you touch will either be hurt or you will feel the pain it inflicts on you. Do you seriously think she'll ever love you? Not that I blame you for chasing that piece of tail. It would be very satisfying to watch her rot. But why should I get in the way when you can probably do it for me?"

"If you lay one single, rotten hair on her I'll neuter you myself."

"I won't have to!" laughed Xolotl. "You'll end up scuppering it because that's what you always do. But the best part --and it's one I made peace with centuries ago-- is, she'll hate you for it. She'll hate you even if that wasn't her intention, because you are disharmony, and disharmony just doesn't work with something so close to harmony. But you'll try anyway, because that's what you do. And it's only a matter of time from the smell coming off both of you."

"Shut UP" I growled and clawed at his face with my eagle talon.

He gave a bark of fear and vanished by melting into the sea.

I was shaking. I was no longer afraid of Xolotl, but of something much worse.

When I returned to the edge of the forest, Fluttershy ran to me and thew her arms around me.

I gave her an awkward pat on the back.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"I'm...fine." I said, in a way that heavily implied that I was obviously not fine.

"What's wrong? What happened? What did the dog say?"

"Nothing important," I lied.

"Won't you talk to me?"

"No," I said. And vanished up into the canopy of a nearby tree.

"Discord, please talk to me!" she cried.

I lay down on a huge branch and rested my head on my paw and claw. I felt numb.

It's always one-sided because you are disharmony.

I stared out across the forest and narrowed my eyes, thinking.

Xolotl had never loved me. I didn't want Baast's love. Come to think of it, whenever anyone got clingy I didn't want their love. It felt like suffocation. I'd certainly felt attraction to others, but they never showed any interest in me, and as I explained before, I don't take others by force. I had itchy feet when it came to staying with a partner who desired more from me.  This never bothered me much, as there were plenty of people throughout the millenia to fumble under the bedsheets with,as long as I had an escape route in the morning.

But when it came to getting closer it had always been one sided. Always.

There was a reason I found Fluttershy irresistable. There was a reason I had dreams about drowning in her sweetness almost every night.  Kindness could never be compatible with disharmony. Not without one or the other being destroyed. I had been right to listen to my initial instincts about keeping my feelings a secret from her.   At the very least, Fluttershy would never love me. At worst...who knows?

"Is it true, Mother Nature?" I said quietly. As usual there was no response other than the usual lapping gently at my subconscious.

"Is it TRUE?" I shouted, my voice echoing and a flock of crows emerging from the canopy at the sound.

Still no response.

I sat up on the tree branch and pressed my head against the trunk, my eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"I hate you," I whispered.

It was evening when I returned to base camp.

Fluttershy was curled up by the fire she'd made, talking to a lizard.

"Oh! Discord, you're back. Are you okay? Is there something...."

"We should go now," I said.

"Already?" she asked. "I thought we were supposed to stay."

"I just spoke to Mother Nature and she said we should go," I lied.

I am a consummate liar. I've lied my way out of all sorts of situations, large and small and I'd always gotten a small thrill out of it; out of knowing I was more intelligent than the sucker the lie was directed at. But this time there was no thrill, there was no game; only necessity.

"We can teleport there," I said. "No need to walk this time."

I put my eagle arm behind her withers and my lion arm around the back of her knees and lifted her up, then in a flash we were gone.

We appeared in Twilight's room.

"You're back!" the Princess said to both of us as I set Fluttershy down on the ground.

"What did Mother Nature say? Is there a solution to the weather?"

"Fluttershy can fill you in," I said, then stormed out of the room.

"What's with him?" I heard Twilight say, then I was out of earshot.

I kept walking down the halls of the temple. I felt angry. Angry at Nature, angry at Xolotl. But most of all, angry at myself. Angry that I couldn't stop myself from feeling how I felt towards my friend.

I decided I was going to leave. After dark, when everyone was asleep. But I would say bye to her, even if she didn't know it.

I wandered into the room after midnight and to add further protection against being discovered sneaking out, I made sure I was invisible.

Fluttershy was curled up on a large, square cushion. Every now and again her back left hoof gave a tiny twitch as she slept.

I sat down in front of her on the cold stone floor.

"Sorry, Flutters," I whispered. "Gotta go. For what it's worth I'll never forget your kindness, and your friendship."

I ran my eagle talon through her mane.

"I won't forget you. I couldn't even if I wanted to."

My eyes stung. I took a deep breath and stood up. Then I walked out, like I always do.

I could have teleported, but I chose to walk. For some reason I wasn't in the mood and I had no idea where I was going to teleport to. Better to just walk out of the city and wander around after that.

I decided to walk along the Neighle back to the coast. At the very least maybe I could catch a passing ship somewhere.

About 200 yeards along the Neighle, I tripped over something. "What the..." I began. The crocodile snapped sideways at me and chomped off my arm, which I promply replaced.

"Are you okay!" shouted a concerned jackal. He ran up and shooed the croc away with a large stick. It hissed at him and retreated into the darkness. "Back, back I say!" shouted the jackal.

"Oh I'm fine," I snapped. "Just peachy. I've had my entire existence stomped on and now things are trying to eat me."

"They've been a nuisance since the water disappeared yesterday," explained the jackal.

"Disappeared?"

The jackal pointed to the riverbed. To my surprise the water had mostly receded, with small muddy patches of water sustaining nothing more than a few flapping fish.

"How far back does this go?" I asked.

"All the way to the coast."

I felt the blood drain from my face under my fur.

"Gotta go," I said, and teleported straight to the coast, or rather, 100 feet above it, where I looked out across the sea. Or rather, I would have done if there had been any sea to look at.

"Oh no," I whispered. "No, no no."

I had seen this before. It was maybe 4000 years ago off the coast of Horsetralia. There was no water anywhere. The sea bed was open to the elements. I remember thinking this was very novel and I flew up high to get a better view. That was when I saw the wave developing about 3 miles off the coast. Then all of a sudden the water returned, much faster than it had disappeared. The trees in its path snapped like pencils, some of them simply falling over from the sheer force of it all. I could see animals running, but they never made it.

This was what Nature did occassionally. A slate wiper. She had to let off steam.

Afterwards I flew down to see what remained. I found so many dead animals. All dead. And unlike the bird Xolotl had killed, I couldn't undo what Nature decided to kill.

I don't like death. It's so final. It can't change back or go forward.

I snapped my fingers and quickly appeared in the room Twilight, Rarity, Spike and Fluttershy were sleeping in.

"Wake up!" I shouted.

"Wuh..." said Spike, rubbing his eyes. "What time is it?"

"Time to go!" I said, pulling the cushion out from under Spike and Rarity.

"What's happening?" said Twilight.

"We have to leave, now."

"Why?"

"Why? Because there's a giant tsunami heading this way and it's not here to play Candyland with us! Seems we were too late. Nature is angry, and we have to leave."

Fluttershy was awake by now and looking at me in horror.

"Go tell the others we have to leave!" I said.

Spike ran out of the room to do so.

"We can't just abandon Anugypt," said Twilight. "All these people! There must be something we can do to stop this."

"There isn't," I snapped.

"We have to try, Discord!" she replied and ran out the room. These ponies, always with their pointless optimism.

I dropped down on all fours and faced Fluttershy. "Listen to me, I said, putting my paw and talon on her shoulders. "Fly as far away as you can. I know you can't fly very fast, but fly upwards, if you can. The water's going to cover everything and you'll be able to get away if you..."

Her head was shaking at me. "I won't abandon my friends."

I felt the urge to just shove her under my arm and fly off with her myself, but I knew she would likely never speak to me again if I did so. Maybe I could cope with not being around her, but I was certain I wouldn't be able to cope with her hating me.

"Fluttershy, there's no way to hold off this. Tons of water is going to come crashing down on Anugypt in a matter of hours, maybe less, and smash everything like matchsticks. Harmony isn't going to work this time. NOTHING is going to stop this. You have to leave. I'm begging you."

"I can't." " She looked at me defiantly. "I won't."

Damn it all.

"I have to go talk to her," I said franctically.

"To Nature? I thought you said we can't tell her what to do."

"Fluttershy, since when have I ever listened to authority?" I said, grinning. But inside I was terrified. Terrified of going up against a force as powerful as nature, and terrified that in a few hours Fluttershy would be no more because of it.

Once again, I was flying upwards above the coast to observe a giant wave, but this time I was more than a spectator.

"Nature!" I shouted, with all my senses, including regular speech.

"Don't do this!"

I felt pain as I said this, almost as if she had slapped me.

"They're my friends. I'm begging you not to do it. I've never asked you not to do something before, but please, please just this once, please."

There was silence, almost as if she was considering it, then to my horror I saw the wave advance.

I thought fast, then lay down sideways and stretched my body as I simultaneously increased in height so that I became a living wall 500 feet high.

That was a mistake, to put it mildly.

The wave just increased in height, then it crested as it rolled downwards towards me.  I was unable to hold the magic and found myself shrinking to my former size.

Then I felt myself spinning round like a catherine wheel on the crest of the wave. Water was no longer my friend.

"Not her, not her, not her, not her!" I shouted over and over like a mad thing. Then "Pleeeeeeeeeeaaaase," in a shrieking voice and then the water was in my lungs, filling up everything and I couldn't breathe. The last thing I was aware of before everything went black was the sickening crunch of my bones as the wave and I hit the cliff face. Next Chapter: Motherless Child Estimated time remaining: 12 Minutes