“Whoa,” said Tree Hugger, backing off slightly as Discord favoured her with his most intimidating scowl. It was a sight that had sent braver ponies running toward the hills, though the hills would often have become rivers of molten chocolate by the time they arrived there. “Your aura is, like, so incredibly out of whack, man.” Infuriatingly for the draconequus, her fixed grin refused to abate as she regarded him with a look of patient interest. “D'you want me to perform a healing mantra on your energy fields? Clearing away all of those past attachments and imbalances will leave you feeling, like, renewed, dude.”

        Before Discord could say anything – though what he really wanted to do was snap his fingers and send the green hippy pony with her bird's nest of red hair tumbling through the endlessly spiralling vortices of the Chaos Dimension – a languid trilling sound emanated from Tree Hugger's muzzle. “Are you really doing this?” he said over the warbling falsetto, blinking several times in confusion. “Fluttershy, can you …?”

        Sighing, wishing desperately that, just for today, either she or Discord could be on the other side of Equestria for a change, Fluttershy tapped Tree Hugger repeatedly on the shoulder until she stopped singing. “It's okay,” she said, “Discord's chakras are, um, just fine. Uh, would you mind giving us a few minutes alone to talk?”

        “Sure,” Tree Hugger replied with an insouciant smile; if she was disappointed at being asked summarily to leave, she wasn't showing it as she strode languidly out into the early afternoon sunshine. “I'll see you at Sugarcube Corner in a few, yeah? Oh, I'll order those cookies that you really like!” Before she departed, she turned to the draconequus and added, “Stay chill, Discord. Let the positive vibes flow through you.”

        Discord stared after Tree Hugger, a look of disbelief on his face. “That is what you dumped me for?”

        “I didn't dump you,” Fluttershy said, not even bothering to keep a rein on her temper as she rounded angrily upon him, steam practically jetting forth from her nostrils as she snorted violently. “We mutually agreed to break-up because we weren't in love any more. Which means-” a toxicity which he'd never heard before laced her tone “-that you can't just barge into my house whenever you feel like it, Discord.”

        “Why not?” he asked, genuinely dumbfounded. “Aren't we still friends?”

        “Yes, but-” she softened her tone, forgetting how new to all of this Discord was “-it's impolite.”

        “Why?”

        “Discord, please, don't make things any more difficult than they need to be,” Fluttershy said, feeling a wave of tiredness and exasperation washed over. Such reactions were sadly all too common in her dealings with the draconequus these days. She was so sick of having to have this exact same argument day after day; ending things hadn't been easy, agreeing to stay friends hadn't been easy, and Discord was determined to ensure that nothing would ever be easy again. He was so used to getting his own way, Fluttershy knew, that it was nigh-impossible to explain to him that, now that the parameters of their relationship had changed, he simply couldn't take certain liberties any more.

        “Is it because you might have-” one of the pointed talons of his eagle claw drew the lines between some imaginary dots in the air “-company?”

        “Bluntly, yes.” The last person that Fluttershy wanted to discuss her personal life with right now was Discord; breaking up had done little to curb his needy, jealous personality, and it made it difficult for her to have any sort of social life with him constantly teleporting into the cottage in order to check up on her. As much as she still cared for his welfare, his inability to comprehend boundaries was growing wearisome. “I might have friends over, I might have dates over. The point is, you being here is just going to intimidate them … and annoy me.”

        “Me? Intimidating?” He flashed her his best roguish smile, but Fluttershy, who normally found the gesture to be adorable while everypony else thought it was just plain creepy, was in no mood to allow herself to be mollified by something so puerile.

        “Discord, will you please leave so that I can go and find Tree Hugger and apologise to her?” Firmly, she pointed a hoof in the direction of the door. Not that the draconequus would ever use it, but she wanted her meaning to be made plain.

        “Why would you need to apologise to her for speaking to a friend?” Discord raised his eyebrow with interest. “Are you worried that she might … misinterpret things?”

        Fluttershy grumbled something under her breath.

        “Sorry?”

        “Tree Hugger, despite her best efforts, is still upset with you for what you pulled at the gala, and I promised her that you wouldn't be a problem if we got together.”

        “And I'm being a problem?”

        Fluttershy felt like screaming, tearing her hair out, anything that would Discord see that there was a draconequus-sized problem in her life right now. “Yes,” she said as calmly as she could manage under the circumstances, but she still felt as though every word was being accompanied by a litany of grinding stone.

        “I see.”

        “You're still being one,” Fluttershy said, setting her jaw firmly.

        “I'm sorry,” replied Discord.

        “It's fine.”

        “Is it?”

        “Yes.”

        “Sorry.”

        “Discord,” Fluttershy said warningly.

        “Oh, okay, message received,” he said, shooting her a mock salute. “I'll see you when I see you.” With that, he snapped himself out of this plain of reality.

        Before she made her own exit, Fluttershy let loose a scream that served only to bother a few stray molecules of air that happened to be in her vicinity at the time.

*

        “Fluttershy, do you want my honest advice?” asked Tree Hugger, her hooves tracing the air about a centimetre away from the pegasus' physical being. Man, her aura is messed up. And no wonder, having to deal with that drag of a draconequus. It's gonna take something a little bit bigger than rebalancing her energy points to pull her out of this funk, I think. Heh. I think I'll call him the drag-onequus from now on.

        “Always,” replied Fluttershy, allowing her back to lean a little bit more into Tree Hugger's stomach, though not, she hoped, enough to cause her any discomfort. The batch of cookies they had ordered from Sugarcube Corner lay forgotten on the grass beside them as they took refuge from the springtime sun under a leafy tree in the park. Sometimes, it was nice just to watch the play of shadows on the ground.

        “You gotta let Discord go. Properly, I mean. There's still, like, a spark there and it's gonna keep the two of you connected until one or the other of you decides to break it.”

        “A spark? You think so?” Fluttershy craned her neck to look at Tree Hugger, but her limpid purple eyes were staring off into space.

        “I'm not upset, if that's what you're wondering. I know how hard it can be to end things with somepony who was a big part of your life.” She made a small noise in the back of her throat. “But it can be, like, poisonous to hold onto all of this, especially if you're wanting to start a new relationship.”

        “He's just a friend now. Sure, he can be a little bit difficult at times, but he means well.”

        “I know. But-” Tree Hugger trailed off, unsure how to put into words her thoughts.

        “But what?”

        “Understand that I'm not saying this to get at you, or to criticise your relationship with Discord, but I think it was a mistake for you two to become more than friends in the first place.”

        “Why do you say that?” asked Fluttershy, eyes narrowed, her breath quickening slightly. Tree Hugger had always been a good friend, always supportive when she had talked of possibly taking her affection for Discord to the next level, and now she was saying that it was wrong?

        “In the space of a few months, he went from, like, not knowing anything about friendship to solely focusing all of his efforts on just one pony. On you. Yes, you tried to encourage him to expand his circle, but the only one he ever responded to was you.” Tree Hugger's voice went quiet as she continued, not wanting to badger or berate, but merely to inform. She wrapped her forelegs around Fluttershy's waist, holding her close. “This is just my own opinion and I could be wrong, but … I think that he feels ownership of you in some way. I mean, he's at the cottage more often than not, and he gets pretty snippy when you go out on dates, right?”

        “He's protective!” Fluttershy broke free of Tree Hugger's grasp and walked a few paces out of the tree's shade, wincing slightly as the sunlight battered her eyes.

        “Fluttershy-” she stood up and reached out to the pegasus, but stopped just short of actually touching her “-I'm sorry. I know it's not what you want to hear.”

        “No, it isn't,” said Fluttershy, breathing slowly, “but it's what I needed to hear, isn't it? I need to stop being so soft on him, don't I? I need to make him understand that there are some lines that he just can't cross, even if he is just being protective.”

        “Exactly.” Tree Hugger offered her an encouraging smile and finally allowed her hoof to land on Fluttershy's shoulder. She rubbed it tenderly, but the knot of tension building there was going to need a much firmer massage to loosen up. Later. “Now shall we, like, eat these cookies or what? I don't know about you, but I have a major case of the munchies.”

        “Yes, we shall,” Fluttershy replied with a thin smile, settling back onto the grass and picking up the brown paper bag, all thoughts of Discord temporarily forgotten.

        So wrapped up were they in their confections that they didn't notice a draconequus lurking behind another tree, a single tear rolling down his muzzle. As much as he mocked Tree Hugger's beatnik ways, he could see auras just as well as she could; hers and Fluttershy's, they were practically identical. In sync. The way they coalesced around each other, gaining strength from their proximity, merging into a whole … it was undeniable that it was meant to be.

        “Okay, Fluttershy,” he said, his body becoming transparent, “if being a good friend means that I have to let you go, then it shall be so. Goodbye.”