Hello everypony! Welcome back to another chapter of my Fluttercord Chronicles!

Discord is perfectly happy living in his chaos dimension by himself, but one day he's followed home by an unusual creature. All Discord wants to do is get rid of it, so he asks Fluttershy - good with all animals - for some help.

(This chapter is more friendship than romance, but you've still got some sweet Fluttercord moments.)

Discord was travelling through the Everfree Forest, having just visited Ponyville. Normally, he would simply teleport himself home, but every now and then he liked to take the 'scenic route', and he'd always had a fondness for the creepy forest most ponies avoided. Suddenly, a noise drew his attention. Discord looked around and spotted a chicken staring at him from a clump of bushes.

"Well, that's odd," he remarked. "What's a chicken doing out here?"

The bird squawked and stepped out of the bushes towards him. Actually, slithered out. It had the body of a snake and dragon-like wings.

"Ah, I see. Not a chicken at all, then. You're a strange-looking thing, aren't you?"

Another squawk. The chicken-snake looked up at him curiously. Perhaps it was intrigued to see a creature even stranger than itself.

"Well, I am magnificent," Discord acknowledged to it. "But unfortunately I can't stick around for you to admire me; I have places to be. Toodles!"

Several minutes later, however, he realised he was being followed, and turned around to find the creature right behind him. It clucked happily, and Discord scowled at it.

"Shoo! Go away!"

It simply stared at him.

"Get lost!"

It clucked.

He was about to transform and scare it away when a voice spoke. "Discord, how lovely to see you again. I see you have made a new friend." Zecora the zebra was going past, headed towards Ponyville.

"Zecora!" Discord cried. "Quick, get this thing away from me! It won't leave me alone!"

The zebra chuckled. "I'm afraid I will leave the cockatrice alone. I do not wish to be turned to stone."

"Huh? Cockatrice?" Discord stared down at the creature, who, at the sight of Zecora, had wrapped its snaky self around his goat leg and was hissing angrily from behind it. The zebra was being quite careful to avoid its gleaming eyes. "Wait, did you say turned to stone?!"

With a high-pitched shriek, the draconequus flung the cockatrice off and streaked away, vanishing deep into the Everfree and leaving only a blur behind. The cockatrice quickly righted itself, shook itself off and flew after him.

Zecora watched it go with amusement. "Good luck with that one, Chaos Lord. I suspect you will not be bored."

Discord only stopped once he'd reached his house and slammed the door behind him. Another Discord poofed into being beside him. "Okay, Discord," he told himself, "you're fine. Calm down. Take a deep breath."

Discord did as he was told, breathing hard into a balloon.

"That's it," the second Discord encouraged. "Now look. You're still you. No statue. No stone anywhere." He gestured at Original Discord.

It took a minute or so, but eventually the draconequus calmed down a little. "You're right," he said. "This is silly. I'm the Lord of Chaos! What's a tiny little cockatrice going to do to me? Besides, it's not like it could find its way to my—"

As he spoke, he swung his front door open to look out into his chaos dimension, only to find himself face-to-face with the cockatrice.

Both Discords screamed this time, clinging to each other in fright.

Original Discord tried to slam the door shut again, but the cockatrice slipped inside just before it closed. It took no notice of the two terrified draconequus and instead began to explore the room.

"What do we do? What do we do?" second Discord stammered.

"Hide!"

The Chaos Lord quickly teleported into another room, along with multiple copies of himself.

"Quick, lock the doors!" one of the Discords cried.

"And barricade them!" added another.

The group ran and flew about, turning the bedroom into a fortified bunker. It was the very picture of organised Chaos. Once the group was reassured as to nothing and no pony getting in, they formed a circle and argued over what to do.

"Do we wait till it leaves?"

"What if it won't?"

"We can't keep an eye on it from in here!"

"Well I'm not going out there!"

"What's it going to do to us?!"

"I say we lock it in and torch the place!" The Discord who suggested this actually conjured the torches and slapped war paint on his face. He was immediately given a wide berth by his fellows, some of whom were huddled under blankets.

"Wait!" shouted another Discord. (Actually the original.) "It's a creature, isn't it? Who do we know who's great with creatures?"

"We can't call Fluttershy!" several of his copies protested.

"She'll think we're wimps!"

"That thing could attack her!"

"We don't have any tea!" one particularly panic-stricken Discord screamed.

And so it went.

Eventually though, Discord decided to go see Fluttershy and tell her the situation. Hopefully she would have some advice to drive away the creature. He thought if he left at once, it might not be too late to catch her, so he teleported to the door of her cottage and knocked.

"Coming," called the soft voice, followed by her hoofsteps as she crossed the room. The door opened, and the gentle pegasus smiled when she saw her visitor. "Discord, hello."

"Fluttershy!" he gasped, grabbing her and holding her up to his face. "I need your help!"

Fluttershy blinked at his urgent tone. "Of course, Discord. What's wrong?"

Now that he'd gone and asked, Discord began to feel a little embarrassed. He released Fluttershy, who easily stayed aloft and at his eye level, and began to wring his paw and claw together nervously. "I have a...a creature in my house..." he began.

"A creature?" Fluttershy interrupted, her whole manner lighting up at once. "Oh Discord, you adopted a pet?! What kind? What's its name? Ooh, I can't wait to meet it! You should bring it over! We can have pet playdates! Oh, I'm so excited!"

Discord winced. He should have realised his friend would prefer to befriend the cockatrice than get rid of it.

"It's, uh...not like that," he tried to explain.

Fluttershy paused in her raptures. "Oh?"

"It followed me home. I don't want it." Discord cringed as he said this, wondering if the sweet pegasus would judge him.

But Fluttershy did not look at all perturbed. "I see," she said gently. "Well, maybe I can come and persuade it to leave?"

"No!" Discord cried, horrified by the idea. "That-that's okay. Just please tell me how to make it leave?"

"Hmm..." Fluttershy tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose you could lure it outside with some kind of treat?"

"Yes...that might work. Thank you, Fluttershy!" He dropped a kiss on top of her head, then vanished with a pop.

Fluttershy smiled, befuddled, and shook her head before turning back to Angel.

Starlight screeched in alarm as a draconequus suddenly appeared on top of the book she'd just placed on the library table. "DISCORD!" she shouted angrily.

"Hello, Starlight," he said. "Where's Twilight?"

Her friend's yell had brought said alicorn rushing into the room.

"Discord, what are you doing here?" the princess asked.

"Yeah, and have you ever heard of knocking?" Starlight added.

The Chaos Lord ignored them both. "Twilight, what do cockatrices eat?"

"What do...what?!"

"What do cockatrices eat?" Discord repeated impatiently.

"Um...seeds, nuts, berries. Why do you want to know?"

But he wasn't listening. Shouting, "Thanks, Twilight!" he vanished again.

The two ponies looked at each other and Starlight rolled her eyes. "Discord's gonna Discord."

Twilight chuckled. "Yep."

Discord reappeared inside his own house, back in his bedroom. He created a tiny peephole in the floor, which for some reason allowed him to look through the wall of his living room, to see where the cockatrice had gone.

It was wrapped around the banister of his stairs-to-nowhere, sleeping.

He breathed a sigh of relief, then teleported himself – miniaturised – onto the ear of his shrieking pinata. Next, he opened the front door and lay a trail of seeds, nuts and berries leading from the cockatrice into the swirling vortex outside, designed to sweep an intruder completely out of his chaos dimension. As a last-minute thought, he added a little something to the vortex, so whoever went through it couldn't return.

"Alright," he said to himself, "now we just wake it up."

This was easily done. Discord snapped his eagle claw, and the clock on the wall fast-forwarded until the hour hand struck twelve. A shrieking parasprite figurine sprung out, shooting halfway across the room and punching the cockatrice in the side. The creature awoke abruptly with an indignant squawk. The parasite cuckoo clock was still going, however, and hit it again. The cockatrice turned on the parasprite angrily.

As the mechanism shot out for the third time, the cockatrice glared at it. Its red eyes gleamed, and Discord's clock was turned to stone.

Discord muffled his shriek with both hands, still hiding behind the pinata's ear.

Once again calm, the cockatrice looked around the room, quickly spotting the seed trail. It fluttered off the banister and began to hungrily gulp them down, slowly heading towards the door as it followed the trail.

As soon as its tail crossed the threshold, Discord slammed the door shut and reverted to full size. "Woohoo!" he shouted. "It's gone!"

Outside, the cockatrice looked up at the hovering vortex directly ahead. It considered the rest of the food still lying in wait. Then, deciding it had eaten enough, licked its beak with a forked tongue, turned around and headed back towards the house.

Discord's euphoria was cut off as the cockatrice fluttered back inside through the open window. "Ah, pony feathers!" he cried, slapping his forehead. "Shut the window, Discord!"

He froze when he felt the cockatrice nuzzling his dragon leg.

Something told him the trick wouldn't work a second time.

Keeping his eyes firmly shut, he muttered, "Alright, Discord, keep calm. It can't turn you to stone if you don't look at it. So...just don't look at it! Yes!" He popped out his own eyeballs and vanished them. "There! You're safe! And soon enough it will lose interest and leave you alone."

Feeling vaguely triumphant, Discord tried to seat himself on his couch. Unfortunately, with Discord's magic, many of his possessions and furniture were in rather unusual places, if not floating freely around the room. Normally he could avoid them easily, but he could no longer see, and so didn't know when he had to avoid something. He ended up tripping and crashing to the floor.

He groaned in pain.

A series of gentle clucks sounded in his ear, and he felt the cockatrice slither over him as though he were a rug.

"Please go away," he whimpered.

It tried nibbling his ear instead.

Discord smacked it away with a scowl. "If you're going to invade my house, fine! Stay here! But I'm leaving!" The draconequus vanished with a pop, and the cockatrice gave a startled squawk as it was suddenly dropped onto the floor.

The Chaos Lord reappeared back inside Fluttershy's cottage.

The gentle pegasus looked up, surprised to see him again. "Discord, what is it? And where are your eyes?"

"Oh, right." He snapped his talon to make his eyes reappear. "Fluttershy, do you mind if I stay with you?"

"Um, of course not, Discord. But why? Is it because of that creature?"

"Yes. It drove me out of my house!"

Fluttershy blinked in astonishment. "It did? That's...surprising. Even if the treat didn't work, I would have thought you could just teleport it out?"

Discord's ears drooped. "Not this one. It...it scares me." The last part was mumbled under his breath, so Fluttershy barely caught it.

"Scares you?" she repeated, shocked.

He nodded sadly.

Fluttershy gazed at him, pained by the look on his face. She'd never known Discord to be scared of anything. And if he was, she wouldn't have expected him to admit to it. She quickly flew up and hugged him. "It's alright, Discord. Everypony gets scared."

The pair were silent until Fluttershy pulled away. "What kind of creature is it?" she asked gently.

"A cockatrice," he said. "I'm afraid it's going to turn me back to stone, and nopony will realise. Or if they do, they won't bother bringing me back..." he added miserably.

Fluttershy's hooves flew to her mouth. "Oh, Discord! Of course we would bring you back! And of course you can stay here!" And she hugged him again.

This time, Discord returned the hug, and a small smile reappeared on his face. "Thank you, Fluttershy."

"Anything for you, Discord," she replied. "And tomorrow, I can go talk to the cockatrice and ask it to leave."

"No! What if it turns you to stone?!"

The pegasus smiled at his concern. "Don't worry, Discord. I'm good with critters, remember? Besides, I have a secret weapon." Her teal eyes blazed suddenly, and he recognised her Stare, which had never worked on him.

"You can't out-Stare a cockatrice, Fluttershy," he said flatly.

"Actually, I can," she replied shyly. "Or at least, I have. Besides, even if I can't, I know you'll rescue me."

Discord stared at her in shock, overcome with admiration and gratitude for this beautiful pony. "Of course I will," he murmured at last.

Bright and early next morning, Discord prepared to teleport himself and Fluttershy to his house.

"You don't have to come; you can just send me along," the pegasus said.

But Discord was determined not to let his friend face the cockatrice alone.

When they appeared, the cockatrice clucked happily and rushed towards Discord, who yelped and quickly covered his eyes. Fluttershy peeked out from behind her own hooves to observe.

The creature was slithering around Discord's feet, warbling at him and wrapping its snaky tail around his legs. It reminded Fluttershy of a kitten begging for attention. She looked around at the rest of the room. Aside from the parasprite cuckoo clock, which now stretched halfway across the room, there was no sign of the cockatrice using its terrifying power.

She turned back to the cockatrice, still warbling at a quivering Discord, and cautiously lowered her hooves. "Um, excuse me?"

The cockatrice looked at her, its eyes starting to gleam.

"None of that, now!" Fluttershy snapped, and the creature squawked in bewilderment, but obeyed. "I want to talk to you about Discord."

Discord gingerly peeked through his talons as he listened to the cockatrice's squawks and clucks. Fluttershy was listening intently.

"Unfortunately, Discord doesn't like cockatrices," the pegasus said gently. "It's nothing against you; he just doesn't want to be turned to stone and have nopony around to help him."

The cockatrice squawked and ruffled its feathers.

"I see," said Fluttershy gently. "I'm glad to hear that."

"What?" asked Discord.

The pegasus turned back to him. "Discord, this is Edward. He's actually just a baby cockatrice."

Discord's eyes flicked over to the cockatrice and then quickly back to Fluttershy. The creature did seem unusually small.

"He says he really likes you, because you weren't afraid of him and even protected him against another monster."

Usually it was Discord making statements that Fluttershy couldn't follow, but this time, he was the one lost. "Uh...no I didn't."

Fluttershy frowned back at 'Edward', who chattered insistently. "That's what he says. He says he hid behind you while you faced a monster with black and white stripes."

It clicked. "Zecora?!" Discord exclaimed. "I ran into her and she told me what he was." He gestured at the young cockatrice.

Fluttershy smiled. "Ah, I see. When you ran, Edward decided to go with you and make sure you were okay. He really liked your place and decided to stay."

"Well, he can't," Discord scowled, crossing his arms sulkily.

"I tried to tell him that. He did promise not to turn you to stone. As a matter of fact, since he's so young, he can only petrify inanimate objects. This clock is as much as he's ever managed." The pegasus pointed at the frozen clock.

Discord shook his head. "I don't care. I don't want him here."

Fluttershy sighed and looked back at the cockatrice. "I'm sorry, Edward; he says no."

The cockatrice hung its head, then curled itself around the pony's front hoof as though hugging its mother. The Chaos Lord cringed at the clearly dejected creature and Fluttershy's sympathetic expression as she stroked its feathery head.

"Oh...alright," he muttered.

Both pony and cockatrice looked up at him, one amazed, one hopeful. "Really, Discord?"

"Yes," he grumbled. "He can stay."

Fluttershy beamed and Edward flapped his wings excitedly, flying up to nuzzle the draconequus' cheek.

Discord batted it away in fright. "There are rules, mister!" he shouted angrily. "One: no turning me to stone! Two: stay away from me!"

Fluttershy quickly intervened, pulling Edward gently away from him. "How about I come by and make sure Edward behaves?" she suggested. "I can help you train him properly."

Discord agreed at once and Edward squawked happily.

About a week later, Fluttershy and Angel met Twilight and Owlowiscious, Applejack and Winona, Rainbow Dash and Tank, Rarity and Opal and Pinkie Pie and Gummy for their regular pony pet playdate.

"So, what's this big surprise, Fluttershy?" Rainbow asked.

"You'll see; they'll be here soon," the yellow pegasus replied with a smile.

Just then, Discord appeared with a pop, scaring the most of the group as he shouted, "Hello, my little ponies!"

"Discord?" Twilight questioned. "What are you doing here? You don't have a pet."

"Au contraire, Miss Sparkle!" A top hat suddenly appeared on his head, and he whipped it off, revealing Edward underneath. The cockatrice clucked happily.

Twilight jumped back in shock, along with Rainbow, Applejack and Rarity. Opal hissed at the new-comer. "Discord! That's a cockatrice!"

"Yes, it is. His name is Edward, and he is my new pet."

The ponies looked on in shock as Edward fluttered to the ground and stretched his beak towards Winona, who was cowering behind her mistress.

"Ge' out ovit!" Applejack yelled, and the cockatrice shrank back.

"Don't worry girls," Fluttershy said, coming forward. "Edward's very friendly, and Discord and I have been training him; he knows not to attack anypony."

Discord nodded in agreement.

The others gazed at the couple and the cockatrice warily. "You're sure, Fluttershy?" asked Twilight.

The pegasus nodded. "Yes. I'll make sure he behaves."

"Well...alright then." The alicorn looked at her friends and shrugged.

Owlowiscious fluttered over and perched on Edward's back, and the two stared at each other curiously. After a minute, Owlowiscious hooted and took off. Edward immediately followed, and they began to chase each other in airborne circles.

Everypony else relaxed at the sight of them, and Fluttershy beamed up at Discord. "I think they like him."

"What's not to like? Just because he has terrifying powers and looks strange doesn't make him bad."

She giggled. "Reminds me of somepony else I know."

"Exactly. And where would I be if you hadn't taken a chance on me?" he grinned.

"A stone statue."

The draconequus laughed. "I still might be one once Edward grows up and can use his powers properly."

Fluttershy took his eagle claw in her hoof and looked up at him tenderly. "I won't let that happen."

Discord smiled and squeezed her hoof, and the two of them turned to watch the animals playing together.

I had a lot of fun writing this chapter! I loved watching Fluttershy facing down a cockatrice in Stare Master, so this is based a little bit on that, and a little on May the Best Pet Win. But Discord's pet would have to be a special, magical sort of creature, unlike the others. Plus, I figured the one animal that would make Discord uncomfortable would be one he's frightened of, and a cockatrice's power would DEFINITELY bring back bad memories.

I'm not really sure why I decided to name the cockatrice Edward, but having such a normal name when you have crazy powers and live with Discord just sounds so absurd, it seemed to fit XD

Review to let me know what you thought!

Love OnlyHere4Puckabrina xoxo