Hi everypony! So here's another chapter for you all. But first, a belated shoutout to Marina Stars for your review. It really made my day, thank you so much! xo

Now, on to the description:

(As you all know) every Tuesday will find Fluttershy and Discord having their weekly tea party. Only this time, Fluttershy has caught a cold and forgets to tell Discord she's unable to host. Sweet fluff ensues.

Fluttershy was woken abruptly by a loud bang. She shot up in bed with a yelp while downstairs a familiar voice sang out, "Fluttershy!"

"Oh my goodness," she said, glancing at her clock and realising how late it was. "Our morning tea!"

Just then there was a flash, and Discord appeared beside her bed. The draconequus' expression quickly turned serious when he saw his friend. "Fluttershy! What's wrong?"

"Oh, Discord, I'm so sorr—" Her words were cut off as she suddenly started coughing.

Discord leapt towards the roof and magically donned a hazmat suit.

When the pegasus could talk again, she said, "I felt so sick yesterday, and I came home to rest. I must have overslept..." she glanced guiltily at the clock again. "And I completely forgot about our morning tea!"

Discord returned to her bedside, now looking properly concerned. "Why aren't the other girls here to look after you?"

"Oh, I don't want to bother them," said the shy pony predictably. "It's only a cold. Besides, I have all my critter friends." She spread her hooves out to encompass the other occupants of the room which, aside from Angel Bunny sitting on the blankets, included the usual retinue of birds, squirrels, mice, rabbits and Harry the bear.

All of them tweeted, squeaked and growled their agreement.

The draconequus eyed the crowd of animals, clearly unimpressed.

"I'm really sorry about our morning tea, Discord," Fluttershy repeated, thinking he was still upset about it.

But he waved away her apology. "Never mind, my dear. I quite understand."

Fluttershy smiled and settled back down in her bed, closing her eyes. They opened again when she heard another magical pop and the Chaos Lord saying, "Now, what can I do?"

Discord was now dressed in a nurse pony's uniform, batting ridiculously long lashes at her sweetly.

"Um...what do you mean?"

"I'm going to take care of you, of course! It would make me a pretty terrible friend to leave you in such a state!"

"Discord, no, you don't have to—"

"Fluttershy," he interrupted, holding up his eagle talon to stem her words, "you are my most favourite pony in Equestria, and I'm not going to just go home when I can do something to help you get well."

"But I don't want to get you sick too."

"A simple cold isn't going to bother me, Fluttershy. It would take some kind of magical illness to be able to affect me at all."

This uncharacteristically serious speech stunned Fluttershy into silence. Using her mane to cover her blushing face, she muttered, "Uh...well...thank you. I'd, um, love a cup of tea?"

Discord beamed and vanished, reappearing a second later with a steaming teapot, cup, saucer, spoon, milk, sugar and honey. He poured it out exactly as he knew she liked it and handed it to her. "Now, you drink that, and I'll be back soon." He vanished again.

Fluttershy could hear him downstairs and glanced at her animal friends nervously. "Uh...Angel," she whispered, "would you go make sure he's not making too much mischief?"

The rabbit saluted her with his ear and scurried from the room.

He returned in a minute and reported that Discord had refilled all the animals' bowls. Fluttershy blinked at this news, surprised and touched that the draconequus would think to do such a thing. And that he knew how. As far as she could recall, she'd never shown him where she kept the food or how much to feed all her critters.

Discord soon returned, now with a bowl of steaming soup on a tray. "Now, this should make you feel better, Fluttershy!"

Fluttershy beamed at him and made to sit up, only to have Discord reach out to help her with a sudden fifth limb. Only once she was propped up on her pillows properly did he hand her the bowl. She sipped at it while the draconequus looked on anxiously. "It's delicious, Discord!" she told him.

He clapped his mismatched arms together like an excited foal. "Ooh, good! I've been doing some cooking with both Pinkie Pie and Applejack, but I'd never tried this recipe before."

"Well they've taught you well. What else have you made?"

Fluttershy sipped at her soup while Discord told her various stories to keep her amused, just like he would normally do during their morning teas, only this time he kept pausing to make sure she was comfortable and had enough tea, soup or anything else he could think of to make her feel better.

Some of the animals, seeing their mistress in good hooves, (and paws and claws) left the room to spend the day as they normally would. Angel, however, remained curled up in Fluttershy's lap, and the pegasus took great comfort in just having him there and stroking his soft white fur. Eventually, Discord noticed this and offered to bring in the rabbit's grooming brush so Fluttershy could groom him as usual.

A little warily – knowing Discord's relationship with her pet as she did – Fluttershy agreed, but Discord did not try any tricks, simply summoning the brush into her hoof. He then listened patiently as the pegasus walked him through her usual grooming routine, which was sweet, as she could tell he had no interest in it at all.

Little did she know her lesson had given the mischievous draconequus another idea, and he summoned another brush.

Fluttershy frowned, but before she could question it, Discord had picked up the ends of her own long pink mane and was running the brush through it gently. The pegasus froze. The sensation was strange; she couldn't remember the last time anypony else had brushed her mane.

Discord met her eyes and smiled reassuringly.

She relaxed. The feeling was rather nice. She suddenly felt like a filly again, having somepony taking care of her and keeping her safe. Fluttershy sighed and closed her eyes, unconsciously leaning into the paw and claw still combing through her locks.

Angel glared at his mistress as his own grooming was forgotten.

Discord finally paused, and Fluttershy's eyes blinked open, coming back to the present. There was a brief and slightly awkward silence.

"Um...I should get you some more tea," Discord suggested, glancing away. He vanished with a pop, only to quickly return with a refilled teapot.

Fluttershy took the fresh cup of tea gratefully. She was feeling relaxed and content and a little lethargic, but was not yet ready to go to sleep. Her teal eyes drifted around her room and landed on her bookshelf. "Would you read to me, Discord?"

Distracted from his flash of embarrassment, the draconequus turned to follow her gaze before looking back down at the yellow pegasus. "Why, of course, my dear!" He crossed to the single shelf of books and ran his talon along the spines. "Which one would you like to hear?"

"Whichever."

Discord frowned, humming in thought. "Not that I'm a huge bookworm, but I have been around a while, and I don't think I've ever heard of any of these," he remarked.

"Really?" Fluttershy said, opening her eyes in surprise. That shelf held her fairy tale books: stories most ponies heard as foals. She supposed nopony had bothered reading them to Discord when he was young, if he'd had anypony to look after him at all. Had Discord ever even been young? She'd never heard him talk about any sort of family he might have had, and she got the feeling he'd somehow just appeared in the world as a full-fledged Chaos Lord millennia ago. He must have had an terribly lonely existence, even before trying to take over Equestria and becoming trapped in stone.

"Well, let's try this one, shall one?" He plucked one of the volumes off the shelf and returned to her side, opening at the first page. "Ah-hem. Snow Whinny and the Seven Diamond Dogs. Once upon a time..."

Fluttershy settled in to listen, but Discord soon stopped reading.

"I'm sorry, Snow Whinny's stepmother wanted her dead because she was 'too beautiful'?" the draconequus scoffed. "That's ludicrous, even for me!"

"Well she is the villain," the pegasus pointed out. "Her reason hardly justifies her actions in any case."

Discord rolled his eyes and continued, though he continually kept interrupting himself with commentary about how ridiculous such a story was. Fluttershy simply smiled, letting the familiar words flow over her and focussing more on the draconequus' entertaining expressions.

"...and they lived happily ever after," he finished, shutting the book. "Thank goodness that's over!"

"Didn't you enjoy it?"

"Well..." He drew out the word in the way that Fluttershy knew meant he was trying to avoid actually agreeing. "I suppose the ending wasn't too bad."

"I wouldn't mind hearing another," Fluttershy said sweetly.

Discord gave a long-suffering sigh, but she still caught the hint of a smile as he returned to the shelf and selected another one. "Here we go. The Sleeping Beauty."

Discord read her several more fairy tales, always adding his own colourful commentary to it as he went. Fluttershy also joined in now and then, and they would laugh together whenever she did. After the fourth story, though, the pony began to grow tired. It was almost evening by now; Discord had kept her company all day. She nestled deeper into her bed as the draconequus picked out the next story, hoping that this one would help her drift off.

"Ah, here's another!" the Chaos Lord exclaimed. "Beauty and the Beast!"

"This was always one of my favourites," Fluttershy sighed, her eyes falling closed. Discord could not have chosen a better story to lull her to sleep.

Discord's voice began with its usual jocular tone as he started to read the introduction, but as he continued, it got slower and quieter, right up until the last line. "...he fell into despair, for who could learn to love a beast?"

Fluttershy's eyes opened when she realised the draconequus had fallen silent.

Discord was staring at the page, but, feeling her eyes on him, looked up, his strange red and yellow eyes fixing on her face. "This is your favourite fairy tale?"

She nodded. "Since I was a filly."

He continued staring at her with such an intense look that she wanted to hide.

"U-um...are you...going to r-read it?"

Discord finally nodded, and started to read aloud again. Fluttershy was soon swept up in the familiar tale, sighing and gasping as the story progressed. Discord seemed equally transfixed, reacting right along with her. Fluttershy couldn't help but chuckle at the draconequus' anger as he read the part about the arrogant villain.

"...and they lived happily ever after," Discord finished.

Fluttershy sighed with contentment. Her eyes were starting to droop and she snuggled deeper into her bed. "What a perfect ending..." she murmured.

"Yes," Discord agreed quietly. "I think that might be my favourite fairy tale, too."

The pegasus' eyes were closed, but she smiled. "I'm glad you liked it, Discord."

Discord watched her until she fell asleep, then, careful not to disturb her or the bunny curled up beside her, bent over and kissed her mane softly. "Good night, my dear." Then he teleported himself home.

Fluttershy's friends all came to see how she was the next morning, only to find the yellow pegasus up and about once more.

"Thank you, I'm feeling much better now," she told them as she fed all her critters.

"We're sorry we couldn't be here to take care of you yesterday," said Rainbow Dash.

"Oh, it's no problem," Fluttershy replied. "Discord took good care of me."

"Discord?!" they all chorused in shock.

"Well, to tell the truth, I'd forgotten to tell him I was feeling sick and couldn't host our usual morning tea, so he came over. But when he found out I wasn't well, he stayed to look after me."

"That's mighty sweet o' him," AJ said.

"Yeah!" agreed Pinkie enthusiastically. "I bet it was lots of fun with Discord around!"

"It was," said Fluttershy. "We talked, he made me some soup and we read some stories. Did you know he's never read any fairy tales before?"

"Oh, that explains it," said Twilight. "I had a visit from him yesterday asking if he could borrow a book of fairy tales."

"Really?"

"Yeah. The weird part was when I gave it to him, he asked if it had Beauty and the Beast in it."

"Yes, he quite liked that one," Fluttershy explained. There was a short silence, so she looked up, only to find Twilight giving her a funny look. "What?"

Twilight shook her head. "Never mind. It's nothing."

Just then, Applejack offered to help the yellow pegasus finish feeding the critters, and Fluttershy turned to the farm pony with a smile. The others agreed to help too, and Twilight quickly shook her thoughts aside. Her sweet, shy friend might not have yet realised exactly why Discord liked the story so much, and the alicorn thought it best to leave it that way for now.

Thank you for reading everypony! Please review to let me know what you thought.

I might not be back to these Chronicles for a little while. Don't worry, I've still got a few ideas in the works, but they're a ways from being finished, so I hope my lovely followers will be patient with me. :)

Love OnlyHere4Puckabrina xoxo