Greetings bronies and pegasisters and most of all, Fluttercord shippers! I'm starting this series of cute little episodes, which will all be dedicated to my favourite MLP ship. You're welcome to send me prompts or ideas if you want, as long as they're about Fluttercord!

I will not be updating regularly, just whenever I write an addition, so could be hours or months between postings, depending on my imagination and commitment to it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing in or about the MLP:FiM universe.

Fluttershy was just finishing up putting out food for all her critters when there was a knock on the door. Calling out a gentle "Coming!" she trotted over and opened the cottage door.

"Oh, Mrs Cake," said a surprised Fluttershy. "It's nice to see you. Um…did you want to come in?"

"Oh, no thank you, Fluttershy," said Mrs Cake, sounding harried. "I need to get back to the bakery. Pinkie's out throwing a cute-ceañera, so I've left Mr Cake running it and watching the twins by himself. I just came to ask a favour."

"What is it?"

"I was wondering if you would foal-sit for us tomorrow afternoon?"

"Oh. Um…"

"I know it's short notice," Mrs Cake went on, "but we had a sudden last minute order and everyone else is busy."

"Well, um… the afternoon, was it?"

"Yes, around two. Until about six."

Fluttershy did some quick calculations. "Yes. That should be fine."

"Oh, thank you Fluttershy!" Mrs Cake gushed. She gave Fluttershy a brief hug and said, "Gotta go. Thank you so much!" Then she dashed off back to Ponyville.

Fluttershy had just put the finger sandwiches on her table when her guest materialised beside her. She was so used to this by now that she only flinched slightly.

"Fluttershy!" cried Discord, flinging his arms out in welcome.

"Discord!" Fluttershy replied, smiling widely back at him.

"I brought you a gift." He produced a bunch of flowers out of thin air. "As every polite guest should."

Fluttershy took the flowers with another smile. She had told Discord a couple of weeks ago that it was customary for guests to bring their hosts a small gift whenever they came over. Ever since, he had always brought her flowers whenever he showed up to their Tuesday morning teas. This week's were particularly beautiful. She recognised them as the kinds that grew between her cottage and the Everfree Forest. She had always admired those, but wasn't quite brave enough to go right up to the haunted trees to pick them. Then she wondered if Discord knew that.

"Thank you, Discord. Would you like some tea, or a finger sandwich first?"

"Hmm. A finger sandwich, I think."

They sat down at the table and began their morning tea. Discord filled Fluttershy in on his week, and she giggled as he regaled her with stories. He always had the funniest experiences whereas her weeks were always pretty dull.

"So what's new with you, my dear?" the Chaos Lord asked.

"Um, well… I've agreed to help Rarity with her new fashion line. She's going to model all her dresses on me."

"You're going to be a model? Again?"

"Not exactly. I don't have to wear the dresses in front of anyone."

"Well that's better," the draconequus muttered.

Fluttershy cocked her head, wondering what he meant by that, then shook her head. "Also, I have to foal-sit the Cake twins this afternoon, so we may have to cut our morning tea a little short, I'm sorry."

"Why?" Discord shrugged. "Why don't I just help you foal-sit?"

"Oh," said Fluttershy, taken aback. "I…I didn't think you'd want to."

"Well why not? I'm great with kids."

Fluttershy smiled. "Have you ever been around kids?"

Discord grinned. "No. But I've spent plenty of time with Pinkie Pie."

Fluttershy snorted and lapsed into giggles. "Okay, sounds like fun," she managed eventually.

The two of them whiled away the morning talking and joking together as they usually did, then made their way over to the Sugarcube Corner just before two o'clock.

Mrs Cake was at the counter serving customers as usual, while Mr Cake was dashing in and out of the actual bakery in the back, carrying boxes to load onto their delivery cart.

"Fluttershy, you're here!" Mrs Cake called, relieved, as she saw the shy yellow pegasus come in. "And…oh…Discord too," as she caught sight of the draconequus entering behind her.

"Yes. Discord offered to help me with foal-sitting for this afternoon."

"Oh…" Mrs Cake hesitated, and even Mr Cake paused in his mad dash around the sweetshop to look questioningly at the Chaos Lord. "Well, that's…very kind."

Fluttershy and Discord were not too bothered by her lack of enthusiasm for this plan, as they had expected it, but it still rather annoyed Fluttershy, though she pushed back the feeling. She knew Mr and Mrs Cake were just worried for their children, and who could blame them for that?

"It would certainly help Fluttershy to have another magic user to deal with young Pumpkin," Discord pointed out smoothly.

Fluttershy had not thought of that, but she realised he was right. She might be able to stop Pound Cake as he flew all over the house, but she had no way of dealing with Pumpkin's magic.

"That's true," Mrs Cake agreed with a small smile. "Very well. You two won't have to watch the bakery, because we'll close it for the afternoon…"

"Not at all!" Discord cried, snapping the fingers on his lion paw. Another Discord popped into existence beside the original, wearing rectangular glasses, a crisp white apron and a name tag reading 'Assistant Manager Discord'. "I can take care of that too."

"Well, I don't know if…" Mrs Cake began.

Assistant Manager Discord stepped forward with a bow and took her hoof. "Never fear, good lady, your shop is in excellent hooves. And paws and claws," he added with a chuckle, wiggling his mismatched digits.

"We really don't…"

But she was cut off again as Assistant Manager Discord snapped his eagle claws and two more Discords appeared behind him, both wearing matching aprons, caps and badges reading 'Server Discord'.

"See? We can easily keep the shop running while we foal-sit the twins upstairs," said Assistant Manager Discord.

Mr and Mrs Cake were clearly unsure about this decision, so Fluttershy cut in. "We certainly don't want you to lose business, Mr and Mrs Cake, and Discord as you see is happy to help. Don't worry. We'll keep everything under control."

The Cakes trusted Fluttershy's judgement, and knew Discord listened to her more than anypony, so they gave in.

"Come on, Banana Muffin!" Mr Cake called to his wife, frantically carrying the last of the delivery boxes outside.

"Yes, yes, right behind you Honey Cakes!" Mrs Cake replied. She dashed upstairs to hug her children goodbye before scurrying back down and out the door after him.

Original Discord turned to Fluttershy with raised eyebrows and a smirk. "Banana Muffin? Mr Cake is starting to sound like Pinkie Pie."

Fluttershy giggled. "Come on, we should go check on the twins."

Fluttershy and Discord (the original) made their way up to the Cakes' apartment while the three other Discords took up their positions to prepare to help the customers who came in during the afternoon.

Pumpkin and Pound Cake were sitting up on the carpet in the middle of their nursery, obviously waiting for their foal-sitters. As soon as the two of them entered, both foals burbled excitedly, Pound smashing his tiny hooves into the floor, and Pumpkin using her magic to pick up a giant stuffed rabbit and put it in her mouth.

Fluttershy immediately rushed to them, chiding gently. "No, Pumpkin, we don't eat Big Angel Bunny. Pound Cake, please don't hit like that, you'll hurt yourself."

Pound Cake shrieked and threw his hooves around Fluttershy instead. Pumpkin pulled the stuffed toy from her mouth and cuddled it instead. "Anji Bun," she gurgled.

Fluttershy giggled as she nuzzled Pound right back. "That's right, Pumpkin," she cooed. "Angel Bunny."

Discord smiled as he watched the young ponies give in to Fluttershy's natural charm. It really was amazing how everypony fell under her spell, including himself. After savouring the view for a minute, he decided to make his presence known.

"Well, these two certainly do look like trouble, don't they?" he said, hovering over the other three.

Pound and Pumpkin squealed with pretend fear and babbled incoherently at the draconequus. Pound flew up to his level and prodded him experimentally.

"Yes, ankle-biter, I am real," he huffed.

Fluttershy giggled, but Pumpkin scowled up at him, waving her stuffed Angel Bunny around angrily.

"What does this one want?" Discord asked.

Fluttershy explained. "Pumpkin knows all of her foal-sitters by a certain toy. See, I gave her the bunny, Twilight and Spike gave her that Smarty-Pants doll over there, Rarity got her the Glamour Gallop Girl, the apple is, of course, from the Apple clan, and Pinkie Pie and her parents are the cupcake." Discord tried counting them, amazed at how many of the citizens of Ponyville were represented in Pumpkin's stuffed toy collection. Rainbow had managed to find a Daring Do figure, and he even thought he saw a stuffed scroll tied with blue ribbon that he was sure was from Mayor Mare.

"You need to give her something so she'll recognise you too," Fluttershy said.

Discord shrugged and conjured up a small stuffed replica of himself, handing it to the young unicorn. She shrieked with pleasure and immediately tried to cram the new toy into her mouth. Fluttershy set to trying to persuade it back out.

Now that he had been 'introduced properly', the twins wanted to play a game. Fluttershy went happily along with their whims, telling Discord how to play along when necessary. He caught on pretty quickly, as Pound and Pumpkin were both extremely creative and mischievous, just like him. He was glad he had come along, because he could easily imagine these two running poor Fluttershy off her feet and into a rare temper. When he mentioned this to his friend, Fluttershy had smiled and confessed even Pinkie Pie had trouble keeping up with the Cake twins occasionally.

There were no arguments for the first half-hour or so, then Pound and Pumpkin got into a squabble, which was quickly resolved with Fluttershy's gentle remonstrances. Discord was happy to sit back and watch her work her own special magic for that one.

When they got into snack time, the twins got fussy. Fluttershy cajoled and pleaded, but they had started becoming stubborn, so Discord made their mashed peas dance through the air, which made them laugh and distracted them from the fact that they didn't want to eat it. Fluttershy beamed at him as the twins happily gulped down their peas, and Discord felt quite proud.

After everyone had eaten, Pumpkin started trying to impress her foal-sitters with shows of magic, which were very disruptive. Discord quickly calmed her down with feats of his own magic, and the two soon began competing against each other in a magic show. Fluttershy was pleased to see that he wasn't letting it get too out of hand, which left her with Pound, who was begging to be chased around the ceiling. Fluttershy was happy to do so.

The afternoon wore on, and Discord and Fluttershy were thoroughly enjoying themselves. Fluttershy was pleasantly surprised at how well they seemed to work as a team with the boisterous foals. Pound and Pumpkin became bored with their individual pursuits at the almost exact same time, and the two foal-sitters effortlessly switched charges so Discord was helping Pound build block towers (his own specially chaotic kind) and Fluttershy was trying to teach Pumpkin more words.

Discord flatly refused to help, however, when they needed changing.

Fluttershy smiled at this and said threateningly, but teasing, "You're going to have to know how to do this if we ever foal-sit again."

Discord grinned at the thought of spending another day like this with Fluttershy. It seemed so natural, the two of them taking care of the little rugrats. He wondered if he would get to help as much when Fluttershy became a mother. If only…

The draconequus sighed as he gazed at the gorgeous pegasus. Fluttershy would be an excellent mother, if and when she chose to become one.

As the Cakes' return drew closer, Pound and Pumpkin started to get more and more wild. This, Fluttershy knew, meant it was bedtime. Usually, getting the Cake twins to go to sleep when they didn't want to was nigh on impossible. As far as Fluttershy knew, only Pinkie had accomplished it alone, and she still remembered Pinkie describing the nightmare time she had had just getting them to stay in the cot.

With Discord though, the task was easy. He created a magical barrier so they couldn't escape their cot, so they had to stay put when Fluttershy turned The Stare on them and ordered them to calm down. They did so, lying down, closing their eyes and eventually falling asleep as Fluttershy sang them a lullaby.

Discord listened to her soft, melodic voice in rapture, so lost in the sound that he didn't immediately notice when she stopped singing and turned to him.

"Now," she said, and Discord snapped to attention. Fluttershy was looking around the room at the huge mess the four of them had left behind from their fun afternoon. "We'll have to…"

But Discord had already snapped his fingers and everything went flying back to its rightful place, towels and blankets were folded and tucked away neatly and the magical forcefield around the sleeping twins' cot disappeared. Before Fluttershy could blink, the chaotic room was orderly once more. She smiled at Discord.

"Thank you," she said quietly, mindful of the sleeping foals.

"Of course, my dear," he replied. "Shall we go down and see how the other Discords did in the shop?"

Fluttershy had completely forgotten about the bakery downstairs, and hoped that the lack of explosions or other loud disturbances meant all had gone well there too. She and Discord went downstairs and found Assistant Manager Discord waving off the last of the day's customers – who looked quite bemused by the new staff – while the two Server Discords were sweeping the floor and writing up the last sale in the Cakes' ledger. Once Assistant Manager Discord had flipped the 'Open' sign to 'Closed' and the second Server Discord had put down his quill, they all turned to Fluttershy and Original Discord.

"All went well, sir," Assistant Manager Discord announced. "Just a couple of complaints, but we took care of them."

"Good job," Discord told himself.

The other three Discords all nodded and vanished.

Just to be sure all was actually well, Fluttershy did a quick check around the shop and bakery. Apart from a crop of mushrooms on the kitchen counter and stovetop, and the overly sudsy soap the first Server Discord had been sweeping with, there didn't seem to be anything out of place. Even the notes of each sale in the ledger were legible and made sense – or at least as much sense as Pinkie Pie's, so she thought the Cakes could interpret it well enough.

Discord, on her request, removed the mushrooms and the bucket of soap, just in time for Mr and Mrs Cake to walk through the door.

"Oh my!" Mrs Cake exclaimed, gazing around at the immaculate shop.

Mr Cake was right behind her, and he too looked surprised at how normal and neat everything appeared. "How are the twins?" he asked Fluttershy.

"We just got them to sleep," Fluttershy reported proudly.

The Cakes of course wanted to see their children, so Fluttershy and Discord showed them the sleeping foals in their spotless nursery. Mrs Cake pressed her hoof to her mouth as she saw the twins snuggled together, with the adorable addition of Pumpkin holding tightly to her new Discord doll.

The four adults went back downstairs before speaking.

"You two have done a wonderful job," Mr Cake told them. "Thank you so much, Fluttershy. And you too, Discord. Couldn't have done it without you."

"Yes," Mrs Cake agreed. "You two might just be our go-to foal-sitters from now on."

"Except Pinkie, because we gave her our Pinkie Promise," Mr Cake added.

Discord beamed with pride while Fluttershy graciously accepted their thanks. Who would have thought the Lord of Chaos would be a master foal-sitter?

As they left Sugarcube Corner and made their way slowly back to Fluttershy's cottage, the pegasus and draconequus chatted about their fun afternoon with the Cake twins, laughing and smiling at the amusing things the two foals had done.

"I think we make an excellent team," Discord said. "We should be parents!"

Fluttershy laughed and looked away to hide her blush. "I think you'd be a great dad." Then she blushed furiously at her own daring comment.

Discord did not seem to notice but cried, "Are you kidding? You'd be the best mother!" which did not help Fluttershy's embarrassment.

The two friends lapsed into a companionable silence until they reached Fluttershy's cottage.

"Well, goodnight, my dear," Discord said as Fluttershy went to her door.

"Goodnight, Discord. I'll see you next week for our Tuesday morning tea?"

"Of course! I wouldn't miss it!" he beamed. Then with a pop, the draconequus vanished.

Fluttershy smiled to herself and went in to feed her critters.

Mrs Cake came by late the next morning and Fluttershy offered her a drink and cookies, which she this time accepted.

"Did you know Discord came to see Mr Cake and me this morning?" she asked Fluttershy.

"No," Fluttershy said, completely surprised.

"Yes, he came to ask if we could let him know next time we ever needed a foal-sitter."

Fluttershy smiled. "He had a lot of fun yesterday. And I really couldn't have done it without him."

"That's what we figured," Mrs Cake replied. "So we told him of course we would."

"I'm glad," said Fluttershy with another smile.

"Even though we had two customers come in and tell us that they had been chased out of the shop by a manticore yesterday when they tried to make a complaint!"

Fluttershy gasped. "Oh, Mrs Cake, I'm so sorry! I had no idea!"

Mrs Cake giggled. "Oh well. With the Lord of Chaos, I honestly expected much worse."

Fluttershy also let out a relieved giggle. "Yes. I suppose it could have been."

"Which is why I want to ask you – anytime Discord foal-sits for us, would you come along too and make sure he doesn't get too crazy?"

Fluttershy beamed. "Anytime."