Alright, so this story takes place shortly after 'Keep Calm and Flutter On', so, yeah, Discord and Fluttershy's friendship is still fresh...just thought I'd let you know.

And if I owned My Little Pony, wouldn't it be easier to write? This thing was stinking difficult.

Rainbow Dash usually loved nothing more than the feel of the wind through her mane as she flew speedily through the sky. Today, however, she didn't enjoy it as much as normal. Her mind was too filled with thoughts of how she was late for a picnic with her friends. Normally she didn't care so much about being late, especially not for something like a picnic. But Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all got a little nuts when they made plans. So if you set a time to meet with them, you'd better stick to that time.

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late." Rainbow Dash said to her friends when she reached the spot where they were having the picnic. She landed on the blanket next to Applejack and stretched her wings. "I think I just fell asleep and lost track of time, or something."

"Don't worry, Rainbow Dash." Twilight said, "You're not too late. And besides, Fluttershy's not even here yet."

"Wait, she's not?" Now Rainbow Dash was confused, if not a little bit concerned. It wasn't at all like Fluttershy to be late. Did something happen to her? Was she okay? Did she just get caught up in taking care of some animal of sorts? Why wasn't she here? Rainbow Dash had to remind herself to calm down. There was absolutely no reason to freak out. She had only just gotten here herself. There wasn't really any reason to worry about Fluttershy so much, at least, not yet.

Rainbow Dash often worried a lot about Fluttershy, though she tried hard not to let it show in front of everybody. She did have a reputation to uphold after all. Even though the animal loving pegasus was older than Rainbow Dash, she couldn't help but act like an overprotective older sister toward Fluttershy. She behaved the same way around Scootaloo. Hey, only-child pegasi who didn't have their parent's around to guide them had to stick together.

It was only a few minutes later when Fluttershy arrived and joined them at the picnic blanket, but it felt longer to Rainbow Dash. She casually and ever so coolly flew over to where Fluttershy had settled in.

"Well, look who decided to show up." Rainbow Dash said with a grin. Fluttershy blushed and hung her head slightly.

"Oh, I'm sorry I'm late." Fluttershy said apologetically. "I would have come sooner, but it took longer than usual to get the animals their food."

And by 'animals', she probably meant 'Angel Bunny'. That stupid rabbit was so much more trouble than he was worth, or, at least he was in Rainbow Dash's eyes. She knew that Spike agreed with her on that. Fluttershy though could see absolutely no wrong in the little bunny, she had no idea what a devil was hiding inside that angel.

"Don't worry about it, Fluttershy." Twilight reassured her. "You're not even that late."

"Oh, that reminds me, you girls don't mind that I invited someone else to join us, do you?" Fluttershy asked.

"Of course not, darling." Rarity said.

"The more the merrier." Applejack added.

"I'm so glad to hear that." Fluttershy did sound very relieved. Why had she been so worried about them minding if she invited someone else? Had she honestly thought that they wouldn't want anyone else to join them? They were just having a picnic. Nothing special.

"Hey, who did you invite anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Um, Discord." Fluttershy said. Oh, that's why she was so worried.

"Discord?" Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her ears, and neither could Rarity and Applejack. "Why would you want to invite him?"

"Well, we are friends, so he should come to a friendly gathering sometimes." Fluttershy pointed out. Rainbow Dash still didn't believe it. Fluttershy was just such a nice and gentle pony, the complete opposite of what Discord was, so why would she want to be friends with him? Rainbow Dash could only come up with one solution to that question.

"Fluttershy, why do you still pretend to be friends with him?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"P-pretend?" Fluttershy squeaked.

"Yeah, I mean, why would somepony like you actually want to be friends with Discord?" Rainbow Dash asked with a cross of her front hooves.

"Why would anypony want to be friends with Discord?" Applejack asked under her breath. "He's so obnoxious.

"Indeed, he is such a ruffian."Rarity added with a flip of her mane.

"And a freak too." Rainbow Dash finished. She was going to add more, until she saw the tears in Fluttershy's eyes. "Fluttershy, what's wrong?" Rainbow Dash was concerned now. Had she said something wrong?

"I-I'm not pretending." Fluttershy said so quietly that Rainbow Dash thought she might have imagined it. Before she could clarify that that was what Fluttershy had said, the yellow pegasus turned and fled from there as fast as she could. Rainbow Dash slowly fluttered to the ground, unsure of what had just happened. Why was Fluttershy so upset?

"Well, that could have been handled better." Twilight said. By her tone and the glare that she sent Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack, she was not amused.

"What, what did we do?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"And you guys think that Discord's a meanie." Pinkie Pie said, she too sounded disappointed in them. Rainbow Dash's ears dropped a bit. She felt kind of funny, in a bad way. Like guilt, but she didn't understand that either. She didn't regret what she'd said, Discord was a freakshow, everyone knew it, he probably knew it better than anyone. She just hated to make Fluttershy so upset, even if she didn't see what the big deal was.

"So, uh, who's hungry?" Spike asked awkwardly, simply to break the silence that had been gathering. He held up a plate of muffins and offered one to Rainbow Dash, who frowned. They smelled really good, but she wasn't in the mood for eating now.

"No, I'm not hungry." Rainbow Dash said. "I think I'm just going to head home now." She took off into the air and flew off, trying to ignore her grumbling stomach. Okay, so she had lied, she was hungry. But it just felt wrong to have a picnic with her friends when one of her friends had run off in tears. So instead of eating at lunch, she'd eat lunch at home. No big deal. After she ate some grub, she would visit Fluttershy, to make sure she was doing alright.

Rainbow Dash flew right past the few clouds that were in the sky. She barely noticed, and hardly cared at all, that one of the clouds seemed darker and heavier than the others. If she had bothered to stop and look at it for a minute, she would have seen why. Sitting on top of the cloud, with a mood equally as dark and heavy, was Discord.

"Pretending, huh?" Discord scowled. All he had been doing was minding his own business, waiting for the perfect opportunity to rain on their parade, or picnic, when he had overheard that little bit of gossip, which dampened his mood quite a bit. He hadn't actually heard any of what Fluttershy had said, that pony just spoke much too quietly, but he didn't need too. He had heard plenty.

With a snap of his talon Discord was back in the comforts of his own chaotic home. He didn't necessarily feel like doing nothing at home all day, but it was better than the alternative. He would rather be by himself than be doing something with those happy, cheerful, lying, fake ponies. True, he'd probably get bored, but if that happened, he could always just do what he always did when he got bored and completely change the layout of his home. Maybe he would fill it entirely with water, and just let everything either sink or float around. That might be entertaining.

Except, strangely enough, he wasn't in the mood for doing that. He wasn't actually in the mood for anything at all except absolutely nothing. Discord sighed and laid down right on the floor. He hated this. He really did. Why had he let friendship get to his head again? Hadn't he learned his lesson the first time? Nopony could possibly want to be friends with him. The best he would get was pretenders.

True, Fluttershy hadn't actually said that she was pretending to be his friend. If anything she seemed devastated about the accusation. But Discord didn't dare hope. Not this time. After all, how did he knew that Fluttershy wasn't just like Her?

He was better off on his own.

Why was that so hard to write? Why? It's not long. It's not complicated. It shouldn't have been so difficult.

Okay, time to stop whining. I'll have the next chapter up sometime...yeah, doesn't that sound reassuring?