Pinkie Pie sat on the ledge of the tall building, her back hooves swinging slightly in the air while her forelegs were fidgeting with each other. There was a slight chill in the air but Pinkie had gotten used to the sudden breezes that would make her fur stand on edge for a few seconds before dying down. Beside her were three bottles of wine, all unopened.
She continued to gaze up at the stars. Some ponies, Twilight in particular, would often say that if you stared at the night sky long enough you could see the shapes of the constellations. Of course, Pinkie didn’t know any constellations so they just looked like a random collection of white dots but this did nothing to lessen the beauty of the night sky.
Pinkie heard a crack behind her that made her jump but she did not turn around. A strange set of footsteps approached behind her. One sounded like a hoof but the other footstep was accompanied with a scratching sound, like talons.
Discord looked at the pony. She looked significantly different from when he had last seen her. She looked terrible, even worse than the negative personality he had turned her into. Fair enough she didn’t look as…grey as she had but her bright pink coat had dulled significantly. Her mane was completely flat compared to the fluffy mess it usually looked like. It was as if there was an aura of pessimism surrounding her it was…unnerving. He watched her for a few seconds before following her gaze up to the sky.
“The early settler ponies were moronic geniuses.” He said sitting down on the same ledge. “They looked up at this mass of stars that Lulu gave them and they made sense out of it. They made sense out of chaos.” The draconequus smiled wistfully.
“They did a terrible job with these shapes, though. Apparently those five stars make a chariot. And in what universe does an eagle look like two incoherent lines of dots? What idiots.”
The spirit tilted his head in every conceivable angle but could not make heads or tails of any of the so-called ‘constellations’. With a heavy sigh he waved his lion paw across the sky. One by one, stars zipped across the sky to a specific position, spelling out a message in the night sky.
‘You see dear inhabitants of Equestria; this is how things are written in the stars.’
Almost immediately after this a scroll appeared in green flame in front of the spirit. He unfurled it with his magic and read it, a slow, sly smile erupting on his face as he did so. We waved his paw at the sky again and the stars flew across the sky to different locations.
‘Or what?’ The stars now read.
There was a bright flash before them and Pinkie Pie turned her gaze from the sky towards it. Levitating in front of the now horror-struck draconequus was a feather duster. It pounced on the spirit in an unrelenting attack on his stomach as the chimera howled in laughter trying to fend off the feathery assailant.
Pinkie gave a small smile as tears streamed down Discord’s face. He frantically tried to push the feather duster away but with every flail the enchanted cleaning utensil managed to avoid the spirit’s grasp. Discord teleported a few feet away from his original position but unfortunately for him the duster teleported with him. Pinkie gasped as she watched his second escape plan which involved his whole body bursting into flames but the instrument of tickling proved indestructible.
He took his eagle claw and shakily snapped his fingers. In an instant the night sky returned to normal and then the feather duster disappeared. Discord was still chuckling mildly and struggling to wipe the evaporated tears from his flaming body before giving his whole body a shake, dispersing the flames. He grumbled slightly at his defeat and sat back down on the ledge. Several minutes of silence passed. Pinkie looked down at the street below swaying her legs in the air.
“Discord,” The pink pony started. “Can I ask you something?” The draconequus continued to look at the sky.
“I don’t know my dear, can you?” A sly smirk appeared on his face. Pinkie ignored his sarcastic comment.
“What are you afraid of? What scares you the most?” Discord frowned slightly.
“I do not have many fears, once you live as long as I have you get used to the many things that every pony else is scared of; things like death and change and loneliness.” The spirit gave a tiny, unnoticeable shiver as his mind turned to the thing he feared the most. “However, I am scared of spiders.”
Pinkie Pie tilted at the spirit confused.
“Spiders? Seriously?” The chimera nodded.
“Why wouldn’t I be scared of them, I created them.” Pinkie was taken back; she hadn’t expected spiders to be the handiwork of Discord, parasprites, yes, but spiders?
“I didn’t realise you made spiders.” The spirit nodded.
“Yes, I made them a long time ago. A really long time ago. I needed a creature that would naturally induce fear into the hearts of citizens. Most of the time chaos stems from fear. So I thought of the most unnatural thing I could think of but I also wanted it to be subtle, to blend in, and to be able to hide under beds and in between cracks. I wanted them to be everywhere.”
“Unfortunately, that’s exactly what happened; they got everywhere, particularly in my castle despite the fact it was always upside down. It’s…the way they move, always as if they are scurrying towards you, coming to get you. Plus they have too much of things like legs and eyes and fangs. Anyone who says they're not scared of spiders are either lying...or just plain weird.”
Pinkie nodded along in the conversation while continuing to look down at the ground below. Another minute of silence inched by.
“I used to think I was afraid of heights. But as I got older I realised it’s not the height that scares you, it’s the thought of falling.” Discord looked down at the street below. He could understand the fear but he had never shared it.
“You’re wrong Pinkie.” She looked at him curiously. “Nopony has a fear of falling. You spend your whole life falling. Our world is falling, the stars are falling and you and I are falling. However, whatever is at the end of that fall, that’s what scares you. Be it the ground beneath you or the abyss above you, that’s what you fear.”
Pinkie sat in deep thought, the draconequus was incredibly insightful and wise however his answers weren’t exactly as welcoming as the ones he had replaced. The pony sighed.
“You’re not actually helping me, do you know that?” Discord smiled.
“I rarely do.”
The spirit was becoming bored increasingly quickly. He looked around and noticed the unopened bottles of wine. Slithering through the air he floated above the bottles and picked one of them up. He groaned as he saw the label.
“No, you’ve gone about this whole thing the wrong way!” Pinkie looked at him frowning. How exactly is there a right way to go about this?
“First thing, you pick a good vintage. You want your last drink to be enjoyable. Where did you even get this?” Pinkie slowly pointed to a small shop down the street below them. Discord slapped his lion paw against his face.
“For goodness sake! It’s not even a proper wine shop!” He brought the bottle of wine, if it could even be called that, to his face. He sniffed it and then, to Pinkie’s surprise, took a bite out of the bottle. Discord grimaced as he crunched down on the glass. “Even the bottle tastes cheap.”
Pinkie was at a loss for words she had bought the wine for a reason.
“I didn’t buy the wine to enjoy it. I bought it for…courage” The pink pony hung her head expecting further questions.
“Hmm, I understand that but that’s no excuse for this atrocity. For courage you’d have to drink a lot of this and I doubt you’d get very far with the quality of this alcohol.”
He casually threw the broken bottle behind him. There a small sound of glass breaking followed by an enormous shockwave which made Pinkie jump, nearly falling off the ledge. Discord looked back nonchalantly.
“Need to work on my technique.” He looked back at the pony and smiled. “Glad to see your mane’s back to normal, I prefer it like that it, it reminds me of cotton candy.”
Her once flat mane was now its normal poofy style due to the wind that had rushed past them. She looked at the moon sorrowfully, her eyes beginning to water.
“Everyone prefers it like that. Everyone prefers it when I’m happy and laughing and throwing parties and stuff. I’m never allowed to be like…this.” She pointed to her now dulling mane.
“I told you how I’m afraid of falling well, right now I’m falling. You said that ponies are only scared of what they’re falling to but you’re wrong. I’ve been falling for so long that I don’t even know where I am anymore.” She turned to Discord. “I’m so scared. Every day I feel worse and I just wish that it would end but it never does. It’s like my heart is trapped in a vice, squeezing the joy out of my life. Whatever I’m falling towards I don’t fear it, I embrace it.”
Discord raised his eyebrows and looked back towards the sky. He knew that Pinkie Pie was teetering over the edge towards oblivion and also that this had been the third night in a row she had ventured to this rooftop. If she continued like this she might not even need the effects of any alcohol to give her proper encouragement. He could see it in her eyes, the darkness. The crushing darkness that had overthrown the twinkle once present in those blue eyes.
“You say you’re not allowed to be like you are.” Discord pondered. “Why is that?”
“I told you! Everypony just wants to notice me being happy and throwing parties. The Element of Laughter only wants to be seen laughing.”
“Are you sure everypony wants to see you like that or is it that only you who only wants to be seen like that?” Pinkie sat there, mulling over what the spirit had just told her. Discord broke off a piece of the concrete ledge, turning it into a slice of cake before eating it.
“What of your friends Pinkie Pie? Do they know how you feel?” Pinkie slowly shook her head. “And what about what you have been planning to do for the past three nights? Do they know what you want to do? Do they even know where you are?” Pinkie started to cry silently.
“N-no. I left a n-note saying I’d be out of t-town for a few days.”
Discord sighed impatiently despite the situation it always annoyed him when creatures cried. He pulled out a long line of different coloured tissues that were tied together from his eagle arm. Pinkie Pie blew her nose and balloons and streamers erupted from the tissues. She hiccupped slightly which Discord took to be an attempt at a weak laugh.
“It’s strange, Pinkie Pie, I always thought that you cared about your friends, I guess I was mistaken.” Pinkie Pie gasped in shock.
“I do so care about my friends! I’d do anything for them!” Discord raised his eyebrows disbelievingly.
“Oh really, then why have you not told them anything about how you are feeling? Why have you not told them about what you plan to do? Why have you lied to them?” Pinkie was crying more heavily now.
“W-why are you b-being so mean? It’s not my f-fault that I feel this way!” She sobbed.
“I am being truthful Pinkie Pie and if honest Applejack were here she would agree with me. Now it may not be your fault that you feel this way but it is certainly your fault that you have not treated your friends with the respect they deserve.”
Pinkie Pie put her hooves to her ears and began to shake her head trying to ignore the draconequus' words. She stood up onto the ledge facing the spirit and away from the drop.
“Stop it!” She yelled. “Stop it! I’ll do it, I'll really do it! You’re making it worse!” Discord stood in front of her glaring at her with his mismatched pupils.
“And what about your friends? How do you think they would feel if they found out that you had committed suicide without so much as a reason to give them or even a goodbye! You have abandoned them!”
The realisation struck Pinkie like a bullet. She stood there, tears falling silently down her face.
“I….I’ve abandoned them?” She fell forwards and latched onto the draconequus’ stomach weeping into his brown fur.
The spirit winced and very reluctantly brought his lion paw to comfort her. She cried for what seemed like an age, even his time spent locked in stone felt like it hadn’t taken this long.
Gradually Pinkie calmed down. A blanket materialised around her and Discord sat her down in the middle of the roof. A cloud of cotton candy appeared above the spirit and rained warm chocolate milk into a glass which he gave to the sniffling pony. She quietly thanked him and began to sip the drink.
“Now then,” the chimera declared retrieving a list out of thin air. “Here’s what’s going to happen. No ‘ifs’, no ‘buts’,” the spirit then took what looked like a brown furry bowling ball from behind his back and drop kicked far into the distance. “No ‘coconuts’.” Pinkie gave a small smile.
“Number one, I am going to teleport you back to Twilight’s house as it’s the only place I know that one of your friend’s resides in. Number two, you will tell her everything.” The earth pony gulped.
“E-everything?”
“Yes, e-very-thang. You will let them help you and never take their friendship for granted again. And I will know if you don’t tell them and trust me it could get unpleasant, I’m not always the calm, collected and handsome persona you see before you…well I am always handsome.” Pinkie giggled ever so slightly before nodding in agreement.
“Good. Number three, you will not tell any of your friends that I was here or that I was involved in your rehabilitation, so to speak, in any way, shape or form. Number four, you will not ask Tia or little Lulu about my sudden appearance which I am frankly curious as to why you haven’t questioned it so far anyway. Nevertheless, I officially proclaim it none of your bees wax and that’s that! And finally number five, you will report to Tia’s throne room in a week’s time where you will probably be forced to write some soppy lesson about what you have learned and how important friendship is yadda, yadda, yadda, so on and so on.”
After he had finished he put on a pair of red sunglasses, despite the fact it was night time, and swiftly snapped his fingers, removing all traces that he had ever been on the rooftop. Discord looked at the earth pony. He noted the slight difference in her colour and how her mane had ever-so-slightly curled. As he prepared to snap his fingers once more he peered down his glasses at Pinkie.
“One last thing, Pinkie Pie.” She looked at him, a tiny twinkle in her eye. “Chin up.”
Pinkie Pie smiled as the draconequus snapped two eagle talons together and she disappeared in a flash of light.
Discord stared at the now empty space removing his sunglasses. He had earned his freedom. He walked over to the ledge and sat down looking at the moon.
The world is never black and white, never right or wrong, never this or that. The world is the shade of grey in between and it is the same of chaos. There is good to come of everything; there is good in chaos.
While the definition of chaos is a ‘state of disorder or confusion’ there is so much more than a definition to everything. There is the grey area, the meaning.
Chaos is the small things that are irrelevant to your day that make you smile. Chaos is the little miracles that happen each day that are unlikely. Chaos is the luck that strikes those who need it.
He looked up at the night sky and smiled slightly as the stars shone bright above him.
‘Thank you’
Chaos is the saving of a life that was otherwise doomed to end.
