Reconstruction

Pebble Pusher put a hoof to his chin and fluttered his wings. “I don’t think it’s working.”

“Oh, it’s working,” Discord reassured him. “It’s working.”

On the ground between the two stood a wet, sloppy cube of packed mud. “Trust me,” said Discord. “It’s going to work.”

“What did you say is supposed to happen again?”

“The heat from the sun hardens the mud,” Discord explained, floating in midair on his belly. “Soon, you’ll be able to build things.”

“But didn’t you already do that for us?” Pebble Pusher pointed to the complex of buildings behind him. There were luxurious hotels, waterparks, restaurants, and amusement parks for the society of alicorns to enjoy, staffed at all hours of the day by rocks, sticks, and other objects animated by Discord.

“I did that so they could pass the time,” Discord grumbled. “Once you teach the rest of them how to do this, all of that’s going away.”

Eris poked her head up from where she had been lounging atop his back. “Aw, but why?”

“Because you can’t be self-sufficient if I do everything for you.”

“But after all of this, who’d want to live in a house made of mud?”

“What do you think I should do, then? Run everything myself so you ponies don’t need to do any work?”

“Yes,” Eris and Pebble Pusher said in unison.

Discord chuckled. “It didn’t take very long for the vice of sloth to infect my little ponies,” he mused.

Pebble Pusher tentatively poked the mud cube, and frowned when his hoof created an impression. “It’s not hardening, your highness. Are you sure it’s going to work?”

“Oh, ye of little faith.” Discord scratched his chin. “Although, this is taking quite a while…” A lightbulb appeared over his head. “Alicorn magic!”

“What was that thing?” Pebble asked.

“Never mind that. See if you can use your magic to speed this up.”

“My what?”

“Your magic.” Discord tapped his forehead. “That little protrusion isn’t just for decoration, you know.”

Pebble reached up and touched his horn. “I can do magic with this?”

“Awesome!” Eris laughed.

“Most certainly!” said Discord with a grin. “See if you can heat this brick up, Pebble.”

“How?”

The spirit’s smirk melted into a frown. “Well… can’t you just do it?”

“I… I can try?”

“Very good!” There was a flash, and Discord and Eris found themselves seated in plush, leather chairs, tubs of popcorn in their laps and cups of soda in the chairs’ arms. “Impress me,” said Discord as Eris emphatically shoved her face into her popcorn.

“Alright…” Pebble gulped. He spread his legs and lowered his head, pointing his horn at the brick. He shut his eyes and his muscles visibly clenched. Discord watched in amusement as Pebble began to groan and sputter, focusing all of his effort and willpower, he hoped, into his horn.

Nothing happened. He collapsed to the ground, panting. “That… didn’t… work…”

“Try it again,” ordered Discord.

“What?” A bottle of water appeared and forced its contents down Pebble’s throat, while a wet cloth materialized and mopped his forehead. His body glowed golden as the bottle and cloth disappeared, and Discord levitated his body back into position.

“Try it again.”

Pebble’s face scrunched as he redoubled his efforts. Discord fought to stifle laughter as Pebble’s body shook with strain.

On the other seat, Eris frowned. “Discord…”

Pebble collapsed once more, gasping for breath. “That… did… not… work…”

“Try it again!”

“Try… it… again?”

“Try it again.” Another bottle and cloth appeared to freshen him up, and Pebble was put back into position.

“Discord, I don’t think he can do it,” said Eris, with a concerned glance to the panting stallion.

“Oh, you don’t have enough faith in your compatriot. He just needs to try harder.” He held his muzzle in mirth as Pebble fell to the ground once more.

“No… luck…” he sputtered.

“Try it again!”

Eris hopped out of her seat, fluttering to a gentle landing between Pebble and Discord. “Discord, you’re pushing him too hard.”

“Nonsense,” he retorted, leaning forward. “He just needs to give it twice as much effort.”

“I… was…”

“Four times as much,” Discord corrected. “There was a saying in the old universe, you know. ‘He who tries four times as hard accomplishes making mud into bricks.’”

Eris cocked her head. “Ponies said that?”

“Absolutely. Now--”

“Discord,” she pleaded, “why don’t you just… show him how to do it yourself?”

“Show him?”

She nodded. “Yeah! You do magic all the time, right? How do you do it?”

Discord leaned back into his seat and stroked his beard. “Well, I just sort of… think of what I want to do, and it happens.”

Eris turned to Pebble. “Try that.”

“Try… thinking about it?” he asked, standing up.

“Yeah. Just think about it really hard.”

Pebble leaned down again and closed his eyes. Eris and Discord waited. And waited.

And waited.

“This is stupid,” Discord complained. “It was at least entertaining to see him strain himself.”

Pebble raised his head. “What?”

“I said, clearly this isn’t working.” The chairs disappeared in a flash as Discord snaked himself over to Eris. “Any more bright ideas?”

She bit her lip. “Maybe… if you two touch, he could feel your magic.”

Discord laughed. “It’s almost as if you don’t know how magic works!”

“We don’t,” said Pebble.

Discord reached over and flicked his snout.

“Just try it,” Eris whined.

“Oh… fine.” Discord stood up, raising Pebble into the air under his arm. “I guess as long as I can find an excuse to express my utter devotion to my adorable little playthings,” he sang as he squeezed the pony, eliciting an inexplicable squeak.

“Can we just… get this over with?” Pebble wheezed.

Discord channeled his magic, and, to his surprise, realized that he could sense Pebble’s stock of magic. “Hey, I can feel your magic in there,” he said.

“Good?”

Discord weaved his magic into Pebble’s supply, using his magical influence to gently push the flow into his horn. Soon, Pebble’s horn glowed golden. “Can you feel that?”

“I… I can!” he said, grinning. “I can feel that!”

Discord shifted Pebble into his hands and aimed him like a rifle at the brick. “Now, pay attention to how this feels.” Discord gently pushed Pebble’s magic to exit his horn. It began to glow a deep maroon, and a beam of light shot out into the brick. Eris could feel the brick begin to radiate heat; after several seconds, she was forced to retreat.

Finally, Discord stopped, and Pebble’s magical flow stopped in turn. His horn returned to normal, a wisp of dark smoke wafting into the air from its tip.

“Did you get that?” Discord asked, setting him on the ground.

“Yeah; it felt weird.” He turned to the brick. “Do you think it worked?”

Discord reached with his lizard claw and gave the brick a tap. It was hard as a rock. He flashed Pebble a grin. “As hard as Sun-butt’s skull.”

Eris cheered, hopped over to Pebble, and embraced him, her tiny wings fluttering in excitement. Pebble blushed.

“Uh… yeah, we did it?” he stammered. “So what now?” he asked as Discord pried the filly off of him.

“You teach that little trick to everypony else, and you all get building,” Discord declared. He looked at Eris, shrugged, and held her out. “You can start with this one.”

~

How long does it take four hundred ninety-nine ponies to learn to use their magic to make bricks? It reminded Discord of the sort of inane riddles he would devise to confound Fluttershy. He knew he was a mastermind and could contrive a riddle out of nowhere if he had to, but it never hurts to stay in practice.

But boredom hurts. It wasn’t as easy as going off and amusing himself somewhere else; these ponies were competent enough to get the hang of it eventually, but not competent enough to do it without occasionally requiring his help. It always seemed like they needed him just when he was drifting off for a nap…

To answer his own question: seven days. It takes seven days for four hundred ninety-nine ponies to learn to use their magic to make bricks.

“That’s the last one,” Pebble finally said. “Now what?”

“Oh, if I weren’t immortal I would be so upset at you ponies,” Discord moaned, stretching his serpentine body; “if I had only a limited time in existence, you would have just wasted a week of it.” He felt a poke on his leg.

“Look, Discord!” Eris said. She pointed to a stack of small bricks she had made. “I made those all by myself!”

A malicious smirk found its way onto his face. He released a gentle puff of air, just enough to send her stack tumbling down.

She frowned. “Why did you do that?”

“We haven’t invented mortar yet,” he replied with a toothy grin. “You might have hurt yourself.”

Her lip quivered, and Discord was sure he had hit his mark. Eris puffed out her chest, however, and retorted: “With how lazy you are, it’ll be another five hundred years before we get to that.”

Discord’s eyes snapped open wide as he met her indignant gaze with his own vengeful visage. Several ponies around the two grimaced and backed away, murmuring amongst themselves. Discord and Eris stared each other down for what seemed like minutes, before their angry faces wavered.

“You have a point,” Discord muttered, struggling to keep frowning. “It might take a while.”

Eris’s lips curled upward, and she giggled.

“Especially if we keep taking breaks to try and scare each other.”

Eris giggled louder, dropping all pretenses. “I guess I lose!” she said, gasping for breath.

Discord laughed and turned to Pebble. “Now that my supremacy has been reestablished, I believe it’s time to teach you ponies to make buildings.”

Pebble's gaze, and that of numerous other ponies around, fell to the great resort in the distance. “Are you sure we can’t--”

‘Yes, I’m sure.” Discord snapped and crossed his arms. Behind his back the entire complex began to shake; the ground rumbled as the buildings disappeared from the horizon. The ponies looked on aghast, and several of them lowered their heads in despair.

“Well, I guess that’s that,” Pebble said sadly. “We have… bricks, anyhow.”

“Oh, it’s not that bad!” Discord said. “You can do plenty of things with bricks.”

“Like stack them,” said Eris with a smirk.

“Hey, now...”

“Well, let’s get on with it,” said a pony in the crowd. “We can’t just stay outside all day.”

“That’s the spirit!” Discord took to the air, placed a brick on top of another, and pointed. “Somepony blast these bricks where they meet.”

Eris hopped forward and blasted them with a red ray of heat. The junction between the bricks melted together. Discord picked up the now singular brick and showed it to the crowd. “This is how you connect bricks together. Use this to construct things.”

Smiles shone throughout the crowd as ponies began to try it themselves. Before long, there were random series of geometric bricks scattered about the landscape, but nowhere in sight did there arise a building. For her part, Eris had used her bricks to make one giant cube.

Discord sighed. “For the love of…” He snapped, and every individual brick separated from its neighbors. Several moans of dismay rain through the crowd. “You ponies need to plan before you make something. You can’t just expect to make it up as you go!”

A mare in the front raised a hoof. “How do we do it, then?”

Discord raised his paw, which began to emit a golden glow. The same glow separated dozens of bricks around him, and they flew through the air, arranging themselves in the shape of a hollow cube, complete with holes in the front for an entryway and windows. A series of “Oohs” and “Aahs” made their way through the crowd, and several ponies ventured inside.

“Do you think you ponies can handle this?” Discord asked. “I’ve learned not to put any amount of incompetence past you creatures.”

Ponies looked at each other with determination. In as little as an hour, a replica of Discord’s hollow cube had been built (helped along, Discord noted with pleasure, by their spontaneous ability to teach themselves how to levitate objects).

Discord teleported and stood atop their building, and began to clap slowly. “I must admit, my little ponies: you’ve impressed me.”

Five hundred ponies cheered.

“But I’m afraid you’re still not done.”

Four hundred ninety-nine ponies groaned; one filly cheered.

“Thank you, Eris. Now, there are five hundred of you. Two buildings isn’t enough to house five hundred ponies.”

“How many do we need?” Pebble asked.

“I’m going to leave that to you to figure out.”

“But it’s almost sundown!” a mare called. “We’ll never make it!” Cries of affirmation circulated through the crowd.

Discord tapped his foot in exasperation. “Alright, alright. Don’t have a cow, ponies.” He raised a single talon, and it glowed. A beam of light shone out, and from that point in the sky a golden bubble began to form around all of the ponies. They looked on in amazement as, outside of the bubble, time seemed to speed up: the sun visibly descended below the horizon; flocks of birds passed overhead at an astounding speed. In the span of a few minutes, the night was ending and the sun was rising on other side of the sky. Eris and several other young ponies watched with particular delight as a small flower just outside the bubble bloomed in fast-forward. Finally, Discord’s finger stopped glowing, the bubble dissipated, and it was tomorrow.

“There. You now have another day to get to work.”

The ponies got busy, still stunned by his power and more than willing to please him. He scooped Eris up and held her close. “How would you like to go play?”

“Really?” she asked with a wide smile. “You don’t want me to stay and help?”

He blew a raspberry. “Oh, poo. The rest of them are on it. They’ve got it covered.”

“Yay!” She wrapped her forehooves around him as far as they would reach.

“So what do you want to do?”

She thought for a moment. “Are there any fields of flowers around?”

He rolled onto his belly and set her on his back. “I don’t know; let’s find out.” She laughed shrilly as he took off in flight, his mismatched wings beating irregularly. Eris turned and looked at the ponies they had left behind, and her face fell slightly.

“Discord,” she said over the wind, “what about them?”

“I told you, they’ll be fine." The two remained silent for a time. "Do you like them?"

"Who? The other ponies?"

"No, the squirrels."

"Oh! Yeah, I love the squirrels. They're all so--"

"Yes, the other ponies."

"Oh." She huffed. "Well, you could have just said so."

"Whatever."

"Yeah, I like them. Why? Do you?"

"I guess they're alright."

"Do you remember Cosmic Ring?"

Discord thought for a moment. "A little indigo colt with a purple mane?"

"Yeah."

"Yes, I remember him. Why, have you been talking with him?"

"Uh-huh. He let me help him figure out how to do that heat spell you taught us."

"What a nice pony, accepting help from others."

She gave him a nudge. "Oh, come on. He was really nice."

He shrugged. "I'm sure he was a blast."

"And there's Pebble Pusher, too."

"I'm well aware of him."

"What do you think?"

He paused. "Well, he's a pony."

"I'm a pony," she said, chuckling, "and you obviously think more of me than that."

"What makes you so sure? Perhaps I feel nothing for you."

"You told everypony else that I was special." She blushed.

Discord thought back. "I suppose I did."

"So what do you think of Pebble?"

"Well..." He swallowed. Where was she going with this? "He seems to have a knack for leading. I'd feel the most comfortable having him babysit the rest of them."

"Do you like him?"

"Let's not get hasty..."

"Discord."

"Where are you going with this?"

"I think you'd have more fun if you got to know them all."

"Oh, I doubt that. That Pebble Pusher is a gigantic stick-in-the-mud."

"No he's not."

"Yes he is."

"No he's not."

"Either way, I highly doubt the rest of them will..." He coughed.

"Will what?"

"Didn't I make such pretty clouds?"

"Discord, you doubt they'll what?"

"...I doubt they'd really... like me."

She frowned. "Of course they'd like you! Why would you even think that?"

"You don't know my past, Eris. I've known many ponies, and befriended very few."

"Well, it's not like you've done anything wrong."

He wrung his hands. "Yeah... of course not..."

"They just need to get to know you. You're really fun."

His head rotated along his neck independent of the rest of his body. "I am?" he asked, his head now oriented as if he were on his back.

"Yeah! And you're funny."

"Oh, stop it. You're going to make me blush!"

She giggled. "See? I'm sure you'll make friends if you just give them a chance. You can't just have me be your only friend."

His smile wavered. "Why not? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing."

"Well, aren't you humble."

"You know what I mean," she said with a smirk. "But don't you want more than one friend?"

"I'm fine with one, personally."

She bit her lip. "I mean, I understand that, but..."

"But what?"

"But I sorta... want to make more friends."

He blinked, and returned his head to its original position. "I see."

"No! It's not like that!"

"I understand."

"Discord..."

"Oh, that didn’t take long.” He lowered himself slowly to the ground, standing up as she disembarked. The two now stood in a lush field of green grass and flowers of varying color. Her mouth hung agape as she surveyed the landscape, hundreds and hundreds of brightly-colored jewels filling her vision.

“Are you alright?” He asked, smirking. “You’re squeaking.”

“Am I alright?!” She began to laugh madly. She bounded from where she had been standing and pranced around in the field. “Come on, Discord!” she laughed.

“I’m not exactly one for frolicking,” he replied, a bemused grin on his face.

She pranced over and wrapped her hooves around his leg, pulling with all her might. “You are now!” she said, giggling.

His grin widened as he followed her lead, falling onto all fours and bounding along with her. The field of flowers seemed interminable as they ran. He looked over to her and grinned; she looked to him and stuck out her tongue, running ahead of him. He watched her speed ahead and smirked. If it's a race she wants...

He poured his energy into his limbs and picked up speed. It wasn't long before he caught up to her. "Those stubby legs don't do you any favors!" he called as he passed her.

Not to be left behind, she pounced and grasped onto his tail. A reflexive shiver shook through him as he turned his head to look back. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

"This is mine now," she laughed.

"Is it, now?" His tail disconnected from the rest of his body and fell to the ground. She screamed in fright at the amputated member, releasing her grip and backing away. From the severed tail grew a new Discord; the original Discord grew another tail.

"Well now," the two spirits said in unison, "it appears you're outnumbered."

She puffed her chest. "Not so, villain! These flowers will protect me!"

Discord and Discord exchanged glances. "What?"

"I said, these flowers will protect me!"

"Oh... oh, yes!" they said, catching on, "of course!" A handful of nearby flowers were enveloped in a flash, and in their places appeared flowery duplicates of Eris.

"Ha! It's six against two!" the real Eris boasted. "Surrender now, Discords!"

One Discord produced a white flag, which he waved before disappearing. The other said, "You can't possibly defeat me!"

"Flower Erises, attack!" Eris and her duplicates rushed him, jumping up and latching onto whatever they could reach, which invariably happened to be his legs and tail.

"My kickers!" he moaned in mock despair. "How will I ever tap dance again?"

Eris and her duplicates began scaling his body, tickling him as they climbed. "Stop!" he said between bursts of laughter. "Oh, cosmos, stop!"

Their efforts redoubled, as they targeted his armpits, stomach, and neck. "You're cruel!" he cackled. "You're all cruel!" Finally his knees wobbled and he fell to the ground. Eris's flower duplicates exploded into piles of petals. "This means war," Discord said with a mischievous grin. He seized Eris and began to tickle her mercilessly.

"Eek! Stop!" she said as she laughed. "Discord, stop!"

"Where was the mercy when I was the victim, huh?"

She wriggled out of his grasp and ran. "You can't catch me!"

"I do believe we've been through this before." He teleported right in her path, causing her to fall to the ground after colliding with him. "You can't escape me." His fingers retreated into his hands and were replaced by feathers.

"No!" she shouted.

"Yes!" He cackled as he began to tickle her again. When she could stand no more, she grabbed a feather in her teeth and pulled, ripping it from his hand. He looked at her, eyes wide. She met his gaze and stopped giggling.

"Did I..."

His shocked expression slowly morphed into a mischievous grin as his real fingers slid back into place, sending the rest of the feathers fluttering to the ground. They both laughed heartily, picking up feathers and tickling each other.

Finally, exhausted, they collapsed onto their backs in the grass.

“That was so much fun!” she said.

“I have to admit, you know how to show a draconequus a good time,” he replied as she began to yawn deeply. “I don’t know how I’d last without you, Fluttershy.”

His eyes bugged out and he hurriedly looked to the filly.

She finished her yawn. “What did you say?”

He averted his gaze and tapped his forefingers together. “I said… yeah, that was fun.”

She giggled. “We should do this every day.”

“Yeah… we should…”

The two laid together in silence for several minutes. "Discord," she finally said, "I really didn't mean it like that, back there."

He yawned. "Oh, I know what you meant. You perfectly enjoy my company, but you don't want me around you constantly, because you want to make other friends."

"Please don't be mad at me."

He chuckled. "I know ponies are social creatures, my dear."

"So that means--"

"No, I'm not mad at you."

She sat up and hugged him. “Should we go check on everypony else?”

“Personally, I was hoping to get a little shut-eye.”

“Well, could you take me back first? I really would like to help them out.”

He groaned and stood up. “Why do you have to be so… responsible?”

She hopped up and shrugged. “I just am.”

He levitated her up onto his back and took to the air. On the trip back, he couldn’t stop his thoughts from drifting to what he had said to her.

When they had returned, the other ponies had finished a handful of buildings. They greeted the two happily, stopping to wave and wipe the sweat from their foreheads before delving back into their work. Eris hopped off his back and slowed her fall with the flutter of her wings. She lent him a smile and a wave, and ran off to give her assistance.

Discord slowly waved back and stood for a moment, unsure of what he should do next. Finally, he disappeared with a flash and materialized atop the nearby mountain. He summoned two palm trees and hammock, laid down and closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep, finding some amount of comfort from his troubled thoughts in the giant likeness of Fluttershy beneath him.