Chapter 1 - Towards adventure!
Discord and Luna saves Christmas
Discord stood at the window of Canterlot Castle, with boredom overwhelming him. The retired god of chaos watched as ponies joyfully walked, trotted and bounced around Equestria’s capital, he sighed and started to slide down the wall whining all the while.
Princess Luna, who was on her way towards the royal kitchen with small dessert in her mind, stumbled upon the sad draconequus. She stopped for a moment and gave him few gazes, she shook her head and walked onward.
“Oh how unbelievably sad and troubled I am.” Discord said loud enough for her to hear, and followed his words with equally loud whining.
Luna stopped once again, and although she tried her best she just couldn’t ignore the scene. She sighed in defeat and with a fake smile on her muzzle walked over to Discord. “What is thy problem, Discord?”
Discord immediately rose from the cold floor and smiled. “Oh dear Princess Luna! I’m sure my problems are nothing of your concern, thank you for being so kind to even ask about them.” He said and bowed, while keeping one eye open and focused on Princess in front of him.
“Oh is that so? Very well, then we shall take care of our duties and…”
“Oh since you insist, let me tell you what’s wrong!” Discord quickly cut in and clapped in satisfaction.
Luna's expression showed pure annoyance, but she nodded towards him, knowing very well that Discord won’t let it go until she will listen. “So, why is thy face so sad and long in this special time of hearth’s warming eve?” She asked blankly, not even trying to pretend she cared.
“You see Princess Luna, I’m bored to my bones! Everypony is running around, buying things for their friends, preparing dinners and look at me!” He turned around with his head being covered in snow with small carrot placed where Luna assumed his nose was supposed to be. “I’m like this sad snowman standing alone in the garden! I want to have some fun.”
Luna at first wanted to lecture him about wasting her time on meaningless problems like this one, but then she realized that Discord was right.
Celestia was her sister but the day before hearths warming was a day that was always busy for Sun Princess. She had to attend charity events, as well as the theatre plays that could not be held without great Princess.
“As much as we hate to say this, thou are right Discord, this is a boring day.”
Discord grinned. “If you agree with me Princess Luna, then.” Discord stood tall and cleared his throat, he then lowered his head towards her and started to sing.
“Do you wanna build a snowmaaaaaare?”
“Discord, no.”
“Come on lets go and plaaay!”
“Discord!”
“We are lonely and bored, lets go out the door, we’ll make it a fun daaay!”
“This is thy last chance!”
“We used to be the bad guys, and now we’re not, so let’s go and have some fuuun!”
Luna stomped her hooves firmly on the floor, sending a terrifying echo throughout the room. Discord stopped his singing and looked over to Princess Luna who was giving him a death stare.
“Oh come on, I’m not that bad when it comes to singing!” he states with his chest puffed out and his paw high in the air.
“Discord, thou have to stop with this song, this is getting crazy.”
Draconequus scratched his goatee. “So you’re saying that I should, let it go?” He asked and winked.
“Oh for Faust sake.” Luna commented and started to leave the room.
“Hey! Wait for me.” Discord shouted. He didn’t like the idea of being left behind and quickly ran after Luna.
“Fine, thou can accompany us throughout this day, thou should feel honored.”
“I certainly am, your highness.” Discord said with a smirk, he didn’t know what how will they spend this not boring anymore day, but at least he wasn’t going to be alone anymore.
Meanwhile, Earth, North Pole to be exact.
“We need to speed up production!” One of the factory workers shouted with his high and squeaky voice. “Come on everyone! John work those stitches faster, Mark, speed up the candy production, we don’t have much time left!” He added and turned his attention towards huge cloak on wall.
“We only have ten hours till Christmas, come on guys let’s do it!” He shouted and jumped off the machine he previously used as his speech platform.
“Mr. Frillypants! Mr. Frillypants!”
“What is it?” He asked knowing very well that this elf didn’t bring good news, like always ,something had to go wrong just before Christmas, but they always prevailed in the end.
“Well, we have a problem, not a small problem but a huge problem!”
“Shh, don’t shout like that Mr. Beckman, I just managed to get their spirits up, what’s the deal?” Frillypants asked and kept his eyes on elfs working around the factory, producing new toys, games, candies and many more things.
“Well the problem is.” He stopped and leaned over towards his superior’s ear.
“Santa is ill and can’t get out of his bed?!”
Silence soon overtook the whole factory, even machines stopped producing any noise as everyone present gave their attention to Mr. Frillypants.
“Oh… ha ha, can you imagine what would it be if Santa was actually ill? Pheew, good thing he’s actually healthy and ready for his mission!” He said loud enough for everyone to hear, which wasn’t that hard considering how his voice was the only sound present in the factory at the moment.
Most elves sighed with relief others chuckled and happily got back to work.
“Now that was close.”
“Emm, Mr. Frillypants, so what do we about, you know?” Beckman asked nervously.
“I have to see him, now.”
Beckman nodded and they left factory in a hurry.
The duo of elves rushed through the whole complex, running through the dining hall and dashing quickly by garage they finally arrived at the doors to Santa’s personal apartment.
Mr. Frillypants knocked on the doors a few times, but no response came from inside. Becoming more and more worried, he knocked with more force , and finally heard weak and quiet voice from inside. “Come in.” Santa said with his low, but very weak tone.
Without hesitation Beckman and Frillypants walked inside, the latter one stopped and froze in place as he saw his boss, Santa Claus laying in the bed with a bag of ice on his head.
“Is that you, Frilly?” He asked coughing every now and then.
“Yes Mr. Sants it’s me, what’s wrong?”
“Tennant, can you explain?” Santa asked another elf who just came in from another room with new bag of ice in his hands.
“Of course sir, so as you can clearly see, our boss is not feeling too well, in fact he barely can move.” Tennant answered. He was the only elf who didn't wear a green jacket with red buttons, instead he wore striped brown suit and brown jacket, his neck was adorned with red tie.
“You’re kidding right? Christmas starts in less than ten hours! Santa has to deliver all presents!” Frillypants shouted.
“Calm down mister, this is not the time to freak out, I already tried everything and it is impossible to cure Santa in ten hours.”
Frillypants felt his blood freeze in his veins. “But.” Tennant added immediately catching nervous elf’s attention.
“But?! What but?!”
“I did find a way out of this mess, preparations are already done and we can start anytime. Right Boss?” He said and looked over to bed.
“Yes, you see Mr.” He stopped and coughed a few times. “Mr. Frillypants, I can’t deliver presents in this condition, but we can have someone else do it for me.”
“You mean, somepony else, Sir.” Tennant added.
Equestria, two hours before midnight.
“All right, spicing up Celestia’s cake with super hot chili peppers, checked.” Discord said out loud as he looked on his and Luna’s to do list.
“Oh my, we have to say we didn’t have so much fun on Hearths Warming Eve since, well never.” Luna said and chuckled a few times. “What’s next on the list Discord?”
“Well, we can go and make that snowman I sang about earlier.” He said and took a quick glance at Luna who shook her head. “Oh come on! Why can’t we?” He said jumping in place like angry foal.
“Because no!”
Discord opened his mouth to respond, but voice didn’t make it through his throat as the god of chaos was stunned by the sight in front of him.
“Discord? Hello? Equestria to Discord?” Luna said and waved her hoof in front of his muzzle hoping to get any reaction but to no avail.
Surprised at first she followed his gaze and turned around, her mouth opened wide as behind her she saw a small creature, wearing striped suit and tie. “Hello, can I ask you two for help?”
Luna and Discord looked at each other in confusion, Discord then turned his attention back to the weird creature he never saw before. “Well, hello? Before we decide to whether help you or not, can we know who and what are you?”
“Oh yes of course! Where are my manners? My name’s Tennant and I’m an elf and a right hand of Santa Claus. You heard of him? Probably not, anyways my boss, the guy I just mentioned, got ill and can’t move from bed, which is bad because tomorrow is Christmas and he has to deliver presents to all humans in the world.” He said with proud smile.
“Humans?” Luna asked.
“They look like me, just bigger.” Tennant answered.
Discord scratched his head. “Your boss is delivering presents to all “humans” in the world on Christmas, which is tomorrow but he can’t cause he got ill, did I get that right?” He asked
Elf nodded.
“And how do we help with thy problem?” Luna asked.
“That’s easy! Santa uses magic sleigh which can make him travel all over the world, but among us, elves, there is nobody with enough magic to use them, you two however.”
“So basically you are asking us to do what this boss of yours was supposed to do right?” Discord asked.
“Exactly! I’m glad you understand. So will you help us save Christmas?”
Discord and Luna looked at each other and quickly turned away from elf, they leaned closer to each other and started to whisper. “This is crazy Discord, how do we know that the story he told us is true?” Luna said.
“But can’t you see the adventure in front of you?” God of chaos asked. “He’s from other world neither of us ever saw, and we will be able to explore it whole before Celestia makes it back to Canterlot!”
Luna hesitated for a moment and finally shook her head. “No Discord, we think this is too dangerous.”
“Well, if you say so.” Discord answered saddened and turned back towards elf.
“We’re in!” Discord shouted.
“Exactly, sorry but we… wait what?!” Luna shouted.
“Great!” Tennant shouted and snapped his fingers, behind him a huge blue portal opened.
“Wait, Discord, this is a bad idea!”
“Oh come on! Where’s your sense of adventure?!” Discord shouted.
“All right then, you know what they say.” Tennant said and took a huge breath.
Discord picked up Luna with his paw and claw as if she was a foal.
Tennant jumped into the portal and shouted. “Allons-y!”
The God of chaos jumped after elf,with Princess of Equestria in his palms. As soon as they entered the blue portal they became surrounded by flashes of light in every color.
“Wooho! Now that’s fun, isn’t it Luna?”
“We are about to throw up.”
“I’m glad you agree with me!” Discord shouted and let the blue magic overtake them as they drifted towards their goal.
Earth.
To Luna’s relief their journey between worlds soon ended, they landed on the cold ground covered in snow. “Pheew, that was a wild ride, am I right?” Discord asked.
“Phht umm dhow.” Luna mumbled from under the hooves she used to cover her mouth.
“Excuse what was that?” Discord asked and leaned in closer with enlarged ear.
“Put us down!” Luna shouted and immediately covered her mouth once again, feeling her stomach revolting against her.
“Okay fine, sheesh why so harsh.” Discord said and gently put her down. “Well then, where are we?” Discord asked and looked around.
“We landed on the outskirts of our village, if you try really hard you’ll be able to see first buildings.” Tennant answered and pointed his fingers. towards the direction of his home.
Discord focused his eyesight but to no avail, he winked quickly a few times. “I can’t see a thing.”
“It’s not that far, you can’t see it ‘cause of the snow and wind.” Tennant said.
“If you say so.” Discord shrugged. “Hey Luna, how are you doing?”
The Princess finally got back on her hooves shivering all the while and looked at Discord. “Thou have all of my hate.”
“I’m glad you’re okay, let’s go!” He shouted and followed Tennant, Luna sighed and slowly walked after Discord.
Like Tennant had said, it didn’t took them too long and so soon they stood before the entrance of the huge complex consisting of incredible number of buildings. Some of those structures were normal brick and stone houses, others however would made Sugarcube Corner hide in shame. Roofs made from thousands of colorful candies, walls from chocolate and gingerbread, lamps were just a huge Christmas candy canes.
“Pinkie would be in heaven here.” Discord commented and wiped his mouth. “Let’s go before I drool everywhere.”
Tennant chuckled and nodded. “Welcome to Snowzone! This is where we work, this is where we live and this is where we party! I’m glad you like it here, but without further ado I’ll take you to Santa Claus.”
Discord and Luna followed Tennant through the whole complex, they walked by delicious looking buildings and were passed by hundreds of elves, even Luna couldn’t help but smile midway through their journey.
Then, right in front of what appeared to be some kind of main building, they saw tables, long lines of tables full of delicious treats.
There were chocolate and caramel candies, even cinnamon ones at some places, jelly beans, edible jewelry made of sugar, mints, licorice; the list could go on and on.
Discord’s jaw hit the floor, literally.
Luna stood frozen in awe. She couldn’t believe what her eyes saw, sure she saw a lot of sweets and candies gathered in one place before, but never this much, not to mention she couldn’t even recognize some of them. “What in dearest name of Faust is this?” She asked.
“That is the feast we, and Santa will have after he will successfully deliver all presents.” Tennant proudly said. “This is a tradition we held dear for years, and since Santa never disappointed us before.”
“Until now.” Discord commented.
Tennant flinched, scowling for a second, but then immediately became joyful again, as if he fought with himself to keep his smile attached.
“True, but we have you two so...everything will be fine.”
Luna’s smile disappeared as Tennant said his words, she finally remembered what’s she doing here.
“About that, thou told us that we and Discord can help you to deliver the presents because we can use magic?”
“Not exactly, we elves can use magic too, the thing is.” He stopped for a moment. “Our magic is nowhere close to the amount needed for Christmas Bringer X9000 to move.”
“Oh so that’s why you need us and… Christmas Bringer X9000?” Discord asked.
“That’s what magic sleigh is called, it’s the best that there is. You’ll see.” He added and continued his happy march.
“Ohh I’m getting even more excited here.” Discord said bouncing in place.
“Discord, we have to get out of here and go back to Equestria.”
“What?!” He shouted out. “You’re kidding right? Didn’t we agree that this day is boring? This will be so much more fun!” Discord pleaded, landing on his knees. “No, we have to go back, now.” She stated firmly.
“But, but, the candies, the elves and Christmas, the Christmas Bringer X9000!”
“We said no.”
“So you won’t help us?” Both Luna and Discord raised their ears and looked around to find the source of the voice, it took them a while but finally their gazes landed on a small elf dressed in brown checkered suit a red bowtie and a red…
…fez?
“I’m sorry, but who are you? I’m in the middle of a freak out here.” Discord said outraged.
“Oh sorry sir, I just happened to hear your conversation and I had to cut in.” He said and slowly corrected his funny hat. “Princess Luna right?”
She nodded. “And who are thee?”
“I’m Smith your highness, I’m Santa’s assistant and an magic sleigh main technician, it’s nice to meet you.” He said with a smile.
“I heard that you won’t help us to bring Christmas this year?” He asked her.
“We are sorry, but we have our own world to take care of.”
“I understand.” He sighed. “Then I’ll go ask Tennant to open portal for you, we actually had to use a magic of one hundred elves to even try to open it before, I guess you could help us with that since you’re already here?”
Luna nodded. “Lead the way.”
Discord scratched his head and gazed at Smith, who winked in response.
“So, Princess.” He said as they walked through the lines of tables, they had to make their way towards the main building, as Tennant was already in there. “It’s very sad that you won’t help us.”
Luna didn’t say anything in response.
“It’s all right though, don’t worry about it, and most importantly, do not think about all those sad children crying their eyes out. So much disappointment and grief. Not to mention those small little kids who wanted to enjoy their first Christmas, but they won’t get the presents they wanted so much.”
Discord barely hold his laughter as he watched Luna struggle more and more with each word. They didn’t even make it to the doors before The Princess of the Night sighed in defeat and turned around to face both Discord and Smith.
“Fine then, we shall help thee with thy problem.” She stated and kicked the doors open, both Smith and Discord chuckled as she entered the building.
“That was an excellent move, bravo!” God of chaos complimented the elf and clapped his claw and paw.
“Thank you, although maybe I have gone too far, Christmas aren’t all about gifts and presents after all.”
“Tell me about it.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
“No, seriously, tell me about it.” Discord said and sat down on a sofa, which much to Smith’s surprise came out of nowhere. “I never before heard about Christmas, the only thing I know is that this Santa guy delivers presents to all humans in the world.”
“He is correct.” Smith was startled, suddenly hearing Princess Luna behind him. “We know next to nothing about this event, if we are supposed to help then thou have to tell us more.” She stated and sat down on her haunches near Discord on his sofa.
The Elf chuckled. “You’re right, but it’s a long story so listen carefully. I don’t want to have to repeat myself.”
Smith then told them everything they wanted to know, the tradition of giving presents and adorning Christmas trees with decorations. How people and world itself changed for time of this magical event, how Santa gave presents to all of those who wrote letters and weren’t on the naughty list.
“I think I now understand why you care so much for these deliveries.” Discord said and Luna nodded.
“I’m glad you do, all righty then.” Smith corrected his fez and jumped on the stairs. “Let’s get going then! We have to get you two learn how to use Christmas Bringer in less than hour!” He shouted cheerfully and ran inside.
Discord smiled and gazed over to Luna, whose muzzle was adorned with even bigger smile.
“Let’s deliver those presents.”
Luna chuckled. “No house shall avoid our combined delivering strength.” They shared a small laugh and without hesitation walked inside, where adventure awaited them.
Our heroes spend next hour learning how to use magic sleigh, they also finally met Santa, but only briefly as he was too weak to talk for too long. And when everything was finally ready, every elf was in right place with Tennant standing right next to sleigh and Smith proudly looking upon everything from main control room.
Discord and Luna also were on their places, the latter one sat comfortably in the sleigh while god of chaos had to take role of reindeer.
“So do we have everything covered? You know how the bag works, how sleigh works and you got the map right?”
Luna nodded. “And before thou ask we do remember to always fly from west to east.”
“Right, so are you two ready?” Princess of the night nodded.
“I have one more question.” Discord said.
“What is it?”
“Why do I have to pull this thing?!”
“I’m sorry, but reindeer that fly with Santa will only cooperate with him.”
“Then why can’t we have Luna here?”
“Oh please, as if.” Luna commented.
“Well since we got everything ready, can we finally take off?” Tennant asked.
Luna and Discord nodded to each other and then towards the elf.
“Good, Smith you heard that?”
“I sure did.” They heard elf’s voice through a radio. “Remember, once you’re out there you can only count on yourself, if you forget something there’s always instructions in the glove compartment!”
“Shouldn’t it have gloves instead?” Discord asked.
“The glove compartment never has gloves in it. Now, let’s begin counting.”
Discord scratched his head and shrugged, he prepared himself for the take off as the platform they stood on started to raise, the ceiling above them split in two parts allowing them raise above the building.
“10..9..8..7…6”
Tennant saluted. “Good luck Luna.”
“...5…4…3…2…1”
“And good luck Discord.”
“All right, here we go.” Smith pushed the red button and shouted. “Geronimo!”
Luna and Discord felt their magic being taken and flow around them, they hoped for an easy start, but instead sleigh shot into the air like a rocket.
Discord flapped his wings and used his limbs as if he was running on all fours. He couldn’t believe it, but they already were moving at speed he never before experienced, and this still wasn’t everything this thing could achieve.
“Incredible isn’t it Luna? Simply incredible.”
“…”
“Luna? You all right?” Discord asked and turned around after not hearing anything for a while.
“Woohoo!” Luna shouted as loud as she could and burst out in laughter. “Thou were right Discord! This is anything but boring!” She commented and they both began to laugh madly, after good few minutes they finally stopped.
Luna took her map, every single person they were supposed to deliver presents to was marked on it.
Elves of course gave her a magic bag, it was a mini portal fueled by Santa, well currently Luna’s magic which teleported the present they need at the moment back from the Snowzone.
“We will have to fly a bit towards south, and we should arrive at our first place of delivery!” She commented.
“Cool, what is it called?”
“America!”
