The Chaotic Adoption of Scootalooby SevenWays 56ChaptersAdoptionNightmare NightThe FalloutAdoptionThe school bell rang, signaling the end of Miss Cheerilee’s class. As the fillies and colts exited, Scootaloo turned to her friends. "So, I was thinking we should try getting our cutie marks in sky diving." However, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both looked regretful. "Sorry Scootaloo, but Rarity needs help and I kinda volunteered," Sweetie Belle said with an apologetic tone. "Same here, Applejack wanted me to help." Scootaloo was saddened by this. "Okay then." Her two friends walked away, leaving the pegasus on her own. As she wandered, she came to Ponyville's park to calm her head. However, this wasn't to be the case. "Oh look, it’s the Chicken." The nasty voice belonged to a soulless, demonic hellspawn, Diamond Tiara. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and tried to walk away from the two without saying a word to the pink filly. Nothing good ever came from a conversation with Diamond Tiara. Sadly, this wasn't to be as the two started to circle her like sharks about to enter a feeding frenzy. "So, where are your two loser friends? Did they finally decide they were too good for you?" the spoiled filly asked. Scootaloo's expression fell at that and she leveled a flat look at Diamond Tiara. "No, they're just busy with family stuff. So can you please get out of the way? Talking to you is about as much fun as a tour of the cardboard box factory." "Oh then why don't you go to your family?" Diamond Tiara asked. Scootaloo flinched at this. "You don't have any family, you're an orphan!" The two bullies laughed at the pegasus filly. However, up in the tree was something sleeping in the leaves. "Oh what in the name of Chaos is that laughter? It sounds familiar." The mismatched being in the tree was Discord, the Draconequus: Equestria’s chaos god. He looked down to see two fillies tease one of the CMC, Scootaloo he believed, and walk away after hurting her feelings. He didn't seem to care until he heard her scream something. Something that caused a flashback. "Stop picking on me because I don't have a family!" Discord was suddenly thrust back to the time when he was just a fledgeling god of chaos all those millennia ago. He was slowly walking down the streets of a village and scanning around him, hoping not to run into anypony. All of a sudden, something hit him on the side of the head. He reached up with his talon and saw that somepony had thrown a rotten tomato at him. He craned his neck to see a group of foals sneering at him. "Hey everypony look, it's the freak of nature!" one of the bigger fillies called out. "Yeah, where are you going today ya little freak?" another jeered. "Aww come on ya guys, lay off the poor thing," the leader of the pack started. "Don't you guys think he has it bad enough? I mean, he is an orphan after all." This caused laughter to erupt amongst the group. "Yeah, I bet his parents took one look at him and decided to toss him out!" the filly behind the leader called out between laughs. Scootaloo saw a stick of cotton candy handed to her. "Here." She was stunned to see the God of Chaos himself offer her cotton candy. "Discord? What do you want?" she asked. Discord looked down at the filly. "You're an orphan right?" Discord asked. The orange pegasus turned away from him. "Yes so if you’re going to-" "I know how it feels." Discord’s words stunned her, "I've kept most of my early memories locked away, but I know, I was a parentless god of Chaos all those years ago before Celestia and Luna took the throne. Before the three tribes united, I was there with no parents of my own and I was picked on for that." "Really, did you ever do anything to them for it?" Scootaloo asked with a mouthful of cotton candy. Discord just shook his head at that, "No, I was just a child and didn't have control of my powers." "So, you heard what Diamond Tiara said?" "Yes, it's always amazed me just how cruel some foals can be," Discord sighed. Scootaloo sighed as well and stared at her cotton candy with a gloomy expression. "I know that feeling. Sometimes I just wish I could have a family like everypony else. I've even had the occasional dream of showing somepony other than Rainbow Dash off at Family Day at school. I usually pick somepony really cool like Spitfire or even a Royal Guard to adopt me... but I'd be happy with anypony really," Scootaloo admitted, sniffling. Discord usually wouldn't care about anything, this however he did strangely seem to care. 'I'm not going to do it,' a part of Discord's mind said. However another part screamed at him, 'You must!' Discord sighed. "Give me a moment." With that, Discord was gone, teleporting away to go get something. Discord appeared at the front of a nearby orphanage. The mare working there was frightened by his appearance, "Discord... What can I do for you?" She really didn't want to be banished to another world or whatever the deity had planned. "I'm here to adopt a filly named Scootaloo," Discord answered. The mare was taken aback by what Discord had just said. She told herself that she had to have heard what he said wrong and shook her head to clear it out, "I'm sorry, but did you say that you wanted to adopt Scootaloo?" "Why, yes I did." "Well... um if you could follow me to my office then I could get the papers in order," she said, still not entirely believing the situation she was finding herself in. Discord complied with the mare and hovered above the chair in front of her desk. "I uh... assume you have your papers in order, so we can see if you are qualified to care for Scootaloo...?" Discord snapped his talons and a small stack of papers appeared on the mare's desk. "I could also get a recommendation from one of the Elements of Harmony if that would help," Discord mentioned. "That would be great," the mare said. Discord was gone in a flash. At her cottage, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane was just about to call her animal friends when she was grabbed and, in another flash, was gone. Scootaloo had finished her cotton candy and was heading back to the orphanage when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon appeared again. "What is it this time?" Scoots asked. "Well we just wanted to say–" But they were interrupted as the clouds above them started to fire lightning at them and Discord appeared next to Scootaloo. "Well, now that that's out of the way..." In his hand was a suitcase. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon paled when they saw the mad god appear before them. "Discord, what are you doing back here?" Scootaloo asked. Discord’s face broke out into a wide grin as he opened his briefcase to show her his freshly signed adoption papers. "Well, I just happened to be near a certain orphanage and I popped in to adopt a certain orange filly." Scootaloo's eyes widened when she heard that and then looked over the paper to see that it said that Discord had, in fact, adopted her. "So, does this mean-" "Yup!" he started, interrupting her. "You are now the daughter of chaos!" he finished as he threw up his arms and set off a miniature fireworks display. The display was a fun sight, but then Discord turned to the two bullies. "Now then, let me make one thing clear." Discord had a serious face, which, for someone as random as him, was quite terrifying. "If I find you both continuing to bully Scootaloo or her friends I will send you both on a nice vacation to another dimension, perhaps my cousin Slaanesh would enjoy playing with you both," Discord said in a dark tone. The two of them nodded quickly and rushed off at an impressive speed. Scootaloo didn't seem to notice as she had a large grin on her face. "This is so cool! I finally have a dad!" she cheered as she fluttered in the air for a moment. She then looked down for a moment as she landed, "I... uh... I can call you dad, can't I?" Discord was taken aback by that question. He hadn't expected her to warm up to the idea so quickly. He then smiled comfortingly as he tousled Scootaloo's mane. "You can call me whatever you like." Scootaloo perked up at that and looked up at him with excitement, "Awesome! So, since you're the god of chaos do you live in some big chaotic castle or something like that?! Are you going to give me chaos powers like you?" Scootaloo continued to fire off question after question while Discord just chuckled as he waited for her to finish. "Okay, one: I live in a nearby dimension that I found when I was a child, and as for the powers…" Discord snapped his talons. "Let's see how well you do being able to fly without needing to flap your wings." Scoots was confused until she started floating. "Whoa, how am I doing this?" Discord gave a laugh. "I learned long ago that Chaos and Harmony are not total opposites, they can and do coexist in many things. So with a push I turned your weak pegasus flight magic into a natural power to reject gravity." Scootaloo beamed as she started to float around Discord. "I don't think I understand all that stuff about harmony and chaos, but the other thing I get. If I don't do anything stupid with my floating powers then I can keep them and maybe get more?" "We'll see about giving you more, but yes you can keep the floating. That is, if you can behave with them. That means keeping the destruction you cause with it to a minimum." Scootaloo's expression fell a bit at that. She knew the trouble she got into with the Crusaders already. "So... uh why did you decide to adopt me anyway? Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but you're Discord, you nearly took over Equestria twice! So why would you bother helping me out?" Discord thought for a moment. "Because, looking back at it, if I wasn't teased because I was an orphan and had real friends then I probably wouldn't have become who I was. I let my rage consume me... from anger came insanity and from that came the desire for revenge," Discord said, recalling his dark breakdown. "Only a few are naturally born evil, the rest become evil. The same can be said for good I suppose," Discord said, looking back on his life. "Oh... I guess I never thought of stuff like that." "I'm not too surprised, you are still fairly young." "So what are we going to do now? I was going to head back to the orphanage but I guess I don't live there anymore." Discord tapped his chin as he considered what to do. He honestly hadn't thought this decision through too much. 'I may need to clean the house up a bit to be more child friendly. I guess I'll start with getting rid of the hall of eyes. That could cause some mental scars.' "How about we stop by Sugarcube Corner to get ourselves something nice? And after that I'll show you your new house," Discord suggested with a grin. “Okay.” Nightmare NightThe town of Ponyville was soon getting ready for nightmare night. Scootaloo herself, however, was in Discord's dimension looking through a book with her friends. "What is that thing?" Sweetie Belle asked. On the page was a strange looking being. "Oh, Dad says it's photos from him traveling to other dimensions from when he started to learn how to use his powers, that's how he met his cousins, actually. I wanted to show you all this so we could get ideas for costumes for the Nightmare Night Contest, scariest costume gets a prize!" Scoots said, holding up the poster. "Alright, but what should we go as?" Apple Bloom asked as she flipped through a photo album. "Ah mean, there's a ton of freaky things to choose from here. Uhh, no offense," she finished as she turned to Discord. "None taken, my family and I are well aware that we can be strange looking to most." Sweetie Belle was oblivious to what was going on and pointed to a labeled picture. "How about a shoggoth? That's pretty scary and as big as it is we could make that a group costume." Scootaloo looked at the photo and her muzzle scrunched up. "Ehh, it's not bad, but it's a little too slimy for me." "Then what about a Mi-Go?" Sweetie asked as she pointed to another picture on the same page. "That isn't slimy and it even has wings." Apple Bloom looked at it and tapped her chin with a hoof. "It seems like a start, but it feels like we're missin' sumthin'. Do ya girls think we could add sumthin' to make it scarier?" "I don't know, what makes things scary in the first place?" Sweetie asked, tapping her own chin in thought. "It's mostly because of the fact they are otherworldly like my dimension, it hurts the minds and is born of your primal thoughts and nightmares," Discord answered. At that moment, a magic letter formed, covered in a familiar golden magic. "Now what is this?" Discord opened the paper and read the letter out loud. "Dear Discord, come see me now I wish to talk to you, signed Celestia." Discord didn't say the curses though. Celestia might have found out about his adoption of a young filly. "Well I'm off, remember don't go outside until I get back." Discord was gone in a flash. Sweetie Belle turned a few pages then I idea hit her. "Hey Scoots, remember that room?" Sweetie asked. "Which one?" Scoots asked. "The one with all the magical objects." Discord appeared in a flash in Celestia's study. The solar demi-goddess was glaring at the chaos god. "So, Tia, why you mad?" Celestia rolled her eyes at him. "Well, why don't you tell me why you think I'm mad at you," Celestia stated flatly. "Is it because I replaced all the water in Manehattan with fruit punch after a pizza I ordered from there arrived in 31 minutes when I was promised it would be delivered in 30?" Discord asked. "No," she replied as she started to grind her teeth. "Is it because I set all the animals in the Baltimare zoo free because they didn't have a platypus enclosure?" "No," Celestia said as the grinding of her teeth became audible from where Discord was floating. "Is it because I spraypainted..." "Discord!" Celestia shouted, not wanting to hear anything else from the chaotic entity. "I sent that letter because I heard you had adopted a young filly by the name of Scootaloo." "Really?" Discord asked. "Then can you please just forget those other things I told you?" "Not on your life." Celestia glared. She was wondering who set those animals out and the complaints from Manehattan got so out of hand, now she knew who to blame... well she already suspected Discord but he just confessed the the crimes. "I don't see what the big deal is, Tia," Discord commented. Celestia couldn't believe him. She knew about some of the things Discord kept over the years. Not only that she knew Discord might not be best suited for this. "Discord, I want to know why you even did this?" Celestia demanded. "Well... it was for some personal reasons," Discord said as he turned his head away from her. "Personal reasons, I'm going to need more than that." "Could you please not ask any more? This isn't something that I'm very comfortable with discussing." "Discord, I need to know that my subject is safe in your care. If I don't think I can trust you with her, I might just rescind the legality of your guardianship," Celestia stated calmly. "You can't!" Discord shouted as he turned back towards Celestia. "I won't if you tell me your reason for adopting her." "Fine," Discord huffed, "I adopted Scootaloo because I happened to run into her while she was getting bullied. And as soon as I heard the insults that were thrown at her, she reminded me of myself. I'm an orphan myself so I know what it's like. I suppose a part of me couldn't stand the thought of someone else growing up the same way I did." Celestia closed her eyes. Unknown to Discord, Celestia and Luna never knew their parents. In fact, Star Swirl predicted they might not even have parents. The thought itself rarely entered into their heads. However, they at least had a pseudo-family. Discord didn't develop one until after he had gained control of his powers and became an adult god. "Discord, promise me you will do your best, and please don't let her get into too much trouble. The last thing we need is one of your cousins coming to Equestria." Celestia had heard Discord once list some of his extradimensional cousins. Seems Discord was tame compared to them. "I'll do my best, but Scootaloo and her friends are a real handful. They actually have me trying to prevent chaos from happening due to their schemes. I'm at a loss as to what to do with her," Discord said as he slumped over. Celestia chuckled a bit at that. "If you think it's bad now, just wait until she hits puberty and she starts dating." "Oh, I'm already prepared for that. I'll just sit everypony she dates down and remind them that I can turn them into a balloon animal if they even think about doing anything unseemly to my daughter." "That seems a bit extreme." "Oh please, I bet you threatened to send Shining Armor to the moon when he and Cadance started dating. Celestia couldn't argue with him there. Shining still flinched when they were alone together. "Anyway, I'd best be going now. My daughter and her friends are back in my home and despite all the safeguards I keep on my things, I have to make sure they haven't created a miniature black hole or something. Ta-ta for now, Tia." And with that, Discord created a door in the middle of the room and walked through it. Meanwhile, the three fillies were in the room with relics from Discord's family. "I can't believe we are taking one of these," Scootaloo said with a bit of fear. These were objects from Discord's relatives though Chaos. She knew about a few of them to be sure. "Do you even know which ones come from who?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Only a few, those four on the self are from I think Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Khorne... I think that's what they are called, they are four siblings Discord said shouldn't under any circumstances be met without him there, he says they fight with each other most of the time," she said. Pointing at the boxes, she continued, "That's from Cthulhu, Slender and Sheogorath, he has tea with them sometimes and they're more friendly." Next she indicated an advanced piece of technology sitting on a pedestal. "That's from Q." Scootaloo said. "Q?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Yes, that's his name. He's the least weird looking out of all of Discord's relatives, but he still looks pretty weird. He lives in this universe where these things called humans and a bunch of aliens travel through space in a spaceship. Q basically messes with this crew that travels on a ship called the Enterprise... or something, I only really paid attention to the parts of the story that included lasers. And the weirdest part is that he sounds exactly like Discord." "Really, do they know why?" Apple Bloom asked. "Maybe, when I asked him Discord just laughed and messed up my mane," Scootaloo admitted with a shrug. "I think it's best we just chalk this up to chaos magic or else we'll be confused for a while. Now, back to the costume ideas, if we win this contest we might get our cutie marks!" "And what kind of cutie mark would ya get fer winnin' a costume contest?" Apple Bloom asked. "Anyway," Sweetie Belle said, ignoring Apple Bloom. "Scootaloo, do you think there's anything here that could help us with our costume problem?" Before she could answer a voice rang out. "Scootaloo I'm back, you and your friends haven't set off a chain reaction that is slowly dooming Equestria, have you?" Discord said. He looked around the home. "I have dinner and some of that Zebra pie you like." When he noticed the three weren't where he left them, Discord screamed. The three fillies started to panic. Scootaloo pulled out her bag. (It was actually a pocket dimension Discord made for her.) "Here, me and Apple Bloom will hold Discord off, put one in here," she said. As they ran off Sweetie wondered which to get, and with a flash of her horn she hoped she made a good decision. Discord saw the two fillies as he opened the door to the attic which lead to this hallway. "Girls, what were you doing up here, and where's Sweetie Belle?" Discord asked. "Oh, I was just showing them some of the stuff you got from your family members, that's all. We thought that if we saw some stuff that represented them we might get some ideas for a costume." Scootaloo answered with a nervous smile. "Okay, but where is Sweetie Belle, she isn't touching anything up here, is she?" "No way, dad! She's just sketching out an idea she had and doesn't want us to see it 'til it's done." "Alright well, when she is done bring her down and we'll have dinner. Oh, and I might have to do some community service for a while after those stunts I pulled in Manehattan and Baltimare so I may not be able to pick you up from school for a while. Here's a key to the house just in case." Discord said as he pulled a key out of thin air. "And make sure you wash your hooves before coming to eat," he said as he turned and floated away. Sweetie Belle walked out with the bag in her mouth. "We'll be sure to win this year," she said as she set it down. The three did a dance of happiness. From the room, an axe was missing. Sweetie Belle went for the scariest object there. Unknown to the unicorn filly, written on it was the name Khorne. As Nightmare Night came around for Ponyville, the three fillies were getting their costume finished up and ready. "I hear Princess Luna is going to be judging as well as Princess Twilight, it's going to be hard to make something to scare them," two other fillies said. Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle. "Wait till they see ours, they'll be scared for sure." In the palace, Discord was looking over his list of community service. "Here Tia, all the things should now be finished, now I must get going as Scoots is going to compete in the contest and I don't..." Discord's eyes glowed as wisps of chaos magic escaped him. "Oh no... no no no!" It was Discord's chaos senses, the power that allowed him to know another chaos entity was coming. "Tia we have to get to Ponyville! Now!" "What is it?!" Celestia shouted, wondering what could worry even Discord. "Scootaloo and her friends must've taken something that belongs to one of my relatives for their Nightmare Night costume. I'm sensing a huge spike in chaos magic coming from the town. I just hope that it's one of my nicer relatives, like Sheogorath. If he's in a good mood the worst we'd have to worry about is a few allergic reactions from lactose intolerant ponies due to raining cheese." "And what if it's not a nicer relative?" "That's why we have to hurry," Discord answered as he snapped his talons and the two disappeared in a flash of light. Upon arriving in Ponyville, Discord looked up at the vortex forming above them. "What's going on, Discord? Discord...." Celestia saw Discord looking at the fillies, the object they had was floating up and he recognized it. "Oh, Chaos no! Not him!" With a snap Discord got everyone back as the vortex exploded and a wave of chaos energy gave way. Standing there was... well he looked like a demon given form. He was mad, really, really mad. "WHO TOOK MY AXE! I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND ADD IT TO MY THRONE!" Celestia was afraid of this thing, and seeing how its outfit was leathery and bone armor she knew it wasn't kidding. "Discord, who is that?" Celestia asked. "My psychopathic cousin, Khorne the... Blood God." "Oh, of course he's the blood god," Celestia huffed as her eye twitched erratically. "Because I was scared for a second that he'd be the puppies and hugs god. But if he's just the blood god then we don't even need to interfere here." "Now is not the time for a sarcastic mental breakdown, Tia," Discord admonished. "Alright then, is there anything I should know about Khorne?" "He's a being born of violence and hatred that will murder something as soon as look at it." "Do you think you can keep him from hurting anypony and send him back to his own world?" "I can certainly try," Discord said as he carefully floated over to Khorne. "Hey Khorne," Discord started. The Blood God swang his axe at Discord whose head floated off his body so he wouldn't be cut open, and then it reattached itself. Khore blinked then slightly let his glare go. "DISCORD? WHAT IS GOING ON! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO BEAT SLAANESH UP FOR TAKING MY FAVORITE SWORD! NOW I'M IN A BRIGHTLY COLORED LAND, TALK NOW COUSIN!" Discord rolled his eyes. "Khorne listen, this is my universe, and as for why, well, my daughter Scootaloo and her friends went behind my backs and took your axe." Applejack, Rarity and the Princesses turned to the CMC. "Girls, what were you thinking?" Rarity asked. "We were thinking that we would be able to win the costume contest," Sweetie Belle answered as her ears flattened against her head. "I'm sorry, I thought that you'd have to do some special chant or something to summon something. I really thought that it would just be a cool piece of a costume," Scootaloo said with a look that mirrored Sweetie's. "Girls, you've done some very irresponsible things in the past, but this is most certainly the worst. When this is all over the three of you are going to be in some serious trouble," Rarity scolded them. The three fillies trembled a bit as they continued to watch Discord and Khorne talk. After Discord had managed to calm down Khorne, well not so much 'calm him down', Khorne realized something Discord had said. "WAIT... A DAUGHTER? YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER... WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" he half asked, half demanded. "Four weeks ago now. Can you please not tell Tzeentch about this? Knowing him he would either let it slip to the others or worse try to make a stupid plan about it... well, a hundred stupid plans." Discord answered. Discord summoned up his powers and with a mighty rip into the space-time continuum he opened up a portal to the plane Khorne and his siblings called home. "Here, you should land in Slaanesh's place, sorry about the misunderstanding," Discord said to his cousin. "YOU'RE LUCKY I'M IN A GOOD MOOD, NOW THEN TELL MY NIECE NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN!" Khorne passed through the rift and the axe fell. Discord picked it up and glared at the three fillies. "Scootaloo, I'm very disappointed in you. Not only did you take something from me when I've told you about how dangerous some of my things are, but you lied about it. I trusted you and this is how you repay that trust?" Discord asked as he hovered just above the fillies. Scootaloo's eyes were welling up with tears and her lip was trembling. "I'm really sorry Dad! I just wanted to win the contest." Discord let out a little sigh at her response. "This is very serious Scootaloo, something like this could have you removed from my care." Scootaloo's eyes widened in panic and shock at that. "What?! But I love living with you! Why would somepony punish you for something I did?" "Because I left you in a room full of dangerous things. Now, hopefully we won't be separated, but until we know for sure you're going to be facing some punishment. Starting with having no friends over until I know I can trust you again." The FalloutThe next day Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom came to school. "Isn't it strange Scootaloo hasn't come yet? School's about to start." Suddenly, a flash was seen as Scootaloo appeared. "Sorry, I hope I'm not late," Scootaloo said. "Scootaloo where have you been? Also, did you just appear?" Sweetie Belle asked. Unfortunately school had started, cutting the whole thing short. Later that day, Rarity and Applejack were walking to the school to pick up their sisters, and as they did they saw Discord walking with a cloud of cotton candy floating alongside. "Discord, what are ya doin'?" Applejack asked with a quirked eyebrow. "Ya better not be out causing' trouble." "Why Applejack, I am quite offended. Do you really think so little of me that you expect me to spread mischief wherever I go?" Discord asked in feigned hurt. Applejack leveled a look at him that screamed, 'Really?' "Well, pardon my rudeness, but would you mind explaining what it is that brings you here today?" Discord beamed at that. "Well if you must know I'm here to pick up my adopted daughter from school. I'm trying my paw at this whole fatherhood thing and I think I'm doing a decent job so far. I even patched up the bottomless pit that was in my living room." "You're kiddin', right?" Applejack shot back. Discord just smiled. "Wait, you're serious?" Discord gave a nod. "Why of course I am." The three got to the school right as class was letting out. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo came out, with Scoots racing ahead. When they reached the adults, Discord picked up Scootaloo and floated her in front of him. "So how was school? Do I have to send those two fillies to my cousin?" Discord asked. "No, they were switched to the afternoon classes," Scoots answered back. "Really? Well that should make things simpler for you and your friends," Discord said with a bit of a smile. "Yeah, but they'll probably find new foals to pick on in those classes," Scootaloo replied with a bit of a worried expression on her face. "I don't think it'll be that easy for them. There's probably already bullies in that class time. Those two will probably butt heads with the other bullies and might even learn the error of their ways," Discord retorted. "Do you really think so?" Scootaloo asked. Discord shrugged at that. "Stranger things have happened." The other two mares and fillies just stood by with slack jaws as they tried to process what they were seeing. "Scootaloo, what's going on here?" Sweetie Belle squeaked out. "Oh yeah," she replied, turning away from Discord. "I tried to tell you this earlier, but I got adopted by Discord yesterday. Ooh, we should totally have a sleepover at my house soon! You guys won't believe how much cool stuff Discord has!" "Really? Where does he live?" Sweetie asked. "In a nearby pocket dimension. It's so fun... I think I have a key here somewhere," Scootaloo looked around and Discord sighed. He forgot it as did she. "You two won't mind if her friends come other to our nice little dimensional home, do you?" Discord asked the older sisters of the two other Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three fillies gave Applejack and Rarity cute puppy eyes. While they two wanted to say no, a part of their minds told them that even if they did, Discord and the girls would probably do it anyway. "Ah suppose there wouldn't much of a problem with that," Applejack relented with a sigh. "I agree, but be aware that if anything happens to the girls while they are under your care, Discord, know that we will be forced to take drastic action," Rarity warned him with a very thinly veiled threat. The three fillies ignored the threat and only paid mind to the fact that the two mares agreed. They exchanged a brief look before hopping into the air and shouting, "Cutie Mark Crusaders dimension hoppers, yay!" Discord meanwhile simply nodded at the two mares. "Don't worry about a thing, I'll be on my very best behavior," he concluded with a large grin and a halo appearing over his horns. Discord reached out and ripped open a portal to the dimension. "Now then, come along little ones. I'll return them before the sun sets, which does so in my dimension a hour before Celestia's," Discord said, to give them some understanding of time. Once the three fillies and the god of chaos were gone, Applejack turned to Rarity. "Which one of us tells Rainbow Dash and which Twilight?" Applejack asked. "I'll tell Twilight, you tell Rainbow Dash," Rarity answered. The fillies looked around at the strange world. "Wow this is so cool, It's like something out of one of those strange paintings," Sweetie said. "Do ya mean the kind with those crazy stairs, or the kind with those melty clocks?" Apple Bloom asked as she looked at the strange environment passing them by. Sweetie Belle tilted her head and thought it over for a second. "I think both." Scootaloo listened to them and offered them a bright smile. "Yeah this place is pretty crazy but there's also all kinds of cool stuff here too." "Okay there Scoots, we trust ya." Discord chuckled a bit at their exchange. "Alright girls, we've made it to my humble abode," he told them as they came up to the small looking home. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked confused for a moment, not because the house was strange beyond belief but because it was so normal. "Wait, this is where you live?" "Is there a problem Sweetie Belle?" "With all this craziness around, your house looks so... normal," Sweetie said. Discord looked around and at the place. "That's the thing Sweetie Belle, it has doors leading to rooms that are bigger than it could hold, and some to other places in Equestria." That last part was hard but he had found a way how to connect the doors to distant locations. It made no sense to anyone, but how else was Santa Hooves supposed to get to everyone's house? A knock was heard in the library, then a moment later Rarity walked in. As she was about to speak, Rainbow Dash crashed in through the window. "Twilight, Discord has adopted Scootaloo! You have to do something!" "Well, it seems that Applejack found Rainbow Dash already," Rarity muttered under her breath. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the mare who had just crashed through the window. "Nice try Rainbow Dash, but I'm not falling for one of your pranks. Also, buildings have doors for a reason." Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated growl and flew up to Twilight. "This isn't a prank, Twilight! Applejack just told me about this!" "Uh huh, sure she did," Twilight said, still unconvinced. "Look Rainbow, I don't know what your game is here but I'm not falling for it. I mean, Discord adopting Scootaloo? That doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense. So Rarity, what brings you here today?" Twilight said as she turned to Rarity. "Well, Discord has adopted Scootaloo." Twilight tried to wrap her mind around that. Discord, the living embodiment of chaos, has adopted Scootaloo. "That makes no sense, why would Discord adopt Scootaloo? That just seems so... unlike him." Twilight needed to get to the bottom of this. "So where does Discord live now anyway? Is he staying with Fluttershy?" Twilight asked as she lit her horn, intending to teleport there. "Another dimension," Rarity answered. A look of surprise and resignation appeared on Twilight's face. "So how in Equestria are we supposed to get to him?" "Do you suppose that we should go to Fluttershy's to see if she knows how to get there?" Rarity suggested. Rainbow Dash jumped up at that. "Yeah, she'll know where he is. Come on, let's get going! There is no way I'm going to let Discord do anything to Scoots!" Rainbow Dash then rushed out through the same window she had crashed through in the first place. Twilight let out a huff and started to head out the door to Fluttershy's with Rarity close behind. "Come on Angel, you need to take your medicine," Fluttershy said. The door opened up as Rainbow Dash came crashing in. "How do we get to his place, Fluttershy? Tell me now!" Rainbow Dash demanded, holding up the yellow pegasus. Twilight walked in and, upon seeing one of her friends accosting another, separated them. "Rainbow, stop," Twilight said. The alicorn turned to Fluttershy. "We came to ask, do you know how we can get to Discord's home dimension?" Twilight asked. Angel took this moment to hide away from them and Fluttershy. "I'm sorry, but I actually don't know how to get there, I've never been there," Fluttershy replied. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you need to find Discord?" she asked. "Because Discord has adopted Scootaloo," Rainbow Dash stated. "Oh, that," Fluttershy said. She already knew about that, having been there when Discord finalized the papers. "Wait a minute there Fluttershy, you knew about this?!" Rainbow Dash screeched. Fluttershy flinched a little at that and nodded slightly. "Well, he teleported me into the orphanage office yesterday to be his referral. He seemed so genuine when he told me he wanted to adopt her." "How could you not tell us about this, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well, it only happened yesterday, and I've been very busy today. I was going to tell you as soon as I finished with my animals, but Angel has been fussy today so it's taken longer than usual. I'm sorry." Rainbow Dash and Twilight let out a sigh at the mare's explanation. "It's alright, Fluttershy," Twilight said. The outside of Discord's house belied its interior.The three fillies went down a slide made of glass and into a room of objects. "Wow, what are these things?" Sweetie Belle asked. "This is stuff that Discord got from his family members over the years," Scootaloo said. "Wait, Discord? Family?" "Well it's not a 'family' in the traditional sense, it's just kind of something about us chaos beings. Apple Bloom, I wouldn't open that box, Shaggoth wouldn't like that," Discord said, stopping the youngest Apple from opening the box. "Also don't touch any sword... I don't want to deal with the whole Khone," he warned. "Well is there anything we can touch?" Sweetie Belle asked. Discord thought for a moment before reaching behind his back and pulling out a snowglobe. "Here, this is something you three can play with without inviting catastrophe," he said as he placed the globe into Sweetie's hoof. "Aww come on, can't you give us something more exciting?" Scootaloo asked with a pleading look in her eyes. "This is just a crummy snow globe you can get at any gift shop." Discord just chuckled a little at that. "Give it a shake and you'll see how it's different from your ordinary knick-knack." Sweetie did as she was told and the three crusaders crowded around the object to see the snow inside swirl around and formed into a tiny snow pony that skated along the bottom of the globe before turning back into little snowflakes. "That was made from Windigo ice, a rarity in this day and age." Discord answered. "However, let's get you all out of here." Discord then walked through a door with the three fillies in tow and ended up in Sugarcube Corner. "What the?" Apple Bloom asked in surprise. Discord tapped the counter as Pinkie Pie appeared. "Yes? Oh hey Discord, why are you here, also how's the first day of being a dad?" Pinkie Pie asked, as she hopped in place. "It's been great so far! Now then girls, what do you want? My treat," Discord said, summoning up a bag out of nothing. "Sweet!" Scootaloo cheered as she floated up for a brief moment. "I'm thinking about getting a giant sundae, what about you girls?" "I think I'll just get a strawberry milkshake." Sweetie Belle answered. "And Ah'll have a chocolate shake." Apple Bloom finished. Discord nodded and turned to Pinkie with a smile. "Well, you heard the girls, think you could get those for me?" "Coming right up!" Pinkie cheered as she zipped to the back. "Now you girls find a table and I'll bring you your treats," Discord instructed. The three crusaders took a seat, and soon afterwards Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity came in. "Pinkie Pie..." Rainbow Dash spotted Discord and stopped. "You." The pegasus got up into Discord's face. "Why did you adopt Scootaloo? You don't even know how to be a father, do you?" However the filly in question was right there. "Rainbow Dash, he been a great father so far." Discord felt a warm feeling welling up inside when he heard that. 'Is this... crap I remember Slendy saying it's called love.' Discord shook his head at that, thinking he could deal with that particular thought later. "Rainbow Dash, I don't have any ulterior motives to this. I just happened upon Scootaloo and overheard her problem and decided to adopt her," Discord explained. Rainbow Dash quirked an eyebrow while still glaring at him. "Uh huh, and why in Equestria would you want to do that?" "There are some personal reasons for that and it's not something that I'd like to get into." "Whatever," Rainbow Dash said as she turned to Scootaloo. "So, is he really taking care of you?" Scootaloo nodded enthusiastically at that. "Yeah, it's been a lot of fun!" Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and turned back to Discord. "Fine, I'll go along with this for now but I want you to tell us how to get to your place so we can check in on how Scootaloo is doing." "Very well, then," Discord said with a sigh.
AdoptionThe school bell rang, signaling the end of Miss Cheerilee’s class. As the fillies and colts exited, Scootaloo turned to her friends. "So, I was thinking we should try getting our cutie marks in sky diving." However, Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom both looked regretful. "Sorry Scootaloo, but Rarity needs help and I kinda volunteered," Sweetie Belle said with an apologetic tone. "Same here, Applejack wanted me to help." Scootaloo was saddened by this. "Okay then." Her two friends walked away, leaving the pegasus on her own. As she wandered, she came to Ponyville's park to calm her head. However, this wasn't to be the case. "Oh look, it’s the Chicken." The nasty voice belonged to a soulless, demonic hellspawn, Diamond Tiara. Scootaloo rolled her eyes and tried to walk away from the two without saying a word to the pink filly. Nothing good ever came from a conversation with Diamond Tiara. Sadly, this wasn't to be as the two started to circle her like sharks about to enter a feeding frenzy. "So, where are your two loser friends? Did they finally decide they were too good for you?" the spoiled filly asked. Scootaloo's expression fell at that and she leveled a flat look at Diamond Tiara. "No, they're just busy with family stuff. So can you please get out of the way? Talking to you is about as much fun as a tour of the cardboard box factory." "Oh then why don't you go to your family?" Diamond Tiara asked. Scootaloo flinched at this. "You don't have any family, you're an orphan!" The two bullies laughed at the pegasus filly. However, up in the tree was something sleeping in the leaves. "Oh what in the name of Chaos is that laughter? It sounds familiar." The mismatched being in the tree was Discord, the Draconequus: Equestria’s chaos god. He looked down to see two fillies tease one of the CMC, Scootaloo he believed, and walk away after hurting her feelings. He didn't seem to care until he heard her scream something. Something that caused a flashback. "Stop picking on me because I don't have a family!" Discord was suddenly thrust back to the time when he was just a fledgeling god of chaos all those millennia ago. He was slowly walking down the streets of a village and scanning around him, hoping not to run into anypony. All of a sudden, something hit him on the side of the head. He reached up with his talon and saw that somepony had thrown a rotten tomato at him. He craned his neck to see a group of foals sneering at him. "Hey everypony look, it's the freak of nature!" one of the bigger fillies called out. "Yeah, where are you going today ya little freak?" another jeered. "Aww come on ya guys, lay off the poor thing," the leader of the pack started. "Don't you guys think he has it bad enough? I mean, he is an orphan after all." This caused laughter to erupt amongst the group. "Yeah, I bet his parents took one look at him and decided to toss him out!" the filly behind the leader called out between laughs. Scootaloo saw a stick of cotton candy handed to her. "Here." She was stunned to see the God of Chaos himself offer her cotton candy. "Discord? What do you want?" she asked. Discord looked down at the filly. "You're an orphan right?" Discord asked. The orange pegasus turned away from him. "Yes so if you’re going to-" "I know how it feels." Discord’s words stunned her, "I've kept most of my early memories locked away, but I know, I was a parentless god of Chaos all those years ago before Celestia and Luna took the throne. Before the three tribes united, I was there with no parents of my own and I was picked on for that." "Really, did you ever do anything to them for it?" Scootaloo asked with a mouthful of cotton candy. Discord just shook his head at that, "No, I was just a child and didn't have control of my powers." "So, you heard what Diamond Tiara said?" "Yes, it's always amazed me just how cruel some foals can be," Discord sighed. Scootaloo sighed as well and stared at her cotton candy with a gloomy expression. "I know that feeling. Sometimes I just wish I could have a family like everypony else. I've even had the occasional dream of showing somepony other than Rainbow Dash off at Family Day at school. I usually pick somepony really cool like Spitfire or even a Royal Guard to adopt me... but I'd be happy with anypony really," Scootaloo admitted, sniffling. Discord usually wouldn't care about anything, this however he did strangely seem to care. 'I'm not going to do it,' a part of Discord's mind said. However another part screamed at him, 'You must!' Discord sighed. "Give me a moment." With that, Discord was gone, teleporting away to go get something. Discord appeared at the front of a nearby orphanage. The mare working there was frightened by his appearance, "Discord... What can I do for you?" She really didn't want to be banished to another world or whatever the deity had planned. "I'm here to adopt a filly named Scootaloo," Discord answered. The mare was taken aback by what Discord had just said. She told herself that she had to have heard what he said wrong and shook her head to clear it out, "I'm sorry, but did you say that you wanted to adopt Scootaloo?" "Why, yes I did." "Well... um if you could follow me to my office then I could get the papers in order," she said, still not entirely believing the situation she was finding herself in. Discord complied with the mare and hovered above the chair in front of her desk. "I uh... assume you have your papers in order, so we can see if you are qualified to care for Scootaloo...?" Discord snapped his talons and a small stack of papers appeared on the mare's desk. "I could also get a recommendation from one of the Elements of Harmony if that would help," Discord mentioned. "That would be great," the mare said. Discord was gone in a flash. At her cottage, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane was just about to call her animal friends when she was grabbed and, in another flash, was gone. Scootaloo had finished her cotton candy and was heading back to the orphanage when Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon appeared again. "What is it this time?" Scoots asked. "Well we just wanted to say–" But they were interrupted as the clouds above them started to fire lightning at them and Discord appeared next to Scootaloo. "Well, now that that's out of the way..." In his hand was a suitcase. Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon paled when they saw the mad god appear before them. "Discord, what are you doing back here?" Scootaloo asked. Discord’s face broke out into a wide grin as he opened his briefcase to show her his freshly signed adoption papers. "Well, I just happened to be near a certain orphanage and I popped in to adopt a certain orange filly." Scootaloo's eyes widened when she heard that and then looked over the paper to see that it said that Discord had, in fact, adopted her. "So, does this mean-" "Yup!" he started, interrupting her. "You are now the daughter of chaos!" he finished as he threw up his arms and set off a miniature fireworks display. The display was a fun sight, but then Discord turned to the two bullies. "Now then, let me make one thing clear." Discord had a serious face, which, for someone as random as him, was quite terrifying. "If I find you both continuing to bully Scootaloo or her friends I will send you both on a nice vacation to another dimension, perhaps my cousin Slaanesh would enjoy playing with you both," Discord said in a dark tone. The two of them nodded quickly and rushed off at an impressive speed. Scootaloo didn't seem to notice as she had a large grin on her face. "This is so cool! I finally have a dad!" she cheered as she fluttered in the air for a moment. She then looked down for a moment as she landed, "I... uh... I can call you dad, can't I?" Discord was taken aback by that question. He hadn't expected her to warm up to the idea so quickly. He then smiled comfortingly as he tousled Scootaloo's mane. "You can call me whatever you like." Scootaloo perked up at that and looked up at him with excitement, "Awesome! So, since you're the god of chaos do you live in some big chaotic castle or something like that?! Are you going to give me chaos powers like you?" Scootaloo continued to fire off question after question while Discord just chuckled as he waited for her to finish. "Okay, one: I live in a nearby dimension that I found when I was a child, and as for the powers…" Discord snapped his talons. "Let's see how well you do being able to fly without needing to flap your wings." Scoots was confused until she started floating. "Whoa, how am I doing this?" Discord gave a laugh. "I learned long ago that Chaos and Harmony are not total opposites, they can and do coexist in many things. So with a push I turned your weak pegasus flight magic into a natural power to reject gravity." Scootaloo beamed as she started to float around Discord. "I don't think I understand all that stuff about harmony and chaos, but the other thing I get. If I don't do anything stupid with my floating powers then I can keep them and maybe get more?" "We'll see about giving you more, but yes you can keep the floating. That is, if you can behave with them. That means keeping the destruction you cause with it to a minimum." Scootaloo's expression fell a bit at that. She knew the trouble she got into with the Crusaders already. "So... uh why did you decide to adopt me anyway? Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but you're Discord, you nearly took over Equestria twice! So why would you bother helping me out?" Discord thought for a moment. "Because, looking back at it, if I wasn't teased because I was an orphan and had real friends then I probably wouldn't have become who I was. I let my rage consume me... from anger came insanity and from that came the desire for revenge," Discord said, recalling his dark breakdown. "Only a few are naturally born evil, the rest become evil. The same can be said for good I suppose," Discord said, looking back on his life. "Oh... I guess I never thought of stuff like that." "I'm not too surprised, you are still fairly young." "So what are we going to do now? I was going to head back to the orphanage but I guess I don't live there anymore." Discord tapped his chin as he considered what to do. He honestly hadn't thought this decision through too much. 'I may need to clean the house up a bit to be more child friendly. I guess I'll start with getting rid of the hall of eyes. That could cause some mental scars.' "How about we stop by Sugarcube Corner to get ourselves something nice? And after that I'll show you your new house," Discord suggested with a grin. “Okay.”
Nightmare NightThe town of Ponyville was soon getting ready for nightmare night. Scootaloo herself, however, was in Discord's dimension looking through a book with her friends. "What is that thing?" Sweetie Belle asked. On the page was a strange looking being. "Oh, Dad says it's photos from him traveling to other dimensions from when he started to learn how to use his powers, that's how he met his cousins, actually. I wanted to show you all this so we could get ideas for costumes for the Nightmare Night Contest, scariest costume gets a prize!" Scoots said, holding up the poster. "Alright, but what should we go as?" Apple Bloom asked as she flipped through a photo album. "Ah mean, there's a ton of freaky things to choose from here. Uhh, no offense," she finished as she turned to Discord. "None taken, my family and I are well aware that we can be strange looking to most." Sweetie Belle was oblivious to what was going on and pointed to a labeled picture. "How about a shoggoth? That's pretty scary and as big as it is we could make that a group costume." Scootaloo looked at the photo and her muzzle scrunched up. "Ehh, it's not bad, but it's a little too slimy for me." "Then what about a Mi-Go?" Sweetie asked as she pointed to another picture on the same page. "That isn't slimy and it even has wings." Apple Bloom looked at it and tapped her chin with a hoof. "It seems like a start, but it feels like we're missin' sumthin'. Do ya girls think we could add sumthin' to make it scarier?" "I don't know, what makes things scary in the first place?" Sweetie asked, tapping her own chin in thought. "It's mostly because of the fact they are otherworldly like my dimension, it hurts the minds and is born of your primal thoughts and nightmares," Discord answered. At that moment, a magic letter formed, covered in a familiar golden magic. "Now what is this?" Discord opened the paper and read the letter out loud. "Dear Discord, come see me now I wish to talk to you, signed Celestia." Discord didn't say the curses though. Celestia might have found out about his adoption of a young filly. "Well I'm off, remember don't go outside until I get back." Discord was gone in a flash. Sweetie Belle turned a few pages then I idea hit her. "Hey Scoots, remember that room?" Sweetie asked. "Which one?" Scoots asked. "The one with all the magical objects." Discord appeared in a flash in Celestia's study. The solar demi-goddess was glaring at the chaos god. "So, Tia, why you mad?" Celestia rolled her eyes at him. "Well, why don't you tell me why you think I'm mad at you," Celestia stated flatly. "Is it because I replaced all the water in Manehattan with fruit punch after a pizza I ordered from there arrived in 31 minutes when I was promised it would be delivered in 30?" Discord asked. "No," she replied as she started to grind her teeth. "Is it because I set all the animals in the Baltimare zoo free because they didn't have a platypus enclosure?" "No," Celestia said as the grinding of her teeth became audible from where Discord was floating. "Is it because I spraypainted..." "Discord!" Celestia shouted, not wanting to hear anything else from the chaotic entity. "I sent that letter because I heard you had adopted a young filly by the name of Scootaloo." "Really?" Discord asked. "Then can you please just forget those other things I told you?" "Not on your life." Celestia glared. She was wondering who set those animals out and the complaints from Manehattan got so out of hand, now she knew who to blame... well she already suspected Discord but he just confessed the the crimes. "I don't see what the big deal is, Tia," Discord commented. Celestia couldn't believe him. She knew about some of the things Discord kept over the years. Not only that she knew Discord might not be best suited for this. "Discord, I want to know why you even did this?" Celestia demanded. "Well... it was for some personal reasons," Discord said as he turned his head away from her. "Personal reasons, I'm going to need more than that." "Could you please not ask any more? This isn't something that I'm very comfortable with discussing." "Discord, I need to know that my subject is safe in your care. If I don't think I can trust you with her, I might just rescind the legality of your guardianship," Celestia stated calmly. "You can't!" Discord shouted as he turned back towards Celestia. "I won't if you tell me your reason for adopting her." "Fine," Discord huffed, "I adopted Scootaloo because I happened to run into her while she was getting bullied. And as soon as I heard the insults that were thrown at her, she reminded me of myself. I'm an orphan myself so I know what it's like. I suppose a part of me couldn't stand the thought of someone else growing up the same way I did." Celestia closed her eyes. Unknown to Discord, Celestia and Luna never knew their parents. In fact, Star Swirl predicted they might not even have parents. The thought itself rarely entered into their heads. However, they at least had a pseudo-family. Discord didn't develop one until after he had gained control of his powers and became an adult god. "Discord, promise me you will do your best, and please don't let her get into too much trouble. The last thing we need is one of your cousins coming to Equestria." Celestia had heard Discord once list some of his extradimensional cousins. Seems Discord was tame compared to them. "I'll do my best, but Scootaloo and her friends are a real handful. They actually have me trying to prevent chaos from happening due to their schemes. I'm at a loss as to what to do with her," Discord said as he slumped over. Celestia chuckled a bit at that. "If you think it's bad now, just wait until she hits puberty and she starts dating." "Oh, I'm already prepared for that. I'll just sit everypony she dates down and remind them that I can turn them into a balloon animal if they even think about doing anything unseemly to my daughter." "That seems a bit extreme." "Oh please, I bet you threatened to send Shining Armor to the moon when he and Cadance started dating. Celestia couldn't argue with him there. Shining still flinched when they were alone together. "Anyway, I'd best be going now. My daughter and her friends are back in my home and despite all the safeguards I keep on my things, I have to make sure they haven't created a miniature black hole or something. Ta-ta for now, Tia." And with that, Discord created a door in the middle of the room and walked through it. Meanwhile, the three fillies were in the room with relics from Discord's family. "I can't believe we are taking one of these," Scootaloo said with a bit of fear. These were objects from Discord's relatives though Chaos. She knew about a few of them to be sure. "Do you even know which ones come from who?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Only a few, those four on the self are from I think Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Khorne... I think that's what they are called, they are four siblings Discord said shouldn't under any circumstances be met without him there, he says they fight with each other most of the time," she said. Pointing at the boxes, she continued, "That's from Cthulhu, Slender and Sheogorath, he has tea with them sometimes and they're more friendly." Next she indicated an advanced piece of technology sitting on a pedestal. "That's from Q." Scootaloo said. "Q?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Yes, that's his name. He's the least weird looking out of all of Discord's relatives, but he still looks pretty weird. He lives in this universe where these things called humans and a bunch of aliens travel through space in a spaceship. Q basically messes with this crew that travels on a ship called the Enterprise... or something, I only really paid attention to the parts of the story that included lasers. And the weirdest part is that he sounds exactly like Discord." "Really, do they know why?" Apple Bloom asked. "Maybe, when I asked him Discord just laughed and messed up my mane," Scootaloo admitted with a shrug. "I think it's best we just chalk this up to chaos magic or else we'll be confused for a while. Now, back to the costume ideas, if we win this contest we might get our cutie marks!" "And what kind of cutie mark would ya get fer winnin' a costume contest?" Apple Bloom asked. "Anyway," Sweetie Belle said, ignoring Apple Bloom. "Scootaloo, do you think there's anything here that could help us with our costume problem?" Before she could answer a voice rang out. "Scootaloo I'm back, you and your friends haven't set off a chain reaction that is slowly dooming Equestria, have you?" Discord said. He looked around the home. "I have dinner and some of that Zebra pie you like." When he noticed the three weren't where he left them, Discord screamed. The three fillies started to panic. Scootaloo pulled out her bag. (It was actually a pocket dimension Discord made for her.) "Here, me and Apple Bloom will hold Discord off, put one in here," she said. As they ran off Sweetie wondered which to get, and with a flash of her horn she hoped she made a good decision. Discord saw the two fillies as he opened the door to the attic which lead to this hallway. "Girls, what were you doing up here, and where's Sweetie Belle?" Discord asked. "Oh, I was just showing them some of the stuff you got from your family members, that's all. We thought that if we saw some stuff that represented them we might get some ideas for a costume." Scootaloo answered with a nervous smile. "Okay, but where is Sweetie Belle, she isn't touching anything up here, is she?" "No way, dad! She's just sketching out an idea she had and doesn't want us to see it 'til it's done." "Alright well, when she is done bring her down and we'll have dinner. Oh, and I might have to do some community service for a while after those stunts I pulled in Manehattan and Baltimare so I may not be able to pick you up from school for a while. Here's a key to the house just in case." Discord said as he pulled a key out of thin air. "And make sure you wash your hooves before coming to eat," he said as he turned and floated away. Sweetie Belle walked out with the bag in her mouth. "We'll be sure to win this year," she said as she set it down. The three did a dance of happiness. From the room, an axe was missing. Sweetie Belle went for the scariest object there. Unknown to the unicorn filly, written on it was the name Khorne. As Nightmare Night came around for Ponyville, the three fillies were getting their costume finished up and ready. "I hear Princess Luna is going to be judging as well as Princess Twilight, it's going to be hard to make something to scare them," two other fillies said. Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle. "Wait till they see ours, they'll be scared for sure." In the palace, Discord was looking over his list of community service. "Here Tia, all the things should now be finished, now I must get going as Scoots is going to compete in the contest and I don't..." Discord's eyes glowed as wisps of chaos magic escaped him. "Oh no... no no no!" It was Discord's chaos senses, the power that allowed him to know another chaos entity was coming. "Tia we have to get to Ponyville! Now!" "What is it?!" Celestia shouted, wondering what could worry even Discord. "Scootaloo and her friends must've taken something that belongs to one of my relatives for their Nightmare Night costume. I'm sensing a huge spike in chaos magic coming from the town. I just hope that it's one of my nicer relatives, like Sheogorath. If he's in a good mood the worst we'd have to worry about is a few allergic reactions from lactose intolerant ponies due to raining cheese." "And what if it's not a nicer relative?" "That's why we have to hurry," Discord answered as he snapped his talons and the two disappeared in a flash of light. Upon arriving in Ponyville, Discord looked up at the vortex forming above them. "What's going on, Discord? Discord...." Celestia saw Discord looking at the fillies, the object they had was floating up and he recognized it. "Oh, Chaos no! Not him!" With a snap Discord got everyone back as the vortex exploded and a wave of chaos energy gave way. Standing there was... well he looked like a demon given form. He was mad, really, really mad. "WHO TOOK MY AXE! I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND ADD IT TO MY THRONE!" Celestia was afraid of this thing, and seeing how its outfit was leathery and bone armor she knew it wasn't kidding. "Discord, who is that?" Celestia asked. "My psychopathic cousin, Khorne the... Blood God." "Oh, of course he's the blood god," Celestia huffed as her eye twitched erratically. "Because I was scared for a second that he'd be the puppies and hugs god. But if he's just the blood god then we don't even need to interfere here." "Now is not the time for a sarcastic mental breakdown, Tia," Discord admonished. "Alright then, is there anything I should know about Khorne?" "He's a being born of violence and hatred that will murder something as soon as look at it." "Do you think you can keep him from hurting anypony and send him back to his own world?" "I can certainly try," Discord said as he carefully floated over to Khorne. "Hey Khorne," Discord started. The Blood God swang his axe at Discord whose head floated off his body so he wouldn't be cut open, and then it reattached itself. Khore blinked then slightly let his glare go. "DISCORD? WHAT IS GOING ON! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO BEAT SLAANESH UP FOR TAKING MY FAVORITE SWORD! NOW I'M IN A BRIGHTLY COLORED LAND, TALK NOW COUSIN!" Discord rolled his eyes. "Khorne listen, this is my universe, and as for why, well, my daughter Scootaloo and her friends went behind my backs and took your axe." Applejack, Rarity and the Princesses turned to the CMC. "Girls, what were you thinking?" Rarity asked. "We were thinking that we would be able to win the costume contest," Sweetie Belle answered as her ears flattened against her head. "I'm sorry, I thought that you'd have to do some special chant or something to summon something. I really thought that it would just be a cool piece of a costume," Scootaloo said with a look that mirrored Sweetie's. "Girls, you've done some very irresponsible things in the past, but this is most certainly the worst. When this is all over the three of you are going to be in some serious trouble," Rarity scolded them. The three fillies trembled a bit as they continued to watch Discord and Khorne talk. After Discord had managed to calm down Khorne, well not so much 'calm him down', Khorne realized something Discord had said. "WAIT... A DAUGHTER? YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER... WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" he half asked, half demanded. "Four weeks ago now. Can you please not tell Tzeentch about this? Knowing him he would either let it slip to the others or worse try to make a stupid plan about it... well, a hundred stupid plans." Discord answered. Discord summoned up his powers and with a mighty rip into the space-time continuum he opened up a portal to the plane Khorne and his siblings called home. "Here, you should land in Slaanesh's place, sorry about the misunderstanding," Discord said to his cousin. "YOU'RE LUCKY I'M IN A GOOD MOOD, NOW THEN TELL MY NIECE NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN!" Khorne passed through the rift and the axe fell. Discord picked it up and glared at the three fillies. "Scootaloo, I'm very disappointed in you. Not only did you take something from me when I've told you about how dangerous some of my things are, but you lied about it. I trusted you and this is how you repay that trust?" Discord asked as he hovered just above the fillies. Scootaloo's eyes were welling up with tears and her lip was trembling. "I'm really sorry Dad! I just wanted to win the contest." Discord let out a little sigh at her response. "This is very serious Scootaloo, something like this could have you removed from my care." Scootaloo's eyes widened in panic and shock at that. "What?! But I love living with you! Why would somepony punish you for something I did?" "Because I left you in a room full of dangerous things. Now, hopefully we won't be separated, but until we know for sure you're going to be facing some punishment. Starting with having no friends over until I know I can trust you again."
The FalloutThe next day Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom came to school. "Isn't it strange Scootaloo hasn't come yet? School's about to start." Suddenly, a flash was seen as Scootaloo appeared. "Sorry, I hope I'm not late," Scootaloo said. "Scootaloo where have you been? Also, did you just appear?" Sweetie Belle asked. Unfortunately school had started, cutting the whole thing short. Later that day, Rarity and Applejack were walking to the school to pick up their sisters, and as they did they saw Discord walking with a cloud of cotton candy floating alongside. "Discord, what are ya doin'?" Applejack asked with a quirked eyebrow. "Ya better not be out causing' trouble." "Why Applejack, I am quite offended. Do you really think so little of me that you expect me to spread mischief wherever I go?" Discord asked in feigned hurt. Applejack leveled a look at him that screamed, 'Really?' "Well, pardon my rudeness, but would you mind explaining what it is that brings you here today?" Discord beamed at that. "Well if you must know I'm here to pick up my adopted daughter from school. I'm trying my paw at this whole fatherhood thing and I think I'm doing a decent job so far. I even patched up the bottomless pit that was in my living room." "You're kiddin', right?" Applejack shot back. Discord just smiled. "Wait, you're serious?" Discord gave a nod. "Why of course I am." The three got to the school right as class was letting out. Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo came out, with Scoots racing ahead. When they reached the adults, Discord picked up Scootaloo and floated her in front of him. "So how was school? Do I have to send those two fillies to my cousin?" Discord asked. "No, they were switched to the afternoon classes," Scoots answered back. "Really? Well that should make things simpler for you and your friends," Discord said with a bit of a smile. "Yeah, but they'll probably find new foals to pick on in those classes," Scootaloo replied with a bit of a worried expression on her face. "I don't think it'll be that easy for them. There's probably already bullies in that class time. Those two will probably butt heads with the other bullies and might even learn the error of their ways," Discord retorted. "Do you really think so?" Scootaloo asked. Discord shrugged at that. "Stranger things have happened." The other two mares and fillies just stood by with slack jaws as they tried to process what they were seeing. "Scootaloo, what's going on here?" Sweetie Belle squeaked out. "Oh yeah," she replied, turning away from Discord. "I tried to tell you this earlier, but I got adopted by Discord yesterday. Ooh, we should totally have a sleepover at my house soon! You guys won't believe how much cool stuff Discord has!" "Really? Where does he live?" Sweetie asked. "In a nearby pocket dimension. It's so fun... I think I have a key here somewhere," Scootaloo looked around and Discord sighed. He forgot it as did she. "You two won't mind if her friends come other to our nice little dimensional home, do you?" Discord asked the older sisters of the two other Cutie Mark Crusaders. The three fillies gave Applejack and Rarity cute puppy eyes. While they two wanted to say no, a part of their minds told them that even if they did, Discord and the girls would probably do it anyway. "Ah suppose there wouldn't much of a problem with that," Applejack relented with a sigh. "I agree, but be aware that if anything happens to the girls while they are under your care, Discord, know that we will be forced to take drastic action," Rarity warned him with a very thinly veiled threat. The three fillies ignored the threat and only paid mind to the fact that the two mares agreed. They exchanged a brief look before hopping into the air and shouting, "Cutie Mark Crusaders dimension hoppers, yay!" Discord meanwhile simply nodded at the two mares. "Don't worry about a thing, I'll be on my very best behavior," he concluded with a large grin and a halo appearing over his horns. Discord reached out and ripped open a portal to the dimension. "Now then, come along little ones. I'll return them before the sun sets, which does so in my dimension a hour before Celestia's," Discord said, to give them some understanding of time. Once the three fillies and the god of chaos were gone, Applejack turned to Rarity. "Which one of us tells Rainbow Dash and which Twilight?" Applejack asked. "I'll tell Twilight, you tell Rainbow Dash," Rarity answered. The fillies looked around at the strange world. "Wow this is so cool, It's like something out of one of those strange paintings," Sweetie said. "Do ya mean the kind with those crazy stairs, or the kind with those melty clocks?" Apple Bloom asked as she looked at the strange environment passing them by. Sweetie Belle tilted her head and thought it over for a second. "I think both." Scootaloo listened to them and offered them a bright smile. "Yeah this place is pretty crazy but there's also all kinds of cool stuff here too." "Okay there Scoots, we trust ya." Discord chuckled a bit at their exchange. "Alright girls, we've made it to my humble abode," he told them as they came up to the small looking home. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle looked confused for a moment, not because the house was strange beyond belief but because it was so normal. "Wait, this is where you live?" "Is there a problem Sweetie Belle?" "With all this craziness around, your house looks so... normal," Sweetie said. Discord looked around and at the place. "That's the thing Sweetie Belle, it has doors leading to rooms that are bigger than it could hold, and some to other places in Equestria." That last part was hard but he had found a way how to connect the doors to distant locations. It made no sense to anyone, but how else was Santa Hooves supposed to get to everyone's house? A knock was heard in the library, then a moment later Rarity walked in. As she was about to speak, Rainbow Dash crashed in through the window. "Twilight, Discord has adopted Scootaloo! You have to do something!" "Well, it seems that Applejack found Rainbow Dash already," Rarity muttered under her breath. Twilight just rolled her eyes at the mare who had just crashed through the window. "Nice try Rainbow Dash, but I'm not falling for one of your pranks. Also, buildings have doors for a reason." Rainbow Dash let out a frustrated growl and flew up to Twilight. "This isn't a prank, Twilight! Applejack just told me about this!" "Uh huh, sure she did," Twilight said, still unconvinced. "Look Rainbow, I don't know what your game is here but I'm not falling for it. I mean, Discord adopting Scootaloo? That doesn't even make the slightest bit of sense. So Rarity, what brings you here today?" Twilight said as she turned to Rarity. "Well, Discord has adopted Scootaloo." Twilight tried to wrap her mind around that. Discord, the living embodiment of chaos, has adopted Scootaloo. "That makes no sense, why would Discord adopt Scootaloo? That just seems so... unlike him." Twilight needed to get to the bottom of this. "So where does Discord live now anyway? Is he staying with Fluttershy?" Twilight asked as she lit her horn, intending to teleport there. "Another dimension," Rarity answered. A look of surprise and resignation appeared on Twilight's face. "So how in Equestria are we supposed to get to him?" "Do you suppose that we should go to Fluttershy's to see if she knows how to get there?" Rarity suggested. Rainbow Dash jumped up at that. "Yeah, she'll know where he is. Come on, let's get going! There is no way I'm going to let Discord do anything to Scoots!" Rainbow Dash then rushed out through the same window she had crashed through in the first place. Twilight let out a huff and started to head out the door to Fluttershy's with Rarity close behind. "Come on Angel, you need to take your medicine," Fluttershy said. The door opened up as Rainbow Dash came crashing in. "How do we get to his place, Fluttershy? Tell me now!" Rainbow Dash demanded, holding up the yellow pegasus. Twilight walked in and, upon seeing one of her friends accosting another, separated them. "Rainbow, stop," Twilight said. The alicorn turned to Fluttershy. "We came to ask, do you know how we can get to Discord's home dimension?" Twilight asked. Angel took this moment to hide away from them and Fluttershy. "I'm sorry, but I actually don't know how to get there, I've never been there," Fluttershy replied. "If you don't mind me asking, why do you need to find Discord?" she asked. "Because Discord has adopted Scootaloo," Rainbow Dash stated. "Oh, that," Fluttershy said. She already knew about that, having been there when Discord finalized the papers. "Wait a minute there Fluttershy, you knew about this?!" Rainbow Dash screeched. Fluttershy flinched a little at that and nodded slightly. "Well, he teleported me into the orphanage office yesterday to be his referral. He seemed so genuine when he told me he wanted to adopt her." "How could you not tell us about this, Fluttershy?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Well, it only happened yesterday, and I've been very busy today. I was going to tell you as soon as I finished with my animals, but Angel has been fussy today so it's taken longer than usual. I'm sorry." Rainbow Dash and Twilight let out a sigh at the mare's explanation. "It's alright, Fluttershy," Twilight said. The outside of Discord's house belied its interior.The three fillies went down a slide made of glass and into a room of objects. "Wow, what are these things?" Sweetie Belle asked. "This is stuff that Discord got from his family members over the years," Scootaloo said. "Wait, Discord? Family?" "Well it's not a 'family' in the traditional sense, it's just kind of something about us chaos beings. Apple Bloom, I wouldn't open that box, Shaggoth wouldn't like that," Discord said, stopping the youngest Apple from opening the box. "Also don't touch any sword... I don't want to deal with the whole Khone," he warned. "Well is there anything we can touch?" Sweetie Belle asked. Discord thought for a moment before reaching behind his back and pulling out a snowglobe. "Here, this is something you three can play with without inviting catastrophe," he said as he placed the globe into Sweetie's hoof. "Aww come on, can't you give us something more exciting?" Scootaloo asked with a pleading look in her eyes. "This is just a crummy snow globe you can get at any gift shop." Discord just chuckled a little at that. "Give it a shake and you'll see how it's different from your ordinary knick-knack." Sweetie did as she was told and the three crusaders crowded around the object to see the snow inside swirl around and formed into a tiny snow pony that skated along the bottom of the globe before turning back into little snowflakes. "That was made from Windigo ice, a rarity in this day and age." Discord answered. "However, let's get you all out of here." Discord then walked through a door with the three fillies in tow and ended up in Sugarcube Corner. "What the?" Apple Bloom asked in surprise. Discord tapped the counter as Pinkie Pie appeared. "Yes? Oh hey Discord, why are you here, also how's the first day of being a dad?" Pinkie Pie asked, as she hopped in place. "It's been great so far! Now then girls, what do you want? My treat," Discord said, summoning up a bag out of nothing. "Sweet!" Scootaloo cheered as she floated up for a brief moment. "I'm thinking about getting a giant sundae, what about you girls?" "I think I'll just get a strawberry milkshake." Sweetie Belle answered. "And Ah'll have a chocolate shake." Apple Bloom finished. Discord nodded and turned to Pinkie with a smile. "Well, you heard the girls, think you could get those for me?" "Coming right up!" Pinkie cheered as she zipped to the back. "Now you girls find a table and I'll bring you your treats," Discord instructed. The three crusaders took a seat, and soon afterwards Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity came in. "Pinkie Pie..." Rainbow Dash spotted Discord and stopped. "You." The pegasus got up into Discord's face. "Why did you adopt Scootaloo? You don't even know how to be a father, do you?" However the filly in question was right there. "Rainbow Dash, he been a great father so far." Discord felt a warm feeling welling up inside when he heard that. 'Is this... crap I remember Slendy saying it's called love.' Discord shook his head at that, thinking he could deal with that particular thought later. "Rainbow Dash, I don't have any ulterior motives to this. I just happened upon Scootaloo and overheard her problem and decided to adopt her," Discord explained. Rainbow Dash quirked an eyebrow while still glaring at him. "Uh huh, and why in Equestria would you want to do that?" "There are some personal reasons for that and it's not something that I'd like to get into." "Whatever," Rainbow Dash said as she turned to Scootaloo. "So, is he really taking care of you?" Scootaloo nodded enthusiastically at that. "Yeah, it's been a lot of fun!" Rainbow Dash let out a sigh and turned back to Discord. "Fine, I'll go along with this for now but I want you to tell us how to get to your place so we can check in on how Scootaloo is doing." "Very well, then," Discord said with a sigh.
