The Perfect Job

Discord yawned. There was nothing to do but chores, chores, chores. Dusting bunnies, dirtying dishes, everything but the windows. As much as he loved this dimension, it wasn't all that enjoyable without ponies to mess with. Well, that was out of the question; what would Fluttershy say? Besides, he couldn't stand another second imprisoned in stone. With nothing to do, Discord resigned himself to boredom, snapping his eagle claw with a flash of light. In his place resided a gray unicorn, his pony disguise so that he wouldn't terrify everypony. Only his closest friends, the princesses and Elements of Harmony, knew about it.

When he reappeared, he was in the Ponyville library. Though Equestria had a pretty sick sense of entertainment, once in a while he did come across a particularly fascinating read, like the girls' diary, or Unbored by Charlotte Fullerton & M.A. Larson. That was what he was hoping to see. What he wasn't hoping to see was a certain purple pest that was cantering up to him just now with a sour expression on her face, followed by a rainbow of annoyance .

Twilight Sparkle's horn glowed a violet aura, and the three of them were surrounded by a large sphere of pink.

"Magical sound bubble," she explained.

"Now spill the beans, Discord!" added Rainbow Dash.

Discord chuckled. "Hello to you too. I'm actually here because I'm bored. Any ideas?"

Twilight sighed. "Oh, well, in that case, you know the pony decimal system, right? Try the 790's."

"Or the YEA's!" piped up Rainbow. The two turned to look at her, and Discord looked over her shoulder to see Bulk Biceps. "The best author of all time, of course!"

"Okay...why are you two here, anyway?"

"Oh, I'm looking for some information on Star Swirl the Bearded, and Rainbow came with me to check out Daring Doo and the Griffon's Goblet again. Oh! I think she meant 'Yearling.'" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Well duh. Clearly you're still an egghead."

Her horn lit up again, and the sound bubble vanished. Then she headed towards the biographies, Rainbow to fiction, and Discord to search for the 790's.

When he found it, one book in particular caught his eye: a bright yellow hardcover. He levitated it to a bench nearby and read to himself, "'Every Which Way: 100 Ways to Lead an Interesting Life, by L.P. Shimmer.'" Intrigued, he opened up to page one.