“I hope I’ve made you proud, Dad…”
Sunny Starscout gave a sad smile, looking away from the ruins of her lighthouse home and towards Maretime Bay in the distance, rainbow aurora lighting up the sky above. Finally, the earth ponies had been reunited with the pegasi and the unicorns, the glow of magic restored to Equestria. Just like she and her father had always hoped.
And she’d been the one to do it. Her, and her new friends. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined she’d become friends with a unicorn, two pegasi, and restore friendship to the world all in the span of a few days! She’d always thought it would take at least a week. Not only that, but, somehow, she had grown a horn and wings, like the alicorns of old, albeit ones made of magic. When, or even if, they would wear off, Sunny didn’t know. At the very least, she hoped to keep the rainbow streak in her mane.
Still, despite the joyous celebration still ongoing in the town below, Sunny couldn’t help but feel melancholy. Her home, where she and her Dad had played, where he had told her the tales of Ancient Equestria… it was gone. She could rebuild, of course, reclaim what was let from the wreckage and start again… but she knew it wouldn’t feel the same. With a sigh, she began the walk down the path back to town.
“Well, it’s about time! It’s been dreadfully dreary around here, you know.”
Sunny froze, looking around for the source of the deep, resonant voice. “Hello? Who’s there?”
“Oh, right…” There was a *SNAP* sound, and a flash of light. When it faded, floating in the air in front of her was… a tennis ball. A tennis ball with yellow and red eyes and a wide mouth holding a single tooth floating in front of it, cartoonish black lines forming arms and legs like a child’s drawing,
“Really?” The tennis ball… thing made a disappointed tut. “This is all I can manage? The state of of things… Ah well. The important thing is, I’m back! After 10,000 years, I’m… has it been 10,000 years? I think time lost all meaning back there…”
“Uh…” Sunny stared at the strange creature blankly, mind reeling. “Who are you, exactly?”
It gave a mock gasp. “I can’t believe it. Moi, forgotten. Truly, Equestria’s loss of magic must have made it exceptionally dull if they forgot the Lord of Chaos himself.”
“Lord of- hang on…” The gears in Sunny’s mind began to turn, remembering the tales her father had told her, tales of a mad trickster of chaos from the olden days of Equestria. “Are you… Discord?”
“Bingo! Give the filly a prize!” Discord snapped his fingers, and in a flash of light, a small cutout of a cardboard trophy cruded colored in with gold crayon appeared in front of him, dropping to the ground limply. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
“Never mind that-” Sunny shook her head rapidly. “-oh wow, the Discord, you’re a legend! Like, a literal legend, I always assumed you were like, a metaphor or something, but you’re actually real!”
“In the flesh.”
Sunny blinked. “You’re… a floating tennis ball.”
“Eh.” Discord waved one of his stick hands back and forth, and shrugged. “Better than the mundanities of nonexistence! Do you have any idea how boring it is to not exist? Because let me tell you, even my incredible imagination strains to think of anything worse.”
“Nonexistence?” Sunny frowned. “You… stopped existing? How does that even work?”
“Well, you see…” With a snap of his fingers, Discord suddenly gained a pair of thick rimmed glasses and and academic’s cap. “As a creature of pure chaos, I require ambient magic to maintain physical form. Sure I can have my magic drained; it may reduce me the mundanities you mortals are forced to endure, but I can still exist. But if the world loses it’s magic…” He shrugged. “Then, eventually, hasta la vista Discord. Didn’t help that I used the last of my magic to deal with those Windigos…”
“They're real too?”
“Yep, and they would have made short work of you, too, if I hadn’t tossed them into deep space for you.” Discord gave a theatrical bow, his hat and glasses vanishing. “You’re welcome, by the way. Coulda lived for three hundred more years with the energy I used to do that…”
“Well… you’re back now, right?” Sunny said, giving him an awkward smile. “Even if you are a tennis ball. How are you even doing that anyway? Is your brain in there or something?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know, little miss alicorn,” Discord said with a sly wink. “By the way, I love the new light up feature. You’ll sell plenty of toys with that one, you’ll be flying off the shelves!”
“What are you even talking about?” Sunny shook her head. “You’re not making any sense!”
“Ah, but, you see, dear Sparky-”
“Sunny.”
-dear Sunny,” Discord corrected without missing a beat. “What fun is there… in overusing catchphrases?” He looked at her expectantly, grin wide.
Sunny just tilted her head. “...What?”
“Bah!” Discord deflated, quite literally, the tennis ball that was his body flattening a little. “Somebody got that, at least."
“Okay then…” Sunny wasn’t quite sure what to say. “You’re uh… interesting.”
“Ponies have been known to call me that, yes.”
“I don’t even… I never expected to meet you, I don’t have anything to ask, I’m sure my Dad would have had some questions he’d have liked to ask you…” Sunny sighed, turning back around to stare that the lighthouse ruins forlornly. “If his notes are even intact…”
Discord followed her gaze to the rubble, his disembodied face cycling though many emotions. “You know…” he said at last. “Princess Twilight?” he pointed to the starburst design on Sunny’s saddlebag. “She lost her home like that too, once.”
Sunny gasped. “Really? I never heard anything about that.”
“Yep. Blown to smithereens by a magical laser beam fired by a giant centaur.” He paused. “It may have been… partially my fault. Just a little. But,” he said hurriedly. “Then she opened a magical crystal box and it flew into the air with a rainbow, planted itself in the ground, and grew a giant crystal castle.”
“So that’s what that box did? Dad theorized about that for ages!”
“Him and just about everyone else…” Discord muttered.
“So, what? Princess Twilight got a fancy new home to replace her old one?” Sunny asked with a confused look. “I’m not really sure what you’re trying to tell me. I’m sure she loved having a magical new castle…”
“Au contraire, mon éclaireur, quite the opposite. She hated it so much she did all she could to stay away from it.”
“But… it was a castle.”
“But it wasn’t her home,” Discord said. “She’d gotten so used to the… let’s call it rustic charm of her wooden tree, she found it hard to adapt to the crystal one. But, eventually, she managed to adapt. Her friends dug up the roots of her old house and turned them into a giant chandelier, which, honestly, is far more macabre than ponies usually go, I must say I was surprised. Something about… ‘being surrounded by old memories allowing you to make new ones’? ‘Never forgetting where you came from?’” Discord rubbed the back of his tennis ball body sheepishly. “To be honest, I wasn’t there for that part, I’m just going off what Fluttershy told me.”
“Making new memories…” Sunny repeated to herself. Everything had changed in the short time since she’d last slept in her bed. She’d woken up determined to make Maretime Bay understand that the other pony races were their friends… and now they were, The dream she and her father had shared had come true… so maybe it was time to move on from the old, empty lighthouse. “I… think you’re right, Discord.”
“I am?” Discord looked surprised for a second, before quickly changing his expression to one of confidence. “I mean, yes, of course I am. That’s me, always giving out helpful advice. Even Princess Twilight came to me for council, you know.”
“Uh… sure…” Somehow, Sunny wasn’t convinced.
“It’s true! ...Kinda. From a certain point of view…” A large bead of sweat rolled down Discord’s side. “Anyway, it’s been lovely meeting you, but I’m afraid I must be going.”
“Really?” Sunny asked. “Are you sure you don’t want to come and meet everypony?”
“Oh, I only dropped in real quick to take a look at the savior of Equestria. I really must get back to pulling myself together, quite literally.” He gestured to himself. “I mean, really? A tennis ball? I refused to be stuck in this singular form any longer than I have to. Don’t worry, you’ll see me again.” He paused. “Probably. This voice doesn’t come cheap, you know.”
“O...kay, then. I’ll, uh… see you round?” Sunny said awkwardly.
“Unless, of course…” Discord gave a malicious grin. “I’m nothing but a hallucination, caused by the magical radiation slowly seeping into your brain through that horn of yours.”
Sunny stared at him, and then burst into nervous laughter. “Oh, boy, you really had me going… there…” But, in the short time she had been distracted by laughing, Discord had vanished without a trace.
Sunny frowned, concerned. “Discord? You there?” She took a step forward… only for her hoof to land on something. She lifted it up, revealing the cardboard trophy cutout lying on the ground underneath. She picked it up, inspecting it closely, and then smiled, placing it into her saddlebag. “See you soon, then…” she said to herself quietly, before continuing back down on the path to Maretime Bay.
Back to her new friends. To make new memories.
Author's Note
Everyone and their mother is making a G5 fic, so I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring. Also I love writing Discord, even though I get very few chances.
Thanks again to Roxylalolcat for reading this real quick and then throwing together the cover art, I owe you one.
