"... And then I said, PLATYPUS!"

Discord and fluttershy erupted into rapturous laughter. Applejack, still pulling the cart along the trail on the way to the Badlands, was not as amused.

"What the hay does that have to do with noodles?"

"Oh, nothing at all," Discord elaborated. "I just thought it was humorous to say in the moment, and made a nice segway into this chapter." Applejack rolled her eyes at that. She had learned to live with his annoying fourth wall breaking... Even if it just left Rainbow and Rarity confused whenever it happened. Fluttershy just giggled, having talked to Discord enough to know what he was even doing.

He continued. "I do so love a platypus! It's so delightfully chaotic of a creature. It's like a miniature draconequus!"

Applejack scoffed. "I wouldn't be surprised if you made the suckers," she half-mumbled.

"Well..." Discord went quiet for a moment. Uncharacteristically so.

"Discord," Fluttershy said, "is something wrong?"

"Wh- Oh! Of course not, my dear Fluttershy. Well, nothing more 'wrong' with me than usual, anyhow."

Applejack laughed. "Discord, for a 'master of chaos' yer a worse liar than a cat with his paw in the fish bowl."

A floating cat with his paw in a fish bowl took the place of Discord. "Well, I don't think I'm as bad of a liar as that."

Applejack smirked. "Well, that one was just plain silly. Silence speaks louder than words, ya varmint."

Discord returned to normal. Well, OK, for a certain definition of normal. "Oh please! That was a fantastic recovery! The bit of self-depreciation works wonders, normally."

"Wait," said Fluttershy, "so you did lie?"

Discord went blank for a moment, before colored pencils appeared from thin air and drew him back in. He glared at Applejack. "So I suppose being deceptive doesn't count as dishonesty in your book?"

Applejack's smirk remained unchanged. "No, it was dishonest, but only to the point where ah got y'all to fess up."

Discord huffed. "It's personal, that's all."

Fluttershy flew up to Discord. "Too personal for me and Applejack?"

Discord looked at Fluttershy, seemingly weighing his options. He sighed. "Oh, you know I couldn't say no to you Fluttershy."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Fluttershy quickly added, only now aware of the guilt-trip she had caused. "You don't have to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable."

"Oh, it's not that," Discord said. "It's not anything wrong or embarrassing. Quite the opposite, honestly."

"The hay do ya mean?" Applejack was now curious, or at least more so than before.

"Well... Look, even if I told you, you wouldn't believe me. I wouldn't even want you to believe me!"

"Why not," asked Fluttershy.

"Let's just say that a lot of people would want to say thank you, and I'm uncomfortable with that much praise or attention or... What have you."

Both mares looked at each other in confusion. "Mind tellin' us what's wrong with all that? Ya have an ego the size of a mountain."

Discord cringed. "Well, it's often the way they say it. And how much. And what they'll do to show their devotion. Especially that last bit, really."

This failed to clarify literally anything to Applejack. "Mind not beating around the bush any more than necessary?"

"I don't like being worshipped," Discord said. "Having a following would be much too orderly."

Applejack went a bit wide-eyed at that. "Discord, what the everloving hay did you do where you would be worshipped for... Well, anythin'?"

Discord took a deep breath. "This may seem like a bit of a non-sequitur, but... Did you know all life is inherently chaotic?" He gave a nervous grin.

The cart stopped along with the three in front of it. Fluttershy gasped. Applejack's eyes went even wider. "Discord, you ain't sayin'-"

"Even when a tree grows, it displaces the air around it, bit by bit. When its leaves fall, it creates a rather large mess. Why, even if a living thing was actively trying to be more orderly, it couldn't be truly ordered due to it changing the environment around them, adding more variables, more possibilities, yadda yadda yadda. So yes, life is inherently chaotic."

Both mares had their mouths agape. "Discord," said Fluttershy after a moment of silence. "Did you create... The universe?"

"Oh, don't be silly," Discord responded to a very short lived sigh of relief. "I made all life in the universe!"

Stares. Stares and an awkward, snag-toothed smile was seemingly all that existed until a voice came from the cart. "Trixie would like to know why her cart stopped moving, if you don't mind."

"Oh, nothing," quickly chimed Discord. "Just something caught our attention, that's all."

"Alright, Trixie just wanted to check that nothing strange was going on." With that, she quickly rejoined Starlight to listen to more of John Smith and the Common Men with Starlight.

As the stares continued, so did Discord. "I also invented the multiverse, but that's a completely different thing. I made sure I was able to join in on that, of course, so there's an infinite number of mes running around, a lot of them with different backstories. No, the first universe was actually invented by my brother, Negligence."

Applejack's stared daggers, although she didn't have Discord's powers so that was just a metaphor. She decided get the cart moving again as she listened to... Whatever nonsense Discord was pulling this time. "Ya have a brother?"

"And two sisters," he elaborated as he and Fluttershy began matching Applejack's pace. "Actually, I think you'll find it funny that the game of marbles was invented before planets were."

"Discord," Fluttershy began to ask, "who were your siblings?"

Discord twiddled his equivalents to thumbs. "I suppose the audience can deal with some exposition. Well, we all popped into existence around the same time, I think, so us calling each other 'siblings' was our first collective invention. Also, our only one, since we wouldn't really collaborate for much longer after that. Although we only took after the gendered terms after some other species invented them, and it's really fairly arbitrary all things considered. Let's see what I can remember, since it was infinite years ago or so...

"Negligence was the eldest. He invented things. I quite liked things, for obvious reasons. He made the things so that he could make games out of them. I adored his games! Well, they were very simple since they were the first ones, but it was still a novel experience.

"Then, one day, I decided that these things weren't enough. I was a little bored, you see, since the things didn't do anything unless you were doing something to them other than atoms wiggling around a bit. So I decided 'why don't I make things that can do things on their own!' And so, I invented LIVING things! Granted, these living things are what some dimensions now like to call 'eldritch horrors,' but hey! It was a start!

"Then came my sister, Delusion. She was actually bored by the living things! See, upon seeing them, she invented these things called stories, which I'm sure all of you are familiar with." He winked at nothing in particular. "However, there's only so many times you can say 'once upon a time, a big thing walked around a place, the end,' before you start to get bored. So, she invented sapience. She's the reason you can all think! And let me tell you, seeing you here has definitely made me appreciate that.

"Then Ordinance, the youngest of us and my other sister, completely ruined it! She invented decay to mess with my brother's things! She invented death and made it to where my living things needed to eat other living things to not die! I'm lucky she forgot to mess with plants and other such things in that regard. She couldn't do anything to the sapient life specific to them, since Delusion took it all in stride, and she gave up after a while. Regardless, she tried her best to destroy everything! She didn't like things existing at all, but she couldn't destroy it outright, not while I and Delusion were around, anyways.

"At some point we had to trap Negligence in another dimension. He just didn't care whether or not lives were hurt in his little games, which made me upset, he kept interfering with Delusion's stories, and Ordinance invented the feeling of being annoyed simply in response to him, so for everyone's good, including his own, we had him trapped in a little pocket dimension where he could do whatever he wanted. As long as no one does something stupid like invoke a superstition at the edge of the universe, he should be trapped there even now! Or at least, he could only exist in one universe at a time. I think. I hope.

"Delusion and I did get around to stopping Ordinance soon after that. We took away her ability to destroy anything, so as long as she doesn't get the key to time she shouldn't be able to do too much. Unfortunately, Delusion and I fell apart after that. She actually liked death as a story-telling element, mainly, and she made sure sapient life had the capacity for war and hatred. I still don't get why she did any of that. But yes, that's the bare basics of how existence started! Do I get an A+ on my history assignment?"

Applejack just stared into the distance. "Uh, Discord, that was, uh-"

"YOU POOR THING!"

Applejack quickly looked in Fluttershy's direction. "Say what now?"

"He had his own siblings turn against him," Fluttershy explained. "That means he never really had a family! He never had parents! For so many years, he's... He's been alone."

Applejack blinked. "I mean, yeah, ah know more than anypony family's important, but-"

Before she could say another word, Discord quickly went in for a hug on Fluttershy. "Don't worry about all that, my dearest Fluttershy. Like I said, this was all infinite years ago, and there weren't any other families to speak of at the time so it didn't hurt as much. Parents weren't even invented yet, after all. But look at me nowadays! I'm definitely not alone any more, thanks to you, my dear Fluttershy. I still have you and the rest of your friends no matter what, and no matter how hopelessly sappy it is, it's the truth." Both smiled in the embrace, just happy to have one another.

Applejack just stared at the pair absolutely gobsmacked. "Well, I was gonna say 'well boy howdy that was a lot to take in at once,'" she muttered to herself, "knowing Discord of all creatures is responsible for mah existence an' all, but sure, focus on his family feudin'. 'Lestia damnit, Flutters..."

"What was it, Trixie?"

Trixie looked at her... Date? Was that right? She liked using the term, but she wasn't sure how well it applied to a diplomatic trip into the Badlands. Nevertheless, she was enjoying herself. She was with a gorgeous mare, finally able to talk about her mother's stories, and currently listening to some ancient tunes from centuries past with said gorgeous mare. If it was a date, it was a damned good one.

"Oh, they just got distracted by something. It's probably nothing too exciting anyways."

Starlight nodded. The song changed to an old tune sung in a language neither understood, aside from one odd little phrase, "Doo'Naa the Noble."

Starlight raise an eyebrow. "Why is part of it in Equestrian?"

Trixie shrugged. "Trixie's mother said it may be about one of the Doctor's companions."

Starlight's eyes narrowed. "What makes her say that?"

"Apparently it usually happens to those that travel with him. They become great heroes sung about in faraway galaxies, centuries before they were born and centuries after they died. Trixie was always a little jealous, if she's being honest."

Starlight giggled. "Well, according the Doctor we know, he hasn't gotten to that level... Well, not yet. Time travel, I guess."

"Well, Trixie supposes all legends start somewhere. Look at Trixie, for example! Today, a sideshow cart, tomorrow, a celebrated magician beloved by all!"

Starlight gave a warm smile. "I'm sure you will be. I mean, you have at least one fan here, after all!"

Trixie blushed. "You really think so?"

Starlight looked at Trixie. For a showoff who called herself "Great and Powerful," she was far more self-conscious than most would think. "Trixie, I know so. In fact, once we get back home, I can teach you some magic that I think will really help you out."

This resulted in an impromptu hug that bordered on a tackle. "Thank you," was all Trixie said. Granted, she said that about 15 times in a row rather rapidly, but it was still all she said.

And so they embraced one another as a song about a great hero in another universe played throughout the cart.

Author's Note

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