Doctor Whooves and the Eye of Discord

The Doctor quickly jumped out of the tree and threw his glasses on. He looked around the sky and saw a trail of chaos particles. At the end of that trail was Screwball flying away, seemingly in fear.

The Doctor began to trot after her again. After a minute of trotting, the Doctor couldn’t feel the ground beneath his hooves. He looked down and saw he was levitating once again. He looked to the side and saw that Discord was flying next to him. The Doctor quickly got used to it and began to chase after Screwball with Discord at his side.

They flew from Sweet Apple Achers all the way to town hall. Then they flew around Golden Oaks Library and Surger Cube Corner. For a moment, they went straight up and flew through Rainbow Dash’s cloud house were luckily no one was home. It was a wonder no one in town saw them, but many weren't looking to the sky after the chaotic day the Discord of that time presented.

They went from Rainbow’s house to Fluttershy’s cabin where Screwball then led them to the middle of the Everfree forest. Screwball dove down to try to lose them to the trees and ended up landing near the, at the time untapped, Tree of Harmony.

The tree was a beautiful sight to behold. It looked like a crystal glass tree with lights hanging from its branches. On the tips of the branches were slots where the Elements of Harmony were meant to go and would in the coming year. At the base were small black vines with sharp thorns that seemed to be crawling up the tree. The vines seemed small now but would soon take hold of the whole tree.

The Doctor looked to Discord. “Your doing I presume?”

Discord then changed from a parrot to an owl. “Who? Me?”

The Doctor and Discord approached Screwball, who had nowhere else to fly to now without being intercepted by one of the two.

“Discord,” the Doctor said, “you don’t need to keep yourself hidden now. There isn’t anypony out here.” Discord then transformed from an owl to his normal, chaotic self.

“Daddy Discord!” Screwball yelled out with love. She began to fly forward to hug the Draconequus, Eye of Discord still in hand. However, before she hugged him (and while the Doctor was worried she’d drop it), she stopped and looked at Discord before backing away again. “H-how are you here? I saw you turn to stone!”

“It’s a bit wibbly wobbly,” the Doctor said. “Bit confusing really.”

“We travelled back in time to get that eye from you,” Discord said.

The Doctor looked back at him. “Well, I suppose when you simplify it down that much it sounds a bit less complicated.”

“No! You can’t have daddy Discord’s eye!” Screwball yelled. “I don’t know who you are, but if you were my daddy, this whole place would be normal!”

The Doctor and Discord looked around. “It is normal,” the Doctor said.

“No, it’s not!” Screwball yelled. “The sky isn’t pink! The ground isn’t checkerboard! There’s no chocolate rain! None of this is normal!”

The two thought for a moment before the Doctor understood. “This isn’t normal for HER.”

“What do you mean?” Discord asked.

“She was born when you made Ponyville chaotic,” the Doctor explained. “She thinks the chaotic world you made is normal, and this normal world is chaotic for her.”

“Okay, so why does she still hold on to that eye?” Discord asked, looking at the stone in the scared mare’s hooves. “Is it just because she misses me?

The Doctor thought. “I don’t think that’s the whole story. The Eye of Discord took in all the chaotic energy. She must have grabbed it right before it took her in. If she lets go of it, her chaotic energy would get dragged in. She has to hold it or she’ll, in a way, die. The only way for chaotic energy to escape the Eye of Discord is for the eye to open. Otherwise, the energy just radiates around it, but never leaves.”

The Doctor looked at Screwball. “That’s right, isn’t it?”

The, now teary eyed, mare nodded.

“Is that it?” Discord asked. “Well I can just recreate her easy.” As he said that, he snapped his fingers and a near clone of Screwball was summoned.

“No Discord,” the Doctor groaned. “That’s not how it works.”

Discord snapped again and the other Screwball disappeared. “Then how does it work? Please enlighten me.”

“Normally,” the Doctor explained, “it does work like that where it you can snap her in and out of existence. But because the eye is trying to take up her chaos magic, she’ll be stored in it instead. Screwball is the last remaining entity with this type of chaos magic. When it gets taken up, any creations of chaos would be stored in it, including their memories. If you were to try to recreate one of them, it would be a copy. You wouldn’t be bringing them back; you’d just make a new version while the original is trapped in the eye.”

“Weren't you the one that wanted to take the eye back no matter what?” Discord asked. “Why are you so gung-ho about not just taking the eye back now?”

“Because I didn’t realize that the chaos creature that had it was a sentient being,” the Doctor said. “Screwball here is last of this type of chaos creature. If we were to take the eye away from her it’d be... well... it’d be extermination. She’s the last of her kind... like me.”

Discord turned away. “I wish I could relate.” The way he said it sounded like he wanted to sound like he was joking, but he really was sorrowful and felt bad for the others... and himself.

“Don’t you?” the Doctor asked.

Discord raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Surely you know the feeling of being one of the only things like you in the universe,” the Doctor said.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“C’mon Discord,” the Doctor said. “Surely you’ve seen there aren’t any other draconequuses anywhere in sight.”

Discord paused. “No, I haven’t.” In truth, he’d spent many nights wondering if he truly was the only one.

For a moment, the Doctor was silent. “Discord, there’s something I’ve been needing to tell you for a long time now, and I’ve been dragging hooves on it. Please just promise me that you’ll try to understand why I want to keep Screwball alive.”

Discord’s interest had peaked. “I’m listening.”

The Doctor sighed. “Okay. I need to tell you the story of Skaro.”