As the only stallion to bear an Element of Harmony, Choco Pie, the Element of Laughter, has always felt a bit like the odd one out. But when the crazed spirit of Chaos, Eris, breaks free from her stone prison and starts playing mind games with the Mane 6, Choco becomes afraid he's going to crack completely. Because for some reason, the pink draconequus has singled him out to torment above all the others. And if what she's saying is true... well, it can't be true. She's the spirit of Chaos and Disharmony. Obviously she's just messing with him. Because if it was true... then his whole life would have been a sham, and his friendships a hollow lie... and it would be his own fault.
New! Cover by zabchan!
There's now a Progress Bar at my writing journal.
This idea so awesome. I really want to see where you're going with this.
DUDE! Focus on this, got it? That will help you think of what to put in the story!! Anyways, THIS IS EPIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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It's more like, I have it plotted up to the point in the story where, in the original continuity, they defeated Discord. Except Eris does something completely different, which is where her total mindscrew on Choco really starts. And I don't know where it goes from *there*. I don't know how it ends yet. Usually when I start a story I know the start and the end and I might be slightly unclear on the middle.
I'm pretty sure it ends badly for someone, possibly more than one someone, but who knows, maybe I'll see my way to a happy ending all around. Though it seems kind of unlikely.
3499901 Aight then! Do your best! Whenever I write, things just pop into my head that I use for the story. Also, do you mind if I use your character, Choco Pie, in my story? Let me know asap, k? Later, mate!
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I am not sure you can use Choco Pie because I haven't really revealed enough about what's going on with him. I don't mind if you create a character called Choco Pie who's essentially filling in the role of Pinkie, but if you're looking at him carefully you'll see he's *not* a gender reversed Pinkie Pie; he's actually a completely different individual who has the role of Element of Laughter and friend to the rest of the Mane Six.
However, if you really want to use him... I'd need to give you some background on his personality, his relationships with the Mane Six and others in Ponyville, and stuff, and there might be spoilers in that background. I don't know if this site has a private messaging function, but you can email me at alara at mindspring dot com (broken out in words because the site might eat actual email addresses). Let me know if you're going to do that because all my mail automatically hits a spambox until I tell it to let specific addresses through, so I'd have to be looking out for your email.
3501728 Eris is an actual genderswap, but not in this case. Anyways, I don't just flat out say my email where ppl IDK can steal it. So yeah. But you'll know it's me.
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Being that Eris is the name of the Goddess of Discord in Greek mythology, yes, the name is used for any Rule 63 of Discord generally speaking, as well as daughters of Discord, mothers of Discord, most faithful servants of Discord, etc. But in this case, while she happens to be a female avatar of Chaos and Disharmony, she is not actually a gender reversal of the being Discord. She's someone else.
3499901
Could you please make pony Discord have a happy ending. He deserves it
What is Choco's cutie mark
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Fireworks.
So Choco is pony Discord and Eris is Draconequus Pinkie. Awesome.
4068508 Lol! I thought it might be something like a chocolate rain cloud, but there are so many things that fit him ^^ I love it! It's lighthearted and dark at the same time. I wonder how Discord ever switched his and Pinkie Pie's life around? And I think he's overthinking the complexities of a hypothetical life with Fluttershy; he could always wake up earlier to get to his shop in Ponyville, if he lived in her cottage. I do hope you update this one soon too ^^
(And count me in for someone who'd like a happy ending, if you so choose... I do so love happy endings XD)
This is most intriguing. I hope you explore the concept further at some point.
Do you plan on continuing this story? I would love to see where this is going. :3
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Yes, my kids would never let me abandon it forever. :-) It's just one of my least popular fics so I haven't prioritized it.
yay my cover image!
YES!!! I freaking LOVE Coco and Eris! So, will you go to 'King' now?
I think you meant eris
As prophesied by the Llama Lamas?
In any case, it's fascinating to see the differences caused by the role reversal. Eris favoring subtler, simpler riddles over Discord's couplets is especially interesting. I'm not sure why, but it is. Definitely looking forward to seeing how she handles the labyrinth, especially the Choco Pie version of the balloon party.
This is going to be interesting. Good story. Count me as a follower of this story. I loved how Pinkie is still being Pinkie. Great job with have Choco having a crush on Fluttershy. I thought that was a nice touch.
The most twisty idea? Hm...
Mayhap the Elements are hidden on their very bearers. It would certainly be a twist to have them search for something they had on them the whole time.
Anyways, count me intrigued.
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Argh. This is what I get for cut and paste at 4 am. I'll fix it.
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Goddamnit. When I wrote that I fully intended to credit you in the author's note, but by the time I posted, it was late and I'd forgotten I did it.
"Eris" is going to handle several of the labyrinth episodes very differently. So yes, it will be interesting. :-)
SO excited to see this continue, this was one of the stories I was really looking forward to reading more :D and the plot thickens! I wonder how Discord got himself mixed up in this and if they'll be able to find a happy ending through what is probably going to be a very twisted maze... and I'm not talking about the one in the garden XD
This is awesome, the subtle differences between Discord and Pinkie, in both directions, are fascinating. I also like in general how you seem to be going back to your earlier incomplete fics and systematically updating them, it is so great to see an author doing that.
I think.... I think I may have figured out the twist in this....
Mwa-hahahaha.... I can't WAIT!!!
MORE! MORE I SAY! MORE!
But wait a second, Choco is afraid of turning into rock. He used to make jokes at others expense until he met fluttershy. And he is Light Brown and dark brown coat colors. THIS MEANS DISCORD CHANNELED ALL OF HIS ENERGY INTO PINKIE TURNED INTO A PONIE AND MADE PINKIE BE THE DRAQUONIQUOS AND THEN HE TOOK THE PLACE PINKIE WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yep, nailed the explanation.
4962829 Why would he do that? And further more, when? If it was before season 3; how would he do it while in stone? And if it is after season 3; why give up your powers and go back in time to be Pinkie? Mabye the twist is that this is all a big old dream. Or mabye there is no twist, and this is simply a AU.
4967529 Or! He realized when he was turning back to stone that he would never get to spread chaos, and ABSORBED laughter, and shot all his magic to pinkie, wich is why he is an earth pony! But when he absorbed it, it replayed all the events in equestria! Just pinkie's and discord's roles SWITCHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LooL dat cover art
This is an awesome concept!
I must have more!
Will add my hat to the pile of Hats of fans of this fic. You also get a very special set of kudos for being the first author of the year to make me break into a spontaneous song of fondness
This needs to be continued. It just does.
IT LIVES!
And yes, Eris's attacks on the Elements are much, much subtler than Discord's. I especially like Fluttershy's - turning her virtue against itself by a very plausible interpretation!
I'm wondering how these things can possibly be reversed... You mentioned earlier you didn't have the complete story plotted out yet; is that still true?
wow this is really good. surprised it has so few views. Keep up the good work!
Est. Hours to Complete seems pretty optimistic at 15. At the current rate of updates, maybe 6 years is more accurate. Really at it's calculation of 1500 words an hour, that would mean roughly 8 hours and 45 minutes have been dedicated to this fic in the last three or so years.
Shame such an interesting story suffers such extreme hiatuses. Hopefully you do get to the next chapter tomorrow and the rest in the next year. 2016 New Years Resolution Suggestion: Finish all unfinished stories.
Well, good luck.
This story really is great, hope you keep your word and upload the next part soon!
I wonder why Rarity's attack was left unchanged :-\
Wow. This is really old. I really hope that you can finish it. It's quite good. :P
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Because Rarity crumpled like a wet paper napkin, and for no nobler reason. Applejack broke because she wanted to preserve her friendships, Rainbow Dash because she thought her birth city would be destroyed if she didn't go, Pinkie Pie because she thought her friends hated her and were mocking her. Rarity's reason for breaking was purely and completely selfish and had no social element at all. In Eris's mind, that makes it ok to mock her and not soften the blow. With Applejack it went almost the same, but Eris stepped in at the last second to give Applejack the third alternative of silence, which would hurt Applejack less but do as much damage to the group. But she doesn't feel Rarity needed anything to lighten her burden. (Also, Rarity was deeply humiliated, but all of the others were traumatized. Applejack felt she'd lost her honor, Rainbow had nightmares, Fluttershy had crying fits. Rarity just never wanted to talk about it again.)
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You know those numbers are time worked and not time elapsed, right? I don't bother calculating a prediction of time elapsing because I'm almost always wrong -- time elapsed is based on my health, what's going on in my life, and my level of inspiration to work on something in particular, whereas time worked is simply based on how fast I know I can write when I'm writing.
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Yes, but I do know how the various attacks can be reversed. I know what happens up to what would have been the end of Return of Harmony, except that Eris doesn't get re-stoned at that point; she escapes, and that's when she starts seriously focusing on Choco and trying to mess up his head in particular. It's that part of the story that I don't know how it ends.
Her attack on Rarity is actually the same; her attack on Applejack is almost the same, but she pulls her punch at the end so Applejack doesn't end up reversed, just mostly useless (her silence will do as much damage to Twilight's psyche and the group dynamic as the lying did, but she won't personally suffer as much for it.) Rainbow will be kind of like Applejack, I think. It's only Fluttershy and Choco that end up completely different.
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Not so much a double agent -- a double agent is a spy in the ranks of the enemy who's secretly really a spy for the enemy. It's more like she turned Fluttershy into her agent. It's kind of like the inversion of Discord's reform -- where Discord listens to Fluttershy and behaves more like a pony because of their friendship, Fluttershy listens to Eris and behaves more disharmoniously because of their "friendship" -- which isn't completely false. Eris wasn't actually faking having emotions for Fluttershy, and is genuinely frightened of being turned back to stone... but the best manipulations draw on actual feelings. Fluttershy can sense emotions; she'd have known if Eris was totally faking it.
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Hah, you think this is old? I have unfinished fanfics from 1993 I still consider active. (To be fair, that one is nearly 400K words and has four novel-sized chapters so far; it's the length of a completed SF trilogy in published books. It's just not finished yet.)
Very happy to see more of this.
Bearer of Honesty indeed, because is that ever the truth.
Well, someone had to say it.
Plus, further hints as to how we got in this situation. Seems Pinkie recalls what happened better than anypony.
Ooooh. Eris is mixing it up from the original. This should be very interesting to see, especially since it seems she's trying to keep from hurting her friends as much as Discord did.
On the other hand, Tom is more of a prank than an injury. Makes sense that she'd stick with it.
Oh my. Not only does Eris manage to get to Fluttershy—not surprising, she understands her and the concept of Kindness much better than Discord did at this point—but there's further insight into the overarching situation. Pinkie's not happy about this. She's being tormented, and she's been somewhat driven by her role. This just gets more and more fascinating. Eagerly looking forward to Eris and Choco's one-on-one session.
HEY THIS ISN"T A DEAD STORY!
I love the differences in how Eris tricks the ponies, and was SO HAPPY to see this updated! A wonderful Christmas present ;)
Great changing of the manipulations. I like how your more perceptive and empathetic Fluttershy can nevertheless be taken down by Eris in a way that feels true to form. I would love to see Eris reformed by Fluttershy, because I think this will greatly affect that.
One question though: Discord/Eris never actually turned ponies into earth ponies, he just took away their horns/wings, right? It's not like he redesigned their bodies to have the magical strength or anything (I would say Rarity carrying that boulder might count, but she's still carrying it later on when she gets her horn back.)