Writer's Training Grounds Entries

by Yukito

Prompt #5 - Discord Helps (Discord, Yukito) [Random, Total Disregard for the Fourth Wall]

Yukito sat at his computer pondering what to write, staring at the prompt that was given to him for this week’s training ground. It should have been easy; he was free to write literally anything that came to his mind, the only requirement was that he make Discord the star. So why was his mind drawing a complete blank?

“Writer’s block?” Discord asked as he coiled around Yukito’s neck, tapping a talon to his chin.

“Yeah,” Yukito sighed as he climbed out of his chair and stretched his arms. “I’ve got nothing. Any ideas?”

“Well, how about an epic journey to the ends of the world to find Discord’s birthplace?”

“It’s only supposed to be a short story. I’d rather keep it short and simple.”

Discord hummed. “Well then, how about something funny? Like I’m the host of a ridiculous game show with sibling participants. That way, you can cameo the Flim Flam brothers.”

“What kind of game show would it be, though?” Yukito asked, jotting the idea down onto his computer as he sat back down.

“How about a ‘Know Thy Sibling’ game show? You could have many categories where Flim and Flam do wonderfully, whilst Twilight and what’s-his-face keep losing!”

“And now for the shipping round!” Discord announced as he grabbed a hold of a rope that had appeared to his side. “I will reveal two ponies! The older sibling will tell us whether or not they think the younger sibling ships them!”

Pulling the rope down, a curtain parted to reveal Rarity and Applejack standing side-by-side. Flam flipped his board to reveal the word ‘ships’ on the other side, and Flim followed suit moments later. They were showered with confetti and cheer.

Shining Armor did the same thing, but Twilight Sparkle, however, revealed that her own board read ‘doesn’t ship’.

“You what?!” Shining shouted, throwing his board to the ground. “Apple Blossom and Diamond Whatever you ship, but these two you don’t?!”

“She’s clearly got the hots for Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted, pointing a hoof towards Applejack.

“Perhaps you didn’t notice the pun Applejack made on Rarity’s name in the Crystal Empire?!”

“Perhaps you didn’t notice your head up your own butt?!”

“How’s that?” Yukito asked as he stopped his typing to review what he had written.

“Well, it’s something, at least. But did you have to bring shipping into it?”

Yukito shrugged. “It’s just what comes to my mind when I don’t have a solid idea.”

“Then how about a mushy romance between Discord and one of the ponies in the show?”

“I dunno. I’m not in a very mushy mood right now.” Suddenly, a thought crossed Yukito’s mind. “How about… a tragic romance?”

“Ooh, sounds interesting! Do go on.”

“Well, suppose you were in love with somepony, like say, Fluttershy… which is why you got reformed in the first place-”

“Is that really so believable, though?” Discord asked. “Besides, that might cause some sparks from the community who just want me and Fluttershy to remain friends.”

“But you need to have a love interest for this to work.”

“Might I suggest Twilight Sparkle? After all, that might explain why I seemed so jealous of her relationship with Cadance in the last episode.”

Yukito thought about it for a second. A smile crossed his face as he typed away on his keyboard, allowing the story to take shape on his monitor. “Okay, Twilight Sparkle. But she’s in love with Cadance, and you see that in her. But of course Twilight can’t date Cadance ‘cause she’s already married.”

“You’re making this a little too complex for just a ‘short story’. I was thinking that Twilight was just already in a relationship, or at least would refuse to date me because I’m simply not her type.”

“That’s not really tragic, though,” Yukito muttered. “What could I do to make it tragic, yet keep it short?”

“… How about, despite seeming to be feeling fine on the outside, when I’m alone I do something drastic.” Yukito gasped and Discord shot him a grin. “An idea?”

“Maybe. Just bear with me here…”

“Discord, I’m sorry, but you and I can never be together.”

Discord grinned as he coiled himself around young Twilight Sparkle. “How do you know if you never try? Surely you must be at least a little curious as to-”

Twilight wouldn’t let Discord finish that thought before she used her magic to repel the beast and turned away. “No, Discord. I mean it. There can never be anything towards us. I still haven’t forgiven you for the way you turned my friends against me, and above all else… we’re just too different for this to work.”

Discord watched as Twilight walked away, his grin never leaving his face as laughter slowly worked its way up his throat. “Oh that’s priceless! You actually thought that I was serious? I’m Discord! Chaos doesn’t know what ‘love’ is!” His cries fell on deaf ears, as Twilight Sparkle had already teleported far away from him.

After realising this, Discord’s laughter halted, and he clenched his talon together as his fist shook. “Not even a chance, huh?” Discord sighed. “I should have seen that coming. Still, never hurts to ask… especially when she won’t even remember anything in the first place.”

Discord fell back onto the soft couch that was suddenly behind him. “Come morning, it will be like I never said a word.”

“Okay, bad idea,” Discord said suddenly as his face turned green and his cheeks puffed out. “I mean, A for effort and all, but just… no.”

Yukito sighed. “Well, it was just a thought… Maybe romance isn’t the way to go for this prompt.”

“I think you’re taking a prompt about me far too seriously,” Discord told him, snapping his fingers to make a milkshake materialise on Yukito’s desk. “Why don’t you just try something silly and nonsensical? Something that doesn’t make sense but is still fun to read?”

“Oh! Like Iron Will and Discord fighting for Fluttershy’s love, only to realise that they really love each other! … Nah, I did that already.”

“And I’ll thank you never to bring that up again.” Discord shivered. “Now, I’ll read some random words from the dictionary and you try to write a story centred around me from them.”

“Ready!”

“First word: ‘vitality’.”

Discord zipped across the skies on two banana skis at full speed. He had to reach Fluttershy’s cottage before he did. He had a message that was of the upmost vitality, and the more time that passed the greater danger she and the rest of Ponyville would be in!

“Interesting premise,” Discord said. “Let’s see what you can do with this next word: ‘innocently’.”

Discord couldn’t believe it. He was too late. The accursed Angel Bunny had already beaten him to Fluttershy’s cottage, and was innocently sitting at her side, acting just like his namesake! The worst part of his little act was that Fluttershy was buying it. Discord had to do something, but his powers were limited thanks to that tricky little rabbit…

“Is Angel a bunny or a rabbit?” Discord asked.

“What’s the difference between them, anyway?” Yukito asked back, to which Discord shrugged. “Well, whatever. Next word.”

“Right, right. The next word is ‘advancive’.”

Fluttershy could only watch in horror as Discord advanced on poor Angel Bunny frightened in the corner, his talon rising up into the air and ready to swoop down on his prey.

“This is really coming along,” Yukito said with a firm nod. “I think that one more word should do it.”

“And so it shall be!” Discord announced as he sat in his holy throne with a beam of light shining down onto him from the heavens. “Your final word shall be: ‘clincher’.”

Discord looked down at the frightened bunny beneath him. What had he done? What was he doing? All this because of a little prank? A little jealousy? This wasn’t how the draconequus usually acted, so why now?

Discord looked up to see Fluttershy staring at him with tears in her eyes, her face distorted with fear. That was the clincher. He lowered his claws and let the bunny go, using his magic to teleport and make himself scarce.

“Eh, I would’ve preferred it if I won,” Discord said, folding his arms and admiring what was on the screen. “Still, it’s certainly looking like you’re onto something here.”

“Maybe I should work in a few references and memes. People love those.” Discord bopped Yukito on the head with his fist. “O-Or maybe just stick to what I have here.”

“Why don’t you go and take a break? I’ll put all this together for you and send it off to Equestria Daily.”

Yukito gave Discord a surprised look. “Really? Well, if you’re offering. Just make sure to take out all our notes from earlier.”

“Relaaaaaax. Just leave it all to me.” With a shrug, Yukito rose from his chair and moved over to his Playstation 3. Meanwhile, Discord turned to the screen with a grin and grabbed a hold on the mouse. “Select all, copy and paste to fimfiction.net, fill out an application form, aaaaaand… done! My greatest masterpiece yet!”

Discord snapped his talons and vanished in a puff of smoke. A moment later, Yukito blinked and wondered what he was doing on his bed with a controller in his hand playing Minecraft. “Uh, what am I doing? I was supposed to be writing an entry for that prompt!”

Quickly, Yukito jumped from his bed and checked his computer screen… only to find the confirmation message that had told him that his entry had been successfully submitted. “I… already wrote one? Huh. I must be more awesome than I thought.”

With a shrug, Yukito turned around and returned to his game, blissfully unaware of the help he had received from the other side, or the creepy grin that had formed itself on his monitor accompanied by a sinister laugh.

Author's Note:

So the first part of this story is based on a trueish event (minus the Discord helping me part). I was struggling so hard to decide what to write for this, and for a while my mind was set on a game show of some kind that involved sibling participants. I considered the scenario I actually wrote here, as well as a few others, including the CMC and their sisters with DT and Twilight, sisters by mutual love of tiaras.

I then considered if there was something better I could write, and imagined if Discord had suddenly popped out the screen to help me, random as he is... and then I started to write this.

Check out the other submissions by various authours here: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2014/01/writers-training-grounds-005-threes_31.html

Comments

[djthomp]

“Perhaps you didn’t notice your head up your own butt?!”

Always a winning argument.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

*Snort* Okay, that was damned clever and meta in a good way.

[Kiryu]

3854168
Damn, you beat me to the punch
That line was truly magnificent