An all-too-familiar flash of light made Twilight look up from her reading. Discord hovered before her, lion paw held out defensively, eagle talon behind his back. "Before you say anything, I didn't do it."
The unicorn rolled her eyes as she stood, floating her book back into its proper place in the Golden Oak’s shelves. "I don't even know what it is, but now I think you did."
"Your faith in me never ceases to amaze. But our interpersonal issues aren't the problem right now." Discord brought his talon into view, Scootaloo held in it. "This is."
Twilight tilted her head. The filly seemed rather grumpy about being held by Discord, but aside from that, she seemed fine. "What's wrong?"
"What's wrong? Can't you—" Discord cut himself off, his severed head doing a complete somersault before reattaching with a more thoughtful expression on it. "No, I suppose you can't. Pony eyes aren't nearly color sensitive enough to detect this sort of thing; that's why I designed the effect that way."
“What do you mean?” said Twilight as she narrowed her eyes.
“Somehow, through no fault of my own, this hyperactive hummingbird happened upon a bit of raw chaos magic. And wouldn’t you know it, it went and did to her what I did to you and your friends during our first little battle of wits.”
Twilight gasped. “You inverted her personality!?” Now that she thought about it, Scootaloo surely should’ve said something by this point, but she was still just sulking in Discord’s clutches.
Discord rolled his eyes. “No, some wandering scrap of chaos did. Probably blew out of the Everfree. Besides, if I had done it then…” His face twisted as he gritted his teeth.
“Then?”
Discord’s mouth was on top of his head by the time he brought himself to respond. “Then I’d be able to fix this myself.” He reached up with his free hand and readjusted his face. “I hate to admit any limitations, but without knowing precisely how that bit of wild magic did what it did, I could make the problem vastly worse.” He sighed. “So, go ahead, use whatever you did to undo it last time. It should work again.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “Is this all just a ploy to find out how I broke that spell?”
“Wha…” Discord’s mouth worked wordlessly for a few moments. “No! This is not a ploy, a ruse, a cunning stratagem, or anything other than me asking for your assistance as a friend. Is it really so hard to believe I might be concerned about the welfare of…” He snorted and shook his head. “No, no, not even I could finish that with a straight face. But Scootabout really does need help, and she's going to make me look bad until she gets it.”
“I don’t know…”
Discord threw his lion arm up into the air, where it split into confetti and began reassembling itself. “Oh, come on! What do I have to do to convince you that this is serious?”
Rainbow Dash opened the library’s door. “Hey Twi, did you get that copy of—”
“YOU!” A sound so throat-tearingly furious had no right coming out of a mouth so young, but it did. Scootaloo thrashed with all the energy she’d lacked until now, tearing herself out of Discord’s talons and pouncing on Dash before either could react.
Dash blinked. "Uh, hi, Scoots. Happy to see you—"
Scootaloo silenced her with a punch to the face. “You are the cause of all the world’s problems! You don’t care about anypony else! Constantly puffing yourself up, exploiting others, putting them in danger, belittling them, sabotaging them, everything! You’re why my parents are dead!”
Dash just stared at her for a time before saying “Your parents are fine. I just passed by them on my way here.”
“While planning to murder them! You—” Scootaloo’s rant became muffled by the magical muzzle now around her lips as Twilight floated her writhing body away from Dash.
The older pegasus got to her hooves, wavering a little until she shook her head. “So, aside from learning how Scoots has a decent right, somepony wanna tell me what’s going on?”
Twilight looked at the floor. “Chaos magic that wasn’t Discord’s fault, hard as that may be to believe.”
Discord crossed his arms. “With compliments like that, you should take up tennis.”
“In the meantime, I’m about to restore Scootaloo’s memories.”
Scootaloo managed to whip her neck fast enough to cry “History’s greatest monster!” before the muzzle caught up to her.
Discord leaned on Rainbow Dash’s withers and closed her jaw. “What do you say we agree she was talking about me?”
She nodded. “Yeah, let’s go with that.”
But of course. Scootalove shifted to Scootaloathing is a powerful force!
"Your parents are fine."
And now we know.
7196020 ...that works, too. Dang.
Cute short.
The title raises a question: Did Discord Discording a pony alter that pony's color identity, or just push their personality to the opposite end of those colors' philosophies?
7195524
Tartarus hath no fury like a fangirl scorned.
7196150
For this worldline, at least. I prefer working in ones with living Scootaparents.
7197624
I think it just shifts them in a more black-red direction: selfish, disruptive, and generally unpleasant. The pony's nature determines the details. Of course, we've only ever seen ponies with a strong white component to their personalities get the whammy. It's unclear how it would impact a naturally disharmonious target.
I'm filled with shame (and a little admiration). You beat me to Estee's prompt. Wonderful.
7307105
No one said that only the first person to use the prompt was the only one allowed to do so.
7198625
Well it inverts the pony's primary personality trait and causative philosophy, leaving all else as is.
A true-neutral target would become highly judgmental and opinionated and act on thoughtless impulse, with their preference for normality left intact.
An apathetic-neutral target would become an empath with a hyperthymic personality and put their whole effort into all available activity, with their sense of critical analysis left intact.
what
7332530
As stated in the author's note, Estee provided a prompt. I ran with it.
I was expecting things to suddenly get real when she blamed RD for her parents.
Then you trotted out one of the most hilarious jokes about Scootaloo's parents I've ever seen.
So, my muse demanded a response to this. Uh, enjoy?
I nervously knocked on the door's to Twilight's library. Spike had warned me that Twilight could be crabby when interrupted during an important project, and her current one had consumed her every waking moment for the past several months.
Twilight Sparkle was not a mare who responded well to failure, Rarity had said.
"Come in!" a harassed voice called from inside the library.
I reached out a hoof to turn the door knob, but stopped myself part-way. I was about to enter a new phase of my life, and relying on my hooves was a crutch I couldn't afford any longer. If I was to become the pony I wanted -- no, needed to be, then I had to start using my magic as naturally as I would my hooves.
I closed my eyes, grit my teeth and then lit up my horn. Reaching out with my ethereal senses, I located the door. Fumbling along half-blindly, I eventually found the knob, and was about to bring my telekinesis to bear on it when it suddenly twisted of its own accord, and the door was thrust open.
"Hello?" Twilight called. "Is somepony there? I'm really quite busy so please make this quick."
I sighed. I'd tried to take her first steps into a new world, and already I'd managed to stub my hoof crossing the threshold. I opened my eyes once more and saw the inside of the library for the first time in months. It was hardly recognizable: bookshelves lay half-empty while books were strewn here and there on the floor, parchment with smeared writing covered every available flat surface, and in the midst of all of the chaos lay Twilight Sparkle, eyes bloodshot and her mane in an impossible tangle. Her face lit up upon seeing me. "Excellent! Sweetie, you can be my assistant for the day! Spike's gone. He said something about not being able to watch me do this to myself any longer and left."
I swallowed the lump that was forming in my throat. Spike had been very upset. "I know, Twilight." I whispered. "I spoke with him and Rarity today--"
Twilight huffed. "Oh, Rarity" she said, rolling her eyes. "She doesn't understand how important this is. But you do, don't you, Sweetie? We have to save Scootaloo. We have to bring her back to who's she's supposed to be." She spun away from me and took a seat at a table, pouring over a huge book. "Now, can you find me 'Observations on Chaos?' It should be in the theoretical magic section, but Spike and I haven't had much time for refiling lately so I'm not sure where it is, really..."
I took a deep breath. "Twilight, that's not why I came here. Please, I need to ask you something."
Twilight looked up with an annoyed look. "Very well. What is it?"
"Twilight, I want you to teach me magic."
Twilight raised an eyebrow and cocked her head. "What, like in Twilight Time? Sweetie, you already have your Cutie Mark, so -- Oh! Do you think that doing Twilight Time again could help Scootaloo remember? I'll talk to her parents and then --"
"No, that's not what I meant." I couldn't let Twilight go off on any tangents or I'd never get anywhere. "I don't want anything like what Twilight Time was. I want you to teach me real magic. Like you do."
Twilight's eyes widened. "What? Sweetie, you never expressed any interest in the arcane arts before." She looked at my curiously, and for a moment I could see the old Twilight again. The one who had taught me little pieces of magic, but much more importantly, had taught me lessons in friendship. "Are you sure? I'd be honoured to teach you, but this isn't something that you pick up on a whim. This will mean a lot of serious work and study for you, especially because it's not related to your special talent. You can do this, but only if you really, really want to."
As a matter of fact, it was related to my special talent, but in this case I'm not sure that would give me any advantage in learning magic. I answered without hesitation. "I want this, Twilight. Trust me."
Her face lit up in a grin as she clopped her hooves together. "Wonderful! This will be so much fun; just you wait and see. I can't wait to start teaching you. As soon as I've brought Scootaloo back to normal, we'll get started." She paused, and then grinned slyly. "You know, if you help me with my research, then I'll be able to fix Scootaloo quicker and start teaching you earlier. It's win-win!"
I suppressed a groan. Of course Twilight would be stubborn. "No, Twilight. I want to start learning now. Please."
Twilight's mouth dropped open and she gaped at me for several moments. Finally she snapped herself out of it and said, "Sweetie! I can't believe that you'd suggest that! I'm sorry, and I know that you never would have expected me to say something like this, but this is far more important that your education. Scootaloo is suffering, Sweetie. Can't you see that?"
Tears stung my eyes, and I blinked them back. "I know, Twilight. I know better than you do, in fact." I turned back to face my own flank and pointed to my cutie mark. "My special talent is helping other ponies discover what their cutie mark means. I can tell when a pony isn't using their talent the way that it's supposed to be used." I turned a pair of haunted eyes back to Twilight. "It hurts me to look at Scootaloo now. Apple Bloom and I, we both feel an echo of what she's feeling. She's in pain, Twilight, because deep down she knows that she isn't living up to her talent, and that hurts her worse than anything. Don't try to tell me anything about how's Scootaloo's doing. You might be able to see her suffering, but only Apple Bloom and I have to feel it."
"But then why, Sweetie? Any time I spent you is time that I'm not spending helping Scootaloo. That's more time that she spends in pain. Why would you want that?"
"BECAUSE NOTHING THAT YOU'RE DOING IS HELPING!"
Twilight jerked back, and then learned forward again in anger. "So what, we just give up on her? We go on, live our lives, and forget about Scootaloo? Is that what the Cutie Mark Crusaders were all about?"
My anger was roaring in my eyes, but I took several shuddering breaths to cool it. For Scootaloo's sake, I had to make Twilight understand. "Twilight, when it first happened, Spike told Apple Bloom and me that if there was an answer, you'd find it in a few days. A week at most."
"Sweetie, I'm sorry that it took longer than expected, but--"
I spoke over top of her. "Spike was right."
That drew Twilight up short. She stared for a moment, and then said, "What? Sweetie, we didn't find anything in that first week." Her ears drooped and she looked down. "Truth be told, we haven't found much of anything since then, either."
"Exactly. Spike said that you'd find an answer if there was one to be found. But your spell didn't fail on Scootaloo because you didn't understand enough about chaos. It didn't fail because you weren't good enough with magic. The spell worked on your friends. You helped them find their memories and remember who they really were, because you had those same memories. But you didn't have those kinds of memories with Scootaloo. She was just a little filly that you taught a thing or two. There's nothing in any of these books that can teach you what you need to know to fix Scootaloo, because what you need to know is who Scootaloo was."
Now Twilight was the one with tears in her eyes. "Sweetie, please, I can't just give up on her. She's counting on me. Everypony is counting on me."
"I'm not giving up on her either. You're right. That's not what the Cutie Mark Crusaders were about. That's why I have to learn to cast magic like you do. I'm the only unicorn that knows Scootaloo well enough to bring her back, but I need your help. Please, Twilight. Teach me what I need to know to get her back."
7341653
I really do appreciate the expansion, but...
This takes place in late Season 3. You made it even more horrifying than you realize.
Really cool how you made the greying Watsonian, with being tied to the inability of ponies to see it, but Spike can, I think.
7342109
What is that place where we suggest commentfics go? There's this collection...
7777633
You're thinking of horizon's Never The Final Word collection.
Poor R D didn't deserve that. I love how Discord tried to lighten the blow for her though!