Breaking Habits

by Gosky3

Taking the Discord out of Discord

It was strange. Ever since Discord was reformed and discovered the magic of friendship, he’d never been happier. Having a friend was something that he’d never thought of during all those years of ruling Equestria under his chaotic fist. But once he had one, he never wanted to let her go. Fluttershy was Discord’s one and only friend, and he’d turn the world upside-down for her - quite literally, actually. He’d also frozen over Ponyville when she claimed that it was too hot; he stripped everypony of their mouths once, when she said it was too loud; not to mention the time he put actual fleas in the flea market (that one was just for fun, the name was asking for it).

Between all those…."inconveniences," including the seeds, faking the blue flu, joining Tirek, bringing the Smooze to the Gala, yada, yada, yada, his track record wasn’t that great. Fluttershy had convinced him that they were just mistakes, and that everypony makes them - that’s what makes them ponies. The only thing was that Discord wasn’t a pony. He was a draconequus. The Lord of Chaos. And no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t change that. He was quite literally created for the sole purpose of making chaos, and defying his one function was near impossible. It was like training a wheel not to roll.

Discord moaned and groaned as he twisted and turned trying to get comfortable in his Thinking Tree. It’d seemed to have lost its touch somehow over the past few months. Now it was more like his Brooding Tree, where he contemplated all the mistakes he’d made in his life and his very existence in the universe. After a while he gave up trying to get comfy and just hung on a branch like a wet piece of clothing waiting to dry, and sighed.

It was as if there was a side of him that he couldn’t hold back. The side that he once thought he wanted to be, that he was for 1000 years: the evil-er chaos-driven tyrant of Equestria. And then there was a side that he had only just discovered: the softer, kinder, pony-loving side of him that he decided he wanted to be. But he couldn’t be it. Because that evil tyrant lived inside him somewhere. He groaned in agitation. If only he could…rip that side out of him and be rid of it for good.

A toaster teleported into reality. With a “ding," a lit lightbulb popped out of it. “Of course!” Discord beamed. “If I can’t control myself, then I’ll just take the discord out of Discord!” One snap later, and he was in a laboratory.

Now bearing a white lab coat, large goofy glasses and a clipboard, Discord got to work. He started mixing random chemicals together of various colors, creating some sort of strange liquid. He jot things down on his clipboard (though they mostly included nonsensical squiggles and drawings of Fluttershy). He used electricity to fry the liquid, and sent the mix through several odd-looking machines. Finally, he looked at the data printing from one piece of machinery and examined it with great care, squinting through his glasses. After some time, he added a gem to his liquid concoction, and it turned a sickly green color. He smiled. “Perfect.” Lifting it up carefully with chopsticks, he brought it to his face.

Then, he took a bite out of it, glass and all. The remaining liquid stayed put in the broken glass despite gravity's best efforts as Discord chewed and crunched. Upon swallowing, he grimaced. “Meh,” he said before opening his palm and letting the drink fly upwards. As it crashed on the ceiling, he made his science-y clothes disappear. “Now regarding the ‘take the discord out of Discord’ thing…”

Another snap brought him to his library, which needless to say, was an absolute mess to anypony who wasn’t chaos-oriented. Bookshelves spiraled over, sideways and under as they stretched all around the vortex of disorderly knowledge. Some books weren’t even on shelves and merely floated around aimlessly. Clearly there was no logical order to where the books were located, yet by some means Discord knew exactly where to look.

“Hmm...I know it’s somewhere next to Tequila Mockingbird and Moby Duck,” he pondered as he started going through each book, tossing the ones that he didn’t want aside. Only a few moments later, he found what he was looking for. “Here we are…” The book had a big, scary skull on the cover with eyes that glowed upon being touched, plainly indicating that it should most definitely be opened. Discord brushed the cover of shiny leather, turning it dusty rather than the other way around. He then proceeded to flip through the old pages, which read of different chaos-related spells. Every once and a while, the book’s pictures would come to life, or the page numbers would change, or the words would become that of a different language. However, none of these alterations even made an impression on Discord, as he was completely used to a whole dimension of random inconveniences.

Eventually, his finger landed on a specific spell, and a grin formed on his face. “So old even I couldn’t remember it. Now…” He over-exaggerated several stretches that didn’t seem physically possible as he prepared his talon for the big moment. Then at last, he snapped...and then nothing. Irritatedly, Discord shook his claw and tried again - SNAP! - still nothing happened. After several more attempts, he gave in and sighed. “I have to do it the old-fashioned way, don’t I?” The book spat out its tongue and blew a raspberry at him. Reluctantly, he cleared his throat and read from the still-shifting page:

“Two ends of the Earth, two halves of one whole. Like black and white, up and down, north and south poles. Two sides of one coin, two parts of one form - shall now separate and be once again born.” Discord finished with a scowl on his face. If there was one thing he hated more than anything, it was chanting spells. Especially ones that rhymed. He then waited for a few moments…yet nothing happened (again). “Oh come on! I taint my tongue with that piece of obnoxiousness and nothing?” He pouted and crossed his arms.

Out of nowhere, an eight-pointed star appeared under Discord’s feet. Before he could react accordingly, the star glowed red and started spinning furiously, creating a vortex that entrapped him and rendered him immobile. For once he was actually feeling scared, and questioned whether he’d truly thought this over. Suddenly there was a sharp pain that shot throughout his body, earning a shout out of him as he closed his eyes. There was a flash of black and red, and his body dropped to the ground.

---

It was a while before Discord came to. Once he did, a pounding headache made its way into his head. Trying to ignore it, he slowly got up and looked around. He was still in his mess of a library. It was a wonder how he’d never seen it before: Each book was of a loud and horrendous color; all the shifting bookshelves and flying books and random pops and cracks and splashes were just plain annoying; and the shelves going every which way only made his headache worse. He didn’t even have a clue how his “system” of sorting books worked anymore. When he moved to grab the book he recalled using a moment ago, he realized it was gone. Probably lost in all this chaos.

“Wait a minute…” Something wasn’t right. He was Discord. Lord and Spirit of Chaos. Chaos. The word itself had lost its touch somehow. It made him think of everything that wasn’t good in the world, of disorder and disorganization, and everything that he'd loved just minutes ago, but for some reason didn’t now.

The memories of his previous actions started coming back to him one by one. His ordeal with Fluttershy, sitting in his Thinking Tree, coming to the library…. After a while, he put together that he’d cast a spell upon himself to remove his chaotic magic. And if that was true...then it must have worked, even better than he'd hoped! Not only could he feel the lack of chaos magic, but the thought of chaos was making him nauseous. Being in this very room was unsettling to him now. Even the word “harmony,” which used to made him shudder uncontrollably, was starting to sound like gold.

In excitement, Discord flew up into the air and excitedly admired his disgust toward everything in the room. Why was there a tree growing out of a fish’s mouth? How did a bus get into a library? Who’s idea was it to make the shelves out of cheddar? For once the puns each book’s title held made him roll his eyes instead of roll on the floor in laughter. Each and every tiny little gag and joke he put into this place only worsened his unease. He finally got why ponies were always so afraid of him and hated him and why they were so anti-chaos - look at this catastrophe! To think this was his home!

At last, everything he wanted to be and had tried so hard to be for Fluttershy only to fail, he could now be! Considering how happy and proud his best friend would be, when he didn’t send her house to the moon or turn the forest trees’ leaves into cotton candy, made him ecstatic. He had to see her at once and show off the new and improved Discord.

Without hesitation he snapped away, before he could even notice the looming darkness that was forming where the star had been earlier.

Author's Note:

I feel like this needs more work, but I've read it over and over again all day and it's starting to get annoying, so I'll just post it. XD

I also feel like this sort of rushes into things, but I've always been one for getting the plot rolling as soon as possible. And besides, there's much more where there this comes from!

And finally, thanks for all the positive feedback so far! 9 likes?! Lots of favorites?! I somehow feel like I have a group of people staring over my shoulder, and if I don't make this story good there'll be pitchforks and torches! Heh, heh heh....

Comments

[Spiritofchaos227]

Rest in RIP Discord, Pun master and chaos extraordinaire... You shall be missed.

I am still LOVING this story man! Keep up the good work! *jazz hands*

[alarajrogers]

Oh, Discord. This kind of stunt never ends well.

[Bluegrass Brooke]

Nice job! Bit of an excessive use of exclamation marks, but man, you did a great job with this chapter. I'm really enjoying your storytelling, even if the pace is much faster than I'm used to. If you'd like a proof-reader, I'd be happy to take a look for you.