Prologue: The Sleeping and the Chaotic
Free days were always the best type of day. Then again, almost every day was a free for a certain Spirit of Chaos. It wasn't like Discord had a job of any kind, and he didn't need one if he was being honest with himself. His very existence was job enough, it was his calling, what he lived for; balancing out harmony with chaos, for one cannot be upheld without the other, like night and day.
So, yes, he did have a job, and he very much liked his job. Creating chaos whenever he wanted and spending his days as he saw fit. The draconequus couldn't do anything on the same scale as he once had because he was on the good side now, as Spike had put it, but he still spread his fair share of chaos nonetheless.
On some days, he'd do a little chocolate rainstorm here, a few cotton candy apple tree in Sweet Apple Acres there (much to Applejack's annoyance), and maybe a soapy trail or two just for laughs and giggles at the slipping ponies that passed by. He never used to keep track of the days, at least, not until he became friends with Fluttershy and the girls, along with having to keep track of his Wednesday tea dates with the Element of Kindness that he very much enjoyed.
And then, there were days like today, when he used his magic to travel through the multiverse, seeing the sights and maybe spreading a bit of chaos in a foreign world from time to time. And today was a treat with such a potential for disaster it gave him the shakes.
In an island nation called Japan on planet Earth, or what the chaos lord had dubbed 'Earth 8' after having visited so many versions of the world. Discord was floating in the air, quite lazily, watching two young Japanese teenagers as they ended their, not so perfect, lunch date. He had caused small bits of chaos here and there, changing the name of a street sign with another to get the boy lost, only for him to double back and find that he had been going the right way the whole time, resulting in him being a few minutes late, not that the girl was upset with him.
Then, there was the sudden gust of wind at just the right angle, exposing the young girl's underwear to her date, getting a good amount of embarrassment out of the both of them. At the couple's lunch, the chaos spirit mixed up their lunch orders with another table's, making it so that the girl got fish, something that she hated eating, and even the smell seemed to bother her greatly.
"I guess we could choose a different place to eat, next time," the blueish haired boy said.
The light brown haired girl shrugged, giving him a shy smile. "It wasn't your fault. The waiter just got the order wrong, its no big deal," she replied. "I'm having a good time, either way."
Now it was time to place the cherry on top of the chaos cake; Discord was by no means a destroyer of relationships, nor was he a home wrecker, sometimes in the literal sense (at least not anymore). But, there were times when love had to be tested to see if it were true, and who better to give that test than the bringer of chaos himself.
“They are going strong, no doubt about that,” Discord said, lowering himself closer to the teenage couple, almost directly over their heads. "But, for how long is the fun question."
Usually, most humans had a tendency to freakout when they saw him in his true form. Of course, there were the special cases where humans had seen so many strange creatures and things that his appearance didn't bother them in the slightest, some were even almost as chaotic as he was, and that was a big almost at that. In this universe, however, he didn't need to worry about being causing a panic; spirits like him couldn't be seen or heard by normal humans. They weren't even suppose to be able to effect the physical world, either. But, Discord was Discord, in other words, the rules didn't apply to him in the slightest. It was one of the perks of being the Lord of Chaos.
But, even the Lord of Chaos needed to be careful. The last thing the draconequus needed was to end up like his old, sorta, kinda but not really, friend, Shendu, with some powerful monk sealing him away in a scroll or turning him to stone, again. Though, I doubt it would work on me since the Elements only exist in Equestria. The trickster mused to himself. I'd rather not take my chances and find out.
A half hour later, the sun was just starting to set, and the teenage boy had walked the girl to the train station they had met up at early in the day. They stood off near of the main entrance as people walked past them on the street, entering and exiting the station. They didn't say anything for a few moments, just starring at each other.
Until the boy finally broke the silence.
“I had a nice time, today,” the boy said, meekly, his thumbs resting in the pockets of his blue jeans.
The girl smiled, a small blush on her cheeks. “I did, too,” she said. “Maybe, we could go out again, sometime.”
“Defiantly,” the boy said, smiling back. He moved to take a step forward, and the ever watchful draconequus took that as his cue; he snapped his talons and a good size banana peel appeared right under the boy's feet, causing him to stumble towards the girl. His hands shot out to grab something to stop his fall, and landed right on the girl's impressively sized chest.
The girl blushed heavily, too shocked to move and slowly looked from the boy's face to his hand. The boy gave her chest a few good squeezes, not able to help himself. The girl's hair suddenly shadowed her eyes. “You-.”
“S-sorry,” the boy let out, blushing.
“You pervert!”
The loud echo that rang out drawing eyes on the two as the girl slapped the boy. It was too much. Discord started chuckling at first, then burst into full laughter as a red hand print appeared on the boy's cheek, leaving the teenager speechless and wincing. The girl turned and marched towards the train station doors, and her date followed after her.
"I'm sorry!"
“Get away from me, Kei!”
“Miho-chan, I'm really, really, sorry!” They walked inside, taking the drama that Discord had created with them. The draconequus wiped a tear from his eye with a talon, catching his breath.
“That never gets old,” he said, grinning. He rolled up the fur on his lion pawed limb like a sleeve, looking at a wrist watch underneath. “I still have some time left,” Discord let his fur fall back over the watch and floated higher into the air, getting a good view of downtown Tokyo and the sunset. What to do, what to do? He mused. A light blob lit up over his head a moment later, then he took the light blob and ate it. “Ah, I know.”
Discord snapped his talons and a large bowl full of papers flashed into existence in front of him with the words 'Randomness Bowl' on it. He took hold on it under his arm, and dug his enter lion limb into the sea of yellow pieces of papers. “Now, lets see, give me something good,” he grabbed one of the papers with his finger and pulled it from the pile, letting the bowl flash away. He opened the paper and read aloud. “Explore space in a random universe,” he gave a thoughtful expression, then a grin spread across his face. “Well, exploring space never bored me before!”
The draconequus snapped his talons, and in a flash of white, he sat in a nice sized rocket ship, wearing a space suit and all. He flicked a few switches, set the CPS to random, and pressed the big, red button with 'lift off' written in bold white letters. “And we're off~!” The rocket disappeared in a flash, just as the sun set, giving way to night.
~ ~XxxxX~ ~
“Maybe, I was wrong to assume every version of space was fun.”
Discord continued on his route, which wasn't much of a route at all and more making random turns in different directions at random times. “There's nothing here; no space pirates, or giant mega weapons with obvious weak spots, there isn't even a space war going on,” he paused for a second. “Grated, I have had my fair share of those, quite the spectacle. But, still how is there nothing here?”
The only thing he could see was the empty void of space and the trillions upon trillions of white dots. He had passed by a planet not too long ago, though he wasn't really sure if he could call it a planet. A bit too small if you ask me, He thought. After traveling the void for a little while longer, the draconequus let out a huff. “Well, this was a disappointment. Guess I'll head back, have some tea with Fluttershy. I did say I would bring the cucumber sandwiches next time.”
As the spirit of chaos went to snap his talons, a loud beeping noise went off inside his ship. Discord glanced down and lowered his talon, starring closely at the radar on his ships panel; there was something there, something small, an object of some kind. The trickster had made it so his ship could pick up on any other ships within range. The small ship didn't seem to be moving very fast, it appeared to be drifting.
“Looks like someone has engine trouble,” Discord said, grinning. His interest was tickled, and so was his curiosity. He took the handle and flew his ship towards the drifting spacecraft, it didn't take him long to reach and the ship's tiny bright lights stood out among the cold darkness. Discord picked up a small radio, pressing the button on its side. “Hello, this is Discord speaking. Is anyone there, over.”
He waited for a few seconds, getting nothing but the sound of static. "This is the Lord of Chaos, do you read me, over?" More static. The draconequus gave a shrug. Guess, I'll take a look for myself. He appeared in front of the craft in a flash, floating around the object and taking in the details. Seems more like a pod. Not much of a ship, doubt it could fit more than one pony, unless its full of tiny aliens. He stopped near the crafts side and knocked on it with his gloved paw. “Very nicely made, too. Now lets have a look at the pilot.” Discord rubbed his paw against the steel in a circular motion, whipping away the gray color as if it were fog on glass, and peaked inside with one eye closed.
“Well, this is new,” the chaos spirit said as he eyed the occupant inside the small craft.
It was a human girl with long unkempt hair, strapped into a chair. She didn't have on any clothes like most humans he saw and appeared to be sleeping, hooked up to machines that ran along her back and were also attached to the back of her head. The computers around her lit up the tiny room around her, still at work with consistent text appearing on the screens and her body looked so thin it was as if she'd break at the slightest touch.
Discord lifted his head in thought, color returning to the metal. “Odd, very odd,” he muttered. The chaos spirit could say for a fact that there weren't any planets with intelligent life for light years; if there were close, he would have sensed them. With intelligence came civilization, and with civilization came chaos, something he would have felt, no matter how faint. So, that just begged the question. “Why are you out here?”
There were many ways Discord could find the answer. The girl was human, but he couldn't sense any other humans on any planets close by, though he couldn't help the nagging sensation that this galaxies planet count was off. The draconequus reached into his spacesuit pocket and pulled out a huge book titled 'Guide to the Solar System' the most recent edition down to the second with a record and history of each planet. He opened the book and flipped through the pages.
“Lets see, Pluto, I passed that tiny thing. Neptune, Uranus,” he let out a chuckle. “That name is a joke in itself. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus and Mercury,” he paused for a moment, tapping his gloved talon against his chin. “Something is defiantly off here, but what?”
He went back over the list of planets again, and a light bulb went off over his head. “Wait a minute, where's Earth?” He began flipping through the book. “Earth, Earth, it should be right ...ah, here it is. Earth: one of the closest planets to the sun, filled with life, yada, yada, yada, destroyed in planet collision. Oh ...well, that explains it,” he snapped the book shut and let it go floating into space. Discord turned to the small pod. “Now, what to do about you. Can't just let you drift out here forever, it'd be quite boring after a while. Then again, you are sleep.” The chaos spirit thought for a moment, then gave a shrug, “might as well meet the sleeping beauty myself. Entering dreams are more Luna's thing than mine, but when in Rome.”
He snapped his talons, and with a flash, he found himself traveling at high speed through a tunnel of darkness filled with number codes and pixel made pillars, heading straight for a bright light.