Five days after the Running Of The Leaves, and the weather in the land of the talking ponies decided to go full apeshit.
"Jesus." I stated with a shiver, swiftly kicking the door close behind me in order to not give the cold from outside any chance to get inside my warm, cozy home. I dropped the three logs of wood I was carrying to the floor on my side and then rubbed my hands together to somehow get some of that sweet warmth back into them, though that proved out to be a slow process. "What is wrong with this world?"
"That cold, huh?" Scootaloo, who was reclining on the couch in the center of the room, in front of the fireplace, asked before going back to slurping some of that hot cocoa I made her prior before I went outside, into the dark, to get some wooden fuel to heat our home - another thing that was different than back at my home. Instead of just having to turn on the heater and wait a few minutes for the room to heat up, we had to do it the old way. There was no oil-fired heating, just the old way of using the fireplace.
I took off the well-padded black jacket and the white, red-dotted scarf and threw the two things over the coathook to my right, but not before giving both of them a quick shake to rid it off any snow they may have caught. Both of these I had gotten from Rarity just two days after the Running Of The Leaves. Rainbow was to blame for the fact that she even made those two things for me in the first place, mainly because she quickly got fed up with my constant weeping about how cold it was getting outside. So she flew over to Rarity, asked her if she was up for the task and then, just one day after Rainbow told her, appeared on my doorstep with the two pieces of clothing in her magical grasp.
How she was able to craft these two things in just a day was beyond me. But, in the end, I was really glad that she was able to do it so quickly, or else I probably would've frozen to death.
"Nah, I'm just acting like it." I said sarcastically once I finally stood back in my t-shirt, picking up the three logs from the floor again before moving over to the fireplace that stood on the wall in front of the couch. I threw the three logs in, once after another, and with that done, then dusted off my hands, before continuing being sarcastic, "It's actually really hot outside."
Scootaloo looked at me with a small frown before taking another long sip from her hot cocoa, smacking her lips. "You know, I told you that I could get those logs from outside."
I sighed heavily, walking over to the couch before plopping myself down beside her. "Nah, it's okay." I ruffled her mane lovingly, giving her a small peck on the forehead. "Don't want you to get cold."
She swatted my arm away from her head with a pout, trying to seem annoyed though failing miserably at that. She just managed to look even more adorable. "Don't do that, dad!"
"You know you love it." I answered with a smirk, leaning back into the comfortable, incredibly soft couch as my body finally started to warm up. I closed my eyes, heaving another heavy sigh, though that one was one of comfort. I heard a short clattering sound, probably Scootaloo putting her empty mug on the tea table in front of us before I felt something light climbing onto my lap. Opening one eye, I peered down to see Scootaloo shuffling around, her tongue sticking out of her mouth a little as she tried her best to find a comfortable spot on my lap. After a few more tries, she seemed like she found the perfect spot, curling herself up like a cat.
With a small smile, I closed my eye again and leaned myself even further back into the couch, sinking in just a little.
"You're cold." She stated, snuggling a little deeper into my lap as if trying to warm me up with her body. I opened one eye and peered down at her again, seeing her with another frown on her face, though there was a hint of concern in her eyes. "Why didn't you let me get the logs?"
"Because it's cold outside." I explained curtly, moving on hand up to her head, lightly scratching her behind her right ear. She immediately leaned herself into my hand, a low purring sound emitting from her throat, almost like that of a cat. "Don't want you to freeze."
"I don't it's that cold at all." She answered determinedly as if she was trying to convince me to not go outside again. That she was so worried about me freezing to death was cute, but I didn't really feel that bad. Especially because I was only outside for like two or three minutes. "Just lemme get the next few logs, 'kay?"
"You think you can do that?" I asked, to which she quickly nodded. Thinking over her words for a moment, I shrugged once I realized that she was kind of right with what she said. She did have fur (what a surprise, right?) which definitely gave her an advantage when it came to the cold that was reigning outside of our cozy home. "Alright then, you're going to get the next load of logs. Congratulations, I guess."
I heard her utter a quiet 'yay' before we lapsed into a comfortable silence. My mind lapsed back to what happened the last five days, but realized that nothing worth even thinking about happened. After spending the rest of the Running Of The Leaves at Fluttershy's cottage because she insisted on me to rest a little, she walked me and Scootaloo back home to ensure that nothing happened to me on the way there. The next four days were nothing special. The most noteworthy thing that happened probably was Scootaloo having to go to school again, since her school holidays ended, which kinda changed my daily routine a little (not that I had one in the first place), since she insisted on me walking her to school every morning. I may have thought, prior to that day, that she didn't even need to go to school anymore. I mean, so many things didn't make any sense in the world of those talking ponies, why couldn't that have been a possibility?
But, besides that, nothing happened. The days passed calmly and without a hitch, which unnerved me quite a bit. There was something bound to happen and knowing my luck, it wasn't going to be good.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
Three rapid, strong knocks pulled me out of my mind, bringing me back to Equestria at once.
"Who that?" Scootaloo asked groggily, sounding like she was just woken up.
With one quick glance down at Scootaloo, and another at the door where the sound came from, silently contemplating whether to get up or not, I gave a heavy sigh, carefully picked the orange filly up and sat her down beside me on the couch. I didn’t expect anyone, but judging by the sound of the knocking, it might be either an emergency or Pinkie Pie - and I really hoped it was the former.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK
"Alright alright, I'm coming." I called loudly, standing up from the couch and walking over to the door. I put one of my hands on the door handle, pushing it downwards before pulling the door open. "Jesus fucking chri-"
"Hey there."
At once, time seemed to slow down as I looked deep into those unnerving yellow and red eyes, connected to the wickedly grinning goat face of a certain individual I had completely forgotten about. I reeled back in surprise, just barely preventing myself from falling onto my ass, my eyes growing back as I began to stutter at the large, snake-like figure. “D-discord? W-w-what are you doing here?”
“Good to see you too, William!” He casually pushed me aside, strolling into my home without my invitation, slamming the door close behind him. With a flick of his claws, he produced himself a plain brown coat and a wooly hat, just to magic them over to the coathook and hang them on there. With that done, he ventured further into the room, stopping just momentarily in his steps when he spotted Scootaloo lying on the couch.
Caught off guard by his action, I just stood there dumbly, letting him roam around my living room. “Nice home you got there, if I may say so. Nice and cozy.” He then pointed a finger at the couch, or, to be more precise, on its occupant who was still appearing to be sleeping peacefully. "And your daughter is really adorable, if I may say so."
He looked at me for a few more long seconds before snapping his claws once to teleport himself once again, this time in front of the fireplace. With another snap of his claws, he was suddenly reclining on a rather small brown couch, in his hands a mug with some kind of steaming liquid. "So, how have you been?"
I cleared my throat, trying to suppress my confusion about what was happening. "Uh, good, I guess. And you...?"
"Oh, you know how it is. Just doing important chaos stuff that I can not really talk about." He said with a lazy wave of his clawed hand, taking a sip from his mug. "Would spoil the fun, wouldn't it?"
He took another sip from his mug, smacking his lips at the taste. "Oh, how much I love hot cocoa. Perfect for this time of the year, don't you agree? Actually, now that I think about it, what do you think of the weather? I heard that the weather poni-"
Once he started with his casual chatter about weather and that, I zoned out, seizing the opportunity to think about why he was there. There was a reason, I knew it, but I couldn't find out what it was, even though I oh-so-desperately tried to figure it out. I played over how I had met in my first week, but all that came to mind were either crazy ponies or...crazy ponies.
But then, I remembered that I had curtly met him before. Back on my first day working for Applejack. He was there in the orchard as I rested in the shadows. He was there to hear what option I chose. Whether to have that portal back to Earth, or not.
"-Wouldn't you agree?" He asked me, managing to pull me out of my thoughts at once. Not really knowing what he had talked about, I chose to just nod my head, which he seemed more than content with. "I knew you thought the same about the princesses! They really can be a royal pain in the arse..." He giggled like a little girl. "Hehe, you know, because they are royalty. Get it?"
I didn't answer, instead just looking at him blankly. Now that I knew the reason, there was another problem. I had completely forgotten about his offer.
"Ah, the face of realization." He said, snapping me out of my stupor by suddenly appearing in front of me, his eyes locked onto mine as a small smirk grew on his face. "Splendid! Now we can finally get to the real deal. Good thing too, because I wouldn't want to do another one of those mindless ramblings. I can't even remember what I talked about."
His face got serious as he inched a little closer to me, his eyes seeming to look right into my very being. "So, I really hope you thought over your choice, because I'm giving you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
I stayed silent for what must've been an eternity, too transfixed by those crazy, scary eyes of his, before I finally managed to stutter out two words, "I-I...uh..."
He raised an inquisitive eyebrow upon seeing the probably really stupid, helpless look on my face. Putting two and two together, he sighed. "You haven't thought about my offer, have you?"
Him realizing it made it a lot easier for me to admit it. "Uhm, not exactly, no..." I answered, rubbing the back of my head nervously. "I kinda...forgot about it..."
He sighed again, snapping his claws again and making the couch he was reclining on vanish to god-knows-where, as he did with the mug of cocoa a second later. "What?" Another snap, and he was once again, standing in front of me, appearing to be really annoyed, though he stayed silent, waiting for me to answer his question.
"Uh...I'm sorry?" I offered helplessly, not to sure what to say. "There was so much happening that I, like I said, kinda forgot about that."
"Forgot, huh?" He released a small, somehow dark chuckle, slowly shaking his head in what appeared to be disappointment. He looked off to the side, whispering something that sounded like, "You are just like the others, forgetting about good ol' Discord..."
For a moment, he was unnervingly silent, like he was having some kind of mental struggle. It almost seemed like he was sad about something and I had a good guess on why that was. In that moment, I felt bad for him. I had an idea on how sad he was feeling because I experienced the pain of no one caring about you myself. Back on Earth, after my daughter and wife died, I felt the same way. No one ever looked after me. It was almost like no one really wanted to have something to do with me anymore after they were gone, not even the few friends I had, so I was all by myself, trying to somehow cope with what happened. In some way, I was able to relate to him.
My shook my head, trying to clear get my mind away from the past. In an attempt to somehow lift his mood, I asked him, "Do you need your answer, like, right now?"
He rolled his eyes. "Of course I do, you silly little human." He punctuated his statement with a flick of his claws, teleporting himself even closer to me and quickly booping me on the nose. "Today's the only day for me to do it alone, without the princesses knowing. Today at midnight is the only time our two dimensions line perfectly up, which only happens once every three-thousand years. That makes the spell we need a lot less complicated and physically demanding."
I started at the clawed hand that was still hovering for a few moments, wondering how exactly in front of me, before it got picked up by Discord. "But haven't you created a portal back to my dimension just one week ago?"
"Yes, that I did, but only temporarily and, even though I don't like to admit it, with the combined help of Celestia and Luna. Creating a portal between two dimensions, even if just temporary, needs a lot of magic, as you can probably imagine. The only way to perform such a spell is to split it up between several strong beings. If anyone was to try it alone, even me or the princesses, it would most likely make their bodies explode." He held out his hands to me, showing me a small miniature version of Princess Celestia and one of Princess Luna. At first, nothing was happening, but then the two figures started inflating, reaching the form of a balloon in no more than five seconds, but not stopping there. They grew bigger and bigger, until, suddenly, they exploded with a loud pop, followed by a large amount of confetti raining down onto Discord's open paw. I actually winced at the display, the images in my head being a little bit more graphical than that. "Yeah, something like that, minus the confetti. I probably shouldn't have taken the confetti figures with me today..."
"Okay, I get it, but why do you need my help? You seem awfully eager to create that portal, but why do you need me?" I asked suspiciously, finally asking him the question that was really stopping me from accepting his offer. "Surely you don't need me to create that portal, do you?"
"No, I actually don't need you to create that portal." He answered with a wink, taking off to the air with a strong flap of his two unalike wings. "I need your help to find your dimension."
I raised an eyebrow. "Explain."
"You see, creating a portal is one thing. The spell itself might need enough magical capacity that it could kill one single being, regardless of how strong it might be, but besides of that, is pretty easy to perform. Plus, once a cluster of dimensions aligns themselves, the spell doesn't need that much magic anyways. The hard part about interdimensional traveling is finding the right dimension." He lectured me, creating a small chalkboard in his hands with a flick of his claws, though nothing but zeros and ones were on it. With an annoyed look down at the chalkboard, he flicked his claws again and the chalkboard vanished, muttering something about it not being the right one. "And that's where you come into play. I need something from you, something that's more than just a hair, to find the right dimension."
I looked at him critically for a few long, very awkward seconds. "You're not getting my legs. Or my arms. Or anything else that's attached to my body and can't regrow."
He chuckled at that. "Haha, I can assure you, I will not do such thing as detach one of your limbs."
I sighed in relief.
"...At least not yet."
If it wasn't for the grin he was spotting, I probably would've freaked out. That dark tone of his sent shivers down my spine.
"Alright..." I regarded him with a suspicious look before saying, "If all of that that really is true, which I kinda doubt, just lemme think."
From the outside, it appeared like I was thinking, idly scratching under my chin and starting to walk back and forth, thought all of that was just an act. I already made up my mind.
I had troubles believing what he said, even though I was not really that into that whole interdimensional traveling-thing like he or Twilight was. It was just that what he said seemed a little...strange. Dimensions aligning? And today, the most normal out of all days I could imagine? Yeah, I wasn't buying that, especially not from the ex-God of Chaos. But, from what I heard, not only was he the Equestria's former God of Chaos once, but he was also pretty damn good at pranking. Even Rainbow admitted once that he was goddamn good, and that's saying something.
So, to be honest, I didn't trust him one bit. Not even close to that. I was sure that I saw through whatever mean prank he had planned, so I chose to better just say no and leave it at that. I mean, even if he wasn't trying to prank me, which was highly unlikely, there really was no reason for me to accept his offer anyways. I had everything I needed and even more in Equestria, except for maybe meat and all of that electrical stuff, though I already had a solution in mind for the former problem.
Once I was sure that enough time had passed that he wouldn't get suspicious, I stopped pacing back and forth and turned back to look at him.
"So?" He asked, a smirk on his face. "Have you decided?"
"Y'know... I don't think I need that portal." I started with a small smile, motioning around me with my arms. "I have a home here, a daughter, friends, everything I need. Why would I need to go back to the one place I don't ever want to see again? To that one place that slowly starts to fall apart? To my race that slowly destroys itself and their only home? I don't want to see that happening."
I mentally patted myself on the back for those cheesy lines. 'Smooth.'
"Plus, having a portal is just too much of a risk. Just imagine some pony randomly stumbling across it or worse, a human. Nothing good would come out of it if that would happen, I can assure you."
'Jeez brain, I'm proud of you!'
His left eye twitched once, making me raise an eyebrow in confusion but otherwise, thought nothing of it.
"So, I'm sorry, but I see no sense in even setting even one foot back on Earth." I finished with a steely resolve, ignoring whatever was happening to his body.
Another twitch of his left eye, though this time a lot harder and longer. For a few long and awkward moments, he stayed silent, not even moving on muscle expect for his now rapidly twitching eye. I was actually starting to get a little nervous, so I carefully moved my hand up and poked him on the shoulder, if one could even call it one, which seemed to have the effect on him I wanted it to have.
"Alright." He muttered, turning around and walking to the door. He flicked his claws and magicked his coat and the woolen hat that he hang on the coathook earlier on himself. "Fine, if you don't want to accept, that is your choice."
"I'm really sorry, Disc-"
"No no, it is fine, I understand." He cut me off, though his tone suggested that what he said wasn't entirely true. It felt like he was containing his anger. "I'll just be off then. Have a good evening, William."
With one last glance back at me, coupled by a huff, he opened the door and strolled outside, slamming the door shut behind him as he left my house, leaving me standing there, totally dumbfounded. As I continued to stare at the door, I asked myself if I had just made a mistake. Unfortunately, my fears were confirmed a second later when I started hearing is muffled curses through the door.
He sounded angry, really angry. I just had to hope that that wasn't a bad thing for me.
I looked at the ceiling as if it could somehow give me answers to what would happen to me, but quickly remembered that ceilings don't really talk that much. With a heavy sigh that expressed my current frustrations, I turned around and was confronted by something I totally forgot about: Scootaloo.
And she was looking right at me, a dead serious expression on her face.
"Oh! H-hi S-scoots." I stuttered, dearly hoping that she wasn't awake for too long and heard what Discord and I had talked about. I gulped down the nervousness before I spoke up again. "I didn't want to wake you..."
"S'okay, you didn't wake me." She said in a voice barely above a whisper. For a second, I was about to sigh in relief, bu then she opened her mouth again, crushing my hopes. "Discord did, though."
"Oh." I gulped heavily. "How long have you been awake?"
"Dad, why haven't you told me that Discord wants something from you?" She questioned, choosing to ignore my question and instead ask me her own one. What made my heart almost sink into my stomach was the tone of her voice. She sounded angry, disappointed and, between that, hurt. The reason for that showed itself in her next question, as she looked down to her hooves. "Don't you trust me?"
"Of course I trust you!" I quickly answered, almost jumping over to her as she refused to look me in the eyes. With another long, drawn-out sigh, mainly to calm myself, I then kneeled myself in front of the couch and said, "Scoots, look at me."
Relucantly, she did as I asked, her violet eyes slowly meeting mine, but what I saw almost broke my heart. She looked like she was about to cry, her eyes glistening dimly in the light of the fireplace. She must've firmly believed that, only because I didn't tell her about that whole Discord thing, I didn't trust her - which wasn't not even close to being the truth.
Without even thinking, I leaned over the armrest and picked her small form up, cradling her up in my arms before standing up. She yelped and wiggled weakly in my arms, probably trying to free herself, but I was having none of that. Once she realized that she was effectively trapped in my arms, she slowly looked up into my face, a single tear rolling down her face. I reached down with one hand, wiping away the tear and then leaned in to give her a small kiss on the forehead. She almost instantly stopped struggling.
"You're being silly." I said with a small smile. "Why shouldn't I trust you?"
"You didn't tell me..." She pointed out, a small frown back on her face.
"Well, yeah." I said, shrugging a little. "But only because Discord explicitly told me not to tell anyone. I didn't know him at the time he talked to me, and all I knew was that he was some crazy thing with insane powers that once ruled this planet."
"But he isn't anymore." She said, cocking her head to the side a little.
"You're probably right." I agreed, booping her nose to which she immediately went cross-eyed in an attempt to see what just happened. "Doesn't mean that he isn't dangerous, you know?"
I gave her another peck on the forehead, to which she lightly punched my shoulder with a hoof and released a giggle. With a small chuckle, I took a step closer to the couch and then threw her on it. I promptly followed her by throwing myself on the couch, sending her flying up a few centimeters into the air as I hit the surface before she suddenly plummeted back down.
"Scootaloo, I really do love you." I said seriously, interrupting her giggling with my dead-serious and totally true statement. "Don't you ever think otherwise."
Instead of voicing her answer, she nodded her head and stood up on all four hooves, walking the short distance over to me just to climb up onto my lap and curl herself up once again. "I love you too, Dad...".
With a small smile, I closed my eyes and leaned myself back into the couch again, trying to get my mind off of what happened.