‘I am really sorry, Pinkie,’ Discord said.
The pink pony shrugged. ‘Yeah, I know. You’ve apologized like a billion times already.’
‘But it wasn’t MY fault, I mean…’
Pinkie turned around. ‘So it wasn’t you, who made the lanterns turn into birds?’
‘Daddy, Daddy!’ Screwball yelled. ‘Daddy, what’s wrong?’
Discord sighed.
‘There’s nothing,’ Pinkie said. She turned back to Discord. ‘You. You should go out and find Rainbow Dash. I need her help.’
‘That’s all I have to do?’ the draconequus asked.
Pinkie nodded. ‘Tell her that I want her to come over here.’
Discord frowned, spread his wings and took off.
He flew all the way to the edge of the town, where he found the rainbow-pony lying on a small cloud-hammock. ‘She stole my idea,’ he muttered. He landed next to the pony.
‘Ahum,’ he said. ‘Excuse me?’
Rainbow Dash opened her eyes and lifted her sunglasses. ‘What?’
‘Your friend Pinkie Pie sent me to tell that she needs your help,’ Discord continued. ‘She is at the Sugar Cube Corner.’
Dash rolled her eyes. ‘Jeez, I brought all the invitations ‘round already. I’m tired!’
Discord didn’t dare to tell her about what he heard from the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
‘Why are you staring at me?’ Dash asked.
‘Hm? Oh… I am terribly sorry. I was just thinking…’
Dash didn’t let him finish his sentence. ‘Yeah, whatever,’ she said, and she got up. ‘Thanks for forwarding the message, freak.’ Dash opened her wings and in a flash, she was gone.
‘Freak…’ Discord whispered. ‘Why, thank you.’
He saw the hammock and decided to try it. It was a bit too small, but pretty comfortable. ‘Hm, not bad, not bad at all.’ Before he knew it, he fell asleep.
‘Ah, Dash, there you are. Right on time to help me with putting on these garlands.’ Pinkie pointed at the roof. ‘Since Discord broke my lanterns, I have to use garlands and Christmas lights instead.’
‘Leave it to the Dash,’ the other pony replied.
Pinkie handed Dash the garlands. ‘Thank you so much. By the way, have you seen Discord?’
‘The last time I saw him, we were at the edge of Ponyville. I think he’s still over there. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s trying my hammock,’ Dash said, and she smiled. ‘He’s a weirdo, you’re aware of that, right?’
‘Who is a weirdo?’ Screwball yelled. ‘Who? Who?’
Before Dash could tell her what she thought about Screwball’s father, Pinkie put a hoof on her mouth. ‘Nopony is a weirdo, okay? Just… just go play with your beautiful balloon.’
‘Hm,’ Screwball said, and walked away.
‘Listen,’ Pinkie continued. ‘That little filly is the daughter of Discord.’
‘It’s no filly!’ Dash yelled. ‘She’s a bucking adult pony!’
‘Nononononono,’ Pinkie said. ‘She may look like an adult, but in her head she’s just like… she is like Derpy, okay?’
Dash looked over her shoulder at the purple pony, who seemed not to care about the things around her. ‘She is?’
‘Hm-m. She’s born out of Discord and chaos, that’s why she is… who she is,’ Pinkie said. ‘She can’t help it.’
‘Right, I get it,’ Dash replied. She looked back at the roof. ‘I don’t mind Screwball living in this town, I just don’t really like her… father.’
Pinkie shrugged. ‘Oh, it’s alright. Everypony is free to have his own opinion here. But just don’t criticize him while Screwball is around, okay?’
‘Fine. Now where do you want me to put these garlands?’
Two hours later, Discord woke up. ‘What year is it..?’ he muttered. Suddenly, he realized that he fell asleep while he should help Pinkie with her party.
‘Buck!’ he yelled, as he fell out of the hammock. He crawled up and spread his wings. ‘Let’s go…’
Only a few minutes later, he landed next to Screwball, who was still playing with her balloon.
‘Daddy!’ she cried, as she saw Discord.
Discord embraced his daughter. ‘Hello, my dear.’
‘Ah. There he is.’
The draconequus turned around to see Pinkie. She looked pissed off and Discord could understand.
‘Well, well. Were you lost?’ Pinkie said. ‘Looking for Rainbow Dash took you quite long, hm?’
Discord looked at his feet. ‘I am sorry again, Pinkie. It’s just… I fell asleep in that terribly comfortable hammock of Rainbow Dash…’
‘It’s awesome, right?’ Dash said. ‘I can sleep there all day!’
Discord nodded, but before he could answer her, Pinkie said: ‘Listen, you are of no help at this party. We’re done planning and all you did was breaking my lanterns! Maybe it’s just better to… well, just go home and play baseball with your daughter. She seems to like it.’
‘B… but I…’
Pinkie squeezed her eyes. ‘Just go, okay? I don’t think we can use any of your chaos here at the moment.’
‘Daddy was just trying to help,’ a soft voice whispered from behind. Discord turned around.
‘It’s okay, Screwball. It…’ Discord didn’t know what to say. ‘It’s alright.’
‘No, it’s not!’ Screwball yelled. ‘Auntie Pinkie, Daddy was just trying to help. It’s not that he creates chaos, he IS chaos. And you can change someone’s behavior, but you can’t change who he is.’
With those words, she turned back to her balloon.
For a few seconds, the three stood in a circle, looking at each other and not knowing what to say. Pinkie was astonished by Screwball’s bright moment, even Discord looked pretty surprised.
‘Derpy, eh?’ Dash said. ‘Well, I’m done here. Gimme a call when you need me!’ She walked away.
‘What… what did your daughter just say?’ Pinkie stuttered. ‘I…’
‘What did your daughter just say?’ Discord mimicked. ‘Well, I am sure you weren’t aware of the fact that she is quite smart, right?’
Pinkie didn’t say anything…