//------------------------------// // Day 5: Rainbow Dash // Story: Games // by CCC //------------------------------// Discord stood, patiently, waiting in the approximate centre of Ponyville. He made no effort to hide, not on this morning. He tossed a vaguely spherical object idly from claw to paw while he waited. “Hey! You're Discord, aren't you?” Discord looked down at the little orange pegasus filly who had addressed him. “Why, yes.” he said. “Yes, I am. And just who might you be?” “I'm Scootaloo!” said the filly. Instead of wandering off, to do whatever it was that fillies did, the little pegasus sat down and looked at Discord. Discord sighed. “Hello, Scootaloo.” he said, grumpily. “What's that you're holding?” asked Scootaloo, pointing at the object in Discord's paw. “What, this?” asked Discord holding it up. “I believe it's called a 'water balloon'. Even when, as now, what it's filled with is actually chocolate milk.” “A chocolate milk balloon?” asked Scootaloo. “Oooooh! What's it for?” “This.” said Discord, tossing the balloon up into the air, in an arc that should have led to it falling near his feet after mere moments. But before the chocolate milk balloon could complete its arc, there was a massive BOOM just behind Discord, and a rainbow contrail bursting from an expanding ring of multicoloured light tore through the air... hitting the balloon dead centre. There was a brief explosion of chocolate milk, and the contrail took on a decidedly brownish tinge. It looped around and came to a halt in front of Discord, revealing a rather irate pegasus mare. “An' jus' what was that for?” asked Rainbow Dash. “Oh, come now.” said Discord, grinning. “If you're going to be that predictable, then I might as well get a little fun out of it, don't you think?” Dash folded her forelegs and glared at the grinning Dragonequus, but she had some trouble preventing the corners of her mouth from going up. “Snrk.” she said, trying not to laugh. “Hey, Rainbow Dash, Rainbow Dash!” said the little filly, jumping up and down. “You said you were gonna show me today!” “Hey, Squirt!” said Dash, waving. . “Yeah, I kinda made two promises for today, one for you and the other was to give the big guy here a surprise. I really thought a close-range Sonic Rainboom would do it...” The little filly's face fell. “Hey, hey, hey.” said Dash, landing in front of the filly. “We're still gonna spend all day together, okay? It's just... I gotta try to think of some other way to surprise this guy, okay? So... until I can surprise him... it's kinda gonna haveta be you... and me... and Discord.” “Well... okay, I guess...” said Scootaloo, giving Discord a sidelong glance. For some reason, the dragonequus was holding up an umbrella, from the underside of which a brownish rain fell on his head. “Hey, kid.” said Discord, waving. “My name's Discord. Spirit of chaos and disharmony. I remember you.” “You do?” asked Scootaloo. “Yeah, you got into a fight with a couple of foals right next to me, when I was trapped in stone. Perfect disharmony, just what I needed to break out.” “Wait,” said Rainbow Dash, “you helped Discord to escape?” “It...” Scootaloo looked like she was about to burst into tears. “We didn't mean to!” “Kid.” said Dash, firmly. “Hey, kid. I know you didn't mean to, okay? I mean, even Princess Celestia thought that there was no way Discord could get out of there, right? So there was no way, and I mean no way, you could've known.” “Oh, please.” said Discord. “I mean, could you imagine a sappier scene?” Dash, one comforting hoof on Scootaloo's shoulder, gave Discord a glare. Discord rolled his eyes. “It's not like you lot were the only source of disharmony around.” he said. “I'd've been free in a week, two at the outside, with or without you. Now. We're burning daylight, and you are both being very predictable.” He snapped his umbrella closed, and hid it behind his back, where it promptly vanished. “Should we go and try something surprising, or would you prefer me to carry on pushing your buttons?” Dash's eyes narrowed. “Oh,” he said, “I think I know exactly what to do.” * * * “Well, that was an impressive series of tricks.” admitted Discord. “Super-speed strut,” said Scootaloo, “filly flash, buccaneer's barrel roll, another sonic rainboom...” “...followed by fifteen minutes of uninterrupted gliding in circles.” grumbled Discord. Scootaloo nodding, glancing at her notebook. “Cotton candy cloudherding,” she continued, “a speedy skywriting swipe, and a cumulonimbus climb!” “Followed by no less than twenty minutes of gliding in circles.” groused Discord. “And, honestly? Not one bit of it was in the least surprising.” Dash dropped the short distance to the ground. “Well...” she said, “it's getting late and I'm kinda out of ideas. You got any ideas, squirt?” Scootaloo considered the question, tapping her pencil on her notebook. After brief consideration, she dropped the pencil, turned suddenly on Discord, and yelled “BLAAAAAARGH!” Discord sighed. “Seen that one.” he said. Scootaloo shrugged. “I got nothin'.” she said. Dash sighed. “Yeah, well... tomorrow it's Twi's turn.” she said. “I'm sure she can do this...”