//------------------------------//
// A Surprise Encounter 
// Story: The Witch, The Bug, And The Airhead 
// by Bucking Nonsense 
//------------------------------//

	Halfway to the doctor, the four ponies ran into one of the most famous, or perhaps it should be infamous, creatures to now live in Ponyville.
The embodiment of chaos, Discord, the bane of law and destroyer of order... was helping Fluttershy with putting up decorations for Nightmare Night.  Discord made Silhouette extremely uncomfortable: she'd been around to see some of the stuff that Discord had done.  It wasn't pretty.  The fact that he was semi-reformed didn't change the fact that he could cause mass chaos and destruction any time he chose, or ruin your life utterly if you even slightly annoyed him.  Silhouette had hoped that they could pass him by without incident.
This would not be the case.
Discord looked at the group as they were passing, then returned for a moment to what he was doing.  Then, abruptly, he turned back and stared, mouth open, at the group.  He abruptly teleported in front of them, and staring at the group with a look of curiosity upon his face, asked, "What in the wide, weird world of Equestria are you?"
Trouble, a scowl on her face, answered, "What, you've never seen a changeling before?"
Discord frowned, then snapped his fingers.  A zipper formed on Trouble's lip, then zipped her mouth shut.  "I've seen changelings before," Discord said, annoyance clear on his face, "and I wasn't talking to you, thank you very much.  I was talking to her," he finished, pointing at Heddy.  "What are you?"
Heddy, her slightly disturbing grin still on her face, exclaimed, "Hi!  I'm Heddy!  What's your name?"
Discord frowned slightly, then said, "I'm Discord, Master of Chaos and Embodiment of Disharmony, and I didn't ask who you are, I asked WHAT you are.  Now, tell me, what, exactly, are you?"
Silhouette, Trouble, and even Belfry were staring at Heddy in shock.  What could possibly be so interesting about Heddy that one of the most powerful and dangerous beings in Equestria would stop her in the street to question her...
Heddy's grin grew even wider as she said, in a tone that would have made Silhouette laugh in just about any other situation than this one, "I'm an airhead!"
Discord chuckled, a small smile forming on his face.  "Well," he said, "I won't argue with you there, but that's not all you are, is it?"  He moved closer to Heddy, lowering his face down to where he could look her in the eyes.  "Now, please, if you would be so kind, Heddy, could you tell me what you really are?"
It didn't seem possible, but Silhouette could swear that Heddy's grin was now so wide that it could touch her ears.  The earth pony giggled, then said something to Discord that made no sense whatsoever...
"I'm a figment of my own imagination!"
Discord stared at Heddy in shock, then, slowly, a smile bloomed on his face, and he began laughing, first in small chuckles, then in huge, booming guffaws, as if Heddy had just told him the funniest joke in the world.  "Wonderful!" he exclaimed, when he had a moment to catch his breath,  "Oh, my dear little pony, you're going to be trouble, aren't you?"
"Oh no, I'm not going to be Trouble," Heddy said, looking a little confused now, then, she pointed at Trouble, who was having difficulty in unzipping her mouth, and continued, "She's going to be Trouble," then pointed to herself, "I'm going to be Heddy," then pointed at Silhouette, "She's going to be Silhouette," and pointed at Discord, "And you're going to be Discord.  If we all start trying to be somepony else, things will start getting really confusing.  You're the only one that can be you, and if you can't be you, then who can you be?"
Discord chuckled, then said, "Well, I suppose I can't disagree with that.  I wouldn't even know how to start."  He snapped his fingers, removing the zipper from Trouble's mouth.  Discord looked thoughtful for a moment, then continued, saying, "If you've been around for as long as I have, you'll start thinking that you've seen it all, that there are no surprises left in the world.  Then, all of a sudden, you'll find out that there's something new under the sun, something that you never even imagined could exist.  I can't wait to see what sort of chaos you'll cause, little pony.  I'll be watching your progress with great interest.  But for now, I've promised my friend I'd help her with getting things ready for Nightmare Night, so I really must go.  Ta Ta For Now."  With that, Discord teleported back to where Fluttershy was hanging up decorations, and continued with his previous work as if nothing had happened.
Silhouette, her mouth now hanging open, was the first to break the silence that followed.  "What... was that all about?" she asked, barely even knowing where to begin describing all of what was wrong with what had just happened.
Heddy turned to look at Silhouette, her grin back to it's normal size, and yet somehow she seemed more terrifying than anything Silhouette had ever seen, something from out of the most terrible of nightmares.  Heddy asked, as though it were the most natural question in the world, "What was what about?"
Silhouette wanted to scream, to shout, to ask a thousand, thousand questions, to run and hide, but then abruptly, she realized something: whatever Heddy might be, she was still her friend, and even if she might not be as ordinary as Silhouette had previously thought she was, she was still the friendliest pony she had ever met.  Whatever Heddy might be, "Dangerous" did not figure anywhere in the equation (unless it involved over-enthusiastic hugging).
"Nevermind," Silhouette said, letting the subject drop, "We can talk things out later.  We were going to see the doctor.  Let's just get there so we can get Trouble looked after.  Okay?" she finished, looking at the other ponies.
Trouble and Belfry nodded agreement.  What had just happened was, quite honestly, too weird for any of them to wrap their heads around right now...