Discord was hovering over the Crystal Empire on a cotton candy cloud he was watching the crystal ponies. He was contemplating his plan. Should I make it rain chocolate, or should he turn all the animals to horrid versions of themselves, he thought to himself.
As he thought this he heard the honk of a horn. He looked over his shoulder to see his favorite little crazy pony. “Screwball!” he exclaimed “I was beginning to wonder when you would show up”.
Screwball looked at him and began “Well you didn’t tell me to come”. She said as she rolled her swirled eyes.
As far as Discord knew Screwball was a time traveler, he also knew she was raised in a time where he wasn’t in power, but he was still alive. He had always figured that she was born or conserved at or near the end of his first reign of Equestria. And she had been raised by her mother, whoever that was. He honestly didn’t know who the mother was, he had no clue.
Every time he saw Screwball she was always a different age than she was last time he saw her. She also didn’t age whenever she was with him. He learned that about her during his first reign, during his second reign she was slightly younger than before, that proved she aged. Now she was somewhere in between the two, she looked about twenty or so.
She looked down and asked “Dad what’s the plan?” she asked smiling.
Discord confessed her dilemma to her and then looked down at the ponies. She said “Why don’t you just turn the crystals into rock candy?”
Discord gave his daughter a hug and said “Brilliant, that’s just brilliant. Oh, why didn't I think of that?” he asked rhetorically. He snapped his fingers and all the crystals had become rock candy, no pony noticed. So he conjured up a huge storm of cotton candy clouds and wine. This made the rock candy sticky and the ponies finally noticed his prank.
Of course he had to reveal himself to do it but he didn't care for discrepancy.
Screwball looked at his eagle claw “Hay dad” she started hesitantly “What’s that in your hand?” she asked him.
“Oh this thing is nothing” he said and through it off the end of the cloud. He started to snap wildly causing various changes to the Crystal Empire. As he went to snap again he found his finger blocked by the half of the necklace he had thrown off the cloud.
“What the?” he asked quizzically. He looked at Screwball and said “did you put this back into my hand?” he asked her.
She shook her head “No I didn’t do anything”.
He arched an eyebrow “oh, really?” he asked her.
“I don’t know what to tell you dad, maybe the thing just likes you?” she said puzzled.
“I don’t like the sound of that.” He said this and threw it over his shoulder.
Then he began to move southward. Screwball asked him where he was going.
He replied “Well we need to spread chaos to the rest of Equestria, don’t we?” he asked assuredly.
Screwball looked at him and a gleam came in her eye “Well what are we waiting for?” she used her hoof to start spinning her propeller, and lifted off. She flew faster than anyone but Discord would have expected to be able to with that hat.
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Fluttershy was horrified at the lightning and rain; she was still hiding behind Discord. She knew he was weakened but she knew he would protect her. These thoughts raced through her head and she had a slight epiphany. She had a slight crush on Discord of all ponies, or at least his reformed half.
Princess Celestia looked at the good Discord and demanded that he remove the clouds around Canterlot.
To this he responded “I’m afraid I can’t do that”. He said as though he didn’t want to.
Fluttershy sighed, flew up, and whispered into his ear. Discords eyes went wide; he bowed deeply and apologized to her in earnest. As he came up he pulled his hands down to his side and Luna eyes went wide.
Luna finally noticed the half of the necklace and bellowed “You took good half of the necklace back from the knight”.
Discord lifted up his paw and saw that he was clenching the good half of necklace. He put it down and said “I don’t know how that got there”. He brought his paw up to scratch the back of his neck he felt the necklace in his paw. Shocked he threw the necklace across the room, it didn’t even get to the wall before returning his paw.
Luna simply shook her head “once the two pieces are separated the only way the separator can get rid of it is to bring it and their self back to one being.
Celestia looked at Luna “how do you know so much about this artifact?” she asked with a somewhat puzzled expression on her face. Well that was obvious to Luna but Fluttershy and Discord saw no discernible change.
“Before I became Nightmare Moon I took it upon myself to familiarize myself with most of the great magical artifacts I could find out about. This led me to hide various artifacts outside Equestria’s borders. At one point I thought that I could use these artifacts to overpower you when I came back from the moon.”
Discord’s mouth dropped “you actually had a contingency plan should you fail to take Equestria?” he asked in astonishment.
This brought Celestia’s attention back to him and she demanded “Discord I told you to get rid of these clouds of yours”.
“And I told you I can’t do that.” He replied.
Celestia got a cold hard look at him “I demand that you do this draconequus”
Luna interjected before Discord could reply “He was hit with a spell that inhibits his magic for about thirty minutes. And it’s only been twenty minutes.” She explained to her sister.
Celestia looked at Discord and apologized for her behavior. Then her face changed, again this was so subtle that only Luna noticed it, she asked him “Why does your other chaotic half have full power and your good half still impaired?”
“Because he is chaos incarnate and as you know, he doesn’t have to make any logical sense.”
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Discord was now clinging upside down to the bottom of a cloud with Screwball clinging right next to him. He always had fun when he was with Screwball; she always had the best ideas.
Screwball was thinking a mile a minute. We could make it so the pegisus ponies can’t stand on clouds, we could take away their wings, or we can change their wings into bug wings.
Discord looked at her and said “Good Idea”, he snapped his fingers and suddenly there were hundreds of ponies falling through the cloud. One landed on Discord and Discord turned the pegisus into a small pink butterfly.
At that Screwball realized it looked like one of the butterflies on an all too familiar cutie mark. She also realized that her dad had read her mind “you said you wouldn’t do that” she exclaimed at him in frustration.
“Did I, I have no recollection of ever saying that.” He said giving a shrug.
There was a shimmer in front of him as he saw his past self touching Screwball on the forehead with his index finger. The image of himself pulled his finger away and the image of Screwball shook her head, the image said “Dad please don’t do that again”
The Discord image said “Why it is much easier than talking”.
The Screwball image answered him “Because it is an invention of privacy and I am one to keep her privacy”
The Discord image said “Oh, fine” as he crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.
The Screwball image got the cutest eyes she could muster “Do you promise Daddy?” she asked and then quivered her lip.
Discord was putty in her hooves and the image said with a huff “Fine… I promise that I won’t read your mind Screwball”.
The real Discord rubbed the back of his neck “I guess I did promise that, well, I guess you will need to think out loud for now on” he said as he grinned. He then looked eastward “I hear Manehattan is nice this time of year, let’s change that”.
Screwball and Discord started to fly at top speed towards Manehattan; all the way there they caused chaos.
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The Good Discord’s powers had begun to return and he was frantically rushing around Canterlot trying to fix the problems that his worse half had caused. Apparently the bad discord had turned most of the birds around Canterlot into Chaos Elementals. That was something he hadn’t used those things since his first reign on Equestria. Not that he didn’t like those things but they took way too long to make.
Thought raced through Discord’s mind. How had his alternate self made Chaos Elementals so fast. It was one of the few things that he couldn’t just poof up. He had to weaken himself to make them as well and they didn’t last long. It didn’t make any since. He slapped himself in the face “I’m thinking with logic, oh Chaos what is wrong with me!” he shouted aloud.
He had shouted it loud enough that Fluttershy had heard it; she flew as fast as she could to him. When she found him, he was curled into the fetal position rocking back and forward “oh dear” Fluttershy exclaimed as she flew closer. “There, there” she said tenderly and went to stroke his mane.
The moment she touched him Discord grabbed her and hugged her crying out “Oh Fluttershy I am going mad! I just thought with logic! Logic!!” he was crying and he was terrified. “Even if I am the good Discord, I am still a draconequus, and we almost never think with logic.
“It’s ok…” she said before she was cut off.
“No it’s not! This is the forth worst thing that has ever happened to me!” he exclaimed with a note of fear in his voice.
“If this is only the forth worst thing that has ever happened to you than why are you scared?” she asked slightly confused and with absolutely no sympathy.
Discord got a suspicious look on his face “Fluttershy are you OK?” he asked her hesitating.
Her face was concerned “What do you mean” she said frowning, than she smiled “Now let’s get you back to the Palace”.
Discord was worried she had acted differently, could his worse half have affected her while he was holding her. He thought to himself.
She was leading him to the Palace, but he was thinking “Fluttershy I need to fix this”.
“You can help at the Palace” she insisted worried for her friend.
“No” he said “My worse half made Chaos Elementals, those are some of the worse things that I have the ability to make. I have to stop them!” he had exclaimed. And he stood a little taller.
“No, it was a mistake to let you out of the palace before you where ready” Fluttershy shouted uncharacteristically.
Discord blinked “Fluttershy I think my worse half has affected you.”
“What makes you think that?” she said smirking.
“Call it a hunch” he said as he snapped his talons and they were both at the Palace.
“Discord, you’re supposed to be fixing your mess” Princess Celestia bellowed having enough of him.
He ignored her comment “I’m afraid that my worse half has affected Fluttershy’s mind and I’m still too weak to fix her, you have to help” he cried out in desperation.
This caused Celestia to blink in disbelief, not in a million years would she have expected Discord to care for a pony so much. “Fine bring her here”. As discord carried a struggling Fluttershy up to Celestia asked him something “How do you suppose I would do this?”
Discord was so worried that he didn’t think of it, he stroked his beard “I got it, I’ll cast the spell at you, all you have to do is deflect it back at Fluttershy and amplify it at the process, it should be easy, probably.” He said as a purple ball of light appeared in his hand. “Ready?” he asked.
Celestia didn’t like this plan but she said “Ready”.
He threw the orb and it hit Celestia’s horn and stayed there for about a second as it changed color from purple to flame yellow and she shot it back at Fluttershy. It hit her and Fluttershy passed out. Discord got a panicked look on his face; it literally evaporated as Fluttershy yawned.
“What happened?” she asked as she saw she was in Discords arms.
“My worse half put a spell on you to make you nasty when he was petting you” Discord explained to her.
Celestia looked at Discord “Why do you think he did that?” she asked him.
Discord stroked his beard “Perhaps he wants to cause disharmony to the Elements of Harmony.”
Fluttershy interjected “But we don’t have those anymore”.
Celestia looked at her “You’re right so why would he do that?” said asked them both.
They both just shrugged and Discord said “Maybe he wanted to distract us”.
Celestia looked at him “I hope your right” she said solemnly. “Now get back out there and fix this mess of yours” she ordered.
Discord bowed awkwardly as he tried not to drop Fluttershy. Then still carrying Fluttershy he left the throne room.