The town of Ponyville was soon getting ready for nightmare night. Scootaloo herself, however, was in Discord's dimension looking through a book with her friends. "What is that thing?" Sweetie Belle asked. On the page was a strange looking being.
"Oh, Dad says it's photos from him traveling to other dimensions from when he started to learn how to use his powers, that's how he met his cousins, actually. I wanted to show you all this so we could get ideas for costumes for the Nightmare Night Contest, scariest costume gets a prize!" Scoots said, holding up the poster.
"Alright, but what should we go as?" Apple Bloom asked as she flipped through a photo album. "Ah mean, there's a ton of freaky things to choose from here. Uhh, no offense," she finished as she turned to Discord.
"None taken, my family and I are well aware that we can be strange looking to most."
Sweetie Belle was oblivious to what was going on and pointed to a labeled picture. "How about a shoggoth? That's pretty scary and as big as it is we could make that a group costume."
Scootaloo looked at the photo and her muzzle scrunched up. "Ehh, it's not bad, but it's a little too slimy for me."
"Then what about a Mi-Go?" Sweetie asked as she pointed to another picture on the same page. "That isn't slimy and it even has wings."
Apple Bloom looked at it and tapped her chin with a hoof. "It seems like a start, but it feels like we're missin' sumthin'. Do ya girls think we could add sumthin' to make it scarier?"
"I don't know, what makes things scary in the first place?" Sweetie asked, tapping her own chin in thought.
"It's mostly because of the fact they are otherworldly like my dimension, it hurts the minds and is born of your primal thoughts and nightmares," Discord answered. At that moment, a magic letter formed, covered in a familiar golden magic. "Now what is this?" Discord opened the paper and read the letter out loud. "Dear Discord, come see me now I wish to talk to you, signed Celestia." Discord didn't say the curses though. Celestia might have found out about his adoption of a young filly. "Well I'm off, remember don't go outside until I get back." Discord was gone in a flash.
Sweetie Belle turned a few pages then I idea hit her. "Hey Scoots, remember that room?" Sweetie asked.
"Which one?" Scoots asked.
"The one with all the magical objects."
Discord appeared in a flash in Celestia's study. The solar demi-goddess was glaring at the chaos god. "So, Tia, why you mad?" Celestia rolled her eyes at him.
"Well, why don't you tell me why you think I'm mad at you," Celestia stated flatly.
"Is it because I replaced all the water in Manehattan with fruit punch after a pizza I ordered from there arrived in 31 minutes when I was promised it would be delivered in 30?" Discord asked.
"No," she replied as she started to grind her teeth.
"Is it because I set all the animals in the Baltimare zoo free because they didn't have a platypus enclosure?"
"No," Celestia said as the grinding of her teeth became audible from where Discord was floating.
"Is it because I spraypainted..."
"Discord!" Celestia shouted, not wanting to hear anything else from the chaotic entity. "I sent that letter because I heard you had adopted a young filly by the name of Scootaloo."
"Really?" Discord asked. "Then can you please just forget those other things I told you?"
"Not on your life." Celestia glared. She was wondering who set those animals out and the complaints from Manehattan got so out of hand, now she knew who to blame... well she already suspected Discord but he just confessed the the crimes.
"I don't see what the big deal is, Tia," Discord commented.
Celestia couldn't believe him. She knew about some of the things Discord kept over the years. Not only that she knew Discord might not be best suited for this. "Discord, I want to know why you even did this?" Celestia demanded.
"Well... it was for some personal reasons," Discord said as he turned his head away from her.
"Personal reasons, I'm going to need more than that."
"Could you please not ask any more? This isn't something that I'm very comfortable with discussing."
"Discord, I need to know that my subject is safe in your care. If I don't think I can trust you with her, I might just rescind the legality of your guardianship," Celestia stated calmly.
"You can't!" Discord shouted as he turned back towards Celestia.
"I won't if you tell me your reason for adopting her."
"Fine," Discord huffed, "I adopted Scootaloo because I happened to run into her while she was getting bullied. And as soon as I heard the insults that were thrown at her, she reminded me of myself. I'm an orphan myself so I know what it's like. I suppose a part of me couldn't stand the thought of someone else growing up the same way I did."
Celestia closed her eyes. Unknown to Discord, Celestia and Luna never knew their parents. In fact, Star Swirl predicted they might not even have parents. The thought itself rarely entered into their heads. However, they at least had a pseudo-family. Discord didn't develop one until after he had gained control of his powers and became an adult god. "Discord, promise me you will do your best, and please don't let her get into too much trouble. The last thing we need is one of your cousins coming to Equestria." Celestia had heard Discord once list some of his extradimensional cousins. Seems Discord was tame compared to them.
"I'll do my best, but Scootaloo and her friends are a real handful. They actually have me trying to prevent chaos from happening due to their schemes. I'm at a loss as to what to do with her," Discord said as he slumped over.
Celestia chuckled a bit at that. "If you think it's bad now, just wait until she hits puberty and she starts dating."
"Oh, I'm already prepared for that. I'll just sit everypony she dates down and remind them that I can turn them into a balloon animal if they even think about doing anything unseemly to my daughter."
"That seems a bit extreme."
"Oh please, I bet you threatened to send Shining Armor to the moon when he and Cadance started dating. Celestia couldn't argue with him there. Shining still flinched when they were alone together.
"Anyway, I'd best be going now. My daughter and her friends are back in my home and despite all the safeguards I keep on my things, I have to make sure they haven't created a miniature black hole or something. Ta-ta for now, Tia." And with that, Discord created a door in the middle of the room and walked through it.
Meanwhile, the three fillies were in the room with relics from Discord's family. "I can't believe we are taking one of these," Scootaloo said with a bit of fear. These were objects from Discord's relatives though Chaos. She knew about a few of them to be sure.
"Do you even know which ones come from who?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Only a few, those four on the self are from I think Tzeentch, Slaanesh, Nurgle, and Khorne... I think that's what they are called, they are four siblings Discord said shouldn't under any circumstances be met without him there, he says they fight with each other most of the time," she said. Pointing at the boxes, she continued, "That's from Cthulhu, Slender and Sheogorath, he has tea with them sometimes and they're more friendly." Next she indicated an advanced piece of technology sitting on a pedestal. "That's from Q." Scootaloo said.
"Q?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"Yes, that's his name. He's the least weird looking out of all of Discord's relatives, but he still looks pretty weird. He lives in this universe where these things called humans and a bunch of aliens travel through space in a spaceship. Q basically messes with this crew that travels on a ship called the Enterprise... or something, I only really paid attention to the parts of the story that included lasers. And the weirdest part is that he sounds exactly like Discord."
"Really, do they know why?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Maybe, when I asked him Discord just laughed and messed up my mane," Scootaloo admitted with a shrug. "I think it's best we just chalk this up to chaos magic or else we'll be confused for a while. Now, back to the costume ideas, if we win this contest we might get our cutie marks!"
"And what kind of cutie mark would ya get fer winnin' a costume contest?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Anyway," Sweetie Belle said, ignoring Apple Bloom. "Scootaloo, do you think there's anything here that could help us with our costume problem?"
Before she could answer a voice rang out. "Scootaloo I'm back, you and your friends haven't set off a chain reaction that is slowly dooming Equestria, have you?" Discord said. He looked around the home. "I have dinner and some of that Zebra pie you like." When he noticed the three weren't where he left them, Discord screamed. The three fillies started to panic.
Scootaloo pulled out her bag. (It was actually a pocket dimension Discord made for her.) "Here, me and Apple Bloom will hold Discord off, put one in here," she said. As they ran off Sweetie wondered which to get, and with a flash of her horn she hoped she made a good decision. Discord saw the two fillies as he opened the door to the attic which lead to this hallway.
"Girls, what were you doing up here, and where's Sweetie Belle?" Discord asked.
"Oh, I was just showing them some of the stuff you got from your family members, that's all. We thought that if we saw some stuff that represented them we might get some ideas for a costume." Scootaloo answered with a nervous smile.
"Okay, but where is Sweetie Belle, she isn't touching anything up here, is she?"
"No way, dad! She's just sketching out an idea she had and doesn't want us to see it 'til it's done."
"Alright well, when she is done bring her down and we'll have dinner. Oh, and I might have to do some community service for a while after those stunts I pulled in Manehattan and Baltimare so I may not be able to pick you up from school for a while. Here's a key to the house just in case." Discord said as he pulled a key out of thin air.
"And make sure you wash your hooves before coming to eat," he said as he turned and floated away.
Sweetie Belle walked out with the bag in her mouth. "We'll be sure to win this year," she said as she set it down. The three did a dance of happiness. From the room, an axe was missing. Sweetie Belle went for the scariest object there. Unknown to the unicorn filly, written on it was the name Khorne.
As Nightmare Night came around for Ponyville, the three fillies were getting their costume finished up and ready. "I hear Princess Luna is going to be judging as well as Princess Twilight, it's going to be hard to make something to scare them," two other fillies said.
Scootaloo turned to Sweetie Belle. "Wait till they see ours, they'll be scared for sure."
In the palace, Discord was looking over his list of community service. "Here Tia, all the things should now be finished, now I must get going as Scoots is going to compete in the contest and I don't..." Discord's eyes glowed as wisps of chaos magic escaped him. "Oh no... no no no!" It was Discord's chaos senses, the power that allowed him to know another chaos entity was coming. "Tia we have to get to Ponyville! Now!"
"What is it?!" Celestia shouted, wondering what could worry even Discord.
"Scootaloo and her friends must've taken something that belongs to one of my relatives for their Nightmare Night costume. I'm sensing a huge spike in chaos magic coming from the town. I just hope that it's one of my nicer relatives, like Sheogorath. If he's in a good mood the worst we'd have to worry about is a few allergic reactions from lactose intolerant ponies due to raining cheese."
"And what if it's not a nicer relative?"
"That's why we have to hurry," Discord answered as he snapped his talons and the two disappeared in a flash of light.
Upon arriving in Ponyville, Discord looked up at the vortex forming above them. "What's going on, Discord? Discord...." Celestia saw Discord looking at the fillies, the object they had was floating up and he recognized it.
"Oh, Chaos no! Not him!" With a snap Discord got everyone back as the vortex exploded and a wave of chaos energy gave way.
Standing there was... well he looked like a demon given form. He was mad, really, really mad. "WHO TOOK MY AXE! I WILL CUT OFF YOUR HEAD AND ADD IT TO MY THRONE!" Celestia was afraid of this thing, and seeing how its outfit was leathery and bone armor she knew it wasn't kidding.
"Discord, who is that?" Celestia asked.
"My psychopathic cousin, Khorne the... Blood God."
"Oh, of course he's the blood god," Celestia huffed as her eye twitched erratically. "Because I was scared for a second that he'd be the puppies and hugs god. But if he's just the blood god then we don't even need to interfere here."
"Now is not the time for a sarcastic mental breakdown, Tia," Discord admonished.
"Alright then, is there anything I should know about Khorne?"
"He's a being born of violence and hatred that will murder something as soon as look at it."
"Do you think you can keep him from hurting anypony and send him back to his own world?"
"I can certainly try," Discord said as he carefully floated over to Khorne.
"Hey Khorne," Discord started. The Blood God swang his axe at Discord whose head floated off his body so he wouldn't be cut open, and then it reattached itself. Khore blinked then slightly let his glare go.
"DISCORD? WHAT IS GOING ON! I WAS JUST ABOUT TO BEAT SLAANESH UP FOR TAKING MY FAVORITE SWORD! NOW I'M IN A BRIGHTLY COLORED LAND, TALK NOW COUSIN!" Discord rolled his eyes.
"Khorne listen, this is my universe, and as for why, well, my daughter Scootaloo and her friends went behind my backs and took your axe."
Applejack, Rarity and the Princesses turned to the CMC. "Girls, what were you thinking?" Rarity asked.
"We were thinking that we would be able to win the costume contest," Sweetie Belle answered as her ears flattened against her head.
"I'm sorry, I thought that you'd have to do some special chant or something to summon something. I really thought that it would just be a cool piece of a costume," Scootaloo said with a look that mirrored Sweetie's.
"Girls, you've done some very irresponsible things in the past, but this is most certainly the worst. When this is all over the three of you are going to be in some serious trouble," Rarity scolded them. The three fillies trembled a bit as they continued to watch Discord and Khorne talk.
After Discord had managed to calm down Khorne, well not so much 'calm him down', Khorne realized something Discord had said. "WAIT... A DAUGHTER? YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER... WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?" he half asked, half demanded.
"Four weeks ago now. Can you please not tell Tzeentch about this? Knowing him he would either let it slip to the others or worse try to make a stupid plan about it... well, a hundred stupid plans." Discord answered. Discord summoned up his powers and with a mighty rip into the space-time continuum he opened up a portal to the plane Khorne and his siblings called home. "Here, you should land in Slaanesh's place, sorry about the misunderstanding," Discord said to his cousin.
"YOU'RE LUCKY I'M IN A GOOD MOOD, NOW THEN TELL MY NIECE NOT TO DO THAT AGAIN!" Khorne passed through the rift and the axe fell. Discord picked it up and glared at the three fillies.
"Scootaloo, I'm very disappointed in you. Not only did you take something from me when I've told you about how dangerous some of my things are, but you lied about it. I trusted you and this is how you repay that trust?" Discord asked as he hovered just above the fillies.
Scootaloo's eyes were welling up with tears and her lip was trembling. "I'm really sorry Dad! I just wanted to win the contest."
Discord let out a little sigh at her response. "This is very serious Scootaloo, something like this could have you removed from my care." Scootaloo's eyes widened in panic and shock at that.
"What?! But I love living with you! Why would somepony punish you for something I did?"
"Because I left you in a room full of dangerous things. Now, hopefully we won't be separated, but until we know for sure you're going to be facing some punishment. Starting with having no friends over until I know I can trust you again."