There is no piece of machinery, biological or mechanical, more complex and fragile than a living conscious brain. Whether by physical ailment, or mental trauma, an intelligent mind can be easily and permanently damaged, in great or subtle ways. We, as civilized people, do what we can for those who suffer such a disability, but sometimes there is so very little that we can do.
A doctor walked down the hallway towards the mental health wing of the hospital. He was normally a rather neutral personality, treating his patients as they deserved to be treated as his patients regardless of who they are, but this walk always caused such complicated emotions within him. Outwardly, he smiled, though, inside he was a sad stallion. The ponies in this part of the hospital were ill, but he, nor anyone he was aware of, could help them.
Only a few ponies stayed permanently in this post of the hospital. A retired soldier with dementia who thought that he was in a military base. A brain damaged stallion who now behaved like a less evolved cave pony. There were two ponies a bit younger than the doctor who were simply ‘special’ and needed to be cared for.
A fairly routine job, those ponies, the doctor thought to himself. In truth, there was only one official case of mental illness in one of his patients that truly troubled him. He continued down the hall towards her room.
Screw Loose, the cerulean coated mare who was currently chasing her tail around in circles, was a much more unique case. Her condition had started out similarly to schizophrenia, but had progressed into something else, something that they could not explain or understand. No treatment worked, and each new treatment only seemed to trigger a spontaneous progression of the symptoms.
They had given up. As a medical doctor, he had been tasked with providing care for a patient that he could do nothing for. Simply put, it was depressing; made even more so by the presence of the mare’s daughter who so often looked him in the eye and asked if he had found a way to make her better.
Screw Loose stopped chasing her tail, and upon seeing the unicorn doctor her face contorted in an odd way as she attempted to communicate. “Bark! Bark bark!”
He watched as the mare ran up to him, with a ball held in her mouth. She stared at him for a minute before dropping the ball at her hooves and pushing it towards him with her nose. “Bark!” she exclaimed again. Hardly embarrassed, the doctor picked up the ball with his magic and waved it back and forth before throwing it for her. “Bark bark!” exclaimed the mare as she chased the ball.
He watched her for a minute before the sound of approaching hoof steps called his attention. One of the nurses had come for him with a worried expression. “What's wrong Nurse Redheart?” he asked.
“Doctor Horse,” she sighed and shook her head “it's Merry Melody. You should come see for yourself.”
Doctor Horse followed Nurse Redheart with troubling thoughts in his mind. She led him to the waiting room where children could play with toys. “See?” she nodded towards the single pony in the room.
Merry Melody, the purple coated, violet and white haired filly who always wore her propeller beanie hat. As was usual, she had come to visit her mother, and she was having a tea party with herself and her imaginary friend while she waited, but Doctor Horse could sense a difference this time. While she had always been creative in her imaginings, she was still limited by a child's mind, and so her talks with her imaginary friend had always been those of a single child playing a game with herself. Now, it seemed like Merry Melody was indeed having a full conversation with another living person, but there was nobody there. Then he saw it on her flank; a cutie mark of a screw and a baseball.
A few weeks later, Doctor Horse was able to consult with Screw Loose’s old psychiatrists and they all agreed after observing her, Merry Melody was showing the same early symptoms of her mother's condition.
She sat alone in her room, playing with the bouncy rubber ball the doctor had given her, and trying to ignore the imaginary pony chatting away at her in the corner. That was the primary symptom she displayed, hallucinations. Sometimes she was able to keep her wits and remind herself that there had been nopony there just a moment before, like now, but most times she could not tell the difference.
She could hear something happening in Ponyville, but she prefered not to look outside because she was not allowed out on her own. Too much stimulation, the doctor said. There was no known medicine to help her, and mixing mind with magic was always risky, so they had instead found a method of calmly explaining new things to her before exposing her to them. Thankfully, they had learned a lot about what not to do from her mother.
“You're thinking about her again.” the other pony teased her.
“Go away.” Merry Melody replied. “You aren't real, Topsy.”
“If I'm not real, then how are you talking to me?”
“Um, well…”
“The only thing you have to prove that I'm not real is that they tell you I'm not real.” Topsy Turvy, Merry Melody’s doppelganger and sometimes alternate personality, whispered to her “Don't you see? I'm the only one who's real. The doctor and nurses, they are fake!”
Merry Melody had heard this before. She knew it wasn't true, but she couldn't deny that it was possible either. If she could imagine one pony, then couldn't she imagine several ponies?
“I'm telling you this for your own good,” Topsy Turvy grabbed her, and she could physically feel the hooves on her body, “you have to get out of here!”
The wall, apparently made from plywood, suddenly fell away. Outside she could physically see….cotton candy clouds, rabbits with deer legs, buffalo doing ballet, and checkerboard pattern grass cut through by dish soap roads.
Merry Melody took it all in, her face twitching slightly. “.....I have officially lost my marbles.” She nodded to herself.
“No,” Topsy Turvy told her “, you just finally see the real world.”
Merry Melody looked out at the chaos before her. And back at her room, so bland and constantly the same. Freedom and adventure, or the same boring restricted life that she had known for years. It was not a difficult choice.
Out she ran, past a group of ballet dancing buffalo that were wearing pink tights and tutus. She jumped onto the soapy road and, surprisingly, skated along without trouble. She saw some lollipop flowers and snatched one up on her way. This all made so much more sense to her than everything she had known before!
After finishing her lollipop flower, she threw away the stem which shot off like a bottle rocket, and trotted around town for a bit. It was all very exciting, but all the ponies were too busy with things like angry cotton candy clouds and getting chased by hungry daisies to talk to her. She was still lonely…
An origami bird then landed in front of her. “Hello. Are you friendly?” she asked it.
“You are invited to a tea party. Follow me.” it’s booming voice caused her mane to fly back. The origami bird then fluttered off, slowly enough for her to follow, and led her to a clearing where a tea set had been placed.
Merry Melody thought it all looked quite lovely. She had never been to a proper tea party with other ponies. This one seemed interesting; walking teapots, flying cups, little ponies made from sugar cubes that were dancing around on the floating table.
This is how things should be! she thought to herself. She sat down at the table, her seat stretched its legs to lift her up to the floating table, and wondered who had invited her.
“Hello my dear,” a suave voice said from just above her. “How are you doing on this fine day?”
“Oh, fairly good,” Merry Melody looked up to find the speaker. “And you? Also, who and what are you?”
“Oh I’ve been fine,” the creature said, landing in front of her, his elongated body circling around her. “As for the who and what? You can call me Discord, Supreme Lord of Chaos and Draconequus extraordinaire!” Fireworks exploded around them and spelled Discords name in the sky.
“Well, you are certainly the most creative imaginary friend that I've ever thought up.” she smiled at him. “My name is Merry Melody, though, ponies call me Screwball when they think I can't hear them.“
“Oh don’t mind them,” Discord said, uncurling and sitting himself at the other side of the table. “Ponies call me all sorts of things behind my back, abomination, demon, I think one-man-menagerie is my favorite,” Discord picked up an ate one of the sugarcube ponies. “Oh, and I’m not imaginary.”
“That's what she said.” Merry Melody told him as she pointed a hoof at Topsy turvy, and therefore at empty space. Topsy responded by saying, “I think he is real.”
“I’d listen to your hallucination,” Discord told her. “I am one hundred percent real.” He reached forward and pinched Merry’s cheek.
She felt an odd tingle where he pinched her. Magic? she asked herself. The doctors always tried to keep it away from her. She saw Topsy nodding vigorously.
“....Okay, you are real. Now what?” Merry asked as she grabbed a cup.
“Well my dear,” Discord said, crunching on a teacup and leaving the tea in shape. “I actually came to ask for your help.”
“Oh, do tell.” she replied politely and sipped her tea which spewed bubbles out at her.
“I want you to help me gain followers,” Discord said with a devilish grin.
With a full beard of bubbles Merry asked, “How?”
Discord sighed. “As we speak, a group of ponies are attempting to find a way to defeat me,” he glared in the direction of Canterlot. “While I have safeguards in place, but on the off chance they do manage to seal me away again, I’d like to have a backup plan,” he smiled at Merry. “That’s where you come in.”
Discord teleported behind her and wrapped an arm around Merry. “You recruit ponies to worship me, embrace chaos, and then if I get sealed away, I’ll have a source of chaos to draw off of and eventually, I’ll be able to break out again.”
Merry thought about that for a minute or two. Help the powerful creature that was apparently an enemy to ponies like her, or turn him away after he had done what none of them had done for her; treat her like an actual person instead of a freak or a special medical case.
“What do I have to do?” she asked.
“If the world remains in chaos?” Nothing, enjoy watching reality crumble. “But if the world returns to normal? Find other ponies like yourself, shunned by society for being different, and tell them that if they follow me, I will make their wildest dreams come true.”
“It's a deal.” Merry raised her cup with both hooves to clink it against his, but his was all eaten leaving just his tea.
“Wonderful!” Discord cheered. “Here,” he said, pulling a whirle cap out of his... flesh, and placing it on her head. “You’ll need this to prove what I can do for others.”
As soon as she thought about the hat on her head, its propeller began to spin and she was lifted away from the ground. “Yaah! ….” after the surprise of suddenly flying she quickly experimented and discovered that she could steer it quite easily. “Cool!”
“Yes quite,” Discord said with a smile. “Now you enjoy the end of reality, and if everything suddenly starts having meaning again, remember our deal.”
Merry Melody suddenly flew over to Discord and hugged his neck. “I will never forget. And if I do, Topsy will remind me.”
“Yep!” Topsy promised by crossing over her heart with a hoof.
“Very good,” Discord said, separating himself from the Pony. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a certain Changeling whose garden needs a new coat of paint.” Discord snapped his fingers and vanished, leaving behind a note that said ‘good luck’.
Merry Melody looked around at the new chaotic world that made so much more sense to her. She had a purpose now, a mission, and she wanted to get to it as soon as possible. But then Topsy Turvy reminded her, “Those ponies that are trying to stop him probably have a way to return his work to how it was before.”
She clapped a hoof over her new hat. “Time to go!” She grabbed a plate of cookies, folded it into a purse, and flew off away from Ponyville. It did not matter where she went, as long as it was far enough away from here to not have her hat turned to blah if Discord lost.