The Puppeteer's Creation

by Arreis Of Avalon

Round One: Laughter

Discord was making his way to Sugar Cube Corner. He tripped up once or twice while walked, still getting used to his pony form. Still, better to trip and fall than to get stared at constantly.

He reached Sugar Cube Corner and lightly knocked on the door. The door opened, and he felt himself picked up and pulled in. “SUP-RI-ISE!!” Discord laughed as the pink mare in front of him laughed. “Oh, Dissy, your pony form looks so serious!” She gasped loudly. “Oh my gosh, I should throw you a ‘Welcome to your new body’ party! I can have balloons and streamers and CUPCAKES!! Oh, but not those kind Rainbow was telling me about, those sound icky. Oh, I’m so nerv-xcited!”

Discord laughed. “Pinkie, you’re so random. A mare after my own heart, of course.”

Pinkie giggled happily. “So Dissy, what brings you to Sugar Cube Corner? Come for some treats, or to turn this whole place topsy turvy backwards crazy? OOO, are you going to make it Renroc Ebuc Ragus?!” She smiled brightly at her joke as he laughed.

“Actually, I just swung by for a visit to my favorite laughing mare.”

Pinkie giggled some more. “Laughing mare, huh? Guess I am known to be laughing.”

Discord nodded. “I’ve always liked that about you, Pinkie. How is it you’re always laughing?” Pinkie looked at him, confused, and he continued. “Well, you were raised in such a bleak place. You came to Ponyville to get away from there and to always smile, but people are hard to make laugh. How is it, when life is so hard, you always keep smiling?”

Pinkie scrunched her face up in concentration. “Well, I guess it’s just cause I was born this way. I’ve always been smiley and giggly. It’s just what defines me.” She smiled brightly, having solved the question.

Discord smiled at her, her optimism rubbing off. “Born that way? Strange concept, being born.” Pinkie looked at him strangely, and he smiled. “Oh, you’ll learn about it. I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise.” As he said this, he clapped together his hooves, and she turned into a white Pegasus. “Surprise!”

The Pegasus Pinkie laughed brightly. “Dissy, change me back, you silly! I can’t make candy with my wings in the way!”

He smiled and changed her back. It was impossible not to smile in her presence. “In any case, Twilight will have a … special treat for you later today.”

Pinkies eyes were shining with curiosity. “OOOOO I can’t wait, I need to know, I need to know!!”

Discords eyes shifted from side to side, then he whispered in her ear. “Can you keep a secret, my laughing friend?” Pinkie nodded quickly, making the motions of zipping her mouth, locking it with a key, digging a hole, burying the key, building a house on top of the hole, and moving into the house on top of the hole. “Alright, Pinkie. She found a mysterious book today, and we’re almost positive the writing inside is Princess Celestias.”

Pinkie gasped, then nodded determinedly, keeping her mouth shut tight. Discord chuckled. “You can speak, Pinkie.”

She smiled brightly, her eyes filled with wonder. “Oooo, I wonder what the writing is.” She gasped again. “Maybe it’s part of you, Luna and Celestias past and how all of us are just creations to fit the elements to free Luna again!”

Discords eyes widened, but then he laughed it off. “Whatever gave you that idea?”

She giggled brightly. “Just me being silly.”

Discord nodded, smiling. “Well, now, I was wondering, could you make me some cupcakes? I would love to have a taste of those magical pastries.”

She smiled brightly. “One batch of cupcakes, coming right up! Assorted as usual?”

He shook his head. “Make them all confetti cupcakes this time.”

She looked at him, confused. “That’s not your usual.”

He smiled brightly. “Pinkie, if I chose to get my usual every day, that would become routine and orderly. I am still the god of chaos, am I not?” Pinkie snorted slightly, laughing, her fun loving brain understanding his strange logic perfectly. She began to make the cupcakes, humming.

As she turned away, Discord held up the small pink figurine in his hoof, twisting it around. “So… how are your friends?”

Pinkie, still baking and her back to him, smiled. “Oh, they’re all happy and smiling. I make sure to keep them laughing.”

Discord made a small ‘tsk’. “Seems a shame, however, that you’re always concerned about them instead of letting yourself have fun.”

Pinkie shrugged, mistaking his manipulating behavior as genuine friendly concern. “Helping my friends stay happy IS fun.”

Discord looked somewhat confused. “Really? Why, back when me and Tia-“ He cut off suddenly as she looked back at him. “Woopsies~”

“When you and Tia what now? Isn’t Tia a nickname for Celestia?”

Discord shook his head. “No, no, don’t worry about it. It was a horrible mark on our friendship, and I-“

“FRIENDSHIP?!” Pinkie gasped loudly. “YouandTiawerefriendslongagoandsomethingdrewawedgeintoyourfriendshipandTHATSwhatmadeyousoangryandbitterohyoupoor draconequus!!”

Discord laughed. “Okay, let’s calm down a bit, Pinkie. It was a long time ago, and it’s a painful memory.”

Pinkie gasped, her eyes sad. “Painful? Painful isn’t happy! You’re my friend, Dissy, I don’t want you to be not happy!”

Discord turned his back on her, hiding his grin. “No, no,” he said, his voice fraught with tears and sadness. “It’s simply too painful a memory to retell. What we did to little Luna was so-“

Pinkie nearly dropped the whisk she had been holding. “PRINCESS LUNA?! You all WERE friends!”

Discord, his back still turned, held up the figurine in his hoof, hiding it from Pinkie. “Well… I couldn’t bring you all into this. After all, you all are my Friends, after all.” As he said the word ‘Friends’, the color of the figurine in his hoof began to turn slightly grey. Pinkies own coat reflected this slight color change, hardly noticeable to the pony eye. Only dragons and beings who have dragon DNA could notice the change.

Pinkie sniffed slightly, her poufy mane falling straighter than the fields she had once harvested. “But…”

Discord shushed her lightly. “No, no, I can’t let you make me happy, Pinkie. To do so would bring so much Pain.”

As he said the word ‘pain’, Pinkie felt a powerful emotion stir in her, one she had not felt in years. True pain tore at every atom of her being as she realized that, through all the years, to make all of her friends happy and laugh, she had absorbed their pain. All of these years, she had taken all of their pain and replaced it with her own happiness. That same pain she had taken from them now stabbed her heart with poison daggers, shot through her mind like a speeding bullet. She felt tears rise to her eyes, a salty reminder of the days of her youth. So much pain… that was when she learned how to take pain, and smile that horrible, broken smile she had for years.

Her hair poofed back up as she tried to smile, yet somehow it all seemed fake. Her entire persona had changed, one second a laughing, bubbly mare, the next a sorrowful heap of broken memories. “W-well, that’s okay, Discord.” He smiled at that slight difference of phrase, his full name instead of her typical cheerful nickname. “Y-you can hold onto your pain if you want…”

Discord nodded slightly, the figurine in his hoof disappearing as he turned to face her once more. “Of course I’ll hold onto it. After all… isn’t that what you’ve always done?” With those parting words, he walked out.

Pinkie glanced at the finished cupcakes, realizing he had left them here. She picked one up and nibbled on it, the confetti fun cupcake tasting like soot in her mouth. She tried to smile again, but it was no use, she knew.

She’d forgotten how to laugh in the midst of all her pain.

Comments

[Arreis Of Avalon]

*wakes up and logs onto FiMfiction, yawning* Alrigh', let's see if that ^^;; (horrible) fan fic of mine got accep- *sees 3 favorites, a follower and 25 views* O_O *faints*