Layers
You trot over to a certain cottage by the woods, humming as you go. It’s a delightful day—mind you, most days in Ponyville are—and you’re looking forward to talking to somepony—or more accurately—someone who you’ve been trying to be a better friend to lately. One the one hoof, he did betray you to Tirek, a being of absolute evil. But on the other hoof, can you blame him? You and your friends were pretty big jerks to him. Except Fluttershy of course, because, bless her heart, she’s a bigger mare than you when it comes to seeing the good in ponies, err, creatures. You only see research.
Yes, as much as you tell yourself that you’re trying to be a better friend, the truth is that even more than friendship, you’re compelled by the power of the scientific method, and Discord is certainly not someone who’s been methodically scienced. A veritable treasure trove of weirdness and chaos, just sitting there, waiting to be researched. And you’re going to be the one to do it! Why you never thought before of just how much progress you could make in the field of chaotic magic, you’ll never know, though you suspect it has something to do with the fact that even now you have a hard time standing his smug attitude and trickster mentality. Nothing like an interview to change that! That’s right, you’re going to interview Discord!
As you cross the bridge over the nearby stream, you wonder what you should ask him first. Thinking back, you realize the number of non antagonistic encounters you’ve had with him over the past two years could probably be counted on a single dragon’s claw. You’re the princess of friendship; that won’t do! So as you knock on Fluttershy’s door, you resolve to make a positive first impression.
*thock thock thock!*
A mismatched (aren't they all?) draconequus answers the door, dressed in a maid's outfit.
"Hi Discord, can I interview you?" you ask eagerly.
Positive first impression: check!
"Meeee? You want to interview meeee? Miss Sparkle, I would be delighted to confuse and confound you with my witty remarks and candid answers. Please, ask away!" He beckons you to enter, and as you do he snaps his talons and a white rabbit falls from where it was stuck to the ceiling via static electricity.
Pulling a notepad and quill from under your wing, you ask, perhaps overenthusiastically, "Think you can handle a tough question right off the bat?"
"Darling, I was born ready. Fire away!"
"Well," you begin as you plop down on a divan, "Discord, I know it’s probably a, uhhh, touchy subject for you, but I must say I’m curious: what was it like, being trapped in stone?"
He purses his lips, and rolls his eyes up in thought. "What’s it like being trapped in stone?", he repeats, stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Really, not very different than not being trapped in stone, if you want to know the truth. It’s like… being an onion."
An onion? "Oh, really?" you respond, eager for answers.
Oh yes. I’m a very powerful being. I can warp spacetime itself. Can you do that? Actually, don’t answer. You’re the exception to the rule. By the way, that’s another way we’re alike, really: we both take exception to rules. In fact, since we’re so similar, for this little exercise, I want you to put yourself in my horse shoes. I know I don’t wear shoes normally, but play along with me, if you will.
Imagine that, as long as you’ve been aware of your existence, you’ve had an urge to cause chaos. It doesn’t matter if it’s on a quantum level making protons violate the uncertainty principle, or on a macroscopic scale of hurling stars into each other. Yes, that’s right, I can, given enough time and patience (both of which tend to be in short supply for me, mind you), take Celestia’s job. At least the raising and lowering the sun part. All that icky paperwork and dealing with the stuffy nobles would make me vomit though. Ughhh.
But as I was saying, I have an innate urge to mix up, break apart, mash together, tear down, and generally discombobulate stuff. Always have. When I don’t, I get real skittish and moody. I just need to cause chaos. Not entropy. That’s too disorganized, mind you. Just some good old fashioned chaos.
So, indeed, picture you’re me. Picture you too having an undying, unyielding, unceasing, innate urge to mess with stuff. And imagine one day you wander upon this planet with the most fascinating little creatures. They actually react when you mess with them! It’s a hoot! Soooo much more interesting than playing with rocks or dirt or a million other inanimate objects. Even if I animate them, they’re still not really alive. I’m not a miracle worker. Just a draconequus.
So, you’re on this planet, and you love it! So much to mess with! So much harmless fun! You’ve finally found a home for yourself and your awesome powers of disorder and… let me put on my sunglasses… discord.
And yet, when you use any of those powers, you’re immediately told that you’re a bad dragon. You’re told that hurting ponies is wrong. They actually condescend to tell you exactly that: hurting ponies is wrong. Of course hurting ponies is wrong! I don’t hurt ponies! I’m not a monster, like Chrysalis or Tirek or King Sombra or Nightmare Moon or the Grand Galloping Gala or any creature on the evil villains roll call. Can you name a single time I hurt somepony during my triumphant return to form? Maybe I hurt their feelings. Maybe I hurt their chances of being able to ever look at balloons again. Maybe—and I think here I’m doing everyone a favor—I hurt their pride. But I never actually hurt a pony. Ever. Can Celestia claim the same?
Again, don’t answer that; I don’t want to give you cognitive dissonance. My point is, I’m not evil, just misunderstood. But nopony else sees things that way. Surely, Miss Sparklebutt, you can commiserate with me when it comes to ponies not believing you. Why, your dear friends’s unwaivering belief in who was right and who was wrong almost cost us the kingdom, did it not? Wasn’t that frustrating?
Imagine that every single day of your life.
Imagine being told you're wrong every single day of your life.
Never allowed to do anything fun. I always have to play by your rules, the pony rules, as if ponies are somehow the end all be all of morality, the ultimate authorities when it comes to what is and isn’t right.
That’s what I have to live with.
You want to know what it’s like to be me? I’m like an onion. I’m sure I’m not the first snarky character to make that analogy; I don’t really care.
Onions have layers.
On the outside, I’m playful and jovial. I have to be. If I wasn’t, I’d go insane. Well, more than I already am.
But start delving beneath the surface, and you find residual anger. Trouble being empathetic (have ponies ever been empathetic to me?). A whole host of personality disorders, at least according to all the psychologists and therepists and psychiatrists and psychotherapists and all the myriad of doctor types the princess (that’s Celestia) has sicced on me. According to them, I’m a sociopath. But I have a better, simpler answer for why I act the way I do.
Because when you finally peel away all the layers, what you find inside, at the very center of things
Is a sad, scared draconequus, who’s hated simply for being himself. How do you think it feels to do only what you know, love, and are programmed to do, only to be punished for it? It makes one
Very
Very
Lonely.
Wow. How do you respond to that? If yesterday, somepony told you that at this moment you’d be squeezing Discord in the tightest bear hug possible, you’d have looked at them funny and called them crazy. But right now, you feel it would be crazy not to.
"I’m sorry. So sorry," you whisper, comforting your strangest, weirdest, trickiest, and right now most vulnerable subject. "I’m sorry I—no, most of us haven’t been very good friends to you. I'm sorry we haven't tried harder to understand. That’s going to change." You, princess of friendship, are hugging one of the least-friendly creatures in Equestria. But right now, when you call him your friend, you mean it, every word. Huh. What a chaotic world.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Aurora Inkwell · 1.4k words · 106 3 · 4.5k views
- scarves-n-converse · 2.1k words · 54 4 · 3.1k views
- Stephanorhinus · 3.4k words · 50 0 · 1.7k views
- Ice Star · 1.6k words · 58 6 · 2.5k views
- Zander-er · 3.2k words · 80 0 · 2.7k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.121 seconds
Total duration
830 users online
1,618,138 hits today, 2,139,894 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/classy.gif
2.bp.blogspot.com/-s7u9uBmQrQU/U4-aKEAYShI/AAAAAAAAEwc/IPR4fdVKv8o/s1600/applause.gif
Wondrous work dear author, it would be even better to see how others react
While i don't approve of Discord's viewpoint shared by his apologists that he was never evil, mind you that Chrysalis fans use it too.
Nonetheless i wasn't expecting a confession from Discord. But i dare say that past this part i mentioned this story is awesome.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2014/6/16/654929__safe_solo_twilight+sparkle_screencap_statue_stare+master_stone_petrification.png
4682763 I did think of that in the course of writing. However, she was only out for a day at most, and didn't remember any of it.
I actually have a story about that, btw. Double Feature: Too Much To Drink / I'm Dead, I Think?
'kay story :)
4683324 k.
While this is sweet (and the layer technique is cute), I have a hard time picturing Discord openly admitting to any of this. Writing it, maybe, because of the illusion of privacy... but admitting to it to Twilight's face seems a bit OOC.
4693364 Hmmm, Thanks for the feedback. I didn't really think about that. I sort of saw it as Discord waxing poetic in a moment of dramatic excess, and it suddenly veering into an area of surprising honesty. He is prone to being a drama queen, that's for sure. This is the first of a series of oneshots that will be prepping me for my NaPoWriMo event entry in November. Thanks again, and have a great day!
I really loved this--the onion analogy was great, and I like how he starts things off as snarky as ever but in the end gets to an emotional truth at the center of his life and actions
I think this would be OOC slightly for Discord between his reform and the season 4 finale, but post the finale I think it works very well. I could absolutely see him becoming more vulnerable to others, even if he couches it in casual jokes and sarcastic observations. I'm glad to hear you'll be writing more stories like this 
5806700 Thank you very much for these kind words
It's comments like these that encourage me to keep writing. :heart;
5806715 You are very welcome!
. . . I love it. Instant thumb up and favorite.
6088762 Thank you!
6089114 You're welcome.
I love formatting used as a storytelling tool. This did a great job of that, using something I usually see in poorly edited forum and Tumblr posts. Nice work, and a well-voiced Discord. I barely stumbled when I read his lines in my best John de Lancie impression.
6209960 wow, high praise. Thank you very much. :)
It's beautiful!
6262696 thank you. :) You're beautiful too.
Erm, this fic seems to fail at whatever it's intending.
1) Both your characters are being written with the same voice. There's no personality distinction between them. And that personality doesn't really fit either of them. It's like you personally, the author, are talking in your own voice, and claiming to be Discord and Twilight, even though your voice is nothing like either of theirs.
2) You've completely mismatched your leadup with the resolution. Twilight asked Discord what it was like to be encased in stone.. He never answered that question. He never even tried to.
He answered a completely different question.
3) Personally, I found the quote gimmick annoying. And, it's kind of the only thing this story has going for it. If you remove the novelty of "oh, this story uses BBcode quotes" there isn't really much left to it except an out of character Discord answering a completely different question than the one he was asked.
6426725 thanks for the feedback. One of the things I want to focus on in upcoming stories of mine that I actually am putting a lot of effort into as opposed to being stupid random comedies, is giving characters distinct voices. Which, to be honest, is one of the trickier bits of writing. But I really do appreciate your thoughtful critique. I'm not going to go back and edit the story because well, the past is in the past, but I will bear your comments in mind for future writing.
4681886 glad you liked it.
6849234 My my aren't you responsive.
I love this!
It's EXACTLY like my headcanon of Discord!
And covers a lot of my problems with season 4 and bits of season 5 with how no one but Fluttershy really tries to even act nice around Discord so of course he's gonna act even more annoying.
11459306
Wow, been a while since anyone read this! I'm glad you enjoyed it and vibed with it! Thanks for reading and have a great day!