Oddball

by Crescent Pulsar

Settling Down

When Celestia arrived at the outskirts of Ponyville on her chariot, along with the petrified Discord in tow, she saw that only four of the six element bearers were present, plus Spike. While they were busy staring at Discord in shock, while he was being unloaded from his chariot, she stepped down from her own and waited for them to recover.

Eventually, Twilight Sparkle was able to speak while she approached her. "With all due respect, Princess Celestia," she began, before hollering, "how could you bring Discord here!?" She covered her mouth and cleared her throat, then lowered her head and weakly tacked on, "Your Majesty."

"I'm fully aware that the last time Discord was here, he created serious havoc," Celestia genially acknowledged.

"If by 'serious havoc'," Rainbow Dash interjected, "you mean 'turning Ponyville into the chaos capital of the world...'"

"...And tricking us into being the opposite of our true selves..." Rarity added.

Pinkie Pie jumped in next, becoming louder and more upset toward the end. "And making yummy, delicious chocolate milk rain all over the place without a single dollop of whipped cream to go with it anywhere in sight! Not a single dollop!"

While her friends gave her questioning looks due to what she prioritized, Celestia took it all with aplomb and said, "Yes, I understand. But don't worry: he's been reformed."

That elicited a variety of shocked actions and exclamations, followed by Rainbow Dash zipping over to Discord and looking his frozen form over skeptically. "How can you tell?"

"I have my ways," came Celestia's enigmatic response, who wasn't bothered by any of their doubt or how her secrecy obviously didn't sit well with most of them. "Now, as you may have guessed, I've brought him here so that you may release him with the Elements of Harmony. Mind you, he's still going to cause trouble, albeit with more discretion, but he'll also use his powers for good and fun."

"And good fun!?" Pinkie Pie excitedly asked.

Celestia chuckled. "And good fun, I'm sure."

Pinkie Pie hopped into the air and cheered, "Woo-hoo!"

The others looked between each other with uncertainty plain on their faces, before Twilight Sparkle finally turned to Celestia and said, "Alright, Princess Celestia." She paused. "If you're sure?"

Celestia nodded her head. "Your worry is understandable, but — please — give him another chance." Being the keeper of time, essentially, she knew it was time to make her exit because of her tight schedule, so she turned her body toward her chariot to make her intention known as she continued to speak. "If you desire more details about his release, you may send me a letter if you can't trust an answer from him, but — for now — I must return to Canterlot for Equestria's royal summit."

After she gave them the Elements of Harmony, which would allow their bearers to release Discord, and reassuring them that she had cast a spell that would prevent Discord from taking and hiding them, just in case, she boarded her chariot and bid them farewell before leaving.

After a moment of silence, as they watched Celestia fade into the distance, Spike spoke up and asked, "Does anyone else have a bad feeling about this?"

"Uh, yeah," Rainbow Dash opined, as if the answer were a given. "The princess herself said he's still going to cause trouble."

Rarity expressed her confusion about the matter, saying, "Yet he's supposed to be reformed?"

"I don't get it, either," Twilight Sparkle admitted, with a shake of her head, "but I trust the princess' judgement. And if he actually hasn't changed his ways, we can always use the Elements of Harmony to seal him away again."

With their fears thus mollified, they retrieved Fluttershy and Applejack, got them up to speed, and addressed their own misgivings. After all that was out of the way, they proceeded to don their respective elements, surround Discord, then blast him with a rainbow that released him from his stone prison.

Discord came out screaming, but it transitioned into a pained groan when he grasped his zig-zag-shaped neck on both sides and pressed it back into shape with a disturbing chorus of snaps.

"Oi!" He exclaimed, as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Getting turned into stone so soon after the first time will give such a crick in the neck!"

Seeing his audience, who had gathered together in front of him and wore serious expressions on their faces, he perked up and said, "Oh, is this a welcoming committee? For me?" He placed a paw across his heart. "You shouldn't have!"

"As if!" Rainbow Dash scoffed.

Discord disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in the same manner next to Rainbow Dash, who would have "jumped" with an involuntary flap of her wings if he hadn't looped an arm around her and pulled her uncomfortably close. "So mean!"

He teleported over to Twilight Sparkle next and draped over her, back facing back, but close enough for his head to hang by hers as he slyly said, "Is this how you give someone another chance?"

Twilight Sparkle gave him a no-nonsense look and replied, "Can you blame us for being cautious?"

"Hmmmm," Discord hummed in thought, making it look like he was seriously considering it. Then, the facade fell and he evenly stated, "I suppose not."

With another flash, he was back where he had started. After clearing his throat behind a fist, he said, "Anyway, I've already taken the opportunity to do a good deed, as a sign of good faith, but there's a problem."

"Why aren't I surprised to hear that?" Drawled Applejack.

Discord pulled the letter "I" from his mouth, which had a visible display of stench wafting off of it, and tossed it at the interrupting mare, who wisely put her reflexes to good use and dodged it. His arms akimbo, he said, "Yes, well... I was taught how to live in a society as a spirit of chaos, not how to be a parent."

The silence that ensued was so complete that Fluttershy's soft voice was akin to a yell when she got around to expressing the same disbelief as her friends. "A... parent?"

In response, Discord swung his tail around so its end was in front of him, which now bore a sleeping passenger. Said passenger being introduced was a green-coated filly who had hair that was reminiscent of clouds, except lime in color and black swirls mixed in. Where one would normally expect black eyelashes, though, there were white ones. "Meet Oddball."

There was more silence, and this time it was broken by Spike, who was among those that had yet to catch onto the fact that something beyond their knowledge must have happened while he was encased in stone, which Celestia had been privy to. "But... How?"

Discord looked left, then right, before leaning forward and speaking quietly while he held his open paw beside his mouth. "Well, you see, when a draconequus and a friendly tree love each other very, very much..."

Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat to interrupt him, in case he was willing to go into more detail. While she was curious as to whether there was any truth to what he was saying, she felt it more pertinent to address the fact that he had a filly in his possession, since she couldn't yet trust that he hadn't abducted her. "What are you doing with her?"

"Isn't it obvious?" He replied, with a cocked eyebrow, before setting the filly onto the ground, in front of Twilight Sparkle. "I'm foisting the responsibility for taking care of this filly onto all of you. Ciao!"

Before anyone could get a sound out in protest, he was gone. Or so they thought, until his disembodied voice added, "Oh, and if you need me, I'll be settled in Ponyville soon enough. Don't trip over yourselves to deliver gift baskets, my soon-to-be neighbors!"

Everyone looked between each other, wondering how to react to what had just happened, when a groan drew their attention to the filly that Discord had left with them. She soon opened her eyes, revealing black sclera and light green eyes that had black, swirly lines for pupils, indicating that she might actually be Discord's child instead of a normal pony.

She stared at them for a bit before her gaze wandered, exploring the environment. Then she looked down at herself, where she appeared to pause before she inspected the rest of her body. Eventually, her attention returned to them and she calmly asked, "Where am I, and why am I a pony?"

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

Well this is an oddity, I suppose I'll have a look-see.

[Railroad Brony]

Oddball, you say?
i.pinimg.com/originals/2b/e5/b3/2be5b3a421ca091a2b23ff45eca5291a.jpg

[HB_DS2013]

Does reformation always have to convert men to mares?

[TheUltimateBalanceChaos]

Wonder when older sister Screwball is going to visit