Ch 03 It's Always Sunny in Maretime Bay
Everything that lives, dies.
A wise alicorn once taught me this, and taught it to his daughters. Of course, there do seem to be a few exceptions to the rule. For instance, under the right circumstances I can stop existing for a while. But I’m not really dead, as long as elemental forces like magic exist, harmony and chaos will exist. Perhaps if I ever meet harmony I can see if they find this universe to be as trying as I do.
Cadence lived, and died, just like the others. Honestly I thought she’d have had another thousand years in her at least, but love makes fools of us all.
She sacrificed herself to save Flurry from one of those pesky villains that never seemed to stay dead. If I’d have been there, I’d likely have snapped my fingers and ended Sombra’s existence without a second thought. Not because I’m reformed, but because he was an insufferable idiot who threw away his true love and his kingdom over foolish pursuits. And he got less likable as he brooded about it over the millenia.
But I wasn’t there. Long after Princess Twilight had thought Equestria well and truly safe, up pops some idiot who manages to resurrect Sombra. Probably from a bit of the horn swinging between his legs. Cults can never just perform a normal ritual.
Anyway, Cadence sacrificed herself to save Flurry. I’d say it was worth it though, even if I can’t understand why one would choose to die when they could choose to live. Her daughter Flurry lived longer than any other alicorn due to being the youngest. I suppose it also helped that Fluttershy asked me to look over Flurry.
With Applejack, Dash, Rarity, and Pinkie gone, Fluttershy was running low on friends from “the old days”. So whenever she got even the slightest inclination that one of her remaining friends was in trouble, she would send me to fix it. The Crystal Empire never had a villain attack it again.
I think Fluttershy knows what I did, and that’s why she’s been encouraging me to be more active in protecting others. What I did to her is obvious now. She’s no alicorn, but she’s outlived her friends and their children. I’ve aged her appearance some, but the fact she’s going to be attending the funerals of Applejack’s grand-children soon is sort of a dead give away.
We don’t talk about it though. I started to isolate myself a little. We used to share everything with each other, but I stopped. I knew she would be upset that I was keeping her alive and not everypony else. Perhaps that was a mistake.
And I wanted her to love who she thought I was, and not who I felt myself becoming as I ran from the mistakes of my past. I couldn’t stand to see the look of disappointment, or worse, horror in her eyes, when she learned my plan to keep her alive for eternity with me. When she learned that such an expenditure of my magic, against the very nature of entropy, necessitated that only her and nopony else could have this gift.
So I dug myself deeper with lies every day, trying to avoid the conversation I knew we had to have. Fluttershy was lonely, she was losing all her friends. Ultimately I was hurting the only pony brave enough to love me.
I wish I didn’t do that. I wish I was brave enough to tell her the truth, to love her back as fully as she loved me.
I wish I had tried. You don’t have as much time as you think you do.
After all... Everything that lives, dies.
As part of their agreement with Discord, everypony had gone back home to prepare for their upcoming day they would be spending with him. He had assured them that with the snap of a finger he’d be able to teleport to each of them in turn. Discord was fairly certain he could also bring Fluttershy along with at least ninety percent certainty. He didn’t want to leave her, or Hitch as her friends kept calling her, unattended with the transformation only half completed.
Sunny opened up the front door to her home to let Hitch in. Standing on the other side of the door in a kitchen apron and holding a duster was Discord.
“Su casa es mi casa” Discord bowed and waved them in.
“Just be careful, please. My house just finished being rebuilt, and my insurance policy was very clear about not covering acts of gods,” Sunny explained.
“Oh.” Discord crossed his fingers behind his back. “I’ll be on my best behavior. As for you, my dear Fluttershy, you better stay close. I’d hate for something to happen to you. Maybe you can take a nap while I get to know Sunny here?”
Hitch glared at him with an irritated look. “Maybe I’ll keep an eye on you.”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Oh you’re so cute when you’re upset, like the time I turned Angel bunny into a carrot.”
“You turned Fluttershy’s pet into a carrot?” Sunny asked. “Why would you do that?”
“Trust me, there would have been a line to get rid of Angel, but nopony could turn him into a carrot, but if they could, and they can’t, they would have.” Discord shrugged. “But that’s neither here nor there, I turned him back eventually. Now, come give me a little sugar.” He batted his eyelashes and blew Fluttershy a kiss.
Hitch gagged and ignored the little voice in his head suggesting a quick peck on the cheek was in order. “I uh, I think I will take that nap, if you can handle him Sunny.”
She smiled. “I’m sure we’ll be fine. I’ll let you know when I’m making dinner.”
While Hitch headed up stairs, Discord wandered over to a small dresser near the door. There was a pair of broken glasses, a medallion with Twilight’s cutie mark, and a broken picture frame that had been nailed back together.
Sunny walked over to join him. “That was my dad, Argyle. I lost him to a sudden illness when I was younger.”
He nodded. “You’re no stranger to loss then, yet you managed to restore magic to all of Equestria?”
She nodded, pulling out a set of gems and setting them on the wooden furniture. “Yeah. For the longest time nopony would believe my father or I. We told them ponies used to live in harmony, and it led me on an adventure to unite these gems and restore friendship.”
Discord tapped one of the crystals. “You know there’s nothing magical about these? They’re just glorified paper weights.”
“Yeah. It turned out the magic of friendship was in us all along. All we had to do was choose to let friendship into our hearts.” Sunny slid the three gems together until they matched the picture she’d seen in the mural. “I guess the gems were just a catalyst to get ponies to work together.”
Laughter filled the room and Discord smirked. “That is so like Twilight. Her contingency plan was to believe that ponies are inherently good, and would seek friendship with or without magic.”
“Though, if they’re just paper weights, how did they briefly turn me into a pony with wings and a unicorn horn at the same time?” Sunny asked.
He thought about it for a moment. “Hmm, they turned you into an Alicorn? Well they’re inert now, but by the sound of it, perhaps they did contain a spell at one point. I wasn’t there when they were created.”
“Dad would have been so proud if he’d seen me that night. He spent his life studying ancient Equestria, trying to find a way to bring magic back.” Sunny sighed. “We never did figure out why magic vanished in the first place. You were there, what happened?”
The air temperature seemed to drop a few degrees and Discord glared at her. “That’s not a memory I want to share with somepony who barely understands loss.”
She offered an apologetic smile. “Oh, that’s okay. I didn’t mean to upset you with a painful memory.”
Discord took a deep breath. “Painful? Stubbing a hoof is painful, falling down stairs is painful… no, I’m not good at explaining emotions, but perhaps I can show you.”
He snapped his fingers and Argyle appeared in a flash of light behind her. “Hey, Sunny Bunny.”
She spun around and gasped. “D-dad?” Sunny reached out to hug him, but the illusion faded in an instant.
“I can’t bring back the dead, it is beyond my power. But the pain of the loss never really fades, does it? You can relive it anytime in your memories.” He used his magic to read Sunny’s thoughts, weaving magic to bring one of her memories to life.
This time it was Argyle in a hospital bed. There were machines hooked up to him, but the screens were turned off and he was lying still in bed.
Sunny remembered this moment vividly, when her father had died. She’d only left briefly to get food, and barely made it back in time to say goodbye when his condition worsened.
“Stop this…” She shot a hoof out to disrupt the illusion, watching the image fade away.
“Your optimism is admirable, but admit it, life is nothing but despair.” Discord pressed a finger to Sunny’s head, and her fur began to turn gray. From the roots of her mane to the tips, the grayness spread, slowly draining her optimism and transforming her into the opposite of herself.
He shrugged and snapped his fingers, teleporting a smoothie from the fridge to sip on. “Really, that was too easy.”
Sunny’s eyes had glazed over as she gave into her sorrow, until she heard Argyle’s voice as clearly as if he was standing there beside her. “Don’t be like the others, choose love over fear. Never forget how proud I am of you. I love you, Sunny bunny.”
Discord raised an eyebrow as the change halted just above Sunny’s knees, then reversed, restoring her color and happiness to her.
Sunny blinked and her smile turned into an angry scowl. “We said no using your magic on us!”
He shrugged, snapping a scroll into existence. “You said no using my magic to change Hitch, see? The wording was very clear.” Discord tapped the scroll with a finger, and it vanished.
“Seriously? If you’re going to cheat, then give me one reason to keep playing this game.”
He shrugged. “If you quit then I win by default. I take Fluttershy and leave.”
Sunny glared at him for a minute. She didn’t like his cheap tricks, but she’d do anything to help Hitch. “Fine. At least I know now your magic doesn’t work on me.”
“Actually, nopony has ever resisted that spell before. Usually they need outside help. I’m honestly quite impressed. How can you suffer such loss and still be so saccharine?”
She thought back to her father. “It’s not about losing him, it’s about appreciating the time I had to spend with him. How much Dad taught me, how he always believed in me, that I would be a better pony than him. I know deep down his belief in me is what made me into a pony able to restore magic to Equestria.”
Discord rubbed his chin for a moment, thinking it over. “Sounds a bit like a young mare novel plotline, but I suppose you have a point.”
“Thanks, I think. So this pony you lost was it… Fluttershy?” Sunny asked.
He sighed, and nodded slightly. “Yes. Though if you’re trying to convince me to be your friend, sending me into an existential crisis is unlikely to do so. I’d rather not talk about the past right now.”
Sunny went over and gave him a hug. “That’s fine. I’ll be here if you ever do want to talk about it. Friends?”
“You have my respect, but we’re not friends yet,” Discord stated. “Now, I think I heard mention of Dinner?”
She released the hug. “Yeah, got any favorite dishes?”
“It’s a bit plain, but mac and cheese was always one of our favorites,” Discord replied.
“Mac and cheese it is, and it won’t take long to make. Until then, why don’t we watch a movie? I’ve got a copy of The Neightrix where an Earth pony wakes up in a world overrun by Unicorn robots.”
Sunny went over and turned the TV on, gaining Discord’s full attention. “This technology isn’t like anything I’ve seen before. What is it?”
“Hmm, something to do with cathode ray tubes. You’d probably be better off asking Zipp.”
Discord sat on the couch and summoned himself a plushie Rainbow Dash to rest his legs on. “Alright then, let’s see if this movie is any good.”
Taking a nap was hard when everything just felt so wrong. He was too curvy in some areas and too thin in others. The long pink mane seemed to tangle at the slightest attempt to roll over in the bed. He didn’t want to dwell too long on the fact that it felt kind of nice, either. With the smaller body it was easy to curl up and get comfortable, and the wings had stopped itching every time he thought about them.
Hitch stretched in the guest bed and heard something tapping on the windows. He got up, and fell right onto his stomach. His legs were several inches shorter than he was used to, but at least he hadn’t badly hurt himself.
At the window were two seagulls, hitting the glass hard enough he worried they might break it. “Hold on a minute.” He flapped his wings to fly over to the window, and opened it up while he hovered there. “Huh, these wings aren’t half bad.”
His two junior deputies, the seagulls Scruffy and Plucky, stepped into the room.
“Thank goodness,” Scruffy said.
“Fine I owe you two sardines,” Plucky replied. He adjusted the tin can on his head he wore as a symbol of his authority. He was in charge of the critter brigade, after all.
“Oh, I’m fine thanks,” Hitch replied. “I just ran into this—wait, you can talk?!” He rubbed his eyes and looked at them again to see if they were really there.
“Wait, you can understand us now?” Scruffy asked. “I guess ponies aren’t as dense as they look.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hitch asked.
“Well,” Plucky reached out a wing and began to count off. “There was the time we tried to warn you Dahlia’s lasagna caught fire. The time we tried to warn you Sunny had snuck in the side door to Canterlogic—”
“Wait, how’d you know it was me?”
“Oh,” Scruffy answered, “so Crabby catches up with us down by the pier and he’s ranting and raving about how this dragon thing is running around turning ponies into all sorts of chaotic stuff. He tells us that you’ve been turned into this pink and yellow mare.”
Hitch nodded. “Yeah, that happened. So why were you so insistent on getting through the window?”
“Right!” Plucky responded. “We’re here to warn you, Sheriff! There’s a dragon running around snapping his fingers and messing with ponies.”
He sighed and sat down, hiding his face behind his pink mane. “Your warning’s like a day late.”
After a moment of silence, Plucky spoke up. “So, this is probably bad timing, but I could use a month off work to migrate and visit my family…”
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Man, Discord really became a prick.
...Well, he was always a prick, I guess. Still, this is a bit more than anything he... No, no; he's done worse. Huh, this is actually somewhat par-for-the-course for him. Still a prick.
This is really fun so far. I wonder if Sprout will try to seduce Hitch; pathetical.
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Of all the ideas I had, I forgot to have Sprout try and seduce Fluttershy, not realizing it is Hitch. I must be slipping.
11024791
Well he is a lot of fun to write as a prick. I think Zipp's chapter is my favorite on a scale of 1 to prick.
11024791
well, watching everything and everyone you love wither and die tends to do that to you
11024884
Now we would have to see if Sprout can actually get over his bigotry to actually get over that. I also wonder how Hitch's sheriff instincts and caretaker one will grow in conflict with each other why on duty. And come to Think of it Hitch CAN'T afford to let Sprout get ANY sense of POWER and AUTHORITYT with his oversight. Worst still I would wonder what Discord would do to Sprout if he tried anything with Hitch, probably turn him into a donkey.
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Immortality is one of my favorite tropes to explore. So thought I'd hijack your comment about why immortals would be pricks (or in this case revert to chaos) when unsure how to cope with loss.
I think a mortal becoming immortal would have an easier time coping, but suffer more grief and loss overall, since they spend their whole life getting attached to other ponies (I.e. if an alicorn Twilight watched friends die). They always knew loss was inevitable, so perhaps they're more prepared to deal with it.
Then there's immortals that were always immortal like Discord, who didn't even consider there was more to his existence than Chaos until the ponies taught him there was. Then they taught him to get attached. And now Discord's on his own trying to deal with grief and loss, two more concepts he spent millennia unaware even existed. What does that look like? How do you cope with a strong negative emotion that you, a timeless all-powerful being, didn't even know existed?
I think that would be why Discord got so attached to Fluttershy, as a sort of compass to help him navigate this strange world of mortals for which he was unprepared. Learning all these alien concepts took Discord time, and when he didn't know what to do, he could always just ask her.
Overly Sarcastic Productions did a nice video on the Immorality trope. And I don't think I got that deep into it in this story, but it sure is interesting to think about it.
Wow, using Discord as an opportunity to go home and see your family. Good on you Plucky, you inspire me haha
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OSP is an AWESOME Youtube channel!
So it looks like Sunny is next try to make friends with Discord so far things were okay but then Discord kind of pulled the season 2 disharmony on her showing the past of Sunny father which that was kind of mean Discord and you cannot cheat on that come on I really hope it doesn't come to this that I really don't like how this is going to turn out but I'm not saying that I'm actually really interesting how this will end will sunny and the others convince Discord to change back hitch well I guess we'll find out next time
Discord they never died they are somewhere much better you could never imagine.
well the worse i through rid say stallion hit on him.
This is an interesting proposal. Discord being the embodiment of Chaos, ergo there must be an embodiment of Harmony. What would they look like? Would they just be an entity with avatars, or have a proper physical form?
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I think it's just an entity with Avatars. We do see with the Young 6 them meeting said entity which took on the form of Twilight.