> Smile HD > by Masked_Frenchman > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > 1: The Game > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Music listened to while writing this, "Smile HD" [of course] by MisterDavie on youtube, "Daddy Discord" by dB Pony, and lastly "Her Darker Side" by Aviators. if you choose to listen to these songs, I hope you enjoy the music and I hope it amplifies the mood for ya if not, sorry) Chapter 1: The Game Pinkie Pie spent her day just like she normally would on a day off. She walked around with a large smile on her face, greeting every single pony that she happened to come across. She would smile at them so cheerfully and full of energy that it would rub off and make everyone else smile, even if they were gloomy. She walked up to a certain grey pegasus with a blonde mane  and noticed that she was sitting on the ground, staring at her pouch that she uses to deliver the mail and she looked like she was about to cry. Of course the pink party pony couldn’t have that now. Pinkie Pie jumped on over towards her with a big, cheerful smile as she approached the sad pony. “Hey there Derpy, what’s the matter?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly, as always. The grey mare turned her gaze to her for a brief moment before returning her stare back at her saddle. “Hi Pinkie Pie. My saddle bag broke while I was out flying, delivering the mail and suddenly it just fell off. I just don’t know what went wrong,” Derpy explained, a tear starting to form on her face. “If I can’t fix my bag, then I can’t deliver the mail and do the one thing I am good at,” she added. Pinkie Pie smiled as she grabbed the bag. “Is that all? Oh you silly filly, let me see that!” She exclaimed, taking a close look at the bag. She flipped it around a few times before opening it and then closing it. Pinkie Pie noticed that the strap had faded out and just wore off. Pinkie Pie thought for a moment before she ran over in a split second to Applejack’s farm and rushed back with some rope. After messing around for a moment, she made a strap for her pegasus to replace the old one. Derpy’s sad expression on her face melted away as she watched Pinkie Pie work. “There you go, all better!” Pinkie Pie explained. Derpy grabbed the saddle bag and threw it over her back and strapped it in. She jumped around curiously to test it’s strength. A smile exploded on her face, seeing that it was fixed. “Gosh Pinkie Pie, thank you so much, now I can keep doing my runs, I owe you one!” Derpy exclaimed in excitement. She wore her smile proudly as she took off into the sky. Pinkie Pie watched for a few moments, waving her goodbye. Pinkie Pie continued to walk down the street, greeting everyone she passed a smile and a quick greeting till she came across another one of her friends, Doctor Whooves. He had a calculator out and was looking around his blue box as he stared at it confused and frustrated.  “Good morning Doctor Whooves, what are you doing?” Pinkie PIe asked curiously. The Doctor put away the calculator and pulled out his sonic screwdriver, then turned his attention to Pinkie Pie as he tried to smile. “Oh, hello there Pinkie Pie, a good morning to you too. I am just having some problems with the TARDIS is all. I think I overshot the quantum defibrillator module by at least 38.683% but the damage to the module isn’t that bad so I can’t really refuel the sonic amplifier engines quite yet. So I am stuck with the choice between simply charging up the confirmatory time warp antenna or if I should try to under shot the next jump, going into a random time zone and being stuck there for a full 21.58 hours, hoping that it will redistribute the unnecessary energy throughout the TARDIS. If I choose the wrong choice, I could risk tearing a quantum dark hole through the very fabric of space and time in this region,” Doctor Whooves explained as he looked through his TARDIS thoroughly, not looking directly at Pinkie Pie as he looked around. Pinkie Pie looked at the TARDIS with a concentrated look on her face. As she looked around with The Doctor for a moment longer, an idea popped in her head and a light bulb appeared above her head. She took the light bulb and opened up a hatch and moved some wires around to make room. After she disconnected a few wires and replaced others, she plugged it in and turned to The Doctor. “Try turning it on now,” Pinkie Pie advised. The Doctor looked at her confused as he went in and looked around, messing with knobs and levers. After he pulled down the last lever, the Tardis suddenly sprung to life and started to glow once again. The Doctor smiled as he saw his ship fully operational and he ran back out to thank the pink party pony. “Pinkie Pie, how in the worlds did you do that?” he asked stunned and amazed. Pinkie Pie smiled at The Doctor as she looked back at the Tardis. “Well, it looked like the quantum defibrillator module wasn’t the problem, but the power cables near the back of that panel were getting too cold. So I put a light bulb in there to warm it up, and snugged it nice and tight around the other wires so it wouldn’t move around when you slipped into the space time continuum,” Pinkie Pie explained. The Doctor looked back at the panel and then back at her with a cheerful smile on his face. “I didn’t even think to check the wiring. I could have sworn something was wrong with the quantum defibrillator module. Well, good thing you were here then or else I would have created a time lapse black hole of some sorts. Anyway, thank you for helping me Pinkie Pie, I owe you a trip through the TARDIS,” The Doctor offered. He grabbed Pinkie Pie’s face gently but firmly and leaned in and kissed her cheek as he ran off into the TARDIS. Pinkie Pie smiled as she waved him goodbye. “Have a safe trip!” she called out as the TARDIS slowly faded away and out of sight. Once it was completely gone, she left the spot, looking for more friends to help out and greet. Discord floated around in the clouds above Ponyville, bored out of his mind and staring up at the sky. “Wow, being a TAMED spirit of chaos is really boring. I mean I guess it’s better than being imprisoned in stone for over a thousand years. Still, this town is so boring, it needs a little chaos,” Discord complained to himself. He thought for a moment and thought up of a fun and creative way to spend his time. He was about to make it rain apples just to bother Applejack until he remembered what Princess Celestia told him. “Oh right,” he said as he snapped his fingers, making a miniature version of Celestia popped up on his shoulder. “Discord, you must not cause any harm to Ponyville or it’s residents. Try staying there for a day and observe the ponies around to get a better understanding what true friendship looks like. If you try anything to hurt anypony then you will be punished for blah blah blah blah blah!” Discord made the Celestia figure say as he mimicked her the whole time. He squashed the little figure as he looked back down at the residents of Ponyville, going about their days as they walked around freely and lived their lives out. “Why do I have to do such a dreadful task? I mean out of all the things she could get me to do, watching ponies have fun and live a life is what I have to do. I say, this is almost as bad as being defeated by those Elements of Harmony bunch. I wonder what they are up to?” Discord asked himself. He pulled up towards Sweet Apple Acres and watched. Applejack was doing her usual chores of kicking the apple trees and gathering apples for the next apple cider sale. Discord thought of a nondestructive prank as he snapped his fingers. Applejack kicked at a tree and knocked the apples down into a small group of baskets around the tree. She wiped the sweat off her forehead as she looked back. “Hey Big Mac, have ya gotten the apples from the south side of the farm?” Applejack asked. The big red colt in questioned came around the corner of the barn, carrying two bushels of apples on his sides. “Eeyup,” he replied, walking into the barn. Applejack smiled with gratification as she walked on over to the last tree and gave it a swift kick. After a moment she realized that the apples didn’t fall out of the tree. “What the?” Applejack said quietly. She gave it another kick, this time harder, and the apples still didn’t fall down. She kicked the tree again, a lot harder and still the apples didn’t fall out. She looked up at the tree and pondered why the apples weren’t coming down. “Now what in tarnation is going on here?!” Applejack asked confused and annoyed. She kicked it with everything she got, hearing a faint crack in the wood, but still the apples did not budge. Applejack gave a frustrated growl as she stared up at them. “Uhh, Applejack, what are ya doin?” asked a voice from behind Applejack. She turned around and saw Applebloom looking up at her confused. “Oh, hi there little sis. Ah’m trying to get these darn apples out of the tree,” she explained. The little filly stared up at her big sister confused and concerned. “Uh, big sis, there is no apples in that tree,” she explained. Applejack chuckled as she turned to point at the apples when she was actually pointing at a dead tree. “What the hay?” she asked confused as she looked around. Discord watched from his cloud and chuckled to himself. “Amusing, but not really that funny. Let’s look for somepony else,” he said as he looked around. He found Rarity standing all alone in the park, reading a book under a tree. Discord looked around and smiled. “I see the pony of fancy I assume, this should be amusing,” Discord said to himself as he looked down at her with a smirk on his face and snapped his fingers. Rarity smiled to herself in content as she looked up at the clouds. “Oh my, what a beautiful day. I do believe I choose a great day to do this while Sweetie Belle goes out with her friends crusading and what not. I say she must learn to let it come to her naturally,” Rarity said to herself as flipped the next page. She looked to her right for a moment as she suddenly noticed a puddle of wet mud by her side. “Oh my, how did I not see that when I came here? I better move away from that filth!” she exclaimed. She started to get up but then a small branch snapped off and landed directly into the puddle of mud, splashing her with mud. She looked in disgust as she looked around in fear. When she didn’t see anyone, she began to freak out. “Oh my god, I am a complete mess! Why did this happen to me on a day like this?! Oh this is completely horrible!” Rarity yelled out as she stormed off for home. Discord laughed as he watched her dart for home. He quickly looked over and snapped his fingers again, making a root poke out in front of another puddle of mud. She ran over without even looking and tripped on the root, falling right in the puddle. Discord burst out laughing as he watched her struggle back up, getting mud all throughout her mane and face, starting to cry. “Oh that was funnier the second time! Oh let’s see if we can do better than that now,” Discord said to himself, looking over at the town. He saw Twilight by the front of her library and twisted his face into an evil grin. “Let’s see what we can cook up for her,” he whispered as he started snickering to himself. Right before he snapped his fingers he saw Princess Celestia come out of Twilight’s tree house and they started talking. “I am sorry about that Twilight, and thank you for letting me use your restroom. Shall we continue discussing the economy possibilities of Canterlot and Ponyville?” Celestia asked politely. Twilight smiled and nodded her head. “Indeed Princess, I believe with a few tweaks, we can make a surprising change in both cities with this next festival coming up,” Twilight started to explain. Discord gagged himself as he looked away. “So much for that idea. Oh well, it couldn’t have been helped. There must be somepony else somewhere around here that would be interesting to mess around,” he said to himself impatiently. After floating around for a minute, Discord thought of something as he suddenly became very annoyed. “If Princess Celestia is here, then having fun today is very limited. If she catches wind on anything, she’ll have my hide, or worse, have me as a garden gnome again,” Discord shivered at that thought. “Hmm, maybe a little reality bending, or maybe just some illusions,” Discord continued to talk to himself laying down on his back on his personal cloud as Pinkie Pie started walking under him. “Good morning Bon-Bon, how are you this morning?” she asked kindly. The pony smiled back at her and shrugged her shoulders. “It’s going pretty good, I got some shopping to do,” she explained. Pinkie Pie hopped around her for a moment before standing in front of her. “Alright, I heard that loaves of bread are on sale today, so you should get them while the deal is going on,” Pinkie Pie advised. Bon-Bon smiled even brighter at her. “Thanks Pinkie, I actually needed some more bread. I’ll make sure to pick some up, thanks for telling me about it,” she called out as she made her way to the bakery. Pinkie Pie smiled her ever so cheerful smile as she waved Bon-Bon goodbye. She continued walking down the street towards the park. Discord heard Pinkie Pie and looked down, watching her approach the park, alone. “Hmmm, I think I just might have thought up of the perfect plan. Oh Discord, you may have outdone yourself this time,” Discord said to himself with a big smile. He was about to snap his fingers when he saw Rainbow Dash flying towards his direction. Discord lowered himself down in his cloud as he watched her get closer. “How annoying, maybe I will have a tiny bit of fun with her first,” he said to himself annoyed as another idea came to his head and snapped his fingers. Rainbow Dash looked around the clouds, looking for Discord. “I saw him up here this morning, where did he go?” Rainbow Dash asked herself, starting to get annoyed. She darted through several clouds as she saw Discords tail poking out on the other side of a black cloud, twitching slightly. “Gotcha!” she exclaimed. With full force she flew straight at the cloud with everything she got. Right when she prepared herself for the collision, she slammed full force into the cloud, stopped dead in her tracks as she made a loud CLANG onto the cloud. The blow dazed Rainbow Dash as she fell out of the sky and towards the pond. Laughter came out from one of the clouds nearby. “Oh come now, we can’t have you falling into the pond now, you will drown,” Discord said as he appeared out of a cloud above the grey one. He snapped his finger and brought her safely next to the pond. Snickering, he placed the sleeping pegasus’ hoof into the pond with the rest of her body outside of it. “Oh you just can’t beat the classics!” he explained, laughing to himself. He looked at the cloud Rainbow Dash crashed into and smiled again. “Clouds these days, can really be difficult to rid of,” he said, knocking on it as it gave off a metallic clang as he hit it. Laughing to himself, he snapped his fingers, making the metal cloud disappear. “Oh that was a good laugh, not to bad of a day. Now where is that pink one? I want to have fun with her!” Discord exclaimed as he searched the ground for her. He found her humming away a she bounced around the park, looking for some pony to play with. Discord smiled as he put his scheme into play, snapping his fingers. “Where is everypony? Normally this place is filled with fillies and foals. Wait, what day is it?” She asked herself, slightly confused. “Today is Thursday,” Discord said behind her. Pinkie Pie turned around and smiled up at him. “Thank you Discord. So if today is Thursday, then that means that they- DISCORD!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping away from him and put a mean face on. Discord chuckled at her attempt of being intimidating. “Relax, my dear Pinkie Pie. I do not mean any harm,” Discord said calmly. “And besides, that face just does not suit you very well,” he added. Pinkie Pie loosened up a bit but still kept her stance. “Why are you here?” she asked, confused but still on guard. Discord pouted at her as he lowered his head. “Well, I am all alone today, and dear Princess Celestia has given me an assignment to observe friendship and try to learn something from it, but whenever I get close enough to watch, they scream and run away or fly way, and in some cases teleport away. I want to do the work that Celestia gave me, but I see that you don’t like me too. It is a shame, I thought if anypony would play with me, it would be you,” Discord said, forming a tear in his eye as he started to look away. Pinkie Pie dropped her guarded stance as she looked at Discord, feeling empathy for him. “Oh, I am sorry. It’s just that you used to be so mean and tried to take over Equestria. I guess I am too quick to judge, can you forgive me? I’ll play with you,” Pinkie Pie offered, trying to show a kind and gentle smile. Discord had his back to her as he smiled sinisterly before switching to a friendly and excited smile as he spun around to face her. “You really mean it? You’ll play with me and help me learn something about friendship?” Discord asked with a cheerful and joyful smile on his face. Pinkie Pie returned the smile as she jumped up and down in giddiness. “Of course, I would like to be your friend if you want,” Pinkie Pie offered. Discord put his paw and clawed hand together with a cheer. “Well that is great news. Thank you Pinkie PIe, I have an idea, let’s play a few games that you like to play and then we will play one game I have been dying to play for months, sound fair?” Discord asked with a smile. “Sure, I like the sound of that,” Pinkie Pie agreed hyperly. “Do you promise that after we play your games we can play mine?” Discord pleaded. Pinkie Pie smiled as she started performing her usual ritual for this occasion. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” she exclaimed as she performed the whole ritual. Discord smiled as he clapped his hands excitedly. “Splendid, now how about three games of yours and then mine?” he asked politely. Pinkie Pie smiled and nodded her head up and down quickly. “Ok, we can do that. Then first, let’s play ball!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Discord nodded his head. “That sounds superb! Nothing like a good old fashion game of ball,” he agreed as he snapped his fingers, making a big, pink ball appear and passing it over to Pinkie Pie. “Yaaa! This is gonna be great!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, giggling in excitement. As the day passed on, they ended up playing games such as pass with the ball, hide and seek, and to finish it off, tag. Once they finished the last game, Pinkie Pie and Discord laid in a field of flowers, panting as the sun was lowering towards the horizon. Pinkie Pie turned to look at Discord as she showed him a big and friendly smile and Discord turned to her as well, returning her smile. “I must say, this day was very eventful, and fun. Did you have fun Pinkie Pie?” Discord asked politely. She giggled as she looked up at him. “I sure did. I don’t think I have had that much fun in weeks!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, looking back over at the sky. Discord stretched himself out as he got up. “Now, I would like to play my little game since we are done with yours,” Discord announced. Pinkie Pie got up with an excited smile and bounced around Discord. “Oh boy! What kinda of game is it?” she asked hyper active again. “Well, it is more like a bet to be honest, a gamble,” Discord explained while smirking. Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing in front of Discord. “What do you mean?” she asked confused. “Well, since you promised, and you can’t break your promises, so I will tell you now. You will be killing your friends,” Discord started Pinkie Pie’s happy, cheerful, smiling face disappeared instantly when she heard those last three words. “No, I won’t do that, I can’t do that! That’s not a game you big meanie head!” she exclaimed, stomping her hoof on the ground angrily. Discord put up his paw/claw, trying to calm her down. “If you would let me finish. You will be killing them, but not for real. I will make an illusion for you to kill them. This is the game. I will create your friends in a world of illusion, if you can kill them using a small portion of my power, I will grant you one wish of any sort. You can fail three times. Every time you fail, the scene will change. Now you must keep a smile on your face the whole time. If you drop your smile for more than a few seconds while any five of them are still alive, then you loose,” Discord explained. Pinkie Pie looked at him carefully as she thought everything she heard over in her head. “So, what could I wish for?” Pinkie Pie asked shyly. Discord smiled sinisterly towards her. “Anything you want, anything at all. I will grant your wish no matter what it will be. You have my word,” Discord assured. PInkie Pie thought about that for a good minute and then looked back up to him. “Do you Pinkie promise?” she asked demandingly. Discord looked at her with an annoyed expression and sighed. “I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye that I will grant you one wish that your heart desires,” Discord assured. Pinkie Pie narrowed her eyes as she took a step towards him. “And that I am not actually killing my friends?” she added. “And that you are not actually killing your friends. I swear!” Discord assured as he raised his right paw in the air. Pinkie Pie looked around nervously to make sure no one is looking. “So, when do we start?” Pinkie Pie asked nervously with discomfort. Discord smiled a sinister smile. “We start now,” he announced as he snapped his fingers.