The sun rose over a curious house with a large garden.
As soon as the sun touched it, a pink plastic flamingo uprooted himself, picked a yoyo from a nearby yoyo tree and started doing tricks, while a small stone pony with a long white beard and a pointed blue hat clopped his hooves.
The stone pony stopped and turned his head, with an expression of amazement, to look at the daisies and roses as they jumped out of their bushes and danced an impromptu ballet around the gray mailbox to the sound of the trees as they played a vines and trunks musical piece.
Inside the house a set of toy soldiers reenacted parades and battles, galloping around with their tiny lances, while happy looking fishes swam through in the placid brook that flowed in a curve between the two side windows.
“Boring.”
The owner of the house, a draconequus called Discord, stifled a yawn as he threw away a strange looking box, the image of a black mouse in a red robe in the cover. Not even the classics could break his monotony today.
While Discord was lost in thought, wondering if he should go wreck some havoc in the castle today, the chandelier grew a mouth and shouted: “Mail!”
That got the draconequus up on his mismatched legs, racing towards the mailbox while grumbling about the mail being late. He left by the front door and looked around confused; slapping his face with a lion paw he got into the house again, rotated it back into position, and finally found the mailbox as he went again through the front door.
He took a look at a gray pegasus mare with golden mane flying away, humming today’s garden melody. His yellow eyes turned wishful. Perhaps he should invite her to …
“How the mighty have fallen. Me, Discord, thinking about begging some pony for company! And I’m even monologuing!”
Discord turned back to the mailbox with a glare of utter irritation. That gray, boring, irritatingly normal mailbox; not only that, but enchanted by Celestia herself to be immune to chaos magic at the request of the postal service, just because of that small incident where his old mailbox spat out a mailmare…
With a sigh, Discord opened the mailbox. It’s a small concession, and receiving Fluttershy’s letters was worth the small sacrifice. Wishfully Discord searched inside the mailbox with his eagle claw...
With a surprised look he pulled multiple letters. There was one from Fluttershy, as expected. There was something official looking from Celestia; he could already imagine how boring it would go, with Celestia subtly but firmly chiding him for some small prank or another. But there was also something unexpected, a small package from some Misty Blossom, and addressed to “my hero Discord”.
Misty Blossom, Misty Blossom… Discord had heard that name. He pulled a roll of film from his ear and started to search something on it while stroking his goatee.
He soon found what he was looking for; with a snap of his fingers, a frame from the film expanded, showing a little pegasus filly, one with green mane and a cerulean coat, hugging his goat leg while a building - a school? an hospital? he didn’t pay attention at the time - burned down in the background. A clown face with an open mouth, big enough to swallow a grown pony, could be seen in place of a window, it’s tongue reaching the floor like a slider.
Storing the film back in his ear Discord opened the package. The first thing he pulled was a crayon drawing of himself and the filly playing. With another finger snap, the drawing jumped out of the paper, crudely drawn draconequus and pony jumping around his feet. Discord would never admit, not even under torture, but the sight did bring some mist to his eyes. A little.
There was still something inside the package. Pulling it out, Discord stared at a comic with some earth pony in a red garb, mane and tail completely wrapped up in green lace, on the cover. Not a new one; this one looked worn, as if it was read many times, but it was well preserved.
Discord started reading the comic; he could almost feel the emotions the filly must have felt while reading the story time and time again. A tear mark here, where the heroine thought a friend was lost; a slight crease there, where the filly must have turned the page a bit too excited. The story was good, Discord had to admit, but his preference was never for static entertainment; what he craved for was the unpredictable reactions of real ponies.
As he continued reading, finding other small marks that showed the filly’s emotions, Discord’s ears perked up as his face formed into an inquisitive smile. “I wonder if…”
With a bit of effort, discord called forth magic to peek into past images tied to emotions. Certainly enough, he saw the same little filly that had hugged his leg. The image laughed, cried, shouted, cheered, and even jumped in joy as he scanned the pages. The clarity startled him; that comic book was certainly treasured by the filly.
Turning back to the start of the comic, Discord took note of the artists that had created the comic. Perhaps he could reach a mutually beneficial agreement with them...
Discord glared at the clock as if he could bore a hole through it. He hated waiting. He hated just sitting somewhere doing nothing even more. He rolled on his couch, as if the clock would be more interesting upside down.
Finally, after five excruciatingly boring minutes, a cream colored pegasus mare Discord recognized as Celestia’s secretary called for him. With a finger snap he removed his couch and fixed the hole on the clock. Waving to two stallions waiting outside Discord entered a small, barely furnished conference room, while the secretary remained outside.
Celestia welcomed him with a nod and a smile, her face as unreadable as ever. Luna was less composed, the ghost of a frown noticeable on her eyes.
Celestia took a step ahead of her sister. “So, what brings you here today, Discord?”
“Oh, nothing of importance. I’m just bored. So I thought of something to pass the time, a small business idea, and since you made that silly request that I submit all such ideas to you -”
“Silly? -”
Celestia gave a firm look towards her sister. “Luna, you are shouting.”
Luna looked at her sister and blushed a bit. “Sorry.”
She glared back at Discord, the red spreading from her cheeks to the rest of her face. At least she wasn’t shouting anymore. “Silly? Every time you decide to have a hobby or open a business you create a disaster! Or did you forget when you decided to give away living toys, and those toys promptly started wreaking havoc on the children’s houses?”
“You have to admit that the children loved the toys.”
“Sure, they loved the toys. Which doubled the hassle in clearing the whole mess. We had the parents screaming at us for all the damage the toys had done, and the children screaming at us because we were taking away their loved toys!”
Discord’s face grew exasperated. “You know, I was trying to offer to make new toys to give them, but somepony refused to even let me speak.”
Luna was getting visibly angrier, if that was even possible. “And what about when you decided to color coordinate the guard and the castle servants for Cadance’s visit? You made everypony pink.”
Discord winked with a puppy stare. “It was lovely, don’t you agree? Cadance was in such high spirits that day!”
“You made my coat pink!”
Celestia glared again at her sister and spoke calmly. “Luna, might you stop using the royal canterlot voice? My ears are ringing already.”
“Sorry, but Discord is being… Aaagh!”
A knowing smile. “I know.” Celestia made a serious face as she looked towards Discord. “And you should keep in mind that whether or not you get to implement your business idea, and the degree of supervision we will require, will be our joint decision. Teasing my sister is not in your best interest.”
Discord retrieved his smiling head from the ground. “You know how it is, sometimes I lose my head.” He plopped his head back. “But don’t I deserve a chance? Didn’t I rescue those adorable foals, just last week, when that school -”
“Hospital.” Interrupted Luna curtly.
“Hospital, whatever. Don’t I deserve a chance, if only as a reward?”
Luna sighed. “Yes, I guess. Before I regret this, what do you have in mind this time?”
“Oh, nothing to be alarmed. You see, -” Discord snapped his fingers. He looked at his eagle claw and snapped them again. And again.
He turned to Celestia. “Have I ever told how much a spoilsport you are?”
“Only three times this week.” Answered Celestia with the sweetest of smiles. Luna started giggling.
“Fine, if you want to do this the hard way.“ Discord marched to the doors and snuck his head outside. “You guys can come in.”
The two stallions that had been waiting outside entered after Discord, fidgeting in the presence of the princesses. One was a large, pale green earth pony with short cropped golden mane, wearing white round glasses; the other was a slim white unicorn with a black mane.
As the two stallions nervously bowed down, Luna’s recently collected face formed a surprised expression, her mouth slightly open as her eyes darted between their cutie marks; a speech bubble with a purple foxglove for the earth pony, and a smiling red and golden sun in a canvas for the unicorn.
Celestia bowed her head slightly, acknowledging the two stallions. “You may rise. And please, dispense further formalities; I don’t think we would be able to keep this meeting formal with Discord present, after all. Now, who might you be?”
As the earth pony stallion opened his mouth to answer Luna was already speaking. “They are Green Fields and Dawn Glory, the writer and artist that created Mistress Mare-velous.”
Discord nodded at Luna. “But of course! They are the ponies that will help me spread the wonder of comics!”
“And knowing Discord, I believe he already tried to create something by himself, but couldn’t quite get the hang of it. Isn’t it right, “ - Celestia turned to the closest of the two stallions, the white unicorn - “ mister Dawn Glory?”
“Y- yes, your highness. Discord does have the raw talent for creating comics, but his stories are too… random…” - Discord gave him and Celestia both an exasperated glance - “ to attract an audience. Despite that we were intrigued by his idea, and when he assured us that it would have the approval and supervision of both your highness and Princess Luna, we decided to give it a try.”
Luna, recovered from the earlier shock, raised an eyebrow. “And that idea would be?”
Green Fields pulled a comic from his saddlebag and held it on his hoof. “We always wanted to share our stories with other ponies, get them to really immerse themselves. What Discord proposed us is creating enchanted comics that would allow the reader to live the adventure contained within. Dawn Glory has already probed the prototype and couldn’t find anything harmful -”
“Allow me.” Luna’s magic was already enveloping the comic. “I’m sensing little magic, nothing capable of having permanent effects…” She turned to Discord. “Did you use a variation of the Ethereal Prison?”
“You are right, as I would expect of the moon princess. I call it the Ethereal Shelter; it protects the body inside the comic, ends together with the comic story or when it’s magic runs out in a few hours, and can be easily broken by damaging the comic. We don’t want ponies drooling all over their comics, now, do we?”
Luna nodded, though she didn’t relax. “And you have a dream spell tied to… some external device?”
Discord reached into the earth pony’s other saddlebag and produced another comic. “That would be the failsafe. This here is a master comic; it tells me when any of the linked comics are in use, and I can use it to see what is happening and stop the dream spell, as you called it, in case anything goes wrong.”
Luna probed the magic a bit more and raised an eyebrow. “Was it your intent make this something I can use dream magic to enter?”
“Why, yes, of course! I did promise those fine gentlecolts that the princesses would monitor the venture, didn’t I?”
“And what will you get out of this, Discord?”
“Oh, haven’t you figured out? Throwing ponies into chaotic and unexpected situations to see how they react? It’s just like the glorious old times! Apart from the fact everypony will take part willingly, of course.”
Celestia glanced inquisitively at Luna. “So, what do you think sister? Should we allow this venture?”
Luna finally relaxed, allowing a weak smile to surface. “I’m sure I will regret saying this, but I actually think this is a good idea. Yes, Discord can proceed -”
“Yes!” Discord was almost dancing in place.
“- But I have a few requirements. Green Fields and Dawn Glory shall have veto power over any comic, you will keep this experiment restricted to just a single store here in Canterlot for the time being, everypony purchasing an enchanted comic shall be told that the story could be monitored, and I want a set of master comics of my own before you start distributing them to other ponies.”
“Well, how about we start now? I can leave the master comics I have with you until I make new ones, and we do have about a dozen volunteers waiting for their chance to live their heroes’ adventures quite eagerly, if I might say so.” The two stallions nodded at the last part. “And we do need the early tests to fine-tune which kinds of stories to offer.”
“Very well. You may proceed immediately with your current volunteers.”
Discord’s ears dropped a bit as he looked down. “On the other paw, monitoring the first test is going to be hard; I will need to pay close attention all the time to make sure nothing unexpected happens. No offense meant, princess, but you might not be up for the task. Oh, well, a small delay while I make new master comics won’t disappoint the volunteers much.”
“Nonsense. I deal with nightmares across Equestria on a daily basis, I sure can handle a dozen or so ponies dreaming of happy adventures. But if you are so concerned, we can meet tomorrow just after I finish lowering the moon.”
“Oh, I will be there.” Said Discord with a widening smile.
Celestia and Luna were walking through a corridor, the white wall painted red by the setting sun.
“But Tia, how could you remain so calm back there? Discord turned you pink too! And still you kept smiling the whole time!”
“Like this?” Celestia gave a serene smile, while Luna’s semblance grew exasperated. “I can help you master this skill quite fast, if you want. You just have to stay at your nephew’s mansion for a month or two. “
“Ugh, by the moon, no! I would rather crash with Discord.”
Something inside Luna’s saddlebags started to glow. Celestia nodded towards it.
“Is that one of the master comics, Luna?”
Luna took out a comic with a pony in a tuxedo on the cover and flipped the pages with a smile. “Yes. Donut Joe is inside a spy story. Wow, he seems quite competent at it!” She kept looking for a couple minutes, entranced.
“It seems like you are having fun.” This time Celestia’s smile was a warm, true one.
“Discord was right, this is fun.”
Celestia giggled. “I’m glad to hear that, though I have to ask you to put it away for a little while. We have to switch the sun and moon now.”
Later that night Luna was on her bed with the master comics spread around her. She had already seen a few stories to their conclusion, and discreetly sent pegasi guards to make sure the ponies that entered the stories were well; all the reports were encouraging, with one belated guard telling a tale of how Donut Joe was in such high spirits that he spent almost an hour talking about his adventures.
She hated to admit it, but this time Discord actually had a good idea. Everypony seemed to have greatly enjoyed the comics thus far, and if it kept Discord from getting bored and doing his little weekly disasters, it would double this venture’s worth in her eyes.
Back from her train of thought Luna noticed one of the master comics glowing; it was the only one without a cover image, and like every other master comic the interior was blank unless someone was in a linked story. She opened the master comic near the end, curious about what the mysterious story was about and who was taking part…
And promptly threw that master comic against a wall, her face turning a deep purple.
Discord was waiting in the same small conference room as sunrise approached, watching the moon set. As it approached the horizon the moon seemed to plunge, as if it was in a hurry.
Sure enough, shortly after he heard a familiar voice yelling.
“Discord, you better be here already!”
With a clash the room’s door opened, Luna eschewing her magic to open the doors with her own hooves. Her rearing form was momentarily framed on the doorway; furrowed eyebrows, mouth in a scowl, mane flowing with power, and a furious blush. She dropped to the floor with a crash and stomped inside. The secretary took the clue to quickly and discreetly flee the room through a side door.
“Luna, Luna. Didn’t Celestia tell you to mind your voice?”
Luna’s horn glowed, briefly encompassing the whole room and shutting off every external sound as the doors closed. She then took the blank master comic and almost shoved it on Discord’s face.
“WHAT. IS. THIS.”
“Why, it’s the master comic for the more, how might I say, mature stories. We didn’t draw a cover for it because it might be inappropriate in certain places, mind you.” He made a concerned face. “Oh, don’t tell me you opened this one. Those stories are more intimate, you know. Didn’t I tell you to only open it in case of an emergency?”
“No. You didn’t.”
“Sorry, slipped my mind.” Said Discord in an apologetic tone.
Closing her eyes, Luna took a deep, long breath. Her face set in a neutral pose, and while her voice was now lower, it was still menacing.
“Tell me one reason why I should let your little comic fun continue.”
Discord assumed a deadpan tone and counted on his claws. “Because your two favorite authors have dreamed of letting others live their stories their whole lives. Because everypony who entered one of those comics loved it - even that white one, and even knowing the story could be monitored. Because you just confirmed there was no risk, no pony got even close to being hurt. And because, despite my little joke, you know it is a good idea.”
“Gah. You win this time, but I will get you back for this.”
Discord blew a raspberry as Luna left the room stomping. A few moments after Celestia entered.
“From my sister’s behavior I guess you played a trick on her.”
“Why, did little Lulu go cry on her sister’s shoulder?”
“No. But you might want to back down from doing any nasty pranks on her, unless you fancy being on the receiving end as well.”
“Oh, please. You can tell her to do her worst. Or is big sister going to start defending little Lulu?”
“I don’t need to; she is stronger than you think.” Celestia’s smile turned mischievous. “By the way, the anti-chaos shield on this room and your mailbox? Those are not my hoofwork.”
Discord took a second to process the phrase. Then realization dawned on him, his face settling on an annoyed semblance. “Oh, poo.”
The prank war against Luna wasn’t going as well as Discord wanted.
Ever since Celestia taught the anti-chaos shield to Luna she was able to avoid most of Discord’s pranks. Worse, she had found ways to use the anti-chaos shield to prank Discord himself. He, the master of chaos and lord of pranks, being pranked by a mere -
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. It was the gray mailmare delivering a large package. She also asked something about playing in the garden with her daughter, but Discord wasn’t paying attention, so he just nodded, made sure the garden was as chaotic as always, and got back inside while two excited ponies played with his flowers outside.
His attention was on a master comic on top of a table. With the first store for enchanted comics opening he had his pick of ponies to watch, but he was waiting for one special “guest”, a purple baby dragon that had purchased a Power Ponies enchanted comic and left without hearing how the comic worked.
Discord could already see the faint glow on the master comic; Spike was getting to the part when he would enter the Power Ponies story. Any moment now…
The master comic glowed, signaling the start of Spike’s adventure. But then it kept emitting bursts of light, six more. Curious, Discord quickly flipped through the pages.
His face turned to pure glee, as he quickly conjured a sofa and a big popcorn bowl. “Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”
Eagerly watching the action, soon Discord was rolling on the floor with laughter. Twilight Sparkle and her friends had entered the comic with Spike, but they didn’t know anything about their characters and were basically defeating themselves! Rainbow Dash, as the climate-controlling Zapp, had just trapped all her friends by accidentally conjuring a tornado. The villain Mane-iac was already leaving, which Discord knew would trigger a scene change, when on a flight of fancy Discord reached through the comic and made her recline on a bed of her own hair, allowing the scene to play out in full.
The rest of the story wasn’t as fun, but it was still entertaining. Discord kept watching, munching his popcorn -
Until he saw Fluttershy about to be hit by Mane-iac’s secret weapon, still unable to wake the power she was granted by the story. If it was any of the others Discord wouldn’t mind, but Fluttershy was the one pony he didn’t want to see suffer, to feel like she couldn’t help her friends. Thinking about what to do, Discord glanced at his fishes, swimming through the stream that was passing through the windows again.
Fishes. He remembered how Fluttershy had stared him down when she thought Discord was scaring those stupid fishes. Fluttershy’s stare when she was defending little critters was a completely different, and far more powerful, thing than the one she used in her attempt to reform him…
A light bulb lighted above Discord’s head. He took the comic book and used his power to add a small, nearly unnoticeable detail: a firefly obstructing Mane-iac’s aim.
That was enough. In her haste to fire at Fluttershy, Mane-iac thoughtlessly batted at the firefly, finally making Fluttershy angry enough to trigger her power and turning her into the unstoppable Saddle Rager. The battle was over shortly after, Mane-iac and her henchman utterly defeated; shortly after the master comic glowed again, signaling the end of the adventure as the ponies and dragon were returned to the real world.
Discord closed his eyes and promptly started to laugh again. Remembering everypony’s faces as they initially found themselves useless, he made a mental note to ask Dawn Glory to draw that first combat against Mane-iac, absentmindedly opened the big package he received earlier -
And promptly got a facefull of cream pie. He snapped his fingers, expecting the worst; sure enough, the cream pie was shielded against chaos magic. Swiping cream from his eyes, Discord looked at the bottom of the box, looking for another of his tormentor's notes.
“You just got pranked by the oldest trick in my book, and that is telling something.”
Completing the note was Luna’s face blowing a raspberry, and as soon as Discord finished the note he heard laughter coming from outside. Frowning, he went to take a look.
It was the gray mailmare pegasus and her daughter, which Discord now noticed was an unicorn filly, her body something between gray and violet and her mane golden.
“Well, my vengeance against Luna can wait.”
Discord cleaned his head with a wet towel and went outside to play with the two ponies. It was rare to find such chaos loving souls, after all.
Luna glided down towards Discord’s house as the eastern sky reddened. How in the heavens did Celestia even convince her to talk to Discord? Sure, that little filly deserved help with her nightmares, but Luna was certain she could just speak to her in dreams and…
With a start Luna noticed something, or the lack of something. There was light in the windows, but there was no chaos. No trees singing, no flowers dancing, no toy cavalry charge against the mailbox. The garden was more normal than she had ever seen it.
Something was very amiss. Discord didn’t need much concentration to keep his garden chaotic; he could literally do it in his sleep, as Luna had presenced before. Silently, she looked through a front window.
Even the interior of Discord’s house was less chaotic than usual. The oddly calming stream going through the side windows was there, but nothing else was moving, and few things were out of place.
Something colorful caught Luna’s eye; two identical comic books on top of a worktable. They were also the same as the one in the filly’s dream. Why does Discord even…
A flash of light behind her caught Luna by surprise. “Ahem. So our little despotic all-powerful ruler now resorts to creeping around to win our little duel?”
“Nothing like that. I need to talk with you a bit.”
Discord raised an eyebrow. “To gloat, pechance.”
Irritation was creeping on Luna’s voice. “We do not gloat!”
With a flash of light, a small note appeared, and Luna found herself staring at a rendition of herself blowing a raspberry.
“Fine, we do gloat on occasion, but not this time. I came to talk about a filly’s nightmare -”
“So you now accuse me of giving nightmare to fillies. At this rate you will be blaming me for every little thing that goes wrong -”
Luna’s eyebrows furrowed in anger, her glare intense. “CEASE THY PRATTLING AT ONCE!”
Discord gave a mock bow, his voice dripping sarcasm. “As you wish, your highness.”
Celestia’s Sun, give us patience. “A little filly is having nightmares about you every night.”
“And?”
With a scowl, Luna ignored the interruption. “She dreams that she gives you a comic book; it makes you angry, and you go away leaving her behind. It drives her to tears every time. For a whole week she has woken crying.”
“And that filly would be?” There was no more sarcasm on his voice.
Caught by surprise by Discord’s non confrontational tone, Luna looked down. “I don’t know her name. She is a blue pegasus, green mane, without a cutie mark.”
“Misty Blossom.” There was something unexpected on Discord’s voice. Kindness? It was over too fast for Luna to be certain. She looked back at his eyes. “If you want to help her, better get inside. I propose a truce.”
“Agreed,” said Luna as she followed Discord towards the house. She stopped at the open door. “Discord…”
“What? ...Oh, of course.” He snapped his fingers, making about a dozen pies floating behind the doorway disappear. “I’m awfully distracted right now.” he snapped his fingers a couple more times, flashes of light coming from random places in the house. “Every trick and trap is gone for the time being. And don’t you dare cast that nasty anti-chaos spell inside my own house!”
Luna eyed the comics on the table with curiosity. “Did she really give…”
“Yes. This one …“ Discord pointed to the left one, worn but still in good condition “… she gave to me. It’s what gave me the idea of making enchanted comics in the first place. That one …“ he pointed to the right one, identical but in mint condition “... I want to give her as a reward. I only got both authors to autograph it today - “ Discord glanced at the increasingly brighter window “ - I mean, yesterday.”
“So, why didn’t you deliver it yet?”
“It’s that spell I copied from you.” Luna lifted an eyebrow. Discord continued talking, pacing around. “You know what I’m talking about. The dream spell in the enchanted comics. Every time somepony leaves the story, the spell destroy the comic. I can’t give that filly a reward that will be destroyed the first time she uses it.”
“It’s the failsafe.” Said Luna in a deadpan voice.
“What?”
“Out of control dream magic is too dangerous, both for the caster and for the target. Before you even came to Equestria I revised every dream spell to contain a failsafe, to destroy itself instead of just failing. It’s what happens with the comics when the pony leaves the story.”
Discord lifted his front paws in frustration. “Great, just great. Now I find about it, after wasting a whole night while … the filly I want to reward has a nightmare!”
Luna looked from Discord to the new comic. She wasn’t sure if Discord liked the filly or not, but if he did it was clear that he had trouble demonstrating it. When she finally spoke, she didn’t bother to hide the kindness in her voice. “If you want, I will deliver your gift to her. I can also throw a little spell that will give her good dreams for many years whenever the comic guards her sleep.” She shot a sheepish glance at Discord. “And no, it won’t destroy the comic in the end.”
“Would you do that for… her?” There, the same unexpected emotion on Discord’s voice, again only for a split second. “Of course you would; she is one of your precious little ponies. Here,” a greeting card with Discord on the front appeared in a flash, “take this with the comic.”
Luna finished lowering the moon and went to her workshop. She wanted the spell on the comic to be perfect.
She thought about Discord, and on a whim tweaked the spell so the dreams would include him as a hero besides Mistress Mare-velous. A kind and warm smile spread through Luna’s face; dreaming of Discord would make the filly happy, and if what Luna had perceived was really kindness then Discord also deserved this chance.
Luna took the finished comic and Discord’s card, going to her balcony; she knew the filly would already be awake. The Discord that Luna saw today was one that, going against her expectations, seemed capable of caring, perhaps even of loving; he deserved this little favor, and Luna would have done it for the little filly anyway. Spreading her wings, Luna’s smile turned mischievous; regardless of that, she would still make Discord regret the day he entered a prank war against her!