Chapter 14

Applejack was amazed, she couldn't form words to describe it, she wouldn't believe it if she wasn't standing in front of it right now. She wondered if Discord knew what those seeds did, I mean if he knew he wouldn't have given it to her, right? The tree looked like it was made of crystal, or diamonds, and it didn't have leafs, sort of like they fell off. The tree also had a few unbloomed flowers on it, or at least she thought it was flowers, she wouldn't be surprised if they had crystal looking flowers on them. Applejack wasn't sure how long she was staring at the tree for, all she knows was when she finally snapped to her senses, it was sundown already. Maybe she should thank Discord for this.

"So you've never had a party before!?" Pinkie yelled in disbelief.

"Not really" Screwball said, looking confused at Pinkie. What was the big deal, she didn't think parties were that important.

"That's horrible! If you've never had a party before then that means you've never had one of MY parties before and if you never had one of my parties before that means you've never had a party before!" Pinkie yelled quickly, Screwball and Fluttershy barely understood.

"If you had a party, then it would be a good opportunity for Discord to bond with you" Fluttershy said smiling, she wanted to see how Discord would be at being a father… just out of curiosity.

"I guess that's true" Screwball said, not looking very excited.

"Then it's settled, when we get to Ponyville I'll give you one of my patent Pinkie Parties!" Pinkie cheered.

"Fine fine" Screwball said waving her hands to stop Pinkie. "But should we interrupt those two?" Screwball asked, looking at Discord and Twilight, they seemed to have forgotten about the rest of them. Discord was explaining his magic to Twilight and she was happily writing down notes and asking questions.

"No we shouldn't, I haven't seen Twilight so excited" Fluttershy said, smiling as she looked at Twilight who was writing notes with a big grin on her face.

"Jeez, why can't he just implant the knowledge in her head?" Screwball asked, being a little jealous of how much attention Discord was giving Twilight. "Well how did you two become his *cough* 'friends' anyway?" Screwball decided to ask.

"Oh, well princess Celestia asked me to reform him and" Fluttershy started but was interrupted by Screwballs loud giggles. She then coughed a bit.

"Sorry, go on" Screwball said, regaining her composure.

"and I decided to treat him as my friend, even though my friends were so against him, eventually he grew to trust me and I grew to trust him too" Fluttershy said smiling. Screwball looked confused.

"So you only did it because your higher sun goddess asked you to do it?" Screwball asked.

"Well at first yes, but now I really like being his friend" Fluttershy said, not lying even a little. She enjoyed being with Discord, even though he was rude sometimes he was also nice, in his own way at least. Screwball blinked twice, then looked at Pinkie.

"What about you?" Screwball asked.

"I challenged him to a cotton candy eating contest" Pinkie said, smiling as if it was the most normal thing she said. Screwball snorted loudly.

"Let me guess, you lost" Screwball asked.

"Actually, I don't remember" Pinkie said, scratching her head.

"You probably ate yourself into a coma!" Screwball laughed and fell back, making Pinkie laugh with her. "Now that is a story!" she added, still laughing.

"Discord, where are you?" Celestia said loudly, walking into his new house. It looked a lot cleaner then she remembered. "Discord" Celestia repeated. No answer. She wandered the house, no sign of him anywhere, he must've left. Celestia then remembered a tracking spell, her horn glowed a bit and she felt Discord's magic. This is strange, she also felt another small magic, chaotic magic. She must go and investigate. She prepared to teleport to Discord.

Going so soon?

…

What's the matter Tia? Scared of me?

I do not fear you.

But you fear HIM right? Why else are you prone to investigate him?

I must protect my subjects

From him?

From you.

I'm safely tucked away in my little crystal, what's the problem? I'll tell you, HE is the problem right?

…

I'm right aren't I? You're scared at what he's becoming.

I don't fear for myself, I fear for the others.

Make all the excuses you want little Tia but the fact of the matter is you don't trust him

As a princess, I must…

As a princess? What are you a robot? Can't you have your own free will little one?

I don't need to listen to you.

So why are you still here? I'll tell you why, because you and Discord are my puppets.

I'm not your tool.

You both do a good job at keeping me entertained, but now I need something new.

Silence.

You may be able to silence me, but you can't silence the words of doubt you got in your head.

Quiet.

Yes! Go ahead and run my little puppet!

QUIET!

You and your little pupil Twilight Sparkle will soon be mine!

LEAVE ME ALONE!

Ha-ha! Just like Discord! You're both weak!

"And this magic can't be used to directly hurt anything that feels pain, but it can be used to MAKE something that can inflict pain on others" Discord said, looking down at Twilight to wait for her to finish writing that down. "It can be used to mentally hurt anything that can think, but only if said thing accepts the user OR if they're too weak to defend themselves" Discord added.

"mhmm* Twilight hummed, writing it down.

"Also if you, oh hello princess Sunbutt" Discord suddenly joked, making Twilight look up from her notes to see Celestia standing above her.

"Princess Celestia" Twilight smiled as she stood up.

"Twilight, my must faithful student" she smiled back, then looked up at Discord. "Discord, it's good to see you're doing well" she added, making Discord flinch a bit.

"Princess?" Both Pinkie and Fluttershy said in unison, Screwball turned around to see Celestia.

"So what brings you here, come to see if I'm behaving myself?" Discord joked but got no response from Celestia. She just looked directly at Screwball, finding out she was the source of chaos magic she felt earlier.

"Oh I'm sorry 'princess' did I forget to bow?" Screwball playfully asked, bowing down in a playful way.

"May I ask who you are?" Celestia asked.

"I'm Screwball" Screwball responded, summoning a nametag that read 'hello, you're speaking too SCREWBALL'. Celestia looked a bit worried about her magic.

"Discord, care to explain?" Celestia asked turning to Discord.

"Celestia, meet my daughter Screwball" Discord said.

"No! No! No!" Rarity yelled, crumbling up the paper and tossing it on the pile of 20 other papers. At this point Sweetie Belle was getting worried for her sister.

"Anything I can do to help?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"No! No! No!" Rarity yelled again.

"Well um… I'm going to be staying over with Applebloom and Scootaloo tonight, I'll see you later…" Sweetie Belle said as she slowly backed out of the room.

"Gah!" Rarity yelled in response, crumbling another piece of paper with a failed idea. Nothing was working, she couldn't get another design ready and her previous ideas seemed dull to her now, what was wrong with her? Suddenly it hit her.

"Discord, this must be HIS doing!" Rarity growled loudly, this had his name written all over. She didn't care what time it was nor how long it would take, she was getting the next train to Canterlot, his home wasn't too far from there.

Applejack didn't know why, but she felt she needed to thank Discord right away, she must be going crazy for even considering thanking him, he is Discord after all. Applejack was waiting for the train when she spotted Rarity waiting nearby, she looked incredibly frustrated and everyone around her looked uncomfortable, was she going to see Discord too? Applejack decided not to approach her, she didn't feel like conversing anyway.

"Then in the span of 10 second I made Screwball" Discord concluded, everyone but Celestia already heard this story, well Screwball already knew it. At this point Discord summoned a chair to sit on.

"Discord, you do realize the extent of what you did correct?" Celestia asked, Discord rolled his eyes.

"I know I 'violated the laws of nature' or something" Discord replied, laying back on his chair.

"No Discord, Screwball is pure chaos magic, I cannot allow this" Celestia sternly said.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"She is uncontrolled chaos magic, she could easily lose control or hurt somepony" Celestia said.

"I assure you I have plenty of control" Screwball said, she was laying on a floating couch.

"Be that as it may, she is a danger to everypony, including herself, she cannot be allowed to keep her magic" Celestia said, making Discord fall of his chair.

"Hey who are you to come and tell me what I can and can't have?" Screwball asked, looking annoyed.

"Are you asking me to kill her?" Discord asked, looking angry, Celestia didn't respond. "If I take away her magic, she'll cease to exist!" He added.

"Discord, she is too dangerous" Celestia said.

"So you're going to kill for what I might do?" Screwball asked, not looking worried at all.

"Princess, isn't there another way?" Fluttershy asked, she looked very worried.

"I'm afraid not" Celestia said, she remembered the last time she let chaos magic develop too far.

"You're not even going to give her a chance?" Discord asked, looking angrier with each word.

"I can't risk that" Celestia said.

"But that isn't fair!" Pinkie yelled, making everyone turn to her. "If we didn't give he a chance, how can we tell if she is a bad guy or not? Or a bad girl? I mean if we instantly gave up on everypony who could be bad then the world would be bad because nopony would give anypony a chance! Look at Dizzy! We gave him a second chance, why can't we give Screwball a first chance?" she said a little quickly. Fluttershy and Discord smiled at her remark while Twilight and Celestia looked shocked.

"Well said little pink one" Screwball joked. Celestia looked down a bit, then looked back up at Discord.

"Alright, I'll allow you to keep her, Pinkie is correct she does deserve a chance" Celestia admitted, making Discord sigh a bit.

"I was getting a bit worried there" Discord sighed, sitting back down on his chair.

"Although Discord, that wasn't what I came to discuss, please follow me" Celestia said, walking outside.

"I hope it isn't more questions" Discord said as he followed her outside.

Nothing like some free time to yourself to help you catch up on your story.