Short story set in RainbowDoubleDash's Lunaverse: In the aftermath of the Grand Galloping Gala, Zizanie receives a visitor that she would have never expected...
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Lev the Lurker
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Huh, so you went ahead and fully published. Well, good on you; this is well writen and deserves to be in the public eye.
That's not to say I agree with everything you've written here. I'm especially leery of the idea that Screwball would be openly working with Shadowbolts. I'm also not at all fond of this notion that Discord popping into existence had anything to do with ponies trying to control the world, or that he was just "overreacting". Discord, despite his claims of embodying chaos, was clearly a control freak himself -- not a force of change, but a tyrant who bends reality itself to his will for his own perverse amusement and who blatantly admits to taking pleasure from watching others suffer (not just getting pushed out of their comfort zone ruts, but actual grievously suffer).
At the same time though, there are parts I really like. Notably the line, "I'll tell you when you're older," which could tie in nicely with one idea that's been toyed with over on the Lunaverse boards where Screwball might in fact be the FIRST discordian -- the original daughter of Discord. I also enjoyed her general flippancy in responding to Zizanie's questions with answers that while technically accurate provide no meaningful information. Plus chlorate milk gags are always fun.
Not sure if anything here should be canon, but that's not what's important. You wrote a good little scene here and you should feel good for doing so.
I am perfectly ok with all of this. And I can actually picture Screwball working for the shadowbolts. It makes a frightening amount of sense........
Yeah, you should be proud of this. I can say in perfect honesty that I would have never thought this up, nor would I have pulled it off so well.
Possible plot hole: I didn't think Z needed her horn to cast chaos magic, so how would a horn ring restrain her that way?
Possible plot hole patching plaster: If Luna stripped her of her little spark of chaos that let her do chaos magic, the horn ring would do the trick just fine.
I really liked this.
I'm also a bit surprised that Screwball herself is the Discordian in question, but she works well in this scene, and I do like the chocolate milk bit. It seems very... well, Screwball ish. :-)
I'm guessing Octavia wouldn't get along too well with her if they met. :-)
Maybe this is a philosophical thing, but I'm not sure of the difference between disorder and chaos here, unless chaos is just "disorder, but more so."
Did Luna somehow make her realize that messing with others like that is wrong magically, or does this just mean that, now that her own life is screwed up, she gets why she shouldn't have messed with others?
I almost feel like this could be a rebuke of the Vault ponies, although I guess there's no reason to think that Screwball knows about that. More topically, it occurs to me that some of the five political villains are all about order and control, so maybe this indicates that Screwball is happy to see them specifically taken down?
Good job!
2263280
...I didn't mean to fully publish, I just don't know the system very well x.x
Read what she says about Discords origins like you would any religion's founding mythology; it's a very biased view and not necessarily accurate.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, and if you think that ponies were scared of Corona, imagine what an all-powerful, controlfreak goddess who wants to destroy monsters and maintain order in her kingdom would be to the Discordians. Satan was at least a fallen angel; the Tyrant Sun is basically like C'thulu to Discordians, and it would make sense for the more moderate members to want to help prop up Luna just as the better alternative to dying to a solar flare.
2263577
RDD used the ring as something that fully shut off her magic, so i assumed he still had it here. I kinda agree with you, but not my verse.
2263694
This is actually a philosophical truth for real life Discordians, which is that the idea that things have a place/order and can ever be out of it/in disorder is a falsehood that people impose on the world to try to make sense of it. Reality is actually chaos, which shouldn't make sense, so you should never eat hotdog buns except on fridays. Fnord.
It's not breaking the rules unless you get caught, and Luna basically snapped her hoof off inside the cookie jar (metaphorically and emotionally, i mean)
Think of Joker's speech to Harvey in the hospital, about schemers. He's one of my heroes
Waiting on RDD's word really on whether he's cool with this, but if you guys would like to make it a webisode then I can edit it. I also really liked writing Screwball; I've tried a lot of times to make a world (non-pony) where a Discordian made sense to the setting, but never really liked any of them. So yeah, pretty happy with this, and also had a few nice lines i had to cut saved for if I do something with her again.
2264106 From ATGGG Chap 12 This is the line that I caught.
Zizanie sneered at Trixie. “You forgot something,” she hissed. “I spiked the punch bowl. I wonder how many ponies here have had a drink tonight?”
Shining Armor’s horn glowed, encasing Zizanie’s entire body in a second pink globe, even as the first one around her horn remained in place. “Your horn is out of commission,” he observed.
Zizanie closed her eyes, grinning wickedly. She took in a deep breath, put a hoof to Shining Armor’s bubble…then simply pushed forward and through it with no apparent effort. Once free, she shook her head, and the globe around her horn was thrown off like it was nothing more than a child’s hoof ball. Her entire body was glowing with jagged, chaotic magic.
Zizanie opened her eyes. Both had become tiger-slitted and red as she looked at a stunned Trixie and Shining Armor. “I don’t need my horn to do magic,” she said. Then she whinneyed, rising up, and stomped on the ground.
There was a burst of magic.
2264164 Found the part I remembered in the chapter after that:
So yeah, plot hole there... Not exactly mine, though, so I don't wanna start pouring cement in to fix it lest I bury someone's cat... Should probably ask RDD what type of dungeon they have her in and just edit it from there.
On the other hand, I like chaos magic being far harder to nullify, sorta like trying to handcuff a shapeshifter.
2264179: *insert joke about Battle Royale collars here*
Well, at least someone has come along and explained why it is that the Court should never had control of the Bearers. Letting idiots like Fisher, Puissance and Greengrass interfering with their necessary freedom of action would have doomed the country.
Since this was an accident, for future reference, DO NOT click the "submit" button unless you want the story to become public.
2264106
Fair enough.
This, however, doesn't really sell me. It sounds far to "orderly" and unified an opinion, for what you seem to otherwise be proposing.
And this... this troubles me greatly. Someone like the joker should NEVER ever, ever, ever, ever (that's four-ever, as Pinkie Pie would put it) be anyone's hero -- not even in jest. He's a psychopath and murder who only preaches about chaos as an excuse to justify his own misdeeds. Doubly so for the Christopher Nolan movie, where he was rather blatantly called out on it.
I respect you philosophical beliefs, but characters like the Joker and Discord are NOT role models and shouldn't be propped up as spokesmen for real life Discordianism. It would be like the Catholic Church running a recruitment drive featuring posters of Claude Frollo (the Disney movie version).
2263280
In defense of Screwball RE: Discord: everything she's saying is being filtered through, well, her, and her own views and ideas and opinions on him. She seems to really embrace the idea of chaos as a force of change and fundamentally good, while Discord is anything but - chaos, for him, is simply for his own personal amusement, and screw anyone else. Also, if she's not Discord's first daughter (which I'd favor, personally), she may just be going off her own understanding of Discord as a mythological figure.
She's coming across as a far better embodiment of pure chaos than Discord in any event, who is chaos tainted by evil and selfishness. She's a slaad, not a tanar'ri. And that will make sense if you've played D&D.
Also, though, Imma echo your later comment about the Joker. The Joker isn't about chaos, not really. He's simply insane. He wants to watch the world burn and suffer and hurt because he gets off on it. He doesn't want people to have the same freedom, he wants people to be his playthings. He utterly lacks the capacity to care for other human beings. I'm a big believer in the idea that we should never call people like Hitler or Pol Pot "monsters" because I think we need to remember that they weren't monsters, they were human, and any one of us could theoretically become like them...
...but the Joker is a monster, plain and simple.
2264179
Luna isn't sure it'd work, but it's still better than not trying it at all. Could be that Luna herself beefed up the ring or something; I imagine that Zizanie's chaos magic is very strong but Luna can still overpower it since it's very diluted.
Anyway - Imma echo everyone else here, this is actually very good! I'm actually torn about whether it should be non-canon or semi-canon. Hmm...
It's worth noting: Zizanie's scene in Gala was originally slightly bigger; it was cut short to prevent a tangent. She was going to make a comment about how Luna wasn't mentioning the fact that she's a Discordian, and Luna was going to say something to the effect of "you have a seed of chaos, but you're still a pony." She was then going to comment that she was aware of ten other Discordians in Equestria; two were in jails, one was a mayor of a town, and the remaining seven led normal, full lives, and that no matter the seed they carried, giving into their chaotic nature was a choice. When Zizanie pointed out that this was easy for Luna to say since she didn't have a cutie mark denoting blackmail, Luna was going to respond that a cutie mark is what you make of it - that's why ponies with identical cutie marks can have very different talents, or ponies with different cutie marks can have the same ones. It's ultimately, always, a choice,
Dunno if that's particulary relevant, but I felt like mentioning it here
2264390
My personal opinion, for whatever it's worth -- take out the part about Screwball having ANY connections to the Shadowbolts, and I'd be mostly okay with this as canon (writing off any apparent discrepancies as just being colored by her own personal bias).
Oh and, as for the first discordian angle. While I like the idea of it as an implication, I don't think it should ever be explicitly clarified as such. Instead it should always just be left as a giant question mark. In fact I think "giant question mark" is pretty much what should be true about EVERY aspect of Screwball; the less we know about her the better, as it plays into her pure-chaos nature. What is ~true~ about her in one presentation, might not be true in another.
2264437
Agreed about Screwball being the first Discordian.
I've decided to add this to the semi-canon list. That means it's not canon but becomes canon if it's referenced in a Season story (contrast with, for example, how mentioning Raindrops is training Trixie in exercise techniques does not make "Heat" canon since it's a fan fiction)
Really? Game of Thrones?
2264385>>2264390
If I wrote Screwball, it'd be as practically applied Chaos. Heath Ledger's Joker is... philosophically appealing as a symbol, an example of how insane you'd go if you took a philosophical view too far, but NOT a role model, or even someone that I'd want to see wandering the streets, and certainly not fit for anything in MLP.
tbh I was wondering what the population was. Was hoping it'd be a bit bigger, but I'm biased. Your universe, and I'm more than willing to change whatever is needed if you'd like to make it canon, and also fine with it not being put in. The shadowbolts part was a whim I got a while ago when reading the shadowbolts organization chart. Any suggestions for why she'd be in canterlot with a guard uniform? I kinda like that part
2264586
Well, there may be more (in fact, there probably is, but I still don't imagine the population hits even triple digits). Luna isn't omniscient, and being a Discordian isn't something you advertise, after all.
2264485
0.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/90/81/91a368954764a939832120cc61c11067-a-throne-of-games.jpg
2264586: Maybe she has a 'chaos sense', anticipated that the Gala would get a bit chaotic, and wanted to enjoy the show up close?
2264485
While writing this, I got the urge to try to use it as a bridge between the conflicts of the (episode) seasons. It seemed appropriate, as I'm pretty sure I've heard talk of kicking off Corona's spotlight with a Summer Sun Celebration thing. 1 + 1 = meme, it had to be done.
2264597
That could work. I like the idea of her wanting to work with Luna against Corona and sort of based her perception of chaos around that focal point. I didn't mention her cutie mark because it was covered in armor here, but I think of the ball and screw as representing the talent to screw with people's games, i.e. the schemes and systems they try to impose. Sensing that something like this was about to happen would make a lot of sense, but I wanted to set her up as an allied character (or a hallucination, take your pick). Think Russia WW2...but not as execution-y...and a purple horse...as well as a bad metaphor
2264594
Any preferences for relation to Luna/why she's in town? I'd like it to mesh as well as possible with everything else, but, as I've said before, your worldbuilding/brainstorming threads are HUGE.
2264586
She's *Screwball*, who makes Pinkie Pie look rational and mundane. She shouldn't need a reason -- to quote daddy dearest, "What fun is there in making sense?" I think the whole thing plays better if she basically just shows up purely on whim and by chance, no explanation needed or desired (they only get in the way with a character like her).
As to where she got the uniform; like she said, "borrowed" it (likely taking a very liberal definition of the term), which works even better if she's got no official standing. After all, a Shadowbolt wouldn't need to sneak in to see a prisoner.
Oh, and...
2264624
Actually 1) the Summer Sun fic is on indefinite hiatus, and 2) Corona was never going to be involved; it was a light hearted vacation episode where the L6 could just take time off to decompress after the gala.
Also...
On the subject of being allied with Luna; I'd mostly prefer to think of Screwball as always playing her own game with its own non-existent rules. She certainly doesn't want Corona to win, but that doesn't mean she's playing on Luna's team either; she's got her own agendas wholly separate from the alicorn princesses. Plus overall I think it's best if we avoid setting up Screwball as having any direct role in the conflict, and instead just stick to scenes like this where the other characters are later unsure if it really happened or was just a hallucination.
I do like you interp of her cutie mark though.
This is pretty awesome! I normally don't think about Screwball, but she makes perfect sense in this scene. I like the idea that she's a fairly decent pony who serves the common good as a Shadowbolt, but also believes in her Discordian heritage. This also gives Zizanie some hope - it shows that being Discordian isn't a death sentence, although she still has to work off that whole "abetted the Night Court in ruining lots of ponies' lives" thing. I like that! I also love the idea that Discord would approve of wrecking the Night Court.
Not bad. I especially like the part about Screwball being a Discordian member of the Shadowbolts, I hope that eventually makes it into canon.
2264594>>2264747
Changed the Shadowbolt part, as well as some other minor edits. Going to put it to complete now, but let me know if I missed anything that conflict with something else in canon/planned. And if a story with Screwball gets suggested in the brainstorming thread, have someone come poke me with a stick or something; I'd love to write her some more.
2272411
I was already long since planing to do something like this at the end of EoI, if only as joke of sorts. Maybe now when the time comes I'll instead leave it to you, or at least consult your "expert" opinion on the matter.
2272435
Well, I never played D&D, watched any of the old 80s cartoons, can't write music, don't have much experience writing fanfic, etc., so I might as well contribute the mindset of a crazy person. Be productive and all that
Just finished the Gala and this was the perfect follow up. Wasn't expecting to see Screwball, but the whole scene and interaction was entertaining and fascinating. Sure hope to see some kind of follow up or connection to this in season 2.
2310802
...you know, until your comment I didn't realize that this was added to the Movies and Tie-ins folder. Yay!
Oh, I am absolutely in love with this version of Screwball; especially after her explanations of why Discord was sealed and just what role Discordians play in this universe. She is most certainly her father's daughter.
These lines in particular caught my eye:
She calls herself the element of surprise in jest, but I don't think that's very far off from the truth.
Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, Generosity, Laughter, Magic. These forces make up what are known as the Elements of Harmony. When they are used, they restore Order to what was once lost to blind chaos and Disorder. However, Order alone is not Harmony. Order, in time, causes the world to stagnate and ultimately fall to ruin because nothing changes.
For Harmony to exist, the scales of Order and Disorder must be balanced. Chaos is the force that controls that balance. Too much tips the scales one way or the other. But, just the right amount of Chaos applied in just the right way brings balance to the world while still moving forward.
That unspoken Element of Chaos (or perhaps "Progression") is what Screwball seems to be hinted at representing here. Especially so if she truly is the daughter of Discord, and has been around since before his imprisonment.
...And I'm rambling again; so I think I'll leave it at that.
I just love the idea that Screwball would spread misinformation about Discord and the Discordians among the Discordians.
That is commitment, people!
Ooooh, intriguing ideas.. Equestria needs chaos? It's almost enough to get me philosophical over here. Nice job!
Discordianism becomes a serious religion with a real mission and an eldritch abomination to serve. The ultimate joke