#thye have a kind of spock/kirk dynamic with a bit of marcille/falin and thats the ONLY way i can describe it

[bodrewritten]

Daughter of Discord Rewritten Chapter 6: An Unusual Friend

When Screwball awoke that weekend it was nearly dawn. The midnight air thickened as the morning settled over her window. She often rose early, as it gave her the perfect opportunity to sneak out. She needed to clear her head.

After putting her hat on, she opened the door with a crack. Light gushed from the crack and illuminated her eyes and she squinted. Screwball saw that her parents were not yet awake. She floated into the air and slowly made her way to the front door. Seeing that she had not stirred them, Screwball transported outside of the colorful castle and crossed the bridge into the Everfree Forest.

Teleporting was harder than it looked. At her current age, the filly could travel no further than a few feet. Even that would leave her slightly dizzy. This is why she ran the rest of the way.

She came upon a brown lake, one she had found a few years ago the first time she had snuck out, The water had not been brown then. She had turned it into chocolate milk so the creatures of the forest would not come for a drink, so she would be left alone.

This was her sanctuary. This was where she could spread her chaos freely. No rules, no judgment, no ponies, just her and fun.

Miles away, in a forest much darker and more sinister than the Everfree Forest, Queen Chrysalis was sitting on her throne, plotting her next move. One of her servants approached cautiously.

The castle walls were riddled with organically geometric designs. A honeycomb or near steel hard shell echoed every flutter of wings against the hollow chambers. Thick brambles of thorns hid the place from any prying eye.

"Uh, your majesty?" he whimpered with a bow. "The prince is here to see you."

"Oh, yes," the queen muttered. "Let him come forth."

The changeling who approached was slightly different from the others. While he had a sleek black body with a green elektra, translucent wings and deformed legs, he had blue hair flowing down to his shoulders and green eyes with black pupils. He was quite young, a foal at that, a small male version of the queen. His eyes were the only indication that he was different from her aside from his being a male, since they were downturned, when his mother's were sharp and lifted up.

"Ah, the prince," she said with pride.

She stepped down from her throne to inspect his growth. She lifted his chin so that he may look into her eyes.

"Today's the day you go on your first hunt. If you are ever to one day rule as King, then you must be able to find food for your subjects. Are you ready, boy?"

The prince straightened up and held his head high. "I am, mother!"

"Show me! What is the first rule of hunts?"

"Do not get caught!"

"And the second rule?"

"Make sure the pony you change into is not around!"

"And our motto?"

"Love is weakness for the victim, but strength for us!"

"Excellent! Now, since you are still young, I suggest you keep your targets simple, perhaps a young foal of some sort. And steer clear of Canterlot. They are always on the lookout for 'suspicious characters.' And don't return until you've had enough to make me proud."

The prince nodded and took to the skies. He had not left the Changeling Forest without an escort before and was not familiar with the outside world. He gawked at the greenness of it all. He imagined what it would be like to roll in that soft grass.

He shook these thoughts out of his mind. He had a job to do.

His expedition led him to the Everfree Forest. The best way to catch an unsuspecting pony was in a closed area. He was not aware of the forest's danger or its lack of ponies. He landed on the path and began his search.

His ears perked up as he heard a noise. He hid in the bushes and listened again. It was soft, it was haunting. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard.

The sound guided him to a clearing. He gawked at the sight. Where trees should have been, there were enormous candy canes with slightly less enormous gumdrops surrounding them. The ground was pink with orange and green polka-dotted toadstools and swirly lollipops growing up from it. What sort of place was this?

The prince jumped as something emerged from the muddy lake. It was a filly looking about his age wearing a mask and snorkel. The thick brown water dripped from her curly purple and white mane and pink fur. As she started humming, the prince realized that beautiful melody had been coming from her.

The filly sighed. "Snorkeling can get boring."

A small dingy appeared beneath her, a newspaper hat atop her head. The prince was astounded, swearing that he had not seen her horn.

"Sailing, however," she smiled bright!

She summoned a small mast and pulled up a flag with a screw and baseball on it, matching her cutie mark. Then she made an eye patch appear over her eye.

"Argh!" she cried. "Ahoy, mateys! Next stop, Fillydelphia, where we shall rob them of their gold, their jewels, and their cream cheese!" The prince stifled a chuckle. This filly was quite amusing.

At that moment, something pounded hard inside the prince's chest. In a mere instant, perplexed as he was enchanted by this filly, he had forgotten to feed! The prince looked into the filly's mind for her loved ones. The first thing he saw startled him, for it was a mangled creature that he figured to be her pet. How cruel of these folk to force such a creature into captivity! Next was a pegasus that he assumed to be the mother. That would not do, He had not mastered adult transformations yet. Then he saw a unicorn filly with strange eyes.

"Well, I've never been to Greenland, And I've never been to Denver~!" She changed loudly in her deep voice. It was just slightly deeper than most young fillies, and he could tell she was in a choir class.

He closed his eyes and concentrated, adopting the pony's shape. In a blaze of green fire, he had turned into the unicorn. The disguised changeling jumped out of the trees and approached the sailing filly.

"There you are!"

Screwball shrieked in surprise.

"Dinky, what are you doing here?"

The prince gasped as the filly floated to shore, changing her paper hat into a propeller one. He then got a good look at her eyes as she removed the patch. They were unlike anything he had ever seen before and he could get lost in those hypnotic spirals.

"Dinky?"

He snapped out of his trance, remembering he was disguised as the unicorn filly (Dinky, was it?). He borrowed one of the excuses his mother taught him:

"I came looking for you! Your mother's worried sick!"

"But why are you out here?" Screwball asked, tilting her head. "Don't you know it's dangerous out here?"

"You're out here, aren't you?"

"Well yeah, but I can protect myself. Besides, I thought this forest scared you to death!"

The changeling hesitated. "Uh, yeah! But I got brave! Your mom's looking for you!"

He could feel the love on his tongue. Friendship was not the most filling of meals, but it had a decent taste. It was like a nice merengue.

Screwball, in the mean time, was growing suspicious. She could not explain it, but she could tell when ponies were lying and Dinky was not one to lie.

"You're not Dinky," she muttered, scowling.

The changeling's false eyes widened and then he laughed. "Don't be silly! Of course, I'm Dinky!"

He squealed as he was lifted by the tail off the ground. He faced his adversary upside-down. No! He could not be caught on his first hunt!

"Put me down! It's really me! I'm Dinky!"

"No, you're not!" the filly snapped, stomping her hoof. "Show yourself!"

Then the prince was unwillingly changed back to his true self. Screwball gazed at the creature in wonder. Swiss cheese legs, cobweb hair, a deformed horn, insect-like wings: she had never seen anything like it before.

"What are you?" she asked, circling around him.

"How did you do that?!" the prince demanded, finally noticing something about the filly. "More importantly, how did you do that without a horn?"

"That's none of your business! Who do you think you are, posing as my friend? Impersonating ponies is a crime!"

"Answer my question! Who are you and what are you doing here?!"

"But how did you know…?"

He waved his forelegs desperately. "Look, I don't want any trouble! I was just so hungry and…"

The filly's mouth broke into a smile. "Well, why didn't you say so?"

The prince cried out as she dropped him. He rubbed his head in pain.

"If you're hungry, I can just give you something!" Screwball said cheerfully. "You like cotton candy?"

"Huh?" he uttered.

"How about chocolate milk?"

"What is that?"

Screwball gasped as if she had witnessed a murder. "You've never had chocolate milk?! What sick, twisted home did you grow up in?! Oh well. I'd say it's about time you tried it."

She summoned a glass and dipped it in the lake. She handed it to the changeling, who looked at it like he had no idea what to do with it.

"Go on, drink it!" the filly urged.

He cringed. "You insist I drink... mucky water?"

"It's not mucky water. It's chocolate milk! Trust me, you'll love it!"

He figured he should tell her that he did not eat or drink, but for some reason he did not want to disappoint this filly. He was still trying to process how she had unmasked him and why she had not run away by now. So he hesitantly took the glass and raised it to his lips.

His eyes shot open as the liquid touched his tongue. He then chugged the rest of the contents down his throat. It tasted like an earthy orangish-yellow with bright green swirls. It tasted organic and ancient, like a groovy, warm R&B track.

"This stuff is amazing!" he exclaimed. "It tastes just like love!"

Screwball tilted her head. "Mrs. Sparkle says it's because chocolate makes the love part of your brain work like being in love does!"

She giggled as the peculiar colt scooped his glass into the lake. She still did not know what he was.

"I've never seen a creature like you before," she stated.

"I could say the same about you," the prince said, looking her over. "How do you do all this without a horn? And your eyes are very…"

"Strange, I know."

"fascinating."

She beamed and puffed out her chest with pride. "I'm the only one of my kind!"

"Really? Oh, what I would give to be the only one of my kind!"

"Why? Are there many of you?"

He fiddled with his glass. "I have about five thousand sisters at home."

"Five thousand?!" Screwball exclaimed in disbelief. "Golly! Imagine the grocery bills!"

The prince burst into laughter. "Actually, we get our food from…"

He trailed off as they heard a loud roar in the distance. The foals turned to see a large manticore leap out of the trees. He was in a furious state, waving his scorpion stinger frantically. The prince grabbed Screwball's hoof.

"we need to run!"

He practically lifted her off the ground as he pulled her along. She was amazed at how strong he was, considering he was slightly smaller than she was.

"But I can…" she tried to protest.

"Wait!" she cried, tugging herself out of his grasp.

"the strength of a territorial manticore can topple trees!" the changeling spat!

The manticore kept wailing.

She ignored him and approached the roaring beast. "Easy, boy!" Screwball cried.

This time, the creature stopped and turned his attention to the filly.

"she's a female, Her mane is large and her colors are less vibrant..." He trembled.

"then she's likely just protecting her cubs."

"That's better," she said, nuzzling his paw with her snout. "It's okay. I won't hurt you."

"You won't hurt her?" the prince uttered.

The manticore nodded with a smile and vanished into the forest. The prince stared at the filly in awe.

Screwball looked up at the manticore with a slow blink. She lowered her stature and stepped back. She spoke only in body movement, squiggling and squaggling along like a bee on a string.

"How did you…?"

"Mom told me to show every beast a little kindness," Screwball explained. "I let her know that we won't mess with her territory."

"That was amazing! You were…" he paused as he and the filly locked eyes. "You must be the bravest pony I've ever met."

She pulled him into a gentle embrace. "You were pretty brave yourself, trying to get me out of danger. Hey! We weren't properly introduced. My name's Screwball."

He raised an eyebrow. "Screwball? That's weird."

"take it up with my parents, I dunno."

"No, I mean it's weird, because my name is Mothball."

She gasped. "We're both balls! Hey, you want to hang out?"

Prince Mothball blinked, as if he had never heard the expression before. "Hang out?"

"Yeah! I don't have school today. We can play all morning!"

"Play?"

She tilted her head at him. "What's the matter? Don't you know how to play?"

He said nothing.

"Oh. Well, I'll teach you!"

The prince was skeptical about this. He should really be returning to the hive, but he was feeling so strange around this pony. He assumed it was because of the positive emotions emitting from her to his stomach. His mother had told him not to return until his belly was full, and he could obey that command by staying with the girl.

"Well…" he stammered. "May I have more of that chocolate milk?"

Screwball giggled. "Sure."

Neither of them noticed, high above the trees, the insectoid scout lieutenant prying into the scene.

#mothball has synesthesia #thye have a kind of spock/kirk dynamic with a bit of marcille/falin and thats the ONLY way i can describe it #mlp fim #my little pony friendship is magic #daughter of discord rewritten #chapter 6 #mothball mlp #screwball mlp #romance #shipping #early 2010s #fanfiction #fankid #fluttercord #fimfiction #changeling