You will be introduced to a new OC in this chapter and we finally get some action!

---

Freak, monster, devil child, doesn't belong…

The words echoed throughout Screwball's nightmares.

Go back to the Canterlot Gardens where you belong!

"No," she murmured, tossing in her bed.

You're evil, just like your daddy!

"No! NO!"

Discord was instantly at her bedside. Fortunately, she had not put a magical barrier around her room as well.

"Screwball, honey?" he gasped. "What's wrong?"

The filly shrieked as her eyes popped open. She sighed in relief at the sight of her father.

"I'm okay, Daddy. I just had a bad dream."

"Oh, I see." He sat upon her bed. "Care to talk about it?"

"It was…those things they said about me today…they won't go away…"

"Is that all?" He took her into his arms and patted her on the back. "There, there. What do I always say?"

Screwball scrunched her nose. "What fun is there in making sense?"

"No, no, the other thing."

"Never bring pie to a cake fight?"

"No, no, no! I mean about name-calling!"

"Oh. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me."

"Exactly! Well, technically the sticks and stones won't hurt you either after a healing spell, but you get the picture."

She pulled away from his embrace and looked up at him desperately. "But Dad, what if they're right? I lost my mind today! I even scared my friends!"

He waved his paw as if it were a minor detail. "Every pony loses their mind once in a while. You should have seen your mother at her first Grand Galloping Gala!" He tapped his chin. "Actually, you can!"

He snapped his fingers and an image appeared on the wall. Screwball gasped at the sight of a slightly younger version of her mother in a torn ball gown, standing beside a huge net.

"I'll catch you yet, my pretties!" she said creepily to the animals cowering in fear. "Oh, yes. As soon as one of you little birds, or monkeys, or bears touches this net, you'll be mine! MINE!"

She then broke into maniacal laughter, lightning striking from nowhere. Screwball did not know whether to be scared or amused. It was hard to believe that the mare she was watching was her sweet, nurturing mother.

Discord sighed in awe. "Yes, isn't she ravishing?" He snapped the image away. "Now you know not to get on your mother's bad side. The treatment she gave you and I today was nothing."

"Okay, so it's not as bad as I thought," Screwball admitted. "It's worse! I'm crazy on both sides!"

She groaned as she collapsed her head onto her pillow.

"Screwball, Screwball, Screwball," Discord said, shaking his head. "Every pony's crazy! Some just show it better than others."

"I being one of them," she mumbled, flipping onto her side.

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, sweetie," her father assured her, stroking her head. "You have something that other ponies do not: chaos!"

"And where is that going to get me? Look at what it did to you!"

Discord was taken aback by this. Screwball sat up and faced him.

"I'm sorry, but…" She hugged her knees. "Sometimes I think I might go too crazy…that I might turn evil…that they'll have to turn me to stone!"

"Oh, honey, don't say such a thing!" He tenderly wrapped his arms around her. "No pony's going to turn you to stone, or bring you any harm of any sorts, not while I'm here to protect you." He wiped her tears from her face. "Did I ever tell you of the time I snapped in front of your mother?"

The filly shook her head with a sniff.

"Well, it happened while I had your mother imprisoned. It was her birthday and I brought her friends over for a visit. In the midst of that…she told them she didn't love me. She didn't know I was listening and…well, it broke my heart as well as my sanity. I'll spare you the details, but let's just say my rampage involved turning Aunt Applejack into cereal and Twilight Sparkle's horn into a candy cane."

Screwball snickered at the thought.

"It may sound funny to you, but if you had seen me at that time, you wouldn't have laughed." He sighed as he remembered that fateful day. "I had lost so much control that I ended up physically hurting your mother. I could no longer keep her, knowing what I did, knowing that she would never forgive me. So I let her go.

"But you know something? She returned to me and we finally confessed our feelings for each other!"

"So how does this apply to me?" Screwball asked, growing slightly impatient. "Are you saying that no matter what I do, every pony's going to be okay with it?"

"Not every pony, only the ones that matter. Tell me, Screwy. After today's incident, did any pony forgive you?"

She pondered. "My friends?"

"Then they're the only ones that matter. For me, that was your mother and that is what saved me from losing complete control. Your powers are special, my dear, but never lose sight of what is really important. Understand?"

She did not understand completely, but she nodded anyway.

"Good," her father smiled. "Now let's get you back to bed, shall we?"

Screwball crawled back under the covers and smiled up at the draconequus as he tucked her in.

"Would you sing me a lullaby, Daddy?"

He paused and chuckled. "I think you'd prefer your mother to sing for you."

"No. Her voice is beautiful, but I also like it when you sing."

He sighed and sang the lullaby he had written for her. This time, he added a new verse:

"Remember that one time
I took you to that baseball game?
You got your cutie mark
And things were never quite the same.
Your wild pitches flew
Driving the ponies all insane
'Cause I…am your daddy, Discord
And you…are a piece of me."

It was a subtle reminder of how special she was to him.

"I love you, Daddy," Screwball said when he was finished.

He kissed her on the forehead. "I love you too, my little abomination."

---

When Screwball awoke, it was nearly dawn. 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 a crack and saw that her dad was still asleep on the couch. She floated into the air and slowly made her way to the front door. Seeing that she had not stirred her father, 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 chaos.

---

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.

"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 beetle's back, 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.

"Ah, my son," 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, my dear?"

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 your fill. Go, my son! Make your mother 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 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 said.

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 they're cream cheese!"

The prince stifled a chuckle. This filly was quite amusing.

"Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me!" she sang.

At that moment, something pounded hard inside the prince's chest. He took it as his hunger and remembered what he was here for. He thought back to his mother's lessons and looked into the filly's mind for her loved ones. The first thing he saw startled him, for it was a hideous creature that he figured to be her pet. 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. He gagged at the thought of turning into a girl, but it was the best he could do.

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. She had not told any pony of this place, let alone her best friend.

"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 practically live here. 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.

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 stated.

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 not very nice!"

"But how did you know…?"

He cried out as she rammed his head into the ground.

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

"Are you nuts?!" the prince hollered before receiving another blow to the head.

"I'm not nuts! I'm Screwball!"

"What's the difference? Ow!"

"I'll ask you one more time! What are you doing here?"

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 once more 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's chocolate milk?"

Screwball gasped as if she had been stabbed with a knife. "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 want me to 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.

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

Screwball tilted her head. "Well, I don't know about that, but I told you it was good!"

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."

"I was going to say interesting."

She blushed. "Well, I'm a…unique pony. You could say 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. "Let's just say I have five thousand brothers and 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.

"Let's get out of here!"

"But I can…" she tried to protest.

"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.

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

"You crazy?" the changeling asked. "That thing is huge!"

She ignored him and approached the roaring beast.

"Easy, boy!" Screwball cried, holding out her hooves. "Or…girl. Which one are you?"

The manticore kept wailing.

"Would you shut up and stop moving for one second so I can help you?!"

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

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

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

Screwball looked up at the manticore with a smile. He then held out his other paw, revealing a thorn.

"Typical," she sighed. "You manticores should watch where you step. Now hold still. This will only take a second."

She used her magic to make the thorn disappear. The manticore roared in her face. The prince was about to cry out when the beast began licking her mane. Screwball giggled.

"Yes, yes, I know. You're welcome." She smoothed out her damped hair. "Run along now, and be careful."

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

"How did you…?"

"Mom told me to show every beast a little kindness," Screwball explained. "It amazes me how many angry manticores have thorns in their paws."

"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 blushed. "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."

"I know. Wasn't my idea."

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

She gasped. "We're both balls! We could invent a new sport with our names! 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. "Can I have more of that chocolate milk?"

Screwball giggled. "Sure."

Neither of them noticed the changeling scout that had been hovering above, disguised as a fly. He had been sent to keep an eye on the prince. The queen was not going to be happy about this unexpected turn of events.

---

What? Did I forget to mention that this was a love story? Sorry, there was only room for two categories.