>What was going on? Where were you? It was impossible to know. Your consciousness came back and went. A new scenario appeared every time you closed and opened your eyes.
>You remember a dark deep forest. The blue sky. Hooves, white as a cloud, softly embracing you in their warmth. Then, a fancy bedroom you have never been before and…
>Voices, familiar voices. They were discussing something. Maybe about you? You couldn’t tell. It was like a new actor walked into stage each time you opened your eyes.
>First it was Moonlight. She sounded… worried? “…Has something like this ever happened before? I know about certain foals having magical surges, but this…?! What about the bruises?! I’m telling you, Luna. The kid has gone through a lot more than a foal should.”
>Someone else replied to Moonlight, but to you, it just came off as noise. However, you could listen to part of her reply “Come on, Luna! Don’t think like that. I know this isn’t exactly how you thought it would go, but that’s how it goes with kids. Trust me, I have experience with this. So cheer up and have a whole lot of patience, alright? Everything will be fine. Promise! Oh! Before I forget. The kid said something about a company. Sounded bad. Maybe you’ll want to ask Discord about it.”
>You closed your eyes for a moment, and when they were open again. You could hear Discord’s voice “…There is no need to be so upset, Celestia. I had no way to tell how the events would unfold. The only thing I did, which was in your long list of specifications by the way, was to find a very special foal, and we can both agree that’s exactly what that little colt is.”
>Just like last time, you could hear mumbling, but you only understand Discord “Hrm? The company? Did you even read the adoption papers? I even went through the trouble of making copies for both of you… Yes, there’s more, I’m afraid… No, I won’t hold onto any information, but let’s discuss this in a more private place, shall we? There’s a colt in the room and the next bit is… dark to say the least.”
>That was everything you could hear before finally running out of any bit of energy left. As you fell unconscious, one question plagued your mind; Who were Discord and Moonlight talking to?
>… … …
>… …
>…
 
*KRAKOOM*
“AAAAAH! Come on, dude! What good is this stupid magic if it ain’t gonna work how I want it to?!”
>This was all kinds of frustrating, dude. Ever since that Discord left, I had been trying for hours, and I mean HOURS, to make something fun outta my new powers.
>I thought it would be easy peasy at first, why wouldn’t I? Discord just had to snap his talons and BOINK! Something crazy happens! 
>So I tried, and tried, and TRIED to do the same stuff he did, but every time, every single frickin’ time!
“BEACH BALL! *BOOM* No… CLONES! *BOOM* No… PENCIL! *KRAKOOM* Gosh darn it, no! WHY CAN I ONLY DO EXPLOSIONS!  I JUST WANT SOMETHING ELSE TO HAPPEN! IT AIN’T EVEN FUN ANYMORE, DUDE! Mmm… Maybe if I try… AIRSHIP! *KRAKOOM* AAAAAAAAAAH!”
>I slapped my face and turned to my audience. My friends, the dust bunnies! Yeah, they survived! I’ve no idea how, considering I blew up Discord’s house to smithereens, but this place doesn’t seem to follow any rule, so who cares? 
>These lil’ fellas had been sitting on that cracked floating island for who knows how long, just looking at me float around and cause explosion after explosion after explosion without batting a dusty eye.
“You guys must know how this works, right? I snapped my talons in all ways and nothing works! Why the heck I can’t the same stuff as Discord?!”
>The dusty bunnies looked at each other, then at me and shrugged. I’d have blown them up just to blow some stress off, but hey! They offered me a carrot. A dusty carrot!
 
>With a big sigh, I took the carrot from their dusty paws and had a bite.
“Hey! This thing is actually good! Thanks, dust bunnies!”
>I kept munching the dusty carrot as a new play started to appear in my mind. All while I floated aimlessly above my cute friends.
“I mean, not being able to do what I wanna do sucks, but there’s some positives here, right? This place is awesome, having magic is awesome…”
>The dust bunnies jumped around and pointed at themselves with their dusty paws. I just giggled and rolled my eyes a bit.
“Yes, you guys are hella awesome. Have another dust carrot? I’m kinda hungry”
>My lil’ friends nodded and raised an even bigger carrot above their heads. I took it, of course, and happily munched it off.
“Thanks, dust bunnies! These taste awesome! Anyway… Where was I? Oh, yeah! Positives! I mean, maybe the explosion bit ain’t half-bad. Sure, they got old super-fast, but think about it! I can make stuff to go BOOM! Which means, I can make Discord go BOOM!”
>I ate the rest of the dust carrot, and started rubbing my paw and talon as I chuckled maliciously.
“Nyehehe! Just you wait! When that old coot shows his ugly face again, I’ll have the biggest surprise waiting for…”
>Just as I was about to finish my sentence, I heard Discord’s voice booming behind me “A surprise? Why, that sounds like a marvelous welcome gift!”
“GYAH!”
 
>After my less than subtle reaction, I quickly turned around and with a mighty swipe of my paw, I made everything in a “who-cares-it-was-huge” radius to blow up.
>I was absolutely fuming by that stupid trick Discord tried to pull off on me, but! That didn’t last long, ‘cause once the smoke cleared up, there was no sign of his ugly face anymore!
“So that’s all it took, huh? Kinda anti-climactic if you ask me, but oh well! That’s what he gets for trying to scare me! Now… how the heck am I supposed to get outta…”
>Or that’s what I thought. “You actually have been practicing your magic! Bravo, Eris! I am absolutely delighted by your initiative!”
>When I turned around, Discord was holding a plate of what looked like small pancakes, except it was green and had eyes, all while wearing an apron that said “Chaos the chef”.
>“That small explosion had just the right temperature and pressure to cook my special recipe “The bubbly muffins!”” With a single munch, the guy ate the entire plate, only then to rub his stomach “Absolutely delicious! You should try them sometime!”
>I was absolutely fuming by that point. How dare he to make fun of me?! I clenched my paw into a fist and charged against that jerk. 
“DISCOOOOOORD!”
>The guy didn’t even flinch, he just rolled his eyes and yawned. “Eris, my dear! This again? But I thought my point had been made clear already. Oh, well! I guess we need to do a bit of reinforcement…”
 
>I didn’t listen or care about anything Discord had to say. I just punched the air as hard as I could and a big explosion, and I mean BIG explosion came right after it.
“…What the heck, dude?!”
>The whole explosion got sucked into a small honking horn that Discord pulled out of outta nowhere. With great anger, I pointed at him and yelled.
“THAT’S CHEATING!”
>“Cheating? My dear, there is something you should always be aware of when dealing with chaos…”
>Discord honked the little horn, but instead of, y’know… a honk coming outta it, a huge expansion wave happened, and before I could even react, it sent me crashing right into a rock that was floating a couple miles away.
“Ugh… should’ve seen that one coming”
>“I completely agree with you, my dear! And you know why?” Discord poofed very close to my face “Because in this business, anything and everything can happen! That’s the first and most important rule of chaos.”
“Can’t you just… give me a break, dude?”
>“In time I will, but that’s a bit of an impossibility at this particular moment. There are still many things left for us to do today” With a snap of his talons, Discord made the rock disappear and replaced it with a bunch of brushes that kept cleaning the dust off of me. 
>After I slapped away all of those annoying things, I raised an eyebrow to Discord and groaned.
“Don’t tell me. You’re talking about that “training” arentcha?”
 
>“Well, of course! That’s why I brought you here, remember?” Discord shrugged “But, there are other things I must do. Like rebuilding the house that you and your teen angst destroyed and…”
>Discord stood silent for a couple moments there. It was maybe a bad idea, but I asked anyway.
“And what?!”
>The guy’s goofy tone had taken a 180. Discord was looking at me right in the eye with a dead-serious face as he caressed his beard.
“Speak out, dude! You’re starting to give me the creeps!”
>That seriousness went as fast as it came. With a huge smirk, Discord said “And that will have to wait until today’s training is over.”
“WHAT?! YOU BIG…”
>I couldn’t say anything else. In the blink of an eye, Discord snapped his talons, and I was stranded in the middle of what looked like a marshland.
“… Jerk… Oh, come on, dude! Place’s cool, but at least lemme finish what I’m gonna say!”
>I wasn’t kidding about that. Just like everything in the void, this wasn’t your everyday marshland. Everything in this place looked like it was made outta jelly, and I ain’t talking about the jelly you eat for breakfast either.
>Instead of being green, pink, white or whatever. The jelly marshland was filled with stars. Not in like, the sky was starry, place had the same cool sky as the rest of the void. No, what I meant is that, every single piece of this jelly landscape. From the water, to the grass, to those four-winged flamingos, had a starry night inside of it. 
 
>I stood there taking the view for who knows how long. How could I not? This void, man. I just love how nothing makes any sense… and this, was my first mistake.
>It was subtle at first, just some noises on the distance, nothing to worry about. Things didn’t last like this for too long, though.
>I think it was around the time when the flamingos swam away at top speed, and the entire jelly marshland started wobbling when I finally snapped out of my tourist mode and decided to turn around and see what was going on.
“…Now that’s a big lizard!”
>A huge crocodile was standing a few feet away from me, and for the looks of it, the big fella wasn’t here to greet me with a bombastic party.
>The guy was huge, sure, but I wasn’t scared one bit. After all, it was just a big lizard made of starry jelly. Nothing that I couldn’t handle with chaos magic, baby!
“How comes I didn’t notice you until now? Eh, whatever, if you were looking for a nice dinner, I have some bad news for you, dude!”
>A smirk appeared on my face as I delivered an explosion to the croc. It was a direct hit. Nothing except for that stupid Discord could’ve survived it.
“I’m a bit too… spicy? Oh, brother! You’ve gotta be kidding me!”
>The jelly that the croc and everything was made of, violently wobbled for a bit before returning to their original state. 
“A’ight… I think you’ve made your point… I’ll just go away and we’ll pretend that nothing ever happened, okay?”
 
>Running away ain’t my style, but I ain’t dumb enough to stay there and be eaten. So before the croc could make me his dinner, I flew up as fast as possible… 
>Which only led me to crash against an invisible barrier placed not too high above the ground, and by that, I mean that the croc only had to raise up its ugly head to eat me.
“OUCH! What the heck, dude?! Who was the idiot that put this here?!”
>The answer didn’t wait to come. Discord’s ugly face appeared as a reflection in the barrier, and like always, he was smirking “What’s the problem, my dear? Are you feeling like you’re trapped in a bubble?”
“Not funny, dude! What’s the big idea? Training me to be the main course for your pet?!”
>“What a narrow mind you have, my dear. Kids these days, I swear!” Discord chuckled and shook his head “I brought you here because, as you have already noticed, this section of the void is immune to your little explosions. This exercise is going to teach you how to stop being a one-trick draconequus.”
“Oh, thank you, Mr. Mighty teacher! I sure love learning while being killed by a giant jelly crocodile!”
 
>“Do you think I’m a sadist? Our little reptilian friend is not enough to physically harm you, much less to end your promising life. That said, I wouldn’t recommend failing the exercise… Unless you want to learn more about the messy bits of the food chain, of course!”
“The stinky…? EWW! That’s gross!”
>“Well, yes, but that’s how the cycle of life goes. Now, I blocked off the most obvious escape route, so if you don’t want to go through the brown factory, then you’ll have to get more creative with your magic.”
“DISCOOORD! Get me outta here!”
>“Calm down, Eris. I wouldn’t have done this if I wasn’t sure of your victory. I just want you to learn how to control the chaos flowing within you, even if it means giving you a harsh push...” The reflection started to vanish, but not before Discord made a final statement “There’s no need for me to wish you good luck, Eris… but I’ll have the shower ready just in case! TA-TA, MY DEAR!”
>Despite that last taunt, and the giant hungry jelly croc waiting to eat me. Those words kinda got me. I HAD to do this. For me and even more importantly, for my dork.
>So I looked up to the purple sky and whispered to myself.
“A’ight, Discord. You wanna see what I’m made of? Then bring it on!”
>… … …
>… …
>…
 
>You opened your eyes only to find yourself in the back of a dirty alleyway. The moon was shining up in a starless sky and the heat was unbearable. 
>You’ve been here before. This was your world, and the alleyway… you knew what it was, and the same went for the two ponies that were standing in front of you. They were your parents. 
>They were looking down at you. The pale moonlight highlighted the expression in their faces. It wasn’t anger, sadness or regret. Just plain indifference, like they were disposing of some trash.
>With no word said, they turned their back on you and happily walked away. You did everything to stop them, to tell them to take you with them, to beg them to give you another chance… but no sound came from your mouth, and your hooves were firmly glued to the ground.
>As they disappeared in the darkness of the night, you heard a weeping coming from behind. It was you but younger, starved and covered in trash. 
>It hurt, it hurt so much that you tried to block everything out, but it didn’t work. You may have shut your eyes close, but that crying pierced through your ears like a hot knife.
>You were about to collapse when a voice put a stop to this madness “Whoa there! What’re you doing here, lil’ fella? This ain’t a place for someone like you to be!” 
>It was Eris. You immediately opened your eyes and looked up for her, but you couldn’t see anything in this alleyway except for vague shadows and fog. Anxiety started to take over you as the heat got so bad that it was hard to breathe anymore.
 
>That stopped when you heard Eris’ voice again “So, your name’s Resonance, huh? Hmph! I like it! I’m Eris! Nice to meet you, dude!” 
>“…Oh, brother! So that’s what happened! Well, I ain’t swimming in bits, but I have a small place. It’s not much, but you can stay there if you wanna.” Despite not being able to see her, you could tell her voice was coming from the other side of the dark alleyway. 
>So without hesitation, you galloped towards it, with only the pale moonlight as your companion.
>“…I know it sucks, dude, but you gotta eat. Come on! Eris knows where we can grab some nice food!” The heat was gone, but more shadows and fog took its place as you made your way to Eris 
>You didn’t put attention to the fog until it had already engulfed all of your surroundings. It was so thick that you could barely see beyond your own muzzle anymore. 
>“…Whatchu mean if there’s more?! That was the last book I had! Geez, ain’t you the little dork! Oh…! D-Don’t apologize! I-I’ll just… find more stuff to read!”
>That didn’t stop you from continue advancing, though. You could hear Eris more clearly and frequently now. She had to be close. So you galloped even faster than before.
>“So, that’s your big idea for getting bits, huh? MMM! We’re gonna have to steal the wood and all the stuff to make the stage… but a legit show with a scam on the side? That’s too good to let it pass! I love it, Res!”
 
>“You actually made that old radio work! And look at these blueprints! Tee-hee! You’re really a bag of surprises, Res. Guess that’s why you’re my dork!”
>“Now check this out, dork. ‘Cause this is gonna blow your mind!”
>“Hey, don’t close off on me like that! You know I’m just worried about why you look like a mashed potato, right?”
>Your heart sang in joy when a bright white light appeared among the fog and darkness. Finally, you’d be back with Eris and this nightmare could end for good.
>“I dunno what will happen next, but be strong a’ight? … Please… don’t forget that your big sister loves you.”
>Instead of being embraced by the warm of Eris, what you got when you crossed that light threshold was a hit in the face.
>Blood was dripping from your muzzle to the ground. Looking up, you realized that the light you followed with so much hope came from a patrol ship hovering above the area.
>You went out from the alleyway and back into the old canal. The patrols and their ships were swarming the area. You recognized this. It was the night when the company took Eris away from you.
>You looked at every direction, desperately trying to find Eris, but the only thing you managed to achieve was to see part of her silhouette being pulled into one of the bigger ships by a whole group of heavily armored patrols.
 
>Almost by instinct, you tried to gallop to her. That didn’t work of course, the patrol that had smacked you made sure to put a halt to your efforts by pushing you to the ground.
>Fueled by rage, you jumped back on your hooves and charged against the patrol. It wasn’t a very bright idea. The patrol only had to bring out his taser and shoot you with it to put you outta commission.
>Everything after you fell to the ground came in rapid succession. The weird tests that the company’s social worker did on you. Waking up at the orphanage. The mighty beating you got there. Closing the sewer to give Scrappy a chance to escape. The patrols… and Discord.
>The portal was behind him. He was smiling, but you couldn’t tell if it was genuine or just a scam “Cheer up, young Resonance. After all, a new life awaits you in the magical land of Equestria.”
>Discord offered you his paw, and despite every single alarm in your head going off, you firmly grabbed it. Then, the entire world around you shattered like glass, leaving nothing but a dark, empty valley
>The only things here other than yourself were the crystal tree and the moon covering the entire horizon.
 
>Your body was all bruised up, and some drips of blood were falling from your muzzle. You were tired, scared and could barely see due to your goggles being shattered.
>But the tree was calling for you, and as you limped towards it, the carvings of the sun and the moon that were in its trunk started to glow.
>Before you could reach the tree’s warm embrace, the painful crying of your younger self started again, shattering the tree into pieces and making you drop in agony.
>When you looked over your shoulder, you could see a shapeless blob with countless sharp teeth that was rapidly coming your way. The only thing you could do was to prepare for the inevitable...
>… …
>…
“GYAH!”
>When you opened your eyes, you were frantically breathing, cold sweat was dripping off your face, but there was no monster, or dark valley or anything like that. 
>You were sitting on a big, puffy bed inside a bedroom illuminated only by a thin ray of daylight coming from a pair of large curtains. There were bandages and patches all over your body. The only sounds that came to your ears were birds chirping.