By the time Lauren and Celestia concluded their tour of Canterlot, they found the palace staff in a state of paranoid confusion. The moment when they approached the castle gate, a few of the Solar Guard rushed over to them. Babbling something about another alicorn, yet they talked so excitedly fast that they could barely make out what was going on. Naturally, Lauren’s first thought was that something had happened to Alice.
Without a second thought, Lauren bolted through the castle looking for Alice. For all she knew, Chrysalis might have somehow snuck back inside and probably taken her prisoner. For a moment, she was beating herself up mentally for leaving her alone in a magical world where something dangerous could happen. She swore if Alice was hurt… Luckily for her, the palace staff pointed her in the right direction, towards the gardens where she found her daughter was safe. Safe, and with a pony she’s never seen before.
In fact… she never remembered there was a basketball court on the palace grounds either. But there it was. Between the exterior of the ballroom and the hedge maze was a basketball court where Alice and a freakishly tall alicorn were bouncing the ball between them while occasionally tossing them in one of the hoops.
“Alice…?”
Her daughter caught the basketball, stopping their game to turn to her mother. “Mommy!” Disregarding the ball, she ran over to her. “Mommy look! I made new friend!”
Picking Alice up, Lauren eyed the alicorn who used his magic to dribble the ball. “Alice, who is this?”
“Oh, hello there.” Curling one of his wings, he lifted his crown like how one would be tipping their hat. “My name is Sky Cloud, what’s yours?”
Lauren paused. She knew for a fact that this character never existed in the show. Not even in her concept art that she recalls seeing something so… distorted. But at the same time, something about this character seemed oddly familiar. Freakishly tall. Plays basketball. And has the voice of… “Wilt?”
“Well, nice to meet you, Wilt.” Sky Cloud smiled.
“Wha- No, no. I’m Lauren.”
“But you said Wilt.”
“Yes but… Sorry, you just remind me of someone.” After a beat, she asked Alice, “Where did he come from?”
“He’s my… Imaginary friend.”
That caught Lauren off guard. ‘Either Craig is gonna flip out over this or find that she based her pony OC on Wilt adorable.’ She pointed at Sky. “So… You made him?”
“Uh… Uh-huh.”
“Excuse me,” Sky Cloud waved. “Can Alice play with me a little more?”
In any other circumstance, Lauren would flat-out say no. There was no way she would allow her three-year-old to play with a complete stranger. Even if they seemed nice, she would try to get her away as quickly as possible. However, being that this is her world – her creation and finding a character that her daughter had come up with…
Setting Alice down, she told them, “Don’t go where I can’t see you.” Alice returned to the basketball court and the two of them resumed their game. Leaving Lauren sitting in the grass, amazed but full of questions.
“When did we get a basketball court?” Lauren nearly jumped when she heard Celestia speak up. “Oh, sorry Mother but… Who is that?”
“That… Is Alice’s imaginary friend.”
Celestia blinked. “Looks pretty solid to be imaginary.”
“I noticed.” Lauren ran a hand through her hair. “You know, having me bend reality is one thing because… Well… I came with all this, to begin with. But I never thought about if Alice could do the same thing. Makes me wonder if we should go home after all.”
They looked at Alice and Sky Cloud, playing with the ball. Alice ran between his towering legs while Cloud tried to figure out where she was. From the loud screaming of delight from their daughter, Celestia remarked, “It looks like she’s having fun.”
“Yeah, but that alicorn there, I didn’t come up with that. She did. It just makes me wonder… If she could twist reality like that, what’s stopping her from letting her imagination come up with something dangerous?”
“Or if… If she’s doing it at all.”
Lauren looked up at Celestia, “What do you mean?”
“C’mon, mother. Who else do you know that could do what you can?”
“What, besides Pinkie? The only one who else comes to mind is…” She trailed off when she noticed over by the entrance of the hedge maze, a claw was frantically waving a white handkerchief. “Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me!”
“I’m unarmed!” The claw moved aside to show it was being held on by a lion’s paw. And stepping out into the open was a nervous Discord. “Please, put down your potential universe-crushing powers, I just want to talk.”
“What are you doing here, Discord?” Celestia asked, stepping between him and her mother.
“Believe it or not, I’m not up to anything – but I do have a complaint.”
This caught Lauren off guard. “Complaint?”
“Yes, you and your daughter warping reality to your liking. I’m afraid that rewriting the rules of the universe is my jurisdiction, thank you very much.”
“So wait,” Celestia pointed to Sky Cloud, “You had nothing to do with this?”
“Of course not! If I wanted to make an OC alicorn out of thin air, I’m certain mine would be black and red. Oh! And have a rainbow mane. No, I’m afraid that this is her doing.” Discord folded his arms. “What’s more, I can already see where this is going.”
“What are you talking about?” Lauren asks.
“Oh come now. Don’t act so naïve. When you have not one, not two, but three world-changing entities in the same universe, each rewriting over the other, what you have is a nice recipe for an apocalypse with too many cooks in the kitchen. And speaking as an entity of Chaos, I prefer to know that I’m the one causing it. Besides, it’s already hard enough when the Creator is in the same breathing space, but to have her child that can do the same thing? No thank you!”
Lauren hated to admit it, but there was some truth in Discord’s words. It was one thing for her to manipulate this world simply because she came up with it. But it was another when her daughter could do the same but…
“But you know what the most frustrating part is?” Discord asked, suddenly appeared behind Lauren.
“Gah! How did you-”
“Hyperspace doorways. Pinkie has access to them too. But the frustrating part is that I know that even if I try to pick a fight with you – you specifically – I know I can’t win.”
Lauren blinked. “Why not?”
“Because I would be dealing with a pesky paradox. You created me, Mom.” That gave her a chill up her spine. “And if I got rid of you somehow… It would undo me. But if that were to happen, you would never have made me. So really, everything would cancel out. So, the good news for you and bad news for me, is that I can’t hurt you, even if I tried.”
“So… What exactly do you want then?”
Discord slunk over in front of her, his lion’s paw stroking his goat beard. “How about… a deal?”
“Mother,” Celestia said in a cautious tone, but Lauren raised her hand.
“The way I see it. You probably want to go see the world, but do as little damage as possible. And I want to make sure that you two would keep your reality-changing antics to a minimum. So… How about this?” Discord reached behind his back and pulled out a key that had the foot of a chicken, the wings of a dragon, and the eye of a lizard. “This key will take you anywhere in the world. Anywhere. All you have to do is tell it where you want to go, stick it in a door, and you’re there. But in exchange, I want you to promise me that you and your daughter won’t make any more unnecessary changes. No new OCs. No carving out new places that weren’t there before. And no rewriting history. That’s my job. So, do we have a deal?”
Discord offered the key over to Lauren.
On the surface, it does seem reasonable. If anything, that key would make their tour around Equestria quick and painless. Yet, given a moment of thought, she wonders if accepting it would be a good thing. Alice probably couldn’t help it when she made Sky Cloud. And who knows? Maybe she would have to do it in case of emergencies.
“Two questions,” Lauren folded her arms. “What about my daughter’s imaginary friend over there?”
“What? The Wilt clone? Unless you’re planning on taking him home with you, I guess he could stay in my dimension. Maybe create a pocket universe for him to be happy in.”
“… And if there’s an emergency, where do I have to change reality?”
“You already have two of the most powerful alicorns as daughters. I think you should be fine.”
After a moment, she reached for the key.
“Deal.”