Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.
Discord glared at the clock as if he could bore a hole through it. He hated waiting. He hated just sitting somewhere doing nothing even more. He rolled on his couch, as if the clock would be more interesting upside down.
Finally, after five excruciatingly boring minutes, a cream colored pegasus mare Discord recognized as Celestia’s secretary called for him. With a finger snap he removed his couch and fixed the hole on the clock. Waving to two stallions waiting outside Discord entered a small, barely furnished conference room, while the secretary remained outside.
Celestia welcomed him with a nod and a smile, her face as unreadable as ever. Luna was less composed, the ghost of a frown noticeable on her eyes.
Celestia took a step ahead of her sister. “So, what brings you here today, Discord?”
“Oh, nothing of importance. I’m just bored. So I thought of something to pass the time, a small business idea, and since you made that silly request that I submit all such ideas to you -”
“Silly? -”
Celestia gave a firm look towards her sister. “Luna, you are shouting.”
Luna looked at her sister and blushed a bit. “Sorry.”
She glared back at Discord, the red spreading from her cheeks to the rest of her face. At least she wasn’t shouting anymore. “Silly? Every time you decide to have a hobby or open a business you create a disaster! Or did you forget when you decided to give away living toys, and those toys promptly started wreaking havoc on the children’s houses?”
“You have to admit that the children loved the toys.”
“Sure, they loved the toys. Which doubled the hassle in clearing the whole mess. We had the parents screaming at us for all the damage the toys had done, and the children screaming at us because we were taking away their loved toys!”
Discord’s face grew exasperated. “You know, I was trying to offer to make new toys to give them, but somepony refused to even let me speak.”
Luna was getting visibly angrier, if that was even possible. “And what about when you decided to color coordinate the guard and the castle servants for Cadance’s visit? You made everypony pink.”
Discord winked with a puppy stare. “It was lovely, don’t you agree? Cadance was in such high spirits that day!”
“You made my coat pink!”
Celestia glared again at her sister and spoke calmly. “Luna, might you stop using the royal canterlot voice? My ears are ringing already.”
“Sorry, but Discord is being… Aaagh!”
A knowing smile. “I know.” Celestia made a serious face as she looked towards Discord. “And you should keep in mind that whether or not you get to implement your business idea, and the degree of supervision we will require, will be our joint decision. Teasing my sister is not in your best interest.”
Discord retrieved his smiling head from the ground. “You know how it is, sometimes I lose my head.” He plopped his head back. “But don’t I deserve a chance? Didn’t I rescue those adorable foals, just last week, when that school -”
“Hospital.” Interrupted Luna curtly.
“Hospital, whatever. Don’t I deserve a chance, if only as a reward?”
Luna sighed. “Yes, I guess. Before I regret this, what do you have in mind this time?”
“Oh, nothing to be alarmed. You see, -” Discord snapped his fingers. He looked at his eagle claw and snapped them again. And again.
He turned to Celestia. “Have I ever told how much a spoilsport you are?”
“Only three times this week.” Answered Celestia with the sweetest of smiles. Luna started giggling.
“Fine, if you want to do this the hard way.“ Discord marched to the doors and snuck his head outside. “You guys can come in.”
The two stallions that had been waiting outside entered after Discord, fidgeting in the presence of the princesses. One was a large, pale green earth pony with short cropped golden mane, wearing white round glasses; the other was a slim white unicorn with a black mane.
As the two stallions nervously bowed down, Luna’s recently collected face formed a surprised expression, her mouth slightly open as her eyes darted between their cutie marks; a speech bubble with a purple foxglove for the earth pony, and a smiling red and golden sun in a canvas for the unicorn.
Celestia bowed her head slightly, acknowledging the two stallions. “You may rise. And please, dispense further formalities; I don’t think we would be able to keep this meeting formal with Discord present, after all. Now, who might you be?”
As the earth pony stallion opened his mouth to answer Luna was already speaking. “They are Green Fields and Dawn Glory, the writer and artist that created Mistress Mare-velous.”
Discord nodded at Luna. “But of course! They are the ponies that will help me spread the wonder of comics!”
“And knowing Discord, I believe he already tried to create something by himself, but couldn’t quite get the hang of it. Isn’t it right, “ - Celestia turned to the closest of the two stallions, the white unicorn - “ mister Dawn Glory?”
“Y- yes, your highness. Discord does have the raw talent for creating comics, but his stories are too… random…” - Discord gave him and Celestia both an exasperated glance - “ to attract an audience. Despite that we were intrigued by his idea, and when he assured us that it would have the approval and supervision of both your highness and Princess Luna, we decided to give it a try.”
Luna, recovered from the earlier shock, raised an eyebrow. “And that idea would be?”
Green Fields pulled a comic from his saddlebag and held it on his hoof. “We always wanted to share our stories with other ponies, get them to really immerse themselves. What Discord proposed us is creating enchanted comics that would allow the reader to live the adventure contained within. Dawn Glory has already probed the prototype and couldn’t find anything harmful -”
“Allow me.” Luna’s magic was already enveloping the comic. “I’m sensing little magic, nothing capable of having permanent effects…” She turned to Discord. “Did you use a variation of the Ethereal Prison?”
“You are right, as I would expect of the moon princess. I call it the Ethereal Shelter; it protects the body inside the comic, ends together with the comic story or when it’s magic runs out in a few hours, and can be easily broken by damaging the comic. We don’t want ponies drooling all over their comics, now, do we?”
Luna nodded, though she didn’t relax. “And you have a dream spell tied to… some external device?”
Discord reached into the earth pony’s other saddlebag and produced another comic. “That would be the failsafe. This here is a master comic; it tells me when any of the linked comics are in use, and I can use it to see what is happening and stop the dream spell, as you called it, in case anything goes wrong.”
Luna probed the magic a bit more and raised an eyebrow. “Was it your intent make this something I can use dream magic to enter?”
“Why, yes, of course! I did promise those fine gentlecolts that the princesses would monitor the venture, didn’t I?”
“And what will you get out of this, Discord?”
“Oh, haven’t you figured out? Throwing ponies into chaotic and unexpected situations to see how they react? It’s just like the glorious old times! Apart from the fact everypony will take part willingly, of course.”
Celestia glanced inquisitively at Luna. “So, what do you think sister? Should we allow this venture?”
Luna finally relaxed, allowing a weak smile to surface. “I’m sure I will regret saying this, but I actually think this is a good idea. Yes, Discord can proceed -”
“Yes!” Discord was almost dancing in place.
“- But I have a few requirements. Green Fields and Dawn Glory shall have veto power over any comic, you will keep this experiment restricted to just a single store here in Canterlot for the time being, everypony purchasing an enchanted comic shall be told that the story could be monitored, and I want a set of master comics of my own before you start distributing them to other ponies.”
“Well, how about we start now? I can leave the master comics I have with you until I make new ones, and we do have about a dozen volunteers waiting for their chance to live their heroes’ adventures quite eagerly, if I might say so.” The two stallions nodded at the last part. “And we do need the early tests to fine-tune which kinds of stories to offer.”
“Very well. You may proceed immediately with your current volunteers.”
Discord’s ears dropped a bit as he looked down. “On the other paw, monitoring the first test is going to be hard; I will need to pay close attention all the time to make sure nothing unexpected happens. No offense meant, princess, but you might not be up for the task. Oh, well, a small delay while I make new master comics won’t disappoint the volunteers much.”
“Nonsense. I deal with nightmares across Equestria on a daily basis, I sure can handle a dozen or so ponies dreaming of happy adventures. But if you are so concerned, we can meet tomorrow just after I finish lowering the moon.”
“Oh, I will be there.” Said Discord with a widening smile.
Celestia and Luna were walking through a corridor, the white wall painted red by the setting sun.
“But Tia, how could you remain so calm back there? Discord turned you pink too! And still you kept smiling the whole time!”
“Like this?” Celestia gave a serene smile, while Luna’s semblance grew exasperated. “I can help you master this skill quite fast, if you want. You just have to stay at your nephew’s mansion for a month or two. “
“Ugh, by the moon, no! I would rather crash with Discord.”
Something inside Luna’s saddlebags started to glow. Celestia nodded towards it.
“Is that one of the master comics, Luna?”
Luna took out a comic with a pony in a tuxedo on the cover and flipped the pages with a smile. “Yes. Donut Joe is inside a spy story. Wow, he seems quite competent at it!” She kept looking for a couple minutes, entranced.
“It seems like you are having fun.” This time Celestia’s smile was a warm, true one.
“Discord was right, this is fun.”
Celestia giggled. “I’m glad to hear that, though I have to ask you to put it away for a little while. We have to switch the sun and moon now.”
Later that night Luna was on her bed with the master comics spread around her. She had already seen a few stories to their conclusion, and discreetly sent pegasi guards to make sure the ponies that entered the stories were well; all the reports were encouraging, with one belated guard telling a tale of how Donut Joe was in such high spirits that he spent almost an hour talking about his adventures.
She hated to admit it, but this time Discord actually had a good idea. Everypony seemed to have greatly enjoyed the comics thus far, and if it kept Discord from getting bored and doing his little weekly disasters, it would double this venture’s worth in her eyes.
Back from her train of thought Luna noticed one of the master comics glowing; it was the only one without a cover image, and like every other master comic the interior was blank unless someone was in a linked story. She opened the master comic near the end, curious about what the mysterious story was about and who was taking part…
And promptly threw that master comic against a wall, her face turning a deep purple.
Discord was waiting in the same small conference room as sunrise approached, watching the moon set. As it approached the horizon the moon seemed to plunge, as if it was in a hurry.
Sure enough, shortly after he heard a familiar voice yelling.
“Discord, you better be here already!”
With a clash the room’s door opened, Luna eschewing her magic to open the doors with her own hooves. Her rearing form was momentarily framed on the doorway; furrowed eyebrows, mouth in a scowl, mane flowing with power, and a furious blush. She dropped to the floor with a crash and stomped inside. The secretary took the clue to quickly and discreetly flee the room through a side door.
“Luna, Luna. Didn’t Celestia tell you to mind your voice?”
Luna’s horn glowed, briefly encompassing the whole room and shutting off every external sound as the doors closed. She then took the blank master comic and almost shoved it on Discord’s face.
“WHAT. IS. THIS.”
“Why, it’s the master comic for the more, how might I say, mature stories. We didn’t draw a cover for it because it might be inappropriate in certain places, mind you.” He made a concerned face. “Oh, don’t tell me you opened this one. Those stories are more intimate, you know. Didn’t I tell you to only open it in case of an emergency?”
“No. You didn’t.”
“Sorry, slipped my mind.” Said Discord in an apologetic tone.
Closing her eyes, Luna took a deep, long breath. Her face set in a neutral pose, and while her voice was now lower, it was still menacing.
“Tell me one reason why I should let your little comic fun continue.”
Discord assumed a deadpan tone and counted on his claws. “Because your two favorite authors have dreamed of letting others live their stories their whole lives. Because everypony who entered one of those comics loved it - even that white one, and even knowing the story could be monitored. Because you just confirmed there was no risk, no pony got even close to being hurt. And because, despite my little joke, you know it is a good idea.”
“Gah. You win this time, but I will get you back for this.”
Discord blew a raspberry as Luna left the room stomping. A few moments after Celestia entered.
“From my sister’s behavior I guess you played a trick on her.”
“Why, did little Lulu go cry on her sister’s shoulder?”
“No. But you might want to back down from doing any nasty pranks on her, unless you fancy being on the receiving end as well.”
“Oh, please. You can tell her to do her worst. Or is big sister going to start defending little Lulu?”
“I don’t need to; she is stronger than you think.” Celestia’s smile turned mischievous. “By the way, the anti-chaos shield on this room and your mailbox? Those are not my hoofwork.”
Discord took a second to process the phrase. Then realization dawned on him, his face settling on an annoyed semblance. “Oh, poo.”