It was surprising to Twilight when Discord, whom Twilight hadn’t seen or missed since he’d retrieved Pinkie, snapped into existence in front of the diplomats. “I’ve been thinking it over, and concluded you might do better with a bit of motivation” he grinned. He snapped his fingers, and Twilight could see the enormous grid of a strangely foreign looking city in the place they were trying to ward. Tiny peach-colored creatures hurried back and forth on two legs within the hologram. “They’re counting on you.” he finished with a cheeky grin.
Twilight shook her head, trying to clear it from Discord’s mind game. She would have chewed him out if the diplomats weren’t here, which was probably why he’d chosen to show up now. Luna and Celestia glanced at each other in response to Discord’s sudden presence, but lit their horns and stepped forward. They would monitor and intervene if anything seemed out of the ordinary. Twilight saw Shining and Cadance at the other end of the courtyard, with a full contingent of the Crystal Guard behind them. After a quick probe of Discord’s apparition in the center of the circle which the group had formed around it (Twilight noticed that some strange disks were now floating over the virtual city) proved to Twilight that it was only some light manipulation, she levitated the element of magic from her head and showily called the other elements, levitating them onto her friends necks. She grimaced with apprehension as she felt the connection and started to float in the air...
...and nothing happened. Or at least nothing out of the ordinary for the elements. Her power coursed into her friends and theirs coursed back into her, and for a moment Twilight thrilled at their closeness and the power of their friendship. Then she opened her eyes and turned her attention to their center...
Lying within was a city being attacked. Creatures ran from black monstrosities which fell from disks and swept among the panicked creatures greedily. Twilight spent only a moment recalling the protection Celestia had taught her, and even that moment was too long. One second later, the space was warded, the black creatures disappeared, and six element bearers fell to the ground with a thump.
Twilight realized right away that the spell she had just cast was not only the most focused spell the elements had cast, but the shortest. She still felt full of nervous energy. Letting out some of the charge in her horn, she was surprised at how acutely she felt her own magic. She chuckled at the absurdity of what she was doing as she combined find, teleport, and levitation spells to shuffle some of the notes on the dresser of the room she had slept in. This quickly took care of the sudden excess, so instead of trying her hoof at remote reading she rounded on Discord... or rather rounded on where Discord had been, since he was no longer there. Instead, she saw Princess Celestia and Luna deep in conversation with the diplomats.
With no outlet for the sullen anger which Discord’s last minute addition had caused Twilight, she just stood there a moment. She was curious about the fate of the holographic city they had warded, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she wanted to see. She was saved from the decision by the fact that Luna, Celestia and the ambassadors were trotting up to the hologram themselves, muttering quietly in Arabic. They seemed pleased with what they saw, at least.
Twilight was just about to turn away in relief when a hoof poked her gently and she swiveled on her hooves much faster than she’d intended, coming face-to-face with Fluttershy, who was nervously tapping her hooves together.
“Umm...” she said. “Rainbow and Applejack are having a dispute about magic, and...”
Before she could finish her sentence, Rainbow’s voice echoed across the courtyard.
“I’m just saying” it called, “teleporting is a lot cooler, so it’s obviously better.” Rainbow emphasized her point by dashing through a shimmering portal that formed for her as she gained speed, and took her back to where she’d started. She continued to run through portals which formed and reclosed around Applejack, turning to grin and stick her tongue out at her as she passed.
“Why you!” came Applejack’s frustrated shout, and an orange glow swept over Rainbow as she exited a portal.
It was probably a mental thing, but Twilight had noticed Rainbow couldn’t actually teleport if she wasn’t already moving somewhat fast. So, instead of teleporting away, Rainbow sat there struggling. It was AJ’s turn to grin as she twisted an immobilized Rainbow Dash to and fro in midair. She did so until Rainbow somehow broke free, and ran into a more stealthy teleport which took her right behind Applejack, where she tapped on her shoulder. Applejack turned, but Rainbow had already teleported away... to her other side, where she tapped her other shoulder. Rainbow galloped off, preparing to teleport again, but then her legs tangled in a certain orange aura, and she stumbled. Twilight watched Rainbow attempt to keep her balance and avoid being completely overwhelmed by the levitation spell AJ was casting for a moment before turning back to Fluttershy
“They’re just playing.” Twilight told her. She knew that if the battle were at all serious, both ponies would be severely injured by now. “I swear,” she continued, shaking her head slightly, “they’re like foals with those horns.”
This didn’t seem to reassure Fluttershy, who left to circle nervously above them. Pinkie was an aerial spectator as well, and seemed to be literally jittering in midair above her roughhousing friends, a violation of aerodynamics which Twilight staunchly ignored. Cadance and Shining were already gone, organizing displays of Crystalline power to answer the Griffish ones. Some of the guard leftover from the demonstration watched interestedly though, and there were some excited nudges as the slower ones realized that Rainbow was an alicorn. Twilight looked for Rarity, and saw that she was in the middle of one of her imprompteau fashion advice and styling sessions with some unsuspecting stranger. Something clicked, and Twilight realized her friends were feeling the same way she did, and burning off the excess energy as best they knew how.
As Twilight turned to go back into the crystal palace, she first took a deep breath and walked the few paces to where the Discord’s hologram city still stood.
It seemed alright, and there was no visible carnage from above, but the virtual popultaion seemed like it might be smaller. Barely one or two ponies could be seen on the street at once, where before...
“Wait a minute.” she said out loud. “Weren’t these creatures two-legged before? I remember they walked just like humans...”
“Utter nonsense!” said Discord, leaning in over her shoulder. He took advantage of her surprise to vault neatly over it and curl around his holographic metropolis. “Such uninspired creatures wouldn’t change their form so quickly! Banish the thought!” and with that he clicked his fingers, causing both his hologram and himself to disappear, and leaving Twilight to grit her teeth over having such an impossible ‘mentor’.