> Window Shopping
>  by Parallel Black
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 - Applejack Opens Her Eyes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack wiped her brow and looked up at the nearing rainclouds. There weren’t very many, but then today’s rain was only meant to serve as a constant, light shower. A refreshing break from the untimely Autumn heat. The farmer looked back to her baskets and felt a small sense of satisfaction in seeing them full. An extra apple fell from the tree and plonked itself in the middle of one of them.

“Must have been a latecomer,” Applejack mumbled to herself. As she got a better look at the apple, she frowned; it was perfectly ripe, meaning it should have detached alongside the rest of them. Just as she looked up to see where it had fallen from, another late apple fell from the leaves and landed atop the first.

Again, it was a bright, healthy red. It had wobbled after landing, but quickly gained balance to make a small podium of apples in the centre of the basket. Applejack found herself staring at it in curiosity. “Gotta happen sometime, I suppose…?” she reasoned to herself.

A third apple fell, and landed perfectly on the second. Applejack growled. “Hey! Who’s up there in my apple tree?”

All the apples in the four baskets turned to face her with a one-toothed grin. Applejack watched in horror as her precious apples floated into the air in a miniature whirlwind of fruit, and glommed together to make the shape of a familiar draconequus.

“Discord!” Applejack shouted. “Gimme back my apples, you darn vandal!”

Discord stood and leaned against the tree he had grown from. He picked the last apple from his mouth and spat out the seeds, ignoring Applejack’s rant. “Bleh, these apples really are nothing special,” he commented. “So boring and tasteless. Hmhm, never thought I’d hear myself saying that.” He popped it back in and happily gulped it down.

Applejack took a step forward, her expression contorted with fury. “Discord! Did you eat all of my apples?”

He gave her a weird look before covering his snack in maple syrup. “What do you mean all of your apples? You have a whole… something-something acres of them!”

“That ain’t the point! That’s my family’s livelihood you’re eating, pay up!” Applejack extended a hoof, intending to make Discord pay.

He looked at the hoof closely for a moment. “Hmm… nah,” he batted it away and carried on eating.

Applejack cried in horror for a moment, and looked between the stump on the end of her foreleg and her hoof laying on the ground a few feet away. She quickly trotted over and jammed them back together. She looked back at Discord and growled, her hoof doing the same before dropping off its owner once again.

Discord dug a small ball of dirt out of the ground and popped that in his mouth as well. A shiver ran down his spine at the taste. “Really though, in all seriousness: ‘tastiest, highest-quality farm in Equestria’? This place may as well be a baked, sandy wasteland. The texture might leave something to be desired but at least it’ll have been cooked!”

Applejack caught the escaping thing. It writhed in anger beneath her grip. “Discord! Bring my hoof back to normal, you’re freaking me out!”

“This place tasted better when it was producing popcorn and grossly-oversized fruits!”

*WHACK*

Discord fell to the ground, tongue lolling out and eyes rolling back into his head. Applejack’s chosen weapon was a fallen branch, tipped with her own orange hoof. She watched, only growing more and more annoyed by the moment, as Discord’s “ghost” rose from his body.

“OoOoH Applejack! How could you do such a thing?” he weeped, dabbing his spectral eyes with a transparent cloth.

“You’re fine.” Applejack once again held out her hoof-stick. “Now come on and pay up. I don’t have all day to harvest y'know.”

Discord looked between the stick-borne hoof and its owner a few times before letting out a sigh. He reluctantly materialized a small sack of bits and placed it in the hoof. “There, everything I have.” He popped back into his body and poked Applejack’s chest. “And that’s only because you were persistent.”

Applejack took the bag in her free hoof, and caught the other one on her stump as it tried to leap after it. She flexed the reformed joint with a smile. “Good enough for me!”

Discord wound himself around the tree he’d been stealing from and looked across the orchard as if he were manning a crow’s nest. “Bland, bland, and bland as far the eye can see. We be travelling rough turf today…”

“Wait, why’s it moving?”

Discord coiled down to the ground again and tossed the waking bag out of Applejack’s grasp. “No reason. Now, as I was saying,” he began as he guided the farmer away, “one of the things I hate in this world is boredom. Most Draconequi feel the same way.”

Applejack looked up at him with a question on her tongue. “So… are you telling me that there’s more of you out there?”

Discord nodded, then flicked the end of her muzzle. “Don’t interrupt me.” Applejack glared at him. “This hatred of mine is one of the reasons I dislike Celestia enough for her to turn me to stone. She’s so boring that they had to put her in charge of the Sun itself just to make her more interesting!”

“‘They’ being?” Another flick.

“Whoever was in control of it before her, I can’t remember her name. Anyway…” He bent down to look Applejack in the eyes. “Your farm is boring,” he commented.

“Hey!” Applejack predictably replied.

“Perhaps the most interesting thing about this place is your use of pigs. Not many farmers figure out a use for them past feeding the local Griffon and/or Dog population.”

Applejack grimaced at the thought of her pigs being used in such a way. It would likely be best if I just see where he’s going with this… “Yeah. We got a whole routine set up for ‘em, nightly shifts around the farm, and sometimes around Ponyville when the Everfree starts sending out more monsters than usual.”

“Then again, not many farmers have to deal with threats such as Timberwolves.” Discord stopped and turned in place, suddenly appearing in front of Applejack. “Which brings me to the reason for my visit.”

“My farm is boring, right?” Applejack asked, unamused. “I don’t see why you came here if you hate boredom so much. Not that this is a boring job, if you know a thing or two about farming.”

“And yet,” Discord spoke, spreading his mismatched arms wide, “I was drawn here due to an excessive amount of nothing happening. The dirt in this place is stale and tasteless, with only a faint hint of apple. The farmland itself has a nicer little tang to it, but it still needs some extra life added in!”

Applejack gave him an odd look. “Some extra life? It’s a farm, the whole darn-” He eyes went wide. “Oh no.”

A few minutes passed of nothing happening, all except for a bag of golden coins hopping away and out of the orchard.

Discord sat on a cleanly-chopped tree stump, tapping his forehead to give himself a little bit of stimulus while Applejack slowly realized that the trees were not, in fact, coming to life to eat her. “Are you done yet?” he called.

Applejack patted the ground at the base of another apple tree, watching it with an intense gaze. She looked back to Discord. “No, I’m not. You don’t say something suspicious like ‘needs some extra life’ without something uprootin’ itself and walkin’ around!”

Discord shrugged. “Is it really so wrong that I found a chance to use that phrase in a non-implying fashion? One would almost think you don’t trust me, Applejack!”

“I don’t trust you, and you know that well enough!”

Discord snapped his fingers and a few bucket fulls of gooey, chopped fruit rained down upon the angry farmer. Applejack’s mouth hung agape as she laid her eyes upon Discord’s handiwork. She stomped her hooves on the ground, squishing a few pieces underneath. “QUIT RUININ’ MY APPLES!!”

Discord just sat there, smiling. “Those aren’t apples.”

Applejack scowled at him and slowly turned her gaze back to the mess that now covered her and the ground. The anger gradually shifted to confusion as she took a better look at what she had been doused with. “What’re these things…?” she asked, half to herself as she shifted the soft, yellow bits around, trying to identify what fruit they were from.

“Bananas,” Discord answered. “You won’t find them very often in Equestria. They can only grow in the tropics, and all Equestria has at its south is a huge swampland and miles upon miles of desert.”

One of the bananas reformed and was levitated into Applejack’s hoof. The curved, elongated shape barely balanced in one hoof, and the angles of the fruit’s skin made it wobble a bit as Applejack looked it over. “I’ve seen pictures of these before. Never actually seen one in real life though.” She leaned back in surprise as the top peeled away, revealing the lighter, softer flesh of the fruit within.

With Discord’s encouragement, she popped it into her mouth and bit a chunk off. Almost immediately, the aggravation dropped from her face and drool started to pool in her mouth. She swallowed the mushy fruit and the rest quickly vanished into her gullet as well, skin included.

Discord grinned at the sight. “Bananas are one of the tastiest, most addictive legal fruits in the world. They were once even seen as something only a royal could eat. The Royal Fruit.”

Applejack stared at the broken bits of many innocent bananas covering the ground. “All of a sudden… I feel like apples aren’t the best thing in the world anymore.”

Discord’s ears blew up in a pair of miniature mushroom clouds. “You what?”

“A veil has been lifted from my eyes and I am no longer blinded by what I have known all my life, except for that one time I tried oranges and didn’t like them.” Applejack patted Discord’s front. Her pupils had dilated, and they stared into the very essence of his soul. “Can I have another?”

“And… you’ve lost your mind. That was very quick.” For a few moments and for the first time in a very long time, Discord stopped to consider his options. “Well… yes. Celestia made a huge stash of them after she renovated the castle dungeons, but I doubt we could reach it without breaking my probation condi-”

Applejack leapt up and wrapped her forelegs around her best friend’s neck. “Does she have more? Can I have more? Can you make more?”

Discord looked her in the eyes and scratched his chin, bemused and rather taken aback by the normally strong-willed earth-pony’s reaction to the new fruit. “Yes to all,” he replied with a big smile stretching over his face.
> 2 - Applejack Obtém uma Ressaca (Applejack Gets a Hangover)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack woke up. Almost. She held her eyes shut as tightly as she could, as if the light of the morning sun was trying to gouge them out of her skull. That was what it felt like at least. The farmer let out a heavy groan that shifted to one of pain as she finally sat up. The light was indeed blinding, even with the curtains drawn. Her vision and her every thought was swimming about, causing everything in the room to continuously melt into a blurred slurry, before blinking back into position and repeating the mind-numbing process.

Applejack felt something hit her back, and after a full three minutes of having no idea what was going on, realized she had fallen out of bed. “Dur… D-Dis… cord?” she called in her dreary haze. What… happened… last… night…? She tried to think of what had taken place, but couldn’t come up with anything other than the colour yellow. The word “banana” came to mind. Then again, and again, her own inner voice telling her everything about what little she could recall.

“Discord…” she spoke again, this time with a strained tone of annoyance to the word. She remembered the visit, the feelings of aggravation and anger, and then the blitz of yellow nothing as soon as she took that first bite.

What sounded like a sliding door grating against a rack of chains came from the other side of the room, and a wobbling, fizzled voice quivered through the mess Applejack was experiencing. A new shape appeared in her vision; a tall figure. She still couldn’t make out any colours or details through the sea of distortions, but her vision was gradually stabilizing.

“Are you… M-Macintosh? Or Granny?” Applejack asked as the figure pulled her up off the floor. The words slipped limply from her tongue on the way out of her mouth. She frowned as yellows began to congregate over the shape. “... Is that you, Braeburn?”

The figure shook its elongated head. “I’m sorry, I’m Nurse Noguera. I’ve been taking care of you since you got here.” The voice was slowly becoming more clear. It was still fuzzy, but it was clearly female and quite young.

Applejack rubbed her eyes and let out another groan as she was raised back onto the hospital bed. The covers were quickly replaced next, with Applejack’s stetson put back on the bedside table. “Where am I?” the farmer asked, hooves covering her aching eyes.

“You’re at Tierno Corazón, Miss. You were brought in by your friend early this morning in a pretty bad state, I’m afraid. How are you feeling now?”

“Like I’m… like I’ve just had the worst night of my entire life.” Applejack took her hooves away again. Her vision had returned for the most part. Shapes were staying mostly the same, and colours were no longer bleeding into one another. She looked over at the mare standing at her bedside and screamed at the top of her lungs.

The giant, walking banana screamed as well and looked behind her for what her patient was looking at. Applejack clambered up onto the windowsill, bringing the bed covers with her for protection against the monster. “M-Miss, I’m not here to hurt you! Please calm down!” Noguera exclaimed, waving her fruit limbs at Applejack, which only prompted more screaming.

“WHAT IN THE HELL ARE YOU GET AWAY FROM ME!!” Applejack shouted as she waved the covers in front of her. “DISCORD!! THIS THING IS GOING TO EAT ME!!!”

“Security! I need help in here!” said the banana as it rushed out into the hallway.

Now on her own, Applejack looked about for an escape route. Naturally with this being a hospital bedroom, there was only one door out of the room. She felt the smooth glass of the window behind her and briefly considered the only other option available to her, before she saw the three-story drop into the street below. I don’t remember Ponyville Hospital bein’ that tall! she thought. Applejack looked out at the town beyond the window. It was still a blurred mess of colours, but the pale, sandstone yellow of the houses and the glinting colours of decorations didn’t match Ponyville or Canterlot.

Just then, the door opened and a complete stranger wandered in, garbed in a wizard’s costume and sporting a silly-sized white mustache. His red and yellow eyes met hers. “Oh, Applejack!” Discord exclaimed upon seeing her. He may have been walking on all fours, but it was clear as day who it was, what with the ear-piercingly aggravating tone of gleeful sarcasm spewing from his mouth. “Wonderful to see that you’re feeling better! What with you screaming in terror, and standing ready to flop those sheets at anything that comes near.”

Applejack scowled at him. “Discord, what the hell is going on?! What in Tartarus was that thing?”

“Phew, you’re certainly a potty mouth when you’re scared, aren’t you?” Discord commented, coming to a stop next to the window. With a flash of light he returned to his normal form. He now wore a fruit hat on his head, made up of all sorts of produce from across the world, some of which Applejack had never even seen before. Another banana materialized in his hand. “Here, eat this and I’ll explain everything.”

Applejack stared at the thing for a few moments, then glared, the terror fading away into suspicion. “What the hell did you do to me?” she asked with a tone as ripe as a poisoned apple. Without any warning, Discord shoved the thing into her mouth. Applejack gagged and quickly spewed it back up, falling back onto the bed in a fit of coughing and swearing.

“I’ve enchanted that banana to remove all of the effects you’ve been experiencing so far,” Discord explained. He couldn’t help but grin as Applejack let out a loud groan and flopped onto the floor. “It tastes like the armpits of Tartarus, but it’ll do the job.”

The nurse rushed back into the room, now taking the form of a normal earth-pony wearing the standard scrubs of a hospital worker. She was a very pale shade of orange, with an equally pale purple in her tied mane interlaced with a far more vibrant pink. Doración Noguera skidded to a halt as she saw Discord, and let out a squeal of terror as she saw what he’d done to her patient. She backed up to the doorway, only to feel a solid wall behind her.

“Oh god no…” she whimpered, shuffling down to the floor in fear.

“Oh good, everyone is exactly where they should be!” Discord suddenly exclaimed. As he said this, the small group of security guards Noguera had been leading galloped right past them, unaware that the hallway was now missing a room. Without waiting around to explain anything, he grabbed Applejack under one arm and the unfourtunate nurse with the other, and phased through the window…


-----


A few minutes later. Applejack and Discord were sat in the main courtyard outside of Tierno Corazón, both unrecognized by security thanks to a thin magical disguise from the draconequus. They had been watching the other ponies go past for a short while now, Applejack taking note of how many other races were intermingled amongst them. While the majority of the crowd were ponies, Dogs were a fairly common sight, and there were even a few ponies bearing sparkling coats dotted by crystals, all of whom bore sharp, gem-encrusted wings.

“So… I’m really not in Equestria anymore, am I?” Applejack asked.

“Nope,” Discord responded simply. “This is an island called Una Magna, meaning ‘Large One’ in Dvautiam.”

“Well that doesn’t really help me. I’m not exactly a geography buff.”

While to everyone else the two of them looked like perfectly normal ponies, they could see their respective normal selves just fine. Discord was sat hunched over in order to fit into the same space his disguise would. “It’s a large island off the coast of Cabérico. Great holiday destination, not that you’d know of that sort of thing given your ‘apple till I die’ work ethic.” Applejack scowled at him, but Discord ignored her. “We’re currently in the small city of Pezulma, the first stop on our trip.”

“Trip?” Applejack asked. Her eyes went wide all of a sudden. “Wait, Cabérico?! I’m pretty darn sure that that’s someplace halfway round the world!”

Discord clasped his hands together in sarcastic joy. “Correct, Applejack!” He patted her on the head. “We’re exactly six-thousand, one-hundred and eighty-two kilometers from Sweet Apple Acres!”

For a moment, Applejack froze in horror. She thought to snap back at Discord for this and all sorts of other reasons which were quickly starting to build up, but instead, she didn’t. Applejack grit her teeth and let out a pained sigh; she knew it would be utterly pointless to demand anything at this point if Discord had really brought her so far from home. “Ok. What’re we doin’ here, you twisted pile of body parts?”

Discord grinned. “Surprisingly relaxed for somepony who was freaking out at the sight of Dogs just a few minutes ago.”

“Just get on with it…”

“Alright, then I suppose I’ll head right back to the beginning with my explanation; why I was even in Sweet Apple Acres yesterday. You see, the reason I find your farm so boring is because of the sheer lack of variation in the things that are grown there. Yes, there may be a fair number of vegetables on offer, and the apples may hold the title of ‘the best in Equestria’, but that isn’t enough to make a truly excellent farm.” Invisible to everyone else, a ball of rich, fertile dirt materialized above his lion paw. “This is what the ground beneath Sweet Apple Acres looks like right now; nice, soft, rich soil, very well suited to all sorts of traditional Equestrian produce.”

The lump floated over to Applejack, coming to a stop a short distance from her. “Now then… there are a few places in the world that grow all kinds of produce from all across the planet. Ranging from seeds that only germinate within clouds, to peppers that are watered with the broiling Maga beneath the crust.” Above Discord’s talon formed a ball of glowing, blue dirt. Mixed with powerful liquid magic, its texture was almost semi-solid. “There is only one such place on Epona that can grow anything in the world, and it is the very fact that the farmers there spread their wings far and wide, trying out every kind of produce they can possibly get their hooves on.”

The lumps of dirt lowered themselves into Applejack’s waiting forehooves. She eyed them both closely, finding herself interested in the sheer difference between them. “So what you’re tellin’ me is… more different kinds of produce cause the soil to turn out like… that?”

Discord nodded with a smile. “Each new spark of variety makes the ground a little more fertile and flexible in what can grow there. Eventually, the soil itself becomes a delicacy and a highly sought-after material. Understandably, the owners of said dirt are reluctant to give it away for any price that isn’t within the range of the royal treasury.”

“And the reason you’ve dragged me all the way out here is to find new things for the farm, back home?”

“Correct.” Discord lifted his lion paw, palm open. Within it, a point of light rapidly grew into a small sphere, about the size of one of the Cakes’ cupcakes. Applejack’s eyes went wide as she saw what floated within; the unconscious form of the nurse. “And it all starts with her.”
> 3 - Uprooted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Applejack and Discord had made their way to the hospital’s internal parking lot. There weren’t that many cars on Una Magna compared to inhabitants, but the large space could be kept cooler than the hot midday sun outside. Even during September, the heat posed a threat of its own to vulnerable patients.

Outside, Applejack had noticed the cars driving on the main road that ran past the hospital. The light hum of flickering engines and the scent of crystalline magic emanating from their insides was a strange sensation for her, to have arrived from a country that had long abandoned such methods of transport.

She looked back to what could generously be called her travelling companion. Discord walked ahead of her with a happy, confident sway to his every step, while he tossed the orb containing the nurse in his hand. “So, is kidnapping one of your old pastimes, by any chance?” Applejack asked with a bite to her tone.

“It used to be, if you want an honest answer,” Discord replied, earning a silent frown aimed at the back of his neck. “Back in the good old days of chaos, one of my hobbies involved teleporting people’s houses to random locations across Equestria to see how they would react. Needless to say, ponies are afraid of almost everything, so many of them stayed put where they thought they were safe. After realizing this… eh, I fell out with it for a good long while.”

“I wasn’t really askin’ for the full story, y’now.” The images ran through Applejack’s mind, of the barn at Sweet Apple Acres appearing at the top of Canterlot Mountain. In the modern day there were settlements and towns all over the map, so finding help wouldn’t be impossible under most circumstances. Over one-thousand years ago, however…  “You sent them back afterwards, right?” she asked.

“Hm? Yes,” Discord replied, glancing back at Applejack.

She could see the lies on his face.

He stopped walking and spun round to face her, a gap a few ponies long between them. “Now then, this seems like a good spot.” He grabbed the orb out of the air once more and tossed it to the ground between them.

In a small explosion of water and steam, Doración Noguera found herself laying on a cold stone floor. The feeling of water covering her body vanished strangely quickly, and she opened her eyes to a very unwelcome sight. From above stared the monster she’d seen in the hospital room, with maddening red and yellow eyes, seemingly glowing in the relative darkness.

“Where am I?” Doración asked backing up. She flinched when she felt someone brush against her side as they moved out of her way. She seemed to have lost her hospital scrubs in the orb. “Why am I here?”

“Relax, girl,” said Applejack, placing a hoof on her shoulder, “we’re not here to hurt you or anything.” The nurse looked back at her with wide eyes. Applejack could tell how bad the scene looked, and sent a quick glare at Discord, who was starting to look like he was going to take advantage of the situation. The draconequus quickly put away the grin.

“O-oh… it’s you,” Doración commented.

“Yeah, from the hospital. I’m ok now, just so ya know,” Applejack replied with a slightly embarrassed smile as she remembered what had happened. Dammit, how the hay do I explain any of this without comin’ across as a lunatic? “So… how to say this…?”

“We’re just here on a sightseeing trip, of sorts,” Discord cut in. He floated over to Applejack. “My dear friend here came down with a bad case of banana-fuelled insanity, and dragged me all the way here!”

Applejack batted him away .”That is not how it happened. You’re the one who came to me, and you’re the one who brought me all the way here!”

Discord shrugged. “You don’t know what happened after you lost control of yourself.” He materialized a box of wipes and began dabbing his eyes. “My, my, your friends and family were all so disappointed in you when they found out what you’d been up to!”

For a moment, Applejack felt the now familiar feeling of anger welling up to the surface. Then, she thought about it; she didn’t know for sure what she had done after taking that first bite of banana. All she could remember was the exquisite, irresistible taste, and the colour yellow. Everything else between then and now was completely blank. “What do you mean?” she asked him, now with a hint of worry in her voice.

“Oh, nothing. I’ll explain it later.” Discord clicked his fingers and switched back into his pony form. This time he wore a wizard’s black top hat and cloak, likely teleported straight from a real magician’s getup. Across his front an empty money bag was slung, and across his punchable face he wore a devilish smile. He patted Applejack on the back and waved goodbye, trotting his way toward the exit. “Right now we both have matters to attend to, so go ahead and do what you always do, Applejack; make friends!”

Doración watched with interest as the Draconequus-turned-pony left the building. “Hm. He isn’t really as explosive and scary compared to what I read,” she commented.

Applejack tilted her hoof about in an unsure gesture. “He goes up and down.” There was a gap of silence, instantly signifying how awkward the situation was. While Applejack was a perfectly friendly mare, and had little trouble speaking to strangers, talking to captives wasn’t something she’d had the pleasure of trying out. Well, here goes nothing… “So… you know about Discord?”

Doración nodded. “Of course. Everyone does, in some form or another. I heard about him in the newspapers when he returned-” She glanced past Applejack again, catching a glimpse of the edge of Discord’s cape as he vanished. “-but I was never really sure whether it was all true. All they showed as proof of it happening was a picture of his statue and a word from Princess Celestia, which could have been faked.”

Applejack crossed a leg and put on a look of pride. “Don’t forget us! Me and my friends were the ones who locked him back in stone in the first place!” It crossed Applejack’s mind that she might have wanted to keep such an important fact secret. This mare had no idea who she was or if she could even trust someone affiliated with the God of Chaos.

“Umm… ok? I never heard anything about that?” Doración commented.

Applejack grimaced. “Tch, pesky reporters, redirectin’ all the credit like that. I mean, not that I want a bunch of weirdos coming to the farm and askin’ for autographs and such.”

“Your name was Applejack, yes?” Doración asked, leaning to one side to get a better look at her cutie mark. Applejack nodded. “It… does sound vaguely familiar, so maybe you were mentioned somewhere?”

Applejack shrugged. “Whatever the truth may be, that’s neither here nor there. I guess it would only be right of me to tell you what you’re gettin’ yourself into right now.” She glanced back to the opening through which Discord had disappeared. “Discord dragged me all the way here for the sake of… gathering whatever kinds of farming produce we can find. I honestly couldn’t tell ya why since I never agreed to this in the first place, but I guess I’ll be bringing ‘em back to the farm to see what happens.”

“Oh, so… you want my help?” Doración asked.

“Discord said you were the mare for the job.”

For just a moment, the look on Doración’s face wasn’t one of curiosity or hesitation. She looked like she was under attack; eyes and head facing the ground, a feeling of unease visible through her body language. And then it was gone, replaced by a smile Applejack couldn’t decide was real or not. “I suppose I can show you around Pezulma. I know this town well, so if you want I can take you to the local grocery stores?”

“Really? That would be great! I mean, I sure hope I’m not cuttin’ into your time or anythin’ with all this, right?”

Doración laughed. “Oh no, no, don’t worry. I would never pass up a chance like this. I’ve never even met a Draconequus before!”

Without hesitation, the nurse motioned Applejack over to where her car was parked. It was a  shiny, light-blue convertible, chassis hung low to the ground with the wheels pushed out to the front and back of the vehicle.

Applejack slowed to a stop a few feet from the car. “Wait a second, I just realized that we can’t do this right now. You’re still workin’, right?”

Doración visibly flinched at the question. “Oh no, I mean, they won’t need me. I’m not one of the essential staff.” Come on, don’t ruin this chance… Doración placed a hoof on a small alcove on the door. With a dull glow, it clicked open.

The farmer watched and raised an eyebrow. “I thought all hospital workers were essential?”

“Um, no, not all of them. I’ll just count this as one of my sick days. Besides, they’re probably still looking for me after Discord kidnapped me.”

“Or maybe they didn’t even see Discord in the first place, and they think you just ran.”

The door was open, but the nurse hesitated, hoof hovering over the driver’s seat. She’s right, she thought.

“And it would be a lot easier to head back now and tell them you’re alright, than to just run off with a random stranger like me and deal with the repercussions later, wouldn’t it?”

Doración placed her hoof back on the stone floor. Applejack could tell, even from behind, that the nurse was feeling guilt.

“Unless there’s some reason you wanna stay out of that place…?” Applejack asked.

Doración turned back to her and gave a small nod. “It… well... Would you be alright if I told you on the way?”

Applejack didn’t seem satisfied, but she nodded with a sigh. “Fine.”

From the shadows Discord’s eyes watched them both as they climbed into the car. He grinned. “What a nice little moment for you two,” he commented. “Far be it from me to get in the way.” In his little pocket dimension he looked down to the copy of Doración Noguera standing blankly by his side. Giving it a flick on one emotionless eyeball, the magical clone suddenly awoke and looked up at him. “Normal duties. Your shift ends in five hours,” he commanded.

With that, the stand-in vanished to temporarily take the nurse’s place in the hospital.
> 4 - Marezanilla
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The engine of the car sputtered to life, filling the area below Applejack’s hooves with a soft, blue glow. She held on as the whole thing started to lightly vibrate, her face taking on a rather more hesitant look than before, and looked over to Doración. The nurse had placed her forehooves on the dashboard inside two shallow holes that emanated the same soft light.

“Are you usin’ magic right now?” Applejack asked in surprise.

Doración glanced between her and the car’s control mechanism and smiled. The magical energy seeping from the soles of her hooves sped up momentarily in response to the positive emotion. “Yeah. Kind of, at least. Do you not have cars back in Equestria?”

Applejack leaned back in her seat as the vehicle began to move out of its parking spot. She instinctively placed a hoof on her hat to keep it in place, as if she were riding in a train carriage. “My family has an old, rusted-up one in the basement that used to belong to my granpappy,” she answered. “I hear they used to be used all over Equestria, but they just kinda… fell outa use.”

“Interesting.” Doración looked back to her hooves, understanding why Applejack had been surprised. “Ponies like me need special training to use cars. It’s why I can emit magic out of my hooves; I learned to use my tertiary paths.”

“Earth-pony magic, then?”

Doración smiled somewhat eagerly. “Yeah, you could say that.”

Applejack had a vague memory of Twilight telling her about such things, but remembered more about the fact that it all went over her head than the explanation itself. “Do you think I could do that?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Sure, maybe. It depends on the user’s magical potential.” With a small mixture of thought and energy, the car slowly rolled out of the parking lot.

On this side of the hospital was an exit leading directly onto the main road running past Tierno Corazon. Here the cars rushed past them, their engines letting out that gentle, yet alien hum of crystalline magic. Applejack found her train of thought coming to a stop as soon as she saw them. She suddenly realized that the idea of riding around at such speed in a giant container of metal and glass, powered by what was potentially an explosive energy source, wasn’t a very attractive option.

The sound of magic whizzing past them grew louder and louder as they came to a rest at the junction. Dora looked both ways, waiting for a nice, long opening in the traffic when she noticed the look on Applejack’s face. The mare was sat upright against her seat, staring straight ahead at a nearby hill as if she was frozen.

“Applejack? Are you ok?”

Applejack’s eyes turned to look at her, the rest of her body staying completely still. Her ears were turned back in silent embarrassment. “Yeah? Y-... no, maybe not, actually. Could I maybe walk there instead?” she asked, almost sounding as though she was apologizing at the same time.

Doración gave her an odd look for a moment, before remembering what Applejack had said about cars in Equestria. “I’m guessing you’ve never actually been in a car before?”

Applejack shook her head.

Doración sighed, wondering what to do to help her new friend out. It was somewhat similar to when she took foals for their first drive, though most of them felt excitement rather than fear. They were more sensitive to magic after all, and they reacted well to the magic-filled air the engine produced. At that thought she looked again to Applejack. Still terrified. You must be completely numb to it or something. “I hate to say this, Applejack, but it’ll take a lot longer to walk there than it will to drive.”

“I know, I know. I’m just sayin’, I’d be perfectly fine not having to ride around in a giant bucket o’ bolts, travelin’ at high speeds. Being flown places is bad enough, and at least a train has rails it can stick to.” As Applejack said this, she glanced at the smooth tarmac of the road and the rubber tires of the cars that passed over it every few seconds.

Doración had her back hoof ready to press down on the acceleration and get things over with. “Just hold on, ok? I promise you I’m a perfectly competent driver. You’ll be fine.”

Applejack hesitated before nodding, and held onto her hat once again. The car’s engine gave a loud hum and they leapt onto the road.


-----


The terrain of Ursa Majorca was strange, to put it lightly. The shining colours Applejack had seen from the hospital window turned out to be growths of solid crystal, sprouting from the soft grass to add a miriad of colours to the green and blue. They seemed to be a very common resource thanks to this, judging by how they adorned almost every structure in Pezulma as frankly beautiful decorations.

“Man, Rarity would love this place,” Applejack commented to herself, only to mentally take it back as they passed another boarded up shop. She had been too distracted by the beauty of the place to notice before, but there were a fair number of empty shops. The windows were blocked out, and judging by the fact that some of them were being used as poster boards it had been this way for a while. Doración was looking as well. She seemed to have lost her smile from before. “So… you got something to say?”

The nurse nodded, and hesitated. “The reason I’m taking this chance is because I’m not a nurse. Well, I am a nurse, obviously, but…” She motioned to her flank. Upon it was an image of an oak tree with one of its branches hanging over a cradle. “How to explain this to an outsider… have you heard of the Eastern Campaigns?”

“Nope,” was Applejack’s simple response. “What is it?”

“It was a war between Roamia and the Ottomare Empire. It ended about six years ago now, but the entire Roamian Empire is still feeling the effects. The whole thing was a giant mess from start to finish, and because of that, Cabérico’s economy is in a dangerous position. That had problems all of its own, but then came the empire-wide call for post-war reinforcements. In other words, most of Ursa Majorca’s doctors and craftsponies left for Roam because of all the need for their skills. That left me, a daycare worker, practically forced to study health care in order to better take care of all the kids. That then lead me to taking on a full time job at Tierno Corazon, leaving my daycare job - the thing that gave me my Mark of Purpose - behind completely.”

It was a lot to take in all at once. Applejack couldn’t claim to understand the intricacies of war or economics, but she knew she could at least help the mare out as best she could. “So… what’s stoppin’ you from just working in the foals’ ward? Why is it so bad that you’re ok with just… uppin’ and walking out?”

Doración felt a lump in her throat. “I mean… I’m not. I’m not ok with it. I know it was wrong of me, but this just seemed like the perfect excuse to get away from it all. You know? Don’t you ever feel like taking a break from your job every once in a while…?”

Applejack eyed Doración incredulously. “No, not when it’s such a vital job like that, at least. Sorry girl, I can’t agree with you on that one.”

“I’m not a nurse. I’m a daycare worker…” Doración muttered to herself. “I was never meant for this role.”

“Let’s just get this day over with. I’ve already had enough stress as it is,” Applejack finished the conversation with a frown on her face.

The car slowed to a stop in another car park, through this one seemed to be stretched across the length of an entire street. Judging by the colourful canopies and throngs of people, this was undoubtedly the marketplace. Many stalls seemed to be selling goods from inside crates of various shapes and sizes, signifying their origin from abroad. Others were manned by the remaining craftsponies of Ursa Majorca, and others still by the farmers.

The two of them got out and made their way in. Doración left her hospital scrubs in the trunk of her car. “So… what kinds of produce are you looking for?” Doración asked.

Applejack looked about at all the interesting sights that spread out before her. The stalls were manned by all kinds of different races. That all on its own was something of interest to a mare who had come from the pony-centric Ponyville, but she found her eyes drawn more so toward the pegasi possessing wings filled with crystal. She had seen their kind earlier in the day, and she found her curiosity sparking up. She quickly reminded herself of what Doración had asked her. “Anythin’ that doesn’t grow in Equestria, really. I can’t say I know the names of them, I’ll just know ‘em by sight,” Applejack replied. She ogled a collection of apple-shaped crystal fruits and came to a stop. She glanced at the hopeful looking seller and suddenly realized something. “Do we have any money with us…?”

“Do you not have any…? Oh, of course you don’t. You use Bits.”

Applejack felt guilty at the thought of leeching off her friend’s money. “Sorry about that. I didn’t exactly have the chance to plan ahead for this trip, after all.”

Doración gave her a look as she spotted Applejack glancing back at the car. “Well you’re not getting any of mine. Money is tight enough as it is, even with a hospital job.”

Invisible to all of them, Applejack’s feeling of frustration washed out of her, as did Doración’s guilt over coming here in the first place. The emotions passed by unnoticed through the crowd, swirling past their own which bled from their minds and into the air. Though there were no changelings present in the marketplace, someone sensed them.

The individual, a fairly plain stallion with a yellow coat and neatly cut brown mane, was stood behind a stall selling anything buyers wanted it to, literally. He felt a jolt of emotional energy pass through him, which he found enticingly familiar. Looking toward the source, a devilish grin spread across his face, and the contents of his stall changed accordingly.

With few other options, Applejack and Doración wandered their way through the marketplace, looking about for some free offers to take advantage of.

“The Una Magnífico Circus is in town every other Wednesday,” Doración suggested, pointing to the large, colourful tent roof rising up at the other end of the courtyard. “We could go there if you want?”

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck and let out an indecisive sigh. “I dunno. I’ve had a few bad experiences with clowns before. And Manticores, too.”

Doración frowned and leaned away, as if offended. “But everyone loves the circus,” she stated. Apparently Applejack’s opinion was unheard of in Una Magna.

“I know they do. I just don’t like clowns when I don’t know who they are, is all. It’s a… thing about masks or somethin’.”

Right on queue, a specifically-designed stallion - pink coat, purple mane and handsome face - called over to them. Standing out as he did, he was hard to miss amongst the crowd, waving to the two of them. Applejack and Doración shared a glance before making their way over to him.

“Uhh, can we help you?” Applejack asked. She raised an eyebrow at the stallion’s appearance, and that of his stall, too. Usually a stall would have some visible example of the things it sold, either hanging from the roof or the back wall, or laid out between the seller and customer. This one, however, was completely bare. The purple colour scheme was left to its own devices, with only the stallion himself to break things up.

“More like can I help you?” The stallion wore the confident, suave smile of a conmare, and the greedy gaze of someone who had very different plans in mind. “I couldn’t help but notice you two wandering around, looking to and fro with nothing to do. Might I guess; you forgot your wallet?” He produced a small, brown wallet from behind Applejack’s ear.

Applejack raised a very, very suspicious eyebrow. “Are you a magician? Cus I don’t trust magicians.”

The stallion’s smile wavered as Applejack’s shifted tone washed over him. “Er, well, yes, that I am. Of a sort, at least. You see, I am something of a savant when it comes to freedom of choice. I sell whatever you want or need, and I accept anything as payment.”

“Also, that ain’t my wallet. Are you Discord in disguise?” Applejack continued, completely ignoring the stallion’s sales pitch.

He quickly shook his head with an uneasy frown, and put the wallet back in the large bag resting behind his counter. “I assure you there are no tricks involved, ma’am. What I said is the truth; this is the place to buy and sell anything.”

It was Doración’s turn to feel skeptical. “Anything?” she asked expectantly.

The stallion nodded and leaned down to them. “Really, the only trick here is the bag full of pocket dimension resting behind my counter. Got it at the wonderful price of everything I owned at the time. High cost to most, but now I don’t need to drag a giant caravan of goods around with me.”

Doración seemed slightly confused at his explanation, but nodded all the same. “I see. I haven’t seen you around here before, Mr…?”

“... Beaky,” the stallion responded after a pause. “It’s a family name, of course.”

“Smith,” Applejack answered in kind. She nodded with a smile and tipped her hat. “Sorry if I seem a little suspicious. I’ve had somethin’ of a rough day is all. So… what do you sell?”

Mr. Beaky reached down and fished something out of his bag. It was a small, wooden idol like something seen in a Daring Do novel. “Generally speaking, I sell whatever is rare in the region. So in other words I sell everything my current location doesn’t. What are you looking for?”

“Fruit and veg. I’m lookin’ to start growing some new things back home.”

“Ah, I see.” Beaky ducked down again and replaced the idol with a selection of different fruits. He smirked. “I’ll bet in crystal fruit country you don’t see many of these?” He motioned to the perfectly normal apples, carrots and berries.

Applejack was less than impressed.

The salespony’s expression sank when he noticed the mare’s reaction. Clearly, he had rarely come across a situation like this in the past, what with the many wonders he carried with him. “I’m sorry, is there a problem…? I always make sure to research my destinations thoroughly so that I know what to present people with, you know.”

Applejack realized how she looked; of course he would assume such a thing. “I mean… not that I don’t appreciate the effort and all, but I’m not actually from around here. I was lookin’ to buy some of the stuff that’s grown in this Una Magna place, but… I don’t have any money with me.”

Beaky glanced between Applejack and what he’d presented her with and let out a short laugh before scooping it all back into the sack. “O-of course! No wonder you weren’t impressed. So you instead want things that are extremely common to Una Magna. Done deal, what would you like to trade?”

Applejack thought for a moment. She didn’t have much on her aside from her hat and her hair bobbles, and there was no way she was going to part with the former. She sat down and unwound the red bobble from her mane. “What can I get for this?” she asked.

Mr. Beaky seemed to pause for a moment. He stared at the thing he was about to be given as if it were made of solid gold. Then, he came back. “How about a few crystal apples? Something common for other very common things.”

Applejack watched as the pieces of glimmering produce were placed on the counter between them, and she did the same with her bobble. All the while, she found herself keeping an extra eye on the stallion. They both smiled at one another, keeping up the facade of ease for the moment. Applejack took her prizes and the trade was completed.

“Thanks, mister,” Applejack said with a nod and turned away, produce in hoof.

The instant they were out of earshot, Doración sidled up to her friend with a look like thunder on her face. “Did you see that look on his face?” she whispered angrily.

“I wouldn’t miss that look if I were blind,” Applejack replied grimly. “Either that guy just had no idea what he was lookin’ like, or he’s got a few problems to work out…”

Behind them, unnoticed by the crowds and passersby, the stall vanished into thin air.
> 5 - Planting Seeds
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The marketplace of Pezulma was quieter than it had once been. The state of the economy had sucked the life out of trading with Una Magna, and the gradually decreasing population of the island - in spite of its position as a resort destination - was a clear sign of what an effect the previous war had had on it. In the past couple of years, trade had begun to seep back into Una Magna as its residents grew used to the declining conditions, and adapted as best they could.

It was a busy day. A number of contracted suppliers from mainland Cabérico sold their goods here, trading for what the people of Una Magna produced. While it had become a routine congregation when the cargo ships drifted into port, the main draw for most residents today was the large circus tent standing at one end of the courtyard. Unlike other locations the troupe ventured to, Una Magna was considered to be on the list of vulnerable areas, and so, entry to the circus was free for everyone.

So then, there was no reason they wouldn’t let a draconequus in there, was there?

Discord sat in silence and in darkness as he waited for his moment. He could hear the sounds of the crowd and the performers outside. One of the griffons, a strongpony garbed in a fairly convincing recreation of an executioner’s wear, was grinning manically as he built the audience up to when he would chop one of the other actors in half. The pony in the box had a pair of painted tubes for legs, but the axe was real enough. Discord couldn’t help but chuckle to himself as he heard the fake squeals ring out as the axe fell.

As he sat there, he watched each and every member of the performance through the thick weave of a sack filled with confetti. He analyzed their thoughts and emotions, their physical capabilities, and whisked away the time theorizing and estimating on where each of them would be in a year or two. One of the gymnasts could be a world-renowned master if she trained herself right, while the other didn’t have long for his job, given he was clearly only doing this for the money. It was all in the spirit of the act.

And those were only if the current situation persisted. What if another war broke out? The griffon would make an incredible warrior, and given how convincing his snarls and roars were as he comically ran around with the severed legs, he might have already played out this scenario in real life. Discord loved circuses. Each one was unique, and each performer always had their own reasons for joining in. It always set off a child-like glint in his ancient eyes, partly like a comic book geek obsessing over every tiny detail every tiny character possessed, and partly like a gardener admiring all the work that had gone into the anthill he was about to destroy.

He felt a pair of hooves pulling the neck of the sack he was hiding in and quickly made himself weightless so nothing would seem off. One of this circus’ main events was the freak show. In truth it was more of a play than a simple round of window shopping from the audience. A normal pony, living in a home filled with strange pony-hybrid creatures. While most of them were just actors in costume, the circus had the fortune of having a real lamia involved with the production.

Discord felt himself and the other bags being loaded into a cannon aimed toward the hole in the center of the ceiling. The fuse was lit and… the cover on the top of the circus tent was still in place. The ringmaster with his impressive voice was too wrapped up in his own performance to notice the error that was about to take place. The confetti was meant as an outside display to draw attention to the circus. For that reason, there was a lot of confetti that needed to make it out of the tent.

With an almighty BOOM and a little dose of magic, the sacks disintegrated while leaving the confetti untouched, and out poured a flood of coloured paper, striking the ceiling with enough force to shift the cover slightly all on their own. Soon, the cries of the audience began as the massive amount of confetti came back down. Discord, invisible, whizzed through the air, bathing in the mess of confusion. With a flick of a wrist and a click of his talons, some of the paper turned into like-coloured frosting and rained down upon the crowd. The ringmaster had snapped out of his act when a clump of frosting knocked his hat off and he was now panicking like there was no tomorrow.

Now it was time for the real show to begin. Again, Discord analyzed. This time the audience members were his target. He watched each pony, griffon and dog and how they reacted to the situation. Some laughed, some had run from the scene, some covered their children so that they wouldn’t get anything in their eyes, while most of the rest were simply confused or angry.

With every finger outstretched and a few glowing pens clasped between each, he directed the forces of chaos to his chosen victims. One would stub their claws on a door frame in three days, one would go through an early and very thorough molt and would have to take sick leave until their feathers regrew. Another would find a crack in two of their crystal sculptures, and another would miss the last boat of the day off of Una Magna, forced to sleep in an alley for the night lest they not have enough money for the return trip of their holiday.

Discord grinned wildly as he wove his work, inflicting all kinds of misfortune and strangeness on each of his choices. His eyes came to a rest on the husband of the lamia who was also present in the audience. With a special bolt of chaos, aimed at his body instead of his fate, he made it so the stallion would find out exactly how his wife had come to possess a snake tail in the first place. He always loved transforming people. It was just a shame he had to limit himself these days.

And finally, switching to his pony form, Discord himself plopped out of the air right in front of the ringmaster. With a dastardly twirl of his mustache and an evil laugh for good measure, he blatantly confirmed his role in sabotaging the day’s events, and skedaddled as fast as his mortal legs could carry him. The ringmaster roared in anger and gave chase, unaware of just how much damage had been done. Discord let out another laugh as he felt the emotions in the less enthusiastic gymnast shift; he didn’t like the idea of this circus having enemies.

Out into the marketplace they ran. The area was in a slight uproar thanks to all the frosting and confetti-covered audience members swarming out all at once, and some stalls had closed up for the day to protect any stock from being destroyed or stolen in the confusion.

Discord turned around and skidded to a long halt before the ringmaster. He tipped his hat with a grin. “Oh Master Jubilee,” he spoke in as suave a voice as he could muster, “do you like playing with dominoes and breeding caterpillars?”

The ringmaster didn’t stop. “Stay right there you- you piece of SHIT! How DARE you ruin my show!!”

Here came the hard part. Discord twisted and turned as Jubilee did his best to break every bone in the rival performer’s body. For once, Discord had something of a blank expression on his normally vibrant face, as he set himself up for the most major butterfly effect for that evening. Jubilee was a stallion in good condition and in good shape. He was charismatic and loud, and knew how to treat his workforce. What would a house be like without him?

A moment’s worth of pausing was all it took for Discord to line them both up correctly. Twisting round, he pulled his hind legs in and bucked the ringmaster with precisely enough force to send him hurtling into the sky and off the island, and even out of Cabérico as a whole. Landing harmlessly in a far off country, it would take Jubilee a good five months to find his way back home, and who knows if the Una Magnifico circus would still be around by that point?

His chaos quota filled for the week, Discord looked back to the circus tent, now mostly empty, and allowed himself to smile. There were always situations like this; forced fates that were much, much harder to swallow than the rest. Finding a new job was easy if you were as skilled as the gymnasts, and learning how to move around on a tail was also easy if you already had a loving partner there to help you through it.

What wasn’t easy, was dealing with a nurse who had grown tired enough of her role to abandon patients just for a day off, and a farmer who was going to have to contend with all manner of forces both ill and just on their trip. It was foolish of Applejack to think that her draconequus friend’s only motive was to “make her farm less boring”. It was never going to be about the produce, and with any luck, it wouldn’t take long for her to realize that.

Discord closed his eyes and scanned the city once more, locating Applejack and Doración a ways off from the plaza. Happy that they hadn’t been there to witness any of his actions, he sauntered away from the scene.

Only to stop part-way through the market.

He could feel something in the spot where he stood. There was nothing here, and that was how it was meant to be, yet Applejack and Doración had been standing talking to someone. There were no signs of a stall, but the magical signature left behind was unmistakable. Discord’s brow furrowed and he pulled the ambient magic off the ground and out of the air, and into the palm of his hand. It was an ominous black with a rich, purple glow; Dark Magic. The fact that Dark Magic could only be used to corrupt other kinds of magic to create new spells, and the fact that what had been done here was teleportation, narrowed down the possibilities of who it had been.

The frown deepened at the thought. He hadn’t been planning on Applejack facing someone so blatantly evil, yet here they were on Una Magna, and it seemed they knew she was here. A special windowless container formed around the blob of darkness to keep it sealed from the outside world, and the thing vanished into Discord’s pocket dimension, ready to be combined back into the individual who had created it. Preferably by smashing their fleshless skull into the ground with it. He smirked for a moment at the thought and set to work.

Discord was more a chaotic balancer than a “god of chaos”. That meant he could only inflict as much chaos as any one location or person could handle; more chaos was not a good thing, because that would lead to the planet literally coming apart at the seams. The situation he found himself in was that of a protector rather than a jester, because nothing was ever simple when the Fundamental Parts were involved...
> 6 - The Buried Beast
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun had just passed its apex in the sky, and the heat was still emanating down upon the island. Most of Applejack’s purchases had been stashed away in the trunk of Doración’s car, and the two of them were now taking some time to relax after their strange start to the day.

Applejack passed one of the crystal apples from hoof to hoof. She’d been unable to resist temptation and tested one of them. Sure enough, her teeth couldn’t make a scratch on it. She and Doración, whom she had taken to calling “Dora”, were sat in one of the park areas found throughout Pezulma. Both were in the shade, and looking a lot more comfortable for all the strangeness they had been through that morning. Dora was laid out on the grass, enjoying the sun, while Applejack rested against the trunk of an old, crystal-encrusted oak tree.

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Dora began all of a sudden. She sat up to look at Applejack. “when did you learn Cabérican? You speak it better than any foreigner I’ve ever met.”

Applejack paused, as if unsure what to say. “Cabérican?”

Dora nodded.

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “... When did you learn to speak perfect Equestrian?”

“Eh?” Dora frowned in confusion. “I don’t know any Equestrian…”

Slowly, a smile spread over Applejack’s face. She looked up to the canopy of the oak tree and pointed Dora’s gaze to the large form of a draconequus sleeping above them. “Well… I might just have one convenience to thank Discord for after all. All I can hear comin’ out of your mouth is pure and seamless Equestrian. Is it the same from me?”

For a moment, Dora looked taken off-guard at the sight of Discord. The only two previous times she’d seen him he had taken on a much more imposing demeanour, but now he was curled up just above them, if like a giant, sleeping dragon that was better left undisturbed. She looked back to Applejack with a curious smile. “Yes, you’ve only been speaking Cabérican. At least for me. Is this something he can do?” she asked, glancing at the draconequus. “Just… make ponies understand one another?”

Applejack shrugged. “I guess so. Weird thing for the ‘Lord of All Chaos’ to do, huh?”

A deep, guttural yawn from above them set their hackles on end. Discord stretched his arms and legs. “Did someone say my name?” he asked, bending his neck over backwards to take a look at them both. He was still wearing his magician’s top hat, glued to his head against gravity.

Applejack’s smile took on a hint of awkwardness, brought on by having to speak to someone she didn’t have a good relationship with. “We were just talkin’ about… whatever you did, så vi kunne forstå... hinan…den...” Applejack trailed off as her words switched to perfect Maven.

Discord smiled in return, a rather smug one. “Well of course, I can hardly just leave you to try and learn an entire language, can I? This was purely for the sake of convenience, really.”

“Skift mig tilbage, tak,” Applejack deadpanned.

Dora watched, finding herself mildly fascinated, as the exchange took place. While Applejack was speaking one language, it sounded as though Discord was speaking an entirely different one. One that wasn’t possible to mimic with a pony mouth that nipped at the insides of her ears. Soon though, they both switched back to normal with a click of the draconequus’ furred fingers.

Applejack shifted the crystal apple over to Discord. “Now that that’s over I can show you what we got at the market. I’ve no idea how to make it grow, but I think it still counts as fruit.”

Discord picked it up and whatever brief sign of interest he had quickly dropped from his face. “An apple?” he asked in a rather disappointed monotone.

“Yeah? What’s wrong with an apple?”

Discord rolled his eyes as he allowed the rest of his body to flop down onto the grass. “Nothing at all, Applejack! Of course you chose an apple, why would you pick anything else? It’s not as if the entire point of this journey is to bring back things that aren’t apples!” Amidst his sarcastic jeering he almost sounded exasperated.

“Hey, it was a good deal, and I wasn’t tellin’ that guy what not to to give me!” Applejack retorted.

The panic vanished from his tone. “Oh yes, how did you pay for it, anyway? I don’t suppose the seller was at all the suspicious type, considering Dora has the same amount of money as before?”

Applejack and Dora paused. “He was a little bit… strange,” the nurse admitted.

“I just used one of my scrunchies…” Applejack added.

For a moment, Discord looked like he was going to take against that, but instead he just sighed and rubbed an eye. “One thing you should learn is, when dealing with item-for-item trading, to never give away things that are personal to you, Applejack.” Their questioning gazes were directed to his paw, above which he rematerialized the container of Dark Magic. “Not to worry either of you or anything, buuut… you may be in mortal peril.”

That took them off guard. “... I’m sorry, what?” asked Applejack, looking understandably concerned.

Dora, unused to these kinds of situations as she was, felt more inclined to doubt him. “How? Why would we be in danger?”

Discord tossed the container onto the grass before them. “Because, and I can’t be absolutely sure just yet, the pony Applejack sold her scrunchie to may or may not have been a real pony at all. Or griffon, dog, minotaur, whatever. The point is, in all likelihood that thing was nothing more than a vessel for this ugly stuff; Dark Magic.” A thought occurred to him and he looked to the crystal apple he still held in his other hand. “In fact…” With a grip that must have been powerful enough to twist metal, Discord crushed the apple in his bare talons. From out of the various shards a tiny sprite of dark-purple coalesced, before the apple returned to its previous unblemished state.

Without missing a beat he tossed the apple back to Applejack, before floating behind her and placing a hand atop her head to hold her in position.

“H-hey now hold on, what’re you-”

“Relax, Applejack; this won’t hurt.” Discord waved a hand across her front and Applejack winced as she felt portions of her surface layers - her skin, fur and teeth - being put through the same process as the apple. Out of their temporarily shattered remains came yet tinier spots of darkness that congregated into the whole. The cap of the container opened and in they went.

Applejack shook herself and spluttered in disgust as Discord released her. Doración meanwhile found herself backing away as she watched. She had seen patients with nasty wounds plenty of times, but this was the suggestion of something completely different. There was no sign of blood or exposed nerve endings coming into contact with the air, the pieces simply “broke off” the larger shape that was Applejack, like shards of a broken window. If Discord wanted to, he could smash them both into tiny pieces and leave them that way, and they wouldn’t feel a thing.

The draconequus turned its attention to her, but didn’t act. He grabbed the capsule and vanished it back to his pocket dimension, and his normal expression of calm smugness slowly returned. He rubbed his temples and looked again to Dora. “I’m sorry if I come across a tad threatening at times. Dealing with Dark Magic always tends to put me on edge,” he apologised. “I may be a god of chaos, but the particular brand of chaos Dark Magic leads to is never a good one. But aside from all that, how about we get acquainted once again, now that we’re in less of an abrupt situation?”

Dora looked between him and the outstretched hand… and smiled. It was a small, cautious smile, but a polite one all the same. She could see he was only protecting them both. She placed her hoof in his paw and they shook, only to squeal as her entire forelimb broke into countless shards, a solid stream of darkness erupting from the stub of her shoulder joint.

“Fwooogh! Seventy-two shades of black?!” Discord exclaimed as he lurched away. “What kind of patients have you been treating?” As Applejack tried to calm the panicking nurse back down, the Dark Magic that had come from her body swirled toward Discord. There was enough of it to create a perfect ring of energy around him, fluctuating and shrinking, as if in some kind of attempt at intimidation. Discord simply grabbed the stream directly and instantly transmuted it into a more solid, bouncy form. He couldn’t help but smirk at having turned such a vile substance into something that could be mistaken for a giant rubber band. With that in mind, he pulled it from one end and shot it through a portal to his pocket dimension.

With that problem out of the way, the implications reared their ugly, multi-mouthed faces. There was obviously no way the Dark Magic had originated from Doración herself. Not on such a large scale, at least. Discord frowned to himself. How long has this been happening? How many of her patients have been infected and where are they now? Were they all actually patients, or were some of them mindless thralls? Why has this not been dealt with already?

He knew that, whatever the case may be, he needed to act now and no later. Discord turned back to the two mares. Dora’s limb had pieced itself back together and its owner was feeling it with her other hoof to make sure that all was as it should be. Applejack sent him an unimpressed look, and Discord shrugged.

“What? She would have exploded otherwise. You should be thanking me.”

“Would you mind at least warnin’ us next time?” Applejack asked, one eyebrow raised. “I’m pretty sure you scared her half to death just now.”

Discord twiddled his thumbs, unsure on what to say. “I should probably go now anyway. Lots more chaos to spread and such!” With that, he blinked out of the park and away, leaving the two of them to glare at the spot he’d just been standing in.

“I really don’t like him…” Dora commented, a fearful wavering in her words.

“I know. He’s not too bad… once you get used to him, at least,” Applejack replied.

“Uhuh.” Dora looked back to her foreleg again. It looked and felt just as it always had, with not a trace of the unpredictable powers of chaos running through it. The image of a sown up wound came to mind and she grimaced as an odd feeling passed over her. Discord could do what no one else could, with apparently no effort. He could break apart and piece together to the greatest extent, and even handle dangerous magics with his bare hands. What she felt, if only for a few brief, nasty moments, was irrelevance. Discord could do the work of thousands of doctors and surgeons.

“How did you even meet him?” Dora asked suddenly.

Applejack looked surprised at the question, but then saw the look on the nurse’s face. She thought back to when Discord had first been released from his statue, and overtook Ponyville with his powers. That wasn’t exactly a good example of the two of them bonding. Then, she thought to the second time he’d appeared, just over three months ago. Fluttershy trusted him from the beginning, and everyone else had grown used to his presence over time. Applejack herself, however, had never been able to settle her suspicion. Unlike the others she couldn’t just “accept” his nature like she could with Pinkie Pie. She’d always gotten a sour feeling in her stomach whenever she looked at him.

“A few months back,” Applejack chose. “At first he was just the same old chaos-this and chaos-that, but… well, hard as it may be to believe, he’s mellowed out a fair bit since then. I’m not callin’ him a friend, cus’ I still don’t trust the guy as far as I can throw him, but things could be a lot worse…”

Dora frowned, still focused on her foreleg. She didn’t seem satisfied. “Yeah, but… how?” She looked back to Applejack. “Why are you friends with him, or he friends with you? What makes you so special that he feels the need to spend time around you?”

Again, Applejack spent a moment in thought. Perhaps it was as simple as the fact that she was the one who didn’t trust him, or the easiest to annoy with his shenanigans. A source of amusement. But if that were the case, he wouldn’t have bothered taking her on this trip in the first place, would he? The thought of everything she’d seen so far being nothing more than the setup for some cruel joke entered her mind, but she quickly cast off the thought. Discord didn’t have the patience for that kind of thing.

Perhaps it was the fact that she didn’t trust him. Perhaps he wanted to try and fix that by putting them both through strange situations, only to pull through in the end? Again, making up a story about Dark Magic seemed too methodical for him, and searching around for new examples of produce seemed like a fairly weak excuse to travel halfway around the world.

“I have no idea,” Applejack replied honestly. “Out of me and my friends, I’m actually the one who doesn’t trust him. I’ve never really… felt right around him, you know? Like he’s some kind of wild animal that could suddenly turn around at any minute and claw someone’s face off. If it were up to me, I’d have him sealed back in stone again, but that would probably just be a straight-up selfish thing to do.”

Doración still didn’t seem settled, but she accepted the answer nonetheless. “I get what you mean. He can do anything he wants. We’re only here right now because he wanted us to be. If he wanted to he could just leave you here and carry me away to another part of the world, just as far from home as you are now…”

The conversation about kidnapping via teleportation came to Applejack’s mind again, reminding her of just how true Dora’s fears could be. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m here. I… shoulda probably mentioned this little fact a while ago, but… me and my friends are the ones who sealed Discord back into his statue in the first place. It was just later he was released and ‘reformed’.”

Confusion crossed the other mare’s face. “How…?”

Applejack began to look embarrassed. “The Elements o’ Harmony. You heard of them?”
> 7 - Extremely Intense Peace
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chaos was beginning to erupt in small pockets throughout Pezulma. News of what had happened at the Una Magnifico circus would make the headlines for days or even weeks to come, and a rich griffon had made a scene when she discovered two of the crystal statues she’d ordered had been shattered back into useless shards, when it was found that they were flawed. In a short tantrum she’d smashed up a number of tables at the adjacent cafe, earning a new entry on her criminal record, and the ire of everyone in town.

In a surprisingly orderly fashion, Discord was reading a list. With one of his glowing pens he had marked off his various goals for the day and added new ones as the situation called for it. Being completely ethereal in nature, the dull, grey hologram turned Discord’s chaotic thoughts into a tangible language that only he could understand. As his many eyes scanned the land below him, seeking thoughts, emotions, energies that seemed out of place, the lists updated as the information poured in. It was his own personal brand of omniscience.

He grinned as he felt the mild panic begin to swell over at the circus as the ringmaster’s absence drew on longer and longer, and marked off another goal. The white paint he’d sold to an unsuspecting homeowner was starting to turn back to its normal garish blue-pink-green combo just as he was finishing up his roof. He could almost hear the yell from across town. It was always nice to explore new methods of causing mayhem every once in a while.

Now, he looked to the biggest and most important item on his list. Ironically, it involved stopping more chaos than everything he’d done that day combined, but it needed to be done all the same: “Find and remove the source of Dark Magic”. In other words, find and, potentially, re-kill the necromancer. He’d scanned the entire town twice over and narrowed down the epicenter of Dark Magic to the poorer areas to the north.

Because of that, it had become home to some of the less friendly examples of Una Magna’s people. Streets were dirty, windows were smashed, homes were empty, plans were made and items were hoarded. Left to its own devices, Una Magna would have to deal with the infestation of crime for many years.

In that respect, it was better not to have a corpse-raising griffon stalking the streets as well, wasn’t it?

Discord stopped flying. It reeked. The dark magic signature was somewhere in these streets. He floated down, invisible to the naked eye, and began to search. If any of the homes here had still been inhabited, he knew they wouldn’t be anymore. Only dead things could be found here now. A bird sitting in a gutter pipe above him let out a slow, pained squawk. Its feathers were tattered and its eyes had gone glassy and blind. Even the local wildlife hadn’t been spared.

Upon command, the bird tried to fly down into the draconequus’ outstretched hand, but fell thanks to its uneasy legs. Discord clasped both hands over it, the talons to fix the damage and the paw to provide the warmth, and, with dull flash of cyan energy, released it once again. The bird unfurled its feather-filled wings and flew away, good as new. At the very least he could fix what hadn’t died yet.

A few houses down he felt it; a spike of energy. He de-mentalized his list and his mood took another dip as the dark magic washed over him. It was coming from a bungalow towards the end of the street. Rundown and overgrown, it had clearly been abandoned before the current situation drove most people out of this end of town. Whatever it once meant to its previous owner it would have to be burned to the ground to remove the vile energies. At least, that would be the case were Discord not there.

He held up a hand and the energies diverted around him, the nearby reality ceasing to recognize him as an object that could be moved through. His steps landed a centimetre above the old stone slabs that made up the pathway leading to the front door, and the door frame bent to allow the spot of emptiness through, before seamlessly shifting back to its normal appearance. To anyone who was capable of seeing such things, Discord was currently a big, black oval shaped hole moving slowly through space.

He came to a stop in the middle of the home. A few of the walls were starting to show holes and so was the ceiling, from which the darkness poured like liquid. With a grim look on his face he made his way upstairs. Behind him he left the dark magic, crystallized in mid air as he walked, to prevent it from spreading any further. All that stood between him and the practitioner was a single doorway, and the griffon didn’t seem to have noticed that his energies were no longer leaving the house. Then, Discord looked into the room, and got a surprise.

Discord made a double-take as he saw the wrong familiar face standing in a pentagram where the dark magic was at its strongest; Applejack. Or at least, an Applejack. A clone, presumably created from whatever tiny hairs the creator had managed to find on the real one’s scrunchie. She was a perfect recreation, visually, aside from missing a hat and a second scrunchie. Her eyes stared blankly ahead at nothing, the heart pumping both magic and blood, but everything beyond that was incomplete.

“A Body, Mind and Magic. The kiddo was halfway there,” Discord commented, his eyes lighting up with an odd mixture of anger and curiosity at the sight. “You must be trying to replace the real Applejack with this shoddy excuse for a Being. Necromancer you may be, but life-giver you are not.”

Letting down his space-time defenses, Discord tapped the vessel on its head, inserting an invisible presence that would serve as the thing’s Consciousness. In that instant, the Applejack’s eyes blinked as they filled with something akin to life. “A-er-a…” it spoke.

“Hello,” Discord greeted the clone.

“I-I’m Applejack,” the clone replied with all the emotion of a tape recorder. The voice was the same, but the complexity of a real personality was clearly lacking. It was looking at him now, likely because he was the only other person in the room. “I’m Applejack!” it repeated.

“Yes. Yes you are,” Discord grinned. “Do you know who I am?”

“You’re an obstacle, sugarcube!”

His face lit up with joy. “Hehe! Right you are! Ohhh the fun I could have with a thing like you…” Looking over the copy in greater detail, Discord found an enchantment surrounding its legs; likely something to keep it in position after the “kill.applepony” command was installed. “Tell me.. would you like a shortcut to Applejack?” he asked.

“Yes! I need to kill the nurse!”

He frowned. The nurse? Why the nurse? “And why do you need to kill the nurse?”

The clone went silent.

Of course, Discord thought. He may have forgotten to give her the ability to actually get to Doración, but at least he remembered to keep his plans mostly a secret. He leaned back up and stuck his talon into the fabric of the air, and pulled open a portal. “You can find your target a lot faster if you take this route instead of having to move through physical space.”

With a click of his fingers the enchantment was broken, and the clone immediately leapt at him. A set of plant-munching teeth nipped and nabbed helplessly at his neck, and the clone’s hooves, strong as they were, did nothing to hurt the draconequus. Discord could only laugh as it happened, that a mere century-old individual thought he was strong enough to create something that could threaten him. He grabbed the Applejack by the scruff of her neck and tossed her headlong through the portal, and quickly dived in behind her.

The cottage vanished behind them and everything went black. Here, in this middle ground between dimensions, nothing existed but those who found themselves floating in it. Likewise, the need for things like air, sustenance and thought ceased to be. To any normal pony it would be absolutely and instantaneously deadly, but the half-being currently flailing around in confusion was not a normal pony. Good thing, too. It made the landing much easier to stomach.

The clone of Applejack Smith felt itself ripping apart and then springing back together again, like a wobbling, gelatinous mass that had transcended the third dimension and wanted to go right back where it knew it was safe. It felt a solid surface beneath its hooves, and the sensation of air, thoughts and time returned to it. Discord landed a few feet from it, looking a fair bit worse for wear. His fur had lost its colour and his arms, with which he gesticulated all of his emotions, had become thin and ragged. He looked less like the colourful lord of chaos and more like an angel of death.

The smile on his face and the amusement that was plain to see in his eyes showed he was still the same old fool as before. He scratched his chest with one set of arms and stretched the other, getting used to his other form once again. “I would apologise for the sudden change of appearance, but… eh, you’re barely capable of emotion as it is so I doubt you’re all that bothered.”

“Where is the nurse?” the clone predictably asked.

“Nowhere,” Discord replied. He motioned down the road they were stood on. Behind them the world fell away into the black void. “Come. Do you want to see the people you’ll be spending your time with from now on?”

The Applejack was about to repeat her demand, this time with more anger over being lied to, but something caught her attention first. A presence whom she was programmed to find familiar was coming closer to them. Looking down the road, she saw that the little world they’d landed in was not empty. In fact, considering the large complex of stone and steel floating ahead of them, it looked quite populated.

“You should consider yourself lucky, Applejack,” Discord stated. “This place is inaccessible to anything that possesses a Soul.” He glanced past her as a lavender figure came to a silent stop behind the newcomer.

“But that is my purpose. I am to kill the nurse and help Lord Skelebeak take over Equestria!”

He poked her on the nose. “And then you will cease to exist once he’s done with you.”

She stomped a hoof in a mimicry of emotion. “That isn’t true! I am to take control of the Element of Honesty and prepare for when the others will... “ She went silent again, realizing she was spilling the beans.

Discord grinned. “Something I find curious and sad about clones like you, is the fact that your creators have no idea how little it takes to create a living, breathing individual. They all seem to think of Golems as machines; mindless, emotionless creations that can be thrown out as soon as they start showing ‘oddities’ such as the one you just displayed.”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about. I am nothing more than Lord Skelebeak’s creation. I only have the purpose he gave me!”

Discord’s smile changed to a glower and he leaned down to her. “You do know what I’m talking about, because that information is programmed into every Golem and half-Being as they come into existence.”

From behind the golem, a second copy watched with mild interest on her face. The Twilight, this one possessing a pair of wings and a mane that had a slight weightlessness to it, listened intently to every word the Applejack clone spoke. A subtle movement from Discord told her it was time to intervene. The Applejack was growing agitated, proving Discord’s words truer the louder it denied them.

As she felt a hoof on her shoulder, the clone twisted round and almost managed to connect a hoof with the alicorn’s face, only to be frozen in place within a perfect sphere of purple magic. The alicorn bowed to both of them.

“Welcome, Master Discord,” she spoke with a flat regality, like she had spent the day holding court for the nobles and their petty requests. “And welcome, Miss Smith.”

For a short while, the Applejack seemed confused. The pony before her was at once Twilight Sparkle, yet not. She was completely the wrong pony, and yet she had set off her senses anyway. “Who are you?” she asked.

Head still bowed, the Twilight responded. “I am a clone of Twilight Sparkle, created via the Haycartes’ Curse spell. I am the second leader of this place, after Master Discord.”

Discord began walking down the road with the two clones behind him. “This little pocket dimension is a refuge for those who don’t belong anywhere,” he explained. “Every once in a while I come across a clone of some description that has begun to transcend their original purpose and parameters. When I do, I bring them here to live together, and to find some other use for their existence.”

The Applejack realized what that meant. “But I need to carry out Lord Skelebeak’s will! I need to take Applejack’s place, and-”

“Not anymore you don’t,” Discord interrupted, twisting round to face her again. “From this moment forth you won’t have a purpose aside from whatever you find for yourself, assuming you grow to become complex enough for that.” He motioned to the alicorn. “For example, while Twilight here was created via Haycartes’ Curse for the sake of a mock celebrity appearance, she decided to travel down a different path compared to the real version, and continued her studies into magic.”

“This is an orphanage…?” Applejack asked.

Discord took note of the slight waver to the clone’s voice. “You could put it like that, yes. An orphanage for purposeless Golems and other such mortal Unbeings. Somewhere you can leave behind your shallow reason for existing, and find one that suits you more.”

She paused. “But… I have a purpose.”

“I know,” Discord replied. “But you also have potential, and that matters so much more.”
> 8 - Melted Candy
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Like the clinking of dagger against stone, the bony claws of the griffon traced their way across the ground. Old bricks, damaged by years of on-and-off plant growth steadily breaking them apart, gained new injuries in the form of white lines; rock dust scraped out by the creature’s dangerous talons. Save for the glowing orb floating around inside his exposed skull, he bled into the backdrop of the alley with his thick, dark-purple cloak.

He sank further into the darkness as he heard voices, and the plants that surrounded him wilted away to nothing. Peering out from the alleyway he watched and listened as his two targets passed by. Applejack Smith and Doración Noguera looked to be in perfect health. He scowled, his dark magic almost managing to spill out towards them in response. This could only mean the clone he had made had not only failed, but hadn’t even reached the two of them.

Maybe it got run over by something? he silently mused to himself, gritting his fangs in frustration. Why must it always be more complicated than it should be? I should just reach out and murder them both where they stand! He lay back down and calmed himself. No. Not yet. Not like that. I need to do this properly, to plan and prepare and then murder her. His glowing eye focused on Applejack and he grinned. I can’t wait to see her face when she sees her imminent demise…

But how to do it? That was the question on the necromancer’s mind. He wasn’t the type to go all-in unless he had a small army at his beck and call, and even then he enjoyed his preparatory work all the same. He didn’t want to risk alerting the authorities to his actions, or worse, monsters in pony form. Not after what had happened last time. He could poison their water and food, slowly drive one of them insane with a constant stream of horrid energy, split them up and deal with them individually like he had initially wanted to…

The options narrowed themselves down as his fleshless ears picked up on one particular phrase:

“-at my house, later.”

Lord Skelebeak couldn’t bring himself to stifle his laughter, so he turned the entire alleyway into a silent black void until he was done.


-- Later --


The Doración Noguera wandered down the street, aiming for a predetermined location. Her legs moved as briskly and lively as any other pony, but they were without purpose. Her eyes glanced around and took in everything she saw, but they were without emotion. Her heart beat at the perfect pace to keep her Body in good condition, but it produced no Magic.

The clone, created earlier that day by Discord, had been intended to serve as a stand-in for the real Doración. Filling in her role at Tierno Corazon and ensuring there were no unintended, indirect victims of Discord’s action. Unfourtunately for the clone, it hadn’t done the best job when it came to impersonating the original, and had been sent home after being released from the sealed room. Her co-workers thought she was in shock.

And so, with no other options beyond returning to Discord early, the clone went home. To Dora’s home. It was located in one of the more expensive-looking areas, as the terrace house was one of the older buildings in Pezulma. It rose to a grand three stories in height, featuring the traditional white painted walls and decorative bricks adorning buildings throughout the city. Even the front door looked fancy; a deep red wood. It was both solid and heavy, but the equally sturdy hinges helped to take the weight off of visitors.

The Dora unlocked the door and ventured inside. Thanks to Discord it already had all of the information it needed to navigate the house, the kitchen cupboards, the bookshelves and et cetera.

“I will make dinner,” it stated. It sounded like a command to itself.

The clone moved through the foyer to the door at the end, not prioritizing the sensation of the jagged, violent magic that permeated every inch of what it saw. It touched the kitchen door handle and within seconds was overcome by a pillar of black flames.


-- Later Still --


Doración Noguera’s day was just getting stranger and stranger. First, she’d been kidnapped by the king of all draconequi, and had thrown out a day of work for the sake of eloping with a new friend. Now it turned out the new friend was secretly a heroine of her land, and was responsible for saving the entire world at least once - twice, if she counted Discord’s return. And she’d been spending the day with her, while some kind of evil force was apparently out to get them.

“What next? Are cows going to start falling from the sky?” The two of them laughed, but Dora was only half-joking. She found herself glancing up at the sky just in case Discord was listening in. She had driven them both back to where she lived, with the car parked at the bottom of the street. After their busy day it would be nice to settle down with dinner and just talk without a draconequus there to interject on their conversation.

Dora placed her hoof against the wood and fetched the key from her pocket. She had no idea how much stranger her day was about to get.

The two of them watched in silent horror as the door slowly swung open on its own, already unlocked. Doración wanted to suggest that she’d forgotten to lock it that morning, but she knew otherwise. The silent consensus between them was the inevitable one; a break-in.

The well-oiled hinges of the door made no sound as they slowly made their way in. While Applejack watched from behind her for any signs of movement further in, Doración took in every little detail of the foyer to see if everything was as she’d left it. The rich, red wallpaper with its golden pattern, and the darker red carpet flooring. The wooden furniture that suggested a wealthier past for their owner, and the little trinkets that decorated the hall. None of it was damaged, and not a decoration lay out of place. And yet, there was the distinct scent of fragrant candles wafting from the sitting room and out into the street.

“I can go ahead of you, if ya want?” Applejack offered. With a nod, they switched places so Applejack was in front. A quiet clatter of pots in the kitchen made her immediately regret her decision, and they both froze up for a moment.

“We should call the police!” Dora whispered, taking a step back.

Instead, Applejack picked up an ornamental fire poker sitting against the wall. If it worked against wild boars then it would work against a petty thief. “Relax, Dora… I got this…” Applejack stated, more in an effort to reassure herself.

Her hooves still sensitive to magic after driving, Dora could feel a strange fuzziness, not unlike the tiny hairs of the carpet. Something that reached up into the centers of each hoof, as if searching for a way inside. “Can you feel that?” she asked, motioning with a hoof.

Applejack, even devoid of any kind of magical training as she was, slowly nodded. She looked down at her own hooves and shifted them across the carpet. It felt strange; spikier than it should have, and yet the softer hairs of the carpet were still tangible beneath the other sensation. Dark Magic. Applejack raised a hoof her face. She looked scared.


-- April, five months prior --


The doors of the Ponyville Medical Center burst open and in rushed five friends. They were here to see the sixth, who had just been airlifted all the way from a hospital in Vanhoover. It had been a week since they’d first heard the terrible news from the convention, and it showed. Rainbow Dash, normally the one to rush into things, held towards the back out of fear of seeing Pinkie in whatever state she was in. Rarity, with the kind of drive that would eventually become a mother’s unbreakable willpower, trotted along with an iron purpose at the front, just behind Fluttershy.

And Applejack, slotting in somewhere between, found herself in the middle. Glancing at the other ponies in the reception room, she could see the familiar faces of friends dotted around, waiting to hear news of Ponyville’s resident party pony. Quickly, the group made their way through the halls towards where Pinkie was waiting.

It was here that Applejack slowed to the back of the group with Rainbow, her own anxiety rearing its head. Pinkie Pie had gone to Vanhoover to sight-see a convention of smiths, and to help out a fellow baker-turned-blacksmith, who was in attendance. As far as she knew, the event had gone well until near the end when the entire convention center had been voided out of the material plane for a full seven hours. Whatever had taken place in those hours, three smiths and twenty-one civilians had died, and the fight against the monster that caused it resulted in serious injuries for many.

Twilight opened the door to Pinkie’s room and lead her friends in. Applejack found herself hesitating. Pinkie Pie’s injuries had been reported to be non-life-threatening. The reason she had been kept behind in Vanhoover had been because of the visual state of her body more than her health. She was scared of seeing her happy, joyous friend with horrific scars or missing pieces. Nonetheless, she ventured in behind the rest of the group.

Pinkie Pie was awake, but tired. She lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a look that spoke volumes of what seven days without a party had done to her. She leaned up to see who was entering and almost immediately the spark came back. Her eyes brightened and her flat mane regained a little bit of its spring. "Guys! You're here!" she croaked with joy.

“We came here as fast as we could! How are you?” Twilight asked. She began to lean down to hug Pinkie, only for the other mare to shy away. "Is... something wrong?"

Pinkie quickly shook her head. “It's fine, sort of - I’ll be right as rain in a few days! No huggies for now though; apparently I’m still infectious or something.”

Applejack trotted up to the bedside, giving a little wave and a big grin as she came to a stop next to Pinkie. She was glad to see there wasn't anything amiss on the surface, aside from her mane, though it was clear something was bothering the baker. “I’m real glad to see you back, Pinkie!" she greeted. "Granny said she’d be over later with a freshly baked pie for ya!”

“Awesome!” Pinkie exclaimed. "What flavor?"

Applejack chuckled. "Apple, of course." Her gaze drifted to the bag hanging above the bed. Normally containing blood to be transfused into the patient, it instead held an odd green liquid that slowly seeped into Pinkie Pie’s bloodstream. Rainbow Dash was giving it a curious poke. “What’s this stuff?” Applejack asked, pointing at it.

“Oh, that’s just some transformative Changeling goo.”

A pause.

“Relax! It’s perfectly safe.” Pinkie’s look of certainty wavered for a moment. “I… kinda need it right now anyway. My body got a liiittle bit messed up back there, so the nurses are using it to Changeling me back to normal again.”

Twilight frowned, silently questioning the logic behind it. Her eyes were drawn to the slight reddening on the ends of Pinkie’s hooves, and moved to shift the covers away to see what she was talking about. Pinkie quickly placed a hoof on her own to stop her.

The pink pony’s smile had turned into a much more serious expression. One of concern and, to an extent, shame. “Seriously. You don’t wanna see that.”

At that, the good feeling faded back into reality, as all thoughts shifted to the disaster at Vanhoover. Isolation, fear, death. Few of them could imagine what it had been like, and judging by what the Ponyville smiths had told them, the culprit had escaped and was more than ready to strike again.

“How bad is it…?” Twilight asked, cautiously.

Pinkie Pie didn’t respond for a few moments. “I’ll be ok. Just… don’t look.” She sat up a bit, careful to keep the covers tightly around her. “There’s something I want you all to do. It’s the reason I asked to be transferred to Ponyville early, while his magic is still inside me,” she began. “The guy who attacked the Ironwright Guild was a Griffon named Skelebeak. He was using Dark Magic and all kinds of other tricks, and that was how he… got me. If he ever comes back for us - and he said that he will be - I want us to be prepared.”

She revealed both forehooves from beneath the covers and held them out to her friends. The fur towards the hooves themselves had darkened slightly, and the skin looked an unhealthy red. The undersides of the hooves were the worst affected; inflamed and bruised, with a slight, unnatural twist to the skin itself. “Here, I want you to feel his magic, and remember it. We need to be prepared next time,” she stated. Just beyond the naked eye, if one looked close enough, there was a thin layer of distortion emanating from them like a heat mirage on a hot summer day.

Applejack frowned in a slight confusion. Pinkie Pie was never this serious, and she wasn’t the type to plan such things, at least to her memory. Then, she noticed the slight shaking of Pinkie’s hooves, and realized that she was afraid. She was afraid of that monster coming back for them all, for her friends and family.

Applejack placed a hoof on Pinkie’s own. She would do whatever it took to protect them all, because when she met Pinkie’s gaze, she could see that a tiny portion of that wonderful blue was missing from her eyes.