Daylight Burning

by Guesswork

Chapter 15: A Closed Loop

Chapter 15

Sugar Cube Corner was a warm glow in a cold, blue night.  Two ponies stood on the front porch, conversing by lantern-light.

"After that," said Pinkie Pie, "the Princesses both said we were totally heroes.  And they gave us this big ceremony where we all got medals and everypony cheered for us!  The Princesses dedicated a big stained-glass mural to us, too!  And that's the story of how we beat Discord."

"I'm honestly shocked that so few ponies know about your exploits," said the charcoal gray pony with the white mane.  He had a smattering of bandages on his face and neck, and his leg was in a sling.  "To hear the average laypony tell it, you six barely exist."

"Well," said Pinkie Pie, "the Princesses have always reminded us that we're military.  Celestia doesn't want us making money or getting too famous from being Elements.  She says it could lead us down a path of corruption, and that it's too dangerous for us to risk it since the Elements are so powerful.  If you want to know what I think, though, I think that the Harmony Gems would never stick around if we became corrupted.  They would just leave and find somepony else."

"Good point."

"And also-- now I'm just saying here-- the Princesses live in a castle, right?  A castle!"

The agent laughed.  

"How about your friends, though?" asked Pinkie.  "Sorry I forgot to ask about them."

"That's okay," said the agent.  "Cinnamon Oatmeal recovered quickly, once the Nightmare died.  He's still on paid-suspension pending observation, though.  They have to make sure a scrap of the Nightmare didn't remain alive in him, dormant somehow.  If you ask me, I think he needed the vacation anyway.  It can't be easy having memories like that, of killing your own ponies."

"How about the other one?  What's-her-name."

"Slim-to-None?" asked the agent.  "Well, she and Purple Heart had a thing going, so she's taken it really hard.  She'll be okay, though.  We'll all be okay."  He stared wistfully into the dark.

After a moment, Pinkie Pie picked up his forehoof and held it.  Their eyes met and she smiled at him until he smiled back.

"How come you like me?" asked Pinkie.

The agent arched an eyebrow.  "What's not to like?"

"I dunno.  You're so cool and mysterious," said Pinkie.  "And I'm so... so... not mysterious.  And you're like, deadly and dangerous, and I only cook a mean souffle."

"You want a reason, Pinkie Diane Pie?  You want just one reason?"

"Just one!" she said with moon-eyes.

"Because you love life.  You get excited about everything, and it's always so fresh and new to you."

"Well, duh, every day is a new day!"

"I hate to say it but that is a waning attitude in Equestria.  I know very few ponies who love life the way you do, and I know far too many who feel like every day is the same day."

"That's just 'cause you hang out with a bunch of love-starved, government wonks!" said Pinkie.  "You'd have a totally different view if you hung out with more pastry chefs instead."

This made the agent laugh again.  "And what makes you think you know me so well?"

"You kind of remind me of my father," said Pinkie Pie.

The agent arched an eyebrow and just stared at her.  "You should know, considering we're on a date here, that a lesser stallion would be running for the hills right now."

"Oh, silly, that was a compliment," she replied with the wave of her hoof.  "Mostly."

"Mostly?"

"Daddy was a hard worker and clever, just like you.  But he was also too serious for his own good, hint hint."

"I have to be serious," said the agent.  "I deal with serious things, serious ponies.  I'm neck-deep in serious."

"Well, you don't have to be like that around me," said Pinkie.  "I think you already know that.  I think that's the real reason you like me."

"Fine," he said.  "Then why do you like me?"

"Because glasses are sexy," she said.

"Flattering," he said, "but cheap.  Try again."

"I guess... because you listen to me.  Like, really listen, instead of just sort-of listen.  Dashie's my best friend and even she does that to me sometimes."

"You're an endless font of eccentric wisdom," said the agent.  "I mean that.  And speaking of dangerous, you are also truly terrifying on paper.  I've seen your Clearance-K file.  Did you know that you are rated the same threat-level as Twilight Sparkle?"

"And I don't even have to work at it!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie with more moon-eyes.

The agent checked his pocket-watch.  It was a tiny, bronze thing, engraved with a shield cutie-mark and the letters SB.  Looking at it made the agent sad, and he shifted his gaze back to Pinkie Pie again, which always cheered him up.  "My shift starts in an hour," he said.  "I've got to run, I'm afraid."

"Going to snap anypony's neck tonight?" asked Pinkie, pantomiming the action.

"No, I'm still on medical leave, so I'll just be looking at charts and pushing paper around.  Maybe, if I feel like I'm dying of boredom, I'll go get a sandwich in the cafeteria.  It's a lot less romantic of a job than most ponies think."

"Dour," said Pinkie.  "Love-starved.  Wonks."

"Right," said the agent.

"Now tell me your name."

"Still classified. Hasn't changed in the last fifteen minutes."

"I can't just call you 'the Agent!' I've been playing the pronoun game all night just so I don't have to say it! You."

"Everypony thinks it's weird at first. Then they get used to it. You will too."

She sighed. "It's not even like I care what it is. I just don't want to not know." She shrugged. "But whatever. Maybe I'll make up a name for you. One that's so embarrassing you'll have to tell me your real name. It'll take a while, though. I'll let you know what I've got the next time I see you."

"So, you'd like to go out again?"

"Isn't that what I just said?"

"Well... uh... great!" He thrust his forehoof out in front of him.  "Have a lovely evening."

"Hello-o-o-o," she said to him, bonking herself on the forehead with a hoof.

"What?" he said, suddenly concerned.

"I've been waiting for a kiss for, like, weeks now!  Rarity said to be a perfect lady and let you make the first move, but to hay with that!  I'll be an old nag before you pony up."

And she tackled him under the full moon.

"You want to know something I ain't told nopony else about the battle?" asked Applejack, leaning back on the sweet-smelling bale of hay. She used the rim of her beer-bottle to tip her cowpony-hat up for a better view of the stars.

"A secret?" said Apple Bloom, lounging in the grass nearby. "You gave the Nightmare a left jab when ya' shoulda' given her a right hook or somethin'?"

"C'mon AB," said Applejack. "I'm serious."

"Alright, I didn't mean to laugh at ya'," said Apple Bloom. "What is it?"

Applejack looked pensive for a few moments. Then she said: "Twilight's a legendary unicorn. Fluttershy's a doctor, Pinkie Pie's got gypsy magic, and RD is the best flyer I ever seen, and one of the best fighters, too, although I'll throttle you if you ever tell her I said so. Rarity... I mean, we don't get along, but I know that girl is clever as a fox. Me, on the other hoof? I'm just a simple farmpony. A meat-shield if I'm lucky enough to be that useful. All during the battle, we were running around in the dark, gettin' chased, and I couldn't quite figure out what I was even doing there. I knew in my heart that I was already dead, that there was no way I was going to survive the fight. That the best I could do was just not to get in everypony's way before I died." She kicked a rock.

"Not get in their way??" said Apple Bloom. "Are you off your gourd, sis? They'd fall apart without you! Twilight would fall apart without you. You want to talk about how powerful she is, but you're the one she leans on in the crisis. You're the pillar of sanity when it's all goin' crazy-like. I've seen it! You're not just a simple farmpony. You're a damn fine farmpony. You are the paragon a' farmponies! And you make your friends brave when they ain't brave."

Applejack didn't say anything for a while. Then she said: "Even when I'm wettin' my britches?"

"I'd imagine especially when you're wettin' your britches, big-sis."

"Thanks, AB. Thanks a lot. Hey, you almost ready?"

"You bet," said Apple Bloom, chuckling, stretching out her legs, tying her mane back in a red ponytail. She'd never been much of an athelete in her youth, but she'd had to run a lot in the Royal Surveyors Corps. "I reckon I'll beat you through the Sisterhooves Course, tonight. You may'a been the big sister growin' up, but I ain't no runt-filly no more!"

"Is that so? Care to put your money where your mouth is?" said Applejack.

"A hundred bits!" said Apple Bloom.

Applejack's eyebrow twitched.

"Oho!" said Apple Bloom. "Not so sure now, are we?"

Spitfire sensed movement in her darkened hospital room, and she looked over with a start. The silhouette of a rainbow-maned pony stood in the doorway.

"Hey," said Dash.

Spitfire crossed her forelegs. "Visiting hours are over."

"I know," said Dash. "I flew in a window on the third floor and snuck down here."

"Why go to all the trouble?"

"Because we need to talk, and I didn't want the paparazzi taking pictures of it."

Spitfire sighed and turned over in the hospital bed. She couldn't turn too far because of all the tubes and drains. "Can't imagine what the hay we have to talk about."

"How about the fact that I almost killed you?" said Dash. "How about the fact that if you'd died, it would have ruined my life?"

"Ruined your life??" said Spitfire.

"Well, it's not like you would have cared," said Dash. "You would have been dead."

Spitfire just looked at her.

"Okay," said Dash, "let me try again. I'm really sorry I fractured your skull."

"Mmm," said Spitfire, "alright. Apology accepted. By the way: Rainbow Throw?? Really?"

"Argue with it's effectiveness," said Dash. "I double-diamond-dog-dare you. And while we're on the subject, you owe me an apology too, for using your aura-blade against me. You could have cut my leg off!"

"I was under orders."

It was Dash's turn to give Spitfire a look.

"Alright, sorry," said Spitfire. "Sorry I tried to cut your leg off." Then suddenly, she was staring at Dash with the most peculiar expression.

"What?" said Dash.

"Soarin's an idiot," said Spitfire.

"O-o-okay..."

"He's a great flyer and a lovable oaf, but he's just not Captain material. I know Hard Target is having to do double duty while Soarin's in charge. How would you like it if I gave you temporary command of the Wonderbolts? The doctors are talking six months before I'll be cleared for active duty, and hay, if you're doing a good job, I'll just promote myself to brass."

Dash smiled. "Actually, Spitfire, I'm going to have to turn you down."

Spitfire gaped at her. "Are you nuts??" she said. "I just offered you the Wonderbolts command! You don't say no to that! You don't say no to that!"

"Would you believe I've already accept another job offer?"

"It had better come with a six-figure Hearth's Warming bonus, because otherwise, I still can't believe what I'm hearing."

Dash pulled out a folded page. She handed it to Spitfire.

"This is an executive letter-head," said Spitfire. "From Princess Luna's office."

"Read it," said Dash.

Spitfire did. After she was done, she handed Dash back the page. "Congratulations," she said.

"Thanks," said Dash. "You'd better heal up quick. There's going to be another team at the castle now, and I can promise we'll keep you on the tips of your hooves."

"I look forward to it," said Spitfire. Then she laughed. "You're a hay of a scrapper, kiddo. The student has surpassed the master."

"I was never your student," said Dash. "But sometimes a rival is just as good as a mentor. See you around?"

"See you around, Rainbow Dash."

She slipped out through the open window, leaping into the night sky.

Dear Rainbow Dash,

In light of recent events, it has become evident that Equestria's military needs an overhaul. To this end, my sister and I have decided to reactivate a number of special-forces protocols from the ancient past. I think you are well-suited to leading one of these protocols: the air-wing of the Canterlot Night Guard, code-named The Shadowbolts. I must warn you that the training process will require a number of sacrifices, but I promise that you will be gaining a very great deal in return. Contact me if you have any questions.

Princess Luna

Rarity poured herself a new cup of tea. "I can't complain, really," she said to Fluttershy, sitting across from her in the Boutique's parlor. "It is such a drag, though, having to arrange the matchsticks by size, and put the pentagonal block in the pentagonal hole, and sort the objects by color, day after day after day."

"I know it's boring," said Fluttershy, "but Rarity, you have brain damage. It's important for you to rebuild those neural pathways as much as you can. How is your short-term memory loss?"

"Better. I still get fuzzy sometimes, but who knows how much of that is due to old-age."

"We're not even thirty yet!"

"Ancient!" announced Rarity, then the two mares laughed. "The truth is, I'll just be happy when I can get back to sewing. Thank goodness I had just completed a backlog of dresses the day before the Nightmare attacked, or I'd have to mortgage the shop!"

Fluttershy fumbled with her empty teacup for a moment. "Um... Listen, I've been waiting a month to say this..." She bit her lip.

"Out with it," said Rarity.

"It's about Shield Banner," said Fluttershy. "Before he died, he wanted you to know he was sorry."

Rarity froze for a microsecond. Then her hoof continued to lift her cup to her mouth. She sipped and her eyes took on a far-away cast. The cup shook a little. Then she set it back in its saucer and stared at the ground.

Fluttershy wrung her hooves awkwardly, not sure what to say.

At last, Rarity sighed and sat back on her sofa. "I never should have tried to play spy," she said. "I was in over my head. Shield Banner accused me of thinking I was more clever than him, and he was right. I did think that. I suppose I learned my lesson, though."

"It wasn't your fault," said Fluttershy. "It was the Nightmare's fault. And she's dead now."

"She left quite a wake," said Rarity with that far-away look again. "But nevertheless, we prevailed."

"Yes, we did," said the pegasus. After another moment, she said: "Look, I'll be in Canterlot for the next few days, helping with ponies injured during the battle, but we should do this again when I return. We've grown apart in recent years, Rarity. All of us. I don't want it to be like that anymore. I miss the old group."

"Me too, sweetie," said Rarity.

Rarity let Fluttershy out and closed and locked the front door, then pushed the floor-lock and the deadbolt shut.

She left every light in the shop burning as she headed up to bed. For the past month, Rarity had found herself uncomfortable with letting pools of shadow develop in her home. The lamps burned day and night now at Carousel Boutique.

Rarity sat down at the vanity, preparing to put her hair up in curlers and remove her false eyelashes. Her horn glowed baby blue as she picked up her brush and began to run it through her shiny purple mane. After a few strokes, her eyes glanced up into the mirror.

Grinning back, blood pouring from her mouth, was the demonic face of Miss Rarity. The killer's eyes burned with homicidal insanity as she slammed her hooves against the other side of the glass, cracking the mirror in huge concentric circles.

Rarity screamed and recoiled away, falling backwards on her stool and crashing to the floor. She kicked her way into the corner, hyperventilating, her screams of terror swallowing themselves up. This was it. She was dead.

"I'm dead," she whispered.

But after a few moments, nothing had happened. Rarity opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of herself in the full-length closet mirror. She was herself again. No blood, nothing. Frantically, she turned to look at the vanity. The glass was whole and unbroken.

It wasn't real. It wasn't real. Just hallucinations. I've got to get a hold of myself.

"I have got to get a hold of myself," she said aloud. Then she placed both forehooves to her face as sobs wracked through her body.

"Easy, Princess," said Spike, gently lowering Luna down into the water.

"Ah!" gasped Luna as the hot bath hit her still-tender incisions. The Canterlot surgeons had operated again and again over the past month to help her regeneration set things right.

"You're doing great," said Spike. "Just a little further."

"I have changed my mind," said the Princess, voice wavering with pain. "I wish to remain stinky!"

"Shh, it'll be worth it," said Spike. "You just have to a be a big, tough alicorn for me." It was what Twilight used to say to him when he was little. He couldn't help but chuckle at the memory.

"And now you laugh at me? Your divine lord and master?"

"I was laughing at myself, actually, but maybe next time I will laugh at you."

"I shall... outlaw it..." said Luna. Her reconstructed wing-joints submerged into the steaming basin. "Ow! Oh, oh..." She cried out in agony, unable to hold back a sob, squeezing Spike's clawed hand with her hoof.

Spike squeezed back and held onto her. "You'll get through this, Princess."

"I know," rasped Luna. She cleared her throat. "I know. You should have seen me the first time I fought Celestia. The first Nightmare Night. I was a mess."

The dragon dipped a copper ladle into the bathwater and poured the contents over Luna's mane while he shielded her eyes with a clawed hand. The galaxy of stars that flowed along her back became apparent as normal pony-hair-- albeit unusually sparkly-- once it got wet. Spike opened the container of soaproot and aloe cream, added a touch of rose-oil for scent, and worked it into the Princess's mane with his claws. Luna let out a content sigh, despite her many aches and pains.

"The weight of a kingdom on your shoulders," commented Spike, pressing his thumbs into her sore muscles. "How you and your sister do it is a mystery to me"

"It is the highest possible honor," said Luna. She tilted her head back and looked at him. "And, of course, we have no choice."

"You'd quit if you could?" asked Spike, wiping a few suds away from around her midnight eyes.

"No," said Luna with a sigh of resignation. "It's really all I have ever known."

Spike took the hanging shower-head and gently soaped and rinsed her wing-joints. Again, Luna let out only a single sob of agony as he passed the sponge over her incisions.

"We're almost done, Princess," soothed Spike. He drained the tub and, after a final rinse, shut off the water and stood to get her a towel. "Time for your nightly checkup with the Royal Physician. I think it's Doctor Hayfever on staff tonight. Then off to physical-therapy."

"I almost forgot to ask," said Luna, "has there been any sign of Doctor Stables? I thought that perhaps somepony forgot to inform me..."

"No, still nothing," said Spike with a frown, helping her towel off. "Disappeared without a trace. I hate to say it, but he was probably killed at some point during the battle. Vaporized or something, so that there was no corpse."

"Perhaps," said Luna. "Still, odd."

Spike went around the royal bath-chamber, cleaning and setting things up so that Luna could reach them in the morning. "Okay," he said at last, slipping his foreleg under her chest and propping her up. "You ready?"

Princess Luna grimaced with pain, but she braced herself to step over the edge of the tub. Another round of surgeries, another month of recuperation and she'd be close to fighting shape. For now, though, if she was going to be a bag of broken bones, at least she had Spike.

"My dragon," she said, closing her eyes for a second and leaning into him.

"My Princess," he said. "Ready? One, two, three, step!"

Fluttershy almost went straight home, but the night air was warm, so she decided to take the long route back to her cottage. She strolled through the empty town square, feeling strangely at-peace in the glow of the streetlamps.

All her life, she'd been a shrinking violet. It had been a miracle that she'd had enough courage to attend medical school in the first place, but she had done so little with it afterwards. She was always too afraid of failing.

Something had changed, though. Maybe it was Shield, she thought. The way he'd been so brave for her, even when she knew he was terrified. Him and Purple Heart, too, and Chyornyj Slon, and all the others who had died fighting that demon. Fluttershy had the strangest sensation that she owed something to these ponies. They were dead, and she was alive. They would never do or think anything ever again. She had the freedom to act.

This kind of empowerment was a strange sensation for her, and Fluttershy had no idea what to do. So, in another uncharacteristic move, she decided to follow her impulse.

Fluttershy started walking. She maneuvered down street after street, until she came upon a bright green apartment building. She let herself in the front gate and up the stairwell to the second floor, where she stood outside apartment 214. She knocked.

After a minute she heard the sound of the chain-lock being disengaged. Then the door opened. A red stallion's face poked out and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Hi," said Fluttershy.

After a moment of shock, Big Macintosh said, "Hey."

"Can we... can we talk?" said Fluttershy. "Just talk." She kicked a hoof idly and glanced at the floor.

He looked at her, a cavalcade of conflicting emotion crossing his face. At last, he bowed his head and nodded. "Eeyup." Macintosh stepped back, letting Fluttershy past him.

The door clicked shut.

Twilight helped Celestia prop herself up in bed, so that the Princess could look out the window into the starry sky. Then the purple unicorn sat down in the chair at the bedside, turned up the lantern, and started jotting down the Princess's itinerary for the next day on a notepad.

"Always working," said Celestia.

"I learned from the best," said Twilight. She chewed on her eraser for a moment. Then she said: "Princess, one thing I never could figure out. The Nightmare. She kept saying you had given her the 'secret keys to your heart.' That she had used them to possess you. What was she talking about?"

"Oh, yes," said Celestia. "Well, the secret keys are a set of protocols that govern each sentient mind. With all of the keys to my heart, the Nightmare knew my brain better than I did. She was able to control it completely, like a machine."

"But how did she get those keys? Did she buy them somehow?"

Celestia looked at Twilight for a long moment. "Twilight, the keys can not be forged or stolen. They can only be given out of love. Not through hypnosis, not through torture. And I have no idea how she came to have them."

A strange voice cleared its throat from the darkened far-corner of the bedchamber. "How indeed?"

Twilight Sparkle spun to face the intruder, her horn blasting into light, charging with thunderous magic. And then, in a flash of white, her horn was gone. So was her mouth.

"Mmmpphhh!!" screamed Twilight furiously.

The shape from the corner moved closer, and took on form and substance. "I'm going to put your mouth back Twilight, but if you try to call for help, I'll have to take it away again, and your nose, too, if you catch my drift." Twilight's mouth reappeared, and she gasped for breath.

"You," said Celestia, her eyes narrowing at the intruder.

It was the squat form of Doctor Stables. He removed his spectacles and examined them for dust. "Yes, you lovable, gullible pony, you. It's always been me."

"Who are you?" said Twilight. "Really?"

"I'll give you a hint, my dear," said Doctor Stables. "'What fun is there in making sense?'"

"Discord," said Twilight with a black note.

"Doctor Discord, at your service. The truth is, I've been controlling this body for years now from my stone prison. It's not quite the same thing as being free myself, but it helps to pass the time. And how! Let me tell you Twilight, your Princess has not felt the ravages of age on any part of her fabulous body. Although she is on birth-control. I'll let you draw your own implications from that."

"What do you want!?" demanded Celestia, her face burning.

"Only to save the world," said Discord.

"No, really, what do you want?" asked Twilight.

Discord laughed. "To save the world, I swear it! Celestia could tell you herself if she wasn't so inclined to keep secrets from her loved ones, am I right, Princess? The truth is that you've probably never even heard about the prophecy of the Nightmare Fracture. The prophecy that the Nightmare would bring about the end of the world. It almost came true, too."

"But... it's over now, right?" said Twilight. "The prophecy has not come to pass, because the Nightmare is dead."

"Tell her, Celestia," taunted Discord.

"Eight years ago," said Celestia after a moment, "when you beat the Nightmare during the Summer Sun Celebration, I captured her soul in an artifact called a stasis-bottle. For years I experimented, trying to find a way to destroy the Nightmare's soul. But I couldn't do it. She was indestructible. I could only hold her in the bottle and hope that some day, I would find a way to kill her once and for all."

Twilight's look of surprise turned to anger. "Why didn't you tell me??"

"Because you are mortal," said Celestia. "I prayed that you would never have to deal with the Nightmare again in your lifetime. I... I was trying to protect you."

Twilight sighed. "Fine. She's dead now, anyway, right?"

"That's just it," said Celestia. "After the battle, I went down to the caverns under the castle, to inspect the stasis-bottle and find out how she'd managed to escape. But Twilight, she's still there. Her soul is still in the stasis-bottle."

"But... how could there be two Nightmares??"

"I know ho-o-o-ow," sang Discord. "I could tell you everything, but I don't think I feel like it."

Celestia and Twilight just waited.

"Oh, you party-poopers," said Discord. "Of course I can't possibly not tell you now. Very well. I call to your attention: Exhibit-A." An easel popped into existence next to him. On it was a large diagram of an eye. "Your right eye, my lady."

Celestia's forehoof rose to her eye. The one that had gone blind when everything was beginning.

Discord placed a plastic-overlay on top of the diagram. This was filled with a number of arcane magic glyphs.

"A time-beacon," said Celestia. "In my eye. You put a time-beacon in my eye??"

"It was easy," said Discord. "I was your doctor, after all. You're a smart mare, Celestia. You tell me the rest of the plan."

"I send the Nightmare's soul back in time," said Celestia. "To exactly one month before tonight. I use the time beacon in my own eye as a target."

"And you give her the secret keys to your heart," continued Twilight, "as you send her back."

"The Nightmare dies in an epic battle in the past, and we all live happily ever after in the present," finished Discord. "And you two said I didn't know how to save the world. I'm hurt."

"You..." stammered Celestia, "My sister and I were both tortured, almost to death by that thing!"

"Yes, and don't forget who put your sister back together again. Clearly, I had your best interests in mind the whole time. If you two experienced any discomfort, then I think we can chalk it up as a fair trade for being petrified for centuries."

"So, what did you get out of it?" said Twilight. "Besides the joy of watching us all suffer?"

"Why chaos my dear," he said. And now his laughter turned sinister. "Wonderful, delicious, tantalizing chaos. More than this kingdom has seen in eons! My goodness, it was so beautiful. But even more importantly, it was just what I needed to break free of my stone prison."

"The guards," said Twilight, "they would have reported if your statue was gone--"

"I left a replica of course! Come on Twilight, I thought you were the bright one."

Twilight and Celestia glared at Discord for a moment. Then Twilight said: "So, what now?"

"Now? You and Celestia go down to the catacombs and get your temporal wands a-waving! Or you could choose not to do it. You could decide that it's not worth it. Then maybe time will revert to a scenario where you never sent the Nightmare back. A paradox time-storm! Won't that be chaotic!" He laughed. "So I win either way. Ta-ta, you two. I'm off to see the world. Equestria is just too small-time for me anymore. Maybe I'll go hang out with some dragons for a change." He grinned. "Wait until they get a load of me."

Twilight stomped on the ground three times in rapid succession and suddenly, a huge magic circle appeared on the floor of the bedchamber, searing in neon-white with glyphs three-feet across.

"We made a few improvements to this room, Discord!" shouted Twilight. "You're trapped now!"

But Discord just laughed. "Oh, oh, how rich. Twilight Sparkle you are such a cutie-pie, I simply can not stand it. I'll definitely be seeing you again before you die of old age. Maybe I'll pop back in around, say, twenty years? It's a date. Bye now, and take care."

His laughter echoed about the room. Then Doctor Stables's body fell apart into a thousand apples, bouncing and rolling in all directions at once.

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Picture Credits:

http://img07.deviantart.net/bf06/i/2013/127/a/6/mane_6_wallpaper__grunge_version_available__too___by_dashmagic6-d63s2gw.png
http://www.deviantart.com/download/280708449/discord_profile_wallpaper_by_phantombadger-d4n4k0x.jpg

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Thank you, and goodnight!