A few days ago, Twilight would have given all the bits in the wide world of Equestria to forget what Discord did to her and her friends. But once she had seen what he was also capable of doing, she felt that she would rather have another round with the corrupted ponies.
The spirit of chaos immediately made himself at home in the Ponyville library, much to the chagrin of everyone else. Indeed, the only one who didn’t seem to mind the mad god’s antics was Chopper, who had developed quite a bond with him, what with having a joke at anybody else’s expense or pranking someone.
Discord’s antics were not the only thing that both the Ghost team and the ponies had to put up with. For some reason, Zeb was getting increasingly annoyed by Pinkie Pie’s attempts to cheer him up, even though the pink pony couldn’t understand why. It was enough to drive anypony mad.
And this all came to a head three mornings after the defeat of the invasion.
Everyone was having their usual breakfast meal when Pinkie’s screams shattered the tranquil atmosphere, followed by angry roars from Zeb.
“Help! Angry Lasat on the loose!”
Pinkie had burst into the room, frantically searching for a place to hide. She dove under the breakfast table, much to Kanan’s surprise. A while later, Zeb stormed in, his head covered in confetti and chocolate cake, and wearing an angry expression on his face. Rainbow Dash tried to stifle her laughter, but gave up and let out a hearty guffaw. Spike and Ezra also silently giggled at the hilarious sight. Zeb shot the
three of them a dirty look, and they immediately sobered up.
“What is going on here?” Kanan demanded.
“I was about to wash up for the day when all of a sudden I get hit with cake and confetti!” Zeb pointed to himself while Discord laughed hysterically. “And I can think of only one pony who uses a party cannon!”
“It wasn’t my fault!” came Pinkie’s scared, tearful protests.
“SAY THAT TO MY FACE!” Zeb roared, lunging under the table to grab Pinkie. Both Applejack and Fluttershy jumped onto him to prevent him from killing Pinkie.
“Ugh! Has anypony told yah that yah smell?” Applejack exclaimed.
Zeb turned to Applejack and growled. “You have something against the air quality here, eh?” He lunged for her, but the earth pony turned around and kicked him square in the chest with her legs. Zeb fell on his back and crashed into a chair.
“WHAT IN EQUESTRIA IS GOING ON HERE?!” Twilight shrieked, having just entered.
Pinkie came out from under the table. “Twilight! Thank Celestia you’re here! Zeb was about to murder me for something I didn’t do!”
“Something you didn’t do?” Zeb repeated incredulously. “You placed that cannon of yours in the bathroom and set it to explode as soon as I walked in!”
“But I’m telling you, it wasn’t me!” Pinkie Pie protested.
“Quiet!” Twilight yelled. She levitated what looked like a list to both of them. “Congratulations, Garazeb Orrelios. You and Pinkie are going on a supply run today.”
“But-“
“No buts,” Twilight interrupted. “We- Kanan, Hera, and I- want all these by the end of the day. Oh, and don’t even think of getting back here without at least one meiloorun and one chimmy-cherry-changa.”
“Meiloo-what?” Pinkie asked.
“Meiloorun,” Twilight said.
“It’s a yellow fruit with a rind,” Hera elaborated.
“But those don’t grow in Equestria,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“Funny story, actually,” Applejack said nervously. “Chopper showed me Hera’s secret stash the first time he showed me on the Ghost, and . . . uh, I’ve been sharing it with mah family ever since.”
Everypony turned to face Hera. “What?” she asked. “They grew all the time on Ryloth!”
“Well,” Twilight said to the pair of them, “you know what you have to do. Get going.”
So after breakfast, the pair of them went out into the brisk Ponyville air, shoving each other as they went out the door. Discord watched the scene with suppressed humor as Chopper rolled up to him and beeped an inquiry.
“Of course I put her party cannon in the bathroom, Chopper,” he said. “Their bickering was enough to drive anypony up the wall. I figured
that some time together would hopefully ease things out between them.”
Chopper whistled in understanding. He then warbled some more, while Discord looked at him in interest. “You don’t say,” he said. He snapped his fingers and the two of them teleported to a section of the upstairs floor where Sabine was displaying a painting of a Loth-
cat. “You’re certain that Ezra has a crush on the Mandolorian girl?”
Chopper beeped in agreement, then laughed.
A devilish grin formed on Discord’s face. “In that case, let us see if the Lord of Chaos himself can play matchmaker to this young and lovely couple.” He whipped out a bow and arrow and fired it at the painting. Upon impact, the picture transformed: It now depicted chibi versions of Ezra and Sabine kissing each other full on the lips. Above it was a red heart with an arrow going through it that said, EZRA AND SABINE LOVE EACH OTHER FOREVER. Both Chopper and Discord laughed at the altered picture. This was a picture that everypony in this library was going to be talking about for a long, long time.
Meanwhile, Ezra was passing upstairs to get his lightsaber for training when he heard laughing in one of the rooms. Curious, he opened the door and a bright white flash met his eyes. When his vision cleared, he was looking at something he would never have expected to see.
Sabine had apparently painted a picture depicting the two of them kissing in a romantic embrace. Over that, a heart had been painted declaring their undying love for each other. He felt his heart beat faster, felt as if something heavy was suffocating him. Could this be, could it be that his crush had finally decided to reciprocate his feelings for her? He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t think. He was feeling all woozy. There was only one thing that he could do: find someone who could help sort out his feelings. He ran back downstairs, hoping that this could all be fixed soon.
-break—
The streets of Ponyville were empty, as they had been since the Empire first invaded. The only people out there were a couple of surviving stormtroopers and some Imperial officials conducting business. As Zeb and Pinkie walked through the city, they continued to argue about whether or not Zeb owed Pinkie for saving his life.
“Need I remind you that if it weren’t for me, Kallus would have finished you off?” Pinkie smirked.
“How could I forget?” Zebsnarked. “You mentioned it at least 23 times for the last three days!”
“Thus, I don’t think you should really hold me in the wrong for supposedly putting that cannon there,” Pinkie furthered.
“Oh, forget it,” Zeb snapped. “Twilight said something about a chimmy-cherry-changa. Where do we find those?”
“Ooh! Sugarcube Corner! Follow me!” She grabbed his hand and sped on over to the bakery.
And soon the two of them completed everything needed on the checklist. Well, almost everything. There was just one thing left-
“The meilooruns,” Zeb said.
“Where are we going to find those?” Pinkie asked.
The answer came in the form of a convoy patrol that just passed by. Zeb and Pinkie noticed that one of the open crates had yellow fruit
peeking out.
“There!” Zeb said.
“It’s too fast!” Pinkie noted. “How are we going to get them?”
A mischievous grin broke across the Lasat’s face as an idea formed in his head. “I think I know. Just follow me.”
-break—
“And you are certain that you think Sabine did this?” Rarity asked.
“Of course,” Ezra said. “Who else do you think can paint so well?”
“Hmm,” Rarity pondered. “If indeed she did paint that, then there is only one explanation: She’s reciprocating your affections.”
Ezra’s heart beat even more rapidly. “Do you think that is true, Rarity?”
“There’s only one way to find out,” Rarity got up. “We’ll have to ask her ourselves. And be sure to bring Applejack along as well. She may
want to hear about this as well.”
-break—
Sabine stood back, having just finished the painting of a wild Loth-cat on the side of the Ponyville library, and admired it. Twilight was going
to love this. She always did love to learn about new life forms.
Just then, Applejack , Rarity, and Ezra came in, the first two wearing expressions of mischief and delight and the last one wearing a nervous
grin on his face.
“Oh hey, guys,” Sabine said. “How do you like my new painting?” She motioned to the painting of the Loth-cat.
“Sabine, we want to ask you something,” Applejack said.
“Fire away,” Sabine responded.
Rarity giggled. “Sabine, do you . . . have a thing for Ezra?”
“Say what?” Sabine said, confused.
“Don’ act like yah don’ know, sugarcube,” Applejack continued heartily. “Ezra here told us about how you painted a picture of the two of you
kissing. Do you have feelings for him or not?”
Sabine looked at Ezra as though he had swallowed a kyber crystal. “Where did you get that idea, kid?”
“Oh come on!” Ezra protested. “I saw your painting in your room. It had the two of us kissing with a big red heart over it.”
“I never painted anything like that,” Sabine protested. “But by all means, go ahead and show me where you got that ludicrous idea.”
So Ezra and the two mares led Sabine up to the room where she was staying, and Sabine could not believe what her eyes were telling her.
Her original painting, which depicted the symbol for the rebellion, had indeed been replaced by a painting of the two of them kissing. The weird part was that she never, ever had painted it at all; the kid was indeed telling the truth. Her heart beat faster. There was only one person she knew who had the power to warp reality to his will and could therefore alter the painting this flawlessly.
“Uh, Sabine, darling,” Rarity spoke up, “is everything all right?”
Sabine’s blood rose to the boiling point, then erupted. “DISCORD!” she shouted. “I’m gonna destroy that draconequus!” She ran off, pistols
drawn.
Ezra, having come to his senses as well, followed her down the stairs, lightsaber drawn. “Let me in on it as well!”
Silence. Neither Applejack nor Rarity spoke. Then Rarity said, “They’re not gonna succeed in tearing him apart, will they?”
Applejack shook her head. “Nope.”
-break—
“You see those bucketheads?” Zeb whispered to Pinkie. The pink pony nodded. “On my signal, you are to create a distraction so that I can
snatch that crate of meilooruns. Ready, now!”
On his signal, the pink pony burst into view of the stormtroopers. “Hey!” she called. “You boys miss me?”
The troopers looked at each other, as if wondering what to do next. As they had no apparent instruction on what to do, they just decided to
shoot her. But what they failed to realize was that their target had the uncanny ability to apparently dodge all of their horrible shots with
ease. As Pinkie drew the stormtroopers away, the convoy carrying the meilooruns sped off.
“Karabast,” Zeb muttered. He looked around wildly for something to use. At last, he spotted an unguarded TIE fighter and ran off toward it. Checking to make sure that no one else was around, he entered the hatch, started up the controls, and flew it off, cackling as he did so.
It was a most wondrous feeling, seeing the cityscape from up above. In the distance, he thought he could see Cloudsdale floating serenely. Luckily for Rainbow, the city didn’t suffer too much from the invasion. He looked down and saw that Pinkie was still being chased by the stormtroopers. He smirked, then descended.
Meanwhile on the ground, Pinkie was starting to run out of energy. The bucketheads were still catching up and there was no sign of Zeb.
She prayed that she would live to survive this.
All of a sudden, she heard a low whirring sound and saw a menacing TIE fighter approach her. Great, she thought. Just what I need. She glimpsed inside the cockpit to see the person flying it was . . .
“Zeb?” she asked, surprised.
“You know, I should be saving your life, right?” he called.
“Fine, sure, just let me in!” she said.
“I let you in, we’re even!”
“FINE!” she groaned.
“You have to say it!”
“All right! We’re even! Now please, just let me in!”
Zeb opened the hatch, and Pinkie wasted no time whatsoever trying to get in.
“Let’s just say,” he started as soon as she settled down, “that we are forever even.” Pinkie nodded in agreement. “Now let’s find those
meilooruns!”
Just then, a completely new voice sounded on the radio. “Well, well, I see somepony is getting along just fine with his arch-nemesis!” Robotic laughter also sounded on the other end of the intercom as well. Zeb growled. There was only person he knew who had that cocky swagger in his voice.
“Discord?” he said menacingly. “What are you and Chopper doing here?”
“It’s quite simple, really,” the draconequus responded in a self-assured manner. “The others were tired of your constant bickering with
Pinkie Pie, so I placed her cannon in the bathroom and set it to blow up in your face so that the two of you would spend some quality time together. And I can see that I have succeeded.”
“Uh, sure,” Zeb said, then lowered his voice into a whisper, “remind me to bash his head in once we come back.”
Good luck with that, Pinkie Pie thought to herself.
“Where are you exactly?” Zeb asked Discord.
“We are in the second TIE fighter right behind you,” Discord responded. Zeb checked the built-in positioning system and indeed, there was a second TIE flying right behind them. Zeb looked in confusion at Pinkie, who simply shrugged.
“Spectre-1 to Spectre-4.”Kanan’s voice came over the intercom. “Did you get the meilooruns yet?”
“Yeah, about that,” Zeb said. “We seem to have run into a bit of trouble with them.”
Twilight’s voice joined in on the conversation, and Zeb could have sworn that she was a bit amused. “I kinda figured that. Look, don’t worry
about that. It was all a joke. The meilooruns-“
“Oh yeah, meilooruns,” Pinkie Pie chirped. “See, we found some, and we lost them, and now we’re finding them again and-“
Zeb sighed. “Just cut to the chase, kid.”
“Wait, what am I hearing?” Kanan’s voice interrupted, a bit demanding.
“These guys stole a TIE fighter,” Discord’s voice answered in an annoying sing-song fashion before either of them could explain.
“Say WHAT?!?” Twilight shrieked. She’s taking it a lot better than I thought, Zeb thought to himself. Thanks for snitching us out, Discord. “Get rid of it!”
“Do we have to?” Pinkie and Zeb complained in unison.
Kanan’s voice sighed. “At least say that you dismantled the locator beacons.”
“Of course,” Zeb chuckled nervously. “We’re not fools!” He turned to Pinkie and whispered furiously, “Under there! The red, no the blue!”
“Make up your mind! Which is it?” Pinkie Pie asked, a bit annoyed.
“It’s the red and the blue,” came Kanan’s annoyed voice.
“Oh, heh, heh,” Pinkie chuckled, “right! We knew that right away, back when we first boarded! Heheh!”
“Stealing a TIE fighter attracts unnecessary attention,” Twilight’s voice snarked matter-of-factly. “Park it behind Sugarcube Corner and
destroy it! No exceptions!”
“Fine,” Zeb groaned, then signed off. But first, we’re getting what we stole this thing for.
-break—
The sun had begun to set, and still the pair had no luck finding the meilooruns. Zeb was about to give up and call it a day when he noticed
that the convoy carrying the fruit that they were searching for.
“There!” He brought the fighter down lower. “Now, you know what to do!” Pinkie nodded, then jumped out of the hatch and tackled the
driver.
“Oof!” The convoy driver lost his balance and crashed his vehicle into a nearby stand. As he was knocked out of commission, Pinkie stole at
least two meilooruns in her hooves (it’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it) and managed to run off.
“I got the fruit!” she called.
Zeb gave her the thumbs up, then motioned for her to get the heck out of dodge through a dirt road- which happened to be cut off by some stormtroopers. Upon seeing this, the pink pony put a fruit in front of her.
“Wait, you attacked us- for fruit?” one of the troopers said, disbelieving.
“You’re kidding, right?” another one added.
“No!” Pinkie denied, then stopped to reconsider. “Okay, maybe a little.”
At this, Zeb fired a few shots from the fighter’s turrets, and the stormtroopers scattered like ants. He then turned the vehicle upside down and opened the hatch.
“All for fruit!” Pinkie cheerily exclaimed as she jumped into the hatch. The fighter then flew off.
-break—
It was night when Zeb and Pinkie returned to the library. By then, the animosity that had been between the two had been reduced to playful punching and teasing. Twilight and Hera were waiting for them, smiling knowingly.
“Hello, you two,” Hera started as they approached. “I take it the supply run was a success?”
“Yep,” Zeb chuckled. “We destroyed the TIE just like you said.”
“And you got the meilooruns as I ‘asked’ you to?” Twilight added.
“Here they are,” Pinkie produced the yellow fruit. Twilight smiled. This may not what she had in mind, but one thing was certain: Zeb and
Pinkie were getting along a lot better than previously.
“Excellent,” Twilight said. “Now if you could just-“
A loud crash sounded from the living room. Twilight turned around to see that Ezra and Sabine had attacked Discord. The two teens were holding onto him for dear life, trying to make him pay for what he did earlier.
“Fluttershy’s not here to help you now-“ Ezra said, but Discord, apparently begging to differ, sent both of them flying into Rainbow Dash, who was, at the moment, reading a book on the Wonderbolts. Rainbow glared at both of them, while they grinned back weakly.
“What is going on here?” Hera demanded.
And so, the two explained to Hera how Discord had played a prank on them earlier. Now if only he could do that to me and Kanan, Hera mused.
“I think I know how we can resolve the issue,” Twilight smirked, while Zeb and Pinkie Pie chuckled.
“You can’t be serious,” Sabine muttered to herself, exchanging we-are-so-screwed-looks with Ezra.