Discord's realm.
Tangerine skies bloomed from verdant red lawns, hanging in the eye of an opulent flamingo-pink sunset. Twilight and Pinkie stood on a bridge made from a music staff, and it squeaked out Pomp and Circumstance as they wandered across it.
“The lady of antiquity speaks of pipes connected upon pipes,” whispered an unrecognizable voice all around them. “Her voice gives shape to truths already in your heart!”
A clump of land floated in the near distance, covered in lizardy marmosets. Pinkie and Twilight approached the home on the hill before them.
Before they could get within five hundred meters, the door creaked open. Then Discord appeared before them in a cloud of confetti and applause. “Ta-dah!” He leaned over at them, grinning madly. “Now, a little pony tells me that you, my little simian, are in the market for some party repartee?”
Pinkie and Twilight looked at each other, then back at Discord.
“This isn't gonna work,” Pinkie said.
The arch of Discord's back deflated a bit. “Pardon?”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said, “it's like... I don't think anything here qualifies as a party?”
Discord tched, and snapped his fingers. A fleet of picnic tables appeared floating in the infinite sky at their side, with cakes made of bean paste and a mariachi member made of paper astride each one, playing out a symphony that seemed to harken to the eternal blackness of—
“Okay, sure,” Pinkie said, squinting at it. “I guess? There's music and food? But it's like... help me out here, Twilight,” she said, waving her hoof in a circle.
“It's like you're....” Twilight tapped her chin. “Like you're trying too hard, right, Pinkie?”
“Yeah, that's it! But also not trying at all, somehow?”
“Couldn't have put it better myself!”
“Like, you're just snapping your fingers.”
Discord slumped further down with each negative line, and by this point he had actually submerged into the ground like a videogame glitch—but at that last line, his eyebrows twisted. “Just snapping my fingers?”
He tutted, then vanished and reappeared lounging upon one of the picnic tables. “I'll have you know that just because I make it look easy, that doesn't mean I don't put thought into it. It just means that my results are a bit more creative than yours.”
Pinkie and Twilight looked up, suddenly aware that they were wearing dunce caps. “Hey!” Twilight said.
“Oh, don't say the idea doesn't appeal to you,” Discord said, pulling the skin off a banana. “I know you ponies—pardon, you humans love your rules, but isn't it fun to just—” having eaten the peel, he tossed the banana over his shoulder “—throw them away sometimes?”
He vanished and reappeared near the banana, walking toward it. “I know you've got a lot of preconceived notions about what a party can be. Maybe it's time you let them... slip away!” As he stepped on the banana, it flew out from under his talon, did a flip, and landed with a splat on the ground.
“The banana slipped,” Twilight muttered, eyes half-glazed, “instead of him.” She buried her face in a hoof. “Oh, that was so bad. We're going now, right, Pinkie?”
After a few seconds, she removed her hoof to see Pinkie, whose eyes were slowly widening. “Pinkie?” Twilight said, alarm apparent in her voice. “Please don't say you've got a—”
“I'm starting to get a good feeling about this guy,” Pinkie said.
“Oh, for god's sake.”
August 1
Discord's actually super cool! We took a selfie together! Here it is, check it out!
did
did you just take a picture and glue it to the book
Yup!
and you expected that to work huh
Might not have thought it through.
Anyway, he kinda gave me some of his powers for a bit and had me go crazy and I created a chocolate fountain the size of a volcano, and choked a whole town in pyroclastic deliciousness.
It was a gingerbread town so it was okay! And then we ate the ruins. I've never felt so creatively free! This was awesome!that sounds really cool
It was!
Hey, is Marble there? Haven't heard from her in a while! I wanna know how her latest checkup was!Marble's doing a not talking thing right now
Oh.
yup
btw, if you're about to ask if i'm ready to chat
not yetThat's fine.
Soon though, right?
yup
soon
“When's soon?” Pinkie muttered, frowning at the book as light from their campfire danced across it. They'd been dropped in the middle of who-knew-where after leaving Discord's realm, so they'd needed to improvise a camp.
“What?” Twilight said, lying down at the other side of the fire. She was peering at a strange plant—a sunflower whose stalk grew in chaotic spirals, perhaps from Discord's nearby influence—and was sketching it in a diary of her own as carefully as she could.
“Oh, nothing,” Pinkie said. “Family stuff, y'know?”
“Sounds complicated.” Twilight shrugged, and repositioned to get another angle of her flower. “Well, you'll be seeing them soon enough in person, right? We can cross Discord off our list now, and that's over halfway done.”
“Yeah,” Pinkie said, still staring at the page. “Great!”
“All right.” Twilight sighed. “This is dumb. I should be doing this in daylight.” She closed her eyes, lit her horn, and pulled a pair of sleeping bags from her saddlebag, one of which enveloped her. “Good night, Pinkie,” she mumbled.
“Night, Twi,” Pinkie said.
Soon.