Some time later, a pegasus and an alicorn met in the medical wing.
“So how’s Scoots doing?” Rainbow Dash asked Spliced who shrugged her shoulders.
“I was just giving Snöflinga his medical check up; I have no idea how Scootaloo’s interview with Doctor Snuggles is going,” she said as Snöflinga stalked away, rubbing his shoulder and glaring at her. “Besides, even if I did, I couldn't say anything about it without her aunts’ permission. Doctor-patient confidentiality rules, you know, and unfortunately,” she shrugged again, apologetically. “Honorary sisters or not, I’m not legally allowed to tell you anything unless your name is on her file as an official contact, and I can’t be positive that it is until I get a look at it myself.”
“Gotcha.” Rainbow Dash waved it off. “I’ll just ask them afterward.”
“And I’m sure they’ll be glad to tell you,” Twilight said as she came up behind them, the other girls and Spike not far behind. “After all the time you spent trying to help her… and they trusted you to take her on that camping trip to Winsome Falls not that long ago, remember?”
Rainbow Dash nodded happily. “Yeah…”
“And they’ll thank you too, Spliced.”
“Me, why me?” Spliced asked.
“Well, you did bring this to Doctor Hale’s attention so he could set up this meeting,” Spike pointed out. “Not to mention how you figured out the possible source of the problem before we came here. You’re the one who got this whole thing started.”
Spliced looked speechless and blushed, rubbing her hooves shyly. “I was just doing her a favour when she asked for my help,” she said. “It is what anypony would have done.”
“It’s more than my little brother or his wife have ever done,” a voice said from behind them, and the group turned to see two pegasi, an Earth pony and one crystal nox pony in the doorway.
“Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo squealed happily as she rushed in and hugged her. Then she hurried over to Spliced. “Thank you so much, Ms. Genome!”
Spliced looked down at her with a smile. “You’re welcome, Scootaloo,” she said. Then she looked at the two mares in the doorway. “Your aunts, I take it?”
The first one, an Earth pony with her coat a lighter yellow, nodded. “I’m her aunt Holiday,” she introduced herself. “This is my marefriend Lofty. And we do want to thank you for what you did.”
The aqua pegasus at her side smiled. “Scootaloo couldn’t stop talking about this mare who’d actually tried to see why she was having trouble with her wings; it’s more than anypony besides Rainbow Dash has done since we moved to Ponyville to watch over our dear niece, and neither of her parents have said anything about anypony trying to help before then.”
“When we got the letter from Doctor Snuggles here,” Holiday continued, “It was like a dream come true for her.”
“If I may ask, what is the plan to help her fly?” Spliced asked gently.
“Thankfully, nothing invasive,” Holiday replied. “Some blood work and samples told us that young Scootaloo here has a magical imbalance in her wings, but it’s correctable with the right injections.”
“You mean they already got the marrow samples?” Spliced asked. “But… wouldn’t that have been a very long and painful procedure?”
Lofty shook her head. “It may be in your home, wherever that is - overseas somewhere, I think somepony said, but they didn’t give us a name for it. But Doctor Snuggles knew a few other doctors who’ve been working on ways to make such procedures a lot easier, so it was a quick in-and-out thing.”
“I’m impressed then,” Spliced replied, placing a hoof on Scootaloo’s back unconsciously. “And relieved that it was so much easier than I had originally expected.” She gave the filly a small smile. “And I’m glad I was able to get somepony to help you as soon as I did - I was expecting this to take weeks at the very least.”
“There was a time when it would have,” the crystal nox pony spoke up. “Thankfully, we’ve made a lot of medical advances in recent years, and this is one of them. Certainly much better than what we had before the great vanishing.” He held out a hoof. “Doctor Snuggles, Ms. Genome.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Spliced shook his hoof. “Progress is something to always be sought after, no matter the costs.”
“Within limits, of course,” Doctor Snuggles said. “It took a lot of controlled testing before we were ready to try it on ponies, because we didn’t want to cause any harm to our patients.”
“Hmm,” Spliced said, hesitant to say anything about her own views, aware that her direct testing opinions were never well received by traditional researchers. “Well, the results are what matter most, and you’ve certainly achieved what you were aiming for.”
“Yes. Yes, we have.” Doctor Snuggles bowed. “And you, young lady, will finally have the flight you’ve long desired,” he said to Scootaloo. “The treatment will still take some time, but it will work.”
Scootatoo grinned again and gave the elder crystal nox pony a hug, her wings buzzing with excitement.
“Well, it is getting late; her majesty and the royal consort tend to eat early due to Princess Flurry Heart having an early bedtime,” Doctor Snuggles said to her aunts before looking at Spliced and Rainbow Dash. “We’re all invited tonight and we should get ready.”
“Come along Scootaloo,” Holiday said, rubbing the back of her head. “We’ll see you all at dinner,” she added to Twilight and the others in the room.
“See you then, Scoots,” Rainbow Dash told her with a grin before the family and Doctor Snuggles left.
“And I’ll show you all to some rooms,” Starlight added. She headed out, with most of the other mares behind her, leaving only Twilight, Spliced, Spike and Snöflinga, whom Twilight noticed had not moved out of the corner he’d gone to during their earlier conversation. When he looked around and saw the room suddenly much less crowded, he sighed in relief.
“Apologies,” he grunted. “Too much happy energy - not good for me. Not now, at least.”
“I’m still surprised that you can handle good emotions so well,” Twilight said before adding in, “No offense.”
Spike translated her words to Snöflinga, who nodded. “Lots of - practice?” he said uncertainly, until he saw Spike nodding, and spoke more confidently. “Before Fires of Friendship ignited. But too much at one time still a pain. Will - It will take more practice, before I able to handle lots at once again.” He looked grouchy. “Stupid fish not have that problem.”
“No, they didn’t seem to,” Twilight remarked. “At least, Sonata didn’t, as cheerful as she was.”
Snöflinga looked confused, and Spike again translated to him, the windigo nodding. “Någon dag får du förklara det där närmre.”
“Åh, det ska jag,” Spike replied. "Det är en riktigt spännande berättelse."
Spliced looked confused, but Twilight mouthed ‘later’ to her, and she seemed content with that.
After another exchange in the windigo language, Spike turned to Spliced. “Would you mind taking Snöflinga to see Sunburst again, so they can work some more before dinner?”
“Sure thing,” Spliced replied. “This way.”
When she and Snöflinga had left the room, Spike let out a sigh of relief. “Phew.”
“Something wrong?” Twilight asked.
“It’s just been a long day,” Spike replied. “What with dealing with Blueblood and rescuing Spliced from one of Sombra’s old traps this morning, all that research we were doing this afternoon, and then everything you found out about other worlds and such…” Then he noticed her eyes widening. “Twilight?”
“Rescuing Spliced from one of Sombra’s old traps?” Twilight repeated. “Spike, what the hay did you two get up to while I was gone?”
Spike gave her a nervous look. “Erm, she… was exploring on her own, when she heard a hollow sound as she was walking around in Sombra’s old throne room and her curiosity got the better of her,” he said. “Somehow, she figured out how to access the passage under it, and found that door to where he kept the Crystal Heart.”
Twilight looked horrified. “What happened?”
“Shining Armor and I came in and saw the hole in the floor, I recognized what it was, and he put up a barrier to keep anypony else out of the room while I went down to check it out,” Spike replied. “Good thing I did, because I had to pull her out of her worst fear after she got caught like you and I did. And speaking of, that place has been sealed up again for now, but you really need to figure out how to deactivate that door down there so this won’t happen again.”
“Right.” Twilight shook her head. “I’m just glad nopony got hurt - they didn’t, did they?”
“Spliced was shaken up, but Shining Armor and I made sure she was okay afterward,” Spike replied. “She didn’t say what it was that scared her when we all talked afterward, but given what you and I went through that first time, I’m sure it must have been ugly.”
“I don’t doubt it,” Twilight said. Then she cocked her head. “Wait - just getting down there takes dark magic, and I know none of us would have taught her any. How did she figure it out?”
“She said something about using the right frequency when she was closing it back up,” Spike told her. “Didn’t say anything about it being dark magic. I guess she somehow detected the magic in the throne and figured out out to match her magic to it.”
Twilight considered. “That would make sense… I’ll have to ask her about it.” Then she gave him a look. “Still, I might add another week to her time out of the lab…”
“Actually, given what she went through because of it, I think you should go easy on her,” Spike told her. “Dealing with her worst fear like that was probably punishment enough.”
Twilight sighed as she rubbed her forehead with one hoof. “Okay, you’re right…” She smiled down at him, then looked more serious. “But she still has to write that friendship report I assigned her when we were on the train up here, and add a section on this while she’s at it.”
“Um, Twilight, that was Starlight, not Spliced,” Spike said, a bit concerned.
“Right, my bad,” Twilight said as she facehoofed. “It’s been some time since I was back here Spike, so I’m sorry if I am a bit off.”
“You were gone for less than a day, Twilight,” Spike told her, the concern in his voice more apparent.
“Maybe it was less than a day here,” Twilight told him. “But in that place… time was flowing a lot faster, considering there is no Time, Day, or Night operating in the Valley of Alicorns, or any other Power,” she said, tilting her head as she tried to do some mental calculations. “It was perhaps about three or four days for us, I think.”
“Eesh.” Spike shuddered. “Sounds dangerous.”
“Alicorns are a timeless species,” Twilight replied. “We wouldn’t have really aged while we were there. But it does make me nervous, that we lost track of time so easily. I really don’t plan to go back there unless I absolutely have to or until...” she trailed off with Spike fully aware of what she was indicating and went to give her a comforting hug.
“I’m glad you made it back safely,” he told her. “All of you.”
Twilight gave him a smile. “So am I… I don’t know what I would have done if I could never come back to see you… all of you.”
“Even if I’m not a Power, that wouldn’t have stopped me from doing everything I could to get you back from there if you’d been stuck this time,” he told her.
Twilight smiled again. “Thank you, Spike. That means a lot.”
“You do what you have to do for family,” Spike replied. “And… you hatched me, that makes you my family.”
Twilight pulled him in even closer. “Absolutely,” she whispered. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
When the two had finally separated, she looked thoughtful. “You know, I should probably have Spliced write a friendship report about what she’s learned anyway… as a way of checking on her progress.”
“I won’t argue with that,” Spike told her. “But speaking of that, I do wish she and Starlight would get along better.”
“So do I,” Twilight told him. “So do I.”
“Oh, and one other thing,” Spike added. “Where in the world did you come up with that password you gave me?”
Twilight blushed. “It was the name of one of the books I was looking through to possibly read to the foals at the hospital, back when we were watching Flurry Heart for a day,” she said. “It looked too spooky for ponies their age, so I didn’t actually consider it, but the title just stuck with me.”
“Gotcha.” Spike nodded before tilting his head. “Come on Twilight, I think we have a bit of time to clean up before supper is served.”
By the time they’d walked into the official informal dining room, Twilight and Spike saw that everypony had gotten into private conversations with each other. Cadance and Shining were attending to Flurry Heart, and Cadance had a very serious look on her face as she held her daughter. The doctors were talking with Spliced, and by the papers surrounding their section of the table, it was on the medical advances from Spliced’s world. Rainbow Dash was chatting with Scootaloo, with her aunts watching the scene as they fed each other and giving Scootaloo a little prod every now and then about her eating habits. Starlight and Sunburst were having a friendly conversation, Rarity and Fluttershy were discussing something quietly, Applejack and Pinkie were mostly focused on their food, and Pharynx was off by himself.
Turning her head around she tried to spot Snöflinga, but didn’t see him anywhere. “Cadance, where is Snöflinga?”
“He’s eating in his room; we’re giving off enough positive energy that it’s making him uncomfortable,” Cadance replied. “I also think he wants to be alone right now; even though neither Pharynx or I can actually gauge his emotions, I can tell he is missing his friends dearly and I think he needs some time alone right now.”
Twilight nodded. “I understand,” she said as they sat next to her sister-in-law. “Or at least Ithink I can; I can only imagine how it must have been for him to learn that they had been gone for so long.”
“Maybe once he can speak our language a bit better, he would like to help direct a more accurate winter play,” Spike suggested with Rarity beaming at him.
“That’s a wonderful idea, darling,” she praised him, patting his arm with Spike beaming back. “If Snöflinga wants to do, that is. I’m not sure if he even knows what a play is, let alone how to direct one.”
“That is something we can worry about in the future,” Cadance said. “I’d rather have him recover and be able to be around everypony without feeling ill first; the fact he can withstand being in the Crystal Empire alone is remarkable but he still cannot handle directed positive emotions. That is besides the fact that his right foreleg is still broken and he doesn’t have full control over his magic.”
“Right and only Snöflinga can actually counter his magic - Sunburst tried to defrost it when he froze Dash’s hooves to her chest,” Starlight said. “I might be able to do so, but I’m not allo-” she trailed off, aware of how petty she was sounding. “Ahem,” she coughed, blushing.
“Why did he do that?” Twilight asked.
“Rainbow Dash didn’t believe he was really a windigo until he proved it with his ice magic,” Spike told her.
“Like I told you all earlier, I’ve seen a lot of different types of ponies in my time - hay, I’m related to a lot more than just the three tribes - so I wasn’t convinced about him,” Rainbow Dash said sulkily. “Now I am.”
“Really Dashie? I didn’t know that,” Pinkie said, honestly interested. “I mean, you did say you had all kinds of different ponies in your family, but-”
“I’ll get you a copy of my family tree the next time I visit my parents,” Rainbow Dash told her. “But off the top of my head my great uncle Peaceful Meadows is a buffalo, my second aunt High Tide is a seapony, my great great great uncle Torch - no relation to Ember’s dad, I think, I’m not too sure - is a dragon, my dad’s nephew is married to a griffon and they have a hippogriff colt named who is totally awesome,” Dash tilted her head. “My second cousin once removed, Fido, is a diamond dog, and when I visited my parents a while back, they mentioned that some distant cousin of ours, a Wooly Fleece - and I mean so distant that I’m not even sure what term to use for how distant - is apparently dating a zebra with the warning that I might have to attend a wedding soon. I know that my great aunt Sharp Shout adopted a donkey filly named Minda several years ago and she - my great-aunt, that is - is dating a minotaur, Stout Strength. I know I’ve got relatives of Saddle Arabian descent too, but again, I don’t remember what their exact relation to me is. And I think we’ve got an Abyssinian, an Ornithian and an Ahuizotl in there somewhere too, but I’m not positive on just where.” Dash let out a sigh, shaking her head. “Right now, we're just missing a breezie, a yak, a changeling although I wouldn’t be surprised to see one joining the family sooner or later or actually be in there already, and now a windigo. And that’s not counting different types of ponies like ones with gigantism or dwarfism, or nox ponies or horned pegasi. Or crystal ponies, because we’ve got at least one of them too.”
“Um, how could you have any crystal ponies in your family tree?” Scootaloo asked curiously. “The Crystal Empire just got back a few years ago.”
“One of them met and married one of my cousins a year or so after the return,” Rainbow Dash told her.
“Ohhhhh…”
Applejack shook her head. “Sounds like you’ve got a family about the size of mine,” she said. “Ya sure we ain’t related, Dashie?”
“Beats me, though I wouldn’t be surprised,” Rainbow Dash told her. “Guess I’ll have to check on that the next time I visit too.”
“Eeeyup,” Applejack said.
“Ooooh! If you were, that would be so cool...” Pinkie let out an eager noise. “Then we would possibly be distantly related too!”
“You’re related to Applejack?” Spliced asked curiously, looking up from the papers she’d been studying.
“Maybe,” Pinkie told her. “We might be fourth cousins twice removed by a fifth cousin, but we still don’t know for sure. But, it doesn’t matter, ‘cause as far as we’re both concerned, we’re all family anyway.” She reached over and pulled a surprised Rarity into a hug too. “And I bet we’re related to your family too, since your magic works with gems, and my family’s all full of ponies with rock-based talents.”
“It would make some amount of sense,” Rarity admitted. “Though neither of my own parents share my particular talent, and I’m not sure about further back…”
“That must be really nice,” Spliced said. “I hardly remember anything about my own family - I hadn’t seen any of them in years, even before the whole thing with… well. Where I ended up before I came here.”
“Wait, does that mean you hadn’t celebrated your birthday in all that time?” Pinkie’s eyes went wide.
“No,” Spliced admitted. “Didn’t see much point, since I was by myself the entire time.” She looked as if she were about to say something else, but looked around at all the other ponies in the room and thought better of it. “Sure, I marked the day, but I didn’t really do anything about it.”
Pinkie was suddenly up in her face. “We must fix this!” Then she dashed off, and Spliced looked at the others.
“Why am I suddenly afraid?” she asked.
“Because making others happy through parties is Pinkie’s special talent, and when she fixates on somepony she thinks needs one, she can get more than a little obsessive,” Rainbow Dash told her. “Plus she tends to make the parties bigger based on the number of the years missed.”
“Which would have been over four hundred years, counting before I ended up in that place,” Spliced said.
“Four HUNDRED YEARS‽” Pinkie said with an incredibly loud gasp as she leaned out of Spliced’s salad to place both of her hooves on the mare’s face. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh I’m going to need so many cupcakes for this!” Then she vanished again.
Spliced stared at her salad in confusion. “That… how?” she sputtered.
“She does that sometimes,” Twilight said in a resigned tone. “I’ve been trying to figure it out for years and still don’t know how she does it...” She sighed. “There are times when I’d almost swear there was chaos magic involved, but I just don’t know for sure, and I don’t want to drive myself crazy again trying to figure it out. And the one time I asked Maud - Pinkie’s older sister,” she explained for the benefit of those in the room who didn’t know, “She just gave me one of those cryptic looks of hers and didn’t say anything.”
“After seeing her do it to a rock and now my salad that I had been eating, I’m not sure I want to know,” Spliced said. “It would be convenient for getting around, but the sheer illogic behind it is just something that even I can’t even start to try to comprehend.” She suddenly looked thoughtful. “Unless she’s somehow manipulating the world at a quantum level to pull it off… but how that would be possible, even with the powers I’ve seen demonstrated, I’m not sure.”
Twilight looked amused. “If you figure it out, let me know,” she said. “Teleportation is convenient, but being able to move around like Pinkie does would be good too.” She leaned in. “But remember what I said on the train up here, about once we get back…”
“Understood,” Spliced said, although she sounded annoyed about it. Then her eyes suddenly twitched and a faint smile appeared on her face, as if she’d thought of something.
Shining Armor looked at the two mares. “Um, something we should know about?”
“Not particularly,” Twilight told him. “I’ve got it all firmly in hoof.”
“Right,” he said uncertainly before he turned his attention back to Flurry Heart, who was starting to get a bit fussy. Taking her from Cadance, he began to hold his daugher close to his barrel and rocked her with Lofty and and Holiday sighing happily at the scene, resting their hooves on each other’s. Cadance saw this and asked them, “Thinking of having one of your own one day?”
“Oh yes,” Lofty said with a giggle. “But for now, we’ve got our hooves filled with Scootaloo and we wouldn’t trade her for the world.”
“Except maybe for a filly who doesn't come home every other day covered in tree sap,” Holiday added, giving her niece a look. It was clear from the tone in her voice that she was only teasing though, and Scootaloo gave a playful snort.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I still think it’d be so cool to have a little niece or nephew around the house,” she said.
“We know, sweetheart,” Lofty told her with a quick sad look of longing directed at Holiday. “Maybe one day. In any case, I think it is time for the young ones to turn in.” Tilting her head, it seemed that Flurry Heart had calmed down and was now yawning drowsily on Shining’s back.
“Can’t I stay up for a bit longer?” Scootaloo asked with a yawn escaping her lips, causing everypony in the room to chuckle.
“Sorry squirt,” Rainbow Dash told her. “Take it from the expert: when you gotta sleep, you gotta sleep.”
“And she’d know,” Applejack muttered nearby with her friends chuckling again.
“Awww,” Scootaloo pouted as her aunts led her out of the dining room, Shining Armor and Flurry Heart not far behind them.
“I don’t have to go too, do I Twilight?” Spike asked.
‘Of course not,” Twilight said, shaking her head as she lifted a forkful of salad to her mouth. “You’re getting older and plus, you just got here.”
“Right, thanks Twilight,” he said as he began to eat his gems and fish with such sincerity that Twilight couldn't help beaming with pride and hugged her son to show how proud she was with the dragon squawking in surprise. From her own seat, Cadance gave the pair a knowing smile.
“You’re lucky Twilight,” she said. “I have a few more years to wait until I can hear something like that from my Flurry.”
“What did I even say?” Spike asked as he looked at the two of them.
“It’s a mom thing,” Twilight said with Cadance nodding her head. “Best thing in the world, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely,” Cadance said with a smile. “Exhausting at times, as you well know, but...” She looked over at Twilight. “It’s an experience I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.”
“I know,” Twilight said before flashing her sister-in-law a grin. “Thinking of adding anymore to the family tree?”
“Maybe one day, once Flurry Heart’s a little older,” Cadance told her as she continued to eat her meal for a little bit before standing up and leaving the room to join Shining in putting Flurry to bed.
In her seat, Rainbow Dash let out a yawn of her own. “‘Scuse me,” she said. “I should probably hit the hay too.”
“Ah’m with ya,” Applejack agreed. “It’s gettin’ kinda late…”
The two set out, and Twilight looked at her other friends who were in no hurry to leave. Smiling, Twilight moved herself closer to them and began to catch up with them.
It was much later when every other pony and others began to depart to their beds for the night, Twilight staying behind to watch her friends go while Spike snoozed on her back, sending a shiver of delight through her.
“Ahem,” turning her head she saw that Spliced was looking at her with papers in her hooves. “Here; this is the schematic to the thaumatic blanketing array you’ll need to find Chrysalis.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said before tilting her head. “But this could have waited until morning.”
“I’m aware of that but…” Spliced trailed off, looking to the side. Spliced sighed and shook her head before turning to face her. “Look, I’m fully aware that I am not the easiest of ponies to get along with and I’m here with your good grace. I’m not good at working with others, and I tend to get on ponies’ nerves. I hope that this can be the start of something better, Twilight.” She flashed Twilight an awkward smile and Twilight could tell that she was being honest.
“Thank you, Spliced,” Twilight repeated herself, taking the paper from her before looking at the mare. “I do appreciate this and I do hope we can start over again. And...” She considered her next words. “I heard about what you got up to in the throne room while I was away.”
Spliced winced, and Twilight raised a hoof. “It’s okay, I can understand your curiosity, but… how did you figure out how to open the passage?”
“I used a thaumatics-detecting array I’d found in your library to scan the room and found a spot that seemed odd, then tested it until I figured out the right frequency to activate it,” Spliced replied. “It felt kind of odd though…”
Twilight nodded. “Sombra’s type of magic was tricky for me to figure out too. I don’t like using it outside of emergencies.”
“May I ask why?” Spliced genuinely sounded confused as opposed to being interested, which was better in Twilight’s opinion.
“Dark magic, like Sombra had, is… dangerous,” Twilight explained. “It can have extremely negative and corrupting effects on the user if overused. Remember that showmare I mentioned, before you went to see Zecora?”
Spliced nodded.
“The second time we met, she’d gotten hold of an amulet that was full of dark magic, and the more she used its power, the worse the effects - it made her crueler and crazier, to the point where she didn’t trust wheels, of all things.” Twilight shuddered. “I had to trick her into taking it off before it drove her completely insane - luckily, she got better afterward, even if she is still an egotist. Sombra’s own dark magic apparently had an effect on his mental state too; he could barely speak beyond laughing cruelly by the time I crossed paths with him. And I’ve seen… others, who got corrupted by dark magic too. Or heard about it after the fact from the ones who stopped them. We’re lucky they were able to be purified of the effects before it was too late.” Twilight looked distant for a moment, then shook her head.
“Anyway, that’s why I don’t use dark magic unless it’s the very last resort, like when I had to open that door the first time; the corruption and mental deterioration is something that needs to be avoided at all cost,” she said.
“Good point.” Spliced looked very disturbed. “Maybe that key spot should be changed out for something much safer.”
“That’s something I intend to take care of before we go home, along with dispelling that spell Sombra left under there,” Twilight told her. “It’s been left to just sit there long enough.”
“Good.” Spliced looked relieved. “That thing scared me, with what it did.”
“It scares everypony, Spliced, but having friends helps a lot to recover,” Twilight told her gently.
“I’ll definitely agree with that, on the grounds that Spike and your brother both helped me a lot after I stumbled onto it.” Spliced gave the snoozing dragon a smile. “I don’t know if I can starve to death, but he saved me from possibly being trapped long enough to find out, and then both he and his uncle talked with me afterward. I definitely felt better by the time we were all done.” Then she suddenly tilted her head. “By the way… what’s the difference between dark magic and chaos magic? I mean, if one corrupts, what about the other?”
“Dark magic is corruptive, chaos magic is more… confusing,” Twilight said. “I’m honestly not sure, but it’s more… bizarre, and can warp reality on a scale beyond anything we understand. It doesn’t make Discord evil though; I think he’s just strange all on his own. That, and he has this incessant need to feel entertained and finds normality boring. Of course, what he finds entertaining isn’t necessarily the same as what we do.”
“That’s not comforting," Spliced said uneasily.
Twilight nodded. “He can be a bit… extreme. Luckily, since he got to be friends with Fluttershy, he’s realized that he really does value their bond… and his bonds with the rest of us, even if we don’t spend nearly as much time with him as she does.”
“Trust me, I’m aware that he is a bit excessive,” Spliced said. “He has made it clear that if I ever harm Fluttershy, he’ll make me pay.” She shivered. “As if I needed another reason to behave myself…”
“I will talk to him once we get back,” Twilight told her. “He didn’t need to threaten you like that…”
“He had good reason,” Spliced admitted before she was aware of what she was saying. “He knows about what kind of viruses I worked on and is worried I could somehow replicate them here. I haven’t even touched that kind of stuff since I became immortal, and I don’t plan to ever again unless I’m trying to make a cure for something, and I certainly hope the need never comes up.”
“Oh.” Twilight was quiet for a moment as she searched her memories and thought back to a few days before. “Is that when he mentioned Daybreaker to you, and that he could be worse?”
“Yes.”
“Well, as I said, I will talk to him once we get back to Ponyville,” Twilight said, placing a hoof on the mare’s shoulder. “Now come on, it’s late and we all should get to bed.”
Spliced nodded her head and they all made their way to their bedrooms.