It was the final class period of the day and the students in Discord's last class were currently either grouped up with their peers and casually talking, or else using their rectangular devices which Twilight had deduced were phones.
Suddenly, the school intercom turned on.
"Hello everyone!" cried a strangely cheery voice that didn't belong to either principal. "It's me again, your friendly student announcer, Derpy! I hope you have all had a good day today!
"There's a rumor floating around that Sunset Shimmer decided to not run for fall formal Princess after all, and I just asked Vice-Principal Luna and she said that it is true! In other completely unrelated news, the candidates are locked in now, and we have now have three candidates to vote for. The first is Twilight Sparkle! The second is The Great and Powerful Trixie! And the third one is me! Derpy! Please vote for me! Unless you are voting for someone else! I won't be mad! May the best girl win! Also, school is over now! Bye!"
Wait! thought Twilight to herself uncomfortably. I'm not even sure that I should run for fall formal princess at all anymore now that Sunset Shimmer has dropped out and Discord has the crown! Even if I won, they will just be giving me the wrong crown, and Sunset will still get the real one! And now the candidates are locked in? Should I just throw the competition and focus on getting my crown back before Sunset steals it again?
The other students hurried out of the room while she pondered to herself. Eventually, she was alone with Discord.
"Hmm," said Discord, suddenly right behind Twilight. She turned around on her spot on the couch and saw Discord was leaning on the back of her couch and resting on his arms. "I don't think many people are going to vote for Trixie, but Derpy is going to be tough to beat. She is rather popular around here, you know, and most of the people here have never even met you."
"I'll figure something out," said Twilight.
"Well, it's time for us to go. Come with me and we'll get in my car."
"Car?" said Twilight in confusion.
Discord raised a bushy eyebrow at her in surprise and Twilight immediately realized her taboo.
"I'm sorry, like I said, I'm really not from anywhere even near here."
"I should say not," said Discord. "You must be from one of those countries that doesn't have much in the way of technology. You must have had one heck of a time traveling all the way here."
"You have no idea."
"A car is just a big box on wheels that people drive to take them where they want to go."
"You mean like a carriage?"
"Well, sort of, but cars are self propelled by gasoline or electricity, or both. Mine is only a two-seater, unfortunately, and there isn't much leg room, especially if you're as tall as I am, so you will have to hold your bag in your lap."
Discord walked toward the door and Twilight followed after him. He then proceeded down the hall and made a turn, eventually coming to one of the school exits. Once outside, he led the way to the teachers' parking lot.
Twilight was able to figure out which car was Discord's almost as soon as she saw it. It was much stubbier than the other cars in the lot, only slightly longer than it was tall. It was also the same shade of grey as Discord's skin. Although why such a tall man would drive such a tiny car, she had no idea. Aside from the fact that Discord had a habit of making irrational decisions.
But what really gave it away was the fact that instead of an antennae like the other cars, Discord's car had two horns sticking out of the back that looked exactly like the horns on the other Discord's head.
On the left side of his car were the words 'A world without string is chaos', written in red. She didn't understand why Discord would write that specific phrase, but quickly dismissed her confusion, remembering that, again, this was Discord. She suddenly became curious as to whether the other side had the same words.
It didn't. Instead, in yellow, was written 'Eat at Joe's'.
She briefly wondered to herself whether this referred to a counterpart of Pony Joe. But if it did, did he have the same name?
Discord opened the opposite door and climbed into the car, but Twilight didn't see how he had accomplished this. She tried pushing on the door handle, assuming that it would function just like the front door of the school had, but this accomplished nothing.
Suddenly, the window on her side started going down, startling her.
"Are you getting in?" Discord asked.
"How do you open the door?" asked Twilight awkwardly.
"Just pull on the handle."
"Oh."
Twilight opened the door and then took off her backpack before climbing inside. Once she was inside, she unzipped the bag to let Spike out before marveling at the car interior. Discord didn't seem to have made any personalization to the interior of the car, but the various dials and buttons were labeled with pictures or single letters, and Twilight occupied herself trying to guess their function as Discord turned the car on with a key on a key ring that he had attached to his belt.
Twilight quickly saw that there was one thing in the car that certainly did not come with the car. There was a picture of Fluttershy standing next to Discord taped to a part of the front that had nothing else there.
"Why do you have a picture of Fluttershy in your car?" asked Twilight.
Discord looked at the picture in surprise, clearly only just remembering that it was there.
"Oh. Don't tell the other students this, but Fluttershy is sort of my favorite student."
"She is?" said Twilight.
"Yeah... She's the one who convinced me that I should give teaching another go... after last time. And she helped convince Celestia to let me come back."
"What happened last time?"
Discord let out a sigh.
"I'm not as great a person as a lot of the students here think I am," he said darkly. "Let's just leave it at that. The fewer people who know about that, the better. You have your secrets, and I have mine."
"Alright. I didn't mean to pry into your personal business."
The car started moving for apparently no reason, and Twilight, determined to not make a fool of herself by asking more questions with seemingly obvious answers, silently attempted to figure out how the machine worked on her own as Discord drove.
Surprisingly, it was only a few minutes before he turned off of the road and into a driveway, by which time Twilight had realized that the two levers under Discord's feet made the car stop and go, but she had figured out very little else.
There was a wrought iron fence surrounding Discord's property, which looked to be decently sized, but for some reason, the only building inside looked like it was nothing more than a large shed.
Is that where Discord lives? she wondered to herself, not believing it.
There was a gateway across the driveway preventing their entry, but strangely, when Discord's car approached, it opened automatically.
"How did you do that?" asked Twilight. "Why did the gate open all on it's own?"
"There's a device built into this car that the gateway can sense."
Discord drove onto the lot, and when he drew near the small building, pushed a button on the roof of the interior of the car. This caused a large door that made up almost the entire side of the building to open up, revealing almost complete emptiness within.
Discord drove the car into the building, and then turned it off. Twilight noted that the door was only barely tall enough to accommodate the two horns on the car.
"This is just a storage facility for the car!" said Twilight in realization.
"Yep."
"I don't understand, do you not live here?"
"I do. Come, I'll show you the door."
Discord led her back outside and then pulled out his key ring again and flipped to a square shaped device on it with a button on it. He pushed the button and the door went back down.
Twilight had no idea how normal this was. It was possible that this world had technology that allowed all of this for even normal people, but this version of Discord had already demonstrated that he was not normal. It was possible that what she was seeing was considered weird and she didn't even know it!
Discord led her over to a seemingly empty part of his yard before she suddenly caught sight of something colorful on the ground.
It was an orange door.
It also apparently led straight down into the ground.
Discord produced another key and used it to unlock the door, and then pulled it up and open.
"After you."
Twilight stepped into the chamber within uncertainly, nervous about seeing the inside of Discord's house. She had not yet even seen Discord's house in her own dimension, and had no idea what to possibly expect.
The fist chamber was actually nothing more than a brown-carpeted flight of stairs that led deeper into the ground before stopping in front of another orange door, this one standing up in the normal way.
Discord locked the door behind them while Twilight opened up her backpack and let Spike out once again. Twilight then walked down a few steps before stopping and looking around her in surprise.
"What is it?" asked Discord.
"I just realized something," explained Twilight. "These steps look exactly the same on both their tops and on the sides. And the wall and the ceiling also look identical . If it wasn't for gravity, it would be impossible to tell which door leads out!"
"How perceptive of you. I do enjoy it myself."
Twilight continued walking down and was suddenly stopped right before the door when Discord called out, "Wait! I just remembered something!"
"What is it?"
"Um..." he began awkwardly. "This didn't even occur to me until just now, but you're here now, and there is no way that you aren't going to see a certain something now that you are here. Have you ever seen someone else that looks very much like somebody else that you already know?"
Twilight looked at Discord in astonishment.
"Yes, I have!"
"And have these other people ever been not people at all, but an entire other species entirely?"
Twilight's jaw dropped open.
"How did you know about that?"
"Huh. How unexpected. Just the same, I think you had better just see for yourself..." said Discord uneasily.
He stepped in front of her and opened the door and stepped through. Twilight followed, and Discord shut the door behind her.
The room inside appeared to be Discord's living room, but the only seating in the entire thing was one rainbow couch that was absurdly long and also curved in several places, zigzagging back and forth throughout the room, and strangely also twisting and curving to go up the wall and ceiling as well. Twilight assumed that that part of it must be bolted to the roof. There were tables in between the gaps between she couch's seats, including on the walls and ceiling. There were also more of the glowing boxes on every face of the room, even on the floor.
Deciding that it wouldn't be seen as suspicious since Discord had already assumed that she was from somewhere with little technology, Twilight felt it was safe to ask about them.
"What are those?" she asked, pointing.
"Those are televisions, which are sort of similar to the computer screens I had in my room, only they have the ability to tune into television channels all on their own."
Suddenly, Twilight caught sight of motion along the floor, and it was moving toward her. It was pink, and moving very fast. She was almost frightened, but stayed calm since she was certain that Discord wouldn't actually have anything dangerous in his house.
The pink blur raced past her entirely and flew up Discord's leg and up his body before coming to an abrupt stop on his shoulder, where Twilight was finally able to see what it was.
It was a mouse.
With an extremely familiar hair style.
It looked just like Pinkie Pie.
"What in Equestria?" cried Twilight in disbelief. She instantly realized what she had said and looked at Discord nervously, but his next words gave no indication that he found her words to be strange.
"There's another one around here somewhere. Probably. They usually don't ever go anywhere alone, at least."
Twilight looked around and realized that there was another mouse sitting on top of the back of the freakishly long couch, simply staring back at her.
If the pink mouse had shocked her, this one completely blew her mind.
It was purple and it looked very much like herself.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Spike. "That is weird!"
Twilight lifted a quivering finger up and pointed at the purple mouse.
"Wh- who are they?!"
"Why, they're Pinkie and The Brain!" answered Discord, who then threw his hands out in the air. "They're Pinkie and the Brain! One is a genius and the other one's insane! I used to keep them in a cage, but Fluttershy convinced me that I should let them run free, and she was right. They kept on escaping from their old cage anyway, and even when they disappear for a while, they always come back."
He walked into the room and approached a wall with a doorway in it, which he opened and revealed to be a pantry. There were a few foods and treats inside that Twilight recognized, but far more of them that were completely unfamiliar to her. Discord grabbed a plastic box and opened it up and pulled out a pink-topped cupcake, and then put the box back and shut the door. He then walked over to one of the tables and set the cupcake down. The Pink mouse let out a delighted squeak and then dived off of his shoulder and into the cupcake, disappearing under the icing.
"I always found it strange how much that one is like Pinkie Pie," said Discord. "But after I got a good look at you, I just couldn't believe my eyes! It's almost enough to make one believe in the supernatural, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Twilight breathlessly.
"Maybe I should rename the other one now that I've met you."
The cupcake disappeared before their eyes within seconds, eating from the inside by the overly-hyper mouse. After it was gone, it jumped away and through a doorway.
"Where is she going?" asked Twilight.
"Probably to run on the exercise wheel. She runs on that thing so much, I hooked it up to a generator and it produces so much electricity that I actually make a small profit from selling power to the city."
"They aren't going to be scared of Spike, are they?"
"No. Actually, he might should be scared of the purple one. She's not exactly friendly, to tell you the truth."
Twilight felt a wave of sadness coupled with disbelief wash over her.
How could that be? Every other look-alike I have seen until now was similar enough to their counterpart!
"But," continued Discord, "Just so long as he stays out of her way, he should be fine. So, I have to have a word with Celestia, but I don't know when she will be available, so I need to wait in my computer room for her to come online."
Twilight looked at him in confusion.
"I don't really understand what you mean."
"Oh, right," said Discord. "How about I show you what a computer is while we wait for her?"
"Umm..." Twilight said, slightly unsure, but she quickly made up her mind. Learning about anything new, regardless of what it was, was something that she would surely enjoy. "Okay, sure."
Discord's computer room was not what Twilight had been expecting, but that was to be expected.
The first thing that she noticed about it was that the floor could not be seen anywhere because it was covered with hundreds of pillows of every color and pattern she could imagine.
The second thing that she noticed was that there were several paintings hung in the room on the walls, but only on the walls.
The third thing that she noticed was that the only other thing in the room was a desk with a lot of machinery under it, and a few devices on it as well.
Also, it was sticking out of the wall at a ninety degree angle to the floor, and about three feet off the ground.
"There's not much in here," Twilight noted, taking off her shoes so as to not dirty the pillows, before stepping inside.
Discord, who entered after her, apparently didn't care about his own boots, because he left them on and trampled across the pillows unceremoniously. At least they didn't appear to be any worse off afterward.
He walked over to the desk and pushed a button on one of the machines.
Lights across all of the electronics lit up.
Twilight meanwhile took the time to examine the paintings. Each one seemed more surreal than the last. One in particular caught her eye. It was a picture of multiple sets of stairs that connected to various platforms at various angles, often in impossible ways, and there were people walking up and down many of the stairs, and none of them seemed to share the same gravity.
"What is your fascination with putting objects on walls, or treating them as though gravity is coming from a different direction?"
"As an artist, one must be willing and able to look at everyday things in a different manner that most would never think to try. Who wants do be stuck on the ground? Unfortunately, it is impossible to rebel from the iron grip of gravity except for in the imagination."
"I guess that's understandable."
She looked away from the paintings and toward the electronics.
"I thought you said that computers had screens like the ones in the living room," she said, failing to find one.
"Not always. Looks like it got buried, hold on."
Discord walked to the very middle of the room, where Twilight realized there was a light shining through between the pillows. He picked the pillows up and tossed them aside and suddenly the light was shooting straight up, covering the entire ceiling.
Twilight could now read words on the ceiling. 'Welcome ChaosMASTER. Please enter your password.'
"Projectors can also be used," said Discord.
Twilight suddenly realized that all of this was sort of being powered by energy harnessed from another version of her most energetic friend and was left feeling very strange about that indeed.
Discord then walked back to the desk and sat down in front of it, and then laid down underneath the desk and put his hands on a device that was covered with dozens of buttons, many marked with letters and numbers.
"That can't be normal," remarked Twilight. "In fact, I saw your computer in your classroom, and it wasn't like this."
"Well, that one belongs to the school. This one is mine."
"Are you not afraid that that desk is going to come off the wall one of these days and crush you?" asked Twilight with worry.
"Nope. I made sure that it is very, very secure. Here, come lay down next to me and I'll show you all about it."
Twilight did so, but did not actually put any part of her body underneath the desk.
Discord spent a while explaining to her how the strange machine worked, and Twilight marveled at it more and more as Discord continued to reveal more uses for it, seemingly never running out of functions that it was capable of doing.
Eventually, he convinced her to switch places with him and try controlling it herself.
"I had gotten rather comfortable in my old spot," Twilight noted as she lay down under the computer. "These cushions are very comfy. I bet it would be very fun to read in this room too."
"I have a rather large selection of books of all genres, you know," mentioned Discord. "You might find me old fashioned of course, but you may have a look if you want."
"Really?" cried Twilight happily. "Thank you!"
Twilight thankfully only made a few mistakes with using the computer, having had the benefit of watching Discord use it for an entire hour. She was in the middle of using a drawing program and drawing pink clouds raining a brown substance (which Discord seemed to be enamored by) when suddenly a box appeared overtop her drawing.
Twilight read the contents of the box: 'Solar Princess: Hello Discord. Luna informed me of what happened with the fall formal crown today.'
"Switch with me again," said Discord. "I need to talk to her."
Twilight did so, and Discord quickly made himself comfortable in her spot again and he typed out his response.
ChaosMASTER: Looks like we will have a different princess this year.
Solar Princess: Thank goodness.
ChaosMASTER: Have you figured out which 1 is real?
Solar Princess: Not yet. I need to see them for myself first. Where did you hide them?
Discord hesitated.
ChaosMASTER: I can't tell you right now, I have company.
Solar Princess: Oh, alright. I'll get out of your unkempt hair then. I'll find some other way to unwind.
Twilight looked at that last word in surprise. "What does she mean by that?"
Discord didn't answer her, but typed back to Celestia.
ChaosMASTER: U don't have 2 do that, we weren't doing anything important. What U have in mind?
Solar Princess: You want to find out if you can rule a kingdom better than me this time?
"What?" cried Twilight in astonishment. "Why would she say that?"
"She wants to play a game to unwind from the stress at work," Discord answered. "Do you want to see it? If you would rather, we can go back to your picture. Or we can save it and we can pull it up again later."
"Wait, you can play games with other people with these things even if they aren't anywhere close to you?"
"That may as well be half of the reason that computers exist."
"Sure, I'd love to watch," said Twilight, eager to see what Celestia would do with Discord.
Discord started the game up and after a few minutes of setting up, the game began.
"In this game, you basically are the king or queen of a kingdom in a fantasy world with magic," he explained. "But there are monsters all over the place, and since it's not fitting for a ruler to fight them off themselves, you have to hire heroes to fight them for you."
"Makes sense," said Twilight, inwardly thinking of herself and her friends and the way that they wind up fighting monsters rather a lot.
"When you're playing with another person though, they run a kingdom of their own, and you either work together to achieve a goal, or you fight each other in addition to all the monsters."
"Which way are you playing?"
"I'm fighting Celestia, of course!"
"Oh."
"She likes to use loads of paladins, but that's not my style. I like to use these guys!"
Twilight read the name under Discord's mouse pointer in disbelief.
"Warriors of Discord?" she cried.
"Oh yeah!"
"Did you make this game?"
"Oh, good grief, no, I don't have the knowledge to do that. It's just a really funny coincidence! Hey, you want to screw around with Celestia?"
"How?" asked Twilight in confusion. "Are you going to attack her?"
"No, even better. You see, in this game, you can pay to use magic spells from a small list. This one here will let me engulf one of her heroes in vines and it stops them from doing anything for a while!"
Discord clicked on the spell and then used it on one of Celestia's paladins.
And then he did it again, and then again.
"Uh oh, it looks like she noticed!" he said with a laugh. "She's using a different spell and turning my heroes into stone, which functionally is the exact same thing I just did to her."
"SHE'S DOING WHAT?!"
Twilight covered her mouth in embarrassment.
Discord looked at her in confusion.
"You know, you're weird. I like it! Oh, look, now she's recruiting sun warriors, go figure."
Twilight took a look around and noticed something.
"Hey, where's Spike?"
Discord looked around too. "He must be exploring the rest of my house. Oh dear."