There comes a time when every individual must face his or her greatest fears. Without any foreknowledge to rely upon, this can be the most difficult thing for someone to do. A person who manages to overcome the despair is stronger for it, but one’s nightmares are only reaffirmed when it’s too much to fight.
One might suggest that Tim, who has already gone through unspeakable horrors, must have become strong in his own right. That he survived the machinations–what one would call schemes of nefarious design–of Discord’s twisted game was a testament to the justifiable fears he surely conquered.
As we’re about to find out, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth. For what he is about to experience bears no resemblance to even the darkest terrors of the night.
Tim's pain was the only thing he registered when he regained consciousness. He was distinctly aware that he awoke yet again in an unfamiliar bed. Its fabric, which was warm and inviting, draped over him. He clung onto it for dear life, wishing for the embrace of sleep to return. No matter how much he wanted it, though, it didn’t, and he furrowed his brow and groaned.
He vaguely heard someone murmuring somewhere in the distance, but his growing migraine dwarfed his curiosity. Whoever was talking, he couldn’t make anything out until a door suddenly opened to his right. One of the strangers was undeniably Fluttershy, but he couldn’t easily distinguish the other.
“Thank you for coming over to help me keep him calm. Anything could happen where Discord is involved, and I had to make sure you were there to see him when he wakes up.”
“Oh, it’s no problem at all,” Fluttershy replied. “I’m glad he’s alright. It must have been really frightening to have everypony chasing after him. The poor foal.”
“Apparently Discord cast a spell on him that caused everypony to obsess taking care of him. I don’t understand why he’d want to do that, though. I mean, has he gone crazy?”
Tim craned his neck to listen into the conversation easier. His muscles ached slightly, but they obeyed him willingly after he took a wistful sigh.
“He’s awake,” said the stranger.
When his eyes finally creaked open, the light in the room was thankfully dim. One of the ponies standing near his bed was unquestioningly Fluttershy. The other one he registered as the lavender mare he’d met in the street.
“How are you feeling?” Fluttershy asked. She turned to her companion when didn’t catch Tim’s automatic use of sign language. “Maybe we ought to let him get some more rest, Twilight.”
The mare known as Twilight trained her eyes on him, studying him from head to hoof. “Has he ever said anything to you?”
“No, I don’t think so. I think he’s trying to tell us something, but I never really learned sign language,” the pegasus admitted with a blush.
Thoughts of how she was much more observant than she seemed ran through Tim’s mind. It spoke volumes of her wisdom. He wondered about the conversations they could have, if only he possessed the ability to talk.
He shifted his focus back to Twilight when she told him about the preceding night. From the way she spoke, she must be caught up with most of the details of Tim’s misfortunate journey. He didn’t have the slightest clue as to why, though.
“So you see,” she said, “we need you to tell us more about your world. The more details I know, the easier it’ll be for me to send you home. I would ask Discord, but for some reason he didn’t bother to check what dimension he pulled you from.”
Tim was taken aback by the statement. Did his ears deceive him? Would he finally be returned and then be able to put all of this behind him? He could wake up in his bed tomorrow and think it all a dream.
It was a fleeting daydream, and he had to remind himself not to count his chickens before they hatched. There was much that still needed to be done before then, and he needed to find a way of describing his home to her before that. That part would be easy if he could find a writing utensil. At least he wouldn’t have to rely on the chaotic whims of a god to do it.
Tim wept with unbridled joy. The possibility of being rid of Discord was the most sensational news of all. There were no greater rewards one could aspire to achieve.
“Now if only we have a way to communicate effectively. Spike,” Twilight called out behind her, “could you get the—”
“Perhaps I could be of some assistance. After all, isn’t that what friends are for?” Tim knew the sound of that voice anywhere. The supreme chancellor of all things chaotic had once again interjected himself where he wasn’t invited.
Tim swore from that moment on that he would never again question a good thing when it came. He wouldn’t even acknowledge it as a good thing. Why would he when every single time he did, it was immediately thrown back at his face as proof that he didn’t deserve happiness? He wept tears of heartbreak at the very implications of such a travesty.
“Absolutely not.” He had allies in high places after all, through Twilight. “The last time you cast something on him, it backfired. It could have been worse.”
“The way you say that you’d think I’d put somebody’s life in danger or something. I thought surely you of all ponies would understand that my chaos magic has its quirks. But never once have I willingly used it to put another’s life at risk.” Discord turned to Tim and continued, “You can vouch for me, can you not? No? Yeesh, tough crowd.”
Twilight glowered at Discord and stomped one of her forehooves on the ground. “How can you assure Tim’s safety? Do you even know what happened?”
“If you must know, I’ve been poking around through the multiverse and happened to come across some interesting phenomena. And I’m not talking about the dimension hoppers from Qualon Beta Prime. Those guys know how to ruin a good crossover.” Discord waved his paw in a circle dismissively.
“And? What have you found out?” Twilight asked.
“All things will be explained if you express a modicum of patience, Princess.” Discord smirked and craned his neck so that it hung over Twilight and his head was on the other side of her. “I can see why you use such big words. ‘Modicum.’ They make one sound sophisticated.”
A large top hat and monocle flashed into existence on Discord’s face. He pinched his beard while he held his other arm behind him. He stood straight and poised, ready for whatever may come his way.
“Can we get to the point?” It was impossible to miss the annoyance practically dripping out of Twilight’s voice.
“Oh very well.” Discord cleared his throat rather vociferously. “Mortals such as yourself can be so vulnerable. Who knew? Well, wouldn’t you have it? Crossing over into other dimensions can have dire consequences. For example, when someone comes from a dimension that doesn’t contain any magic, say little Timmy here, then it can have strange effects when it’s directly applied to him. He may not have even been a pony where he came from.”
“But that doesn’t even make sense. How can you not have magic?” Twilight asked.
“It doesn’t have to make sense. That’s just the way it is. It’s delightfully chaotic, I know!” Discord tapped his digits gleefully and giggled. Then, after remembering where he was, he calmed down. “Right, well, the bottom line is that I can minimize those side-effects by tuning my magic to account for this magical variance. All I need to know is what I’m looking for, and it’ll be a cinch.
“Which brings me to my offer to you, Twilight. I can solve all our communication problems with the simple snap of my fingers.” He then added, “And there will be minimal risk to his well-being.”
Tim considered their treatment of him as if he wasn’t even there, and he was startled Discord’s dismissive attitude. The outcome of the conversation could have a tremendous impact on his life, and he didn’t have any say in the matter. He was especially disturbed when Twilight stopped and seemed to consider the offer.
“Are you sure...?” Twilight asked.
No, Tim thought, how could he stop this from happening? He would have to do something to save them all from his mischief, but he wasn’t sure what.
“What was the saying you ponies always say when you want to keep a promise?” Discord asked. “Cross my hopes, put my heart in a cupcake, and then stick it in my eye.”
Silence fell on the room. Tim had no idea what any of what the statement meant, and it appeared as though no one else did either. Fluttershy didn’t seem to want to impose on their conversation, and she alternated between staring at him and the floor. Discord, on the other hand, had a toothy grin and an eagerness in his bounce.
When Twilight finally spoke, it was in a slow drawl. “...Nothing about that statement was right.”
“Oh phooey, you know what I mean. I promise nothing bad will happen to this poor colt.” Discord's back was to him because of where he placed himself. He and only he could see the lord of chaos's fingers crossed behind his back.
Panic set in for Tim. He’d been right after all. Discord was deceiving them. He had to get out of there, but there didn’t seem to be any way to avoid being detected yet.
Discord seemed to subdue Twilight's apprehension, as she was now taking his explanation into careful consideration. She eventually said, “I don’t know. It still sounds like a risky bet to make. I don’t think it’d be fair to make this decision without at least consulting him first.”
The lavender mare then turned to him. “The choice of whether or not to take a chance with Discord’s spell is up to you. What do you want to do?”
Tim vehemently refused, shaking his head until he became light-headed. He held his temples until the dizziness subsided. Relief washed over him when the girls honored his wish.
“Fine, you’re all a bunch of party-poopers.” Discord crossed his arms and scowled.
Then, just as quickly as he became upset, his face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Before I retire for the evening, there’s a little something you should be made aware. The dimensional rifts between our realities are chaotic by nature. It’s truly a beauty of nature. They move along with the passage of time at different speeds. It’s a bit too complicated for your simple minds to fully comprehend. If his dimension goes too far out of alignment with our own, there’s no telling how long it’ll be before they become realigned. It could be a week...or it could take a century.”
“And with that, I shall bid you all adieu,” he said after he gave them all a moment to process everything. He laughed maniacally and disappeared into a puff of smoke.
“That doesn’t sound good. How much time do you suppose we’ll have?” Fluttershy’s ears folded back as she bit her lip. She focused her attention on Twilight, waiting for the other mare take the reins.
“Without the proper tools to measure, I can’t be sure. We’ll need to extract the necessary data and send him home before it's too late.” Twilight sped into action. “I’ve got an idea. I’ll be right back.”
Twilight returned with a chalkboard that spanned from bedpost to bedpost. She guided it by what he could only surmise as magic until it stood at the foot of his bed. A piece of chalk then levitated over to him, as if waiting for him to take it.
“Uhh, Twilight? I don’t know if he can effectively write himself. He seemed to struggle with it when I was with him last night,” Fluttershy said.
“Oh, right.” Twilight chuckled sheepishly and retrieved the utensil to use it herself. She began scribbling onto the board. “I think we’ll have to do this the old fashioned way then.”
She arranged the whole alphabet in order on the board before saying, “I’ll ask you a series of questions. We’ll go through the alphabet for your responses one letter at a time. It’s not exactly the most efficient method of communication, but as long as I ask the right questions, it’s the fastest solution I know.”
“Alright, let’s begin. What’s your name?” It took a few moments, but Tim was able to answer the question.
“Where are you from?” That too was answered in short order.
It was a lengthy process that was only considerably sped up by his efforts. He pointed to a grouping of letters, which Twilight would recite until she hit the mark.
It took Twilight some finagling with some of her questions to make sure he understood what she was asking. After a few hours, she had a small list of answers, which she had jotted off to the side of the alphabet. The compiled list included: ‘Tim’, ‘NewJerseyUnitedStatesofAmerica’, ‘20 years old’, ‘human’, ‘bipedal’, ‘4 feet tall’, ‘hands’, ‘feet’, ‘no hair’, and it went on.
At some point during their endeavors, Fluttershy had nodded off and was drooling into Tim’s pillow. She was softly snoring, which prompted him to check on her. Twilight hadn’t seemed too keen on disturbing her, though.
Twilight, excited by their discoveries, made an outburst which awoke the napping pegasus. Fluttershy blinked away the tiredness behind her eyes and then studied their progress.
“Have you finished already?” Fluttershy was peering over at the door, making no effort to hide her desire to leave for home.
“Not quite, but we can work with this. Now I can begin mapping out potential factors through cross analysis of his answers. We might get an exact match after a thousand more iterations of this.” Twilight gave a cheeky smile before she dove back into some calculations.
“That sounds like it’s going to take a while. Are you sure we have enough time for all that?” Fluttershy asked.
“By my estimate, we should be finished with it by the end of next week!” After a moment of contemplation, she nervously scratched her mane. “We might be here a while. Come to think of it, I don't even know how to process one of these answers. NewJersa-what? That sounds made up.”
“I’m beginning to think taking Discord up on his offer may not be such a bad idea after all. I know he can be a bit odd at times, but ever since we’ve become his friend, he hasn’t steered us wrong. Okay, aside from the time Tirek tried to steal all our magic... and that other time.” Fluttershy shuddered at the unpleasant memories.
“Is this supposed to be convincing me?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Because it’s not working.”
“Okay, so maybe you have reason not to trust him with something like this. But this–” she waved at the board of answers “–could have been answered in ten minutes instead of two hours.”
“You have a point.” Twilight gave an irritable sigh and walked back over to Tim’s side. “The way we’re going about this is taking significantly longer than I anticipated. As much as I want to continue down the path we’re already on, we may not have enough time. Whatever you decide to do, it’s your decision.”
Tim was faced with one of the toughest decisions of his life. He knew Discord was up to something, but he didn’t have any way to gauge how much of what the demon spawn said was fact or fiction. Did he dare risk the consequences of placing his trust in someone who has already proven himself distrustworthy? He very well may have to do so anyways if he ever had any hope of returning home.
In the end, he found his choice was never really a choice in the first place. He’d simply have to suffer through whatever the draconequus had in store for him. At long last, after several tedious hours of trying the rational approach, he relented with a nod.
Discord popped back into the room without warning. He bounced all around, barely able to contain the glee inside him.
“Yes!” Discord snapped his fingers. “Speak, oh little one, and let your voice be heard.”
Tim was frozen in place. He felt no change. Had Discord’s spell already gone into effect?
“Are you able to speak with us now?” Twilight asked. She and Fluttershy had stepped closer to him.
“You, uhm, don’t have to speak if you don’t want to.” There was a serenity Fluttershy’s eye contact. Out of everyone in the room, she was the most pleasant to be around at the moment.
He retreated further into the bed, terrified of what it would mean to try and fail to speak again. That this was some sick game that could only ever result in him being the laughing stock of the town.
Still, they were now keen on him talking. They might not let him go until he tried. Even if Discord’s magic was successful, he’d never spoken before. There was no telling what his voice would be like.
He knew it shouldn't affect him as much as it did, but he couldn’t help it. His trait, which he had lived with for as long as he could remember, had been a negative impact on his life in more ways than one. The worst part about it was how lonely he’d been as a result of it; nobody his age bothered to learn sign language. So he turned to books to keep him company instead.
“Would you mind speeding it along? Some of us haven’t got all day.” A clock on the wall suddenly sprung to life, and it hopped over Discord’s shoulder and onto the bed.
“H-h-hello?” Tim’s voice cracked. It was all over the place and difficult to get a good handle on, but it was his voice. “I-I-I c-c-can t-t-talk.”
“Great!” Twilight cried in relief. “Maybe you can tell us more about your home.”
The question flew right over Tim’s head. He was so taken with the idea of finally being able to speak. His entire opinion of Discord changed on a dime. The lord of chaos was an omnipotent and benevolent being who was only capable of doing good.
“I can speak! Oh my God, I’ve never been able to before,” Tim pressed his hooves to his cheeks. “There’s so much I wanna say. So much I wanna do. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!”
“I’m regretting this already,” Discord deadpanned.
Tim leaned forward on the bed to get closer to the mares. He toppled over, sending all three of them rolling onto the floor. A collective groan from the trio followed the crash.
“Sorry about that.” He jumped up right away and went over to help them up. “There’s just so much to talk about. Fluttershy, you must have boundless wisdom stored away in that noggin of yours. You’re so observant. From our very first meeting, you knew how I was trying to communicate with you and could tell how hard it was for me to write in this body. I mean, I guess it wasn’t that hard to figure out, but I wish I’d been able to tell you back then so that I didn’t have to go through will all this mess.”
“Uhm, thanks, I guess?” Fluttershy sat on her haunches and stared back him confusedly.
“And you,” he turned to Twilight, “are really intelligent. I can tell that much after the last few hours. I mean, we did just sit through hours of tedium to convey the most basic concepts. You oddly phrased some of your questions, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize you were being particular with them to get specific answers. Am I talking too much? Please tell me I’m not. It’s just, I’m so excited about having my own voice. After living my entire life, I’ve never known how thrilling it could be!”
“Make it stop!” Discord held his paws to his ears.
For the first time since Tim had come to know him, he acted as if he’d just found true horror. After being on the receiving end of the chaos for so long, it was impossible not to notice the effect he was having on him. He would take delight in torturing him.
He stepped over to Discord, puffed out his chest to make him appear bigger than he really was, and said, “Stop? Why would I stop? I still need to tell you all so much about myself and where I come from, right? I mean, that is why you cast that spell on me. And as we all very well know from past experience, I am negatively affected by magic, so we might as well make the most of things while we still can. You can’t shut me up yet. There’s still so much left that I need to say. And you of all people are to blame for this in the first place, so you have no room to talk.”
“Yada, yada, I’m not listening!” Discord produced the thickest earmuffs he could feasibly wear and then slapped them on his ears.
“I might as well start talking more about myself. I–” Tim couldn’t finish his statement, for Discord snapped his fingers together with unrestrained frustration.
“I couldn’t take it anymore,” Discord announced. “I never thought I’d rue the day where I created chaos.”
“But what about the information we need?” Twilight stomped her hoof on the ground. “What I’ve gathered so far can’t possibly be enough to extrapolate the precise dimension he’s from!”
Discord wiggled his finger and raised his chin. He was practically glowing with pride. “Shame on you, Twilight. There is more than one way to make an omelette.”
The splitting headache made it difficult for Tim to follow the conversation. His vision, impaired to the point where he was seeing double of everything, only made it worse, and he clenched his eyes shut.
“I am not bound by the same rules as you mortals,” Discord continued. “I can simply extract the information directly out of his head.”
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea...” Fluttershy mumbled.
“Wait, Discord no!” Twilight cried out.
The entire room exploded into a cacophony of bizarre sounds. A rush of wind slammed into Tim and then enveloped him. Even though his eyes were closed, it seemed as though he was suddenly staring into the sun. Light simply encompassed everything around him.
“Did he just...?” Fluttershy’s voice trailed off.
“Not good, not good.” Twilight was panicking. “I think Discord just entered Tim’s mind, and it’s set off a chain reaction that’s put all of Equestria in danger! If we don’t do something quickly, this magical surge will be too much for us to handle!”
Everything was happening so fast, it was hard for him to tell what was going on. One thing he could determine, though, was that he no longer felt the ground underneath his hooves. He was terrified, wanted whatever was happening to just stop. Then, at least for him, it did.