Manehatten – what have you done?
As he arrived on his destination - the day was about to end as the sun vanished behind the horizon. There was no point to continue the search in the dark: he might knew where she could be found while on work, but had still no idea where she lived.
Getting some rest was his best option yet, the coming day sure would be long and awful annoying like this one he figured.
His eye found him self quickly a hotel nearby – zapping him self in the finest suite there was – a moment before the real guests could enter.
"This is our room!" the couple complained towards the door – hammering hooves against it, while a servant tried to unlock the door once again without any success.
Ten minutes later the manager himself – a big grumpy stallion also got there to get sure his guests could finally enter.
"Is there somepony in there!? Open the door, this room is reserved for our guests!"
A voice came from the inside as the noise outside reached her limit "you mind? i'm sleeping here!"
The manager itself now hammered his hoof against the door, once again with no use.
"This hotel is only for paying guests and this room needs a reservation!" he shouted at the door – while his face got all red from all the screaming.
Once again the voice was heard "there you got puny payment – and a bunch of really precious diamonds appeared out of thing air, landing right in front of him in a small pile "and your stinky reservation", as another bunch materialized on top of the first pile, letting it grow on twice the size.
The manager and servants eyes got wide, as they starred at this huge amount of cash laying in front of them, making the manager almost drool.
"Well" he said, swallowing hard "in that case... anything we can do for you fine sir?" as he started to pick up the diamonds and cramming them into his pockets where ever he could find space.
"Cotton Candy, Chocolate Milk ...and get lost!" the voice replied a last time.
The manager spun around "You heard that gentleman" poking his servant "Hurry!"
Now he turned to his guests "of course we will find another room for you"
The guests reacted offended about the howl situation "we booked this room three months ago! You just cant kick us out for some..... hoodlums!", but receiving nothing than a stubborn reply "If you don't want the other room, there is still the street" the manager made clear "and now shush! Our VIP wants some rest!" as he pushed the still refusing couple down the hallway into another, not quite as elegant, room.
Discord was laying down on the queen sized bed, wishing for his queen to be here with him...
unaware of the Princess which was heading towards Ponyville right now.
When he woke up, the sun rose above this magnificent town... Manehatten was one of the largest citys there is in all of Equestria; thousands of pony's working here day and night in order to keep it going.
The city was built out of hundreds of skyscrapers, getting bigger and bigger the closer you came to the middle, giving every new visitor the challenge to raise their heads far enough in order to make out the top, if those are not hidden inside a cloudy sky.
Visitors came from far and near just to make business here, open a new one or closing up an contract.
Travelers came here to enjoy this amazing sights - and a business of its own had formed around that, getting sure earn a profit those tourists by giving them tours across town to all the great places the city had to offer: bars, parks, fame places and restaurants and last but not least souvenir shops, as well providing necessary hotels to stay for a couple of days.
Out of all those fantastic places you could find in town, there was still one which put all of them in his shadow, quite literally – and it was called the -Big-Apple Tower-.
Raising hundreds of meters into the air, providing space for all the workers of the company, as well sleeping places for guests and even a own private restaurant on the bottom floor.
There was not a single moment when the doors of this building did hold still, since pony's came and left all the time, like blood, getting pumped and circled by the heart of the town.
Discord appeared nearby on another skyscraper, which would had been the largest around, if its neighboring didn't happened to be about one third bigger in size – making his existence quite insignificant, like the tower was just build in order to mock it.
The newest visitor in town took a look around, watching those ant like pony's below him, running trough the streets – partial sitting in carriages, but his sight was almost magnetic pulled back on the great building in front of him, but unlike everypony else he failed to be impressed by it.
Having unlimited powers made a lot things taste quite pale on his tongue – he could create such a tower by its own, giving enough time to figure out the details... but then was still the fact remaining he was the self claimed Spirit of Chaos... and this building was not a miracle, but a taunt to him – representing a carefully planned and constructed symbol of order, which it showed of since day one.
As he starred on it for a minute or two, he felt the need coming up to change it – to break it down to its foundation and rebuild it in his own image, clenching his teeth in order to hold back on this action.
There was something else he noticed on the very top of this building – a giant golden apple, slowly spinning on a thick steel post... and as it spun slowly around it self, everypony could read the big red letters on it from afar. -Apple Inc.-
"An golden apple?" raising his paws as he would show it to somepony else "oh come on! It could be as well an orange!" as he snapped his fingers and the apple had all of a sudden a giant bite mark on his side ...still spinning like nothing had happened "ha.... " feeling a little better to get rid of some stress, having at least caused some chaos, which was able to be seen anywhere from within the town.
Inside the tower – on the top floor was a big entrance hall. It had wide open windows with long red curtains - and a red carpet leading towards two big wooden doors, which would take you into the most important office you could find.
Also in this room, next to the gate like door, was an old bulky desk, which was made out of dark wood – sitting on this desk you could find a mare, working trough her papers and holding guard to who ever dared to enter.
The mare had deep blue fur, a black mane with highlights of white - blue eyes and glasses on her nose – as well a horn on her head, her flank showing a feather, writing on a paper-scroll.
She was about to copy a list her boss had dictated to her, typing it down on her type writer which was obviously made for pony's, having large keys – making a "pok" every time she hit one of the – as the room was filled by this noise in a rapidly repeating order.
As she was almost done, her boss called from inside – using a speaking pipe which connected not just their tables, but also the rest of the building with one another "Quill, if our guests from Canterlot arrive, please send them in right away".
"Of course" she replied formally, turning back to her type work.
Her boss knew she didn't need to say more than that, since Quill had been her secretary from the very start and a big help at that. Never failed to remember on an appointment or holding back a unwanted visitor who managed to sneak by the guards.
On the other side of the entrance hall the lift opened with a ping, announcing its arrival with new welcome visitors. The door slid open and revealed a crowd of royal pony's – two mares and four stallions sitting in the corners of the lift, pressing her bodys against the walls.
It wasn't dure a lack of space they done so, the lift it self was large enough to fit twice the pony's inside before running out of space, so it had to do with the fact there was standing a draconequus in the middle of them.
As Discord left the lift – the other pony's kept staying inside, while he was walking straight for the desk.
The still typing mare gave him a short glance, failing to be impressed by his intimidating size and shape "You got an appointment?" asking dryly as she had so many times before to anypony and anything which had walked this halls.
"Oh, she sure will have time for me, we are old friends" grinning towards the mare.
"Name?" she asked, this time not even bothering to look up at him.
"Discord, Spirit of Chaos!" shouting it out as he was an famous celebrity.
The mare hold in with her typing, giving a short glance on a piece of paper "Not on the list"
"don't worry, your boss got time for me- i'm sure they..." pointing his lion thump on the crowd, which still stood shivering inside the lift "don't mind if i go first" closing his gesture with a sharp and displeased grin on every single one of them.
The stallion next to the buttons dared to stretch out his hoof slowly, pushing one of them - the doors slowly slid shut and the lift made his path from where it came.
His grin became a lot more pleased now "You see?"
The mare glanced to the lift and back on her desk - crossing out a bunch of names from a list.
As the new visitor was going for the door, about to touch it the secretary shouted "you still need to make a appointment!"
"Ha!" rolling his eyes "you are kidding me" trying to push the doors open, but got struck by the blue mare with a surprisingly strong bodycheck – sending him flying to the ground as she got over to him and pinned him down "No appointment – NO entry!" shouting to his face and pushing his chest while doing so.
"This expression on your face, so sure of your self..." he said from below her, about to zap her right to the north pole, as the doors swung open and her boss was standing in the middle of them.
"Its alright Quill, let him come in... and cancel the remaining appointments"
The mare gave him a last warning glance before she got up from him and returned peacefully to her desk, continuing to type, but as he stood up and walked towards the door, she didn't leave him out of her sight until the door shut close behind, giving him the chance to show her his tongue like a spoiled brat.
Her boss, was an orange mare with blond mane and tail- which was made into braided ponytales, hold together by a thin needle; her eyes had a fresh grasgreen and her flank showed three red juicy apples, she also wore a stylized cowboy collar with a golden framed apple around the neck.
She walked slowly behind her desk, which was similar to Quills, but even bigger and had ornate´s of gold strings all around it – and sat down on a big comfortable chair – also in the same ostentatious stile, holding her hooves as some other creature would to lay his fingertips on one another.
"I thought you would be there earlier, what took ya so long?" Applejack opened the conversation casual.
Discord was walking up to the desk, stretching him self a little in order to get over the attack he just had received "well, i was.......uhmm..." as he reached the desk he seemed a little confused "... you knew i would come?" raising an eyebrow at her.
The pony leaned her head a little to the side "i got sources..." giving him a reproachful smile "... you really should not had thrown two of our workers around".
"Oh.... those...." waving it off "they are fine!".
Applejack leaned towards a piece of paper and started to read "... several minor wounds, two broken rips, sprained hoof, scratches and cut wounds caused by branches, as well..." Discord cut her off on that point "okay okay ...maybe i over did it a tinzy bit" letting a hint of guilt sliding in his voice "wasn't intentional" he mumbled.
Discord leaned forward "big deal – but do you even know who i am!?" waiting for her to react - as she put her hoof tip on the paper she had just read to him, sliding it to the side to reveal a copy of an old drawing, probably out of some kind of history or magic book.
On the page was a draconequus, fighting against an alicorn which seemed to be surrounded by a bright magic shine. Right below the picture was a brief description about the opponents.
"Well, i guess its time ya know who i am" as she stood up to walk to her window, which made out the howl fourth wall of the room, letting her sight slide slowly over the city below.
"Y´see, when i came her´ from Ponyville... it wasn't a simple life: high-society is harsh to everypony it doesn't know, pushing them around like an apple cart. This town was makin´ me sick to the stomach... " she turned to discord and he noticed the fire in her eyes "as i build up Apple Inc. ... i started to realize, that my company could be more than a place for working pony's..." she turned back to him "it could be my new family...".
"Your family lives in Ponyville" Discord pointed out sarcastic.
"Let me finish ma story"
Discord seemed annoyed but assumed there was a point to all of this coming soon towards him.
"Well, as i said... this now was ma new family... i treated the workers well – and got pony's of the streets. When eva somepony was willing to work, i offered him being part of this..."
The mare now avoided his sight and started to move around some more, heading towards a burned flag showing the Manehatten symbol – a golden horsehead.
"Ya´know my competitors even tried to get rid of me – being a threat for their profit..."
once again she gave him an bitter glance "...but then the fight was decided by chance... " it was obvious she hold back some kind of anger as she returned to her seat.
Discord materialized a box with a boardgame inside "I´m not here for a game of guess-hooves!" throwing the box behind him on the ground.
"Oh don't ya´worry" she leaned forward "because you will help me to get what i wanted since that very moment."
Discord used his magic to slide over the book side from earlier "You might misread that... i'm not Celestia".
"Well, i figured it would take a little more to convince ya" Applejack pulled out one of her drawers and put a photo on the desk, which Discord took carefully like it was made out of thin glass.
The picture showed Fluttershy – flying and giving the camera a big warm smile, it even had her signature on it!
"WHERE, did you get this!?" he started to boil up.
"Well, how about i tell ya... after that little favor of yours?"
He put his paw and claw on the table, leaning towards her face "How about i zap you on the other side of the window first?"
Applejack assumed he was her worst client yet, but she was sure to be able to handle him "Wont get ya anywhere" giving a winning smile "and don't ya bother - nopony in this building does know anything hun".
Smoke came from below his hands, as he channeled his anger trough them. Paw and claw buried deep into the massive table, which partial was set on fire as he threw it with ease across the room, destroying a bookshelf nearby.
Of course the secretary had heard that noise and ran into the room "Whats going on here!?"
checking for her boss to be okay – as she noticed the destroyed furniture.
"Everything alright Quill..." Applejack reassured her "be so kind and order a new desk and... why don't yu take the rest of the day off?"
The mare looked concerned at ruined furniture which - seemed to be smoking... but if she said it would be alright- it sure would.
"I will" she simply replied, giving the gasping monster a last warning glance - and walked off, closing the doors behind her.
Her attention shifted back to Discord "i tell ya what: help me out- it wont even take an hour... and then i will give ya the rest of the file".
Oh what would he like to do to her, but even if she didn't knew, she was also one of his friends and right about what she said... he probably had to agree – so he reached out his griffon paw to her.
She took a look on his paw, but didn't bother to shake it.
"Fine! Deal"
As she reached out in order to shake his paw - she boggled and pulled back her hoof, as its paw turned out to be still steaming hot – which he had done on purpose as his face gave away.
"Don't you try to fool me..."
"I wont, honestly."
"As much as i know, you got quite some powers, right?"
"Of course i do!" with that said a tiny cotton candy cloud appeared behind them, putting out the growing fire with chocolate rain "So what you want?" spinning his finger in the air.
"Well, at first, we need to go the Crystal Empire – on the westside fields"
befor she even had time to explain a word more, a blinding bright light had flashed in front of her eyes, so she hold up her hooves in order to cover them. A moment later she felt a soft breeze touching her fur, as her ponytales swung in a soft summer breeze.
The pony took down her hooves to find her self starring at the crystal Castle in the distance, Discord right besides her.
"There we are, whats next?" making sure he was in a hurry.
She didn't answer at first, since she had changed slightly in appearance... her hair was now a ordinary pony tail, the collar was gone, but she got instead a cowboy hat on top of her head.
"Why you done that?" she asked.
"Oh that? don't mind! ... so, whats next?!"
This kind of stile was something for farm pony's, not for business ones but she kinda ... liked it.
"We have to find my contact here, i have to talk to her first, than you get your instructions."
Applejack knew this place well, she had been here often, ever since her bitter victory, so after a short orientation she started to move, followed by closely by him.
The two walked along an old dirt-road as he could not help to notice, everything around them was quite a dessert. Once in a while there was a dead tree laying on the ground, drying in the sun - but aside of that there was not a single straw of grass to be found – a pretty boring part of land to look at...
After walking for thirty minutes straight - Discord started to ask why he could not just zap them also the rest of the way, to which Applejack always replied "its necessary" staying stubborn and slowly following their path further into the dessert.
At first he was really angry about her attitude, but after starring on this empty landscape for miles to come he was bored beyond believe and she didn't let him do anything about that to make their trip shorter.
It felt like a felt eternity for them to come by something interesting, which was a small wooden bridge, spanning over a gap in the ground which just seemed to come from nowhere – to go nowhere. Really odd. Why bother building a bridge for a gap you easly could walk trough? Also right here- for the city to be miles in the other direction.
Their travel didn't seem to end, now they had spend about an hour or more, wasting his time in order to see nothing worth to brag about.
"Stupid dessert" he mumbled to him self, as his feet starting to hurt from all the small stones on their path and the tedious walking through the burning hot sun – so he did lift of a few centimeter, which didn't made it better since they had not changed location and he was forced to stay close to her... and if he didn't know any better, he had imaged she would walk slower by the minute.
There wasn't much more to do than stare on the path and count the stones he came by, big and small, round and angular... shesh. So tedious. Making him miss, being one of them.
"We are there" Applejack stated - pulling Discord out of his mentally absents.
He took a look around, there was a house, barely big enough for a small family, a water well and some kind of windmill - but unlike normal ones, it also had a big chimney on his side which was spitting constantly colorful clouds into the sky.
"This is it?" he asked, not even try to hide his disappointment.
"Yes, that's it" she said and started walking again.
As they came close to the house he noticed right away the ground had some strange color's nearby.
He kinda liked it – it was odd and reminded him on the good old times, when he had transformed Ponyville into the Chaos-central..., but for what reason somepony else would color the ground was beyond his understanding.
The two walked up to the small house as she told him to wait outside.
"You make me walk here trough the hot sun and don't let even let me in!?"
"Just ya wait here, a don't want to scare her off" she said sharp to him and entered the building.
Discord sure was angry... but his thirst let him forget that. He could summon a glass of chocolate milk or so, but that isn't quite as good when its about heat, so he just used his magic to pull out the bucket of the nearby well to take a zip, just to spit dirt moments later.
"Wuah! What the...." he leaned down the well and made his eyes glow like a lamp – to find the well was dry as the rocks around him, making him sigh. "If you don't do it your self!"
A bottle of water materialized in his hand, as he drank half of it in a rush and threw the rest away, letting it burst on the ground – as the hot ground let the water vanish moments later.
"Well, looks like i got a few spare minutes, hu, i wonder if..." with this said, he was gone with a grin on his face.
Meanwhile inside Applejack was stepping through the building to her faithful worker.
The worker was a hue purple furred mare, with dark blue mane and tail, which had pink and purple highlights in it. She had a star and sparkles on her flank and purple eyes.
"Hey there Twi, how s going?" she asked the unicorn.
"Oh Applejack! I didn't expected a visit from you before Friday.... its not Friday is it?" walking to the calendar, afraid to have mixed up the date.
The orange mare raised her hoof "nah, don't worry, its not..."
"Well, than whats the reason for your early visit?" the unicorn trotted back to her working place which was loaded with all kind of mixtures and experiments. Bottles was connected to one another with pipes – some boiled slowly below small flames to distill certain liquids out of them into the other.
All of that machinery and valves seemed to be very careful crafted work,which ended in a single pipe right above a small ordinary plate with a hoof full earth on it.
"I was just about to test number 402b" as a checklist hoovered to her side.
She reached for the final valves and opened it for a moment, just enough a single drop of the liquid could fall onto the earth, which changed their color on contact to pink... but nothing else happened.
The unicorn gave a big long sigh "well, back to the scratch-board one more time, number 403b sure will be a success!"
"Well Twilight, i have come to talk about yur work"
The unicorn gave her a asking look "What you mean? ...i'm sure i can figure it out!"
"That wont be necessary anymore Twi, i got somepony else who can help us. He's waiting outside.".
Twilight had to think about that for a moment "Is that your way to tell me..." performing a kick-move with her hoof "...i´m ~ fired?"
The unicorn panicked "i worked so hard on this! I cannot stop now... i got a few more things to try" walking up and down in the room to gather all kind of strange objects and mixtures.
Applejack smiled at her and got close "No of course not. Ur part of the family" giving her a big hug "i never would let ya go".
This gave her a good feeling in her stomach, making her calm down again "You are right, ...i'm sorry..." as the earthpony released her from the hug "okay then, where is this somepony and how did he figure it out?" she put away her clip board and turned of all the little flames in the room, shutting down her experiment.
"I mean... i have read all books available! Or does he have some i missed?" starting once again to get wired up in her logic.
"Well, he didn't..." Applejack said "When I show you, ya´ill understand, but you have to promis´ not to flip out, alright?"
Twilight understood those therms, but not a hundred percent "Well,...... okay?"
"Ya have to promise, its might our only chance." Applejack insisted.
Twilight used to know her as a serious worker, but this time she seemed even more overcautious than normal. "I will do my best" crossing her chest with her hoof.
This was good enough for her, so the earthpony gave a sign to follow as the two walked outside.
When they came out there was nopony there.
Applejack was concerned for a moment she might had misjudged her new partner,
as Twilight noticed something.
"What is this?" point her hoof to the draconequus, which was flying next to the big chimney, picking the smoke clouds apart coming out there, about to stick a blue one in his mouth "Eww gross – blueberry!" he spat it out, as the two mares cough his attention.
"Twilight Sparkle! What a joy!" he shouted – holding her a second later in a tight hug.
The unicorn barely got air and had the strong wish to run, but he just hold her to firm.
"Ya know him?"
"I... don't..." Twilight squeezed out.
Applejack pointed on Discord "... but ya know her?" raising an eyebrow.
"Well. Uhm..." giving her a close look, as he noticed she didn't had wings and wore her mane different "must have mistaken her for another purple unicorn named Twilight", letting her slump to the ground.
The two mares looked at one another in confusion as the unicorn started to walk around him "This creature is a myth... isn't it?" poking him with a hoof in order to be sure he was real.
"Legend?-yes! Myth? Far from it! Giving her a slap on her hoof.
That was the moment her mind put the pieces together, as joy rushed trough her body "This means, we can fix it!?" she cheered up as Applejack gave a aprooving nod to this – when Twilight grabbed Applejack surprisingly and spun her around "He is real! We can finally fix it! You are the best AJ!"
Discord gave a little cough from him, in order to get their attention back, but the unicorn was so energetic, he could had easily mistaken her for Pinkie Pie right now.
Until he lifted her up from the ground by her tail, she just didn't had stopped.
"I assume she told you from our little deal?"
The unicorn was slowly spinning upside down around her self, which made it hard to answer while looking into his eyes "well... she just said, you would help us"
"Oh, didn't your honest little friend tell you, how she wanted to blackmail me?" putting on a frown and receiving a confused expression in return.
As the upside down pony was turning around to Applejack she asked "AJ, what is he talking about?"
"Well, i..." she started, but was quite irritated to talk to her like this "would ya please let her down?" and so he did - the pony got back to the ground, but had to pause for a moment, since a lot of blood had run into her head.
"Well, i promised help to find somepony he was looking for ...but i was about to keep my part for sure!" as she hold up her hoof.
"Not really nice of her, as soon she knew it was important to me, she put on her thumbscrews..." Discord now gave them a evil grin "but guess what!" – making appear the file she had promised in his paw, as well X-Ray glasses on his nose "Hiding it behind a bookshelf? How foolish of you! Hahaha!"
The earthpony stomped on the ground to make her point "I was about to hold my part Discord!"
"Pff, i don't want to be one of ur puny work drones..." came the conceited response.
Applejack got a few steps closer "...but ya don't understand, we need this land to be green again!"
Discord performed a gallant aerial loop "What for? Make a few bits? What do i care? I got what i want so..."
This was when Twilight got into, hammering her hooves against his sides, shouting at Discord "The empire is STARVING!" while her punches got slower "...the crystal pony's barely have enough food to make it trough the day! don't you understand!?" sobbing as she spoke "many left and .... the others might don't make it another year.... " as she started to melt down onto the ground, till she was laying on her stomach "i c-cant fix iit............ i cant fffi-x it..... " repeating her self over and over again "i cant fix it!" as her tears started to flow.
Applejack didn't even care about Discord anymore, walking to her friend in order to put her hooves around her "There, there... we will find a way" trying to calm her down, whispering words of confidence into her ear ...but without any noticeable effect.
Now Applejack was the one to shout at Discord "You got ya wanted, why don't ya leave us alone!?"
Her face was full of anger, but also shared some of Twilight's disappointment within.
Honest curiosity was what made him ask "So you ... it was not about money?"
The orange mare didn't even bother to look at him anymore, barking over her shoulder "The land had been poisoned! Are ya blind!? The changelings destoryed everything!" pointing a hoof towards the horizon "its dead for miles!"
This made him turn around him self, giving this land a howl new look.
She was right. They had walked for almost an hour without seeing a single patch of green, not a standing tree, or bird in the sky... there was nothing but dust.
There was only one fool here right now – and it was him.
He turned around and got over to the two, but Applejack didn't want to get him close, so he used a little bit of his magic to move her out of the way, sitting her just a few steps aside.
"What ya think you´re doing!?" she grumbled, as he held up his hands placatory - just before he sat down to Twilight... who was still blaming her self, for her inability to make it right.
"I'm sorry Twilight... i didn't understand..." he said calm as he put his paw on her shivering body.
Applejack failed to understand what was going on right now, as much she was able to read about him in this short period of time, not single nice word was used to describe him, in fact most of them used to be quite ... unflattering. So, did he know her after all?
Twilight was still mumbling to her self quitely, as suddenly the draconequus raised to his full impressive size "... but i can".
He left her alone and Applejack took his place in order to put her hoof around, while Discord started walking off towards the sun till he was about a couple hundred meters away- until he stopped. At first he just shook his body, make his muscles lose up a bit, cracking his neck and bending his paws a few times – like a sportler would before he gets into a marathon...
... but then his hands began to glow in a bright light as waves of energy started sparking all around him- flaring up to a white fire sphere, pushing the air around him aside- when Applejack shook the unicorn in her arms in order to maker her aware. Twilight rose her head slightly and her sight was caught as a miracle happened.
The unleashed power spread out in a explosion like manner – forming an ever expanding sphere all around the creature in the center, so bright, it almost hurt to watch... the sphere was at first just a few dozen meters in diameter, a second later spanning more than hundred – another second - it already reached a couple of miles – another one passed – it was spanning the howl crystal Empire already, flooding the world like an ocean of light.
Half of Equestria was witness as it happened: not just the crystal pony's – Galloping Gorge, Cloudstale and Canterlot had seen it as well, being close neighbors to the empire.
Ten-thousand pony's and other creatures had observed the miracle, as the land formed into something nobody had expected to happen ever again.
The light pulled back slowly like waves pulling back into the ocean the land below turned out to be green and full of life.
The grass was thick growing everywhere... trees stood up high in smaller and bigger forests, spending cooling shadow and providing shelter to creatures of all kind... the gap was now once again what it used to be: a floating river, bringing fresh water from the mountains into the land, serving life to everything around it.
Twilight and Applejack was blinking and rubbing their eyes.
Around the house had formed an howl apple-forest similar to Big Apple Acres!
Thousands juicy apples hanging on them, sparkling red in the sunlight.
Applejack let go and stood up... as she looked all around herself - moving over to one of the trees in order to give it a buck – making it rain a dozen apples onto the soft grass below.
Twilight was starring at her doing so; like neither the tree or the apples could possible be real.
The orange mare picked up one of the apples and took a careful bite... and it tasted amazing! It was juicy... having just the right consistence, not to crunchy, not to soft – making you want to bite again, which she did. Only zapp-apples possible could taste better, ...but not by much.
Applejack picked up one more from the ground and threw it over to Twilight, which caught it quite clumsy.
The unicorn starred at the apple and turned it a few times around, giving it a close look. It was red all around and felt just like an apple should. It had a fine smell which got to her nose, making her take a deep breath – closing her eyes doing so to enjoy the moment. Even if nothing of this was real, she made sure not to forget.
Discord stepped in front of Twilight, casting his long shadow on her.
The unicorn opened her eyes and gave him a gleeful smile - holding up the apple towards him.
The draconequus refused to accept it "its all yours".
Her smile got even bigger as she took the first bite, enjoying it like she didn't had one in a long time.
They enjoyed the apple-forest and nature some more for about an hour before Twilight decided to pack her stuff and get back to town "I will bring everypony here, the crystal Empire is saved", thanking Discord about a hundred and two times – which she counted on a list, just to be sure.
"So, ready to go?" Applejack asked him.
"Ladies first" he replied, zapping her right away into her office.
Discord stepped into Twilight's house, as she was busy packing some books.
"What about your eye...?"
The question hung in the room, while the unicorn tried to pack way to many books into a way small pocket as she gave up on it and sat down, her back towards him "so, you noticed?"
"You know... i could..."
Twilight shook her head, responding with a bitter sweet tone in her voice "No, its alright... its a part of who i am."
There was probably no harm telling him. It would be the least she could do to return his favor... so she started to tell her story "...it was during the siege: the Queen and her changelings had pushed into the Castle... Cadance had told me to hide, but i refused.... i didn't want leaving her alone....." the pony laid her head on the side, giving him a glance over his should "Cadance and Shinning Armor fought them as good as they could – so i tried to help too and got into the fight... but... i- i... didn't do to well,... my magic was not strong enough and a bunch of them got onto me, starting to suck on my emotions for the ones i love..." she giggled a little sad about the irony "...usual changelings don't kill their victims, so they can feed of them later again... but there was just to many of them, they got lured by my feelings like moth to the light...." she had to pause, it got hard to continue for her "...i ...could had died in this moment – but Cadance had almost defeated the Queen, when she noticed what happened to me." the unicorn bit her lip at this part, like she would go trough the paint of this moment once again "she let go of the Queen and used her last power to blast away the changelings of me- saving my life, ...but the strike hit me as well" as she touched her face with her hoof "that's when the Queen got up and hit Candace from behind... and it was my fault... if it not had been for the love between her and Shining armor, the Chrystal Empire had fallen that day". The pony took a look around "i guess, i wanted to make up for it somehow.... but i wasn't to big of a help after all" as she gave him an apologizing smile.
Discord now could see them – one was a shimmering purple, matching to the rest of her body.
The other one was also purple, but had a noticeable gray tone to it.
"Twilight, i could not had done it without you" Discord said warm.
"What do you mean?"
"Your love convinced me, to do the right thing." giving her a small nudge on the chin.
Twilight began to smile a bit "I guess you are right..." as she smeared above her face "I still wish i was stronger... all i know is magic-poition brewery, ain't to useful as you might noticed."
Discord rubbed his chin, like a professor which thought about a complex mathematical problem "well i cant help you on that much but..." a thick brown book appeared in his hand "but maybe this will." handing her the book over.
The cover was a mish-mash of skewed letters, written in crayon "Magic 101 for dummies" – this made her laugh quite loud "hahaha... thanks a lot" she smiled at him, but as she opened the cover to take a first look inside, to be surprised to find another cover below the first one "All about Magic _by Star Swirl the Bearded _first edition_", written in thick gold letters - making her eyes grow wide.
"OH sweet Celestia! Thank-" this was when she noticed he was gone "-you." holding the book thigh to her chest.
Applejack was in her office, the desk had been replaced and a bunch of workers was about to fix the rest of the damage which had been done to the room.
They didn't notice her appearance till she spoke up "Could ya please fix that later – a guest is coming soon"
The stallions turned around "oh, Mrs. Apple, we are terrible sorry" one of them said.
"Its alright, you can fix it tomorrow, but leave now..."
The three nodded and left the room immediately.
About five minutes later Discord appeared in the room.
Applejack looked towards the remains which used to be her book shelf, revealing a hidden safe behind it. "I never was much of a bookworm anyway" she started, while her partner sat down on the other side of the table, putting down the file on it. She smiled on him and gave a nod towards the small folder "Ya know, that one had cost me a lil´fortune, but i guess it was worth it after all..."
"So, you read it?"
She shook her head "Got it the minute before ya came in."
This made the draconequus laugh "So, you didn't knew anything? You bluffed!?"
"Like the devil" she grinned.
This was goodbye he assumed, about to grab the file - when she put her hoof on his claw "ya should know a last thing... that seller is gone- so if ya wont find what you´r looking for... please don't harm anypony, we honestly tried" now pulling slowly back her hoof, so he could take the file.
Discord stood up, returning the grin from before "What kinda friend you think i am?" - then he was gone.
The Spirit of Chaos sat one of the skyscrapers holding the thing folder in his hands and didn't dare to open yet, this might was the hint he was looking for, getting him all excited about it as he opened it.
The first thing he saw was another photo of her, this time posing to the camera, giving a wink and pointing her hoof to the camera – almost like she meant him.
He took the photo and put it carefully down to his side, reading the first actual information sheet there was...
-Name: Fluttershy
-Gender: Female
-Fur: Yellow
Nothing he knew already, so he started to skip trough the information's,
-Mane, Age, Cutiemark, Favorite dessert... and so on.
Pretty basic stuff, but right now he was absolute sure this was his Fluttershy the file was talking about.
As he was trough the first side, he put this carefully aside as well and things got a little more interesting.
-Born: Cloudsdale
-Job: Artistic flier – this one made Discord frown in confusion.
She sure was a pegasus but... of everything he had encountered until now: THIS one was the cherry on top of the ice cream. There was no way his shy wife would do something like this ... it must had been a flaw in the file.
The rest of the site also didn't reveal to much, only places where she had been – which was quite a list of small towns ...
Putting away once again the side, carefully on his stack.
This was the last side, so he made sure to take a close look, giving him self a pair of reading glasses on his nose, but got disappointed on the first line already.
-Living right now: No fixed residence.
As he was about to read the next line, fate struck.
-Upcoming flying performa...
If he had payed any attention to his surrounding he had noticed Celestia, which had abandoned her chariot, diving down at him for an surprise attack – unleashing a powerful beam of her horn, blasting Discord of the roof.
Like a meteor he crashed down onto one of the main roads of Manehatten. Pony's all around the impact zone started to panic and run, many shouted for police and fire horse, only a few dared to raise their heads out of cover - not sure if that was some kind of accident or attack.
The Princess hoped this would knock him out until she could cast the spell which would turn him into stone. Getting this ready right away probably had made him aware to her appearance, giving him chance to flee.
Celestia landed graceful nearby, her wings spread wide, as she waited for the dust to settle.
It didn't take anything to get the attention of the remaining pony's nearby, so she just spoke up "Leave this area now! Its to dangerous to stay!"
Now even the brave started running, nopony dared to resist a direct order of her, clearing the place in a matter of seconds as a claw appeared out of the crater, scratching over the concrete.
Discord rose out of the hole, stumbling onto the streets. For most this impact had been lethal without a doubt, only the most powerful creatures could hope to recover from this – let alone being able to still walk upright. Aside alicorn's, the draconequus was one of those rare exceptions.
"OUcH!" this attacked had hurt a lot, as his body was covered in concrete and dust, causing small clouds to appear on his very step, but still he didn't bother Celestia to much, as he searched the ground for something he had lost...
"Discord, surrender now and i promise y-"
He waved her off with a "Bbzzzzzsstt! Shut up!" cutting her off, as he had finally found what he was looking for, or at least what was left of it.
There was a small rest of burning paper, on which he put quickly out the flame... holding it up in order to read what was left, but there wasn't much.
Most of the paper had been burned in the blast, so the line he had read before was incomplete:
-Upcoming flying performance in: Ya#h###...
The rest was a black hole, still smoking a little.
"C...CccAnt you just ONCE! ONCE! Leave me ALONE!? ONCE I SAyyY!
Shouting loud enough to make him self heard all over the town.
The Princess didn't reply anything more than "Let us settle this, where nopony else will get hurt"
Discord rose his clenched claw... it took only a single snap - and everypony was gone.
A town of ten-thousands of souls – had become a ghost town.
Far away- next to a "Welcome to Manehatten!" sign the citizens reappeared, leaving everypony confused to what just had happened.
Some of the pony's got torn out of a shower, one couple was right in a romantic dinner, a mare was searching for her lost child and soon there was a mass panic between all of them, making the current situation even worse.
Applejack made her way slowly to the front of the crowd and sat down, as she knew what was going to happen. At first there was just silence, as a soft wind blew above their heads coming out of nowhere, then it began: the downfall of their beloved town.
A single explosion could be heard, quickly followed by dust clouds and trails of smoke crawling up - from the buildings which had been struck, as more explosions followed, spreading over howl blocks.
Other pony's now also noticed what was going on over there; as beams and balls of lighting danced above the city - in between the skyscrapers, to occasionally hit something in their path, setting it on fire or simply blowing it to bits, causing it to rain tons of concrete down on the streets they had been on moments ago- as howl buildings started to crumble to the ground.
If anypony had been in this town, it would had been suicidal, staying inside as well outside, nothing was sacred from this carnage.
A few singled out energy blasts gone way off - heading for the sky and even right into their direction, until the they got stopped in mid air by a giant force field which seemed to cover the howl town. The field shimmered like a soap bubble beneath the impact but withstood blast after blast, slowly fading into invisibility again, in the pauses between strikes.
The few eyewitness, which had seen Celestia before their surprising teleportation, spread the word about her - causing it to become a wild fire and soon everypony in the crowd knew there was a fight going on, between the Princess and some really dangerous enemy, quickly followed by wild speculations who or what it could be.
Meanwhile a few pony's, maybe stubborn... maybe brave.... maybe just plain stupid... could not resist to try to get a closer look – running towards the town. Unfortunately at the towns border they ran head first into the same force field which had hold of the magic from escaping - hurting them self's in the process. Some returned to the crowd... others just sat down in front of it like in trance and a few still didn't gave up to get inside, walking vainly along the border in order to find a weak-spot.
Quill now recognized Applejack in the corner of her eye "AJ, what had happened?
Applejack turned her head slowly, her face being pale "Manehatten".