Twilight returned to the library after the crowd stopped asking questions that she was supposed to know the answer.
"Spike!" she called to her assistant, who didn't respond "Spiiiike?" she shouted again, but she remembered that they had left him at the castle in Canterlot. She sighed and thought "I guess that I'll have to return to Canterlot tomorrow".
She was very tired with all the things they had to do, but she was still very surprised and confused about what the ponies of Ponyville had said "This calls for some investigation!" she said. She went to her basement and started to search the box where she kept every newspaper since she got to Ponyville. "I told Spike it would be helpful someday" she thought when she found the box.
Somewhere, in the middle of the Everfree forest, Fernando was very tired, but not really hungry. Some time ago, he had found a hut, from where a zebra saw him. She went out and blocked his path to tell him how she could feel that he was under the effect of chaotic magic, but the most she could do was offer him some food. From some meters away, Discord grumbled about how now he won't be able to convince him to eat his food (and the plates and silverware).
He accepted the food and was barely able to tell her by body language that he couldn't talk and that he was on a journey to get his voice back. Truth to be told, the zebra never understood anything and thought that it was because of the magic.
While still walking, Fernando could tell that he was being watched, and thought to Discord
"Are you sure that this path is safe?"
"Weeell, it may be some thousands years old, but the worst thing that you can by now is a man-eating plant. I never understood why they were called like that. I would suppose that it eats something called man, but I don't know what that is". Even before Discord finished his explanation, Fernando was already hitting his head against a tree in extreme annoyance.
"Human. Is. Also. Man." he thought, timing each word with a hit. Discord grinned and said
"Then you should run, don't you think so?". Fernando stopped the hits and started to climb that same tree.
"No. I'll sleep on this tree, and if a plant tries to eat me, fine by me, but I won't continue until I don't need these stones to see what I'm standing on" by the time he finished talking, he was already at over a branch big enough to hold him and tried to sleep.
In the morning, the sun was barely showing itself over the mountains when there was a knock at the door that interrupted Twilight's slumber. She had fallen asleep while going through the newspapers from the past days, getting some valuable information.
Twilight lazily climbed the stairs of the basement and walked slowly until she was in front of the main door. She opened it and said without realizing who it was
"Sorry, but the library isn't open for other two hours" and closed the door. Outside the library, Princess Celestia was fighting back her urges to chuckle at her student's drowsiness and knocked again. "Didn't you hear me? The library is closed!" Twilight shouted from behind the door.
"I'm sorry, Twilight, but I'm not here for a book" Celestia responded. Twilight was walking to her room and stopped when she heard the voice. She took some moments before her brain registered that the pony that she had slammed the door on her face was no one else than Celesta, controller of the Sun and one of the princesses of Equestria. She hurried herself back to the door and opened it quickly
"I'm sorry princess, but I didn't saw that it was you and I was tired a-a-and..." she started to apologize as fast as her voice was able to, but was silenced when the princess held her hoof to quiet her.
"Don't worry, Twilight. I too know that is indeed very early" the princess said. Twilight noticed that the princess' horn was glowing and looked around to see what she was doing.
"Excuse me, princess, but why is your horn glowing?" the princess glanced behind her and then magically floated a sleeping Spike so he was in sight of both of them.
"I supposed that he could be of some help, and I was never able to wake him up when he's sleeping when you two were living at the castle" she explained.
Twilight moved aside so the princess could enter the library, Spike levitating behind her and then being set on a chair, and then Twilight closed the door. After that, the princess started to talk.
"Twilight, may I ask what is the situation about that creature that Discord brought and where is it or him?". Twilight remembered then the investigation in the newspaper and answered
"There is something that you should know, princess. I think we might have discovered another of Discord's tricks". She went to the basement and returned almost instantly with all of the newspapers of the past days. "This is my turn to make a question, princess. Do you remember something about these past days?".
Celestia didn't know what Twilight meant by that, but she found that she was unable to remember anything prior to yesterday.
"What do you think this means, Twilight?" the princess asked
"It means that Discord might have lied to us about how the human, that we now know has a name and that is Fernando, came here to Equestria" Twilight answered and then proceeded to show the princess the newspapers from the most recent to the oldest. At first, there wasn't too much to see, but then there were some news with titles like 'Princess announces the successful capture of the human'. Then there was another that said 'Part of Manehattan in ruins!'. Celestia read quickly the notice.
Part of Manehattan in ruins!
Yesterday, at the city of Manehattan, a sudden multicolored explosion occurred in the middle of the city, destroying a big part of it. Multiple deaths were reported, all of them were from confirmed worshipers of the villains known as Night Mare Moon and Discord. The main suspect was the winner of this year's Best Young Flier competition, Rainbow Dash.
The princess skipped the rest of the notice, and saw how was a part of Manehattan. After she finished that, she continued with the other news.
After reading everything to the point of when she offered the bounty for Fernando, she turned to Twilight
"It looks like that human was here even before Discord was freed, and looking by how you six, a full team of masons, my sister, the police of Manehattan, and the Royal Guard and even me failed to take a hold on him, he must not be underestimated. Also, looking by how I asked for him to be brought to me, I can tell that it will be safer if he is under our custody".
"But right now he is in the Everfree forest. What are we supposed to do?" Twilight replied
"Don't worry. Discord liberated him when he was at the castle, so I think he needs to keep him safe" Celestia answered
"But it is Discord who we are talking about" Twilight responded. Celestia hummed a little in thought when the unicord pointed this.
"Then we wait for him to be seen again. If he doesn't, then we can assume two things. He found a good home at the forest, or he is... dead" she finished, not liking to talk about anything related to the death.
Back at the forest, Fernando was still alive, but was having pain all over his body because of the position he was forced to. He stretched himself and tried to shake the sleepiness, and was about to return to the ground, but stopped when he saw what was below.
At the ground, there was what could be described as a Venus Flytrap with eyes, but big enough to eat one of the biggest humans and with roots that looked like legs.
"So that's what Discord talked about?" he thought, while looking around, searching for more of them. Thankfully, he didn't found anymore. While looking around, Fernando spotted Discord sleeping peacefully on a hammock. Looking up, he saw a branch that looked like it could be torn from the tree. He reached for it and pulled with all of his might. It took some tries, but he finally had the branch under his possession.
Fernando turned again to Discord, and aiming carefully, he threw it, hitting Discord on the head and startling him. Discord fell from the hammock and distracted the plant, giving Fernando the opportunity to jump and to fall on top of it, leaving it dizzy and giving Fernando enough time to get away from it and to continue his path.
"Fernando one, plants zero" he thought while running.