"Ah, this is much better." Discord sighed, "Don't you agree?"
Hermione looked around the library, which seemed imperceptibly different than it had a moment before: simultaneously less concrete but somehow more real. Notably, Twilight was missing.
"Where did Twilight go?"
"Just give it a bit, she'll be here any second. We need to catch up with what's happening." Discord twiddled his 'thumbs' for a moment and whistled a little ditty, and after a few moments, Twilight dutifully winked back into existence.
She shook her mane a bit, taking a few moments to reorient herself. Twilight was suspicious, as she always was whenever Discord was in one of his moods like he appeared to be in now.
"What did you do? Why does it feel different?" Twilight demanded.
"Acknowledging my limitations, that's all, my little pony. I would say I'm playing to my strengths, but that would imply that writing is my strong suit. Which, let's be honest, I have a bad habit of taking twenty-thousand words to get the action going, and my publishing schedule has been more than a little erratic." Discord floated lazily across the void as he spoke.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. What's really going on here?" Twilight was pacing underneath where Discord floated.
"No, you wouldn't, would you? But you, on the other hand, my bookish friend... You understand, don't you?" He flew up close to Hermione and sat down, propping himself up with a claw, and began combing her coat with a comb that was gripped in his wing.
"I... This whole thing. At first, I thought this was a figment of my imagination. That I was dead, and that this was just a dream, that my brain's pattern still 'existed' in some abstract sense... But then she showed up, and you showed up. And it's not that, is it? This isn't my imagination, this is Imagination.
"Harry would always go on about cryogenics, about how it was logical and rational and how you'd have to be an idiot not to hand over a lot of money based on some seriously questionable science. We didn't quite see eye to eye on the issue, but his heart was in the right place. And I'm pretty certain that Harry would have preserved my body..." she shuddered for a moment as she considered this, "...or at least my head, when I... you know. When I died."
"Do go on, this exposition is enthralling."
"You don't seem very enthralled, Discord." Twilight pointed out.
"Yes, well she's taking quite a long time to get to the good stuff, isn't she?"
Hermione huffed a bit, "Well, excuse me, but it's not every day that someone is thrust into an afterlife with no explanation and has to figure everything out herself!""
Discord threw his arms up in mock defensiveness, "Speak for yourself! Anyway, do go on."
"Well. Well, then Twilight Sparkle showed up and told me about this whole other world that existed, and the whole thing just felt like... A story. A cartoon, a TV show, a book. This couldn't have just been my imagination. And if Harry had preserved my body using Magic, it's entirely possible, probable even, that other people had been preserved using the same means. Harry, despite how clever he thinks he is, isn't the only person with lofty ideals and ideas.
"So, as far as I can tell, this place is a construct of Magic, a place of pure imagination, of all form and no substance. And look, despite the fact that Harry can be a bit silly at times, he's my friend, and I'm his friend. He's a good person, and he wouldn't want me to stay dead, to stay in this place. And you..." She turned to Twilight, "I think your friends probably feel the same way."
Twilight nodded, "I came to your world because I was following a prophecy. Ever since my world was created, our worlds have been bound together, and the time has come for that bond to end. In a way, at least to you, our world will be destroyed. And yet, in another way, it will still live on forever, in memory. But your world, something else must happen entirely. And that's what I wasn't clear on." Twilight cleared her throat as she remembered the relevant part of the prophecy, " 'The world that birthed this world must be destroyed, for this is the only way to save that world.' I didn't understand it, how could destroying the world save the world? So I came here to investigate..."
Discord cackled, "And your investigation was cut short in quite a spectacular manner. Dismembered and devoured by a dark wizard doing dark deeds!" He preened for a moment. "I have quite the talent for alliteration, don't I?"
"Sure, Discord." Twilight continued, "I told my friends that if I didn't come back, they needed to follow in my footsteps, not for my sake, but for the sake of this world. Maybe for the sake of all worlds, too."
"Twilight," Hermione asked, putting her hoof to her chin, "Do you remember the full text of the prophecy?"
She nodded. "It's actually a continuation of a prophecy that I thought we had already solved. It's honestly the longest prophecy I've ever seen. It starts like this...
'On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal.
For the stars in the heavens have grown heavy, an anchor that if left unchecked will destroy the world from which Equus was born.
Following the ninth season of strife, the world that birthed this world must be destroyed, for this is the only way to save that world.
The stars shall be torn from the heavens, and in that sunless sky, a new eternal day shall dawn for Equus.
The elements, the stones of infinite power must be sought, understood, and embraced: strange charms of truth and beauty which make up become down.
The ones who command the six forces must stand before the world, who will bear witness to its power and speak together:
'You are here. The one who shall tear apart the very stars in heaven. You are here. You are the end of the world.' "
Hermione frowned, hard. "Strange, charm, truth, beauty, up, down... Those are the names of the six quarks."
Discord giggled and clapped his hands with glee, but said nothing.
Twilight cocked her head, "The six... quarks? That's kind of a silly name, isn't it? What are they?"
"They're... Well, they're the building blocks of everything. Life, matter, even reality, really. Without them, there would be nothing."
"That sounds a lot like the Elements of Harmony."
"And you said... 'The ones who command the six forces'. That doesn't seem... There's something about that. 'The ones'. Not one person, but many. A group of people. Maybe even an entire world of people?"
Twilight nodded in agreement, "At first, I thought it might have referred to my friends because, in our world, we can harness the power of the Elements of Harmony."
"But that doesn't really fit, does it? You don't really... command the Elements. You harness them, you use them, but they don't really do what you ask, do they?"
Twilight shook her head, "No, they don't. It's almost like they have a mind of their own. A certain... wisdom, you might say."
"Yes... I think, I think perhaps the prophecy might be referring to someone... some THING different. Like... science."
"You may be right, but I don't think that's the full picture. The elements must be 'sought, understood and embraced', not just commanded. I think that it's both. Someone who not just commands their power, but understands the Elements of Harmony and embraces their ideals."
"Yes... It's almost like, the prophecy is saying, the world has to... I don't know... be united in both Friendship and Science? It's like I've always told Harry, just because you can do it alone doesn't mean you have to. There's a whole world out there of people with different experiences and different lives, you can't just assume you're the only person who really knows how things are."
Twilight thought about this for a bit. "That does seem right. But then, where do we go from here? I mean, not 'we' like the world, but 'we' like you and me."
"And what am I, chopped horse meat?" Discord interjected incredulously.
Twilight sighed, "You can come along too if you want..." she trailed off and muttered a bit, "Not that you need my permission..."
Discord chuckled, "No, no. I'm perfectly fine where I'm at, observing things from a distance, pulling little strings and loose threads wherever I find them." Discord suddenly gasped and held a claw up to his mouth. "But dear me, I realized how terribly rude I've been!"
"What do you mean?"
"You asked a question earlier that I never got around to answering. You asked, why does it feel different? It's simple, really: she's alive, now."
"What?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Alive and well! I'd show you myself, but we have an unexpected visitor who I think will illustrate the point far more vividly. Mr. Malfoy, would you like to introduce yourself?"
"Mr. Malfoy?!" Hermione shouted.
"I... are you there? Is someone there?" Lucius Malfoy's voice floated eerily from a place beyond places.
"Lucius Malfoy, what is he doing here?" Hermione demanded.
Discord bobbed up and down impatiently, "Normally I would let you all take a chapter or two to figure out together how all of this came to be, but we're running quite short on time. So many places to go, so many people to be, you know how it is."
Discord clapped his paw and claw together, and the form of Lucius Malfoy melted into existence out of the nothingness.
Malfoy looked around, thoroughly disoriented until he saw the two unicorns and odd dragon-like creature standing in front of him.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Malfoy?" Hermione once again demanded.
"Do... Do I know you?" Lucius asked, urgently.
"Yes, it's me, Hermione Granger, how could you forg-- Oh." She realized that she was currently presenting as a unicorn rather than her human self. She concentrated hard, willing her form to change into what she seemed to remember she looked like, a process she found much easier now that she was apparently alive.
Malfoy nodded, uncharacteristically frightened and discomposed, "Yes, Miss Granger. Yes... Listen, we don't have much time. Draco and Harry, they're in danger. I... I can still feel the world around me, I don't think I'm quite dead yet--"
"Dead?!" Hermione exclaimed.
"Yes, murdered by a servant of Lord Voldemort. He is returned," Lucius said, simply. "My life in that world is draining quickly... Just... Look."
Lucius closed his eyes and concentrated, and around them, a scene began to unfold; a strange, menacing figure that was too tall to be human, standing over Harry and Draco and a collection of witches, one of whom was touching Harry's hand--
"My friends!" Twilight shouted with an exhilaration that soon gave way to fright as she saw the predicament they were in.
The voices were too muffled to be heard, but it was clear that Lucius Malfoy was telling the truth; they were all in grave danger.
While Twilight was focused on her friends and the knives at their throats, Hermione was transfixed by something else entirely: her own form upon the altar, her own chest rising slowly up and down, her own blood pumping through her own heart of its own volition.
The scene around them was becoming more and more solid, more real.
"He... Harry did it. He really did it. I'm... I'm alive," Hermione whispered, tears beginning to form at the corners of her eyes. "My friend. My friend saved me...
The forest began to encroach in around them, with black hooded figures circling menacingly above.
"He saved me... because he is my friend... And now..."
Beneath the moonlight glints a tiny fragment of silver, a fraction of a line...
Hermione drew herself up to her full height, "Now, I have to save him. Because he is my friend... and..."
(Black robes, falling)
Twilight gasped as she saw the knives that were pressed against the throats of her friends move with sudden, savage ferocity.
...blood spills out in liters
"Friendship... is... MAGIC!"
...and someone screams a word.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"