[Nick Hempshire]
It was a simple plan. Go to Maggie's house and ask to borrow an ice pack for my sore back. While there, see who their mysterious guest is. Also learn what I can about Maggie's "demon." That way, I can be sure that she has nothing to do with the occult, or that weird disembodied voice from yesterday.
"Where you goin' bro?" Shane asked as I opened his front door.
"Oh, uh, I just have a question for Maggie!" I replied nervously. "It shouldn't take long."
My older brother gave me a skeptical glance, but eventually allowed me to leave the house.
Crossing the street, I noticed something peculiar. I could no longer see into the Grant household's windows. They appeared to be coated with something from the inside.
'Well if that's not suspicious,' I thought, 'I don't know what is.'
Nonetheless, I approached the door and rang the doorbell. As had become customary, I didn't wait for anyone to answer. I tried to open the door and let myself in, but it was locked.
I could hear frantic noises from within the house, but nobody seemed to be interested in letting me in. After waiting for a little bit longer, I reached down between two of the wooden boards making up their deck.
"Sometimes," I said, pulling out a key, "it pays to be a nosy neighbor."
Sliding the key into the door, I slowly opened it. I jumped back in shock as Maggie appeared in the doorway, keeping it closed most of the way. I was more than a little bit surprised by her appearance. She was almost covered from head to toe with some kind of white powder.
"Hey, Nick," she said nonchalantly, blowing a strand of powdery hair out of her face. "What's up?"
"Um..."
How the heck was I supposed to respond to this? She's covered in some kind of powder, and she's just acting so calm about it! Wait, is the floor covered with it, too?
Sure enough, I'd just noticed the floor beneath Maggie's feet. The one that had most certainly not been white a little while ago.
"Oh, I was just," I hesitated for a moment, realizing just how awkward this situation had quickly become, "hoping I could borrow an ice pack. I had some back pain a little bit ago, so I want to ice it."
"Oh, I, uh, I see..." she started to shift her eyes from side to side. A few beads of sweat formed, causing a small amount of the white powder on her forehead to coagulate from the moisture.
"May I come in?" I asked.
"Oh, uh, I..." she stumbled over her words. "Sure!"
Pushing the door open, I finally got a clear view of the room. What I saw made my eye twitch. The entire room was covered wall-to-wall and ceiling-to-floor with the same white powder. Looking over towards the kitchen, I saw Luke attempting to wash the stuff off of himself.
He mostly just succeeded in making it coagulate onto his skin.
"Is this," I started as I wiped a finger along one wall and carefully placed it in my mouth. "Powdered sugar?"
"We think so," Maggie replied.
Looking around the room once more, I took notice of the fact that Maggie and Luke were alone. When had their guest left?
Oh, well. I suppose I'll have to work my way up to asking about that. First, though, I was going to ask about something more important. The demon.
"Maggie, I've been meaning to ask," I started in a conversational tone. "What have you been hiding from me?"
Maggie proceeded to freeze, which was ironic since she'd just opened the freezer to retrieve an ice pack.
"What... what do you mean?"
"Well, I know you've been hiding something, and I know it has to do with whatever 'demon' you've been trying to keep me from knowing about. So..."
"You told him about Discord!" Luke practically exploded at his sister.
"Of course not," she said calmly. "Although, you just did."
Luke took a glance towards me. I agreed with Maggie by nodding in the affirmative. He facepalmed.
Sadly for him, his facepalm sent up a small cloud of powdered sugar from his face, making him sneeze violently.
"Discord?" I asked. It sounded familiar, but from where?
"Well," Luke said after recovering from the powdered sugar, "You might as well tell him now. Not like he's gonna give up on asking. The kid's curiosity is a curse."
"Yeah," said Maggie. "He fell from the sky in the warehouse district! We nursed him back to health!"
Nick wasn't really listening anymore. He was trying to place the name Discord. He knew he'd heard it before.
"He said he was from another dimension, but I don't know if I believe that," Luke chimed in. "I mean, a magical world full of sentient ponies is a little hard to believe, isn't it? Sounds like a cartoon."
Wait, sentient ponies? That's it!
"Because it is!" I exclaimed.
I received confused looks from both Grant siblings.
"What are you talking about?" Maggie asked.
"Discord! The lord of chaos! Reformed villain of Equestria!" I rattled off.
"Uh, how did you know that?" Maggie asked.
"Wait, wait, wait. Villain?" said Luke.
"Wait, you're trying to tell me," I started, "that you're claiming to have nursed Discord back to health without knowing what he was?"
"Nick, just tell us how you know who Discord is!" Maggie said. She seemed to be getting a bit upset.
"How about I just show you?" I said.
I walked to Maggie's bedroom, which was not currently covered in powdered sugar. I sat down on her bed and turned on the TV. Going to Netflix, I selected the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic season 2.
Maggie was now sitting next to me, while Luke was watching the screen while leaning against the door frame.
As the episode got underway, I was surprised by the lack of questions I was receiving. When the screen first displayed Discord, trapped in his stone prison, Maggie shot up into a standing position and paused the show.
"Holy shit!" she proclaimed. "That's Discord! Well, I mean, it's a statue of him, but still!"
I looked over to Luke, who was leaning slack-jawed against the doorway. He was as pale as the powdered sugar still covering most of his body. I honestly thought he was going to faint.
I took the remote from Maggie and fast forwarded to the part of the episode once Discord is speaking to the Main 6 in Canterlot Castle.
"Oh my God," said Luke. "He even sounds like himself."
"Wait," I said, still trying to figure out what the heck was going on, but glad to be included, "you mean Discord actually sounds like that?"
"More or less," he replied.
"Wow. I guess when they said they cast the perfect VA, they weren't kidding."
"Ummm..." Maggie started. "Why does he sound so... nefarious?"
"Because at this point in the show," I replied, "he was a villain."
After the episode ended, they asked me what other episodes Discord was in. Due to the fact that I knew this would take a while, I excused myself to go ask my brother if we could make it a sleepover!
"Sure," Shane said after I'd asked to spend the night at Maggie's.
I gave him a hug as thanks and headed towards the door.
"Hey," he called out, stopping me in my tracks. "What's that stuff on your shoes?"
"It's, uh... powdered sugar," I said, forcing myself to not sound believable. This was going to be priceless.
"Oh, really?" Shane asked. "Come on, bro. Bring one of those sneakers over here."
"OK," I said, making myself sound dejected. I walked over glumly and handed over my right shoe.
Shane looked at the powder for a moment before swiping some off with his fingertip and pressing it to his tongue.
His eyebrow perked up in confusion as he tasted it.
"This," he started, "this is actually powdered sugar, isn't it?"
A wicked grin overtook my face. I may not be one for pranks, but anything I could do to throw my brother's mind for a loop was fine by me.
After returning to the Grant household and helping them clean up the powdered sugar (by choice), the three of us had a My Little Pony marathon until it got late. After that, I had to go to sleep. After all, I had school tomorrow! The only reason Shane had OK'd the sleepover was because he knew Luke could be trusted to get me to school on time.
I wouldn't have believed them about the demon had I not seen their reactions to Discord's appearance in the show. This was going to take a lot more research. My nerves were electrified with excitement!