//------------------------------// // Chapter 71. Wherefore Art Thou, Discord? // Story: Becoming Fluttershy // by Hope //------------------------------// I sat in the corner of the room as the hum of activity descended on Twilight, doctors swarming through the room allied with veterinarians and nurses. I’d deflected a bullet with the Element of Kindness. The Element of Magic had brought Twilight… Whoever she was now, back from the brink of death. What else were they capable of in a world full of fear and strangeness? Pondering it, I touched my chest with a hoof, feeling the raw spot where the element of Kindness has scorched me, in the middle of one of my darkest moments. It was comforting that the Elements had limits, lines they would not cross, where they would push back against us. Maybe then, if I was really really a bad pony, then the Element of Kindness would show me, stop me. It was probably not okay that I liked the idea of a magical device able to see into my heart and evaluate my worthiness, but it was a sort of comfort to me. A pulse of blue magic flowed through the room, grabbing my attention as Rarity shoved the doctors out of the room. “We’ll call you if she feels worse, thank you!” she shouted angrily before slamming the door and turning back to the rest of us, her smile stiff. “I fucking hate doctors sometimes,” she growled. “Thanks, Rarity,” Twilight sighed, relaxing a bit more in her bed. “Normally, I’m all for the pursuit of knowledge, but it was just so… repetitive!” She laughed, and looked all of us over. “How’s Earth been treating everypony?” Everyone rushed in to hug her as I got down from my chair and trotted closer, smiling. Pinkie, or Reid,  I’d noticed was zoning out almost as much as I was, as we’d drift into our thoughts and lose focus. But both of us got up for Twilight, as the bed became a pony pile pretty quickly. Twilight grunted out another laugh. “That good, huh?” she gasped. “Easy. Easy- ow!” I hovered next to the bed while everypony else pulled back to give Twilight room. “Sorry, Twi,” RJ said. “It’s just- well, it’s so good seeing you awake.” “It’s good seeing you girls, too,” she said. She looked at each of our faces, then her brows knit in worry. “Still no Spike?” We shared a look among the group, none of us had been actively hunting for him, but we probably would have heard about him if he’d been found. “Sorry,” I said gently, landing on the bedside chair. “None of us came across him.” “I’m sure he’s fine,” Raritony said, patting Twilight’s hoof. “He’s a tough little dragon. I’m sure he hasn’t run up against anything he can’t handle.” “I still worry,” Twilight said, ears drooping. “I know how you feel, Twi,” RJ said, taking her other hoof. “I only just heard from Apple Bloom. But she was safer than Big Mac’s doll collection. I’m sure Spike is doing just fine.” Twilight nodded. “You’re right. You’re absolutely right,” she said. “Look at me, worrying about who isn’t here when I have all of you!” She reached forward, giving Raritony and RJ little side hugs. “I missed you girls!” “We missed you too, Twilight!” Pinkie said. “Well, we missed talking to you. Because we were totally here with you, before, but you were all… bleeeh, beep, beep, but now you’re all awake! Which is sooooo much better for talking.” Twilight chuckled. “Yeah Pinkie. Kind of hard to talk in a coma.” “I know, right? You were worse than Dashie in the middle of a nap.” “Hey, I’m not that bad!” Dash replied, with mock affront. We all gave her a look. “Okay, maybe I am, but it’s not a coma,” Dash said, gesturing to Twilight. “Yeah- you girls managed to wake me up from my coma. We’ve yet to find the thing that’ll wake you from a nap,” Twilight joked. That earned a ripple of laughter through our little group. “Oh... how sweet,” commented a cruel masculine voice from behind me. None of us were laughing anymore, as we turned to see the TV bolted to the ceiling, which turned on it’s own to face us, revealing the monster himself. “Discord!” I gasped, already as far away from him as I could be, practically cornered against the bedside stand and the bed itself. “Hello, my little ponies,” he said, all teeth. “Enjoying Earth so far?” We’d lost, I was pretty sure. Discord was too strong. He’d been too strong all along, although we did have the elements again… With my new perspective, I knew what had happened last time Fluttershy and Discord had come face to face. I’d tried so hard to show him the truth of who I was, to show him that I cared, that my weaknesses weren’t painful to me, they were just another facet of who I am, and then he’d reached out and he’d been in my head. Discord had walked the halls of my mind, and laughed at what he saw. He’d torn Fluttershy apart by just asking her a simple question. Why did she bother trying so hard, when noone else did? Then he made her feel it. Every time she’d seen cruelty, every time she’d been hurt, every time her brother ignored her and trampled on her needs and feelings, every time a friend didn’t notice her pain. Now, I wondered what question would tear me apart? What horrors would make me the weak point that lost Earth to him? “Discord,” Twilight growled. “In the flesh! Well, in the electrons for now, but this is still so much better than digital animation, don’t you think?” He popped his head off, rolling it down one arm and lifting it in his claw. The skin and fur melted away from his face, leaving a goat-like skull in its wake. “So realistic. It’s like it’s in three dee!” Then he shoved the skull through the screen. It swept around the room, looking at all of us. “I can start throwing lettuce next. I want you to have the full experience, after all,” he crooned, then snaked his skull back into the TV. “What do you want, you fucking varmit!” RJ snapped, standing proud and firm against his threatening imposition. “Tut! Temper temper, Rachel,” he said, while resettling his head in place. “There are fillies present.” Then Sweetie Belle shouted a string of curse words at Discord that genuinely made me wonder if us humans had absolutely ruined ponykind. It seemed Discord agreed as he raised an eyebrow. “And the fillies are rather knowledgeable,” he declared before snapping his fingers, creating a padlock over May’s mouth. Of course, she immediately began pawing at it, trying to get it off her face in a panic while Rarity gasped, picking her up and holding her close. “May!” she gasped. “Undo it, Discord,” Twilight said, her tone hard. “Your fight is with us.” “Ah, David. Always so tough,” Discord said, smirking at her. “But you do cut straight to the heart of the matter.” He jammed a spear through his chest, then snapped his fingers. The padlock disappeared and May gasped, working her jaw up and down. “You know, this world is quite fascinating. Quite fascinating, indeed. I’d have thought the second you annoying little ponies took over your humans, that’d be all she wrote. Nothing but sugary, friendship-minded Equestrians as far as the eye could see.” He batted long eyelashes at us. “Yet… I can see the human all over you. And it’s just so… interesting,” Discord said, leaning down, pressing his face against the screen. “Especially Reid,” he added, grinning at Pinkie. “Are all the naps helping, Reid-i-kins? I bet subconscious life is treating you sooo well.” Pinkie blew a raspberry at him, and I wondered if us humans were band-aids, just keeping the ponies together so they could do the real work, how much was I hurting… myself? “What do you want, Discord?” RJ snapped, stepping forward to defend us all. “What does any pure manifestation of chaos want when they’re plunged into another dimension?” He twirled around, donning an ermine cape and crown. “I want to rule. You can keep Equestria and your silly ponies- America. Now here’s a country ripe for planting chaos.” He tossed the cape and crown away, sliding on a copy of AJ’s hat. “And I’m jus’ the chaos-poke to farm it!” He spat, then slid a wheat stalk between his snaggley teeth. “Once I get all these hyoo-mans on board, a ‘course.” “So go on and do it,” AJ challenged. “What’s stoppin’ ya?” He sighed, and the hat and stalk caught fire and burned away. “What else? You,” he said, glaring down. “I mean, let’s be honest, Honest Rachel, the score is Elements of Harmony 2…” He scribbled it on a chalkboard behind him. He poofed out of sight, and reappeared as a circular number on his score board. “Me? A big. Fat. ZERO!” he screeched. “And is that fair? Is that just, I ask you?” he moaned, turning back to a draconequus and throwing the chalkboard offscreen. “Is that any way to treat someone such as I?” He flung an arm over his face, a violin playing in the distance. He looked upon us forlornly. “Nay,” he whispered, sniffling as a tear trickled down in a dramatic, black and white closeup. The violin screeched to a stop, and he plopped into an armchair. “So, per the usual, we will play a game.” “The usual?” Pinkie said. “How is that chaos-y?” “Because, sweet Reid,” Discord said, grinning. “No one sees chaos coming the same way twice. And it’s a different game, so nyah.” He stuck out his tongue. “What... game?” Twilight asked, eyes narrowing. “Can it be Jenga? I’m really good at Jenga!” Pinkie said, hopping up and down. “As much fun as tottering buildings with you would be, Reid, I have something else in mind,” Discord said, pulling out a sand timer. “Something that will be fun for everyone.” “Discord, we ain’t here for any of your games,” RJ growled, stepping forward. “Whatever you’re thinking of- don’t.” “Or you’ll what? Get yourself kidnapped again, Rachel?” Discord sneered. “Really, you’re so useless here. All of you are. And I’m going to prove it.” He flipped the sand timer. “You have sixty minutes, one hour, to find where I am. To make it easy, I assure you, I’m somewhere in New York.” He waved, negligently, at a map of New York City. Tiny, waving Discords, in Where’s Waldo get-ups, appeared across the city. “What- what happens if we don’t find you?” I asked, swallowing my fear as I realized that Discord always operated like this, the games, the more we played his games the more power he had. “Fail to locate me and…” He snapped his fingers, and the map poofed into a picture of a red apple. “I turn New York City into the biggest apple of all.” He cackled as he gestured at the apple, clearly enjoying himself quite a bit as the apple spun, shiny and juicy looking. “Hm. And I think, yes, I think all its residents can be the worms.” Several of the tiny Discord Waldo’s popped out of the apple, spinning worms like party favors. There was confetti. “And if we find you, then what?” Twilight asked. “Then I don’t turn New York into an apple with all its residents as worms,” he said, snapping his claw and vanishing his visual aid. “I thought that was obvious.” He snorted. “Really, there’s just no talking to some ponies.” He slid on a pair of sunglasses and an “I <3 NY” cap, and said, “You lot have have fun! I’m off to see the sights! Ta ta!” The screen faded to one of those old black and white disrupted broadcast cards, with Discord in a feathered headdress in the center. With a groan, the TV broke free of the ceiling mount, then scuttled out the window, on legs of wire. We all stood in silence. “We are so fucked,” May whispered.