One week later…
“...And that was it. Celestia had to console him afterwards, which is pretty crazy, but yeah, he pretty much accepted it. Although Shining Armor still hasn’t, but he can’t do anything now. Pretty good story, huh?” You said, grinning.
You were sitting outside Bonbon’s house, sitting down in front of a circular table with both her and Lyra as you sucked down on soda and hayburgers bought from the local fast food joint. You were busy telling them your enthralling tale of reforming Chrysalis.
“Wow, that’s super amazing A-” Lyra, being as cheerful as ever, was about to praise you until she noticed Bonbon’s sour expression. She then shifted her ears and shook her head at you. “Totally not awesome, Anon.”
Wut? “Why are you looking at me like that, guys? Come on, the guy is a huge jerk, he had it coming. Besides, Chrysalis is good now, isn’t that awesome?”
Bonbon silently took a drink of her soda, took a breath, and stared at you even harder before pointing at you with her hoof. “You traumatized Princess Twilight, and possibly Prince Shining Armor, to get what you want. Granted, that was mostly Discord. But, you also traumatized Chancellor Neighsay. And yes, I know Princess Celestia and Chrysalis helped with that, but what you don’t seem to understand is that you now have the problem that if he ever finds out, his wrath will be bad. I’m talking, like, really really bad. I can’t believe all of you thought any of that was a good idea.”
You slump over onto the table and grumpily pout at Bonbon. “Sheesh, that’s a mood killer. It’s not like I’m telling anypony else, I know you guys can keep a secret.”
Bonbon sighs as she leans back on her chair. “I know, and it’s terrible. I can’t believe Princess Celestia herself would think this is okay. And, what, Chrysalis is really reformed? Really? Because the part about the evil you, I was already filled in on that, you know. It doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence when she can pretend to do one thing when really doing another.”
“Oh, c’mon, Bonbon! Don’t be so hard on him! Remember, Discord did a ton of bad stuff too, and now he’s a good guy!” Lyra said, trying to bring her own logic to the conversation while also trying to defuse any ill will. “C’moooooon, isn’t it neat that all the changelings are super good now?”
“Are they?” Bonbon looked to you, obviously wondering about something. “What happened to that creepy one in your house?”
“Er… Uhhh….” Shit. Sad to say, you and Discord still had no home at the moment. You both had been staying at Fluttershy’s. While you don’t mind too much staying there, it was still annoying at times having to deal with Angel, who often broke any truce you might have with him whenever he felt like it. Meanwhile Discord, while actually admitting what he did to lose the house, refused Fluttershy’s help and guidance to getting it back, and repeatedly avoids the subject about it altogether. “Um, yeah. We don’t talk about him.”
“Oh? Why?” Lyra said, biting into her burger as she slowly stretches her head towards you. “Did he get creeeeeeeeepier?”
“Judging from his reaction, he’s most likely not reformed and something bad happened, right?” Bonbon said, guessing correctly.
“... C’mon, I… I don’t wanna say, it’s embarrassing.” Ugh, you really didn’t. It was a tough situation, not only because Discord refused to deal with it unless he could beat Jimmy in some sort of challenge or bet, but he’s even made it where your magic is useless against him, feeling taking the house back by force would be admitting total defeat. “B-besides, it’s a long story. I got stuff to do, y’know? I got partnered with Yona for a project for Generosity class. Then I gotta go see my friend, Cozy Glow, she needs help sending something big to a friend.”
Lyra went up to Bonbon’s ear and started whispering something as she gave you a sly and mischievous stare. Bonbon nodded, and then looked to you with a smirk. “Well, sounds like Lyra already knows what’s going on from Pinkie Pie. Wow, Anon, that’s really really bad. Like, wow.” Bonbon said while shaking her head. “How do you and Discord live with yourselves??”
WHAT?! SHE KNEW?! “Hey! That isn’t fair! Discord literally bet on the wrong horse! Okay?! Alright?! Sheesh, how did Pinkie even know?! It’s a secret! We’re still planning on how to get the house back, we just need to figure out how we can beat him!”
Lyra looks to Bonbon with a grin, and gives her a wink. Bonbon nods, then looks back at you with a smirk. “Welp, we didn’t know any of that, but now we get it. Gambled the house away, huh? Sounds like something he’d do, since gambling is pretty chaotic within itself.”
Wut? “What do you mean you didn’t kno- Oh…” You brought your hoof to your face, then slammed it onto the table. “I can’t believe I fell for that old trick.”
“Awwww, c’mon, Anon, I didn’t mean to make you feel bad. Isn’t that something you’d do though?” Lyra asked, using her magic to gently stroke your back.
“He totally would. I’m not going to keep telling you how wrong you were to do it though, considering how important it actually was and the fact even Princess Celestia participated in it, but I do think it’s important for you to at least know how it feels to be duped like that.” Bonbon said as she finished up her burger.
“...Ugh, fine, I guess I can see why it stinks.” You groaned, but almost gently purred from the magical feeling on your back. “... So, then, er. Look, the thing is, the guy turned the whole place into a casino thanks to beating Discord. I don’t even understand it since he’s by himself, but that’s what he wanted. I can’t even get there unless I waste a charge on my horn because using Scrappy’s map sends me right into a shark tank with crazy looking sharks! They nearly ate me! I had to literally regrow my tail once! Ugh!" You groaned before putting your face down on the table once more. "Do you guys have any ideas on something we could make a wager on, and, well, win?”
“Oooooh, Bonbon is good at coming up with this kinda stuff. I bet you already thought of something, right, Bonbon?” Lyra asked, excited to hear what Bonbon may have come up with.
Bonbon nodded. “Yup. Horseshoe tossing contest. I can win it for you, I never miss when I actually want to win.”
“Ooooh! That’s so true. Anon, you gotta see her go, she once went two hundred tosses straight without ever missing!” Lyra said as she raised herself to gently grasp onto Bonbon while resting her head on top of hers. “She’s totally amazing.”
Bonbon chuckled to herself, nuzzling a bit under Lyra. “Not to toot my own horn, but the only reason I didn’t go for three hundred is because I had already won the contest on the twenty seventh toss. It got boring, you know? I just missed to get it over with.”
“Huh…” That’d have to be something you’d have to consider. Jimmy was impatient, and despite taking in human culture as his own, he wasn’t that good at following it, at least in your opinion. Not only that, but he might go for the challenge without practicing for it himself, thinking he’d be superior to any pony at it. “Well, that could work. I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Well, I don’t mind giving it a shot if you decide you need my help. But also try to keep in mind what I said about traumatizing ponies to get your way. Alright?” Bonbon said as she began to throw her trash in a trashcan Lyra brought over so everyone could toss their bags.
“Alright, but you guys are going already?” You asked, tilting your head in confusion.
“We have lives to get to too, Anon. Your big story sorta lasted a long time and we have to take a trip to Canterlot to pick up this new cookbook they’re selling over there.” Bonbon said as she looked over and thanked Lyra for giving her her saddlebags.
“Yeah! One hundred Saddle Arabian recipes! It sounds super delicious and super exotic, we can’t miss out!” Lyra said in excitement.
Bonbon nodded. “That’s right. We have been saving up for the book and the ingredients. We even have a back up to ask the Cakes for help in case we screw something up with the actual cooking.”
“Yeah, some of the recipes in the preview pamphlet looked kinda tough to follow, but we’re still gonna give it a shot. If you want, you can be our taste tester, Anon. How does that sound?” Lyra said as she stepped up to you to give you a gentle pat on the head.
“Sure, I wouldn’t mind getting a chance to try some new food.” It actually sounded like a fun and tasty time.
“Yeah! Awesome!” Lyra said, hopping in excitement.
“It’ll only be awesome if we don’t miss that train. C’mon, Lyra. And hey, Anon, you take care of yourself, alright?” Bonbon said, giving you a warm smile.
“Byyyyyyeeeeeee, Anon!” Lyra said, cheerfully waving at you.
“I will, you two take care too, okay?” You said, waving at them.
“We will.” Bonbon said as she hurried Lyra along as they walked past the crowds towards the train station.
Welp, you now have an option to use to get the house back. If Bonbon really was that good, then it shouldn’t be too hard. Though, thinking about it, you were irked still by Bonbon’s comments on Neighsay. Even more so by her and Lyra tricking you that easily. How could you be so easily fooled by such a simple trick? Bah, you just let your guard down, that’s all.
Agh, but now you had to focus on that project with Yona. Dammit, Anon, it was annoying attending that school sometimes, but it not only made Fluttershy happy, but you had to admit, it was nice having the friends you made there, like Smolder and… Well, not Ocellus. She was a prude, especially about Chrysalis.
Hell, none of them even knew you had ‘reformed’ Chrysalis yet. And that’d be fine if it wasn't for Ocellus and her dumb fear of Chrysalis. At one point you were going to have to convince her to go see her. You’re sure Chrysalis would be happy, at least internally, to interact with another one of her children. While she certainly loved Scrappy, he never exactly betrayed her in the first place. You were sure she’d be happy to see that even the changelings that had left her would be willing to talk with her and at least be friends with her in some capacity. Surely that’d be awesome for her to know she isn’t actually hated. Y'know, you just gotta get Ocellus to stop hating her.
The project though, it should be simple. Rarity simply wanted students to partner up with one another and swap lives in some sense. She wasn’t specific, she just said we’d all find our own ways of doing it. Lucky for you, you had chaos magic, so it should be easy to just swap species and that be that. You dreaded being a yak, but considering you weren’t in Yakyakistan to take in their customs, you weren’t sure how else to complete the project.
You walked through Ponyville like it was any other day. Because it was, really. The Storm King was dealt with, Neighsay was dealt with, you were sure whatever season villain that was supposed to show up was already gone at this point. You waved to ponies who noticed you, smiled to those who recognized you as the hero colt. Yeh, life was cool. Yona said she’d be waiting at the fountain near city hall, a very familiar place since it was your usual exit and entrance portal point.
You also had to wonder why Cozy needed your help to send something ‘big’, as she put it. Or maybe you should just stop wondering about it. You already embarrassed yourself thinking she was somehow working with Chrysalis. At this point, your instinct on ‘big secret bad guys and their big secret plans’ was going off for no reason when it came to her.
Whatever, Yona was already in sight. She was looking into the fountain for some reason, so you just approached her and called for her attention. “Hey, Yona! I’m here.”
“Hm?” Yona turns around and smiles, hopping up in excitement at seeing you, causing the earth to shake and send you to the ground, right on your face. “Anon! You’re here! Good.” She slowly walks up to you and plucks you from the ground before practically slamming you back onto your hooves, causing you to literally shake from the stunning impact. “Yona noticed you sleeping though, it’s too early for that. Project now, sleep later.”
“Ngh! Nggmmmm… Y-yeah, er.” Sure, your head was invincible, but in cases like these, you had to steel yourself because holy crap that hurt, you felt like your body almost shattered like glass. “Ngh, let's just not move around too much r-right now until we actually talk about what we’re going to do, okay?”
“Okay.” Yona said, tilting her head in confusion. “But why not move?”
“Um, because uhhh… We’re supposed to be thinking. Project now, moving later, am I right?” You said with a nervous chuckle.
“Oh, that sound right.” Yona said with a nod. “Okay, project! Professor Rarity said we need to find way to experience each other’s life. She didn’t say how, but Yona think she understands.”
“Yeah, I was thinking about that too. The only hint she gave was it’d give us a new perspective on how we view others. Given it’s a generosity class, it probably means something about not blowing somepony off just because they're being mean, as it could just be that they're having a really bad day or something like that. I dunno, but if it’s also so we can understand how it is to live each other’s lives, then I think the best course of action is to blow the project out of the water by using my magic to change to each other’s species. Pretty good, huh?” You explained, thinking Yona would go along with it since it was such a good idea.
Yona shook her head. “No, that make no sense.”
Wut? “Why not? We’d literally see how it is to live each other’s lives.”
“Ponies of Ponyville are too nice, it’d not really make much difference. But Yona did think magic should be involved since chaos is big big big part of Anon’s life. Yona think if chaos magic involved, then chaos magic should be used to turn Ponyville into Yakville for one hour, then we go to Anon’s house for one hour.” Yona said, feeling proud of her suggestion.
“Why? If changing our species doesn’t matter, then why is making the entire town ‘Yakville’ suddenly important to the project?” You asked, until it suddenly hit you. “...Unless you mean make everyone act like yaks. Like, an actual yak version of the town.”
Yona nodded. “Exactly. Yona think it okay if only for an hour and nocreature get hurt. That okay with Anon, right?”
Hm, changing the entire town for an hour, that’s a pretty big cast. Given you’ve moved the sun and moon before, it wasn’t out of your depth. However, if you cast the spell wrong, any number of things could go awry. Then again, if you do set a time limit, then everything would go back to the way it was, no matter what. But then there’s the issue that the time limit could also make it impossible to fix anything that goes super terribly wrong, as nothing would be able to be changed until the time limit is reached. “Okay… I guess, but it seems a little uneven to me. I’m changing the entire town so I can see how being a yak is like, but my house isn’t even th-” Oh wait… you don’t even have a house right now. “Er, Yona, actually…” Ah, whatever, you’re not some stupid kid who needs to hide it. It was Discord’s fault, so you had nothing to be ashamed of. “I don’t have a house right now. My dad sort of lost it.”
“Oh. Yona would normally be confused, but Yona can only guess Anon’s father misplaced house.” Yona then stopped to ponder an alternative plan. She just stood there, thinking and thinking. Suddenly, her eyes practically lit up as she jumped up with excitement, sending you upwards from the shock. But then she catches you and brings you close to her face as she explains what she came up with in excitement. “Anon! Yona come up with something!”
“HGDGHDHGHFGH” You shouted as she had you so close, you could see the speckles in her eyes as your muffled screams shot out of you.
“Oh, sorry.” Yona said with with a nervous giggle as she put you down. “But Yona come up with good idea! Instead of going to Anon’s house, we go on Anon adventure instead!”
“N-ngh…” You replied as you laid your face on the ground, shaking.
“Yona think it perfect too! We can go anywhere! Yona think to best understand Anon, Yona and Anon need to go out and do big Anon thing. Or even small Anon thing! As long as it is something Anon does when nocreature is around. What Anon think?” Yona said, asking you as her excitement built up more and more.
You just laid there, trying to recompose yourself.
Finally, Yona noticed she may have been too excited and began to help you up. “S-sorry, Yona just get excited sometimes.”