It was getting to be late afternoon by the time we were all aboard the airships again. Iron Will informed us that the next destination, Mountainshade, would be coming up shortly, although it would not stand out from the sky, appearing as only a tiny earth pony village from above.
As we awaited arriving at our new destination, all the candidates gathered on one end of the deck to talk about our trip to Rainbow Falls. I knew Discord had gone in to mess with the others after messing with Sunflower and me and was eager to hear what they had gotten up to.
Jonathan stared out into the distance. "It's so surreal, being on this airship again."
Blanche nodded. "To be honest, I never thought we would be here again. Not entirely sure I wanted to be either."
"At least you got all your fingers back," Jonathan said as he looked at Blanche's right hand.
She flexed it. "Yeah, nice having more than three fingers again."
I bewilderedly looked back and forth between them. "Um...so, Discord messed with Sunflower and me, and he said he was going to mess with you after. Anything happen?"
The two humans looked at each other then burst out laughing. The laughing progressed into crying, leaving the three of us ponies even more baffled.
Blanche was the first to regain her composer. "We'll tell you in a minute. How about you tell us about what he did to you first. I don't think we even have time to tell you everything that happened to us or be able to recall it all."
Sunflower and I looked at one another. Sunflower was the one who decided to start. "There was this book I wanted, but the vendor wanted a Discord lamp and a pillow for it. We found out later that Discord had set it up so we had to get those things. Anyway, the pillow turned out to be this filthy sex pillow. I felt so embarrassed lugging it around, but Discord thought it was hilarious. That's nothing compared to what he put Rebecca through to get the lamp."
That was my que. "I had to get a manticore to trade for the lamp, a real-life manticore! I ended up getting caught by it, and it tried to make me its new toy."
"But Scootaloo saved her!" Sunflower interjected excitedly. "The actual Scootaloo! The one who helped found the CMC!"
Blanche frowned. "Is that all?"
"I think meeting Scootaloo is a big deal," Sunflower said with a pout.
"We told you what happened to us. What happened to you two?" I asked. "You said something about missing fingers. Did Discord take your fingers?"
Blanche let out a long breath, raised her hand, and looked at her fingers. "No, he didn't, not directly, anyway. They got chopped off by a sword when I was trying to block a strike." Her expression grew bitter. "Ulysses called it a teachable moment. Fuck Ulysses."
"Blanche, he kept us alive and taught us how to defend ourselves and others," Jonathan said as if reminding her. "If he hadn't been there, I don't want to think about what would have happened."
Blanche balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into the railing. "He's still an ass who never showed us any sympathy or compassion. The only reason he stuck with us was because it was his job. He made that very clear. Doesn't matter what the circumstances are, I keep the Dreamwardens safe and the people they tell me to guard safe. I don't know how many times he said that. The guy is a sociopathic killer. You saw what he did to Yummi!"
Jonathan hung his head. "He thought Yummi was the traitor."
"AND YOU KNOW HOW WRONG THAT TURNED OUT TO BE!" Blanche screamed, breaking down in tears. "Poor Yummi...poor Yummi…."
Everyone on deck turned and started in our direction. Blanche's parents started heading in our direction.
"I'm fine! I'll talk to you later, I promise," Blanche called out to them. They didn't seem happy, but Blanche's father pulled her mother away to leave us in peace.
"I'm getting the impression their stuff with Discord was a bit more involved than ours," Roger said dryly.
"What did he do to you?" Sunflower asked Roger.
"He put pepper in my soup," Roger answered.
"Pepper in your soup? That's all?" I asked, confused.
Roger nodded. "It was really hot pepper."
Jonathan looked at the three of us. "For you guys, a few hours have passed by. Blanche, Ulysses, and I had to deal with months trapped on a different world populated by little fox people called Tetts. There was this demon that was going to destroy the world, and all these corrupted Tetts that served it, along with someone who was secretly working with Draegon—that's the name of the demon."
"We made so many friends while we were there," Blanche said with a sniffle.
"And fought so many battles," Jonathan added in. "I wasn't as good at picking up Ulysses' lessons as Blanche, but I found out my magic can short out magical artifacts just like I can short out a computer."
"We helped them defeat Draegon, and then Discord appeared again and told us it was time to go," Blanche said in a quiet voice. "I didn't want to go, but our magic was reacting badly to theirs, and it was getting worse. The Tetts were getting sick...our friends. We would have killed them by staying."
"We're kind of badasses now," Jonathan said smugly as he crossed his arms.
Blanche gave him a cross look. "Like it was you who had to stand in single combat against Hurric with one hand only having a thumb and one other finger."
Jonathan shrugged. "So you're a little more badass than me. At least I don't send people running for cover when I sing campfire songs."
"My singing wasn't that bad!" Blanche protested.
"You literally killed a zombie by singing to it!" Jonathan countered.
"That was the Tett magic reacting weirdly to mine! It had nothing to do with my singing voice," Blanche continued to protest.
"Do you two need a therapist or something?" Sunflower asked.
"We're not crazy; it happened!" Blanche snapped.
Sunflower flinched and cowered. "Not calling you crazy. I mean like trauma. It sounds like you went through a traumatic experience."
Blanche looked at her hand, the same one she had looked at before. "We'll figure that out when we get back to Earth. I don't know about Jonathan, but right now, I need time to reacclimate myself. I'll do that by trying to pick up right where I left off here."
Jonathan stared downward, not saying anything.
Maybe the Dreamwardens had a good idea when they decided Discord needed to be chased out.
"You know, the Tetts owe Discord a big thank you," Blanche said as if reading my mind.
I looked at her. "Huh?"
Blanche smiled softly. "Discord saved them by sending us over there. Our magic might not be much here, but over there, it was a powerful force. I could make a sword or spear, and they wouldn't just cut or stab; they would disrupt the magic animated zombies and monsters. I could make a physical shield that could withstand magic blasts that felled buildings. It was kinda cool, being the superhero for once."
"Too bad it was slowly poisoning everyone around us, like radiation," Jonathan muttered.
Blanche hung her head, and her smile fell. "Yeah, too bad."
I didn't know what to say. I also didn't know whether I felt left out or happy that I was left out.
I looked at Roger again. "So...hot pepper, huh?"
Roger nodded. "I hope that vendor had fire insurance."