There was a whirl of light, a cacophony of bangs, whizs, and wapows! and, with that, much to the surprise of the residents of Marwaukee, the hotel that had vanished three days ago reappeared, a crowd of confused, colorful ponies surrounding it.
Caramel and Barley all got to their hooves. The crowd around them milled about in uncertainty. Then, the nervous milling was cut short with the thunk of a spotlight far overhead switching on.
And coming down in a pillar of light, dressed in white flowing robes, surrounded in a cloud of cherubic whoopie cushions and kazoos, was Discord.
As he touched down, he looked out upon the crowd, a beatific smile across his face… only for it to suddenly be marred with a grimace of annoyance.
“Itching…” He muttered, slithering around on the spot, pawing at himself. “Wool really is… argh!” And with a jerk, he threw the robe and the heavenly gag props to the side. “Not my style, anyway!” He whirled to face the crowd. “Ciderfest! Ah, what a con! I want to thank, first and foremost, my fans; really couldn’t have done it without you!” He fired a pair of finger guns, causing several audience members to duck. “We have a whole new world to make, together!” He grinned, somewhere between triumph and oddly, hope. “And I for one cannot wait to see what we make.”
“You will make nothing, you glorified sock puppet!” A voice snarled.
Discord slowly turned, and out of the crowd came a wedge of a Who’s Who’s of Equestria’s greatest monsters.
“Ah, look who it is, the losing team!” Discord grinned.
“You may have the book.” Sombra snarled. “But that just means it’s all in one place to be ta-urgh!”
“Why, Sombra,” Discord said, shoving the oversized candy bar into the evil mage’s open maw, “You’re just not yourself when you’re hungry! Have a snack!” With a final shove, he sent Sombra sprawling over. He looked up at the rest of the villains. “Anyone else hungry?”
Grogar stepped forward.
“You may have won, Discord, but even you must know that fortune is a wheel, and those it lifts up, it will one day cruUSHARGH–UNHAND ME!”
“Yes, yes, ominous speech, the fight against evil is never over, sequel bait, we’ve heard it all before!” The second Discord said, shaking his head as he lifted Grogar up by the scruff of his neck. “Always with the motions! Ally-oop!” And with that, a second Discord hucked Grogar face-first into the Book of All Stories, held out by the first Discord, and the whole crowd watched as the demonic goat was sucked inside and disappeared. The first Discord turned the Book back to face him, and began writing.
“‘And then he was banished to the Clown Dimension for all eternity, with no mystical gates, shatterable seals, or any other conceptually related MacGuffins allowing for his escape.’” Discord said as he wrote.
“Very clever!” The second Discord said.
“I’m glad you like it!” The first Discord replied.
And then they high-fived.
“Now.” Discord, only singular again, said, looking at the rest of the villains. “Anyone else want to join him?”
There were not, to his displeasure, any takers.
“Ah, oh well. ‘And then the rest of the villains vanished into the book, to await what wonderful things would happen next!’” And with the final scratch of the pen, it was so, and the rest of the villains began to blur and glow, and disappeared into the book. “Now… ah, yes!”
Barley and Caramel had made their way to the front of the crowd as Discord turned to face them.
“Ah, what a shame Ms. Glitch isn’t here in person. She truly put on a wonderful show!” He clapped his claws together, rubbing them. “Well, either way, your community is absolutely wonderful, an absolute pleasure to have been a guest at this con!” He leaned back. “Of course, while I am sure it is absolutely wonderful to sit here and accept all this well earned praise, perhaps there is someone watching all this you should rather be talking to? Hmm?”
Discord pointedly looked down at the two of them, quirking an eyebrow. Said eyebrow quirked so hard, in fact, it morphed into an arrow, pointing above and behind him.
It even flashed.
Caramel and Barley followed the arrow to see, lingering on the edge of the roof of the hotel, a flicking, blue light. They both gasped.
“Fizzy!” Caramel gasped.
“Uh, thank you, Discord!” Barley said, an awkward smile on his face. “We’ll get right on that!”
“Well, glad to be of service!” Discord leaned back, pulling a notepad out with a third arm as Barley and Caramel sprinted off. “‘Negged the protagonists into learning the friendship lesson.’ Check!” He tossed the notepad aside where it landed square on an otherwise unshaded lamp, and turned and started marching back to the center of the clearing. “Pinkie! It’s time!”
“On it, boss.” Pinkie bounced out to meet him. Discord strode beside her, writing away in the book, grinning wildly.
“Oh, I have such plans!” He said.
Suddenly, all the creatures called there by the book began glowing and rising into the air. Pinkie giggled as she started to levitate, spinning in the air.
“Have you ever wanted to taste color, Pinkie?” Discord laughed, rising alongside her.
“Boy have I!” Pinkie laughed.
“You’ll love it! Chartreuse is my favorite!” Discord laughed in return.
“I can’t wait!” Pinkie giggled, wiggling her legs with glee.
“Discord! Discord, wait!” A soft voice cried out.
Rushing out from the crowd came Fluttershy.
“Fluttershy, dear! Oh, I’ve been looking forward to seeing you!” Discord shouted, continuing to rise heavenward.
“Discord! I forgive you! We all forgive you! You don’t have to change the past!”
Discord, for a second, looked panicked.
“There will be nothing to forgive, Fluttershy!” He said, his bravado undercut by a nervous breath of air. “We will make everything better, for every creature!”
“Discord–!”
“Please.” Discord for one brief moment, looked afraid.
The rest of the Mane 6 caught up to Fluttershy. She turned to look at Twilight. Neither said a word, but eventually, Twilight nodded. Fluttershy, eyes wide, frown taking on a determined cast, turned and looked back up at Discord, stepping forward.
“I’m coming!” she shouted, and with a flap of her wings, launched herself up beside Discord and Pinkie.
“Ahah! I knew it! I knew you’d understand!” He swept her up into a great hug. “You’ll see, Fluttershy, the wonderful world we’re going to create! So much potential! We’ll all get our time in the sun, you’ll see!”
“Promise me, Discord,” Fluttershy said, breathless as the two twirled together, rising into the air. “Promise me, no matter what happens, you’ll do what's best… for us. For all of us.”
“Fluttershy,” Discord’s smile softened. “Of course.”
Fluttershy curled into his arms, and their ascent halted as the Book of All Stories rose above them.
“Thank you, everyone, for this wonderful con!” Discord shouted to the crowd below, throwing out his arm. “We have a glorious new project ahead of us, all that we can do unveiled. I look forward to seeing it all, and remember: preorder your tickets for next year!”
And with that, every single creature the Book had called began to blur, and in a shower of light, flew into its open pages. The Book of All Stories slammed its covers closed with a crack of thunder, and began to vibrate. Suddenly, it exploded into a corona of multi-hued light, and blasted off on a jagged, erratic path, to whatever future awaited it.
Fizzy winced when she heard the door to the roof slam open.
“Fizzy!” Caramel called out between breaths as she stumbled across the roof towards the nirik. “We gotta talk, hon.”
“Yeah,” Barley panted. “Please, Fizz.”
“What’s there to talk about?” Fizzy said, not turning around, a huff of laughter in her voice. “Future’s looking brighter all the time.”
“That almost didn’t happen, though–” Barley began
“You think I don’t know that?!” Fizzy snapped. One baleful white eye glared over her shoulder. “You think I didn’t see?! That you almost–” Her tirade snapped short and she whipped back around to avoid looking at them. “We made it. One way or another,” she said, her tone clipped. “That’s all that matters.”
The other two didn’t speak for a long time, unsure what to say.
“Fizz,” Caramel said, softly. “We just wanna know what we did wrong, so we can make it right.”
“Fine.” Fizzy turned around, a grin dripping with contempt on her face. “Once upon a time there was a little kirin named Fizzy Glitch. Then the world went to Tartarus, and everyone turned to her to fix it, and she tried.” The grin fell, leaving only bitterness. “And then the world got better. And no one cared about her anymore. Because in the end, nothing she did actually mattered.” Her grin returned, but this time the contempt wasn’t directed at Barley or Caramel. After a moment she shook her head. “I need to go.” She began to walk past them.
“Fizz, wait,” Barley reached out a hoof to touch her, and her own hoof lashed out and snatched his wrist. He yelped as there was a hiss of heat at the contact. Fizzy immediately let go, a look of shock and shame on her face, and then whipped her head away, snarling silently.
“Barley, you okay?” Caramel stepped in, concerned.
“Yeah, yeah,” he said, shaking his hoof. “I, uh, sorry, Fizz. Didn’t mean to startle you…?”
He looked up at her wearily. She was still looking away.
“You wanna know why I did it?” Fizzy said after a time, not looking up. “For just a moment, I needed to know I mattered. That what I did meant something. So I took the stupid book, wrote the spell, and made it all real. Everyone could see what I could do, then.” She shook her head. “Of course, even with a magic book I still screwed it all up. Guess you were right to not give a single care.” She began walking away again.
“It’s not like that, Fizzy!” Barley said, getting on all fours and facing her head on. “We do care and… we’re sorry we ignored you!”
“Little late for apologies…” Fizzy muttered, steam wicking off her unseen face.
“Fizz, please, wait.” Caramel said. She started to move towards Fizzy, only to be stopped when Fizzy let out a snarl.
“I need time!” she snapped. She then let out a great sigh. “I need time… to think.” Fizzy resumed her march towards the door.
“Is there any possibility… that we could still be friends, after all this?” Caramel continued, her voice was soft.
Fizzy paused at the door, hoof on the knob. She looked over her shoulder, and for a moment, on her face was a small, honest smile.
“Who knows, Car?” she said. “It’s a strange new world out there. Anything can happen.”
Barley and Caramel smiled back. Caramel gave a small nod.
Fizzy’s smile faltered, and then she turned away. Without another word, she opened the door, and descended into the stairwell, leaving Caramel and Barley alone with the wind and silence.
Fizzy Glitch was not a simple kirin, of course. She had many interests and talents. Many honest expressions and hidden scars, but in her heart was one simple joy; to love and be loved. Of course, the world had been unkind, random, and cruel. It had denied her this, and hurt her deeply.
Still, though, as she marched on, a small part of her knew tomorrow was another day, and no matter what happened, she was still here, and the possibilities of that new day were wide open to her.