//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Do you believe in magic? 
// by gcsmith 
//------------------------------//

Slam  The door to the police station shut behind him and Wilson was left alone on the top of a set of steps leading down to what appeared to a very busy street. Everywhere he looked there were ponies involved in different activities. From ponies standing at the side and chatting to each other - to others eating lunch in nearby cafe's or shopping at the market.

He hadn't noticed it earlier - he was to busy laughing in a drunken state - but this must be a very large capital city. He knew it had a royal castle - and apparently - Princesses, but he didn't know it was this big. Being at the top of the stair case, he could see across the rooftops of the nearby buildings. The roofs seemed to go on for as far as he could see.

Sighing, he began the walk down the stairs. Unfortunately his four legged walking skills weren't exactly up to scratch yet and he soon went flying down the stairs. His head bouncing on every other step as he went, and he landed with a painful crunch at the bottom.

"Oh my gosh, are you ok mister?"

Groaning, he looked up to see a small orange filly with purple mane and tail standing before him. The mark of concern in her voice in opposition to the smile on her face.

"Wow, now that's what ah call a fall." 

A second filly joined the first, this one had a coat of yellow and a mane of red. She was followed by a third filly, this one of white with a two tone mane. They were accompanied with a orange mare.

"Now now you two, leave this fella' alone. I'm sure the last thing he needs after a rough tumble like that is to see you two crowding him."

The mare, clearly the leader of the group, offered a hoof to Wilson who willingly accepted it.

"Thank you miss?" 

"Applejack. And it's no problem, pleased to be of service. You alright?"

"Yeh, I'm good thanks. Just a little unsteady on my fee-hooves at the moment."

"Don't you worry yourself none, we all get a little unsteady on your hooves sometimes, if you catch my drift." She gave Wilson a sly wink, "Anyway, I would love to stay an' talk, but I got a lot of shopping to be doing."

"Er, right then well thanks again for the... hoof."

"Don't mention, just make sure you keep yourself safe."

"I aim to."

With that, Applejack tipped her hat and walked off, the fillies standing gawping at Wilson before reluctantly following her and leaving Wilson on his own at the bottom of the steps. He looked around at the thronging crowd and it seemed that no one else paid the fall and subsequent exchange any notice. Almost as if this was a regular occurrence. But then again as far as Wilson was concerned it could well be.

Sighing Wilson wondered what to do next, if someone had noticed it might have helped him struck up a conversation and maybe get some help. As it was, he was alone, stuck in a foreign world as a pony. What was he to do?

He gazed again across the crowd that filled the busy market space. Maybe he try and talk to some have them or he could listen in and at least try to find out some more snippets of information about this place.

"It's not much of a plan, but it's a start."

Carefully, he started placing one hoof in front of the other and slowly walked into market. As he walked he was completely unaware of the three small sets of eyes staring at him from behind a nearby cart.

"Hey, Scootaloo, did ah see what ah thought ah saw?"

"I don't know Applebloom, depends what you thought you saw."

"Ah don't think he had a cutie mark."

"I think you're right. I don't remember seeing anything."

"But Cheerilee said everypony gets their cutie mark. If this guy doesn't have one, does that mean we might not get ours?!"

"I don't know Sweetie, but I reckon we can find out?"

"How?"

"Easy,  we follow him and try to find out as much about him as we can, maybe we will get a chance to ask him some questions."

"But what about my sister?"

"Oh you worry too much, Applebloom, we're in Canterlot. What exactly can happen to us? There are royal guards everywhere." 


"Ah don't know, Applejack, can get a bit angry."

"Scootaloo's right, what's there to worry about? Unless you're chicken?"

"Sweetie, of course ahm not, we all know that Scootaloo's the chicken."

"Hey!"

"Shh. Look, he's walking away, we need to follow quickly."

"Alright, but you owe me an apology later."

With that, the three fillies quickly looked at each other before quickly screaming, "Cutie Mark Crusaders Super Spy Followers, Yay!" and quickly following after the strange stallion.





A large cackling laugh echoed around the white void that was the in-between of Earth and Equestria. The facial features owner of the laugh, a large twisted creature of chaos known as a Draconicus,  were twisted in an expression that was a mixture between smug and absolute bliss.

"Oh, I can't believe how much fun this is. Well actually, I can. After all, this was my plan." The draconicus paused his mixture of hysterical laughter and chatting just long enough to wipe tears from his eyes. "The looks on their faces, so confused with what was happening. It fills me with such glee, such perfect chaos."

"You know we're right here, Discord, there's no need to refer to us in the third person." The voice was strangely high pitched for the entity that spoke it. This second voice came from a bright pink stallion, a frown highlighted his face and his eyes were drawn tight making almost impossible to see them. There was just enough of his eyes showing to tell that one was a shocking shade of yellow or gold while the other was silver.

"Yeh, you do this every time." A third voice joined the conversation. This time it was a rather deep and booming voice, belonging to a Manticore with a hat perched on top of his head.  "Why can't you just be more gracious in victory."

This outburst from his two companions caused Discord to laugh harder.

"Victory? You believe this is victory?" He indicated with his arms to the void around them. "I hardly call this small amount of chaos a victory. After all, we're still stuck here."

"Stuck here? Of course we're stuck here." Said the pink stallion. "Winning a game of cards is hardly going to change that circumstance. A circumstance which may I remind you is all your fault."

"Yeh," agreed the manticore, throwing down his cards in disgust. "You get us trapped here with you, and when you got out for a stretch you didn't even try to get us out. And what's worse is that you make us play endless games of cards and act so immature when you win. Of course you win, you're a bloody demigod."

Despite the verbal assault, Discord smiled broadly and held out his arms. "Fluffles, Timmy, why do you have to get all worked up? I'm sorry I didn't release you when I managed to escape this place, but there is a perfectly valid explanation. It's simply I was sent here by the elements and you weren't"

"So..?" asked the stallion.

"So... When the connection between the elements and Celestia weakened, I was able to escape. You guys however, were bound directly by the princess herself, no elements involved. Because of that, I would need to get rid of her to help you guys escape. And I don't do killing."

"Makes sense," said the Manticore. "But it was still your fault we got stuck here."

"Really, Timmy? My fault? May I remind you that it was you who approached me to ask for  a way to become more intelligent and civilized. I gave it to you in the form of that hat on the condition you became one of my 'assistants'. You're the one who agreed."

"And me?" The pink stallion glared at him. "I definitely didn't agree to be your 'assistant'."

"Of course you did, Fluffles. At least according to the law of the land at the time."

"According to the laws of the land? My father lost me to you in a poker game when I was two years old!"

"And at that age, your Dad had legal ability to make your choices for you. Since he chose to give you to my service, you also chose to serve me. Besides, you weren't complaining when I was in charge."

"Of course I wasn't complaining when you were in charge, we lived in a Celestia damn palace and lived off chocolate milk."

"Right then, so you can stop... You can stop..." He opened his mouth to try and speak a third time but something made him stop. 

Fluffles and Timmy stood staring at Discord as he stroked his beard as if he was thinking about something. Suddenly his expression changed from thought into a cheeky smile as he clapped his hands together. 

"I have a feeling there is something exciting to watch on the television."

As his companions opened their mouths to ask what a television set was, a remote control appeared in his claw and a large, black, widescreen television popped into existence in view of all three. The two of them were baffled by this contraption, wondering what it's purpose was when Discord fiddle with the remote and the screen sparked into life.

The scene being played out on the screen captivated all of them and soon caused Discord to burst our in laughter. All three of them watched as a strange bi-pedal creature woke up next to Discord's statue and moved out into the grounds. They continued to watch, and Discord found it particularly funny when this strange creature tried to ride Celestia like some common mule.

"Oh, this is absolutely priceless," said Discord as he pressed replay and watched the scene over and over again. "Whoever is behind this is a pure genius, I'd tip my cap to them if I had one." 

"You mean you're not behind this?"

"Sadly, no, Fluffles. But I can appreciate greatness when I see it. Hmm, I wonder who could have possibly pulled something like this off."

As Discord fell into thought, they continued to watch over and over again as the creature tried to ride on the princess' back. Spending particular focus towards the look of annoyance on that really boring student of hers.





House was sitting in a chair when the guards came to get him later that afternoon. He was halfway through what was the first of the Daring Do books when there was a sharp knocking on the cell's door and it subsequently opened.

"Ah, are you here for my dinner order? I would ask for a steak but I think it would be hard to acquire one here. So, how about a four cheese omlette?"

Inside the doorway were three unamused guards, two of which quickly moved over and roughly grabbed him by the arms while the other stood in the doorway in case he tried something silly.

"Twilight Sparkle will see you now."

"Ok, so you're not the waiting staff. Alright, well if you're not going to feed me can you at least tell me if I'm suitably dressed for this interview?"

"Oh you're dressed fine." Said the guard holding him on his left.

"Although you might want some glasses." Said the one on his right.

"I know she's the princess' student, but she can't be that 'bright' can she?"

"Oh it's not for her, but for where you're probably going to be going."

"Why, where will I be going?"

"You'll see. Lets just say, it'll be positively Radiating."

"Yeh, if things go like we hope it will be solar so long."

With that, all three guards erupted into laughter which slightly nerved House.

"Solar? Radiating? They couldn't possibly mean? No of course not."