//------------------------------// // Shenanigans // Story: Eris's Riddle // by hahatimeforponies //------------------------------// Thump thump. "Wh... what?" Twilight stirred, her vision and feeling slowly returning. She felt something damp and slightly sticky on the side of her face, and an ache in her neck and back. She straightened out, pushing herself up from her desk, an old diary in front of her. When she connected the dots, she wiped the drool from her face, and checked the condition of the book in a mild panic. Fortunately, its enchantment still seemed to hold - there was just a sticky patch where her face was overnight. Some of her notes, however, were not so lucky - she could just about make out some of the moisture-damaged scribbles, tantamount to 'this book don't got squat about this Discord guy'. "Twilight!" Thump thump thump. Twilight rolled her eyes and stretched. They can't be here already, can they? "Gimme a second!" she called. Spike started to show signs of life, but with a disturbed night last night, she wasn't expecting him to answer the door in a hurry. She pottered down the stairs, rubbing her eyes, and pulled the door open to see Rainbow Dash, arms folded and eyebrows furrowed anxiously. "Oh. Hey Rainbow, what's... what's up?" "Twilight, ya gotta help me... I... you're not gonna believe this." "Huh. Try me." "Last night, I came home and there was... ah hell, I'm not gonna sugar-coat it. There was a gryphon in my house. A freaking gryphon." "Ugh, more stuff to worry about... did it try to kill you? Is Scootaloo okay?" "She's fine, it... it was just a kid. She says she's Gilda's sister or something, and she wasn't trying to kill me, she..." Dash rubbed her hand over her face again. "This is the part I just don't get. She wants me to adopt her." "She wyoowha?" Twilight's jaw hung slack, and she screwed up her face. "You didn't, did you?" "I... I didn't give her a real answer. I let her stay for the night, and came here first thing this morning." "You've got to get rid of her, Dash." "I can't just throw a kid out on her flank like that! If what she says is true, she ran way from home for this." "And what if she's lying? What if she's just spying on you?" "When have gryphons ever used spies?" "Gilda." "Gil..." Dash failed to find an appropriate rebuttal, and sighed. "I guess." "I don't like this, Rainbow. I've got too much on my plate right now without you picking up stray gryphons on us..." "I didn't ask for this!" The pegasus flung her arms in the air in frustration, and paced a little on the doorstep. "Still, I... I know you won't hear me say this a lot, Twi, but... I can't do this on my own." Twilight snorted and smirked. "Sonic Rainbooms, gryphon hordes, no problem. But this kinda thing is just something else. I'm having a hard enough time trying to be a good mom for Scootaloo, and now this... I just don't know what I should do." The unicorn could almost hear a faint whimper in her friend's voice. "You... actually want to give this kid a chance?" "I don't want to keep her, I just don't want to toss her out. Even if she is a spy, she's just a kid, and it's not fair on her." "That's awfully... heartfelt of you, are you going soft on us?" Twilight chuckled. "Shut up!" Dash couldn't help but crack a smile, breaking some of the tension. "You know what I mean." "I guess... let's just wait and see. I don't know about you, but there's just so much stuff I have to do today. Where is she now, anyway?" "Oh, I left her at home with Scootaloo." "You left her with Scootaloo? Alone?" Twilight gawped. "Rainbow what the hell are you thinking?" "Relax, Scoot's a tough kid. I'm sure they'll be fine on their own for a little while..." "You'd better be right about that..." "I'm pretty sure. So, uh... thanks for your help?" "Not sure what I did, but okay. Oh! While you're here, there's something I need your help with..." Scootaloo yawned and staggered down the stairs, rubbing her eyes. She still hadn't quite gotten used to waking up in a house made of clouds, but she was getting there. It was only when she saw a bundle of white and brown feathers crawling over the cloud shelves in search of food that she was finally sure that last night had in fact happened. "Uhh... hey, Kal..." she croaked. "If you don't mind me calling you that. What are you looking for?" "I'm trying to make breakfast, is there any meat in here?" Kalza replied casually, tossing an apple over her shoulder. "All I keep finding are leaves..." Scootaloo gasped, and dived to catch it before it fell through the floor. "Meat?" The pegasus filly grimaced. "Uhm... no, ponies don't eat meat... I think we might have some eggs, if that'll do..." "Oh boy! I love eggs!" Kalza leaped off the counter and on to the floor next to Scootaloo. She accidentally put a claw through the floor and stumbled, taking a moment to regain her balance. "Heh... sorry, not used to clouds..." "Don't worry, I'm still a bit shaky on 'em too..." The pegasus forced a smile, and brushed a small chunk of cloud away from the wall, revealing a few shelves of cloud packed so firm it almost looked like cotton wool, and laden with fruit juice, milk and eggs. She carefully lifted the eggbox out, and set it down on the counter, on a small plate of similarly compressed vapour. The box teetered in place, as if being set float in water. "Hmm... how do you cook eggs again?" "That's okay, I'll just eat 'em straight!" Kalza roughly grabbed one, the knock destabilising the box enough to tip it through the plate, and it sank straight through the counter. Scootaloo could only watch the eggs fall away to the ground below, leaving behind a hole, while the gryphlet cracked her prize in her claw and held it over her open beak. A sudden foul odour made her back up a little and cast the egg aside. Scootaloo covered her muzzle. "Eww... bad eggs!" "Blech." While Kalza struggled to flick the smelly slime off her claw, Scootaloo checked the milk carton. The scent was just as bad, if not worse. "Figures... Rainbow Dash has been away for a few weeks, so these are probably way old..." "Why would she leave you alone for weeks?" Kalza tilted her head innocently, trying to wipe her claw in the clouds, to limited success. "Eh... it's a long story. Speaking of her, where is she?" The pegasus turned to look for any signs she'd been here. A small note soon caught her eye, left in the middle of the table, pinned between two blobs of thick cloud. "Huh... 'Heya Scoot and Kal!" The words 'and Kal' were squashed in, in small writing, as if an afterthought. "'I'm just going to Twilight's place to sort out something important, and then I'll be RIGHT back. As in, you won't even be finished breakfast by the time I'm back.' Heh, you got that right..." she grumbled. "'Love, Rainbow Dash'". "So what does that mean?" "It means..." The pegasus smirked, grabbing a pencil. "... we're going out for breakfast." "Guys, I'm home!" Rainbow Dash ploughed through the kitchen wall, hastily squishing the clouds back together behind her. She took a few steps towards the stairs, confused by the silence. "Guys?" she called again. "Ugh, what is that smell..." She wafted her nose, and turned her attention to the counter. An open milk carton was laid on its side, some of its viscous, chunky contents dripping away, and some of the clouds near the floor had blobs of a foul-smelling goo floating in them. She sighed, and shook her head. "Gah, I'm stupid... what's this?" A scrap of paper on the counter caught her eye as she returned the carton to the shelf. On one side, there was the note she had originally left for Scootaloo, and on the other was another. The writing got abruptly neater halfway through, so she could tell it was Scootaloo's - she'd probably written the first half by hand, and then given up and written the rest with her mouth, the way she'd learned to write. 'Dear Rainbow Dash, we couldn't find anything to eat...' You don't say? '... so we're going to meet up with Applebloom for breakfast, and probably stay there until lunch. See ya later! - Scootaloo & Kalza' Dash raised an eyebrow, and shrugged. They'll be fine. The kitchen door of the farmhouse swung open with a bang, making the two visitors jump back a little. "Well howdy, Scootaloo! What are you doiah look out there's a gryphon behmff...?" No sooner had Applebloom greeted them, she started to panic. Scootaloo immediately clapped her hand to the earth pony's mouth. "Relax, she's with me!" She whispered. Applebloom threw her off, and backed away a little. "What the hay are ya doin'? Ya tryin' to get us killed?" "She's fine, she just turned up last night. I think she was just lost or something." "I wanted to live with Rainbow Dash!" Kalza chipped in, in an out-of-place cheery tone. "See? We've got something in common already. Just keep quiet about it, okay?" "Hmm... if you say so..." Applebloom kept a wary eye on the oblivious gryphlet, and carried on. "What were ya lookin' for anyway?" "Well, Rainbow Dash kinda forgot to get food when she got back last night, so there's nothing to eat at home... could we maybe have breakfast with you guys?" The pegasus put on her most innocent smile. Applebloom stared at them sceptically for a moment, before stepping back out of the doorway. "Alright... but don't go makin' a ton o' noise. Y'should thank your lucky stars there's only me 'n Granny Smith home right now." "Where's Applejack?" "Y'just missed her, Rainbow Dash came callin', said Twilight needed her for somethin'. Didn't say what." "Hmm..." Scootaloo rubbed her chin. "Suspicious..." "Alright, listen up." Twilight Sparkle thumped a book on the table to grab the attention of the room. Rarity and Fluttershy were quietly chatting off to the side of the library, Rainbow Dash was snoozing on top of a bookshelf, Pinkie Pie was having an energetic discussion with Derpy Hooves about baked produce, Applejack was leaning on the wall by the door with a strand of hay in her mouth, and Zecora was balancing on her head at the bottom of the stairs. Spike yelped as the book came down next to him on the table. "I've called you all here because you're all ponies I can trust completely, and this is a matter of grave importance." She set a couple of books and scrolls down on the table. "Please tell me you're not dragging us into this succession crap, Twi," Rainbow Dash whined. Applejack shot her a dirty look, mouthing 'watch your language'. Dash rolled her eyes. "Actually, this is about Discord. To recap, especially for those of you who weren't there in person..." The unicorn quickly glanced at Derpy, and then at Zecora. "Yesterday, we encountered a strange being just west of Trottingham, that looked like it was put together from a bunch of different creatures, and it called itself Discord. It seems to have powerful illusion and summoning magic, possibly transmutation aswell, he wasn't around long enough for me to get much detail. He also gave us a riddle, 'Three days, two thousand years and one angry pony. What does this make?' But what's most concerning is the terms he gave us for it. He wants our answer on the walls of Canterlot on the morning of the Summer Sun celebration, or he says 'Equestria will burn'." "Hmm... an ominous sign indeed..." Zecora carefully dismounted from her position, and walked up to the table. "But what from us do you need?" "I'm getting to that. I did some research last night..." Twilight held up the Diaries of a Planeswalker, before tossing it into the middle of the table. "... and found nothing. Not even a resemblance. From the records I have here, nopony's ever seen anything like Discord, not in this world, not in any other plane of existence. Similarly, none of my histories have anything concrete beyond about a thousand years, and who knows what kind of censorship they have anyway." "And since we went and blew up Canterlot, the great library there is..." Derpy pouted. "Destroyed, yes, but I wasn't thinking of there. If anything, the information there would be the least useful, because it was right under Celestia's nose. As Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy might remember, we have another, more reliable source of information. Underneath the ruined castle in the Everfree Forest, there's another library, preserved by enchantment and probably untouched for well over a thousand years. That's where we found these..." The unicorn spread the small stack of books out, revealing Magic of the Body and Manual of the Elements, along with the Diaries. "Books about types of magic not only forgotten about by modern Equestria, but also banned in ancient Equestria. So if anywhere's going to have an account of Discord, or details of what might have happened two thousand years ago, it's there." "The old smash'n'grab, okay then!" Dash hopped off the bookshelf and fluttered down to the table. "More or less. The reason I need all of you here is because, as you might remember, Rainbow, it's dangerous down there." Twilight took the scroll, and rolled it out over the table revealing a sketched map of the forest, with a few locations marked on it. She tapped the map as she talked. "We'll split into two teams. Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie, you're all with me. We'll head to the ruins first. Zecora, I want you, Derpy and Spike to hang back at your hut. You're our backup - give us four hours, and if we're not back by then, come looking for us." "An interesting split, but I don't quite understand it." Zecora quirked a brow, and folded her arms. "I chose the six of us to head in first because of something some of you might have noticed in the last six months, which I like to call hypercompetency." "Hyper what now?" Applejack shot a questioning glance. "Hypercompetency. The six of us are all, what... twenty-two, twenty-three years old? But, because of the banishment, we've lived that length of time twice, and since the whole Celestia incident, we've had access to twice the life experience of anypony else our age. For example, Rainbow Dash, last year, you were deathly afraid of going forward for a Wonderbolts trial." "Pshh..." The pegasus waved dismissively, before mumbling, "... yeah..." "But now, you're easily the best flier in the whole squad." Dash smirked, and did an acrobatic flip in place. "But don't let it get to your head." "Too late!" Applejack thumped Dash on the shoulder playfully. "Or Rarity, before, your designs were only just starting to get attention outside of Ponyville. Now, you're a rising star in fashion all over Equestria!" Rarity blushed a little, and kicked one hoof against the other. "Anyway, because the six of us are hypercompetent, we're the best able to deal with threats as they arise. Derpy and Zecora, the only reason I'm involving you in this at all is as a failsafe, and because we can trust you. Spike, I'm just leaving you with them to balance numbers. Is everyone clear?" "There is one thing..." Rarity stepped forward. "I was under the impression you were meeting with Consul Jetstream and Prince... ugh... Blueblood today. I'm not saying they're more important than the potential world-eater we have here, I just assume that you're going to do more than leave a 'back in five minutes' sign on your door for them." "I've already left a message with the Mayor saying I'll be out of town until this afternoon, which should buy me some time. They might not even need me around to come to some kind of agreement, but I doubt we'll be that lucky. Now, if there aren't any more questions..." Twilight rolled the map back up. "Let's move out!"