//------------------------------// // Discord // Story: Journey to The Real World // by unleashedtwilight //------------------------------// “Are you sure this is where they went?” Shining Armor asked stating to feel a little less patient. “Positive.” Selene says leading the way. “I don’t think I would forget seeing someone like your sister.” She paused. “And thanks again for saving me.” Shining Armor grinned. “Hey don’t worry about it kid.” He said putting a hand on her shoulder. “I bet if you were in my position, you’d do the same thing.” “I do have one question though…” Selene said looking up at Shining Armor. “What happened to your horn? How did it get so small?” she pointed. “My horn?” Shining said feeling the top of his forehead. “That is strange…” he said, then he looked ahead. Wait… is that…?? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “There must be something that we can do…” Twilight said with her head hanging down. “Unfortunately I can’t think of a solution…” Lauren said with a tone of lost hope. “And without the elements or Princess Celestia to at least help take you back home… it looks like we’re sunk…” “Come now.” De Lancie cut in. “Must you really give up so easily?” he said putting a hand on Lauren “There’s always a way out of things; we just need to find it.” “Johns right!” Rainbow exclaimed with confidence. “We can’t just give up now! There has to be a way to stop all of this!” “Oh you ponies never cease to surprise me…” a familiar voice mused. Everyone looked and saw it was Discord floating above them. “You know, the human look doesn’t look half bad on you.” He chuckled. “Whoa, this is creepy…” De Lancie said going wide-eyed. Discord raised an eyebrow as he turned his head toward De Lancie. “Have we met?” “Not really…” De Lancie responded and then grinned “But I can assure you we are very similar in many ways.” “Is that so…” Discord said teleporting in front of De Lancie. “Does chaos amuse you?” “Well, I’m not one to cause it, but it can be fun to watch…” De Lancie responded. Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me… Lauren thought to herself holding her head. “Is that so?” Discord smirked. “Well then, how would you like to come along with me to cause some chaos?” “Please, go along with an amateur like you? I think I’ll pass…” De Lancie smirked. Discord narrowed his eyes. “Amateur? Do you know who you’re talking to? I am Discord, spirit of chaos and disharmony!” “And I’m John De Lancie. Pleasure to meet you.” He grinned. “What is he doing?” Twilight whispered to Tara. “I think he’s trying to stall him.” Tara whispered back. “This might be a good time to make our leave.” Everyone nodded in agreement and slowly made their way away from Discord and De Lancie. Unfortunately, Discord saw them from the corner of his eye and he then levitated Twilight to him. “Going somewhere?” “Let her go Discord!” Lauren shouted. Discord turned to her and suddenly felt surprised. “Well, if it isn’t the great Lauren Faust, if I’m not mistaken.” Discord smirked. “You know who I am…?” “Of course I do. I was freed by Faust; why wouldn’t I know who you are?” he said dropping Twilight to the ground. “Faust told me all about you…” “Why are you even listening to Faust Discord, you’re stronger than her!” Lauren exclaimed which made Discord raise an eyebrow. “You could easily make her powerless in a second!” “That may be Lauren, but I choose to rule alongside her in this new world.” “But wouldn’t you rather have the whole world to yourself…?” De Lancie cut in. “That, to me, sounds like a much better deal to take.” “Again… what is he doing!?” Twilight whispered to Tara. “Now I don’t even know…” Tara responded with a worried tone. Discord chuckled. “Do you honestly believe that you can fool me into going against her? I know for a fact that as soon as Faust was powerless, you would use that as an advantage against me.” He says starting to feel nervous. “I don’t have time for this. Soon the two worlds will merge and I’m going to have to be the one to keep it contained.” He said, then he looked back at the ‘ponies’ and smiled. “But before I go, I think I’ll have a little fun…” “Oh no…!” Fluttershy squeaked getting nervous quick. “Yes Fluttershy,” Discord said getting close to her. “Once again, your kindness has reached a point where it is just unbearable. I mean look at your friends; they all find it annoying.” Discord said as Fluttershy was then shown her own vision of basically her friends telling Fluttershy to buzz off, or leave them alone. “My friends… find me… annoying…?” Fluttershy said in a daze. “No Fluttershy, don’t listen!” Twilight exclaimed. “Remember our lessons of friendship!” “Those lessons were merely Celestia’s way of wasting your time! Those lessons aren’t worth anything!” Discord exclaimed. “That’s enough Discord!” De Lancie cut in. “You are taking things too far!” “I’ve heard just about enough out of you.” Discord said pushing De Lancie aside. “Save yourself the trouble, and stay out of it.” “Lessons… waste of time…” Fluttershy said in a daze still. Suddenly Fluttershy’s color slowly faded leaving a wide grin over Discord’s face. “No…” Andrea said going wide-eyed. “Stop it Discord!” she exclaimed. Discord went right to Pinkie Pie, not even acknowledging Andrea. “Pinkie Pie… friends still laughing at you?” “No!” Pinkie stomped her foot down. “They are not laughing at me! They would never laugh at me!” “Is that so?” Discord grinned. “Well, unless my hearing is off, it sounds to me that they are laughing at you right now…” he said showing Pinkie a vision of the now human ponies laughing at her, including Lauren, Tara, Andrea, John, and Ashleigh. “No… they wouldn’t!” Pinkie said with tears in her eyes. “Wouldn’t they?” he grinned when suddenly Pinkie too started to lose her color. “Oh this is just too easy…” he said making a chocolate rain cloud appear over their heads. He then looked at the time and grimaced. “I can’t stay for too long… Faust would have my head if I don’t return. But first…” he said turning to Luna. “Do you really believe that Lauren cares about you?” Luna snorted in anger. “How dare you speak such a thing!? Mother does love us, she always has!” “Honestly Luna, how could you think she loves you after what she did to you?” “She has done nothing to me!” “Really Luna, did you already forget?” Oh no… he’s not talking about…! Lauren thought to herself. “Did you forget that she was the reason you were nightmare moon in the first place?” “Well…” Luna was interrupted. “She could have easily given you a normal life, ruling Equestria alongside your sister; but instead you are forced to live with the guilt of being nightmare moon for the rest of your life! Does that sound like someone who loves you?” “Luna, please don’t listen! He’s trying to trick you!” Lauren exclaimed. “I’ll always love you, and I’m sorry for what I did!” “She… lied to…” Luna said starting to fall in a daze. She then shook her head. “No! Mother would never betray us!” “Is that what Nightmare Moon would think?” He smirked. Suddenly Luna was sent into a daze again and eventually, lost her color as well. “Princess Luna!!” Twilight exclaimed running toward her. But Luna just pushed her away in anger. “P-Princess?” Luna turned to Lauren with tears of sadness and anger. “How could you do this to us!? How could you corrupt me and allow the other ponies to live peaceful lives??” “Luna…” Lauren said practically in tears. “Please don’t talk like that, I care about you.” “I have had enough of your lies!” Luna exclaimed. “Oh, boo hoo. Is little Luna crying?” Fluttershy cooed. “How dare you speak to me this way!?” “Oh, I dare. Little Luna is crying.” Fluttershy snickered. “And what are you laughing at!?” Pinkie exclaimed turning to Fluttershy. “I’m laughing at you. Ha Ha.” Fluttershy smirked. “Quit it!” Pinkie exclaimed. “No. Ha Ha.” Fluttershy snickered. “Ugh… this is painful…” Andrea said holding her head. “Painful?” Discord laughed. “Honestly Andrea, how can you not think this is funny?” “Because it’s not right!” Andrea exclaimed. “When you mess with those two, you’re messing with me!” Discord frowned “You humans can be quite grim…” he sighed. “Well I’d love to stay and observe the chaos, but I’ve over stayed my welcome.” He said turning to Lauren. “Have fun fighting your daughter…” with that he leaped in the air and disappeared. “Fighting my daughter…?” Lauren said to herself, she then found herself being attacked by Luna with a magic spark attack, which she barely dodged. “Luna!” “You will pay for what you did to us!” she exclaimed as her hands glowed brightly and fire at Lauren again. Lauren was able to dodge her again. “Luna, please! I don’t want to fight you!” Lauren exclaimed. Luna didn’t listen; she kept going all out to attack Lauren. Lauren tried her best to avoid her, but she couldn’t avoid her attacks for too long. Soon Lauren found herself getting exhausted and she couldn’t run anymore. The ponies just stared in horror for they didn’t want to hurt Princess Luna either. Just as Luna’s next attack was about to make contact, Lauren shut her eyes, expecting the worst. But after a few moments, nothing happened. When she opened her eyes, she noticed she was inside a protective shield. Huh…? Did I do that? No, I don’t even know that much, and Twilight couldn’t have done it… “Stop Princess Luna!” a voice called. We all turned to see the source of the voice… Is that… Shining Armor!? But how did he get here??...and who’s that next to him? Lauren thought to herself. However he did… he just saved me. Twilight looked at him and went wide-eyed. “Shining Armor!?” she exclaimed. Shining Armor darted his head at his little sister. “Twiley!” he exclaimed, and then he immediately turned back to Princess Luna, trying to attack him now. “Princess, why are you doing this??” “Do not interfere, Shining Armor!” Luna exclaimed knocking him to his sister. “Shining Armor!!” Twilight exclaimed helping her brother up. “Shining Armor, don’t try to fight the Princess!” “What do you expect me to do; stand by and do nothing??” Shining exclaimed. “What I don’t get is this. Why is she attacking that girl?” “It was Discord! He corrupted Luna into thinking that Lauren didn’t care about her!” “So then…” shining paused in shock, “That’s Lauren!?” “Wow, took you that long to figure it out? Not very sharp are you?” Fluttershy said with grin. “Fluttershy??” Shining said in shock and confusion. “Discord…” Twilight mused. “Oh…” he said turning to Pinkie. “So I’m guessing…” “Yup.” Twilight mused. “Enough of this!!” Luna exclaimed in her Royal voice. “It is time for me to finish this once and for all!” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Back in Equestria, Faust was looking over it from Canterlot castle. Clouds beginning to form on their own. The Pegasi were unable to control them. Faust knew what it meant; the two worlds were getting closer. “It won’t be long now. Soon this imaginary life will only be a memory.” Faust said to herself. “This is only going to end in disaster…” a voice said from behind her. Faust turned to see it was Celestia. “Your plan to merge our worlds will do more harm than good.” “I already have that covered, my dear Tia. I have someone that will keep everything under control.” “If you’re referring to Discord, you are even more foolish than I thought.” “And why is that?” Faust said turning to Celestia. “With Discord controlling the chaos, it will be a perfect world.” Celestia narrowed her eyes for a moment. “You have another reason for doing this, don’t you?” “And what gives you that idea?” “Because the Faust I remember never even cared about the wellbeing of the other ponies in Equestria.” Celestia paused. “She was also the one who tried to take Lauren’s life away from her.” Faust didn’t respond. She only grinned which confused Celestia. But soon she realized what Faust meant. “That’s still your plan isn’t it? You still plan on taking her life!” Again, Faust didn’t respond. Instead, she spread her wings open and flew off. “Guards!” Celestia exclaimed as two guards ran to her. “Do you have any leads from Shining Armor to get to Lauren’s world?” “No, my Princess…” the guard said hanging his head down. “Shining Armor has… disappeared.” “What do you mean he disappeared?” Cadence says walking in. “Ponies don’t just disappear. What happened?” “He may be in the other world…” the guard groaned. “What!?” Celestia and Cadence exclaimed in unison. “I apologize… your highness…” he said bowing his head. “As Faust and Discord were using a teleportation spell, Shining Armor was taken with them…” Without warning, Cadence extended her wings and flew off in Faust’s direction. “Cadence stop!” Celestia exclaimed. But she didn’t listen. She kept heading toward Faust at full speed. Cadence didn’t hesitate for anything. She stayed on Faust’s tail and eventually was able to catch up to her. “Stop!!” Cadence exclaimed. Faust eventually did stop and turn to Cadence. “Where is he!?” “You’ll have to be a bit more specific…” Faust mused. “Don’t play dumb with me! Where is Shining Armor; what did you do with him!?” “The same place that all of Equestria will be in; the real world.” “Bring him back!!” Faust rolled her eyes. “It’s not like it’s going to matter Cadence… but if you’re so eager to see him again.” She said as her horn glowed. “You can join him.” With that Cadence started to disappear too. “Now there’s only one thing I have to do…” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Princess Luna, please, this isn’t you!” Twilight exclaimed. “Silence!!” Luna exclaimed once again in her royal voice. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ “Ugh… where…?” Cadence groaned. Her eyes shot open. “Faust!” she exclaimed looking around, but saw nopony nearby. In fact… What is this place…? She thought to herself, then she looked at her own body. What in wide wide world of Equestria happened to me?? What happened to my hooves, my tail, my-… “My horn!” she exclaimed feeling the bump on her head. “Silence!!” a voice echoed. Cadence turned her head in the direction of the voice. “That sounded like…” Cadence extended her wings and flew as fast as she could. Unfortunately, her speed was slower in her human form. Why is it so hard for me to fly here?? Ugh… forget it, I’m better off running! With that, Cadence got to her feet and began running to the direction. Soon enough she saw the source of the yell; she saw a human that resembled Luna about to attack a girl who was not familiar to her. What is Princess Luna doing!? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just as Luna was about to make her attack at Lauren, Luna herself was struck by a magic spark. Everyone turned at the direction of who fired it. Lauren paused and smiled, I’m so glad I gave Twilight a foalsitter and brother… “Cadence!” Lauren exclaimed getting her attention. “Cadence!?” Shining Armor and Twilight exclaimed in unison running toward. Twilight and Shining both hugged her happily. “Shining Armor? Twilight? Is it really you??” Cadence asked in disbelief. “Yeah, it’s us…” Twilight paused. “How did you get here?” “Did you find a way to travel to this world?” Shining asked. Cadence’s smile disappeared, “Unfortunately no… I was sent here by Faust, like all of you were.” Twilight and Shining Armor hung their heads in disappointment. Which soon stopped when an attack was sent toward Cadence. Fortunately, she was able to avoid the attack. “Princess Luna, stop this!” Twilight exclaimed. “Why is she acting like this??” “It was Discord.” Shining answered “He corrupted Luna into thinking that Lauren hated her!” “Lauren?” Cadence asked in shock. “Where is she??” “That… would be me…” Lauren said slowly walking toward them, exhausted. “It’s… nice to officially meet you Cadence…” “Likewise.” Cadence nodded, and then turned her head to the enraged Luna. “I think I might know how to calm her down. I just need one of you to hold her down somehow.” “And how are we going to do that?” Twilight asked. “Someone will have to distract her…” “How dare you!?” Luna exclaimed. Everyone looked and saw she was yelling at the corrupted Fluttershy. “It’s true; your mother never loved you.” Fluttershy snickered. “I… guess Fluttershy has that covered.” Cadence said in disbelief at what Fluttershy just said. She turned her head to Lauren. “Do you think you can hold her down?” “I’ll… try my best…” Lauren said with a tone of doubt. “Hey, don’t worry; everything will be fine.” Lauren paused for a moment. “Do you really have a way to change her back?” “Hopefully… yes.” Cadence said looking up at her forehead. “I see your horn grew back…” “Excuse me…??” Lauren said in confused shock, moving her hand to where the bump was, instead only bumping her hand on a full grown horn. “Okay, I guess this is a good thing…” she said looking at the others. “Looks like everyone else’s has too. Come on, let’s see if we can calm Luna down…” “She never ever loved you.” Fluttershy snickered. “I have heard just about enough of-…!” Luna was interrupted when Lauren tackled her. “Do it now!” Lauren exclaimed, holding Luna as tight as she could. Cadence ran to Lauren and Luna. “Good, now just keep holding her like that…” she said as her horn began to glow. “Hurry up Cadence!” Lauren exclaimed struggling. “I don’t know how long I can hold her!” “Let go of me!!” Luna exclaimed thrashing about. With that, a heart came from Cadences horn, which made contact with Luna. “W-..huh?” Luna said calming down. “What just happened?” she said looking around. “Princess Cadence? Shining Armor? When did you two get here?” Lauren, to her surprise, hugged her tightly. “Mother? Is something wrong?” “Everything’s fine Luna… Everything’s fine…” Lauren sighed happily. “Well…” Tara interrupted. “Almost everything…” “Stop… laughing at me!!” Pinkie exclaimed. “No. Ha Ha.” Fluttershy snickered. “Uh… I can fix that.” Twilight said walking up to them with her horn, now fully grown. Luna held Pinkie Pie down while Cadence held down Fluttershy. Twilight went up to both of them, using the memory spell on them. “There… that should do it.” “Oh my goodness..!” Fluttershy said. “I did it again didn’t I??” “It’s alright Fluttershy, it wasn’t your fault.” “I thought it was fun being grey again!” Pinkie said in a cheerful tone which left everyone looking at her, confused. “Alright, since things are in order now…” Cadence said extending her hand to Lauren. “I believe a proper greeting is appropriate. My name is Princess Cadence: princess of the Crystal Empire.” Lauren grabbed her hand and shook it. “And I’m Lauren Faust… um… the one who created everything you know.” She said rubbing the back of her head which left Cadence feeling a little embarrassed. “Right… sorry, I should’ve known that by now.” “It’s alright” Lauren giggled. Lauren went on introducing the rest of the cast who voiced them that were there at the time. Cadence and Shining Armor both warmed up to them easily. Then she explained everything on the others and everything that happened before they showed up. “She fainted when she saw Princess Luna?” Cadence laughed. “No…!” Tara objected. “I fainted when I saw her use magic!” “And when you saw my wings…” Lauren smirked. “Shut it…” Everyone laughed like everything was normal, but slowly their laughter died down. “What are we going to do about Faust and Discord?” Rarity cut in. “I’m not sure…” Lauren said. “And with our horns fully grown like this, it can only mean that our worlds are closer than they were before…” “And only getting closer…” a familiar voice spoke out. It was discord who had seemed to appear from behind a street lamp. “Would you like to see the changes I’ve made to this city?” Everyone looked at the direction he was pointing to and everything was just awful. It was raining chocolate milk. There were buildings floating in the air, and there were people slipping on soap roads, including the people driving. “Chaos is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?” He looked down at everyone who had seemed to have lost hope. “Oh don’t look so down, all of you. After all this is your new home!” he paused “actually I think I’ll send you to your real home… you look bored here.” With that he snapped his fingers and everyone disappeared from the area and all appeared in Laurens house. “What… just happened?” Andrea asked confused. “What happened is we lost… it’s over…” Lauren said falling to her knees. “No, it can’t be… it just can’t end like this.” Tara said. “What the hay is wrong with all of y’all!?” Applejack yelled out. “We would never give up like this if we were back in Equestria!” “Applejack!” Lauren snapped shocking her a little bit. “Face facts; this isn’t Equestria! Our world isn’t perfect. Things almost never happen the way they are supposed to. We basically live in a worldwide Everfree forest!” Lauren paused for a moment. “That’s what the Everfree forest was made for… it’s similar to what this world is like; dangerous.” “Wow…” Tara mused. “I never thought someone like you would just give up like this.” “And you know,” Ashleigh cut in. “Maybe you should’ve informed us more about this, than just going to the convention and pretend that everything was going to be fine.” “I didn’t want to cause panic…” Lauren said hanging her head. “Cause panic??” Ashleigh said getting to her face. “You’re the one who caused panic by going to that convention!” “Well, if Rainbow Dash didn’t decide to talk to that brony, he wouldn’t have known about her!” “What??” Rainbow snapped. “You’re blaming me for this!? You’re the one who told us to say who we were back there. You could’ve just, I don’t know, LIED!?” “I panicked! Plus the headache I was getting at the time wasn’t helping.” “Stop it!!” Andrea yelled. “All of you!! Arguing and blaming each other isn’t going to help the situation here!” “Andrea has a point…” De Lancie cut in. “The more time we spend arguing here, the less of a chance we have to stop this whole thing.” Ashleigh sighed. “They’re right… we have to do something while we still have time.” “I know!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Oh here we go…” Lauren mused. “We could try being nice to them! Maybe if we do that for a while, we could ask them nicely to-…” “Next idea…” Lauren interrupted which made Pinkie look a little upset. “I was just trying to lighten up the mood…” “We don’t have time for that!” Lauren snapped. “We need to be serious here and think of a freaking plan to stop Faust!” everyone looked at Lauren in shock and some disapproving looks. “What…?” she looked at Pinkie who looked like she was tears. “Oh my gosh… Pinkie Pie, I’m sorry.” She said walking up to her. “I shouldn’t have snapped at you like that… I’ve just been really stressed about this whole situation.” Pinkie wiped her tears smiling slightly. “It’s okay Lauren… I understand.” She said hugging Lauren. “But you’re right… I should be more serious about this…” “Uh… Lauren?” Tara cut in. “Yeah?” Lauren responded. “Not to alarm you or anything… but I’m pretty sure you didn’t look that pale.” “Wait huh?” Lauren ran into the bathroom and screamed when she saw herself in the mirror. “It’s getting worse!!” she yelled running back out and then had a look of shock as she saw the others start to change color as well. “Oh… crap…”