//------------------------------// // Incoming Feels // Story: Discord and the Dimension of Chaos // by Spirit Chaser //------------------------------// The sad look on Twilight Sparkle’s face told Snare Trap exactly what he was afraid of. Discord created him with the chaotic matter in the dimension; when his time was up, he would become the white space. Great, he had only been alive for...well, he didn’t know how time worked in the chaotic dimension, but it wasn’t long! He enjoyed having a brain and talking, and thinking, and he just couldn’t go back to being nothing. He just...couldn’t. “Okay,” Rainbow Dash broke the silence. “We’ve got a problem, and it’s a big one. Now we just need a solution. Any ideas, Twilight?” Twilight broke their staring contest and cleared her throat. “Before we decide on anything, we need to find Discord. We literally can’t do anything about this until we’ve discussed this with him.” “I was actually looking for an answer that didn’t involve Discord,” Rainbow Dash coldly responded. “There’s no way that nutcase will help us now, besides, he probably left us here to get absorbed into this place like the jerk he is.” “Rainbow,” Fluttershy piped up. “Would it really be so hard to have a little faith in Discord just this once? Sure, he’s not the nicest pony; he’s not even a pony, but he’s not evil either.” “Fluttershy, when are you—” “She’s right,” Snare Trap interrupted. “He’s not perfect, nor does he try to be, but Discord isn’t nearly as bad as you think he is. He has issues just like everyone else.” “Yeah, if everypony was a psychotic jerk who did what they wanted when they wanted!” Rainbow rudely countered. “Is it even possible to get through to your thick skull?” Snare Trap snapped. “I don’t know, why don’t you come over here and find out?” Rainbow scowled. “STOP!” Pinkie Pie said very dramatically. “No more fighting from either of you. Dashie, if you don’t apologize right this millisecond, then no more snuggling for you.” A look of panic flashed across Rainbow’s face before she appeared inches away from his face and muttered very quickly. "I'msorryitwon'thappenagain." “Um, apology accepted, I think?” Snare uncertainly said. “Yay,” Pinkie celebrated. “Now that we’re all friends again, we should go find Discord before we all die here.” With that slightly depressing note, she trotted off in a completely random direction. “She’s a strange one,” Snare Trap commented. “Yup, and she’s all mine,” Rainbow said happily as she flew off to join her marefriend. Snare Trap understood emotions well, but the fact that two ponies could share their emotions to form a relationship still confused him. He understood paternal and maternal bonds because that was just natural. He also understood that finding a mate is also natural, but to him, it just wasn’t. He still wasn’t sure if natural concepts went over his head because he was artificial or because Discord just made that way. Although for a being of chaos, creating something without emotions sounds boring. If there was one thing Discord hated, it was boredom. So then why would he leave Snare Trap without any trace of emotional understanding? When they found him, Discord had a lot of explaining to do. “Should we follow them?” Fluttershy’s voice startled Snare Trap (which was extremely ironic). “You know how hard it is to deter Pinkie once she’s set her mind to something,” Twilight smiled. “Let’s just catch up to them.” Even in the face of their own destruction, these ponies still had the energy to joke and love one another. Snare Trap couldn’t decide if he respected this, or thought that it was the dumbest thing he’d ever heard of. “Do y’all have any idea where we’re goin’?” Applejack asked as they caught up to them. “Not a clue,” Pinkie happily responded. “Oh, wait! I do have a clue! This way has the most chaotic feeling to it, and where we find chaos, we find Discord!” He had never heard anything that made so much and so little sense at the same time. “Well, if you say so,” Twilight agreed with a nod of her head. How could someone as logical as Twilight just go along with that nonsensical statement? “We’ll find that jerk Discord before we know it!” Rainbow Dash confidently stated. Even Rainbow Dash, who spoke her mind no matter what, had appeared to be convinced by this plan. If they were complete strangers, would they still have listened to each other as much as they did now? The problem with that thinking is that just by looking, or listening to these six; anyone could tell that they were born to become friends. He had to confirm a theory of his. “Excuse me,” Snare spoke up. “What’s the situation surrounding you all and Discord? I know he has an agreement to fulfill, but I don’t know the details.” “Long story short,” Twilight began, “Discord was somehow freed from his prison and after a frustrating series of events, we used our friendship to fuel the Elements of Harmony, defeating Discord again. That is, until recently when Princess Celestia told us to reform him, which Fluttershy handled all on her own. He’s supposed to be helping out in Canterlot right now, but here we are now.” “Twilight, even though you said long story short, that was still a long story,” Rainbow Dash commented. “Well, you try making it shorter!” Twilight dared to challenged. “Discord’s evil, we’re good, we beat him, he works for us now.” “Real specific.” “You didn’t say it had to be specific, just that it had to be short, which it was.” Their friendship alone allowed them to power ancient artifacts and defeat a god? Their logic must have been infectious, because he found himself believing that. If their bond could also find a way to save him and themselves from the dimension, then he would do a triple backflip off the moon into an exploding asteroid, propelling him into the sun. He would never tell this to Discord, because he would make it happen in a heartbeat. “How muuuuch looonger?” Pinkie Pie complained. “We just barely started trottin’,” Applejack pointed out. “Not to mention that goin’ this way was your idea to begin with.” “Oh yeah,” Pinkie seemed to remember. “Well then me, I declare that we have at least five more jars of sugar to go until we get there.” They laughed at Pinkie’s randomness as if it was actually meant to be a joke (which he wasn’t really sure of at this point). If he survived his own destruction, would he go live in Canterlot with Discord? Could he even fit in with the ponies there? It wasn’t enough that he was oddly colored, he couldn’t even fake having a normal personality if he tried. All happy thoughts aside, he wondered how far away they really were from Discord. He couldn’t feel himself slipping away yet, but he didn’t want to know how it did feel. Glancing at Twilight Sparkle, he saw her clutching her head again. They were still unsure of what would become of her when the chaos in her brain turned to the white space. It seemed likely that it would take the rest of her brain with it, but of course, no one wanted to say it out loud. “Hey, guys,” Rainbow Dash said. “Do any of you see those...ghosts?” Snare looked in the direction her cyan hoof was pointing at and wished that he didn’t. Gliding towards them at a speed he wasn’t comfortable with was a small army of pitch-black ponies with gaseous manes and tails. “W-what are those things?” Twilight stammered. “What, do you think I’m an expert on ghost ponies or something?” Rainbow Dash sarcastically asked. “Nevermind,” Twilight shook her head. “Okay, everypony just stay calm and don’t do anything unless they do first.” Against their instincts, they all stood as still as they could with their bodies shivering beyond control and waited for the ghostly ponies to glide by. They got ever closer and before he knew it, one had finally slipped past Snare Trap as if it didn’t notice him. He thought he heard it mutter something, but maybe he was imagining it. A scream from Rarity as one passed by her told him otherwise. “It said something!” Rarity shrieked. “It whispered something in my ear! Oh dear, I feel so violated!” As they passed by them in swarms, they all let out cries of panic as the phantoms spoke. Now that he knew he was supposed to be listening, he began to pick up on some of the things that they were saying. “Never wanted...” “No one cared...” “Just a freak...” “No feelings...” “Pure evil...” “What are they saying?” Twilight asked. “It sounds like someone’s feelings,” Snare replied. “They’re saying judgmental things like ‘No one cared’ and ‘Just a freak.’” “Whose feelings are they?” Fluttershy squeaked. “I’ll give you three hints,” Twilight sighed. “Let’s just ignore them and keep moving.” Twilight trotted ahead, seemingly unaware of the phantoms that were gliding past her towards some unknown destination. Snare Trap followed her lead, along with the others. Trotting past them was the easy part, because just hearing the negative remarks they muttered made him feel uneasy. How could anyone possibly put up with this much negativity in their lives? If this was what it felt like to have such extreme emotions in your body, Snare Trap was glad he didn’t have them. In fact, he began to feel sorry for his pony friends, having feelings as strong as these, even if they’re well hidden, must be awful. Then again, why would anyone be glad to feel nothing? Even if it’s hate or anger, feeling something is how you know you’re a pony, which was certainly something he would never properly experience. “Are the ghosties gone now?” Pinkie asked. She was right for asking, the flow of phantoms had thinned greatly. “I think so,” Twilight responded, “but that just means that we have to watch out for whatever comes next.” “As long as I can hit it, we’ll be good,” Rainbow Dash boasted. “Those ghosts get a pass for being...ghostly.” Even though they talked normally, he could tell that they were affected by the horde of negativity they just faced. He deeply hoped that the next thing they faced wouldn’t be so personal. His answer came when they approached what was only the third strangest thing they’d seen that day. “What in tarnation?” Applejack exclaimed at the sight of it. Standing in front of them were stone statues of Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy. Each with a blank expression and standing perfectly still. It may not have been the strangest thing, but it certainly was the creepiest thing they’ve seen all day. “Holy moley, ponies,” said Pinkie Pie. “It’s stone us! Except they don’t look very happy to see us.” “You’re kinda missing something here, Pinks,” Rainbow spoke. “Like, why are random stone statues of us in the middle of this crazy place?” “Should you really be questionin’ anythin’ in a chaos dimension?” Applejack asked. “Nope,” replied not Rainbow Dash, but the stone Applejack. They all immediately took a step away from their sediment clones. Did it really just...? One glance at the others told him that they were scared out of their nonexistent pants, which meant that he had to be the brave one and investigate the statues. Trotting up to them, he realized that it was eerie to see his friends made out of stones. It was almost as if they were...encased in them. “Hello?” he said, feeling rather stupid. “Are you statues, um, alive?” They didn’t move at all. Letting out a sigh of relief, he turned away from his stone friends to talk to his pony friends. “See? Nothing to be afraid of. It was probably just a figment of our imagination.” “How could we all have the same figment, though?” Twilight wondered. “I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.” “You’re right, it doesn’t.” This time, he nearly jumped three feet into the air along with the others. He studied the statue again and didn’t see any evidence that it had moved, but this time, it clearly did. He was about to open his mouth when Twilight stepped in. “Hey, statue,” she shouted, “can you hear us?” “Yes, we can,” her stone counterpart replied in it’s gravelly voice. It took a step towards them, which made them all take yet another step back. The other statues also took a step towards them. The small yelps from his friends didn’t help. “Are you girls seeing what I’m seeing?” Pinkie grabbed hold of Rainbow Dash to stop shaking. “Oh, they’re never seeing what you’re seeing,” the Pinkie statue approached her flesh counterpart, “but they’ll tell you they are, just to calm you down. Who wants to see a psycho get crazier, right?” “Huh?” Pinkie squeaked out. “Don’t listen to it,” advised Rainbow Dash. “They’re Discord’s statues, they’re designed to tell us exactly what we don’t want to hear!” “Pfff, you would think that, Ms. Wonderbolt,” the Rainbow Statue scoffed. “Oh I’m sorry, I meant, Ms-Never-Gonna-Be-A-Wonderbolt! We’re not just telling you what we don’t want to hear—” “We’re also telling you your worst fears,” the Fluttershy statue spoke up. “And boy does Fluttercry have a lot of those. My favorite is the idea that your friends don’t actually like you, they’re just taking advantage of your naivety and kindness.” “They’re actin’ like Discord did in the maze,” said Applejack. “Like when he got some bushes to tell me we weren’t goin’ to stay friends.” “You would fall for that,” Applejack statue snarled. “Dumb cowpony, can’t even understand basic math. You may be honest, but we all know you’re not smart at all.” “If we let them overcome us, then we’ll never find Discord,” said Twilight. “Let me think of a way to defeat these jerks.” “The brilliant Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight statue spat. “Afraid that one day, she won’t be smart enough to lead her friends out of danger. If you ask me, that’s a pretty big one.” “Stop this madness at once,” Rarity snapped. “What do you have to gain out of tricking us?” “We gain amusement, something you know nothing about,” Rarity crudely remarked. “Who wants to be friends with someone who either spends their days working or relaxing at the dumb spa? You’ll never be outgoing enough to match your friends.” Based on brave they sounded from past adventures, Snare expected his friends to stand up to the statues and deny what they said, but instead they all just sat there with their heads down. What was happening? Applejack even mentioned that they’ve been through this before. “Girls?” Snare asked. “What’s going on? Aren’t you going to stand up to them? You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” “Yeah,” Applejack muttered, “but you can’t deny the truth, and it never gets easier to hear.” “But it’s not the truth is it?” Snare questioned. “Not if you don’t make it the truth.” “Oh, why are y’all askin’ a dumb cowpony like me for?” Applejack pulled her hat over her eyes. The stone doppelgangers laughed on in triumph as they spat out more insults. How could they let such silly traits get in the way of such an important task? Twilight’s fear of failure, Pinkie’s fear of being annoying, Rainbow’s fear of not achieving her dream, Rarity’s fear of being lackluster, Applejack’s fear of being dumb, and Fluttershy’s fear of rejection. They all seemed like normal fears to have, but they shouldn’t let their imagination overcome them. Then again, what did he know? He still wasn’t completely capable of— The solution was so obvious that if it were literally under his nose, it still couldn’t be more obvious. Taking one last look at his forlorn friends, Snare Trap took a deep breath and charged into the Twilight statue. As his shoulder collided with hers, the only thing he seemed to have done was injure his shoulder. Then her shoulder grew cracks with purple light emitting from them. The cracks grew all over her body as she looked on in shock. Once her entire body had become covered in cracks, she exploded in a burst of purple light. The other statues gasped in shock as they all backed away. Smiling at his ability, he charged into stone Rarity, then stone Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack until they all exploded in colorful lights and vanished from their lives. He panted as he backed away from the pebbles that remained of their enemies. Turning his head to share his look of victory, he realized that he was being stared at by six pairs of eyes. “What?” he asked. “We won. Why are you staring at—” “How did you know?” Twilight choked out. “Know what exactly?” “Don’t play dumb,” Rainbow snapped. “How did you know that you were the only one who wasn’t bothered by those guys?” “Oh, well, I saw that you were being brought down by your emotions and I don’t really have emotions so...yeah.” Their eyes got wider as they opened their mouths in silent gasps. Surprising, Fluttershy stepped up first. “Of course you have emotions,” she said calmly. “You went out of your way to help us. That shows that our friendship brings you happiness, right?” “I suppose, but I definitely don’t have the extreme kind of emotions that you all have.” “Who said that was a bad thing?” Pinkie bounced up and down. “Too much of a bad thing is a bad thing, after all. Not that feelings are a bad thing, right Dashie? But too much is like having too much frosting: it seems like a good idea, but it’s not.” “That’s...very smart of you to say,” Snare said, dumbfounded by Pinkie’s statement of wisdom. “But I still want to know why Discord made me this way.” “Maybe he was too afraid of his own emotions to pass them on to someone else,” Twilight signalled them to keep moving. They followed, but like before, Snare felt that encountering such raw emotions had negatively affected them. Hopefully, it was just some chaotic side effect. Speaking of chaotic side effects, he was surprised that he wasn’t experiencing any horrible pains from the dimension. Clearly Twilight was still experiencing it, so there was still work to be done, but why wasn’t he? Looking around, he saw that whatever they’d done had made more random objects pop up. Strange food like flying apples and singing lettuce were all around them, alongside random things like completely red trees and bouncing bricks. If they weren’t all in a negative mood, they probably would’ve taken more notice at the chaos around them. Was it them defeating their enemies, Discord, or the dimension causing this new chaos? “Twilight, what do you think is causing this?” he asked. “I dunno, Discord?” she half-heartedly replied. “Maybe...are you feeling okay?” “Considering the chaos in my brain and everything that just happened, who would be okay?” Finding no suitable response for that, Snare Trap left the conversation. How could such a simple day/week/month/nanosecond that started out so light, become so dark? Was that the true meaning of chaos? What if Rainbow Dash was right and Discord was doing this to them on purpose because he’s a jerk? That still didn’t sound like the full story, but considering everything that’s happened... “Look,” he said. “I want you guys to know that whatever’s happening can’t be Discord. Or at least he can’t be doing it on purpose.” “Save it,” Rainbow snapped. “We’re not in the mood to be lectured about Discord’s inner goody-goody right now.” “I was just making sure you weren’t planning on doing anything rash when we find him.” “Oh I’m going to do something rash,” Rainbow proclaimed. “If he hadn’t run off like a big baby, then we wouldn’t losing our minds right now!” “That’s exactly what I was talking about! We need to give him a chance to explain, right Fluttershy?” “Oh,” she squeaked at the sound of her name. “Um, yeah, we need to give him a chance t-to explain.” Even Fluttershy sounded uncertain about the nature of Discord’s actions. Was going through all this actually worse than whatever reason Discord had for it? They already knew that he felt neglected and mistrustful by Celestia, but what feelings did he have beyond those? “Cheer up everypony,” Pinkie said with the bit of happiness she had left. “When you’re feeling sad, remember that there’s a bunch of weird-looking ponies reading your every move.” Unable to properly assess what Pinkie meant by that, they all decided to continue sulking in silence. It didn’t last long, however, because they soon discovered their next trial. Definitely different from the last; ahead of them stood a large colorful building that didn’t really have a certain shape one way or the other. It didn’t have doors, but they couldn’t see what was awaiting through the gaping hole. “This must be where the beast lies,” said Rarity. “I for one am ready to give him a stern talking to.” “We all are, but we have to be careful about this,” Twilight informed them. “We have no idea what awaits us.” “If we’re going by Snare Trap’s word, then there shouldn’t be anything dangerous in there,” Rainbow teased. “If we’re going by MY word, then we need to be ready for anything at any time.” “Hey, I was just—” “Let’s try to go by a little bit of both, okay?” said Twilight. “Fine,” Snare huffed. They were supposed to be asking Discord to fix the dimension, not preparing to fight him. He understood that issues in the past and their negative emotions were causing the mistrust, but there was just no way Discord was going to attack them...hopefully. Twilight led them into the shapeless building, illuminating her horn (which looked very painful) and putting on a brave face even though she too feared the unknown. The light from Twilight’s horn didn’t seem to affect the darkness at all, but considering they were in uncharted territory, this was expected. Twilight extinguished her horn as they walked around in darkness, unable to see their own hooves in front of their faces. They clung to each other, but none of them expressed fear (except for Fluttershy, of course). Perhaps it was because they knew what they up against. Anyone who could predict chaos itself earned his respect. “Maybe we can sneak up on him,” Twilight whispered. “See what he’s really up too—” “Discord!” Rainbow shouted. “We know you’re in here! This stupid darkness won’t fool us! Come out and explain yourself!” “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight shouted. “What the hay is wrong with you? Are you just dedicated to ruining all of my plans?” “Of course not...I don’t ruin all of your plans...right?” “Forget it,” Applejack snapped. “Let’s just get to Discord and hogtie him ‘til he talks!” “You wanna hogtie Discord?” Snare Trap repeated, dumbfounded. “Let’s do it!” Pinkie shouted in agreement. Pinkie broke into a gallop down the dark hallway. Rainbow Dash followed her, followed by the others, who were followed by him. He wasn’t scared of the dark, but not being able to see anything was making him a bit uneasy. He wished that he could at least see ahead of himself so that he wouldn’t run into a wall. Unfortunately, he got his wish when the room changed from black to white. “Ahh!” They shrieked in unison as the change in brightness hurt their vision. Rubbing the pain out of his eyes, Snare looked around and saw that the walls and floors were indeed completely white. It was as if they were made entirely out of light.   “You want to know why?’ Discord’s voice echoed around their light prison. “Why the dimension itself attacked you? Why I left? Why did I create Snare without emotions? Well, I suppose the point of having a question is to find an answer, unless you’re me, then there is no point.”   A large draconequus shadow appeared on the white wall. It casually waved to them as if it were coming over to borrow some sugar. “I’ve never had friends to share my past with before,” said Discord. “This’ll be fun. Let’s start with the day I met dear Princess Celestia.” The shadow moved aside to welcome a shadow Alicorn mare wearing a crown. The draconequus appeared to be trying to greet the Alicorn, but she turned her head away from him. The draconequus lowered his head in despair. “I had been a spreader of chaos for some time before I came to Equestria. To be honest, coming here was more like a vacation, who knew it would end up being a thousand year vacation? Anyway, Celestia caught wind of my ‘talents’ and summoned me to Canterlot for an audience. Never before had I ever met somepony like her before. She was powerful, wise, and best of all: immortal.” “I’ve never been particularly fond of ponies; no offense, but Celestia was a special case. I knew that the two of us could cause chaos like nopony had ever seen. All I had to do was convince her to leave behind her old boring life to join my more chaotic, fun life. I even told her that I would leave Equestria alone if she went with me. Unfortunately for me, that is when I was met with the deal breaker: Celestia was a goody two-shoes through and through.” The draconequus whispered something to the Alicorn, something that she apparently found offensive as she gasped and smacked him with her tail. Once again, the draconequus began to mourn his failure. “She told me she knew she couldn’t stop me from spreading my chaos, so she simply asked me to keep it away from Equestria. She was correct on the grounds that I would hate to stop spreading chaos, unfortunately for her, she was also wrong to ask me to stop, because that only made me want to spread more.” The Alicorn disappeared as the draconequus stroked his shadow goatee. A light bulb appeared above his idea as he emitted a gasp. He raised his arms and thrust them forward; shadowy fire erupted from them. He chuckled as he laid waste to the shadowy land of Equestria. Snare Trap’s friends looked horrified at Discord’s retelling of his past. Twilight seemed be keeping a hoof to her head at all times now. He still wondered why he wasn’t experiencing anything besides the fact that he could sense when the creations were destabilizing. “I decided that I was going to rule Equestria as it’s king and nopony was going to stop me. Except for the part where somepony did stop me. Two someponies actually: Celestia and Luna defeated me with their magic jewelry. I suppose I’ve had worst defeats.” The shadow Alicorn returned with her shadow Alicorn sister. They had shadowy jewels surrounding them. The jewels created a shadow bubble around them that unleashed a shadowy blast against the draconequus, imprisoning him in his little shadow statue prison. “You know what comes next, but the answer doesn’t come in the future, it lies in the past. Because Celestia declined my offer of partnership, I lashed out against Equestria. She didn’t trust me to leave her nation alone if she went with me, so she refused my offer outright and caused this big mess. Is any of this really my fault?” “Yes!” they shouted in unison. “Hmm, I don’t understood your point,” Discord played innocent. “Discord!” Twilight shouted angrily. “First of all, show yourself and stop this dumb puppet show.” “As you wish, Ms. Sparkle,” Discord blinked in sight. With a snap of his fingers, he made the shadows disappear. “Second, Princess Celestia declined because she’s not evil, not because she didn’t trust or care about you. She obviously doesn’t feel that way about anypony. If this has really been bothering you, then you should talk to her about it instead of running away from it.” “Why do that when I can stay here in my chaotic wonderland?” Discord blinked on a snow outfit and skis. “Here, it could be winter in summer, it could be spring in fall, it could be—” “Destabilizing,” Twilight interrupted. “Your dimension is destabilizing. So is the chaos in my brain, which could kill me, and so is Snare Trap.” “Don’t be silly,” Discord laughed. “Snare Trap can’t destabilize, I specifically created him with a blend of my power and the dimension’s power. As long as he remains here, he’ll be fine.” Twilight looked at Snare Trap, who returned the stare. That was why he wasn’t experiencing the symptoms? Discord protected him from the start? “Wait, you knew the dimension was unstable from the start? Why didn’t you take more precautions, like removing the chaos in my head for instance?” Twilight asked angrily. “I didn’t know from the start, c’mon, I just found this place. I knew as soon as I left you stranded in the middle of nowhere, which was hilarious by the way.” “So, can you fix my br—” “But why did you make the dimension bombard us with emotions like that?” Rainbow demanded. “I didn’t really make it happen on purpose,” Discord shrugged. “I was just maybe, a little, dealingwithmyemotionsatthetime.” “Excuse me?” “Iwasdealingwithsomestuffatthetime.” “Speak up!” “I was feeling all the emotions I felt when Celestia rejected me at the time, and I guess I reflected it through the dimension. Happy now?” “Oh...oh.” With that, it all made sense. The negative feelings, the fears, they were Discord’s emotions. Wait, Discord had emotions? “I’m sorry, Discord,” said Twilight. “We had no idea that...well, you actually had emotions. I promise we’ll help you work through it, but can you please fix my br—” “Wait a minute,” Snare interrupted. Twilight groaned behind him. “You still haven’t said why you made me without any emotions, why?” “Oh, isn’t it obvious by now?” Discord gestured. “I didn’t create you with emotions because I don’t even like having emotions. Why would the new reformed me wish a burden upon somepony else? Geez, hanging out with you ponies is like living a soap opera.” “Welcome to our world,” Twilight sighed. “Now can you just fix my br—” “You made me nearly emotionless to protect me from them?” Snare asked. Twilight groaned even louder and hit herself in the face. “I didn’t expect that level of caring from you. Thanks.” “Don’t count yourself too lucky,” Discord warned. “I only do a nice thing every once in a few hundred moons.” “You should do one right now by fixing my br—” “Does this mean you’ll go with us back to Equestria?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight took several deep breaths to prevent herself from exploding with rage. “We really do need you back home.” “I suppose I could maybe, possibly go back to try and work things out with Celestia. We really need to come to terms about my break periods.” “Good,” Twilight smiled. “Good, we’re all going back to Equestria, we’ve all had a heart-to-heart with each other. Everything’s been settled. Now fix. My. Brain.” Usually, Discord would’ve joked around first, but to Snare’s amazement, he just snapped his fingers and a light engulfed Twilight’s head. He couldn’t blame him, if Twilight was looking at him with the same gaze she gave Discord, he would’ve done anything she wanted. After a moment of swirling light eating Twilight’s head, it vanished. Twilight had her eyes closed tight. “Twi’?” Rainbow spoke first. “You okay in there?” “Better than okay,” Twilight’s eyes flew open. “I’m great! My big, beautiful brain is back to it’s normal self. Thanks Discord. That everything’s been settled, let’s get back to Equestria and leave this dimension to it’s constant destabilization.” “Wait.” Everypony turned to the speaker: Snare Trap. “Discord said that I was apart of this dimension and his own magic, and that as long as I stay here, I won’t destabilize, but if that’s true, then I won’t be able to go to Equestria with you guys.” Everypony emitted a small gasp and turned to Discord for confirmation. For the first time, he appeared dumbfounded. “That’s...right. The half of you that’s made from my magic isn’t enough to to sustain you in Equestria, and if I tried remaking you with all of my magic...well the results could be very messy.” “But he’s our friend too,” Pinkie said. “He has to come with us. We can’t just leave him here in this big dumb dimension all by himself.” “Of course not, darling,” Rarity chimed in. “There has to be a solution that will satisfy everypony.” “Hmm, I think I may possess the answer,” Discord chuckled. “But first things, first, we need a portal out of here.”