The Equine Scrolls: SkyFiM

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 27: A Descent Into Madness

After the Blackwing Embassy had burned to the ground, we headed down the mountain to Seclusion. Dawn was nearly upon us as we entered the Skeever Hole, but I didn’t think Bruinin would mind us using his room. After resting up, Steadfast retrieved his armor, which was still there, and we left the little tavern.

There was no sign of Bruinin or Scarlet Shores, which was too bad because I felt I owed the latter an apology for my outburst the last time we had met. Now that Steadfast was safe, it seemed like things weren’t as bad as I had imagined.

“So, what’s the plan now?” Steadfast asked as we trotted through the town.

“Well, there’s still Volsteed,” I told him, “Faniar wanted us to check it out. But I think we should return this to the Bards College first.”

I pulled the journal from my saddlebags where the missing lines of King Oman’s Verse were stashed. Mephalda was fully up to speed; I had explained my whole story to her the night before, with Steadfast cutting in from time to time. Oddly, I’d had quite an easy time opening up to the mare, maybe because she had shared her life story first.

As we passed through Seclusion, several ponies greeted me as I walked past. I was beginning to become known. I wasn’t yet decided if that was a good or bad thing. There were no ponies practicing their instruments outside the Bards College today, the weather was too brisk for that. Luckily, since they were all inside, it wasn’t hard to get directions to Headmistress Concerto.

“Ah, you again,” she said as I knocked on the doorway of her office and entered, “And I see you’ve gained another companion. Come for a job, or do you wish to master the musical arts?”

“Neither,” I answered, sliding the journal across her desk.

“What is this?” she asked, beginning to flip through it.

“A journal from one of your bards exploring Ironhoof Barrow,” I answered as she paged through the entries, “He was killed, but not before he found King Oman’s Verse.”

“Surely you jest,” she said, but flipped to the back and pulled the age-weathered pages out, “These are the lost lines of King Oman’s Verse. We’ve been searching for these for years. Of course, it’s become more important to find them now that Radiance the Fair has struck down our request to host the Burning of King Oman Festival.”
“Why’s that?” I asked.

“King Oman One-Eye was a tyrant and we celebrate his death every year by burning him in effigy. But, due to King Shade’s recent death, Radiance does not wish to allow a festival that celebrates the death of a king. We’ve been trying to convince her of the historical significance of the event, but so far she hasn’t budged in her position. Maybe these new lines will convince her how important it is to keep the story alive.”

“Here, for your trouble,” she said, tossing me a coin purse, “And if you wouldn’t mind, could you bring a message to Jarl Radiance asking for another chance at hosting the festival?”

“Of course,” I said. After all, we had plenty of time to explore Volsteed.

“Excellent,” she said, “I’ll take this to Deans Stretto and Timbre immediately and have them restore the sheets. I can’t thank you enough for this.”

With a light heart, I departed the Bards College and headed to the Blue Palace just a short distance away. As I entered the fancy accommodations, I noticed two ponies in Imperial Legion armor standing guard outside one of the doorways. Though I was curious about the change, I still had a message to deliver to the Jarl.

“Ah, Sapphire,” Jarl Radiance greeted me as I neared her throne, “I see you have returned to my city. I would like to pass on the thanks of the ponies in Dragon Bridge whom you saved last time you left here. Hopefully, this time you will have a chance to speak to my guards and the Legion about how to take down a dragon on their own.”

“I will,” I assured her, “But I’m actually here with a message from Headmistress Concerto of the Bards College.”

I explained how I had found King Oman’s verse and how excited Concerto was to have it. I also explained best I could how important she thought this was to keep Horizon’s history alive. The whole time I spoke, Jarl Radiance listened, occasionally glancing at the empty throne next to hers with longing in her eyes.

“Well, I shall have to consider it,” she said, “Tell Concerto that I may allow the Festival to be hosted if I find this new discovery to be as important as she claims. Before I make my final judgment, I will have to hear it.”

“Of course,” I started to say, but was cut off by a scream from elsewhere in the palace.

A few minutes later, a sobbing servant was led up the stairs by the two Imperial guards I’d seen earlier. Jarl Radiance passed her a hoofkerchief and waited for her to regain her composure.

“It’s happened again,” the servant said breathlessly when she finally got a hold of herself.

“Oh dear,” Jarl Radiance whispered softly.

“Arnice and I were just cleaning,” the servant continued, “One moment she was beside me, and the next she was gone.”

“I won’t have this happen again,” Radiance said, strength building in her voice, “Seal off the Pegasusius Wing, nopony enters for any reason.”

“What’s going on?” Steadfast asked.

“Ponies are disappearing,” Radiance answered, “Five in all now, and they were all in the Pegasusius Wing when it happened. It’s as if a curse has fallen across the place. We have no idea why they continue to disappear, and until we do we can’t risk sending anypony else in.”

“We could go,” Steadfast said to me.

I wasn’t so sure. An odd force that inexplicably caused ponies to disappear? It just wasn’t natural. I wasn’t exactly comfortable with going in and possibly disappearing, but with Steadfast and Mephalda with me, nothing could go too wrong. Right?

“We could take a look,” I told Radiance.

“Be careful,” her steward, a stallion with a violently red coat and mane warned, “As the Jarl said, five ponies have disappeared already. We’d hate for it to be six.”

“Understood,” I said, and the three of us headed out of the throne room.

The Imperial guards had returned to their posts by the time we reached the door to the Pegasusius Wing, but moved aside to let us pass. Inside, it seemed to be just another wing of the palace. It was very dim, the only light coming through shuttered windows, and it was silent as a tomb.

“What happened here?” Mephalda whispered.

It was certainly eerie. Though it looked just like the rest of the palace, it didn’t feel the same. A fell presence seemed to haunt the interconnected rooms. It must’ve been this way for at least some time, as the rooms didn’t look lived in, just meticulously cleaned and cared for.

“Pegasusius the Mad,” I whispered, looking at a large portrait of the former emperor, “This wing’s named after him.”

“He was crazy,” Mephalda whispered back, glancing around furtively, “No wonder this place is so eerie.”

“I don’t know,” I said as we neared a set of bedchambers, “Nothing looks out of the ordinary. I don’t see how ponies are disappearing in here.”

As we entered the bedchambers, a flash of multicolored light suddenly burst up in front of my eyes, and I fell out of reality.

Blinking the afterimages away, I tried to get a focus on where I was. As soon as things came into focus, I immediately shut my eyes before opening them again. The world around me was completely impossible, yet here I was.

I was standing in what appeared to be a secluded forest glen, but the trees were all wrong. They were pines like what would be found in Horizon, but they were the most fantastical colors, and the range of sizes was far beyond what could be found in reality.

Around me, the land curved up and down irregularly, at slopes nopony could climb. In the distance, I could see the whole landscape begin to curve upwards, eventually wrapping all the way around over my head to the other side. Looking up, I could see a whole valley with mountains and a lake. The sight was dizzying and disorientating, and I forced myself to look down.

A faint purplish mist seemed to billow erratically throughout the glen, defying all logic. A rabbit the size of a house suddenly emerged from it, and I was forced to step back to avoid being squashed. I peered after it as it disappeared into the mist.

I didn’t like this one bit. Nothing here made any sense at all; add to that the fact that I was all alone. I was alone, I realized. Wherever I was, Steadfast and Mephalda hadn’t followed me through.

With a flash of light and a faint popping sound, something appeared in front of me, dispelling the mist momentarily.

“Ah, another one so soon?” the creature bellowed.

“Who are you?” I asked, staggering backwards.

The creature before me had a vaguely ponyish look to its face, but the rest of it was completely wrong. Two horns, one from a deer, the other from a goat sprouted from its head. Its mane was that of a donkey’s, as was the neck it grew from, which attached to a stretched out torso that turned to a dragon’s tail, giving the creature a serpentine appearance overall. Two arms grew from just below its neckline, one ending in an eagle claw, the other in a lion’s paw. The legs it stood on were similarly mismatched, one from a goat and the other from a dragon and both a pegasus and a bat wing fluttered on its back. An oddly colored suit split down the middle was the only clothes the creature was wearing.

“I think it’d be obvious,” he (at least I assumed it was a he) said, slithering around behind me, “Have you no knowledge of me, the highest Draconequus prince of all?”

So, that was it. He was a Draconequus, one of the otherworldly creatures of beyond. Still, he didn’t resemble any Draconequus I remembered.

“Which one are you?” I asked, “You don’t look like any Draconequus I know.”

“Not a Draconequus?” he said, looking offended, “I am the only true Draconequus! It is our very nature to be chaotic, and we are the living embodiment of it. Of course, we can take on any form we desire.”

He demonstrated, flipping rapidly through different appearances. It was hard keeping up as he twisted into unimaginable shapes and mimicked almost anything, even stationary objects.

“But the other Draconequi, they don’t remember. They’ve chosen to shape personas for themselves, and have become so devoted to them, they can’t even change back to their true form any longer. This is how I truly look, how all Draconequi truly look.”

“All right,” I said, not wanting to upset this being with nearly limitless power, “But which one are you then?”

“I am the master of all, the greatest of all, the most powerful Draconequus in The Beyond. I’m Discord! Lord of Chaos, and Prince of Madness!”

Lightning crackled, though I saw no clouds it could come from. Chaotic indeed.

“And you, puny mortal,” Discord said, flicking my horn with a claw, “Are now trapped here with me for eternity.”

“Where are we even?” I asked, looking around at the landscape, “Is this The Beyond?”

“Hardly,” Discord scoffed, flipping acrobatically through the air and jumping from tree to tree, “It’s been nearly impossible to open a direct link to your world from The Beyond since Empress Mystica sealed the gates all those years ago. No, this is just Pegasusius the Mad’s mind.”

“His mind?” I asked incredulously.

“Quite,” the Draconequus replied, changing the trees to quills with the snap of a claw, “His mind provides a stable link between your world and my own realm.”

“But, Pegasusius the Mad’s been dead for centuries!” I protested.

“And?”

It made no sense, but then again, Discord’s entire purpose seemed to be to avoid making sense wherever possible.

“You’re overthinking things,” he told me, suddenly appearing behind me and pinching my cheek, “We can’t have that, not here.”

“In Pegasusius the Mad’s mind?”

“Yes.”

“This is where the ponies in the Pegasusius Wing go when they disappear?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Yes.”

“What?”

“You’ve got to take my advice and stop thinking about it,” he said, popping open his head and removing his brain, throwing it aside, “See how much fun chaos can be when you don’t think.”

“Just one question. Tell me why you keep taking ponies from the Pegasusius wing.”

“Oh, all right,” he said, leaning back on one of his tree-sized quills until it acted like a hammock, “You mortals are so fun to play with, always fighting to make sense of things when there’s no sense to make. My Changeling servants aren’t nearly as entertaining, and after a while even the mortal residents of my realm grow dull. Here I have a fresh pool to choose from, new ponies to antagonize.”

“Wait,” I called as he began to fly off.

“Tut tut, only one question, remember?” he said, pulling a question mark from one of his suit’s pockets before collapsing it into a hotcake and throwing it out across the valley.

“You shouldn’t be doing this,” I told him, “Dragging innocent ponies away from their homes and trapping them here.”

“And who’s going to stop me?” he said, climbing down a staircase that suddenly existed and craning down his neck so we were eye to eye, “You? Ooh, I’m so scared.”

“Well,” I said, thinking of a new strategy, “If you don’t stop, they’re going to block up the Pegasusius Wing, and then you’ll never be able to take ponies from there again. Your source of playmates will be dried up.”

“I can expand. You don’t know the power I have, and ponies are weak!”

“Not as weak as you think,” I told him.

“Hmm,” he said, stroking his goatee, “I suppose maybe you’re not as weak as I suspected, not falling for the madness yet, but what makes you think other ponies are like you?”

I had no response to that. Sure, we were a hardy bunch, but what part of me thought ponykind could stand up to a Draconequus?

“Tell you what,” Discord said, “I’ll make you a deal. All the ponies I’ve taken from the Northlands are here, you just have to find them. If you can convince them to leave, I’ll allow them and you to go, and I’ll never take anypony from the Pegasusius Wing again.”

“And if I can’t?”

“Well, you’ll be wandering Pegasusius’s mind until you either die, give up, or succumb to the madness, in which case I may take you all the way to the Shivering Isles and show you some real chaos.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” I asked.

“Oh, I will. Scout’s honor,” he said, making a gesture with one of his hands, “I’ve made many deals before, and I’ve won every one of them. I don’t expect that to end now, pitting my wits against a mortal.”

“Now, you’d best get started,” the mad Draconequus said, drawing a pink parasol out from nowhere, “You’ve got five ponies to convince there’s still a world waiting for them out there. You’d better hurry before the chaos sets in, I always get a bit bored this time in the afternoon and liven things up a bit.”

“It’s morning,” I protested.

“Hmm, we’ll see,” he said, popping the parasol open as the clouds suddenly appearing overhead began to rain chocolate milk.

I was thoroughly soaked through with chocolate in no time. To shield myself from the worst of the storm, I tried cutting off the leaf of a giant clover, but somehow it seemed to rain harder under my makeshift umbrella. The purple fog certainly didn’t help in my wandering at all. It obscured and altered my view of the landscape ahead, twisting it into unimaginable shapes and distances, causing me to lose my way more than once.

I was climbing nearly vertically up a hill with a giant mushroom growing on top, when I heard a noise only a pony could be making. At least, I hoped it was a pony making it. I climbed the rest of the hill until I found an earth pony mare huddled under the mushroom, crying in distress.

“I don’t want to go,” I heard her say, rocking back and forth.

“Hello,” I spoke to her, trying to get her attention.

“I don’t want to go,” she said again, though this time she turned around to look at me.

“Go where?” I asked her.

“I don’t want to go.”

“Go where?”

“I don’t want to go.”

“Why,” I asked her, altering my approach.

“I was cleaning,” she said, “With Night-breeze in the Pegasusius Wing. The light came, but I don’t want to go.”

“Arnice?” I asked her, remembering her name from back in the Blue Palace.

“I don’t . . . want to go,” she said, but her ears perked up at the mention of her name.

“You’re Arnice, right?” I said, “You came from Seclusion. You work in the Blue Palace.”

“I don’t want to go.”

“But do you want to go back?” I asked her.

“Yes,” she said, softly, trembling.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I want to go!”

Suddenly she disappeared from in front of me. I heard clapping coming from behind me and turned around to see the mushroom’s stalk was Discord.

“Bravo,” he said, taking the cap off his head and dipping it in a pool of chocolate milk before eating it in a single bite, “You’ve gotten the one that’s been here less than an hour to go back. You could give up now, you know.”

“Why? Are you scared?” I asked, acting more confident than I felt.

“How amusing,” he said, his face breaking into an impossible smile, “You have four more ponies to convince, ponies who have been here, subjected to constant madness and chaos for days. There’s no way you can do it.”

“We’ll see,” I said, trotting down the hill and echoing his statement from before.

It was impossible to track the passage of time as I traveled through the unnatural landscape. There was no sun in the sky, mostly because there was no sky, yet light illuminated Pegasusius’s mind anyway. Leaving the hills behind suddenly, I found myself looking across a vast plain of crystal.

Lights pulsed beneath the surface as I trotted across, and it felt strangely cool to the hoof and slippery, as if it were ice. I was about halfway across when suddenly the crystal exploded up around me. I galloped toward the far shore, weaving to avoid the shards of crystal that were sent flying up in the air and came raining down around me.

I managed to make it to the far end of the crystal plain with only minor scratches and stopped to catch my breath. The entire plain had broken apart by now, and the crystal was beginning to melt, swirling down into the hole created. There would be no going back that way.

Turning around, I moved on, and pushed aside a pair of oversized jungle fronds, entering a small hollow between the hills. Purple mist billowed near the edges, but in the center was a stallion in a chef’s hat rushing around a kitchen. All the counters, tables, cabinets, and equipment for a kitchen surrounded him, though he was outside.

“Hello,” I greeted him.

“I can’t talk now,” he replied, “I’m busy preparing the Jarl’s meal.”

“What Jarl?” I asked, looking around.

“Jarl Radiance,” he explained, rushing around to tend to his food, “It’s nearly time for breakfast.”

“Jarl Radiance is in Seclusion,” I tried to explain to him.

“Right,” he replied, rushing back to a counter to quickly chop up some carrots.

“How are you going to get it to her when you’re here?” I asked him.

“The throne room’s right over there,” he said, pointing off toward a gap in the multi-colored hills.

Curious if he was right, I trotted over to the gap in the hills. All that lay beyond was a dizzying drop off a cliff.

“There’s nothing over there,” I told him.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he replied, “You think I don’t know my way around the Blue Palace?”

“You think this is the Blue Palace?”

“Oh, I know it is. Of course, it took me some time to realize it. Who’d have thought the only way to get here was through the Pegasusius Wing. All that time I spent thinking I was really there, only to find it was all a trick. This is the Blue Palace.”

“No it’s not,” I argued, “The real Blue Palace is back there. This, this is the trick.”

“Oh no, I thought so too at first. Then I realized how false that other world was. This is where I belong.”

“Come back with me,” I tried to persuade him, “I’m sure Jarl Radiance, the real Jarl Radiance misses you. Come back to reality.”

“This is reality,” he insisted.

“No,” I said, grabbing him to stop him from continuing his cooking, “This is the mind of a madpony. You were passing through the Pegasusius Wing when you arrived here, correct?”

“Yes,” he said, and I could see the memories resurfacing in his mind.

“And you saw a flash, right?”

“Yes, and I was freed from that false world.”

“No, this is the false world. You fell into it. Think about all you’ve done in the real world. Could it really all have been a trick?”

“No,” he said, “That was real. My wife, my foal. Oh, how could I have doubted their existence! I want to go home!”

He suddenly disappeared from in front of me. The cabinets previously floating in the air attached to invisible walls suddenly fell down with a crash.

“Oh, you could’ve waited a bit to send him home,” I heard Discord’s voice behind me.

Spinning around, I saw him emerge from the gap in the hills the chef had thought the throne room was through. He was dressed up like Jarl Radiance, but flicked the costume away with the snap of his fingers as he approached.

“I was really looking forward to that meal.”

“Worried yet?” I asked him.

“Hardly. You’ve managed to free the two I’ve had the weakest grip on. Impressive, yes, but hardly anything to write home about, which you of course can’t do. Oh, as stubborn as you are, I’ll quite enjoy the pranks I’ll play on you when it’s all over.”

“I don’t think so,” I said, trotting away.

“You’ll give in to the chaos,” Discord said before I passed out of earshot, “It’s only illogical.”

I huffed purple smoke from my lungs as I passed through a landscape so contorted and twisted I soon lost track of up and down. In the midst of the maze, I could see another of the ponies lost in Pegasusius the Mad’s mind. Above (below?) me an Imperial soldier was running around erratically, cutting down an army of flutes sticking out of the ground around him.

“What’s going on?” I asked him, hoping to work up a conversation I could steer toward getting back to reality.

“It was an ambush,” he said, continuing to chop apart the instruments around him, “The Stormclouds wiped out my entire unit, but I won’t let them get me.”

“I think you’re safe from the Stormclouds now,” I told him.

“How can you say that when they’re all around me?”

He paid no attention to me, continuing to chop down the flutes around him. Apparently, he thought they were Stormcloud soldiers.

<<<FUS~RO~DAH!!!>>> I Shouted, knocking down the rest of them.

Looking around, he saw no more attackers. Sheathing his sword, he continued to look around fearfully, as if he expected another attack any moment.

“So, where were you when you were attacked?” I asked him.

“That’s easy, I . . . um,” he answered, looking unsure.

“Think,” I commanded him, “How did you get here?”

“Wait,” he said, “I wasn’t with my unit when I was attacked. I was . . . investigating the Pegasusius Wing in the Blue Palace. A couple ponies went missing and I was sent to look for them.”

“Exactly,” I said, “You’re not fighting Stormclouds, this is all a trick.”

He looked around, eyes wide open as if finally seeing what was really around him for the first time. When he realized in full what was going on, he disappeared from in front of me. Discord didn’t appear this time to taunt me. Maybe he was finally getting concerned, who could say. It didn’t bother me that he chose to not show up.

I was over halfway finished. Only two more ponies and I would be free. Without another moment wasted, I set out to find them.

Over the ridiculously undulating hills, I traveled until I found a series of stones floating in the air, making a staircase of sorts to an unnaturally large piece of land with a windmill atop it floating in the sky. Climbing the stone steps, I found the fourth pony on the highest piece of land.

She was dressed in royal gowns, with a crown upon her head. She rose from a rough stone throne, a scepter with her head at the top grasped in her hoof as I approached. I stopped as she drew a sword from its scabbard and pointed it at me.

“Halt,” she commanded, “For what purpose do you enter the realm of Cassia? Be you friend or foe?”

“Friend, I guess,” I said.

“And why do you approach my throne?”

“To . . . take you away.”

“Aha, a kidnapper! Well, I’ll have you know that even if you managed to kidnap me, my empire would survive.”

“Empire?” I asked, “Who do you think you are?”

“I am the Empress Cassia the First,” she said with pride, “All this land is under my dominion. Now be gone with you. Trespassers in my empire will be hung first, tried later.”

“Right,” I said, “But are you aware that your ‘empire’ is really Pegasusius the Mad’s mind? This is all fake, that you belong back in Seclusion.”

“What is this Seclusion?” she asked, “I’ve never heard of such a place, but would very much like to conquer it.”

“No,” I tried to explain, “It’s where you’re from, and it’s ruled by Jarl Radiance the Fair.”

“Well, I shall have to kill her too then to expand my empire.”

I groaned with frustration. Apparently, this one wouldn’t be convinced to return to reality with simple memory, she was too far gone. But, maybe I could try something else. In teaching me Shouts, the Greymanes had shared their memories with me. If I could duplicate the feat, I could share my own memories of Seclusion to jog her mind.

I concentrated on all my memories of Jarl Radiance’s city. I drew energy from both my magic, and the energy reserves I drew upon to Shout. Focusing, I projected my memories into a powerful blast of energy that struck Cassius.

As my memories flew into her, I swear I could see them flashing by in her eyes. As my mind attack finished, she opened her eyes wide with realization.

“Oh, I need to get back to Jarl Radiance!” she exclaimed, dropping her scepter and sword.

Not paying attention to where she was running, she plummeted right off the edge of the floating island. I tried to catch her, but it was too late and she fell through the air. Thankfully, she disappeared just before hitting the ground below.

“Cheater,” Discord accused me.

“How am I a cheater?” I questioned the Draconequus, facing where he lay on one of the windmill’s blades.

“Using your own memories to convince them to return. Clever, but not very sporting.”

“What do you care about being sporting?”

“Why, I do so love games. Of course, my favorites involve life or death situations. Fair warning, you’ve been playing this game alone so far, and I think it’s time you got an active opponent.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked him, but he just smiled, and caused his whole body to fade away with a snap of his fingers until only the smile was left.

His teeth vanished the same time the floating section of land I was on ceased to float. I held on for dear life as it plummeted to the ground, exploding into bits of gravel that fluttered away on butterfly-like wings. The windmill didn’t disintegrate as nicely, and I was forced to dodge its spinning blades as it fell toward me. I had a feeling I wouldn’t like Discord’s games.

At last, I caught a glimpse of the final pony. A mare in servants’ attire was running around like mad near the lake I had seen in the sky in my first moments here. Confidently, I approached her.

She hunched low to the ground as I got near, her mane bristling, and she barked at me. Running a few more laps, she stopped to scratch behind her ears. Clearly she thought she was a dog. There would be no reasoning with this pony at all, so I moved right onto the move I had used on the last one.

A cat suddenly ran between the mare and I, jumping into the lake. She followed, and as soon as she touched the water, it began to swirl around, draining through a hole in the lake’s bottom. I spotted Discord standing nearby, filing at his claws.

“Discord, that’s not fair!” I protested.

“Who said anything about being fair?” he said, grinning and throwing up his arms in mock surprise.

Before the mare got too far away, I jumped through the hole after her. Tucking my body in, I streamlined myself to soar more quickly through the tunnels. It was a mess down below, with tubes twisting all through and around each other. At least it wasn’t completely dark; gems lined the walls and gave off a mesmerizing glow.

I began to build my makeshift spell again as I spotted the mare ahead of me. I just had to get close enough to send the memories to her. Suddenly, we burst into the light, flung high in the air. I was still going up as she came down and quickly cast the spell as we passed in midair.

“Wha- where am I?” she asked, before suddenly popping out of existence.

Now that that was taken care of, I was the only pony here and I could soon return home. Of course, that was assuming Discord kept his word and I survived the fall I was about to endure. Oddly, I didn’t fall at all, just hung in the air as if gravity had no power over me.

“Here, let me help you with that,” Discord offered, flashing into existence next to me.

With a pat on my head, he knocked me out of the sky. Instead of hitting the ground and splattering, I bounced off a mushroom. I bounced throughout a field of the massive fungi before I finally came to rest on solid land.

“Would’ve thought?” Discord said, resting on a cloud above me, “I actually lost.”

“Now you’ll let me go?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said, teleporting down to stand in front of me, “I’m a Draconequus of my word.”

“You’ve been quite a worthy opponent; I’ll have to keep an eye on you,” he said, literally pulling one of his eyes from its socket and impaling it on my horn.

“Now, once you send me back, you won’t take any more ponies from the Pegasusius Wing, correct?”

“Of course.”

“You promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said, literally acting out the entire rhyme, complete with cupcake.

“What?” I asked, befuddled.

“Ciao!” he exclaimed before snapping his fingers together.

The ground crumbled beneath me, and I found myself falling with no end in sight.

When I opened my eyes, I was back in the bedchambers of the Pegasusius Wing, lying on the floor. Both Steadfast and Mephalda were nearby.

“Oh my goodness,” the pegasus said, helping me up, “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” I said, attempting to stand on my own four hooves without help, “Just a little disoriented. Were you guys waiting for me the whole time?”

“You were only gone a few minutes,” Steadfast said, looking at me funny.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Mephalda said, “Shortly after you disappeared, other ponies started appearing only a minute or so apart. Why?”

“Well, it seemed like nearly a whole day passed for me.”

“Where were you?” she asked.

“You’d never believe me if I told you,” I said, laughing.