TWILIGHT SPARKLE
Princess Twilight Sparkle scrutinized the readings that blinked to life on her Magical Mass Spectrum Scanner and frowned. They were jumping all over the place, sporadically going out of control, the last time she saw magical readings like this Discord was waking up from his stone prison. In fact, it was so chaotic, Twilight thought Discord must be behind it.
She sighed, deciding on making a visit to her least favorite spirit of chaos when she heard, “Oh, Twilight, ye of little faith.”
Twilight looked around for the source of the voice and noticed it was coming from her machine. The display screen blinked and a digitalized miniature Discord appeared right above her readings, lounging on the number 203, eating the number 7 like it was a hay-fry.
“I thought we had gotten past this whole ‘Discord is evil’ part of our relationship,” he continued, his voice sounded tinny and echoey.
Twilight frowned, adjusting her crown on her head. “Yeah, that was before you betrayed us and all of Equestria for the all-powerful, megalomaniacal villain that nearly won!... And stop reading my mind!”
Discord materialized beside her, still floating and chewing on a large white number 7. “I don’t need to read your mind, your thoughts are written all over your face.”
He waved his claw over Twilight’s face and words appeared all over it, he waved it again and it disappeared. Twilight maintained her frown, unimpressed by his magic. “Happy that you have your magic back?”
Discord beamed, smashing his half-eaten number 7 in his bear paw and when he opened it a tiny blue bird flew off. “Oh yes, I really must thank you again for getting my magic back. I felt positively nude without it! Did you get my flowers?”
He snapped his claw and a few thousand bouquets appeared all over her basement. Twilight scoffed, blowing a few petals off her face. “Well, you’re welcome but shouldn’t you busy with your community service?”
Discord frowned like service was a curse word for him. He snapped his claw again and the flowers disappeared. Sighing he draped himself over Twilight’s back, thankfully he was as light as a feather. “Oh don’t remind me. Celestia and Luna have me bending over backwards for my little… altercation.”
To prove his point he wrapped himself around Twilight like a snake, bending impossibly for his figure. But Twilight didn’t pay him any attention, that’s a good way to annoy him. “You should’ve been punished more severely, in my opinion. Your little ‘altercation’ nearly destroyed everything.”
“It’s all semantics,” he said, poofing right in front of her.
“It really isn’t.”
“And I was charged with taking care of Cerberus at Tartarus originally, but sweet, forgiving, Fluttershy suggested community service.” A yellow flag with Fluttershy’s impression appeared in his claws and a golden hat with a pink mane cascading down his back materialized on his head. “I was hoping you would show just as much compassion as her.”
Twilight pushed past him, levitating the paper report from her scanner and holding it up so she could read while walking up the stairs. “Even if I thought you deserved it, I’m busy.”
“With work,” Discord said with a sour expression, floating right behind Twilight. “And, in case you’re interested, I am not the cause of this magical imbalance. I am much too busy giving back to the community.”
An orange and black jumpsuit appeared on him along with iron cuffs and an iron ball was anchored to his legs. Twilight ignored him and left the basement. “I’ve got a few theories, then, if it wasn’t you. None of them are really good, the one I’m betting on was due to Tirek and his odyssey to destroy everything threw the magical balance out of whack.”
“Right on the money!” Discord said, clapping as a studio audience echoed around her, cheering and applauding. “Now, Gary, tell Twilight what she’s won!”
Discord struck a pose in front of a large white curtain with a number 1 painted on it. He was dressed as a gameshow host, a black suit with a comically large red bowtie around his neck with a microphone in his claw. Twilight walked right through the curtain, completely ignoring Discord’s antics.
The spirit of chaos sighed as he glanced at the camera and made a slicing gesture across his neck and everything disappeared. “Really, you aren’t much fun, princess.”
“Is there any way to repair this imbalance that you helped cause, by the way,” Twilight asked, walking up the stairs and heading to her observatory. “Will there be any negative consequences because of this?”
“I’m not sure honestly,” he answered, floating alongside Twilight in a lounge chair sipping lemonade. “The magical balance corrects itself, through time. It is quite resilient in that manner, even I was never able to alter it permanently.”
“You say that as if it’s sentient,” Twilight scoffed.
“I would’ve thought you of all ponies would’ve realized that,” he retorted. “As for negative consequences, who knows! It could be as small as your horn not working or as something major as an interdimensional, reality-warping tear in the fabric of space itself!”
Twilight glared at him. “But you know, I’m betting on the former than the latter,” he added meekly.
She sighed, shook her head, and continued on. “If there is a magical disturbance, I should be able to see it.”
“Why must you concern yourself with this? Come on down to Fluttershy’s cottage, we have tea and biscuits! Besides, aren’t you the one who was worrying over losing your friends because of this royal promotion?”
“Because it’s my job to worry about it. It’s my responsibility to help everypony whether it be showing them the magic of friendship like I’ve experienced or by defending them from any threats and—wait, how did you know about… Discord, have you been reading my journal again?!”
Discord smiled smugly. “Oh, look at that, time to go!”
He snapped his claws and he folded up, like a playing card, and disappeared with a pop!
Twilight rolled her eyes and entered the observatory. It was easily one of the biggest rooms in the castle, it was domed shaped with sparkling silvery walls and constellations covering the domed roof that was magically enchanted to change into different shapes of stars every hour. A large violet telescope encompassed the center of the room and was pointed out of the slit created by the roof.
She approached the telescope and took a look through, occasionally glancing back at her paper for reference and magically adjusting the angle of the telescope until she found the spot she was looking for. To anypony else it would’ve looked like just another patch of starry sky, but Twilight recognized the constellation Coperneighcus and the outline for the Horsehead Nebula.
This is where the magical distortion was the strongest. Perhaps she could come up with physical evidence behind her claims.
Twilight looked and looked but found nothing. She was about to give up when she saw a blue streak in the stars. It looked like plasma the way it ignited and cooled instantly in the hard vacuum. Twilight looked closer and saw streaks of red and blue lightning that accompanied the strange blue aura.
“That wasn’t there before…” she muttered, magically noting it without removing her eyes from the sky.
Then it came. An explosion that lit up the sky briefly in a fiery blue haze but disappeared as quickly as it came. Twilight could feel the magical shockwave resonating within her horn, it felt like every molecule in her body was being pulled toward that explosion.
She waited, watching that region of space so closely and intensely she could’ve burned a hole into it if she tried hard enough. But for five minutes nothing happened. Twilight tore herself away from the telescope and documented that strange occurrence. It might’ve been nothing but… Twilight’s gut instinct told her it was something potentially dangerous.
Twilight would’ve liked to stay there and continue watching but the hours dwindled away and as much as she hated it, she needed her night’s sleep. She left the room, went down the stairs, and into her bedroom modified to resemble her personality.
It was painted purple with starbursts decorating each wall. Silver stars crafted from metal and hanging from her ceiling. She had her own personal bookshelf directly in line of sight from the door. Her bed was pushed to the side as if sleep didn’t matter much and on her desk was a mess of papers and scrolls. Home sweet home.
She yawned, levitating her crown off and to the side as she got into bed and under the covers while magically extinguishing her lamp. She lay on her side and tried to drift off to sleep but that explosion was still etched in her mind. She wanted to investigate but how? She didn’t exactly have a spaceship in her closet.
Ah well, she can deal with that issue in the morning.
It isn’t like the world’s gonna end.