//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: OUTATIME 
// Story: Back To The Future IV: The Return of Discord 
// by Dr Dash 
//------------------------------//

	Discord landed with a thud in the grass. He stood up and dusted himself off, before taking a look at his surroundings. He was still in Equestria, no doubt, but it was... different. Younger, somehow. Whitetail Wood was still a collection of mostly saplings. Ponyville was much smaller than he recalled. It was as if he had gone back, to an earlier Equestria. Funnily enough, that's exactly what he had done.

“Man,” he exclaimed, “time travel really takes a lot out of a guy, especially after having not moved for several months!”

He glanced up, and saw the rift in time and space that he had created to travel through. A literal tear in the fabric of reality. He snapped his fingers, and a comically oversized zipper appeared, closing the hole. With a small pop, it disappeared.

Discord pulled out a large, gilded pocketwatch the size of one of Granny Smith’s homemade pies. He pressed the button to open it, and a cuckoo clock shot out, displaying the date and time. He chuckled at his own joke and glanced at the clock.

“Excellent!” he said. “I’ve still got a few minutes to spare!”

He looked to the east, where the floating pegasus city of Cloudsdale was idly drifting through the air. Next to it was his target, the young pegasi Flight Camp. He headed towards the camp but jerked to a sudden stop as he realized something.

“Oh! I almost forgot my disguise!” he said.

With a loud BANG and a flash of light, Discord transformed into a colt pegasus. The pegasus in question happened to be the schoolyard bully who Rainbow Dash was about to have an encounter with. Discord cackled at his own brilliance, and set his eyes on the Flight Camp.

“Poor Rainbow Dash...” he sniggered, “your time is almost up!”





The doors of Celestia’s throne room flew open with a mighty CRASH and a flash of purple magic, the impact sending one of the royal guards out the window. The Princess looked up to see her faithful student, Twilight Sparkle, running full tilt across the room with her five friends in tow, and a green and purple dragon holding onto her mane for dear life.

“Twilight!” said the Princess, “What brings you here?”

Twilight skidded to a halt in front of Celestia, catapulting Spike off her back and causing Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie to run into her. The accidental collision tumbled the ponies into a heap on the floor. Fluttershy began to untangle them while Rainbow Dash did everything she could to contain her laughter. Twilight stood, short of breath, and began trying to explain the situation to the Princess.

“Picnic...thunder...cloud...chocolate...gone...remembered...” she gasped.

“Twilight, calm down!” said Celestia. “Take a second to catch your breath and then tell me what is going on!”

Twilight paused, breathing heavily. Celestia nodded slightly and a guard brought over a glass of water for the exhausted, purple pony on the floor. Downing it in one gulp, she turned to once again face the Princess.

“We were having our usual weekly picnic, when Applejack heard a crack of thunder in the distance-” she began.

“Darn right I did!” exclaimed Applejack. “I was a might confused as well, seein’ as how the weather ponies said ta’day was gonna be clear sk- oh. Sorry Twilight.”

“It’s okay, Applejack. Anyway, after the thunder we saw a bright pink cloud come floating over the hi-”

“It was such a weird thing to see, too!” interrupted Rainbow Dash. “Now, I consider myself to be a pretty awesome weather pony, probably even the best, and I know for a fact that pink cl-” Rainbow Dash paused. “Sorry Twilight...” she said sheepishly.

“As I was saying,” said Twilight, “We saw a pink cloud come over the hill, and it began raining a strange brown liquid. It came closer to us, which is when we realized it was actually-”

“CHOCOLATE MILK!” shouted Pinkie Pie. She immediately put her hooves over her mouth and looked at Twilight, embarrassed.

“Yes, exactly. Chocolate milk. Now, I-”

Celestia put up her hoof to stop Twilight. She turned to the two pegasi guarding the door, one black and one grey.

“Nightwing, Thunderclap,” she said, “I want you to go to the field east of Ponyville and look for a statue on its side. Do this as fast as you can, and report back to me at once.”

The guards saluted, unfurled their wings, and rocketed out the open window. Celestia turned back to the ponies and motioned for Twilight to continue.

“I didn’t remember ever reading about weather such as this in any of my books,” she said, “so I racked my brains to figure out why it seemed so familiar. It all came back to me at once. Do you remember what happened the last time there was weather like this?”

Celestia nodded.

“I hope that my suspicions are not correct,” said the Princess, “but we will have to wait for the report from Nightwing and Thunderclap.”

As if on cue, as soon as Celestia spoke their names, the two guards came flying back into the hall at breakneck speed. They landed, and Nightwing approached Celestia and the ponies before saluting.

“Princess, we did several flybys of the field you specified. There was no statue to be found, only a pile of broken marble surrounded by what appeared to be chocolate milk.”

“Then it is as I feared,” said Celestia. “What you and your friends saw, Twilight, and what Nightwing has reported have confirmed my thoughts. Discord has returned.”

A collective gasp escaped the cluster of ponies, and Fluttershy hid her face in fear. Suddenly, the sound of slow clapping emanated from across the room. An all-too-familiar voice rang out.

“Oh bravo, Celestia. Did It really take you THAT long to figure it out?”