//------------------------------// // 17: Tea N Tea // Story: The Curiosity of Mr. Disc // by CrackedInkWell //------------------------------// I agreed with Twilight that we should see both Fluttershys before we go find Rainbow, at least with them, we know where to look. The hollowed out tree house was exactly when I last saw it with the hanging bird houses, dens, tiny huts and so on. And like last time, the animals retreated at the very sight of me. “Fluttershy?” Twilight knocked on the front door, saying who it was and if either of them is there. The door did open up. At first, I wasn't sure which one it was until I saw the bejeweled hair clip. “Mr. Disc?” she asked. “Afternoon Ms. Shy,” I nodded at her. “How are things with your counterpart?” “We… We’re just taking a bit of a tea break. Do either of you want to come in?” “Of course,” Twilight smiled as we entered. Shy offered to get some chairs for us, but that was quickly dismissed with a clap, and out popped from the floor were a couple of bean bags. “Um, okay. I guess that works too,” Shy muttered. “I’ll… I’ll go see if the other me needs anything.” And with that, she left the room. “Julius?” Twilight asked as she took her seat, sinking in the purple bag. “Hum?” “Did you find out what happened to Sunset?” “I have actually.” I took my seat in the beanbag that was full of patches. “She’s gone back to our world. Although your Celestia did offer her a chance to stay, she turned it down. She said something about not feeling belonged here.” Her ears folded back, “Oh.” “You know, I think I could relate to her in a way.” “How so?” “Well… There have been times where I've done some mighty stupid things for the sake of attention.” “But she was after power.” “Power is just a way of getting attention, isn't it? For people, or in your guy’s case, ponies, to do whatever they have to do to stand on a soupbox to say ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ and getting praise for it.” “You mean soapbox?” “Whatever. The point is that I have done some things for the sake of attention that ended up getting me into trouble. For example, you did know I was in a mental hospital for a while do you?” “Well… To a degree,” she confessed. I sighed. “Ya see, one day I ran out of my medicine that prevents me from hallucinating. When I got to my desk for the first hour of class, I found a note, or at least, I thought I did it from my boss, Celestia about what I need to do that day. The note was a threat saying that if I don’t order my students to paint every square inch of the whole school by the end of the day, I would get fired. It looked convincing to me, too convincing. So much so, that I panicked. I let myself and my students run loose, painting, drawing, cutting, pacing, folding, shading, spraying anything and everything in sight. You could imagine the result of what it looked like and the countless hours it took to clean it all up. Anyway, Celestia confronted me… And let’s just say that she was not amused. I even tried showing the note, but as that turns out, the note was really a blank piece of paper. And soon enough, she commits me to the hospital until I was declared sane.” “It sounds like an awfully bad day.” We turned to see who said this. It was Fluttershy balancing a tray on her back. “The worst,” I replied. “And it makes me think at times if the other me had something like it.” I gave a whistle for the teapot and cup to sprout wings to fly over to me and started pouring. “I suspect he has, but do you know what he did and what happened to him?” “What happened to Discord?” “Of course,” I took a look at the contents in my cup. Looks like green tea. “I got into trouble and sent into a lunatic asylum for a thousand days. What’s his punishment?” Then I lifted the cup to my mouth and was about to take a sip when Twilight answered my question. “He turned into stone.” I stopped, “What?” “Sorry, what I mean is that he had turned into stone. In other words, he turned into a statue for a thousand years.” I blinked, “Okay… That’s a bit harsh. It makes me wonder what he was like when he got out.” “…. That depends on who you ask.” Twilight answered, “To put it simply, he turned this town completely upside down.” “Literally in some place-” This was as far as she got when suddenly an explosion. I wouldn't lie that it was so unexpected to I imperiled my horns to the ceiling again. “What was that!?” Shy and Twilight asked for everyone within earshot. After some quick deduction, the sound came from the town that has a gray mushroom cloud over it followed by some exploding fireworks. It didn't take Batman to piece together who made that explosion worthy of the fourth of July. “The Crusaders!” Twilight gasped. After yanking me out of the ceiling, she dragged me out the house by her magic taking flight towards the scene of the fireball. Not to mention that I kept crashing into fences, trees, bushes, a roof, a lamppost, a window, a wall, another wall, a staircase, a door, some guard railing, leaving holes behind like a Looney Tunes character with some missing teeth no less! And so after feeling like a rag doll in a wood chipper, we arrived at the other side of town with a blacken carder in the ground. And not to mention the splint pieces of wood that were as broken as I am. “Applebloom! Scootaloo! Sweetie Belle! Where are you?!” Twilight cried out. “Up here!” We looked to find six of the Crusaders are either in the trees or on the roofs of what remains of the nearby houses. We also found the other me, limped on a few tree branches with the camera in his claw. “Cut,” he coughed. “I think that was perfect.”