The hoof hovered above the button, the owner of said hoof stood trembling in place.
Should I? The pony wondered. The huge red thing was just demanding to be pressed, daring all those who looked at it to uncover its secrets.
The room was typically like any other room, it was fairly small, had four white walls, a door, and a ceiling with a small lantern attached to it that illuminated the whole room, but the oddest thing about it was the single big red button that was on a wooden desk in the middle of the room. The earth pony, in particular, had a light brown coat with a darker brown mane and tail, his eyes were cerulean.
Maybe it opens a secret entrance? He drooled at the thought of finding treasure. There could be thousands, or perhaps millions of bits just sitting there, waiting to be claimed! Nah, The pony thought, it would probably be some kind of library with unlimited knowledge. He hesitated, Or... it could be a death trap. It might blow up the sun! Nopony should have that much power in their hooves!
He lowered his right forehoof to the floor and looked around for anything that seemed out of place. Other than the obvious button that captured his gaze when he first entered the room, there was nothing else. Looking below, he did a double take as he saw that beneath the desk was absolutely nothing, but the empty white tiles that made up the floor.
What? He thought. He crouched and moved closer inspecting under the desk, then on each side, carefully avoiding to touch the desk's legs like it would catch on fire or explode on contact. It didn't seem that the button was even connected to anything, no dangling wires, crazy contraptions, or anything like the sort. The pony returned to his place in front of the desk, staring at the button.
…
After a couple of minutes of glaring at the red circular object, the stallion slowly reached out with his right forehoof then grabbed it on its side and lifted it off the desk. He stared unbelievingly at the damned thing, blinked and placed it back down on the desk.
“Is this some sort of joke?” He wondered aloud.
“Oh, I do love a good joke,” a voice announced to him, it sounded male, “I think they’re one of the most wonderful things,” it said.
The brown pony jumped, surprised by the intrusion.
“Who is… who’s there?” he stammered. He swiftly turned around looking for the intruder but saw nopony there.
“I–I heard you! Come out and show yourself!” he yelled.
He heard somepony chuckling, the voice was behind him again.
“Wha… what’s so funny? Where are you?” He looked to where he had heard the voice.
“Who? Little old me?” the voice chortled, sounding very amused, “Well, why don’t you introduce yourself first to our dear friends?”
“Friends?” The pony questioned. He regarded his surroundings, “There’s nopony else here but us, and where the hay are you? Are you invisible?” He spoke, pointing a hoof to where the voice came from.
“Oh never mind that, just tell us your name and why you’re here.”
“Um, okay… my name is Caramel, and I'm here because… because…” he trailed off. Rubbing his forehead with a hoof as to help recall exactly why he was in the room, “I don’t really remember, um, to be honest,” he confessed confusedly.
The mysterious voice hummed, then spoke, “That’s alright, you might have bumped your head on the way here, so don’t worry, that happens very often,” the voice chuckled nervously.
“Wait what? How did I even get here in the first place? The last thing I remember was something about, um, an apple? Yeah, I was helping Big McIntosh with harvesting apples, zap apples to be precise, then um, we went to get some lunch. Then... darkness, and I woke up in here. Um yeah, that’s all I can remember,” Caramel said while trying to recall more of his memory.
“Ah well, you see, um… that was my fault,” the voice said. Caramel raised an eyebrow.
"How exactly?" he asked.
"Well..." the voice spoke, sounding more nervous, "I was curious about the magical properties of these zap apples that everypony keeps talking about, so I simply plucked one right off of the branches when all of the sudden, the apple just flew off like a rocket!"
"Err... a rock it?"
"Yes! It started to vibrate like a foal on a sugar rush while making all these loud noises, then it just shot off towards the barn, or more specifically, you, my dear pony," the voice continued.
"Ookay?"
"Oh, it was the most tragic thing indeed! I was caught off guard, of all the things? Can you believe it? An apple caught me off guard!"
"Um... no?"
"Bah, don't mind me I tend to go off on a tangent. Now where was I?"
"You were telling me how I ended up in this room," Caramel answered.
"Oh right, well my friend I don't really know how to explain how you ended up in this dreadful room with words that you'll understand, so I'll just be blunt," the voice said. Caramel sighed and rubbed his forehead, he felt a migraine coming on just from listening to it.
"Just get on with it!" he exclaimed.
"Alright, the answer to how you got here is... well, it was simply magic," it said, not even bothering to hide the amusement in their voice.
...
Caramel shut his eyes and sighed, then he sighed again, and one last time for good measure. After he was certain he wasn't going to snap at the voice, he repeated what he was told so far.
"So basically what you're telling me is that you were curious as to why zap apples have rainbows, then when you tried to get a hold of one it just suddenly flew off, knocked me out, and because magic I ended up here?"
The voice hummed, then confirmed with, "Yes, it seems like it."
"Horseapples," Caramel swore. "Just who are you exactly?"
"Oh my! I forgot to introduce myself!" it exclaimed. "And you were supposed to be the forgetful one." The voice chuckled for what seemed to be the millionth time. Caramel wasn't sure how to respond to that statement seeing as it was true, he was always a forgetful pony, but how the voice knew that he wasn't sure, and that freaked him out.
"Ahem, well pardon my rudeness, but I am Discord, the spirit of Chaos and Disharmo-”
"Dis-Discord?!" Caramel stammered. He was trembling in fear as he looked around for the draconequus, "The Discord? The one that used to–to rule Equestria? The one who the Elements of Harmony fought?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, that's me!" The mismatched creature appeared in front of the frightened pony in a puff of smoke, standing tall with arms wide and a toothy grin as if he was expecting a hug. Sadly, he did not receive one.
"Ahh!" Caramel yelped, and hid behind the desk which conveniently flipped over onto its side when Discord appeared.
"Stay–stay back!" Caramel yelled, "Don't, uh... don't make me press the button!" Caramel held up a hoof over the button which had also fallen to the floor.
"Aw... There's no need for that now my dear pony, I just want to be friends!" Discord said.
"I-I've heard about you! And I want nothing to do with you!" His trembling hoof inched closer towards the button as Discord took a step towards him, "I swear on Celestia's glorious flank, if you take another step I'll press it!" Caramel yelled.
"Calm down my little pony, there is nothing to be afraid of," Discord said slowly in a soothing voice, in fact, he sounded exactly like Princess Celestia. This did little to help calm down Caramel as it seemed to freak him out even more.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE PRINCESS!! YOU–YOU ATE HER?! YOU MONSTER!!"
Discord harrumphed in response to his crazy accusations. "How come it always works for her?" he grumbled.
It seemed that Caramel would not be calming down anytime soon by the way he was hyperventilating and constantly twitching, so Discord did the most reasonable thing he could think of at the moment and began to float towards him instead. Seeing this, Caramel grabbed the button off the floor and scampered to a corner of the room whilst trying to think of other places farther away from the evil princess eating draconequus. He couldn't think of many other places to hide in the room.
Duh!! Caramel berated himself. I can escape through the door! He was snapped out of his thoughts when Discord suddenly announced, "Hey! Come here and accept my friendship! I even made us matching shirts!" Caramel glanced at Discord and saw that he was in fact wearing a shirt that said 'BFF' as well as holding out an identical one in his right paw. Caramel promptly nope'd, then ran straight towards the door and quickly opened it. The sight before him was confusing as to who raised the sun before ponies, all he could see was something akin to a kaleidoscope. There were colours everywhere in weird symmetrical patterns. He shut the door as quickly as he had opened it, and turned around to face Discord.
"What the buck!? Where are we?" he asked, and regrettably forgot whom he was speaking to.
"Ah, well that explains a lot," Discord said, "it appears that we are in my mind."
"What?! Well then get me outta here!"
"Are you sure? I'm certain th-"
"Yes!" Caramel pleaded, "I just want to finish the harvest, so I can go home!"
"If you say so." Discord snapped his talons.
...
"Nothing happened."
"Um, just give me a moment."
Snap, snap, snap.
"Well?"
Discord chuckled nervously, "This has never happened before.”
“You mean I'm stuck here?!” Caramel cried.
“Well, yes... but I don’t see what the problem is. I find this place absolutely delightful.”
“Don’t see the problem!? Of course you don't, this is your mind! Listen, I promised Big Mac that I would help him and AJ finish the harvest early, then I have to meet my marefriend’s parents this evening, but if I arrive late she’ll kill me!”
“Hmm… that does seem like a problem,” Discord said, “but don’t worry, we can spend time with each other instead!”
Caramel's eyes widened and he began to back away from the spirit and held out the button which was still in his hoof.
"Oh no, I’d rather find out what this thing does," he said, still nervous around the draconequus. Discord just looked at him showing no emotion.
"Just do it."
Taking a few seconds to calm himself, Caramel decided that he would.
Hopefully this will take me somewhere else. He thought. Besides, what's the worst that could happen? Focusing on the button in his left hoof, he raised his right trembling hoof high above ready to press. He gently pushed it down, feeling the texture and resistance of the hard plastic object. When he finally heard the satisfying sound of the click, he released the button and waited for–
"AHHHH!" a little school filly Caramel screamed, like a filly who was afraid of the imaginary monster under her bed. When he finally realized that the world around him did not explode, he decided that it was safe enough to calm down. He then took notice of Discord who was laughing his butt off at his reaction.
"What do you think this is? A joke!? We're still stuck here remember?!"
"Ahahaha! You should've seen the look on your face! Priceless! Ha! And as a matter of fact, it was!" A glare was the only response he received from the obviously annoyed pony.
"Aw... cheer up!"
"How can I cheer up knowing that I'll be trapped in your crazy mind for the rest of my life?" Caramel said angrily. This just made Discord laugh even harder.
"Who said that you had to believe me?"