[Twilights POV]
It took me several minutes to catch my bearings.
One minute I was in a desert, the next I was . . . actually, I don't know where I am. This place seems familiar but . . . how did I get here? I remember being hot from the desert and in pain from . . . well being dragged across the desert. And stomped against the desert, and having my head smashed into the desert . . . I think I was just killed by a desert. Can deserts kill ponies? The heat and lack of water can kill ponies, but to physically kill a pony? No . . . no it can't . . . that's because something else was there, in the desert with me. But who? Or what? . . . No, no not a what, or a who. But several what's and who's! A whole bunch of them!
I'm starting to remember! I was . . . trampled in a stampede? But how did I end up in a stampede? Wait, why was I in a desert, with a stampede? And where exactly am I now?
Its not like the desert, this place feels . . . like nothing. Its dark and there's nothing here. Wait, its not dark. I can see myself clearly, my body doesn't have the slightest shade to it. This place isn't dark, its just black. A big, black, empty place. Yet it feels so familiar.
"Hello! Is anypony there!"
Suddenly a gray light appeared. When it was gone, there stood . . . me?
She smiled and ran to me, embracing me into a hug.
[Your back! I'm so glad your okay!]
The moment she released our hug is when all of my memories had suddenly returned to me.
I was inside my head, which meant that I was asleep or unconscious. Now I remember how I got here. I stopped that stampede from entering into Appleloosa. But I fell into the stampede, and that manticore stomped on me. The last thing I remember before falling unconscious was the blood, coming from my head.
"I-I'm fine. Just a little . . . shaken. Hey, are you okay?"
Discorded me looked like she was on the verge of tears. She was staring at the ground, avoiding eye contact with me. [I-I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get us hurt, I was just trying to help]
"What do you mean? You didn't do anything wrong" I said, slightly confused.
[Yes I did! I'm in control of our body when we're awake! I chose to stop that stampede! And now your hurt because of me! I-I could have g-gotten us killed! What was I thinking! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!]
Discorded me broke down and started crying. I wasted no time rushing to her and gently wrapping a reassuring leg over her shoulder. "It's okay, it's okay, you didn't do anything wrong. We may be hurt, but that was a really brave thing you did. You probably saved a lot of ponies. I would have done the exact same thing".
Discorded me sniffed and looked into my eyes, [r-really?]
I smiled and said, "of course".
She gave a tearful smiled back and rested her head against my chest while I gently stroked her mane. We sat in comfort for several minutes before Discorded me said, [do you want to continue our conversation from last time?]
"Sure, there are still things I need to ask you".
[Okay, I'll continue from where we last left off. I was telling you about the effects of being discorded and how your fur color can determine how deeply discorded you are]
"My friends fur is gray which means their at a deeper state of being discorded, correct?"
[Yes, at the state their in they no longer have any control whatsoever of their original selves. You see how you and I are able to interact in our subconscious?]
"Yes".
[Well they would have been able to as well. However, the discorded versions of your friends took over before they even had a chance to fall asleep]
"But I don't get it, the discorded versions of my friends took over their bodies before they had a chance to interact with one another. But how come they we're able to do it so fast? How come they weren't like you?"
[That's . . . a bit more complicated. It has to do with your personality and morality Twilight]
"But my morality doesn't tie in with my personality, or does it?"
[That's the thing Twilight, this is what I tried to tell you last time before we ran out of time. For you see, right now at this current moment, you are in the early stages of being discorded. But even if you fall into a deeper state of being discorded, his magic cannot truly change who you are. Your key differences to your personality is learning, studying, and becoming smarter and better at using magic. However, even Discords magic cannot make you force yourself to become stupid. It can alter a ponies personality to make them smarter, but not the other way around. The best Discords magic can do to you is make you stop learning and hate reading. Asides from that, his magic cannot change you. Except for your ability of making friends, this is where your morality ties in. Out of all of your friends, you, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy all have moralities that tie in with your personality. Except, yours is more minor then the other two. For you see, besides from learning and loving books, your key personality is making friends. You enjoy making new friends and being with others. In other words, Discords magic can change your friendship making skills, and yet it cannot]
"But that doesn't make any sense! I can see how my morality can tie in with my friendship making skills, but how can Discords magic affect me and at the same time NOT affect me?"
[This is where it gets confusing. Yes, one of your key personalities is making friends. But tell me, what were you doing before coming to pony Ville?]
"I mostly studied".
[And how many friends did you have?]
"Well there was Lyra, and . . . um . . . Moon Shimmer? I think that was her name but I cant exactly remember".
[You see, you can't even remember their names! You had no friends before coming to Pony Ville. You spent your life studying, not making friends with anypony. You barley learned the meaning of friendship eight months ago. Your eighteen, so out of your entire life you have spent seventeen years and four months not knowing the meaning to friendship. Yes you did learn the meaning of friendship, but it was only for a short time. You haven't learned it nearly long enough to have made a physical impact on you. Personality wise that is. You love to make friends, but that only started eight months ago. That's why Discords magic cannot truly affect you, your personality and morality is neutral]
"Neutral?"
[Neutral, as in your weren't bad, but you weren't good either]
"I don't think I understand".
[Think of it like a math equation. Discord has taken the numbers of each of your friends and changed the numbers into negatives. Imagine a scale from one to ten for example. Positive numbers are nice ponies, the higher the number, the more kind they are. Vice versa with the negative side. Now put Fluttershy on this scale, she would most certainly be at a positive ten on the scale. But now that she has been discorded, her number has been flipped, changing her to a negative ten. Same with Pinkie, I reckon she would be a positive nine. Only, now that she's been Discorded, she's a negative nine now. Now this is where YOU come in. For you see, Discord cannot flip your number because your number is in the middle of the negative and positive scales. You are a zero. Spending your whole life thinking about your studies, not caring about anything around you. You haven't done anything wrong, yet you haven't done anything good either. You have done nothing, nothing at all. Therefore, your morality is neutral]
"What do you mean I haven't done anything good? I was a nice pony before going to Pony Ville. I used my manners, I respected others, and I took great care of Spike".
[Oh did you now?]
"Yes!"
Discorded me stared at me with an "are you serious?" expression before using her magic to create a bright light. When the light was gone I found myself in my old library, the one I used to live in before moving to Pony Ville. "What? How did you-"
[This is just a memory, no pony will see you nor hear you]
At that moment I saw Spike come out of a room and walk towards the front door. He was holding a present in his hand and was humming to himself as he did so. Right when he reached the door it had burst open, throwing Spike to the ground. The present fell beneath him and his tail stabbed into the present as he landed.
I watched as the rest of the scene unfolded. I hadn't even cared about knocking Spike to the ground, I was more concerned with Nightmare Moon.
"I-I see your point. But I know I took care of Spike, he was more then just an assistant. He was like a brother to me".
[If that's true then tell me, where was Spike during Pinkie Pies birthday party? All of your friends were invited except for him. And what about at the gala? Where was Spike then hmmm?]
"I, um-"
[You have no idea where he was, because you left him the moment you entered. He tried to have the six of you spend the night together, but in the end you all left him. I don't mean to sound mean Twilight but lets face it, you never truly considered him as your brother, or even a friend. Spike has been an assistant, nothing more, nothing less]
"I-I . . . N-No! I would never, I didn't, I wouldn't! I . . . I . . . I did treat him like an assistant. Spike was right, he deserved to be mad at me. I . . . I'm a bad pony".
[No your not]
"How could you say that! After the way I had treated him! How could you say I'm not a bad pony?"
[Because you were unaware of your actions. Sure what you did was wrong, yet you did not realize what you were doing was wrong the entire time. You were a child, learning, slowly distinguishing the differences between right and wrong. But now you know, you have learned from your mistakes. If you were to return to Spike and continue to treat him this way, then you will be doing something wrong. But now that you have learned, will you?]
"No, of course I wouldn't . . . but, I don't think I can see him anymore anyways. I left him back at Pony Ville".
[With Discords magic still influencing our actions, it would be impossible to speak to Spike. We would only make the situation worse. For now it would be best to continue our journey and hope that someday we can dispel Discords influence and return back to Spike in our normal form. Then, you can tell Spike that you are sorry]
" . . . I see . . . your right, we'll just have to wait. Maybe I can see him again someday. So, based off of what you've told me so far. Discords magic will have very little affect on me because of my personality being so . . . mundane?"
[That and your morality is neutral. In short, you are a completely average, normal, nothing special whatsoever kind of pony!]
" . . . Gee, I've never been so happy about being not special, thanks for telling me that" I said sarcastically.
Discorded me snickered before using her magic to vanish the memory around us, returning us to the empty nothingness. [Now that that's out of the way-way-way, I think we should discuss what our next course of action will be]
"What do you mean, we're heading south until we leave Equestria. Then we're going to travel across the sea until we get to Zebrica. That's our plan".
[That's our plan for now. Yet what will happen after we get to Zebrica? Are we just going to live-live there and wait for somepony to take care of Discord-Discord-Discord {You cannot run forever}- AGH!]
Discorded me fell and began fading in and out of existence.
"Are we out-out of time?"
[I seems that way. Your waking up-up-up. Your waking up. I will hurry-hurry-hurry and get us to Appleoosa. Your injured-injured- your injured. I will do my best, until next time Twi-Twi-Twi {You will not survive}]
Discorded me disappeared, as she did-did-did so I could feel my own mind being p-p-p-pulled out of my head. The same feeling I had last time when I wa-wa-wa-was brought back into realty. As I-I-I-I {Embrace your fate, you are my puppet!} WAKE UP!!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
!epacse lliw I !niw tonnac uoY
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Enjoy your get together - D
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twilight groaned as she felt the pain in her head slowly increase as she came closer to becoming fully conscious. Without opening her eyes, Twilight placed a hoof to her head. She felt that it had been wrapped in something soft, a bandage she assumed. At the same time she realized that she was no longer on the hot desert ground anymore. Instead she felt something cool pressing against her torso. Confused, Twilight attempted to sit up until she felt somepony gently place their hoofs against her, making her lay back down.
"Easy now miss, I wouldn't reckon gettin up till that head a yers fully heals" said a stallion with a western accent.
Startled, Twilight opened her eyes and looked to the pony above her. He had light yellow fur and a dark orange mane and tail. He wore a brown vest and had an apple for a cutie mark.
"Who are you?" asked Twilight.
The pony gave Twilight a smile and said, "Now Miss Twilight, don't ya remember yer good friend Braeburn? Or is that head a yers more broken then a ol' wagon wheel?