//------------------------------//
// Now Let's Go Home! 
// Story: Back from the Future 
// by Ironskull 
//------------------------------//

"So, Discord..." began Rainbow Dash.  "What you said back there about making everypony see the 'beauty' in chaos...  That was all a lie, right?"

"Yes, it was all a lie," confirmed Discord.  "Even if I had turned you into a beacon of chaos, which I haven't, ponies would still have to make the choice to actually like it.  Of course, I could just force everypony to like it in the same way that I once forced you and your friends to be jerks, but I'm not that kind of Draconequis anymore.  Although, if I had thought of all this before my reformation-  Never mind," said Discord upon seeing Rainbow Dash's glare.

"How did you know I was in trouble anyway?" asked Rainbow Dash.

"Twilight and I sort of got into an argument.  She doesn't trust me without you there.  So I decided that it was time I find you again.  Also, you had been gone for a long time."

"Oh," said Rainbow guiltily.  "Sorry about that.  So how does the rest of the plan go?"

"Well, we just go along with everything and hope it works out, of course."

"That's the plan you and Twilight came up with?  She would never agree to that!"

"We didn't come up with a plan," said Discord.  "Twilight didn't like any of my ideas, and she couldn't figure out anything for herself.  I kept telling her to just let me do my thing, but she won't have it."

"But what was all of that, back there?" asked Rainbow Dash, slightly panicked.  "My other self has seen us now and thinks that you're planning on brainwashing Ponyville!"

"And there's no taking it back now," said Discord.  "For the record, it was you who let yourself be seen.  I had to do some quick thinking.  Now we have no choice but to go with it.  At least it was one of my plans.  I imagine Twilight won't be too happy about that."

"Hey, Discord?  About what happened to Twilight in the future... and to us...  Do you know why it happened?"

"Ah!  Finally!" cried Discord.  "I tried to warn Twilight, but she wasn't really listening when I tried to tell her how dangerous it was!"





"What?" cried Rainbow Dash in a confused voice.  "How did they get here before us?"

She watched from above as Pinkie Pie and past-Rainbow Dash flung the front door of the library open and disappeared inside.

"It doesn't matter," said Discord.  "Wait for them to leave."





"Twilight, we have a big problem!" shouted Rainbow Dash.

"Rainbow, there you are!  Wait, why is Pinkie with you?"

"Twilight, Discord is on the loose in Ponyville!" cried Rainbow, ignoring Twilight's statement.  "We need to get the rest of the girls together and figure out how to stop him!"

"Wait, you've seen Discord?" asked Twilight.

"Yeah I did.  Right before he locked me in a cage!"

"Locked you in a cage?" cried Twilight in concern and confusion.  "How did you get out?"

"Oh, that was easy!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.  "I just ate it."

"You... ate the cage?"

"Yep!"

"It was made out of candy canes," explained Rainow Dash.  "Now, we need to hurry!  Discord somehow made a copy of me and he's going to make her do a sonic rainboom, and everypony who looks at it is going to be brainwashed into liking him!"

"What!" cried Twilight angrily.  "You saw the other Rainbow Dash?"

"No," said Rainbow.  "That Rainbow Dash is just a fake!  That's why she's helping him!  I mean, who in their right mind would willingly help Discord do this?"

"I...  I see," said Twilight.  "Where did you last see Discord?"

"Right by Ponyville Lake!"

"Alright," said Twilight.  "You two go and gather the others together and meet me there.  I have to do something first."

"Twilight, this is important!" cried Rainbow.  "What could be so important that you can't come right now!"

"I... I have to get the elements of harmony!  They're all upstairs in my room!" said Twilight honestly.

"Oh yeah!" said Pinkie Pie.  "I saw you carrying them earlier today!  It sure is a good thing the Princess decided to give them to you today!  It's almost like she knew what was about to happen!"

"Yeah..." said Twilight.  "Now then, let's not waste any time!  Go and gather the others!"

"We're on it!" cried Rainbow Dash before zipping through the door.

"You can count on us!" said Pinkie as she did the same.

"Ugh!" moaned Twilight.

Rainbow Dash appeared in the front door again.

"So, uh, is everypony else gone?" she asked.

Twilight stared at her uncomprehendingly for a moment, then quickly answered "Oh!  It's you!  Yes, it's just me now."

As Discord came through the door to join Rainbow, Twilight's face turned sour.  "This is not what I had in mind!" she cried with a hoof-stomp.  "You were supposed to consult me before doing something like this!"

"Hey, don't look at me," said Discord.  Suddenly he morphed into a sign shaped like an arrow pointing at Rainbow Dash which read, 'It's all her fault!'.

Twilight looked at Rainbow expectantly.  Rainbow let out a sigh and said "I accidently let my other self see me and Discord had to convince her that I'm not really her."

"Well, there's no stopping it now," said Twilight.  "I just hope this works.  I've already told the others to meet over by the lake.  I have to hurry and meet them before somepony comes looking here.  You'll be there too, right?"

"Of course," answered Discord.  "Oh, and here.  I thought I would save you a bit of trouble."  Discord held out his arm and offered her the elements of harmony.

"But you only just-  Ugh, never mind.  Thank... you.  Discord."

Twilight took the elements and opened up the door, but then hesitated.  She turned back to Rainbow Dash.

"I just realized that this is probably the last time I'm going to see you for a long time," she said sadly.  "Well, the future-you I mean...  I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too Twilight," answered Rainbow Dash.

"And what about little old me?" asked Discord with false-pleading eyes.

Twilight rolled her eyes.  "I can't say that I will miss you..." she began.

"Well!" cried Discord, crossing his arms.

"But," continued Twilight, "I will admit it.  You're not as bad as you used to be.  Maybe our Discord deserves a chance too."

"He does?" asked Discord, surprised.  "I mean, I do?  That's... very kind of you, Twilight."

"Well, goodbye then," said Twilight, a little sadly.  "And good luck."  And then Twilight closed the door.

Neither Rainbow or Discord spoke for a moment.

Suddenly, Discord said "Hey, Rainbow Dash."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think that us being here has changed history?  Or do you think that we've just made a new history?"

"Huh?  What do you mean?"

"I mean..." Discord stopped to think about how to convey his thoughts.

"I was trapped in a statue on this day," said Discord.  "I can't have remembered all of this.  But you were here on this day.  Do you remember me trapping you in that cage?"

"Oh!  I see what you're saying," said Rainbow.  "Actually... no, I don't remember that.  And I don't think that that's the sort of thing that I would forget either."

"How interesting..." said Discord, mostly to himself.

"Yes, interesting," said Rainbow dismissively.  "Discord, I don't know what your point is with all of this, but we have somewhere to be."

"Okay, okay," answered Discord.  He snapped his fingers and a riding helmet with holes for his horns appeared on his head.  "Let's go home!"





"Okay everpony, this Discord's last known location!" said Twilight.  "Spread out and see what you can find!"

"Found them!" said Pinkie Pie, pointing up.

"Oh no!" shouted Discord in mock fear.  "You've gathered up all of your friends and the elements of harmony!"

"There's no need for sarcasm, Discord!" said Rarity.  "We already know what you're up to!"

"And we're going to stop you!" shouted past-Rainbow Dash.

"That's what you think!" cried Discord.  "When Rainbow Dash here performs her sonic rainboom, nopony will be able to stop me!  Are you ready, Rainbow Dash?"

"I'm always ready!" answered future-Rainbow before accelerating through the air with a burst.

"Quick, everypony!" shouted past-Rainbow Dash.  "Let's hit them now before there's a rainboom!"

"Wait!" cried Twilight.  Everypony looked at her confused.

"Um, we need to wait for the right moment!"

"Twilight, that fake Rainbow Dash is almost as fast as I am!" cried past-Rainbow.  "Look at her!  If we don't hit them with the elements now, it will be too late!"

"Okay..." said Twilight uncertainly.

Nothing happened.

"Twilight!" said Applejack.  "Hurry!"

"I'm trying!" Twilight lied.

"Hurry!" cried the others in unison.

Twilight looked up at future-Rainbow Dash.  'Just a little bit longer!' she thought.

A rainbow erupted from future-Rainbow as she finally crossed the sound barrier.

"Twilight," screamed past-Rainbow, now in full panic.  "We have to use the elements right now!"

"Okay!" said Twilight quickly.  "I'm trying!"

Nothing continued to happen.

"I'm trying!" cried Twilight, now panicked.  "What's going wrong?  Why isn't it working?"

"Oh, Twilight!" shouted Pinkie Pie.  Twilight turned to her, confused.  She sounded upset.  "I'm so sorry Twilight, I'm sorry, sorry, sorry-"

"What did you do?" asked Twilight in confusion.

"I'm sooooo sorry, Twilight!  I looked at the sonic rainboom!"

"Uh, I didn't want to," said Applejack, "but I couldn't help it.  I looked too."

"So did I!" added Rarity.

Twilight stood dumbfounded.  Then she squinted in anger.  "Discord!"

And then she lowered her head in defeat.

"This is all my fault," Twilight declared.

"Twilight, don't blame yourself," said Fluttershy soothingly.  "It could have happened to anypony."

"No, you don't get it!" Twilight cried.  "It's my fault that the elements aren't working!  I've known that Discord is back all day and I didn't tell anypony!"

There was a unanimous gasp from all of the others.

"Discord gave me a bunch of hooie about how he's 'changed' now," continued Twilight.  "He made up a phony baloney story about the reason that he was in Ponyville, and I believed his nonsense!  But I see now that he was really just trying to make sure that we couldn't use the elements against him again!  I don't know why I ever thought that he could ever be telling the truth!"

"Don't you worry about that, Twilight," said Applejack sadly.  "We know that you couldn't help it.  You were just under his spell.  And now... we all are."

"And because of me," Twilight continued in despair, "Everypony in Ponyville will be singing Discord's praises and there will be eternal chaos!"

"But... I don't want there to be eternal chaos!" cried Rainbow Dash.

"I don't want eternal chaos either," declared Fluttershy.

"Nor do I!" wailed Rarity.

"But it looks like now we have no choice," said Applejack.

"Well, chaos is fun and all..." said Pinkie.

Everypony around her shot her a look.

"But I don't want eternal chaos either!  It just makes everypony so sad!"

Twilight suddenly felt as if her heart had skipped a beat.

"Wait a minute!" she cried happily.  "Discord's plan didn't work!"

"It didn't?" replied her friends.

"No!  It didn't!  Discord thinks that he can beat us by deciding what we think and who we like for us, but he can't!" cried Twilight triumphantly.  "He may have had a sonic rainboom on his side, but he failed because he doesn't understand that a relationship in which you tell others what to think isn't a friendship at all!"

"Come on, girls!" Twilight shouted determinedly.  "Let's send Discord back to where he belongs!"





"She did it!" cried Discord happily as he watched the wave of power emerge from the elements and rush toward him.  "I knew that she could do it!  Yes!" he shouted, magically amplifying his voice so that the element bearers below could hear.  "Yes!  Thank you, thank you everypony for your assistance!  I will see you all again, very soon!"

"Brace yourself," Discord said to Rainbow Dash in a normal volume.  "I'm not entirely sure what this will feel like, since I've only ever been petrified by it before."

All Rainbow Dash was able to do in response was grunt and continue struggling against the wind.

The wave of energy was still approaching.

"Hey, Rainbow, it looks like Twilight's aim was just a teensy bit off.  Could you move over to the left a little bit?  Yes, just like that, perfect.  It really is taking it's time getting here, isn't it?  I suppose we are rather high up.  Oh, you know what?  This is a perfect time for a selfie!"

Discord grabbed Rainbow's camera and pointed it toward Rainbow Dash and the energy wave, then positioned his head in front of it so that it was looking into the camera cheerfully.

*Click*

"Oh, this will be the best one yet!" said Discord excitedly.  "I can just see it!  'And this is a picture of Rainbow Dash and myself about to be blasted in the face by the elements of harmony!'  Nopony will ever be able to top that!  Oh, here it comes, here it comes!"

"Bwhahahaha!" laughed Discord with in his magically amplified voice.  As the energy of the elements of harmony finally hit the carriage.  "Ahahahahahahahaha!"





The bearers of the elements of harmony watched from below as the energy fade away.

"They're gone!" exclaimed Applejack.

Everypony burst into cheer, save for Twilight.

Finally, Twilight said, "They're just... gone?  Not turned into stone, but... gone?"

"Sure looks that way," replied Applejack.

"The one thing that I want to know," said past-Rainbow Dash, "is what kind of villian says 'thank you' and laughs like a maniac as he watches his doom approaching?"

"The crazy kind," answered Applejack confidently.

"Yeah," whispered Twilight.  "The crazy kind."





Rainbow Dash watched anxiously as the rainbow of light around her began to fade away and she started to be able to see the sky in front of her.  Then she frowned as she tried to figure out what the erratic blue thing filling her vision was.

*SPLASH*

There were screams all around Rainbow, muffled from the water around her.  Rainbow Dash struggled to regain her senses, but it was too difficult after having hit a wall of water so suddenly.

Suddenly she felt the water around her fall below.  There was a tremendous splashing noise.  Now free of the water, Rainbow was able to regain her composure and pull herself and the carriage out of free fall.  She slowed down to examine the scene.

There were dozens of pegasi scattered around Ponyville Lake, most of them coughing or wheezing, and all of them soaking wet.

"Oh, hey guys!" shouted Rainbow nervously.  "I know that I said that I was busy helping a friend today, but I just thought I would swing by to see how you were doing with delivering that rainwater!"  The ponies below were either too shocked to respond or were still trying to regain their breaths.  "...  Sorry for throwing everypony off like that...  So, keep up the good work everypony, but I have stuff to do, see ya!"

"Bye everypony!" added Discord from the carriage as it raced away.  "Have fun!"





"There she is!" cried Rainbow Dash as they neared the field where Twilight had set up the time travel experiment.  She could just barely see that Twilight appeared to be running away from something.  There was also a dull roar of buzzing.

"Wait, Rainbow!  Not yet!  Look!" cried Discord.  "That's us!"

Rainbow looked and saw that, sure enough,  there was another Rainbow Dash and Discord flying through the air with the time machine.  Rainbow Dash decelerated and beheld the scene.  She could now tell that there appeared to be thousands of blue specks flying through the air and chasing after both the other Rainbow Dash as well as Twilight.

Suddenly the air around the other Rainbow Dash began to take on a familiar conical form.

"Rainbow!" bellowed the other Discord, trying to be heard above the noise of the buzzing.  "Don't do it!  The time machine is-"

Suddenly a flash of rainbow was released, but it only lasted for a moment.  The other Rainbow Dash and Discord had vanished without a trace.

"I told you that I tried to warn you," said Discord.

"I was being chased by giant blue bees the size of my hoof!" retorted Rainbow Dash.  "You can't blame me for not listening to you!  Now let's get down there!"

Rainbow raced toward the ground toward Twilight, who was now surrounded on all sides by the blue bees and had given up on running and was curled up on the ground with her hooves over her head and probably wishing that she was a turtle.  Rainbow Dash and the carriage landed with a thud.

"WAIIIIIIT!" Rainbow screamed.  The seemingly surprised bees lowered their enraged buzzing and looked toward Rainbow.

"Rainbow Dash!" shout-whispered Twilight, looking up.  "What are you doing?  Fly, you fool!  Fly away before they catch you too!"

"Twilight didn't mean it!" Rainbow shouted to the bees, ignoring Twilight's statement.  "If she had known that she was stealing nectar from your hive in that cave in Everfree Forest, she wouldn't have done it!  We're sorry!  We'll give it all back!  Right, Twilight?" she finished warningly.

"What?" said Twilight slowly, dumbstruck.  "I mean, yes!  Yes, please!  I'm so sorry!  It won't happen again!  Here!"

Twilight produced a single jar full of blue liquid and set it on the ground before backing up hurriedly and watching the bees nervously.

The bees started to buzz with anger again.

"Oh no!" cried Twilight.  "They know that there's not nearly enough of it left!"

Suddenly Rainbow Dash was at her side.  "Into the carriage, Twilight!"

Twilight didn't waste any time with doing as she was told.  As soon as she was inside the carriage, Rainbow Dash rocketed forward, leaving the furious insects behind.

"You can outrun them, right?" shouted Twilight in panic.

"Yeah, I should be able to!" answered Rainbow Dash.

"No," said Discord urgently, "It won't work.  You might can outrun them for now, but you will get tired sooner or later!  And they will never stop following you until they get their nectar back!"

"Can't you stop them, Discord?"  cried Twilight.

"Those are etherial bees!" replied Discord as he snapped his fingers to demonstrate.  "Magic doesn't affect them!"

Twilight closed her eyes and her horn started to pulse.  Soothing music began to play through the air.

She opened her eyes and, to her horror, the siren song spell was definitely having not affect on the bees.

"There must be something you can think of!" insisted Twilight.

A brick wall suddenly appeared in mid air behind them.  Many of the bees were caught by surprise and crashed into it, but seconds later they were flying at the carriage once again, possibly even angrier.

"There's too many of them!" shouted Discord.  "I don't have enough time to stop them all!"

"Then there's only one thing left to do!" shouted Rainbow Dash.  Suddenly, she stopped in mid air and faced the bees before shooting forward, straight toward them.

"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed Twilight.  "Are you out of your mind?"

"Apparently so," said Discord.  "She must be doing something right then."

Rainbow Dash dived below the bee swarm before they could react and began flying inches above the ground.  As she flew by the jar of blue liquid, she scooped it up in her hooves.

"Here!" she cried as she tossed the jar to Discord.  "Use it!  Get us out of here!"

"To what time are we going?" asked Discord as he popped the lid off and dumped the liquid into a tank on the time machine.

"Any time that isn't here!" shouted Rainbow.

Discord quickly hit some buttons on the time machine.  "Okay, do it!" he shouted to Rainbow Dash.

"Wait a second," said Twilight.  "What did you just-"

Suddenly Twilight was cut off as the time machine was engulfed in rainbow light.