The Red Moon

by Teku Senpai

4 - Two is Better than One

"Why hello there, Twilight."

"Uhh... Discord? What are you doing here?" Twilight scowled at the silhouette of the draconequus and sighed with obvious irritation lingering about her. It's late. Very late. And, granted, Twilight had brought this upon herself by staying up this late. She cursed her completely jacked up sleep schedule and resolved to deal with the problem at hoof. The stuff I have to deal with.

Twilight looked up to find that the draconequus was replaced with the figure of Princess Celestia. Twilight shook her head and sighed. "Very funny, Discord. What do you want? And at this late hour?"

"No, Twilight. It's truly me, Princess Celestia."

"Yeah, not believing that. Goodnight, Princess Celestia." Twilight waved a hoof at the figure of Celestia and trotted over to her candle. She blew it out, but it immediately reignited. Twilight grunted in frustration and blew it out again. Once again, the candle reignited.

The candle suddenly grew taller and sprouted wax arms and legs. Discord's face suddenly appeared on the front of the candle and he said, "Sorry, but I'm just too hot for you."

Twilight rolled her eyes and ignited her horn. With a small roar, a fire came to life on the side of the candle, detaching the candle's right arm and melting half of Discord's face.

"Alright, alright. Not in the mood. Fine, then." The candle started to change shape, growing taller and more detailed until it finally became Discord. He snapped his fingers, respawning a candle onto Twilight's desk.

"Twilight, I must speak with you." Celestia hadn't left yet. She had just arrived after all. Twilight looked back at Celestia, then to Discord, then back to Celestia.

"Are... are you..?" Twilight began, but her voice trailed off as she bit her lower lip, a small amount of saliva pooling at the back of her throat. She gulped down the digestive liquid and giggled nervously before asking, "What brings you here at such a wee hour, Princess?"

"Twilight, I must speak with you. It's quite urgent, and as a matter of fact, it might involve you as well, Discord." Celestia glided down to the main floor of the library, landing with a thump. Discord slithered through the air, moving around the backside of Celestia and positioning himself on her left side.

Twilight nervously ruffled her wings and tucked them back in. She cleared her throat, "Well.. what's thi-."

"Can I just say that this is simply maaarvelooous," Discord singsonged. He chuckled to himself and continued, "But in all honesty now, this is the first meeting I've had with either of you officially." He smirked and glanced between the two princesses.

Celestia drew in a deep breath and replied, "Yes, it appears to be that way." Twilight remained silent but looked at Discord blankly. She blinked once and then looked over at Celestia with a small hint of concern here and there.

Celestia patted Discord's side and bowed her head gently, "Alright, Discord. Welcome to your first meeting of any kind, really, that involves a more major degree of solemnity."

Discord bit his lower lip and brought his fists under his chin in a fanboying expression of utter happiness. He spun around in the air before slowly descending. He snapped his tail and a round wooden conference table had appeared with three chairs placed neatly around it. Discord's was tall and multicolored. Celestia had a padded chair and Twilight had a backless stool with three legs.

... Discord. Twilight snarled to herself and engulfed the stool in a purple glow, magicking it into a chair not dissimilar to Princess Celestia's. She sat back down on it and folded her hooves on the table.

Twilight scrunched her nose and looked up to her mentor. "Why have you and Discord come this late?"

Discord leaned over and whispered in Twilight's ear, "Ahem. Well, you see. Technically, it'd be "Why have you and The Greatest Being of All Existence come this early." Discord sniffed and leaned back in his chair. He was suddenly donned with a shirt, tie, and jacket - the whole shebang.

Twilight squinted in annoyance at the draconequus, who was now blowing bubbles through a pipe with a newly appeared top hat resting atop his head. Twilight sighed and looked over at Celestia, who had buried her head in her hooves and was waiting patiently for a while now.

Celestia looked up and met Twilight's gaze, choosing now to be the best time to begin the conversation. "Well, I want to start off by asking aah either of you if you felt the magic aaaah surge." Celestia yawned between phrases and had covered her mouth with her hoof, showing proper table etiquette.

Discord nodded immediately when he heard the word "surge". He blew a few more bubbles and said, "Why, yes. I have felt said power surge. It was quite alarming, I do say." Discord stuck the pipe back into his mouth and snorted.

"Magic surge? There was a magic surge? Where?" Twilight looked between Discord's bubble-blowing frame and Celestia's concerned-looking frame, attempting to piece together a puzzle with virtually no pieces. She stared at Celestia. When Celestia finally turned to look at her, Twilight took a stab.

She asked, "Princess, I can help. What's this about a power surge?" She tilted her head to the side, trying to communicate that she could be of actual use.

Celestia shook her head and responded weakly, "I'm sorry, Twilight. I know you can help, but I don't know if I want you involved. Normally, I'd drop this quest onto you and your friends, but this may just be too dangerous for that." Celestia yawned quietly and laid her head on the table in exhaustion.

She realized that the only ponies capable of preventing the onslaught to come was herself, her sister, and Discord. Her crew wasn't looking too good at the moment and Celestia knew it.

Discord had been watching Celestia's expressions and realized just how bad the situation was. I wonder...

---

A loud blast lurched the cottage and Derik immediately shot to his feet. He slammed the top of his temple into a wooden shelf, dislodging all of the shelf's items. Derik fell back down to his knees. Consequently, books and a glass vial rained down on Derik's back, littering his back with a landscape of fresh purple lumps and a few scrapes caused by shattered glass shards. The vial's contents leaked through Derik's clothing and stained his back

Zecora shot up at the two consecutive and very loud intrusions of the ear. With one knee, Derik was on the floor holding his head in one hand and scratching at his back with the other. The zebra looked up at the shelf that was now void of any and everything that had been on it.

She looked down at Derik, finding him surrounded by a pile of books and shattered glass. She gasped and leapt for the vial, affirming her suspicions. It cannot be. She looked up at Derik, who had given up holding his head and was scratching his back with both arms. I have no choice, but to wait and see.

Derik began to go wild and for some reason, he just couldn't scratch that itch. he began rubbing his backside against the walls of the room. All of a sudden, the itching ceased and Derik fell to the ground in relief. He sighed and rolled over, his belly facing the ceiling.

Zecora gulped, a few of the larger shards in hoof. She quickly deposited the pieces of flask into a nearby corner and made haste in returning the books the their shelf.

Derik picked his head up and looked at the stunned Zebra. "Uh, Zecora. Are you alright?" The zebra froze and turned to stare in Derik's general direction. The human got to his feet and walked over to the zebra. He knelt down in front of her, waving a hand in her face.

Zecora blinked and looked back into Derik's curious eyes. "You look worse than Jake when he suffers from Brisk withdrawal... You okay?"

"B-Br-Brisk?" Zecora stammered as she felt her nerves settle down and begin operating her muscles again, though she had a slightly mechanical gait as she made her way to her cot and sat on it.

"OOooohhhhh. They probably don't have anything like Brisk here. After all, everyone must live in cottages in these woods, right?"

"No, you are far mistaken. It is just that I am a little shaken. I am the only equine out in the Everfree, everypony else lives within society." Zecora lay back down, not know what to expect. She felt her heart thump a little faster. The potion in that vial could have any effect on the creature she had let in her home. Anything can occur. I just hope there isn't a stir. She rolled onto a side and closed her eyes, hoping for the sweet embrace of sleep.

Instead, Zecora felt a tap on her shoulder, followed by a second and a third. She rubbernecked to see Derik looking down at her, an almost unnoticeable layer of concern coating his face. He scoffed quietly and patted Zecora's shoulder lightly.

"So, you're telling me that you did not hear that explosion?" Derik asked with a smirk. "Woke me up just like that." Derik snapped his fingers to punctuate his dialogue.

Zecora shook her head and smiled. "Of course I heard. I was just a little unnerved." She hopped off her cot and disappeared out the sloping doorframe. Derik followed behind the zebra.

As he popped from the backroom to the main room, he muttered, "Guess I'm going to have to earn my stripes."

After they both had made it outside, they quickly found the rapidly approaching morning air to be quite chilly. Well, chillier than the norm at any rate. Derik clung his jacket closer to him, the backside mysteriously dry. He followed Zecora down the path, occasionally peaking through any gaps in the canopy.

On one of her quick peeks, Zecora spotted a large cloud that swirled with bits of blue and cyan rising up from the earth. She immediately shifted her stance and took off in the direction of the smoke. Derik didn't hesitate to follow his striped companion, keeping up with her.

They continued to run, ignoring any foliage that seemed to always get in the way somehow. Zecora hit a wild root that had escaped her vision and tripped hitting the dirt face first.

"Heh, nice face plaaaAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Derik began to quip, but fell through the recently-created smoke wall into a crater. Zecora looked up, dirt caking her muzzle. She was face to face with the smoke wall. She quickly got up and looked around, failing to see Derik.

She looked down at the earth next to her. She saw the human's shoe prints leading straight into the smoke. A muffled thud and grunt confirmed Zecora's hypothesis. What Zecora hadn't planned for, though, was a set of thuds. Two more to be exact.

"Derik? Derik?! IT'S YOU." Zecora leaned a little closer to the smoke trying to make out what was being said. The smoke began to clear, but it was still too thick to look into.

"JAKE! DUUUDE. WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?" Zecora heard Derik's voice reply to the first unknown voice of one "Jake".

Before the smoke cleared, Derik shot out of the wall, hitting a fat tree. It just so happened that this tree was the proud owner of the hidden root that saved Zecora the shame of falling into a massive crater.

Thud.

A mangled changeling fell from the sky and landed next to the pair. Zecora quickly spun on her front hooves and bucked it back into the crater.

Another thud, much sooner than expected, and a loud "OH, COME ON!" shot out from the crater. A loud grunt and what sounded like straining accompanied a second life form that appeared out of the crater. This one looked a lot like Derik, but Zecora wasn't going to take any chances.

Zecora drew all her weight onto her front hooves, but before she could send the being back from whence it came, Derik scooped the short zebra up into his arms and cradled her.

"Now, now. We don't need anymore of that." Derik scolded Zecora with a disapproving finger waggle that Zecora probably didn't see.

Jake pulled the rest of his body up out of the crater and rolled about half a meter away from it. A changeling landed right next to Jake right as he rolled out of the way. The human looked over at the changeling's pleading compound eyes and brought his hand up to its muzzle. His finger glowed a bright cyan and Jake flicked the changeling, sending it flying through the smoke and down into the crater.

"Wow, that was great." Jake rested his head down onto the loose dirt and stared up at his friend and the package he was holding. "I think?"

Derik simply began laughing loudly and soon Jake joined in. Zecora stared slightly irritatedly through half-lidded eyes straight forward. It isn't usual for me to stew, but what do I do now that there are two...

Author's Note:

That was one hell of a hiatus... I'm just realizing that... Whoof...

Comments

[Teku Senpai]

4968023
... whoops.. bare with me pleaaase..

[Teku Senpai]

4969498 everytime i come up with an idea, i write it down, and the good ideas are put in the story. I'm lik. 98% sure that you won't be disappointed.

[Teku Senpai]

4969527
lol. Was reading.

DO IT. PUT IT TO THE TEST. I CRAVE IT. ...but do it in time... x)

[Teku Senpai]

4969628
Heeeyyyy .. I have that picture. =D

[Teku Senpai]

4969720
As much fun as it's been, I need to go a massive amount of tedious cleaning...