• Published 2nd Feb 2014
  • 5,206 Views, 276 Comments

Integrals - Mozzarella



Twilight clones the rest of her friends. But it's never that simple, is it?

  • ...
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They're all Crazy

"...in bed. Am I right?"

Integrals

***

The claw raked against an invisible force, ripping a hole in the air before the library's exit. Past the claw, one could see the dark and confusing void from which the entity was emerging. The claw retreated and out popped a head of uncertain origin. Equipped with mismatched horns, a snaggletooth, and shaggy gray fur, the head could definitely be described as chaotic.

The head enjoyed this description. What it did not enjoy was the odor of this new location.

"Oh my goodness!" it shrieked. "Would someone light a candle or something?"

Discord reluctantly drew the rest of his odd body out of his portal and produced a clothespin on his snout as soon as he could snap his talons. Only then did he shut his dimensional rift.

"Ugh. This isn't enough."

The clothespin began to morph as he wiggled his talons around. First it became two clothespins, then three, then a black plague era doctor's mask with posies in the beak, and then he finally got rid of his nostrils altogether.

"Much better," he said rather nasally.

The stallions reacted to the newcomer with cautious interest. Sure, he didn't look all that friendly. But his actions did not suggest he meant any harm. It was almost funny to them the way he conjured props for himself.

The mares were a different matter.

Fluttershy fled to the safety of her clone's shoulder, hiding her face and becoming as small as possible. Pinkie disappeared to one of her emergency stashes. Rarity sent her magic to anything sharp within her field of view, finding a few letter openers and broken ink bottles. Applejack didn't need weapons and only lowered herself closer to the ground to pounce. In a second, Rainbow Dash's wings would flap and send her hoof toward the intruder's face with considerable speed. Twilight tried to summon some magic, but found her reserves much too dry for an effective attack.

Discord had yet to observe his audience, having been much too worried about smells to consider his safety. He actually began to speak with his eyes closed to avoid some awkwardness.

"Hello everypony! How are you all-"

A sharp piece of metal sliced both of his horns in half. Applejack's bucking hooves met their mark on his donkey leg with an unpleasant cracking sound. Dash cleared the distance in no time at all and delivered a fierce blow to his face, scattering a few teeth over the floor.

Only after the assault could Discord react and repel his assailants. His magic welled up in his stomach and expanded outwards, reflecting a second letter opener aimed at his neck and the follow up blows of Dash and Applejack. Soon, his bubble encompassed his broken body and several feet around. He still fell flat on his ass though.

He took a moment to breathe in his shield, making sure that he was still alive after that attack. Several missing teeth, several broken bones, and half-severed horns comprised his bill of health, but not death. That much, he could be happy for. That being said, the ailments he did have hurt like hell.

"OW!" he roared as he clutched his mouth and leg. "What was that for!?"

"Rarity! You have to disable his shield!" Twilight yelled, ignoring him.

"I've got it," she called back, a determined glare on her face.

To Discord's horror, she did. The combination of his rushed shield and her frantic dispelling would not leave him much time.

"Wait!" he shouted, waving his various appendages. "I come in peace! I'm here to apologize!"

Rarity's spell faltered long enough for him to fortify his cover. Two more kicks and punches bounced off.

"Please! I'm not going to hurt you!"

Rarity rolled her eyes at his plea. "Twilight, do you have a shovel? I'm going to go through the floor."

"Can't you just summon one?" she answered.

"I'm a bit too busy to be learning more new spells. Feel free to jump in and help any time!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I was just sitting around making five ponies out of thin air! Who the heck am I to be a little exhausted!"

"Will somepony find me a weapon?!"

"Don't find her a weapon!" Discord begged. "I only wanted to apologize! I've changed!"

"He's lyin'!" Applejack grunted as her latest buck glanced off the translucent shield. "He must be lyin'!"

Small cracks formed where Applejack landed a particularly strong blow. Between Discord's dazed state and his preoccupation with a magical onslaught, he had little effort to devote towards repairing his shield.

Does she buck for a living or something? he thought. It's like a bloody cannon with every kick!

She does, in fact, buck for a living. Nopony bothered telling him though.

"Rainbow!" Applejack shouted. "With me!"

"Gotcha'!" the pegasus called back.

Both retreated momentarily before charging in. The earth pony twisted around as she neared the cracking shield, shifting her momentum into a powerful buck. Meanwhile, Dash swooped in low with her right hoof extended for a mighty punch. Their focused efforts certainly had the ability to break through their barrier.

What they could not destroy was the new, purple layer that appeared a foot before Discord's. Their respective hooves met and stuck to the shimmering film, distending it enough to contact their intended mark, but with next to no force. The attackers stumbled further, their entire bodies now oscillating back and forth in the air. They would eventually settle and frantically search for the new barrier's source.

Twilight could only watch in bewilderment as Dusk's horn continued to shine, her inner scientist noting the darker hue of his magic. The stallion was not alone in his efforts either. Beyond him, Twilight saw Rarity struggling against her own clone's restraining hooves without any glow around either of their horns.

Twilight's attention snapped back to her double when she heard his voice.

"Stop attacking him, you maniacs!" he barked. "He just said he came in peace!"

"Wa-Dusk!? What are you doing!?" she cried.

He glanced at his original before returning his gaze to the two biggest threats to Discord, now struggling with their respective clones and the adhesive barrier.

"I'm stopping you all from murdering that thing. What the heck did it do to you?"

"A lot, actually!"

"Well instigating violence isn't the answer here." The unicorn stallion walked calmly through the three fights occurring in the room, dropping his spell upon reaching the thing's bubble. "Who are you?" Dusk asked.

Discord didn't answer. He was busy fumbling with his shattered leg. Eventually, he shrugged and tore it off.

Dusk winced and jumped back. "What the hell-!"

The leg fell off of him with a popping sound. Where it should have attached to his body, there was a round peg. On the corresponding portion of his torso was a matching hole. With a snap of his talons, the broken leg disappeared. With another, a large package materialized in his hands. The kind with cardboard backing and a plastic bulge in the front to display it's contents. The label on the top read "Discord Leg (L)".

Safe to say that Dusk was in shock. Legs shouldn't just come off like that. And when they do, they definitely shouldn't look like cheap plastic building blocks for foals and obsessed adults.

The others were less phased, being much too busy wrestling.

"Get offa' me, dude!" Dash roared as she threw her clone and herself to the side, coming out atop him away from Dusk's fading barrier.

Blitz tried and failed to get on top again, but he still maintained his hold. "Ya' can't just go killing things that show up in the public library, Dash!"

"He ain't here to return a book, jackass!" Applejack snarled. "He's gonna destroy the town!"

AJ was having a bit more luck with his opponent. Being heavier helped. "If'n ya quit freakin' out, ya'll would've heard him say somethin' bout apologizing!"

"You gonna trust that varmint?" the mare asked, narrowing her eyes. She stopped her struggling to focus on her penetrating glare.

"Got no reason not to. Sorry honeycrisp. I like ya an' all, but fight'n ain't no good."

"C'mon Dash," Blitz pleaded through a hoof pressing on his face. "Just listen to the guy! How about this: we hear what he has to say and, if I don't like what I hear, I'll kick his ass for you."

Dash frowned, but stopped fighting. "Ugh. Fine." Her head craned toward Discord, who now sported a full set of legs. "You're lucky I trust him, Discord! Else I'd be feeding you your jaw right now!"

Discord again didn't acknowledge the threat. This time, his claw traveled to his mouth. Two talons grasped the gums around one of the gaps made by Dash's hoof and pulled downwards. In their wake, a new tooth appeared as off white and crooked as ever.

He repeated the process for each gap, eventually coming to his snaggletooth which, to his relief, remained attached.

"Oh thank goodness. I'd never be able to get that one right again. Now where was I?"

He reached his lion's paw to his repaired mouth and plugged it with his thumb. His cheeks expanded as a blew, as did his mismatched horns.

"There we are! Good as new! Anyway, as I was saying, I have come to apologize for my transgressions last time we met. I simply wasn't myself back then. Could you find it in your hearts to forgive me?"

Discord was not an observant fellow. Some even suggested that he lacked any form of an attention span. Whatever the case may be, it took Discord an apology, a near death experience, and yet another apology before he cared to scan the room.

"Weren't there only six of you last time?" he asked while checking his head for lumps and holes. "I'm seeing a few more of all of you right now." He checked the room again and pouted. "Except the pink one. Why don't I get two of her? She was the fun one."

"Hiyaaaaa!" cried Pinkie Pie as she fell from the library's second floor, hurling liquid-filled balloons stored in her voluminous mane.

Discord found himself painted brown before the rabid earth pony even hit the ground. Though, to be fair, she was caught and wrapped in other pink limbs before that could happen.

"Gotcha!" Berry squeaked into his double's mane. "The clones win!"

"Nuh-uh!" Pinkie managed through giggles, her hooves restrained. "Dusk hasn't caught Twilight yet!"

"Dusk! You gotta tag Twilight or we lose!"

Dusk ignored the frightening prospect of losing whatever game was going on in favor of the sopping wet monstrosity now counting ponies. He didn't switch limbs after running out of talons and instead grew an additional digit for each additional pony.

"Okay. I'm not seeing things. There really are two of all of you. What happened?"

Dusk grimaced and shook his head. "I really don't think it's your turn to ask questions yet."

"And who might you be? Does Twilight have a brother I don't know about?"

The answer to that question would be yes, but he was a tad busy running Equestria's seemingly lacking defense forces. The part of Twilight's brain that wasn't busy processing the fact that Discord was in the library made a note to ask Captain Shining Armor how and why powerful beings of destruction kept making their way to Ponyville.

The aforementioned unicorn meanwhile stormed up past her clone to Discord, keeping her distance from the sticky brown goop falling off his shaggy fur.

"He is none of your business, Discord. Why are you here?"

"To apologize, Twilight. I believe this is the third time I've said so. Here I was thinking you were the good listener in this group."

"I heard you those times and I'm still not buying it. Why are you not in your stone?"

"Is it so hard to believe that your princesses let me out early for good behavior?"

"Yes," Twilight said accompanied by the corroborating nods of her friends.

The lord of chaos only shrugged. "I'm sorry, but that's the truth. So, now that I've answered your questions, why don't you tell me about these strapping young gentlecolts that saved me from grievous bodily harm?"

"Like I said, they're none of your-"

"We're clones from out of town!" Berry interrupted cheerfully.

"Berry!"

"What?"

"I told you not to tell anypony that!"

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did! I... Never mind. I should have seen that coming."

"Clones, eh?" Discord asked. "I suppose that would explain the smell."

Berry cocked his head to the side. "What smell?"

"The smell of sameness, my little pony. And it reeks of it in here. I feel positively filthy right now. Speaking of..."

Discord trailed off, glancing at the brown layer of slop that covered him from horn to hoof. However, with a particularly strong inhale, the goo flowed from his various parts into his gaping maw. He promptly gagged and stuck out his tongue.

"Ick! Sugarless?"

Pinkie smiled incredulously. "Well I'm not gonna use the good stuff for attacking you!"

"That ought to be classified as a war crime," he complained suppressing the urge to wretch. "That and diet soda."

"Don't forget about seltzer!"

"We do not speak of the beverage that shall not be named!"

Twilight stomped her hoof angrily. "Enough messing around!" she shouted. "I want answers! Real answers!"

"What has you so riled up, Twilight?" the draconequus asked.

Blitz took one look up at his girlfriend's disappointed glare before bringing a hoof to his face.

"Dude, just talk or she'll make me beat you up."

Discord crossed his arms and pouted. "I don't appreciate her attitude. What is it going to take to convince you I'm on the up and up? A polygraph?"

A box connected to several nodes on Discord's body appeared by his side and began to spit out paper. He should have done some research before this particular gag, though. He overlooked the fact that large spikes in the reading usually indicate lying.

"No," Twilight said. "And those things aren't even reliable."

"Then what? Because you seem to have decided that I'm evil already."

"First of all, I have no reason to believe you're anything but evil. Second, I'm almost positive that Princess Celestia would tell me if she let someone like you back into society."

A deep belch reverberated through the library from above, catching the arguing ponies, and more impressively the lord of chaos, off guard. A grunt, a groan, and a few stumbling steps later, Spike the dragon trudged down the stairs. One claw tried in vain to rub the sleep from his eyes. The other weakly clutched a scroll.

"Twilight," he called, yawning. "Got a letter for you."

Nopony answered, so he opened his eyes to see if she was even there.

He blinked his tired eyes once and threw the letter down.

"Spike?" his mother figure asked. "Are you-"

"Don't care. Going back to bed."

"You don't want to-"

"Nope. Bed."

The group watched in silence as the young dragon made his way back up the stairs. Upon reaching the top, he cast one more glance at the five unfamiliar faces and Discord before shaking his head.

Twilight frowned at her assistant's reaction to the madness that was the library's ground floor. She didn't remember him being quite this jaded and apathetic towards the goings on of Ponyville. It made sense, however. The poor guy had witnessed more craziness in a few years then most ponies would in their whole lives.

"That's going to be a fun talk," she muttered. Her eyes traced down from her staircase to the unexpected letter. It couldn't possibly be what she thought it was. That would be too convenient. She'd already had a nightmare in which her life was a hidden camera show. She didn't need any more reinforcement for that delusion.

A purple aura surrounded the scroll for all of one second before it faltered, as did Twilight's balance. Luckily, she was saved from a nasty fall on the rump by two hooves that somewhat eagerly grabbed her and kept her upright.

"Woah there," Dusk said, his hooves still supporting his double. "You alright?"

The mare groaned and clenched her eyes shut. "I'm fine. It's just the horn. And all those knives in my skull."

"I'm thinking we should keep you off the magic for a while," he chuckled. Then he floated the letter over to her in his own magic. "Here. You want me to open it?"

Twilight tried to listen. She really did. But it was just so comfortable to be in his hooves. Between the touch of his fur and the exhaustion that overwhelmed her, she nearly nodded off.

"Twilight?" Dusk said again, starting to worry about her flickering eyelids.

"Hmm? Wha- oh!" The mare slowly exited the crook of her clone's neck in a way she hoped appeared natural. "Um, yeah. Could you open it for me?"

He did so and looked away, partly to preserve her privacy and partly because he didn't trust himself to summon any more charisma that day. A hooffull of relatively smooth interactions with that mare was plenty.

Twilight's attention, meanwhile, regrouped to focus on the task at hoof. She could be mostly sure that the letter was from the princess, considering the greeting. Few ponies could still call Twilight Sparkle their student.

Dearest Student,

I'm terribly sorry I could not inform you ahead of time about some recent decisions of mine. Certain events required immediate action and left no time for preparations. Should this arrive on time, do not be alarmed if you receive an unexpected guest. Discord has been released and has been sent to your home. I assure you, he has changed since you last saw him. I also realize he has caused many problems for you and your friends, but I will have to ask you at least be civil with him and hear him out.

If you or your friends have any questions, please contact me. If he causes trouble, I am confident you are equipped to subdue him. You have my blessing, should things come to that.

Best wishes,

Celestia

Twilight scrutinized the royal scroll with extreme prejudice. However, despite her best efforts, she could not find a single sign of perjury. Even its lack of the princess's customary flair could be reasonably explained by haste.

"His story checks out," she practically spat. "Celestia really did free him." She directed her glare up from the floating paper to the paroled lord of chaos, who thrust his paw and claw behind his back and sported a halo above his two horns.

"Isn't that lovely!" he exclaimed. "Now we can all be friends! Come here everypony! Group hug!"

Twelve ponies watched Discord's outstretched arms with apprehension. None moved.

Twilight scowled at him. "Slow down, Discord. Celestia may have given you another chance, but I still don't trust you."

The five other mares nodded along with her.

"You're not going to leave me hanging here, are you?"

"I-I'm willing to give you a chance," Fluttershy mumbled, still under her clone's comforting wing. "But I don't think we're there yet. I'm sorry."

Discord slumped forward, crestfallen and hugless. "That's fair. Thank you for your hospitality-err- for not knocking out all of my teeth. Sorry again and good luck with, well, all this," he said, motioning to the stallions.

He flourished his arms to summon his portal, but felt some magic on his shoulder holding him back.

"Is that it?" Dusk asked incredulously. "You're not going to defend yourself?"

Discord could only shrug. "I understand their hesitation to accept me. I shouldn't intrude any more than I already have in all of your lives."

"But you didn't even give us the whole explanation. This 'Princess Celestia' wouldn't just let you out of prison on a whim if you were so horrible. What really happened?"

When the draconequus turned around, his eyes were obscured by a pair of dark sunglasses and a black suit jacket appeared on his shoulders.

"I'm afraid that's classified, Mr. Sparkle."

"Er. It's Shine."

"Hm?"

"Dusk Shine. My name."

"At any rate, that doesn't change things. I don't think now is the right time to share that. But thank you for your skepticism. It's nice to know somepony doesn't think I'm a monster."

Blitz took a glance at the mares' frowns before returning to the wacky figure he knew only from a vision of Twilight atop him.

"I mean, none of us really know what you did," he said. "It couldn't have been that bad."

A blue hoof made a valiant effort to separate Blitz's foreleg from the rest of him.

"Ow! What the hay, Dash!?"

The mare scowled at him and shook the pain off her hoof. "What he did was bad, dingus! He took away my wings!"

"But your wings are right there."

"I- Well he gave them back! But he also pretty much destroyed Ponyville!"

"Ponyville looks fine. How long ago was this?"

"Dammit Blitz! Why are you defending him?!"

"Well why shouldn't I? All I've seen him do is apologize and get sliced by Lady Letter Opener over there."

"Hey!" the lord of chaos called out indignantly. "I've been doing much more than that. Have you not been paying attention to my schtick? I usually charge money for that sort of thing, you know."

"Quiet, you," Dash snapped. "I'm trying to convince my clone to hate you."

"That's too bad, Rainbow Dash," Discord said. "These gentlecolts are not against me, and that means they're with me!"

Said gentlecolts felt a strong force draw them into the draconequus's waiting arms. It must have been their turn to feel some discomfort.

"What do you say, boys? Can I count on your trust?"

A chorus of noncommittal murmurs answered him, along with Berry's giggles of course.

"I mean," Blitz began. "Just because I don't want you dead doesn't mean we're-"

"Then it's settled!" Discord cheered. "Henceforth, you will all be my students. I expect weekly letters discussing...er, whatever it is you've learned that week. Send me your names too, I guess. All clear?"

Several mouths opened futilely to object.

"Great! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some errands to run. Be careful with these mares. They're almost as crazy as I am. Ciao!"

A portal to unspeakable horrors appeared before the front door and swallowed him up. The stallions shared a few nervous glances and returned to their respective doubles.

"Did that guy just give us homework?" Blitz asked, confused.

Dash laughed at him. "Serves you right for making nice with the enemy. We don't have due dates on our letters."

"Aw, what? I want that deal. I don't wanna write letters."

"Then don't. What's he gonna do? Come after you?"

"Eh. I guess you're right. And if he does, I can just send you after him. Seriously, you can throw a mean punch."

"Damn right," she said, flexing a muscle. "Don't think you can get off so easily next time you tackle me, by the way."

Blitz grinned and wrapped a wing around her. "C'mon Dash. You're too hot for me to keep my hooves off."

Their conversation devolved into flirting pretty quickly. Luckily, the others were too involved in their own words to feel uncomfortable. Those words mostly consisted of apologies between those responsible for the attacks on Discord and those who defended him.

"Ah guess we might'a overreacted," Applejack said sheepishly to her clone.

He smirked back at her. "Just a tad. Y'all probably had yer' reasons, though. Musta' done somethin' awful to get everypony so riled up."

"Yeah. Awful's a good word. Ya see, first he put us through this maze-"

Applejack found her voice overpowered by Twilight's, who seemed to be addressing the room.

"Okay everypony. I realize that may have shaken things up a little and we all have much to talk about. However, it would probably be best if we all got to our days before something crazier shows up."

Twilight's guests chuckled, but it was a genuine concern of hers. Better to spread out so fewer ponies would be killed when something inevitably blows up the library.

It's not paranoia if it eventually happens.

"So remember to sit down and get some memories back before the debilitating headaches set in," the unicorn repeated as she let out her guests.

Blitz stuck out his tongue. "Been there, done that, and it sucked."

"Quit whining," Dash said, following him out. "You got to learn all about my awesome life."

Next came Berry with Pinkie riding on his back.

"Bye!" he cried out with a waving hoof. "Thanks for making me, Twilight!"

Pinkie nodded along with him. "Yeah! Thanks for making him!"

Twilight smiled uncomfortably. "Uh, no problem?" she replied.

The others said their goodbyes and filed out without incident or destruction, finally allowing Twilight to collapse against the closed door.

"I'm exhausted and it's barely past noon," she complained. "I probably should have slept last night."

Dusk offered a sympathetic smile along with his leg to help her up. "On the bright side, you don't have much else to do today, right?"

The mare's features almost brightened at the thought of rest. Almost.

"A-actually, there's one more thing. I couldn't really say anything with Rainbow Dash and Blitz in the room."

Dusk watched the hesitation in her eyes with a sinking feeling in his gut. "Okay. Is it bad? Because Blitz was saying something about blowing up and-"

"No! Nothing like that."

"Alright. So what is it?"

Twilight gulped down her apprehension and pushed forward. "Okay, so while experimenting with the duplication spell, I found that a relationship exists between the original object and the cloned object. I've been calling it the Attraction."

"What does this Attraction entail?"

The mare refused to meet her clone's eyes during her explanation. "For an object, it's an attractive force between it and its clone. The strength varies, but it has usually been strong enough to hold the object's weight."

Dusk was not yet considering the repercussions for himself, having been far more interested in the magical science he was learning.

"That's very interesting! I wonder if that could be used for anything..." He drifted off into thought the same way Twilight had some days before. She saw the gears working in his mind in search for a breakthrough. Unfortunately, she knew the conclusion he would ultimately reach.

"I'm not done. You know how some spells behave differently for ponies, right?"

"Of course. So that means the inanimate attraction may manifest as...Oh."

Suddenly the floor became very interesting and worth a thorough examination.

Hating to give her clone another problem to face on his first day, Twilight placed a hoof on his shoulder to console him.

"Now, I could be wrong! I'm not sure what you're feeling right now. All I have to go on are Dash, Blitz, and myself."

"No no. I'm,uh, I definitely felt something. Feeling it, I mean."

Twilight withdrew her hoof. "Oh! So that means you find me-"

"Very, yeah. Are- are you feeling it?"

She could only manage a nod at his inquiry as scarlet rushed to her cheeks.

Dusk bit his lip and hid a blush of his own.

Look. Artificial or not, a compliment is a compliment. If someone calls you sexy, you feel it.

The seconds dragged on in Ponyville's library, its occupants warring with urges to both flee and to mash faces. Neither were really acceptable in this moment, unfortunately. But all was not lost. The world was filled with distractions, many necessary to equine life.

Twilight's eyes popped open with delight. "Food! We should get food!"

"Right!" Dusk replied too quickly and eagerly. "We should eat something! Definitely."

"Great! Yeah! Let's go grab something!"

In short order, the uncomfortable and frustrated unicorns were out the door, again leaving the library unattended. It should be safe, though. I mean, who reads anymore, right?

...

Author's Note:

A less mature author might make a joke about eating out.

But not me. I only publish the most sophisticated of pony fanfiction.