• Published 24th Apr 2012
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic -- Off The Record - The King of Hearts



A new pony is introduced to Equestria just before the fight with Nightmare Moon in Episode 1. Changing the entire story.

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So, What Next?

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So, What Next?
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The final cleanup around the Crystal Kingdom was swift. Sombra’s damage had been easily repaired, and the townsponies were moved the Crystal Heart back into its place underneath the castle.

As for everypony else, they were just happy that it was all over with. Sombra had come with a lot of thunder, but, like a bright flash in a storm, he faded quickly, and without anypony getting hurt.

“I guess it’s a good thing I decided to pay a little visit down here, isn’t it?” Discord chucked, playing with Fluttershy’s hair, something she was tolerating at the moment, “I mean, I would have hated to see that little princess over there get hurt!”

“Little princess?” Dash asked, looking between Scootaloo and Luna, “Which one are you talking about?”

“Both,” He shrugged, moving on from Fluttershy to Rainbow Dash’s hair, “It’s funny, the things you miss when you’re trapped in stone…”

“You missed hair?” Dash asked, leaning away from the omnipotent being currently messing up her mane.

“I’ve missed everything!” Discord exclaimed, finally focusing and sighing, “But, I guess there are some things I should fill you in on.”

“Fill us in?” Alex asked.

“About the Elements of Harmony!” Discord said, as the necklaces appeared floating above his claw, “See how they’re all black?”

“I’m pretty sure Alpha and Alex filled us in on those,” Twilight winced, pretending to be sorry about that fact.

“Well, that’s no fun…” Discord frowned, “Oh well! Everypony put these on anyway!”

All the girls were surprised when their respective Element of Harmony was suddenly slapped on their chest and head respectively, the black color of the crystal showing terribly against their colorful coats.

“Why do we need to wear them?” Pinkie asked, tapping the cracked gem, expecting something to happen.

“To draw out your dark side, my dear!” Discord laughed, as each of the girls showed a small sign of reluctance, “Once you whip those into shape, you’ll be really strong!”

The girls weren’t exactly relieved to hear that.

“Will it be as bad as with Dax?” Dash asked, remembering how hard that had been for Alex.

“As long as you’re willing to accept your dark sides, you’ll be just fine,” Discord explained, pointing to Alex, “You were very stubborn, and dragged it out!”

“I know I know!” Alex sighed, not needing to be reminded, “Everypony is way smarter than me, so we don’t have to worry.”

“Shouldn’t they wear their Elements one at a time?” Twilight suggested, knowing she wasn’t going to be changed the same way as them, “It might be good to deal with everypony one at a time.”

“Don’t worry,” Discord shook his head, “I’ve made sure it will all work out. Trust me.”

If that was the case, Twilight hoped that he knew what he was doing.

“My goodness, is there any way to chance the color of these things?” Rarity suddenly asked, scowling at the black against her white coat, “I won’t be able to match anything with it expect black!”

“Bad news,” Discord said, raising his hands up, “You don’t have a choice I’m afraid.”

“I just pray I’ll be the first one to turn,” Rarity sighed, leaning her head against Spike.

“Ah’ think it looks nice!” Applejack spoke up, puffing her chest out, “It makes me look like ah’ve a mean streak in me!”

“Do you have a mean streak though?” Twilight asked, arching an eyebrow.


“Uh… not really.” She laughed nervously, feeling a little dumb at this point.

“Where’s mine?” Alex asked, realizing he didn’t have his Element on, “I don’t wanna be the only pony without one!”

“Hey!” Spike called, being ignored by everypony else.

“Yours is done with!” Discord faux-scolded Alex, “Just let it go!”

“Okay, geez…” Alex said, not sure if Discord was serious or not.

Luna walked away from the CMC, as she rejoined the group, giving Discord a careful look as she passed him.

“Your- Our sisters are doing well!” Luna announced, smiling that she was able to include herself in that statement.

“That’s a relief to hear,” Rarity sighed whipping her brow, “I’m terribly sorry they showed up here.”

“Me too!” Applejack nodded, “Apple Bloom is always getting’ in’tuh—“

“No apologies are necessary!” Luna announced in her usual tone, “Without them, we would not have found the Crystal Heart. They did a great service to this kingdom on this night.”

“Things always seem to work out for them,” Dash giggled, looking behind Discord to see the three girls reenacting the adventures they had just been though, “I don’t think they should get in trouble over this.”

“There will definitely be punishment,” Luna laughed at Dash, as she blushed in embarrassment.

“Jus’ because they did sumthin’ good, doesn’ mean they’re off the hook!” Applejack explained, as Rarity chimed in after her.

“We can’t reward them just because it worked out this time,” She explained.

Dash looked back and forth, knowing she was in no place to argue with them.

“I guess I don’t know the etiquette,” Dash shrugged, smiling sheepishly.

“Once you two have a foal you’ll understand,” Twilight said nonchalantly, making Alex and Dash give each other a surprised look, before quickly looking away embarrassedly.

“You two act like you’re a new couple,” Discord laughed, “I’m surprised Dashie hasn’t popped out any babies yet!”

“I always pull out,” Alex explained, nodding with his eyes closed, before getting a smack from his mare.

Everypony but Dash burst into laughter at her shyness toward the matter. Even Alex was laughing through the sting of a hoof smack.

“Well, I think it’s about time we head home,” Discord said, turning to the little girls, “Are you all ready to go?”

“Sure are!” Sweetie smiled, running in with her friends to the circle of ponies.

“Thanks again for saving me, Mister Discord,” Scootaloo said as politely as possible.

“Mister Discord is my father! I’m way cooler then that!” Discord said, patting her on the top of the head, “Call me... Call me Diskie! Or maybe D Swizzle! Perhaps… Q? Or Big D! …Actually, don’t call me Big D.”

The awkward tension in the air hung for a moment, before Discord decided to move on with everything.

“So, is everypony ready to go home?” Discord asked, looking back and forth the group.

“Where are Shining Armor and Cadance?” Fluttershy asked, not wanting to leave without them, “I’d hate to have them be stuck on the train…”

“They’re staying behind to look over the Kingdom for now,” Dash explained, “So… I think that means we’re ready to go!”

“Wait!” Alex said, looking around for a second, “Where’s Alpha?”

“Oh, I saw him head off to talk to the crystal ponies,” Twilight remembered, feeling bad for forgetting him herself, “I’ll go get him!”

Running off toward the entrance, Twilight knew it wouldn’t be too hard to spot the black pony filled with holes.

However, before she had a chance to start looking for him, spotted a brown stallion, that obviously didn’t belong in the Crystal Kingdom. He didn’t have the crystalline look, and he wasn’t one of her friends… so who was this normal pony?

“Hey, you!” Twilight called, as the stallion looked over to her and smiled, waving, a book being levitated beside him, even though he had no horn.

“Hey Twilight,” He smiled, trotting over to her, “Sorry, I was just talking to some townsponies.”

“Who are you?” She asked, suddenly taken off guard by his overly friendly attitude.

“Oh, whoops, sorry,” He said, as a green flame engulfed his body, returning him to him changeling form.

“Oh, Alpha!” Twilight laughed, feeling a little stupid for not figuring that out at first, “Why were you changed?”

“I was talking to some of the locals, and noticed I was making them a bit uneasy, so I morphed.” He explained, “It’s easier to talk to an earth pony then a changeling, that’s for sure.”

“What were you talking to them about?” Twilight asked, wondering just what he would have to say to them.

“I wanted to make sure they were all alright,” He admitted, blushing a tiny bit on his black skin, “The effects Sombra had on their memory is… fascinating. I wanted to learn about it.”

“I know, right?” Twilight agreed, obviously sharing his appreciation in complex magic spells, “How was he able to wipe the memory of every pony like that? That kind of magic is unheard of!”

“Well, a lot of things were lost when the Crystal Empire fell,” Alpha said, showing Twilight a book he had been levitating beside him, “So I grabbed this.”

Twilight looked the book over, and was surprised at his selection.

Instead of grabbing a book on magic, or history, he instead took an index of books held within the library. It simply held the names, and brief descriptions of each book, categorized so like books were together.

“Why grab this one, and not a spell book?” Twilight asked, giving him a lost look.

“Well, if we have this, we kinda have ALL of them,” He explained, “You can comb through it, find something you want to read, and have it sent over in the mail!”

Twilight gave him a dumbfounded look.

“That’s really smart!” She smiled, perking up, a bit taken back by the thought that went into picking that book. Celestia knows she would have just taken as many as she could carry.

“We can take a look over it on the way back to Ponyville…” Alpha suggested carefully, hoping he didn’t sound too obvious.

“Actually… I think Discord is going to teleport us all back,” Twilight said, seeing Alpha’s instant, and terribly hidden disappointment at that statement, “But we can take a look over it at my library, how about that?”

His sad look instantly melted as he nodded, “Sure!”

“Great,” She smiled, gesturing to him, “Come on, let’s head inside. I’m kinda sick of the cold air, you know?”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Alpha agreed, feeling frozen due to his lack of coat, like everypony else had.

Twilight walked back with him in silence and silently pondered what had happened to Alpha.

When they first met at Haven Station, he had been so much more… commanding. He even carried himself differently! But, over the past two years, a lot of thing could have changed.

If he had indeed been stripped of his command, and forced to impersonate Alex, it was possible he eased up, considering he was no longer an Alpha… Wait a minute!

“Why are we calling you Alpha, if that’s a rank?” Twilight asked, realizing she had no clue what his real name was.

“Uh, well, see—“

“And you’re not in the army anymore!” She said, stepping in front of him, “It’s been like we’ve been calling you ‘Commander’ this whole time!”

“Technically, every changeling has a rank… We only tell our names to, well, IMPORTANT ponies, if you understand…”

“Oh,” Twilight nodded, still not sure how changelings could distinguish themselves if all their names were similar, on top of them being dead ringers for each other, “Well, I guess we’ll stick with Alpha then!”

He smiled and nodded, “I’m sure you’ll hear it one day, Twilight.”

She wasn’t sure if that was some kind of promise to get close enough with her to share intimate knowledge… For all she knew ‘IMPORTANT’ in his dictionary meant to be a good friend… But, for vanity’s sake, she decided he was talking about getting very close with her.

She giggled.

“What is it?” He asked, turning his head to her, as they continued down the hall.

“Oh, nothing,” She shook her head.

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