Cheap Trick
Twilight awoke to another unfamiliar ceiling.
Actually, no, scratch that. Now that her vision was coming into focus, she could tell it was Zecora's hut. The knot of wood in the third plank from the window gave it away.
Along with, you know, the herbs and tribal masks all over the place. Once you got a good look around, Zecora's place was sort of easy to identify.
"Uugh..." Twilight let out a groan as she slowly sat up, taking a look around. She was on the same small mountain of cushions she had found herself on before, with the marked difference of no Discord.
She was slightly disappointed, to be honest.
What was there was four ponies, all asleep and spread out around - and, in the case of Rainbow Dash, atop - her. There was a distinct lack of yellow and pink pegasus. Probably helping Zecora collect plants for her potions. Or making sure the local hydra hadn't been hurt in the giant-evil-shrubbery-explosion. Either-or.
She had just started looking around to see where Spike had ended up, when her breathing blue blanket started to stir, "Erm..." Rainbow blinked slowly as she awoke, looking up blearily at Twilight, "...huh?"
Well, this is slightly awkward, Twilight thought. Not as awkward as waking up to Discord on top of her - again. "Uh... hi," Twilight ventured, before finding herself asking “Why are you sleeping on me?”
Whatever question Rainbow was about to launch into was cut short as her mouth snapped shut and she carefully avoided looking at anything other than the draconequus. Which she was still laying on. “Discord mentioned sleeping with you, so...”
Twilight resisted the urge to face-palm and mostly succeeded. Darn it, Discord. Part of her success could be credited to the fact that somepony seemed to be using her arm as a pillow. Which made sense, given Rainbow had monopolized her torso. A quick look showed a blob of pink attached to her side. Any further study of her friends and their habits when using her as a pillow was interrupted by said friends waking up, and shortly after piling close to her as they bombarded her with questions. Well, mostly one question – what happened?
Pinkie wanted to know if she got a power-up.
“Girls, girls, calm down!” Twilight tried, “I'm fine, really.”
“Which is lucky on your part, Twi,” Applejack replied, “What were you thinking, runnin' off like that?”
Twilight considered for a moment before finally replying, “I didn't think there was time – Discord could have been in trouble. I couldn't just leave him on his own.”
Rainbow seemed mollified by the answer, but Applejack was less happy, “Twi, this is Discord we're talking about.”
“What's everypony yelling about?” Twilight turned to see Fluttershy walking into the hut, saddle baskets loaded with herbs and plants. Behind her, Zecora was eying their group expectantly, Rainbow in particular. Before the zebra could say anything though, a purple blur shot through the door, basket of collected herbs being tossed aside as a small dragon threw himself at the draconequus.
“Twilight!” Spike shoved his way past Rainbow Dash, the eagerness of the dragon finally enough to dislodge the blue pegasus from her napping spot, “Thank Celestia you're alright!”
“Why don't you thank me?” Discord grumbled as he stepped in from the outside, a basket of herbs carrying itself behind him, “I was actually there you know.”
“She wouldn't have even been there if it wasn't for you!” Applejack countered as she turned on Discord, “You're using your... wiles on her.”
Discord blinked, “I'm using what?”
“Your draconequus wiles,” Applejack replied, “Your chaos magic, your some-might-say uncanny ability to make a pony confused and-or compliant, of which I have had just about enough today.”
“Hey!” Twilight cut in, “No blaming my stupid on Discord! If I did something stupid, that was all me,” Twilight wasn't sure if that was a proper grammatical construct, but she wasn't going to worry about that at the moment.
“Twilight, I know you,” Applejack replied turning her back on Discord as she spoke, “this isn't like you.”
“Unless she thinks her old foalsitter is an impostor,” Discord corrected, “or she thinks the world is doomed, or that she's going to turn in a friendship report late...” Discord paused as noticed Twilight was glaring at him, “...what? I'm just trying to help.”
“Last time you tried that, a magic plant nearly fried you,” Twilight replied, still glaring, “Next time I beat it using you instead of itself.” Actually, that might be a valid experiment - though she'd need an anvil...
“...you did what now?” Rainbow asked, confusion evident in her voice as her question pulled Twilight out of her thoughts on how to test Discord's compressive resistance.
“Mr. Genius here,” Twilight gestured to Discord, who gave an indignant 'hey!' that was promptly ignored, “decided that the best way to fight a magic plant that was eating all of the magic it could get a hold of was to feed it even more magic. After the shrubbery took him out, I managed to turn its own ability against itself.”
“I'm still not sure how you did that, you know.” Discord commented.
“The shrubbery didn't differentiate between what it was pulling in,” Twilight replied, “It wrapped everything in its threads and pulled it in. I just fed it threads of my own.”
“Can't defend against yourself, huh?” Rainbow quipped.
“Not quite, but... darn,” Discord grumbled, “wish I'd thought of that. Still doesn't explain how you blew it up.”
“Oh, that,” Twilight chuckled nervously as she played with a pillow, “I might have...forcefully shoved it out of phase without compensating for aetheric noise.”
Discord stared at her for a moment before bursting out in hysterics. “Oh, that's brilliant! You telefragged it!”
“Would somepony care to explain?” Rarity asked, “I am afraid my advanced magic theory is a little rusty...”
“Imagine a tomato,” Discord said, holding out a claw as said object manifested itself, “and a colander,” in his paw a metal strainer appeared, “Now imagine throwing the tomato at the colander as hard as you can...”
The tomato flew out of Discord's grasp as he pulled his arm back, “I think they get the idea, Discord,” she despawned the tomato before turning to the others, “I basically made it do an improper teleport. Yes – that is as bad as it sounds.”
“Huh,” Rainbow said after a moment, “Didn't know you could make other ponies teleport like that. Why didn't you ever use that against... well, anything?”
“Because it's really easy to mess up,” Twilight replied, “and I’d be just as likely to blow myself up, and the best-case scenario is that it starts raining pony bits and nopony likes that.” A few of the others turned decidedly green at the last part.
“Sounds like you were very lucky then,” Fluttershy said before taking a seat next to Discord, “both of you.”
“I suppose we were,” Twilight said with a sigh, before adding after a moment, “...actually, We were really lucky. Well, I was at least. Impossibly lucky, even...”
“Uh, Twi?” Rainbow asked, “What are you talking about?”
“Discord couldn't take on this tree, and he's the lord of chaos,” Twilight said as she manifested a scroll and quill and quickly started to write, “I mean, I'm good but I'm not that good – why did the shrubbery counter-attack Discord and not me? Something about this doesn't make sense – I need more information. Spike, how's the castle?”
“Uh, fine probably,” Spike replied from her side, “None of us have been back to town yet.”
As much as she wanted to admonish them for that, Twilight couldn't help the small smile that found its way onto her face, “Why am I not surprised? Well – I'm fine now, though I don't think Zecora is going to let me leave just yet...” A quick glance at the zebra and a nod confirmed her suspicions, “... So I don't think I'm going anywhere for now. Go check on Ponyville – make sure it hasn't burned itself down.”
“Again.” Discord added as he fiddled with a tribal mask.
“-I'll still be here when you get back, I promise,” Twilight finished, ignoring Discord's interruption.
“Well, I ain't leaving you here with Discord,” Applejack replied with a final nod.
“Which is fine,” Twilight replied, “Since he's going with you.”
“Wait, what?” Discord spun around to face Twilight, though any look of surprise was obfuscated by the mask he was wearing, “Why?”
“I need somebody to check the castle,” Twilight replied simply, “and I need Spike here so I can work.”
Discord turned away with a small huff, “Well, fine then – don't blame me if you suddenly need a chaos god.”
“I'm sure I'll be fine,” Twilight replied, “just try to behave?”
“Oh, I'm sure he'll be no trouble at all,” Fluttershy cut in as she moved next to the draconequus, “Right, Discord?”
“And I'll be there if he isn't,” Applejack added, glaring up at Discord, “I've got my eye on you.”
“Well, that sounds troublesome,” Discord replied before reaching up and plucking out one of his yellow eyes, “want to borrow one of mine?” Applejack stared at it for maybe a moment before jumping back in shock, much to Discord's amusement. Applejack returned to glaring at him as he popped his eyeball back into place before he felt something smack him in the back of the head.
“Don't blame me if she bucks you,” Twilight said dryly as the others prepared to go.
“I'm sure everything will be fine, Darling,” Rarity replied as she swung the door open with a burst of magic, “You just sit tight, Twilight – we shall be back before you realize it.”
“Assuming Discord doesn't start a chocolate rainstorm,” Rainbow replied with a shrug as she flew out the door - literally, “Back in a flash Twilight!”
The other girls gave their own farewells, Discord filing out last as he trailed Fluttershy. He paused at the door, turning back to Twilight, “So, seriously – why did you follow me?”
Twilight looked up from the scroll she had started jotting notes onto – she already had a few ideas about what had happened, but she wanted to check her numbers before she got too far, “Like I said – I couldn't leave you on your own. You'd have done the same for me, right?”
Discord considered for a moment, “You know,” he finally replied, a hint of surprise in his voice, “you're probably right.” He vanished out the door before Twilight could ask what he meant.
“Okay then,” Spike said as the door swung shut behind Discord. On the other side of the hut, Zecora had busied herself with whatever herbs she had gathered, “What did you mean about 'impossibly lucky' earlier?”
“Exactly what I said,” Twilight replied as she continued to write, the quill guiding itself as she started pulling out books from behind her, “The odds that I managed to find some sort of weakness that Discord couldn't is effectively non-existent. So, Spike – if I didn't get lucky, how did I beat the Shrubbery?”
“Well, you are the element of magic,” Spike suggested, “maybe that gave you an edge?”
“It didn't help much against the original Tree of Harmony,” Twilight replied, “and my normal magic isn't working at the moment anyhow.”
“If it's not you, then it's the Shrubbery,” Spike continued, “It had some sort of weakness to you.”
“My thought exactly,” Twilight said with a nod and a smile, “but why? What would make the Shrubbery weak to me and not Discord?”
“Well, you aren't supposed to be a draconequus,” Spike suggested, “maybe it just didn't know how to deal with a transformed alicorn?”
“Thats...” Twilight started before pausing, “...actually not a bad idea.”
“You mean I'm right?” Spike said in surprise.
“The Shrubbery was the result of remains of the Tree of Harmony being exposed to chaos magic, at least according to Discord,” Twilight explained as she started working out the framework of the theory, “if its core essence is an amalgam then – in theory – it's possible that it would be unable to differentiate properly between a similar amalgam...”
“Such as what you'd get if you turned an alicorn into a draconequus?” Spike suggested.
“Possibly,” Twilight replied as she started pulling out books, flipping through them quickly before tossing them aside and pulling out another one, “Let's see... no, no, no – already tried that, didn't work – no, no, why did I grab a cooking book? No, no, no-yes!” Twilight stopped mid-page of a thick blue tome, “Aha! I knew I had a copy of Far Flung's Study of non-equine magic races'!”
“Twilight Sparkle, your next potion is done,” Twilight and Spike looked up as Zecora came around a corner, a plate with a collection of bubbling vials balanced on her back, “I think-” she paused as she looked around the space, “-My word, where did all these books come from!?”
Twilight looked around properly for the first time and finally noticed the rather sizable pile of books on either side of her, “...huh,” She said after a moment, “I forgot I could do that?”
Spike raised an eyebrow, “You forgot you could break reality and teleport half the castle's 'Advanced Magical biology' section to yourself on a whim?”
“Yes, that,” Twilight replied before giving Zecora an apologetic smile, “I'm sorry Zecora. I'll get these all out of here... somehow.”
It was Zecora's turn to raise an eyebrow, “You brought them here, did you not? Why not send them back with a just a thought?”
“The problem with accidentally doing magic,” Twilight said with a sigh as she started levitating the books into neater stacks – well, levitating some of them. A few just made their own way into neat piles as Twilight continued, “is that it's a pain to try and repeat.”
“Which means I'll probably have to lug them all back,” Spike grumbled before he had a thought, “...wait, do I outrank Discord?”
“In my castle?” Twilight replied, raising an eyebrow as she organized her stacks of books, “Yes.”
“Hey!” The three in the hut turned in surprise as Discord's head suddenly popped through the window, “I'll have you know that in certain circumstances I am the Equestrian government!”
“Those instances being when you've displaced the Diarchy and turned half the country into cheese.” Twilight shot back flatly.
“Well, yeah,” Discord replied with a blink, “what's your point?”
“What are you even doing here?” Twilight asked as she brought a claw up to massage her temples. She briefly wondered if Discord's paw might have been better for that then her pointed claws. Since she didn't have a forepaw, that would require either transfiguring herself or getting Discord to give her a massage. Hmm... That actually didn't seem like a bad idea...
...wait, yes it was. It was Discord.
“Fluttershy asked me to gather some edibles for the menagerie,” Discord explained, completely oblivious to Twilight's mental tangent, “figured I might as well see if the medicine mare had anything when I heard whispers of heresy. I thought we were equals!”
“Of course we're equals,” Twilight replied with a smile before pointing at the stacks of books, “unless heavy lifting is involved, in which case you're the bottom of the totem pole.”
“Well, that makes no sense,” Discord replied with a humph.
“It's not like you can't just teleport them all back to the library,” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes, “Or, really, do anything. Actually, now that I think about it – you can warp reality at a whim, why didn't you just make the animal food appear?”
“We've been over this,” Discord replied with a dramatic sigh, “it just wouldn't be any fun that way.”
“What determines if something is fun though?” Twilight asked as she pulled out another blank scroll, “is it an absolute, or is it connected to whoever is-”
“There's a draconequus draped across my window sill,” Zecora cut in, “Am I the only one who knows this still?”
“Stuff like this happens all the time in town,” Spike replied with a shrug, “you get used to it.”
“If this is what living in town is like,” Zecora replied, “I think I will stay with my nature hike. Please. Twilight Sparkle, drink your tea. You'll feel better afterwards, I think you'll see.”
Twilight gave Discord another look, “In or out. Either way – off the window sill.”
“In, of course,” Discord replied as she pulled the rest of him through the window, “So – what are we talking about?”
“Well,” Twilight started as she pulled her scrolls back out, levitating a cup of tea over to herself and drained about half of it in one pull, “I'm trying to work on the Shrubbery, but Zecora isn’t going to let me leave for a while and I still need you to move all the books.”
Discord snorted, “I already said-”
“Books. Now.”
Discord glared back at the other draconequus before rolling his eyes, “Uh, fine,” Discord gave his claw a snap, all of the books vanishing in a explosion of cherry blossoms, “there – all books moved. Now what?”
“Now,” Twilight replied, draining the rest of her tea before giving Discord a grin, “we do SCIENCE! You can go get samples, and then I can study them here!”
Discord ‘hmm'd’ for a moment before giving a quick shake of his head, “Workable, but I think I have a better idea,” Discord clapped twice, and suddenly Twilight felt herself being lifted, “The flying carpet – two sides, four edges. Good enough for most. Not for draconequi!” Twilight finally managed to stabilize on the strange surface she found herself laid across to get a proper look at what she was riding – the vast assortment of pillows that Zecora had piled up for her use were now clumped together like a swarm of oversized, not-particularly-hungry parasprites, “Ladies and gentledrakes, I give you the cushion swarm. The carpet of tomorrow. Fully configurable, Infinitely variable. Safe.” Discord's spiel was cut off as part of the cushions parted underneath her, causing Twilight to faceplant to the floor as her rear half remained aloft, “That’s not a cushion,” Discord said after a moment, “That's a floor. We sell those too.”
“Remind me never to go into business with you,” Twilight groused as she pulled herself back up onto the cushions. To her surprise, they didn't part under her this time. “And you can't honestly expect to float me all the way back to my castle, can you?”
Discord gave her one of his patented condescending chuckles – this one was of the distinct 'I know better than miss egghead' flavor – as he casually walked over to the door and wrapped a claw around the handle, “My dear Twilight, you aren't thinking with portals!” Discord pulled the door open and it took Twilight a good second and a half to realize what she was looking at.
It was a room in her castle – specifically, the backup map room, down the hall from the main map room.
The backup map room was one of Twilight's innovations in the field of magic castle design. It was a room. With maps. And a fireplace. And big comfy chairs.
It was very useful when you needed something other than a 1:1 million scale map of Equestria. It also only had one door.
Which she could see on the other side of the room. “Did you make another rip in space-time?” Twilight asked.
“Just a little one,” Discord replied with a shrug as he snapped his claw and Twilight found her pillow cloud floating her toward the door, “Now – over you go.”
Twilight tried to backstep, but when the floor was made of floating pillows, there was only so much she could do. Twilight squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself as she neared the threshold. Or was it an event horizon? No – an event horizon for a wormhole would look more like rippling water then-
“Twilight, you can open your eyes now.”
Twilight slowly cracked an eye open and found herself looking around her backup map room. From the back of an old wardrobe, she could see Spike, Zecora and Discord staring at her. The first two looked vaguely worried. Discord just looked smug, “That wasn't too bad, was it?”
“Did you put a trans-spatial portal in the back of my wardrobe?” Twilight asked as she tried to regain her composure.
“Where else was I going to put it?” Discord asked as he reached through and grabbed to wardrobe doors, “Now you sit tight while I go check out the damage.”
Twilight finally managed to clamor off the cushions as the doors swung closed, making her way to the wardrobe just as the doors swung shut, “Discord, you are not-” she stopped as she pulled the doors open and found herself facing the flat wooden back of the furniture piece, “Oh, for land's sake... DISCORD!”
“You don't need to yell, my dear,”
Twilight spun around in surprise to find Discord standing there, calmly polishing his claw against his chest. She quickly started stomping toward him, glaring, “What in Equestria do you think you're-” Twilight moved to grab him but found herself grasping for nothing but air as she passed straight through him. Twilight stumbled to a stop as she glanced back at Discord, “...what?”
“My dear, you act like you've never seen a hologram before,” Discord said with a smirk, his image flickering briefly, “sorry – I commandeered your map room for it. Hope you don't mind.”
“How in Celestia's name do you know how to make a hologram?” Twilight asked as she finally settled into one of the chairs.
“You act as if I'd never seen a holodeck before,” Discord replied, “which reminds me,” he snapped his claw, and suddenly the room began to seemingly dissolve as Twilight suddenly found herself surrounded by endless inky blackness. A brief flash of light as a grid of green lines around her before the world... recompiled itself around her. As her environ finally finished restructuring itself, she found herself standing back at the former site of the Shrubbery, “There you go,” Discord said as he gestured around the semi-ruined clearing, “as good as being there, minus anything that will have that Zebra reversing all the blood in my body or some-such.”
Twilight wasn't sure if Zecora could actually do it, so she decided to the same thing she did when Pinkie said something bizarre – ignore it and press on, “You cast an undocumented enchantment on part of my castle,” Twilight said flatly.
“Only a little one,” Discord replied as he paced around the clearing, one eye trained on Twilight, “besides – can't have you in any more danger, now can we?”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she settled back down onto her pile of cushions, “Tell me Spike is there with you at least...”
“Right here Twilight!” Spike sounded off as he emerged from behind the draconequus, quill and scroll already in-claw.
“Excellent,” Twilight said as she made herself comfortable, “Discord – start collecting samples. Spike – take notes and make sure Discord doesn't break reality.”
“When did I ever break reality?” Discord protested.
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Last Tuesday.”
Discord stared for a moment before dropping his complaint with a shrug, “Fair enough,” Discord snapped his paw and was suddenly in a red uniform of some sort, a strange gold insignia on the front, “Away team ready to begin survey, captain!”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she gave a wave to begin, “Make it so.”
Discord's grin widened even further before he turned and started pacing around the clearing, some sort of device in his claw beeping as he went, “Captain, these reading are off the charts.”
“Then you need to make new charts,” Twilight replied dryly as she watched, “just get a few of the shards to start with. Then we can see if there's anything left of the root system. Spike, remember to catalog the location of everything.”
“Bah, you're no fun,” Discord complained, but complied as he took a quick look around before heading toward the nearest chunk of former shrubbery, “Phew – this stuff smells foul.”
“I don't smell anything,” Spike said as he wrote.
“Interesting...” Twilight pulled out a quill and scroll of her own as Discord edged toward the shard, “could you be more specific?”
“It smells like Sweetie Belle's cooking,” Discord replied, scrunching up his nose at it, “guess half-phasing through yourself doesn't do much for your odor...”
“Wait, what?” Twilight said, head suddenly snapping up.
“It smells,” Discord repeated, “And bad – I didn't think anything could beat out that chicken coop, but-”
“Not that part!” Twilight snapped, “the other part!”
“Oh, that,” Discord replied with a shrug as he tossed the crystal at Twilight, “Take a look for yourself.”
Twilight moved to catch the fragment of crystal on reflex, and was surprised when she actually caught it. “I thought this was a hologram. How am I...”
“Chaos magic,” Discord replied as he pulled on a pair of sunglasses, “I don't have to explain jack.”
“But-” Twilight started, only to get cut off.
“Just look at the crystal,” Discord said with a lazy wave. With no other ideas, Twilight did just that. The inside of the crystal was amazingly clear, a vivid shade of purple throughout – flawless, save for one fact. Sharp planes cut through it, sheets of deeper purple that seemed impossibly thin. As she rotated the crystal, one set of planes vanished as another appeared, “See them?”
“I see them,” Twilight said with a nod, “but I have no idea what 'them' are.”
“Fourth-dimensional creases,” Discord replies, “What happens when one half of a crystal tries to teleport into the other half – sorta. My non-linear geometry is a little rusty.”
“So... It folded in on itself?” Twilight ventured, “Shouldn't that have just detonated it?”
“That's if you teleport something into something else,” Discord replied, “This is what happens when physics gives up the ghost and goes for coffee. Normal rules like exclusion principle stop applying.”
“Hrm...” Twilight settled back onto her cushions as she continued to study the crystal, “see if you can find more samples – and make sure the root system is gone!” Twilight ordered, quickly adding on the last part. Discord and Spike gave back a pair of affirmatives before setting to work, leaving Twilight with her new bauble. She tentatively prodded at it with her magic, and found it very bizarre.
It was like poking a sponge. A non-orientable sponge. That had calcified. And could induce sanity loss.
Okay, that metaphor got away from her, but it got the point across. This crystal was fundamentally wrong – which was pretty normal for chaos magic, Twilight supposed.
She turned the crystal over in her claws slowly as she carefully probed it. A thin strand of probabilistic energy worming its way in at one point before emerging somewhere else entirely, despite the fact that Twilight was certain there hadn't been any turns inside. Other spots seemed to be completely solid, resisting any probing. The fact that rotating the piece a full three hundred and sixty degrees did not, in fact, bring her back to the surface she started at was just icing on the proverbial cake.
A very Pinkie cake.
“There has to be something here...” Twilight muttered to herself as she kept prodding the crystal. She wouldn't accept the suggestion that it was 'just chaos magic' – those strings were a thing, and there had to be something similar here. Hrm – actually, there was an idea... “Discord,” she asked out loud, “what would happen if you cut all of the strings that were attached to something?”
“All of them?” Discord echoed back, before giving a snort, “not possible – eventually it will start trying to reform connections. You can't cut them all fast enough.”
“Hypothetically speaking,” Twilight replied, “just humor me.”
“Well, if you insist,” Discord replied as he settled onto a stump, “if you did manage to cut all the strings, the object would effectively cease to exist.”
“Effectively?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.
“It's still there, but you just cut if off from reality,” Discord explained, “entirely – light, sound, touch, gravity, heat...”
“Space?” Twilight added.
Discord considered it a second before giving a shrug, “Well, I suppose. How else would you fold something on itself?”
“So, if you can cut all of those,” Twilight continued as she rose from her cushions, “could you just cut some of them?”
“Well, yeah,” Discord replied as he watched Twilight with a hint of confusion, “why would that-”
“Don't you see?” Twilight said excitedly as Discord suddenly found a very enthusiastic draconequus grabbing onto him, grinnng in his face, “this isn't just chaos magic! It's a fundamental interaction!”
“You're going to have to be more specific than that, Twi-URK!” Discord was cut off as he found himself wrapped in a crushing hug from the nominally smaller draconequus.
“Oh, this is brilliant!” Twilight explained as she swung Discord around, ignoring his demands that she put him down immediately, “not just one, but two entirely new fields of magic to study! I'm going to get published again! And all I had to do was nearly get killed and risk ripping another hole in reality!”
“Uh, I'm not sure if that was a good thing, Twilight...” Spike said carefully as he watched the two draconequus, “also, Discord is turning purple.”
Twilight stopped her excited whirling, finally releasing her grip on Discord as she looked at him, “Why do you even need to breathe? I've seen you turn into a carrot...”
“Narrative... causality...” Discord said between gasps for air, “it's funnier this way...”
“Right,” Twilight replied before holding up the crystal and continuing on as animated as ever, “the point is, we have a lead! The shrubbery was manipulating strings, which was the same way I managed to influence it!”
“And this has to do with why it didn't just ignore you how...?” Discord asked.
“I have no idea!” Twilight exclaimed, nearly bouncing at this point, “that's the exciting part!” Before Discord could say anything else, Twilight gave him another crushing hug before turning and dashing across the holographic field, reaching out and grabbing onto thin air before pulling the door open and dashed off into the hall. The only thing left in her wake was a glass bottle with an apple inside, spinning on the floor.
“Hey!” Discord shouted after her as he picked up the bottle, “you forgot your-” he paused as he lifted the bottle and noticed that the apple was suddenly absent. A glance down at the floor found the apple sitting where it had started near his feet.
Discord glanced between the apple and the bottle before crossing his arms with a huff, “Well, that was a cheap trick.”
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A very cute and hillarious chapter!
Well, I have no idea what Twilight was talking about for most of that, but Discord was, as always, hilarious.
awesome chapter
*Chuckles* Finally Discord gets a taste of his own certain kind of madness... but this isn't your regular kind of madness, I tell you. This is Science!
Oh my god the references, Star Trek, Portal, all the references in this fic...Chaos powered twilight is best twilight.
This is my pick me up
6633957 The best part is that Discord actually seems to get the references. I can really see that smile on his face.
"uugh..." Twilight let out
"erm..." Rainbow blinked slowly
Twilight Sparkle, you next potion is done
“you forgot you could break
and teleport have the castle's 'Advanced Magical biology'
stabilize on the strnge surface she
the vast assortment of pillow that Zecora had pile up
I know better then miss egghead' flavor
grinnng in his face,,
Why do you even need to breath?
grabbing onto thin air before pulled the door open and dashed off into the hall
1. Forgot to capitalise.
2. Forgot to capitalise.
3. Your.
4. Forgot to capitalise.
5. Half.
6. Strange.
7. Pillows, Piled.
8. Than.
9. Extra comma.
10. Breathe.
11. Pulling.
I don't get the apple part... Have I missed something in this chapter, or forgotten something from a previous one?
6633962 Note and fixed - thank you!
6633963 it was something from before the whole fiasco in the forest started. As for why its here...
Hey, at least it didn't lead to Narnia.
/shrugs
Is it wrong that I heard this in Cave Johnson's voice?
There are some notable errors in grammer, but otherwise, a really enticing story.
6634104 feel free to tell them to me if they're still there.
I like this. Can't wait for more!
yay new chapter can't wait for more
6634308 My insurance doesn't cover Pinkie Parties, sorry.
paperspencils.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/1311763417814.jpg
I was hoping to find a discord one, but alas, no dice.
Is it Tuesday already?
6634429 Ask and ye shall receive (two versions!):
i.imgur.com/C81R3Mr.jpg
i.imgur.com/6R46b23.jpg
6634446 Technically, it was Mari. /nitpick
6634038 I happen to like Narnia!
Well... before the Sun got squeezed out by a giant and the entire reality instantly dropped to absolute zero.
Weirdest... apocalypse... ever...
must.... resist...... urge.... to make snarky Spock quote....
TwiDash! I love it!
Star Trek reference. Well then, I have a video for you! And it fits with the coming holiday!
References, references everywhere!
FINALLY! Somepony thinks of the obvious answer!
This story is earning its keep.
Where did the apple and bottle come from?
6634549 It's not even thanksgiving!!! Unless your not american. Then carry on.
6634792 Even in America we practically skip thanksgiving and go strait to Christmas.
6634802 6634792 Thanksgiving? We freaking skip Halloween and go straight to Christmas. It's really dumb and annoying, especially the songs...
When Discord appears...
Make sure Pinkie can't break the wall.
Because when Twilight's gone draconequus,
Discord gets the references!
I love the Portal reference.
6634780 same place as the books before. I figured I'd had Twi teleport enough stuff by mistake by now to get away with it...
Unless you mean specifically a bottle and an apple - they were from a puzzle Discord gave Twi before the forest fiasco (get the apple out of the bottle without teleporting anything or breaking the bottle)
“I'm my castle?”
should be "In my castle?"
6634858 Amen.
6634916 Ta.
Twilight smells a new science project.... Be afraid, be veeeery afraid.
6634967
Discord, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie will now all get together to use the fourth wall as a trampoline on Sundays.
Now I really want to do some nonlinear discontinuous geometry, even though I'm not entirely sure if such a thing exists...
Sounds like fun.
1. Make clump of floating cushions
2. Call it science
3. ???
4. PROFIT
I LOVE this story. Your style is unparalleled.
This is the ONLY story I know where crazy maddo-scientiest-Twilight and Discord function together so freakingly well!
Your pacing is erratic but perfect at the same time. And switching the positions of Twi and Discord by letting Discord be the one how slows the overexcited Twilight is just brilliant. I can't wait for more
Pretty sure you're missing a few words there. Maybe "... as a pillow was interrupted by said friends..." or equivalent.
Great chapter! I was sort of worried that this would be the end, but it looks like there are still some plot elements left to explore! Can't wait.
Ah Star Trek references.
He's right.
This story is brilliant.
6635366 Doublepost.