Comet The Colt of Steel

by Stallion of Steel

Drocsid Part 3.

*Pop!*
When the darkness faded, I found myself seated at a desk. Regaining my senses, I looked around and quickly realized I wasn't back at Ponyville Elementary. For one thing, my desk was surrounded by steel bars on all sides and above. I was locked in a cage. In front of me stood an imposing wall of wood that seemed to stretch on forever.

"Where am I?" I tried to stand up, but my limbs felt restrained. I looked down to see my forelegs were cuffed together. They were attached to a barrel chain that was wrapped around my side and attached to the back of my seat. To top it off my hindlegs were also shackled to the chair legs. "What's going on here?"

"Silence!" A deafening voice boomed from the top of the desk. The order was accompanied by the clap of a ruler across the surface. Slowly a head rose from the top of the desk. Its coat was cerise, with a rose-colored mane tied into a bun. A reddish pair of glasses attached to a gold chain rested on her muzzle. Her grayish-green eyes stared through the lenses down at me. A blocky jewel necklace hung from her neck. Its stones clacked as her neck peered over the side.

"M-Ms. Cheeril-lee?" I gasped.

"SILENCE!" She screeched the ruler in her hoof stretching to an impossible length as she brought it down to the floor with a sickening crack. "You have been sentenced to detention for violating the rules of the game set forth by our lord and master Discord." As punishment, you must write an unlimited-page essay on every known flavor of flan." She tapped her yardstick on the floor which immediately began to quake violently beneath me. I looked down in time to see a stack of papers erupt from beneath my desk.

"What the...Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" I rose higher and higher, the stack quickly becoming the peak of a mountain of paper. When It stopped my desk was at level with Ms. Cheerilee's.

"You may begin," she said.

I reached for the pencil lying at the edge of the desk. My restraints pulled against me as my teeth struggled to grasp. Just as my teeth touched the eraser, the pencil suddenly rolled down my desk toward the edge. My lightning reflexes caught it as fell over the side. "Gotcha." Suddenly without warning, the pencil jumped out of my grip. I tried to grab but once again my restraints did their job. I could only watch as the pencil plunged to the bottom floor with a high-pitched "Kowabunga!"

*CLACK!*

Ms. Cheerilee's steely gaze fell upon me. "Young colt I will not tolerate disorderly behavior in my class." She reprimanded. "I suggest you get your act together unless you want to end up in the corner like your little friends."
She pointed her hoof over to a corner of the room.

I turned around to see Snips and Snails seated on a pair of stools. Both were dressed in costumes that could only be described as ridiculous even by Discord's standards. Snips was dressed in a barber's apron and his mane was done up in a wild unkempt style. Crudely fastened to his hooves were an assortment of scissor blades that had at some point been driven into the seat of the stool nailing him to the spot. Snails on the other hoof had been stuffed inside an oversized snail shell as well as given a shell-shaped cowl to wear. Needless to say, neither one of them looked the least bit threatening.

"Ms. Cheerilee, when can we come out again?" Snips asked.

"When you've learned to be competent underlings," was her answer.

"We can do that," Snips said struggling to free his scissor hooves from the softwood.

"Yeah, we'll be the most complement underlings Lord Discord ever had?" Snails added.

"I can see there's still much improvement needed." She said raising her ruler to strike against her desk.

*Pop*

A pair of giant dunce caps materialized over Snips and Snail's heads covering them completely.

"So is that a no?" Snail's muffled voice asked from inside his cap.

"As for you," She turned her attention back to me. "I'm willing to forget your hijinks this one time, provided it does not happen again."

*Pop* The pencil re-materialized on my desk.

"Now Get to work!" With that, she picked up her pencil and began writing something on her desk. Good, with her distracted, I could make my move.

I pulled my hoof shackles and focused my strength on the link in the middle. With just the right amount of pressure, it would break.

"What that?"

To my awed surprise, instead of breaking, the link began to stretch like a piece of bubblegum. I pulled and I pulled, and the chainlink stretched and stretched.

Stretch...Boing! With the sound of a rubber band, the link retracted to its original length.

"I thought you might try that," Mrs. Cheerilee said with a smug grin. "Those chains are made of elastic links. The more you pull them, the harder they stretch. And while we're on the subject, The cell bars are impact absorbent, The seat of your chair is adhesive, and this entire classroom is in a parallel dimension. So you aren't going back home until your unlimited page is done which by the puny laws of your home dimension will be an eternity. Oh, and your next bathroom break isn't for another one thousand years. So you better hold it in because I WILL NOT TOLERATE ACCIDENTS IN MY CLASSROOM! NOW GET BACK TO WORK!" With that, her elongated neck snapped back as she resumed her work.

As the classroom fell silent, I shuffled my flanks in my seat. Sure enough, the surface of my seat tugged and pulled at my seat. It appeared Discord had gotten wise to what I could do and decided if he couldn't beat me in Equestria, then he'd beat me in whatever this place was. This would require a different approach. Luckily I had nothing but time, so I picked up my pencil and began writing my essay.

Of course, I wasn't going to write it. I was just writing chicken scratch. But the sight and sound of graphite on the paper provided the distraction I needed to ponder my way out of this. I was in a parallel dimension, with laws of physics that were different than back home, forced to do an impossible assignment. I began noting down every detail around me, putting together a clearer picture of my current circumstances.

The sky outside the classroom window, if you could call it sky, was a strange collection of strange incandescent shapes of electric blue and murky purple pulsating against blotches of inky blackness. An archipelago of floating islands of different shapes and sizes. drifted in the hazy ether. Was this school building sitting on one of them? If I managed to escape the class, how would I escape from the dimension? One question at a time I suppose. First I had to figure out how to break these chains and unglue my keister.

The answer quickly came to me. When Ms. Cheerilee wasn't looking, I would blow gently on the links of my chains as well as my shackles and desk seat. If the material they were made of was like rubber and glue in Equestria, I should be able to weaken the bonds of their molecules by lowering the temperature.

Of course, I couldn't just use my ice breath at full blast without Ms. Cheerilee noticing, I had to blow quietly and softly on each link. All the while continuing to write my pretend essay. The process was long and tedious but as they say, in detention you have nothing but time. And with that time, the shackles on my hooves warped and became more fragile, until eventually, one of them was weak enough for me to shatter. Leaving it on, I began working on weakening the rest of them. As I worked I could feel the grip of my chains and chair weakening. Finally, the last shackle was weak enough to remove.

I carefully slipped out of my bonds and pulled my flank up and off the seat. The adhesive surface cracked as I separated from it. The sound alerted Ms. Cheerilee who looked down from what she was doing. I managed to slip my shackles back on and sit down before she made eye contact. She glared at me curiously, but I was a school colt in detention writing an essay. With a huff, she went to what she was doing. I slipped my bonds again and floated over to the bars. They felt rubbery just like my chains. I guessed this was what gave them their impact absorbency.

"FWOOOOSH!" With a breath of air cold enough to make a windigo proud, the bars froze solid.

KRRRAAASH! Ms. Cheerilee looked up at the sight of me breaking through them like icicles.

"Stop, you're not allowed to leave detention!" She barked as I took off. Her hoof reached for the ruler next to it. I ascended higher, passing above the cloudline that was for some reason in the classroom. Ms. Cheerilee reared back her foreleg and swung her expanding ruler out like a whip. It widely missed and quickly retracted as she prepared to try again. Another miss, followed by another, and then another. "I will not tolerate such behavior in my class!" Her hoof pressed a button on her desk. A klaxon wailed as the lamp on her desk looked up shining its light on me.

"Get him," She pointed up at me. The stack of papers on her desk blew into the air. The first one folded neatly in half then began bending and folding its edging until taking the shape of a paper airplane. From its belly, a drawn-on hatch opened releasing a paper missile!

"Are you kidding me," I said as shredded exhaust erupted from its tail. I went into a dive successfully evading it, or so I thought at first. Until I saw the missile drop altitude to follow me. By now the other sheets had finished folding themselves and so joined the chase. All the while, the desk lamp continued to track my movements like a searchlight.

I pulled a 180 turn putting myself in a head-on collision course with the lead plane. As I had hoped the missile followed. I waited until I was nearly nose-to-nose with the plane before stalling into a free fall. The missile was not as quick and collided with the plane in an explosion that sent paper bits falling to the floor. One down, eleven more to go.

The remaining planes wasted no time trying to avenge their fallen comrade. One by one they unleashed their missiles at me. A blast of my heat vision incinerated all of them. Unfazed, the planes reopened their hatches and fired another wave at me. I waited until all of them were following me and then led them straight toward the squadron. The planes aware of what I was doing, broke formation and scattered. I tailed the closest one and flew underneath.

BOOM! One of the missiles connected with the tail sending it crashing to the ground. I spotted another one and pursued it, As expected the missiles followed me. BOOM! another hit, followed by another and then another. One by one I hunted them down and one by one they fell until only one was left.

SCRRRAAACK! A blast of my heat vision ignited the paper wings sending the plane crashing down to the floor in a ball of fire. As its frame flickered and burned, Ms. Cheerilee looked up at me with hatred in her eyes.

"Very well then, she acknowledged in a calm yet menacing tone. I see the usual disciplinary measures will not cut it with you. You leave me no choice but to bring out the big guns." She ducked under her desk and began pulling something out with her mouth. A paddle, the kind Granny Smith used to talk about from her filly days. "Students that don't respect authority get a paddling!" She raised the implement of punishment into the air where its board stretched to a seemingly impossible length, then with one mighty blow she brought the blade of the board down on her desk cleaving it clean in two.

"What was that?" Snip's voice echoed inside the oversized dunce cap.

"I don't know but all of a sudden my butt feels kinda sore eh." Snails answered.

Ms. Cheerilee reared her head back and with one motion swung the paddle in mid-air. As she did, the board radiated with a cerise aura that separated in mid-swing. The aura formed into the shape of...umm hindquarters.

I dashed to the side leaving the attack to crash into the classroom ceiling leaving behind a posterior-shaped indentation.

"Stand still, the more you struggle the harder this will be for both of us!" My teacher ordered through gritted teeth as she unleashed another 'spanking spell.' Ugh, no amount of therapy on Equus would make that sound right. This one missed as well, leaving behind another 'imprint in the ceiling. She swung again, and again, each time taking out another section of the ceiling.

"If you won't face your punishment, I just have to bring your punishment to you!" With these words she raised her paddle high, summoning the energy within. Before my eyes, the board grew and grew, and grew. Its length stretched almost to an impossible length, except in this place anything was possible I suppose. With one mighty swing, her paddle swept the room. I tried to fly above it, but the paddle seemingly anticipating this, met me in mid-air. SMACK! I was splayed across the surface like Rainbow Dash on the side of a house and sent flailing toward the floor. The room spun around me in a spiral of colors. My coma sputtered and flickered out as I spiraled into a sure-to-be hard landing.

SPROING!

To my amazement, the wooden plank reacted like a rubber band and catapulted me back into the air.

SMACK! Straight into the path of the paddle that is. I was sent tumbling straight into the two dunce caps seated on the stool in the corner.

CRASH!

"Is it time for us to come out?" Snips asked shaking his head. His scissor hooves still holding him in place.

"Maybe they let us out for good behavior eh?" Snails said as I rolled myself off the letter C on the cap. I took the opportunity to pull off his cowl and Snip's apron. Immediately, both colts reverted to their normal oddball selves before disappearing with a *Pop!* Wherever they went, I hoped it was better than this place. With my classmates dealt with, I turned my attention back to Ms. Cheerilee.

"Helping students escape from detention? That's a paddling!" She raised her paddle once more and swung. As the board stretched out, I waited until it reached the end of its arc. Then I jumped over it like a hurdle and took to the air. Ms. Cheerilee growled as the board retracted, immediately readying it for another swing. As she swung, I dived down and waited for her to react. Sure enough, she lowered her angle of attack midswing expecting to intercept me. With a smirk, I flew up and over dodging her swing once again. What got me the first time, was that I wasn't expecting the paddle to be able to expand and retract. Now that I knew what it was capable of and her approach, I was able to anticipate her actions and react accordingly.

Every swing of the paddle drew me closer and closer to her. Desks were toppled over, books were knocked off the shelves. With each swing, Ms. Cheerilee's temper flared hotter, and her swings grew more erratic. "Stand still and take your deserved punishment." In frustration, she stood on her hind legs, took the board of the paddle in her forelegs, and bent it into an arrow shape. Then with a flick of her hoof, she threw it directly past me. To my amazement, the paddle turned around and began flying towards me. It was then that I recognized the shape as one I'd seen in my local toy store. A boomerang. I banked hard right letting the projectile pass by me. Only to watch as it circled back in my direction. Of course, it wouldn't be that simple. I banked hard again as it returned my way to let it pass, then sped head-on toward Ms. Cheerilee. Our eyes locked as she held out her forehoof as if to call her weapon back to it. Behind me, the boomerang had turned around and was on my tail once more. I slowed down to let it catch up to me as I streaked toward my brainwashed teacher.

With just seconds toward contact, I landed right in front of her and dashed between her legs. Ms. Cheerilee had no time to react before the boomerang struck her across the chest, pinning her to the chalkboard behind her and knocking it off the wall. CRASH!

And just like that, it was over, Ms. Cheerilee lay on the floor moaning. I removed the glasses and necklace and untied the bun in her mane. Her rosy hair fell down the sides of her head.

"Ugh, where am I?" She groaned as the brightness slowly returned to her color. Before she could get an answer she disappeared with a pop and was replaced by a familiar mirror.

"Tsk tsk tsk, such poor behavior. Discord said with a hint of disappointment. "What am I going to do with you? You insist on spoiling my plans. You refuse to take your deserved punishment. I suppose I could just simply leave you there all alone? But where would the fun be in that?"

"Enough games Discord!" I said. "What have you done with Ms. Cheerilee and my classmates?"

"I'm not seeing any improvement in the attitude department. But if you must know, I have them right here." He raised a deck of cards and with a snap of his claw levitated several of them to reveal the images of my class. "I'm keeping them close to my chest for when I need them." He twirled his talon circling the cards above his head.

"Let them go!" I demanded.

"Oh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Discord let out a hearty chuckle. "Oh, you are amusing if not a pain in my neck. Very well, I will give you one last chance to play. If you win, I'll give them back, if not...well, I haven't decided on that yet."

"How do I know you won't make up an excuse to disqualify me like last time?" I asked. Discord smiled a devious grin.

"You don't, but you don't really have a choice. Since you've been away, I've been keeping very busy. He spun his claw in a circle making a swirl in the reflection. The faces of Applejack and her friends appeared, but something was very wrong.

Applejack, my big sister who was so known for her honesty that she bore the element of it was blatantly lying with every sentence she spoke. Pinkie Pie's normal cheerful demeanor was replaced by sheer grouchiness. Rarity was selfishly hoarding a large boulder. Fluttershy was verbally belittling her friends. Twilight the only one seeming unaffected was trying desperately to keep order. As for Rainbow Dash, she was nowhere to be seen.

"What have you done to them?" I hissed through my gritted teeth as Discord reappeared.

"I simply invited them to play a game for the Elements of Harmony." He said. "And just like you, they couldn't seem to follow the rules. I might be persuaded to change them back if you agree to play one more game with me."

I knew he was full of it, but I also knew if I refused there was a good chance I might be stuck here forever. I would just have to stay on guard for his tricks.

"Alright, Discord, I'm gonna hold you to that," I said.

The Draconequus smiled a fanged grin. "Splendid, "I'll be waiting for you in Ponyville. Don't keep me waiting too long." With a flash of light, he vanished leaving the mirror behind. With determination pushing against hesitation, I stepped through the mirror."Whooaah! And promptly fell face-first into something wet and chocolatey? I lifted my face to find I had landed face-first in a mud puddle. At least it looked like a mud puddle. I ran my tongue across my lips to make sure I was tasting what I thought it was. "What is this? Chocolate milk?" At that moment I noticed the sensation of raindrops hitting my back. I stood up and looked up to see the sky was filled with pink clouds pouring brown droplets of rain.

"Chocolate rain? "No doubt this was Discord's doing. I flew up to take a closer look. "That's strange," I reached out to touch it. "It feels solid? Some of the clouds stuck to the frog of my hoof. "Smells familiar." I tasted it with my tongue. "It's cotton candy!" Okay, this was Discord.

I looked down below to the sight of Canterlot Gardens, looking much worse for wear than I remembered. My stalwart eyes picked up the familiar twinkling of six familiar auras. "Applejack." They were coming from hoofprints in the ground. My sister and her friends had been there. I followed the tracks into the labyrinth. Something seemed off about them. Something about them had changed. The tracks continued into the maze going in separate directions, but the structure of the auras changed. They went from being two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns to six earth ponies. As I followed the trails further, I noticed they seemed to change even further once they reached certain points. The natural glow of their auras faded to darker shades. Only Twilight's hoofprints were unaltered. Further evidence including a rock-shaped hole in the wall and the trench made by somepony pushing a heavy rock along confirmed my theory. This is where Discord corrupted my sister and her friends. Which meant all of Equestria was in danger. I immediately set off for Ponyville determined more than ever to end this madness.

---

To say things were out of control in Ponyville would not have done the term justice. The sight before me more resembled something out of a Lewis Carousel novel. The sky was covered with cotton candy clouds. The rolling green hills now resembled a patchwork quilt. Several buildings had been raised into the air on floating islands. The Town Hall was rotating around upside-down. Several dirt roads were coated in slippery soap. "Holy Celestia!" I quickly flew home passing a flock of flying pigs along the way. I arrived to find Big Macintosh digging in the fields. Dug-up corn stalks littered the grounds indicating this was not normal farm labor.

"Big Mac?" He poked his head out of the hole and looked at me. His tongue panting as he galloped over to me. "Oh no." I put two and two together just as he tackled me and pinned me to the ground. His large tongue slurped across my face.
"Ugh gross, cut it out, Mac!"

"Woof woof!" He barked.

"I can't believe it, my big brother is a dog." I needed to get him off me before he decided he wanted a walk. But how? I looked up a nearby tree to see a group of squirrels playing poker. A sly smile crossed my face.

"Mac squirrel!" Immediately his head shot up as he looked around for the aforementioned rodents. "In the tree over there go get 'em, boy." He jumped off me and galloped for the tree. "My suit is going to need a wash after this." I mulled as I burned the hoofprints off my chest emblem with my heat vision. "I need to find Granny Smith."

"BAM!"

"Hello, my baby Hello my honey Hello my ragtime pal."

"Send me a kiss by wire, Baby my heart's on fire!"

"If you refuse me honey you'll lose me then you'll be left alone."

"So baby telephone and tell me I'm you're own!"

I stood there, legs frozen, eyes wide with disbelief as my Grandmother continued to dance and sing accompanied by an unseen ragtime piano. My left eye began to twitch uncontrollably. The outhouse door flew open as Winona stepped out on two legs carrying a newspaper in her foreleg.

"Ah'd give it a couple of minutes to air out before going in there." She said waving her paw in front of her nose as she walked by me.

I just stood there laughing uncomfortably. "Well, I've got an appointment with Discord to keep and I wouldn't want to keep him waiting."

---

As I flew over Ponyville, things only got stranger and stranger. I saw packs of long-legged bunnies stampeding to and fro. I saw a herd of buffalo in pink tutus dancing. Ponies were walking upside-down, and fleets of pies were floating in mid-air. At one point I narrowly avoided a mid-air collision with a purple earth mare in a beanie copter hat. Her eyes swirled mindlessly as she ran her hoof and down her lips.

"Alright, Discord where are you?"

"Right here." His voice said seemingly from nowhere. Suddenly an oversized pencil eraser appeared behind me and began erasing my tail. My eyes widened with horror as I quickly put on speed to escape.

SMACK! Only to run smack dab into the face of a hundred-story stop sign. As I peeled my face off of the surface, I began to lose the feeling of sensation in my tail. I looked behind and gasped in horror as I saw it and my tail being quickly erased. I tried willing myself to fly away, but my body was rapidly becoming more and more drained. I could only watch as my hindquarters were reduced to eraser shavings, followed by barrel and forelegs until I was nothing more than a disembodied face.

*POP* Discord appeared before me dressed as a traffic cop. "Hey kid can't you read yet? The sign says stop and that means you. As if to accentuate his point further, the pencil wrote it down on the sign and tapped it with its head.

"What have done to me?" I shouted demanding an explanation.

"Ah, yes your body," Discord said nonchalantly with a snap of his claw. The pencil turned and began drawing up a storm of graphite dust.

*Cough cough cough,* When the dust was clear, I didn't quite feel like my usual self.

"Like it? I think it's some of my best work." Discord held up a mirror in front of me. I screamed.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" My face was surrounded by purple flower petals. My body was teal and covered with green and red dots. My hooves had been replaced by oversized green flippers. And my tail was a flag with a screw and a baseball on it.

"Hmm, you're right, wrong shade of teal." The draconequus said before disappearing with a snap of his fingers.

"Hey! Get back here and fix me right now!" I demanded indignantly. The pencil turned over and erased me once more. "Not like that, like..." I was cut off as the pencil erased my mouth. It was starting to dawn on me that maybe just maybe this time, I was just a bit out of my league. No, no I wasn't going to give up. My friends and family, heck everypony in Equestria were counting on me at this moment. The pencil flipped over and I could feel my body returning to me. Once again, however, it felt different. I looked in the mirror and saw a white face staring back with sunken eyes through a round face with chubby cheeks and a double chin. Attached to its blimp-shaped barrel were four chunky legs with stubby hooves at the end.

"Great Kolton!" I exclaimed. "I've become a super fatso!" At that instant, the force of gravity caught up with me and I plunged to the ground like a meteorite.

CRASH! The impact sent shockwaves that rippled through the ground knocking over cardboard cutouts that had once been buildings and sending ponies bouncing across the ground like a trampoline.

*Pop* Discord appeared once again. "Well, you certainly let yourself go while I was gone." He said prodding my rotund barrel with his claw. Luckily I have just the weight loss plan you need. *Pop* He conjured up a can that read Quik-loss and shook it vigorously.

"If you think I'm drinking that, then you're sadly..." Another snap of his fingers cut me off as he summoned inside my muzzle which forced my jaws apart.

"Fire in the hole," He said as he pulled the tab off and shoved it in like it was a bundle of TNT. I tried desperately not to swallow, but he simply raised his head with his magic and poured it down. As it poured down my throat and into my stomach, I felt a familiar sensation building up.

"BURRRRRRRRRRRRRR......RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR......RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR...URP!"

I could feel my barrel deflating like a balloon. As if the excess fat in my body had been magically turned into gas. My excess cheeks and chin melted away as my belch went on. Before long my hooves could touch the ground. Of course, knowing Discord, I wasn't too surprised when everything around me suddenly started becoming larger. Houses, streetlights, trees, the mirror, and Discord himself seemed to stretch higher and higher. A grin of triumph on his muzzle as his head rose up and up and up. Eventually, even the blades of grass grew to resemble enormous stalks.

"Pee-yew! That could peel the paint off the sky." The Ursa-sized Draconequss said wafting his paw in front of his now. "Still you can't argue with the results."

With a snap of his claw, a scale materialized beneath me. "Let's see," The clock on the top barely jerked to one notch. "Hmm...says here you've lost 99.97% of your body weight which leaves you with about .03% left. The machine popped out a slip of paper which Discord promptly snatched up. "Hmm your fortune says not to make mountains out of molehills, although at your size there really isn't much of a difference is there? OH HO HO HO HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

I'd had enough, small or not, I wasn't going to let Discord toy with me any longer. I flared up my coma and launched myself straight at his oversized smug face. Facing giants was nothing new to me. Unfortunately in my anger, I forgot one little detail. Discord wasn't giant. I was small and my powers had shrunk proportionately with me.

"Oh look a breezie." Discord exclaimed with excitement as he pursed his lips together and blew.

FWHOOOSH!! In an instant I was thrown backward by his hurricane-force breath. My coma flickered out as I was flung backward. With a *pop* a strip of flypaper appeared behind me, and before I could come out of my dive, I was stuck to it.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, come into my parlor said the Flyder to the Comet," Discord said. However, his voice was no longer deafening. My ears twitched at the sound of buzzing wings. I looked up to see the eight-legged form of a brown and grey flyder with four yellow and red eyes. "Mmm, I could just eat you up."

"Oh no," A look of horror crossed my face as Discord snapped his mandibles and flew toward me. Summoning all my strength I tried to tear myself away from the paper, but at this size it was futile. As I gazed into Flydercord's eyes I saw my reflection struggling from over a hundred different sides.

"So are you ready to play our final game?" He asked.

"Huh?" I said dumbstruck. "With a *Poof* I found myself standing back on the ground. Discord now back in his normal form was sitting on a mushroom.

"You didn't think I was actually going to eat you, did you? Good heavens no." He chuckled as he summoned a hookah and a bottle of bubble soap. "I just wanted to remind you who is in charge of these games." As he spoke the soap bottle poured its contents into the water pipe. The pipe then shook itself up and the mouthpiece floated over to him.

"What game was that? You just kept changing me with your magic. That's not a game!" He blew into the mouthpiece sending a stream of bubbles out of the hookah.

"Oh, so I can't use my powers against you but you can use your powers against me?" He crossed his arms and scoffed. "That hardly sounds fair to me."

I raised my eyebrow. "Let me guess, you're subtlety suggesting neither of us uses our powers for this last game."

He took another hit of bubbles. "Something like that," he said. "You win you get your friends and teacher back. However, if I win," He tapped his claw against his chin in thought. Then you get to see what it's like to be trapped in stone."

"Sounds reasonable, how do I know you'll play fair?" I asked.

"Hmm, that's a good question," He answered scratching his head. "The answer is you don't. You'll just have to take my word for it."

"Alright, but I'll be watching you," I said furrowing my brow. "So what game would you have us play?"

"Ah, now that is an interesting question, so many to choose from. "Chess, checkers, Go, pachisi, nine mare's morris?" As he listed them off the games appeared floating above his head. "But in the end after seeing how you handled my last games, I decided on something a bit more physical, more confrontational if you will. A game that truly embodies the spirit of one on one." He snapped his claw..."

*POP* In a flash of light, I was transported to the Elementary School playground. In front of stood the school's tetherball pole. I looked down to see my costume was gone replaced by a blue athletic top. On my forelegs were a pair of red sweatbands. And judging from the tight sensation around my forehead, I guessed I was wearing a headband as well.

"Well, what do you think?" I looked up to my right to see Discord standing next to me dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, sneakers, and sweatbands.

"We're playing tetherball?" I asked confused.

"You were expecting something else?" The Draconequus raised an eyebrow at me as he tossed me a bottle of water.

"Well, kinda yeah," I admitted.

"Oh ye of little faith," He scoffed. "Tetherball is the ultimate competitive sport. Just you, your opponent, the court, the crowd, and a ball on a tether. Simple but intense. Best out of ten wins. You win you get your teacher and classmates back, I win, you take up a new career as a pigeon toilet."

"No magic?" I asked.

He raised his lion's paw. "No magic, no powers, just the two of us the tetherball, and the scoreboard." I looked over where he was gesturing to see a scoreboard with Discord and Challenger on it.

"Heads or tails?" I turned back around to see a bit in his palm. "Winner gets first to serve and choice of clockwise or counterclockwise.

I pondered my decision for a moment. Both choices gave Discord a chance to turn the tables on me if he decided to go back on his word. "Tails," I answered.

"Alright," He tossed the coin into the air. It flipped in the air several times, but it happened so fast, I wasn't able to get an exact count. Which was unusual for me. Come to think of it, had it always been this quiet around here? The coin landed in Discord's talon as he flipped it over to his paw. Slowly he raised his talon away to reveal...

"Hmph tails it is," he said with a hint of disappointment. "What direction do you want to play? Clockwise or counterclockwise?"

"Counterclockwise was my answer." I reasoned that since Discord's nature was going against the natural order of things, forcing him to play clockwise would present a disadvantage. I just hoped I was right. We took our positions at our sides of the court. I picked up the ball in my hoof.

"Plaaay ball!" Discord said taking an aggressive stance. With a deep breath, I reared my foreleg back and spiked it.

Comments

[Comickook]

Again, very good job on the exchanges, characterizations, action and future chapter set-up in all the right places. Definitely appreciated the tricks Comet used to escape from the mind-altered and powered-up Cheerilee's detention (as well as the descriptions of the measures used to make those tricks necessary) before Comet ended up confronting Discord again and getting challenged to another game. Hopefully this will at least give Twilight more time to get the other Element Bearers back to normal.

VERY certainly looking forward to more of this.

[TheCommunistDog]

hehheheheheehheheheehheheehheehhehheheeh

[badninja]

Why do I think that this is the way Discord would play the game?

[PonyofEntropy]

Great update!

[Luckyfanisaac]

"What’s that?"

"Very well then,”(—— she acknowledged in a calm yet menacing tone. ——)”I see the usual disciplinary measures will not cut it with you.

The Draconequus smiled a fanged grin. "Splendid, ——)I'll be waiting for you in Ponyville.

"Chocolate rain? ——)No doubt this was Discord's doing.”(—— I flew up to take a closer look.

"It feels solid?”(—— Some of the clouds stuck to the frog of my hoof.

——)”Then you get to see what it's like to be trapped in stone."

"Ah, now that is an interesting question, so many to choose from. ——)Chess, checkers, Go, pachisi, nine mare's morris?"