The Fugitive Draconequus

by Ironskull

Polka Face

I awake with a start, my senses alerting me to a disturbance. Instantly I am wide awake and scanning the area for the source of the disturbance.

Oh. It's only Twilight coming into the room.

This is the second time I have found myself spending a night inside this library. Fortunately, this time, I am supposed to be here. I am laying on a mattress that Twilight apparently keeps around for overnight guests. She set it up in the main room of the library for me to crash on.

I haven't physically moved at all yet. I haven't even opened my eyes. Ergo, she has no way of knowing that I am now awake.

Hang on. I better check something.

I crack my eyes open just a tiny bit and look at myself.

Yep, still disguised.

Actually, last night, after I was certain that Twilight and Spike were asleep, I pulled out my magic potion and downed the rest of the whole thing all at one.

I didn't want to take any chances. Drinking the whole thing was the best way of ensuring that my disguise wouldn't accidently disappear at an inopportune moment. Particularly if I was asleep when it happens.

Twilight is slowly approaching me, clearly being careful to make as little noise as possible.

Is she coming to wake me up perhaps?

Well, if so, she has another thing coming.

I wait until Twilight stops right beside the mattress, and then, in the blink of an eye, I shoot up into sitting position, launching the blanket off of my top half in the process, and turn my head to stare wide eyed into Twilight's soul.

"Agh!" cries Twilight, stumbling backward from the sudden shock.

Got her.

After a moment, she speaks.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up like that! I was just coming to check on you! Well, actually, no, I was going to wake you up, but I was going to be gentle! I was trying to be as quiet as I could! You must be a rather light sleeper!"

I say nothing, but keep staring into her eyes, knowing that it will make her uncomfortable.

"Um, Rhombus?"

As I keep staring, I can't help but noting every detail in her eyes.

Especially the veins in them.

Unbidden, my subconscious creates a fractal in my mind's eye that fills in the unseen portions of the veins in her eyeballs, and suddenly I am looking at a tangled mess of grossness.

I immediately tear my gaze away and shake my head violently, trying to forget what just happened.

I really shouldn't have done that.

Normally, this part of my mind is extremely helpful. For instance, whenever I summon objects that are actually complex beyond my understanding (which is usually organic matter), somehow my subconscious fills in the gaps of my knowledge for me. I don't know how it does it, and I don't really care to know either. The important thing is that it is usually very useful.

Of course, sometimes it can also be annoying or unpleasant. The thing that just now happened being a perfect example of why.

"You startled me," I lie, cleverly covering up my stupidity.

"Well, you did just now wake up," answered Twilight. "It's perfectly reasonable to be confused for a bit."

"I'm fine. In fact, I'm excellent! Ready to take on the day! Um, please tell me that you have something to do that doesn't involve interrogating me for hours on end?"

Twilight spent the entire evening questioning me about the exact details of how my ability to sense magic works. I answered 'I don't know' to the vast majority of her questions, much to her disappointment.

Much of the time, I wasn't even lying. I don't know how it works, it just does! It was actually a relief whenever Spike would interrupt her flow of questions with his own questions, or just to talk to me about something.

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about," answered Twilight. "We have already decided that locating and identifying this unicorn who is helping Discord should be our top priority given the current circumstances."

"So what are we supposed to do, wander all over Equestria hoping that I can spot their magic? That sounds like way too much work!"

"I agree. It would be highly inefficient. However, we do know at least two things about this pony: They are very highly educated in magic, and they have a very large amount of power to put that knowledge to use. The magic that this pony performed on Discord's behalf was nothing short of incredible. In fact, the only pony who lives in Ponyville who is capable of that much magic is myself!

"Now, since we can clearly rule me out as a suspect, that means that they must not live in Ponyville. It would also be reasonable to assume that the pony either at one point or another attended Celestia's school in Canterlot, since it is simply the only place in Equestria where one can receive that kind of training, or the pony was taught by somepony who attended the school."

"So, what are you proposing? That we go and find every living pony who has ever passed through that school and check to see if they are who we are after?"

"Actually, you are partially correct," answered Twilight. "Of all of the ponies to ever pass through that school, only a tiny portion ever reach the level of power and skill that the mysterious unicorn has. Whoever it is, they clearly possess the ability to not only teleport themselves, but teleport others as well. Not only this, but they also somehow managed to summon a ton of material to create into giant chess pieces. I would be willing to bet that whoever it is specializes in conjuration, so that might help narrow down the list further. All things considered, I should be able to list every possible suspect in just one list!"

"But you don't know everyone who has been to that school. You'll have to actually go there to find out."

"Yes, exactly."

"You're seriously telling me that you want to drag me to Canterlot and help you filter through a giant list of names? I would rather die!"

"Calm down! I didn't say that you had to go!"

"Oh, thank- goodness... Alright then, but what am I supposed to do? Sit on my rear until you get back?"

"Actually, I was thinking that you should patrol around Ponyville, and keep an eye out for trouble."

"I have a feeling that Discord is going to leave us alone for a while. Do I really have to?"

"We can't just drop our guard because ‘you have a feeling’," Twilight answers back in a slightly lecturing tone.

"Alright, fine, but you do know that I have no idea where anything is in this town?"

"I already thought of that!" answers Twilight happily. "I already asked one of my friends to accompany you. You've even met them already, although the meeting was brief."

"Rarity?" I say, bemused. If I have to spend the day with that mare, this is going to be one dull, dull day.

"Nope! Pinkie Pie!"

Oh, really? Now I'm intrigued! Spending the day with the one element that I actually approve of? This could make for a very interesting day...

Actually, I suppose the element of magic isn't so bad. Both the pony and the actual element, I mean. After all, I use magic myself. It’s not quite the same, but it’s close enough.

"I suppose that could work," I answer Twilight.

"So when is she supposed to show up?"

Twilight looked over to a clock on the wall.

"At eight o'clock. That's about thirty minutes from now. Which reminds me, we need to hurry to catch the train! The sooner we get to Canterlot, the more time I'll have to find our suspects."

"We?"

"I meant Spike and I. I'm going to take him with me. He can't stay here all by himself after all."

Suddenly, I say something that I immediately regret.

"I could keep an eye on him, if you need me to."

WHY DID I JUST SAY THAT!

"That's okay, I don't mind spending time with him, even if we are going to be working. In fact, I can work faster with him helping me. And, if nothing else, I already promised him we would grab donuts."

"Alright then, that sounds all fine and dandy! You should be getting along then!"

"Yeah, you're right. Oh, and by the way, if anything bad does happen, Pinkie Pie will help you figure out how to deal with it. She is more capable than she might appear."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Right..." said Twilight slowly. "I'm going to fetch Spike, and then we will be on our way."

Twilight disappeared upstairs, and then shortly came back with the diminutive dragon following her.

"Hey Rhombus," said Spike as he saw me. "And, uh, goodbye too, I suppose."

"Be careful," said Twilight to me.

"Relax," I assure her. "Nothing bad is going to happen."

"Let's hope not. Goodbye."

And then Twilight opened the front door, and they left.

And now, here I am, all alone.

I take a quick glance at the clock. Still twenty-seven minutes to wait.

There's no way I'm going to sit still for that long.

I suddenly make a mad dash up the stairs, cackling manically, and try the door to Twilight's room. It's unlocked.

I poke my head in and I envision what a terrifically chaotic mess I could-

No, I can't do that. Not only can I not blow my cover, but I already have decided to stop causing trouble until the heat on me dies down.

Still, that won't stop me from rummaging through her drawers!

I fling one drawer open and inside I discover-

Socks.

Rows and rows of excessively organized and tidy socks.

A few pairs are solid purple. They're exactly the same shade as her coat. Why? What's the point of wearing them if nopony can tell that you are in fact wearing them!

Others are pitch black with star constellations on them. There are blue ones with stripes. There is even a pair that is white with nerdy math written all down the sides.

And here is a group of fourteen pairs of socks that seem to all go together. There are two pairs for each different color of the rainbow, including indigo.

Trying carefully to not pull the socks apart from one another, as I am certain I would never be able to put them back to the way that they were, I manage to catch a glimpse of some writing in the interior of one of the red sock bundles.

'Sunday'.

Are you serious...?

Yep, the orange ones have 'Monday' written on them.

She has a different pair of socks for each day of the week.

I've finally had enough of snooping through the sock drawer. I put the last pair back where I found it. The drawer isn't as neat as it was before, but that can't be helped. Hopefully, Twilight won't question it too much.

I just stand back and silently contemplate what I have discovered.

I don't even know what to think at this point. I'm pretty sure that teasing Twilight about her sock collection wouldn't even achieve anything. Somehow, I'm pretty sure she wouldn't even be embarrassed.

I feel like I should be repulsed by the feminity that I have just encountered, but that is not the case either. After all, they belong to a female, not to me. Just as it should be.

I don't even feel the usual rush of glee from digging around in somepony else's stuff.

The only thing I feel right now is confusion.

...

Eventually, I decide that I need to stop standing here like an idiot and actually do something.

I look around again and see an end table next to Twilight's bed. There's a book on top of it, but I don't bother reading the title. The end table has a drawer in it, and I'm far more interested in what she keeps out of sight.

I pull it open.

I feel a little disappointed.

The drawer is almost completely empty. All there is is a roll of clear masking tape.

I start to close the drawer again, but at the last minute, I fling it wide open again.

I snatch the tape and then slam the drawer shut.

And then I rush out the door. As though I might be caught.

Which is ridiculous. But, still, I don't care, it's fun to pretend.

I hurry to the front door of the library.

I give the door a quick look over and notice that, as I had hoped, the frame is not flush with the door itself. The frame is this sort of bulging round wood thing all around the door.

I start snickering as I pull free a ribbon of tape and attach the free end to one side of the door frame, and then pull the tape across to the opposite end, and then cutting it.

And I do it again.

And again and again and again.

Soon enough, the doorway is completely enveloped in a sheet of transparent tape.

I look around for something to get behind and quickly single out a particular arm chair as suitable. I rotate it so that it is facing toward the door, and then jump behind it, poking my head out just a little to watch.

I turn back to the clock, curious about how long I'll have to wait.

It's five minutes 'til eight.

"Ughhh..." I groan to myself, annoyed at such a long delay.

Still, I'm not going to move. I want to be right here when Pinkie comes through that door.

...

...

Suddenly, I see through the window the tell-tale sign of a pink blur shooting toward the library, moving at such a speed that I almost don't have time to realize what's happening.

The door flies open at the speed of light, opening into the tape, but somehow the tape doesn't break. Instead, it stretches. For just a moment, I see the image of Pinkie standing in the doorway, trying to force the door open with one hoof while bracing against the wall of the library with another, and her two back legs are bracing against the ground outside, leaning forward. She looks very confused.

An instant later, the door slams shut as the tape rubber-bands it back into its closed state. I see Pinkie's airborne form the window, flying rear-first away from the library.

I burst out laughing and run to the door and pull on the edges of the tape. It stubbornly holds for a bit, but I quickly pull it free and, fortunately, the whole sheet of tape comes off of the door all at once. I just wad the sheet up into a tape ball and toss it aside before walking outside.

Pinkie is back on her hooves, of course.

"Wow, that was a great prank Rhombus!" she cries cheerfully.

I return a genuine smile.

See, now HERE is a mare who knows how to handle a bit of fun!

"Looks like your Pinkie sense couldn't save you from that one, could it?" I remark.

"Actually, it did go off right before I opened the door, but I was moving too fast and I couldn't stop myself!"

"Well, I guess now I know how to circumvent your Pinkie sense now, huh?"

She let out a laugh. "Don't let Discord hear you say that!"

Oh, he already knows.

"Anyway," she continues, "I brought you breakfast, since Twilight explained that she had to go before preparing you any!"

She produces a plate with a protective dome over it from the depths of her mane, and then lifts the dome up, revealing a stack of perfectly good pancakes soaked in syrup and butter. Ordinarily, my little stunt would have ruined the delicious looking dish, but considering who it was who was carrying it, I can't say that I'm surprised that it survived.

"Huh. Nifty," I say to her, reaching out to receive my breakfast, which she hoofs over with a smile.

"It would be pretty weird if I had already eaten and I was waiting around waiting for you to eat," Pinkie continued, "so I put off breakfast too!"

She produced yet another plate of pancakes from her impossible mane.

I focus on her mane in search of any spatial expansion spells or similar, but find nothing of the sort. All that I can sense is a relatively small amount of Pinkie's special personalized brand of magic. But nothing major.

Curious. However, unlike a certain unicorn, I don't particularly care whether I understand the unknown. It's nothing to get my beard in a knot over.

I now find myself seated at Twilight's dining table, with Pinkie Pie sitting on the opposite side from me, eating away. It doesn't take long for her to start running her mouth, though.

"So, Twilight told me about how you're on a super-secret spy mission looking for signs of Discord!"

"You could say that," I answer neutrally.

"This. Is going. To be. Awesome!" she exclaims. "I just got some ninja gear that I've been wanting to try out! We should-"

"Pinkie, that's a little excessive," I say back to her. "We don't need to stay out of sight, we just need to be there if something bad happens."

"But there's no reason not to be ninjas, right?" she says, not discouraged in the least. "It will be fun!"

"I've tried the sneaking around thing," I answer. "It's not something I particularly enjoy. I'm all for making this fun, but how about a different idea instead?" Yes, I am fully aware of how thick the irony here is.

"Like what?" she asks cheerfully.

"I don't know." I answer.

What do ponies like to do for fun anyway? Pretty much all of the forms of entertainment that I know involve causing chaos that would currently cause me more problems than it's worth. Is there anything I can do with a pony that is actually fun for the both of us?

I can't think of anything...

Although, if it is possible, Pinkie Pie is admittedly my best shot for it.

Suddenly, a random thought floats through my head.

I grin at Pinkie.

"Hey," I say to her to grab her attention, which she gives instantly. "This doesn't have anything to do with ideas for what to do today, but I remembered it when you mentioned your ninja gear. Have you ever been to a ninja parade?"

Pinkie gives of an enormous gasp. "A! Ninja! Parade!? That has to be the most fantabulous thing I have ever heard! Why hasn't anypony ever told me about this before?"

"Well, that would be because not many ponies actually know," I explain, grinning at how easy it is to trick this gullible pink mare. "The ninjas parade all over the entire town without ever being seen even once, by anypony! Most ponies don't even realize that it's happening!"

"Whoa! A whole group of ninjas! How many?"

"Dozens."

"This is the greatest thing ever! I had no idea! I just have to attend this parade! Do you know when and where the next parade is?"

"Oh, sure. As a matter of fact, the next one is tomorrow, right here in Ponyville!"

"That has to be one of the most stupendously convenient coincidences in the history of history!" Pinkie screams. "I'm so going to be there!"

I have to wonder if she even fully realizes what she is getting so excited over...

"But anyway, that's tomorrow, and we have a job to do today, so let's just focus on the present, shall we?"

Pinkie's face suddenly morphs into one of horror, to my utter confusion.

"But I don't have a present for you!" she wails. "Was I supposed to bring you a present? Twilight said that you didn't need a party since I've technically already met you before, so I didn't get you a pre-"

"Not a present!" I shout. "The present! As in, this moment in time! Let's just focus on what is happening right now, okay!"

"OOOOOoooooohhhhhh... Okay! So, what fun thing are we going to do?"

"I can't think of anything,” I repeat.

"Hoofball?"

"Nope."

"Baking?"

"We can't do that while keeping an eye on the town."

Suddenly, I wonder why I shot this idea down. Not that I'm any good at baking, but I happen to know that Pinkie Pie probably made those cakes that my minions stole for us that tasted so impossibly good. I would love to know how she did it. I know perfectly well that the town doesn't need watching, so why would I say no?

I guess if Twilight learns that we spent our whole day indoors though, she wouldn't be happy. And I would rather keep her on my good side. Oh well.

"Oh yeah," says Pinkie. "Um, marching band?"

"... Hmmm," I muse, intrigued.

Now that Pinkie mentions it, that could be a very excellent idea indeed. There are precious few things that followers of the philosophies of harmony and disharmony can agree on, but one of those things is that we both tend to like music.

"That could work, actually," I tell Pinkie. "But there is one problem. I don't have any musical instruments. I hope you have enough for both of us."

"Oh boy, do I!" exclaims Pinkie. "Ever since that nasty invasion of parasprites, I've started collecting instruments in cases it ever happens again, and I don't want to have to run all over ponyville asking to borrow them from my friends!"

"You staved off a parasprite infestation with music? Fascinating!" I say sincerely.

"Well, I see that you've finished your breakfast," remarks Pinkie. "You're a pretty fast eater, just like me! So, shall we go to Sugar Cube Corner so I can show you what our options are?"

"I still can’t believe you live in a sweets shop,” I remark. Not that it doesn't sound like a fantastic idea. If I were a pony, something like that sounds like it would be heaven. I just can't believe that they would actually permit this mare to be in the vicinity of that much sugar all the time.

"Yep! Mr. and Mrs. Cake own the place, but they let me stay in the extra room!"

"Huh. Well, sounds good to me!" I answer. "Lead onward!"

"Alright!" she exclaims, literally bouncing off of her seat. "This is going to be fun!"

"Of course it will be, you'll have me with you."

"That's the spirit!" she answers back encouragingly.

I have to resist the urge to really laugh at this. Pinkie Pie obviously has no way of knowing, but that last statement of hers is an incredibly ironic and coincidental play on words.

Heh, the spirit of chaos, that is.

---

"Tada!" Pinkie declares, throwing open a closet in her excessively pink room.

What I see inside is enough to at least raise my eyebrows in surprise. Inside, there is a drum kit, trumpet, trombone, tuba, piano accordion, a set of harmonicas, a harp, clarinet, flute, three saxophones (tenor, alto, and bass), a french horn, bag pipes, a violin, a cello, and even a zither.

I give Pinkie a look of slight shock.

"You can play all of these?"

"Yep! All of this and more! I've been slowly building up my collection with my extra spending money from working here at the bakery!"

"Right. Slowly."

"Yeah. I figured that I should start with the basic instruments first, you know? I would have a piano too, but those are kind of large, so I don't own one of those. But I also can play timpani, oboe, bassoon, piccolo, recorder, ocarina, banjo, triangle, and chimes. Oh yeah, and I can whistle and sing!"

In fact, I can honestly say that I too can play every single one of these instruments, but that is only because of my natural talent along with a boundless lifetime of study. But Pinkie Pie clearly should not have had enough time to master such a ludicrously large assortment of instruments. Which means that there is only one explanation.

Pinkie Pie, like myself, is a musical genius.

"Impressive," I admit to her aloud, although I am careful to not lay it on too thick. "You obviously know your instruments. But... Do you know your music?"

"You bet I do! I have hundreds of songs of all genres and for all instruments, but I already memorized them all."

"Oh really?" I answer her in a doubting tone. Although, to be honest, I actually don't doubt her in the slightest. I look around in the closet, searching for the perfect instrument. Something less... conventional.

"Tell me..." I say as I reach out and grab the accordion. I pull the instrument into position in front of me. "Do you know how to... polka?"

I immediately begin playing fast paced music.

Pinkie almost instantly starts bobbing up and down in time with the rapid beat.

"Holy Guacamole! You play polka?"

"You're looking at a master, my dear!"

"Oh! I know just what this needs!"

Pinkie rushes past me and into the closet and I stop playing in order to watch her. She snatches up the tuba and quickly pulls puts it around her neck.

"Don't stop!" she says. "Keep doing what you were doing!"

And so I do. And then she begins blowing into her own instrument, providing a fantastic background role in the improvised duet.

Suddenly, the door opens and a head pokes through, causing us to cease our musical genius.

"Oh!" says Pinkie. "Hello Mrs. Cake!"

"What are you up to in here?" the new mare asks. "I thought you were taking a day off to help Miss Twilight Sparkle with something important!"

"Oh, I am!" said Pinkie. "This is part of it! Don't worry, we won't be here for long!"

Mrs. Cake turns her head to look at me.

"I see that you have a guest. I'm Mrs. Cake. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Um... I'm Rhombus."

"A pleasure, Rhombus. I can see that you two are busy, however. I'll leave you to it. Just... don't take too long."

"You've got it Mrs. Cake!" exclaimed Pinkie.

The mare slowly shut the door.

"We need to keep our promise to Mrs. Cake, so let’s figure out what we’re going to do," says Pinkie Pie. "So, what do you think? Wanna have a marching polka party?

"This sounds like a most excellent idea," I agree, grinning.

"Then we should make sure that we're on the same page!" she responds. And then she laughs. "Same page, get it?"

She suddenly grabs a case inside the closet and pulls the latches open, which cause the contents to explode out from being overstuffed into it. And now there are music books everywhere.

"Here we are!" cries Pinkie, almost instantly locating the books she wants. Specifically, the polka ones.

"So, which of these do you want to do?"

"Eh, let's just do all of them."

Pinkie gasps. "All of them! Do you have any idea how long that will take?"

"Er..." I’m unsure how to answer now. Did I just upset her?

"This is going to be so much fun!" she screams in glee. "Here!" she continues, sliding the books across the floor to me. "You can use these! I don't need them."

I pick up the books and look through them. "Ha! You think you're the only one who can memorize this stuff? I don't need these books either!"

"Cool! That's pretty fortunate since attaching a mounted lyre to an accordion is pretty hard. Oh, and by lyre, I mean a music stand, not the stringed instrument that looks kind of like a harp. That would be silly."

I don't answer her. I'm too busy quickly flipping through the pages making sure that I can remember the music.

Suddenly, I hear a weird buzzing noise right in my ear.

I snap my head to look at Pinkie Pie, who is holding the mouthpiece of her tuba up to her lips and giving me a silly smile.

She buzzes into the mouthpiece again, causing me to lean away from her slightly.

"Hey, Pinkie, do you have another tuba sized mouthpiece?" I ask.

"Sure! I have another one in just in case! Here you go!"

She produces the requested mouthpiece in her hoof without even needing to move anywhere to retrieve it.

I take it from her and immediately start buzzing in her ears.

This causes her to burst out into giggles and do it to me some more.

Which naturally causes me to do it to her some more, accompanied by only partially suppressed snickers.

And we just keep on doing it and doing it.

What has happened to my life that I find myself in this situation? I mentally ask myself. How in Equestria did I wind up next to this mare making borderline obscene noises at each other like two immature foals?

Suddenly, Pinkie pops her mouthpiece back into her tuba, and then points the bell of the instrument at my head before blowing into it.

She doesn't make the noise very loud, but my honor has been challenged all the same.

"Oh yeah?" I say to her. "Well, if that's the way it's going to be..."

Without finishing my sentence, I walk back into her closet again and open up the trombone case. I quickly assemble the lengthy instrument, and then point it at the pink mare, and blow into it.

A sound that perfectly imitates the pitch of the sound from her tuba emerges from the trombone.

Pinkie bursts out laughing. "Pedal B flat! I wasn't expecting that! Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Well, if you think that was something, let me see the tuba for a second."

She obliges without question, although she removes her mouthpiece first. I pull it over my head and then insert the mouthpiece that she previously gave me, and then buzz into it.

A note emerges that is so outrageously low in pitch that I can actually feel the floor vibrate.

A perfect pedal F, with a tuba.

"Whoa..." says Pinkie. "That made me feel funny."

Suddenly, I sense that somepony is approaching Pinkie's door again. It opens and Mrs. Cake pokes her head inside the room once again.

"Ah... are you two quite done yet? Whatever you just did caused some of the dishes to slide across their tables."

"Sorry Mrs. Cake! We'll be going now!" says Pinkie quickly.

"Well... alright then. I'll see you this evening, I suppose?"

"Yepperoni! Rhombus, do you want the accordion or the tuba?"

"Huh? Oh. I'll take the accordion."

---

Soon enough, Pinkie and myself have found ourselves standing at an intersection of streets outside.

"Ready when you are, Pinks," I declare.

"Let's get this party started! A-one! A-two! A-one-two-three!"

We launch into our first number of the day and immediately draw the attention of everypony around us. Strangely, we did not already have their attention from simply standing here with these instruments. I suppose the ponies in this town are used to oddities though. Most of them are watching us with looks of surprise or confusion.

Pinkie leads the way as she begins dancing through the street, never missing a beat. I follow her example.

To my delight, most of the ponies around us are beginning to follow after us, their curiosity demanding that they witness what is to become of this bizarre spectacle.

As we dance and play through the town, we're picking up more and more followers.

They're not dancing. Why are they not dancing?

"Come now, everypony!" I cry out to our following crowd. "Shake those hooves! Do you not know how to polka?"

The ponies look at each other, wearing expressions of uncertainty.

I let out a fake gasp, loud enough to be heard over the music. "You don't? Well, I cannot allow this to go corrected! Rejoice, everypony, and prepare to be educated to dance the polka!"

---

"Hey Rhombus, I'm hungry," says Pinkie after our latest song ends.

We stop in our tracks.

"Hmm. Now that you mention it, I could eat something myself. How much longer until lunch time?"

"It's past noon," answers Pinkie, requiring no clock.

"What? Have we really been going for that long?" I ask, astonished.

"Yep! Time really does fly when you're having a good time, right?"

The opposite is true when you're trapped in a statue, I'm afraid.

"I guess that explains why so many of the ponies following us have left," I muse. "These ponies are surprisingly fast learners, but they must be tired from all of that dancing."

"Don't worry about that, all of the colts and fillies will be getting out of school before too long, and then we'll have a whole new batch of ponies to dance with! Unless you're getting tired too?"

"Of course not!" I answer. "I could do this all day!"

"Well, not before we have lunch."

"You want to swap instruments after?" I suggest.

"You got it!"

Pinkie Pie turns to look at the remaining group of ponies who are watching us expectantly.

"We're going to take a quick lunch break!" she calls to them. "But we'll be back in just a few minutes!"

---

As Pinkie and I are performing our latest masterpiece, I am suddenly surprised to notice that Twilight is suddenly lingering beside the small crowd of ponies following after us. Spike is sitting comfortably on her back. I look over at Pinkie Pie, who I can see has also noticed her.

It wouldn't be fitting to interrupt the song, of course, so we keep on performing until we reach its conclusion. Twilight doesn't seem to mind, however. She patiently waits and follows.

She's not dancing, but I can't blame her. In all likelihood, she has no idea how to polka.

Finally, the song ends, and Pinkie Pie calls out, "Hey there Twi!"

Twilight breaks away from the group of ponies and walks forward to meet us.

"Hello you two," she says as she draws near. "I must say, when I came to find you, I certainly wasn't expecting to find you doing this! You look like you're having fun." She addressed this last sentence at me.

I shrug back at her. "I am having fun," I answer matter-of-factly.

"Well, I'm sorry I missed it," said Twilight. "But I did manage to compile a fairly short list of possible suspects."

She produces this list and holds it up in the air. It is rolled up, but she unrolls it before my eyes. It eventually reaches all the way to the ground before it stops.

For Twilight, this is indeed short.

"Hmm," I answer neutrally.

"So..." continues Twilight. "It's getting late. Just how long have you two been at this anyway?"

"Well, we started at about, oh, eight-thirty?" I say.

Twilight immediately becomes dumbstruck at this statement.

"You two have been dancing and playing polka through the streets of Ponyville for NINE HOURS STRAIGHT!?"

"Well," says Pinkie, unbothered by her friend's tone, "we did have a ten minute lunch break."

Comments

[Ironskull]

Sometimes my stories get delayed by a lack of inspiration. Well, inspiration just hit, and caused me to produce this madness.

For those of you who celebrate it, Happy Thanksgiving! And the rest of you, have a nice day as well!

[Julian the Dreamer]

Discord and Pinkie sure make a funny duo.

[batran]

7745359 Writers block?

[Ironskull]

7745857 That might be accurate, not sure. I know exactly what I want to happen, but sometimes I hold off on making it happen because I get a feeling that certain chapters would be much better if I let it refine in my head for a while first.

[khatre]

one thing .. math socks ... they are a thing that exists ... mind blown
another .. now I have the inexplicable need to go out and buy a zither ...

[batran]

7745930
Procrastination?

[Ironskull]

7746323 No definitely not. I like to stop to consider how to make a chapter be the best that it can be. This can result in delays, but that should be preferable to a lesser quality story.

[batran]

7746336 uhhh...

Cooking it?

[Iamsorry]

i was expecting him and pinkie to kiss XD

[Emperor]

Nah, Discord x Twilight shouldn't be a pairing, it should be Discord x Pinkie.

Somehow I get the feeling that Discord's antics are going to end up with the two sides stalemating, as he won't want to really flat-out cause harmful trouble to ponies he ends up making friends with, while the Element Bearers' hearts won't be in it either.

[Ironskull]

7844140 It is somewhat astounding, but I'm pretty sure that Discord x Twilight is more common than Discord x Pinkie. I think there's a reason for that. He can have heaps of fun being random and chaotic with Pinkie, but that is just having fun as friends. As far as a romantic relationship goes, opposites do indeed often attract, and so I believe it would be in Discord's case. After all, he would totally love having a significant other whom he can drive crazy. Pinkie Pie is the ONE pony that he would have a hard time doing that with.

As for your predictions, in a way, you are sort of right. Once you read the last chapter so far, you might get an idea of how it will wind up working out.

[Navydivea]

Dark and sinister Discord is fun but nothing is quite as funny as goof ball Discord. XD

[StarzGecko]

I love your writing of Discord. Just feels like Discord

[Bahamuttone]

Hm the

A perfect pedal F, with a tuba.

definitely flew over my head...

[Ironskull]

8126612 Just a bit of musician terminology. Pedal notes are notes that are especially hard to pull off, but if you can do it, the resulting sound is far lower in pitch than the instrument should normally be able to make. It is possible to do this with a tuba, and it's so low pitched that you can feel the world vibrate around you when anybody does it.

[kotor511]

This is the second time I have found myself spending a night inside this library. Fortunately, this time, I am supposed to be here. I am laying on a mattress that Twilight apparently keeps around for overnight guests. She set it up in the main room of the library for me to crash on.

As far as I'm aware, Twilight actually had a spare bed for guests. Rarity and AJ had slept in it during their sleepover after all.

[blastdragon]

9 months to late but I just read this chapter. And I want to guess who Twilight's main suspect is going to be. My guess is that all the arrow will point to herself. Cause what else would be scarier to find out that somehow your enemy's ally is....you. She will first suspect changelings but then realise that the mystery unicorn is very powerful.
And when she would look really inside herself she would realise it could be possible, either through threatening somepony else (or somedragon) or Discord uses his charms to convert Twilight to his side. And the scariest nightmares are when you realise that it could be true...

[wlam]

I feel like I should be repulsed by the feminism that I have just encountered

You mean femininity. Feminism is a political movement, femininity is the trait of being feminine. I guess this show has plenty of both, though.

[Ironskull]

8371633
Oh, hmm, I guess you're right. There's a mistake that has been around for quite a while. Glad you're enjoying the story.

[Avogadro]

Sorry to post a comment that has nothing to do with the story, but...

I just got an ad for a city council candidate for my city! A politician actually paid to advertise to bronies... I am so voting for this guy!

[Wildfiretiremile]

And here is a group of fourteen pairs of socks that seem to all go together. There are two pairs for each different color of the rainbow, including indigo.

Slightly turn some of the socks to mess with twilight