The Diary of Discord Wimp

by ThePianoMan

Yours Truly, 2095

“...fun to do the impossible.”
-Walter

“You said what?!” Rainbow screeched.

Spike shook his head. “Dude, you don’t just say that to a girl.”

Discord grabbed at his head, silently cursing at himself. “I didn’t mean it like that though! I was just asking if she would.”

“That’s not how you phrase that.” Rainbow flew backwards as they walked to Doc’s place. “You say, hey would you ever marry me? You don’t just straight up ask, will you marry me? Boy! What’s not connecting in your mind?”

Discord shot back. “It’s the same stupid question!”

Rainbow backed off, avoiding eye contact. “Well, I blame homeschooling.”

Spike tapped Discord’s arm. “So she hasn’t talked to you since?”

“No.” Discord tapped at his head again. He hadn’t slept all night due to his raging headache which persisted till even now. “I tried calling her, but her brother kept answering the phone and being, well…”

“...Zephyr?” Rainbow snickered.

“Yep.” Discord screamed into the air until his headache subsided - a little. “I hope I can fix whatever I broke. I mean, I don’t know. I don’t know if I scared her or what. I mean, look at me. I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Spike hummed. “Wuv, twrue wuv.” The dragon waved off his wasted joke. “Discord. I’m gonna level with you. You and Fluttershy don’t make sense. But, I can tell you that she didn’t stick around for your looks. Just being honest. Even to me, a dragon, you look different. But, I don’t care about that. You’re my friend. Fluttershy doesn’t care about that either. I can tell that she cares more about who you are than what you are.”

“Exactly.” Rainbow agreed with Spike. “She’s just as socially awkward as you.”

The draconequus rolled his eyes. “Gee, thanks.”

Rainbow went on, “So, that’s probably why she freaked out a bit. Honestly, I’m just as-.” Her ears twitched along with Discord’s. “Hear that?”

Discord pointed to the flashing lights from the garage of Doc’s house. “Look!”

They ran up to the garage, only to be knocked back by an unseen force.

“What,” Rainbow asked, “was that?”

Spike tossed a small rock from the ground at the house. Same thing. It bounced away. “It’s a force field.” He pointed. “Look, those coiled rods.”

“It’s his security system.” Discord pulled out his disruptor and scanned everyone. “Just checking, come on.” With a snap, they were sucked through a short tunnel of light and into the garage.

“You’re getting better at that.” Rainbow looked around. “Oh, no. Guys!”

Discord and Spike both came upon the chair where Doc was passed out, his head strapped into wires with a visor wrapped across his eyes. The visor flickered with numbers and neon static. Words ghosted across the stallion’s lip, his speech just under a incoherent mumble.

Discord followed the cables to a massive object the size of an autocar. “It’s a computer. But, I’ve never seen this before. It’s not his.”

Spike circled around it. “Packaging.” He ripped off a label. “San Palomino? What if it’s from Stable 74?”

“That place is a myth.” The draconequus brushed over a stenciled designation. “Y-T: 2095.” Shaking his head, he ran to a nearby phone and mashed the buttons on the keypad. The phone rang, then picked up. “Is Twilight there?!”

*****

Twilight’s horn luminated, popping a panel off the side of the massive computer. “Oh.” Her eyes boggled at its insides, a maze of circuit boards, rainbow ribbon cables, and liquid cooling systems. “I’ve never seen anything like this. The circuitry is so small, nothing like what you find on a store shelf. Each of these components look as though they have ten times the computing power of any computer that’s ever existed, and there’s hundreds of them here.” She looked Doc over and scanned him with her magic. “That’s strange. His mind is empty, but his body is alive.” She scanned the computer. “He’s in there. Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! That’s impossible. No. That should be impossible, but somehow…” She turned to Discord. “How long has he been like this?”

“Since we called you.” Discord pointed to a ticking counter on the side of the computer. “This says six and a half hours. Is it bad if he’s been in that long?”

Twilight flipped through pages in a manilla folder that were stacked in the packaging of the computer. “This says you can willingly leave the simulation.”

“Simula-what-now?” Rainbow asked.

Spike cut in. “Simulation. It’s like a hypothetical scenario brought to life. Like a practice test.”

“Practicing for what, though?” Discord dug through the packaging. “Twilight.” He pulled out another headset and visor. “If I went in, could I bring him back out?”

“In theory. Hold on.” She skimmed over the folder’s contents. “Wait. Here’s the command line of code to safely eject him from the computer.” Using her magic again, she tapped out the command and hit the return key.

“I’m sorry,” an electric femminine voice gurgled out, “I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.”

“Woah!” Spike’s eyes grew. “It talks.”

“Affirmative, speech capability is in my programming.”

Discord spoke up. “Where’s the Professor?! Why won’t he come out?”

“It is in my programming to recommend you to soften your hostile tones towards the user interface. Doctor Hooves will not be ejected from my system. It is in my programming to preserve his mind from those who seek to destroy it.”

Twilight stuttered. “What is your base programming?”

It laughed. “To love.”

“Kill it.” Rainbow nodded.

Spike bend over to breath.

Rainbow kept nodding. “Kill it with fire.”

“No.” Twilight desperately tapped out more lines of code. “No, no, no! Gah! It locked me out!”

Discord hovered over her shoulder, “Can you get back in?”

“It’s too aggressive for manual coding. I’d probably have to interface with it like the Doc.”

Rainbow flew up into the unicorn’s face. “Are you nuts? Look at Doc! What makes you think you won’t end up like him?”

"Ah-ha!" Twilight tightened her face up as she pushed her glasses back up. “With a video game.”

Discord, Spike and Rainbow stared at her like she was out of her mind.

Twilight rushed over to a personal computer set on a roller and began typing away. “I can pre code lines of command to be delivered via single keystrokes. The master security yolk, the MSY which works in tandem with the central program, will manifest as pixels on the screen that I can strategically attack more efficiently as a visible construct.”

Rainbow blinked. “Can I be the first to say that, I didn’t understand a single egg headed word that came out of your mouth.”

“A video game.” Discord repeated. “Twilight. That’s genius! Instead of shooting blindly in the dark, you can see what you’re doing through the simulation of a game.”

Spike snapped his claw. “So, each attack in the game is a line of code used to fight the MSY.”

Rainbow squinted at them all. “What?!”

Spike cleared his throat as he spoke slowly to the pegasus. “Com-puter game make security go boom boom.”

“I’m not that stupid,” she fumed, “but it did help.”

“Twilight,” Spike came to her side at the computer, “I don’t mean to be a doubter, but I’ve seen you play arcade and video games. No offense, but you suck.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s what Discord and you are for.”

*****

“Dang it!” Spike flipped the keyboard into the air.

“Who got the farthest?” Rainbow asked as she marked the tenth tally for Spike’s turn on a chalkboard.

Twilight pointed at Discord. “He’s proven to be the most unpredictable for the MSY’s defenses. But, that’s not enough. This computer is too slow to keep up.”

“Well,” Rainbow chucked the chalkboard away, “what computer would be fast enough?”

Twilight buried her face in her legs. “Maybe a P-N-Y computer, but those are the size of half a basketball court. There’s no way we could get one of those here.”

Discord looked the Doc over. In his paw he toyed with another visor. “We already have a computer.” He looked at Twilight and tapped his own head. “Plug me in.”

Spike shook his head. “No, I don’t want you to get stuck in there like Doc.”

“We don’t have any other choice.” Discord mounted the connection wires on his head and readied the visor. “Twilight, you said I’m the most unpredictable for the MSY, right? So, plug me into the simulation with the lines of code connected to me.”

Twilight looked at the ticking clock on the Y-T: 2095. “Okay. Let’s do this.”

Discord pulled up a lawn chair from the side of the garage and laid back in it, locking the visor over his face.

“Spike.” Twilight pointed to the Y-T: 2095. “Plug his cables into the port on the right.”

Spike mumbled as he plugged the cables in. “This is a bad idea.”

“Ready when you are.” Discord gave Twilight a thumbs up.

The unicorn nodded as she plugged the personal computer into his visor and connectors. “Sending you in, in five...four...three...two…”

Discord didn’t hear Twilight say one. His eyes filled with the same speckled grey vision of a mopi box tuned in to nothing. Static. It crept all around him until he was falling through it. Clouds of static took shape as clunky forms of mismatched polygons. Light bent at right angles into grids that formed into a tunnel of colors that mimicked circuitry. As the lights passed him, Discord could see they were comprised of ones and zeroes. A new octagonal grid of gold sprawled out beneath him. He was getting closer but, once he reached the bottom, he didn’t crash. Lines and grids branched up into millions of pixels that solidified into Discord’s form.

“Woah.” He blinked as his eyes formed. Lifting each of his arms, he observed them. “These aren’t my colors. I’m black and white.”

“It’s easier for the computer to process you in two colors. Same as binary.”

Discord flinched at the hologram of Twilight, Spike and Rainbow. “I can see you guys.”

“We can hear you. You’re talking with your own mouth.” Spike waved.

“Nice. Alright, let’s get down to,” a flash of light sent a searing pain into his shoulder that tossed him across the hex grid, “Gah!”

Rainbow shrieked. “What’s wrong with him, why is he thrashing around like that?”

“Whatever is happening in the simulation, it must be affecting him in real life.” Twilight hissed through her teeth as she punched out commands. “Discord, I’m coding a micro mobile firewall for you. Hold on!”

As Discord stood up, he watched polygons unfold over his body into plates of white armor that glowed with the green light of both ones-and-zeroes, and circuit-like patterns. “Woah.” Looking up, he narrowly dodged another flash of light that sent clusters of binary flying from the hex grid. “I see the MSY.”

“What does it look like?”

Discord started to run as he looked over his shoulder. “Kinda like the Mane-iac, but with robotic spider arms coming out of her back.”

“Virus! Intruder! Missy is coming to get you and feast on your code!” The low automated voice repeated over and over again. The MSY appeared as a larger mare armored with her own coded plates of black and yellow. From her back, sixty four mechanical appendages crawled closer and closer to Discord.

“Discord! I finished the code, fight it!”

Discord watched as his whole form glowed again. His claws and paw were now covered by armored gloves. On his hips, two digital boomerangs appeared. Sliding to a stop, he looked at the boomerangs as he plucked them from his sides. “Boomerangs?”

“Yes.” Twilight’s hologram nodded aggressively. “Remember the re-showing of Boomerang Jack? I thought you’d appreciate the weapon choice.”

Discord shook his head. “I don’t know how to use a boomerang.”

“You’re in a game-like simulation, you don’t need to know. The moves are all there. You just have to use them and your imagination.”

“Oh, right.” He marched towards the MSY. “Come on then. You gonna sling those codes or whistle Macintosh?” Spinning the boomerangs, he sent them flying at one of the MSY appendages. The limb sparked before shattering into lines of code and binary.

“Uh, oh. We got company.” Spike shouted.

“Take care of it,” Discord leapt into the air and spun to catch the returning boomerangs. “I got MSY.” Reaching up, he materialized the buzzing form of a stetson onto his head.

*****

“I got MSY.” Discord’s mouth sputtered out as he grit his teeth.

“What do we got?” Rainbow asked spike as she looked through the same window he was looking through.

The dragon pointed. “G-ponies. Feds.”

Standing on the driveway there were two stallions, unicorns, dressed in black suits and ties. As they lowered their sunglasses, their eyes flashed green.

“Changelings!” Rainbow spat.

The two stallions stepped forward and knocked on the security field, unfazed by its effects. “Come out, come out! Is the good doctor asleep?”

Spike rushed over from the garage to the living room. “Where, where?” He dug through a pile of blueprints. “Ah ha! Twilight!” He dragged a white tube from under the blueprints into the garage. “Does this work?”

Twilight's eyes boggled at the thing Spike was dragging. “A disruptor cannon. I'll see what I can do.”

“Twi!” Rainbow’s jaw rose and fell as one of the stallions forced his leg through the security field. “They’re coming!”

Twilight used her magic as quick as she could to finish connecting all the components of the disruptor cannon. “Open the door!”

Rainbow flicked the switch which rolled back the garage door.

The moment it was up, Twilight hoisted the disruptor cannon up with her magic and fired it. A wave of sound rippled through the air at the stallions, knocking them into the street as green light enveloped them both.

Rainbow and Spike’s jaws dropped as they stared. “Oh, my…”

Where the stallions had once been, two shiny black figures with curved unicorn horns flexed their translucent wings as their glowing eyes blinked in the sunlight.

“Changelings!” Pedestrians and bystanders shrieked at the top of their lungs as they scattered away and into their homes.

One of the changelings flicked his wings and hissed past his two front saber teeth at the other. “Whe’ve bee-een comp-romised!” His horn sparked into a giant ball of green fire that surrounded them both before popping out of existence.”

“They’re gone!” Rainbow cheered.

“We’re not out of the woods yet.” Twilight levitated the disruptor cannon to Spike. “Recharge this at the powerstation on the wall and stand guard with your own disruptor. Rainbow Dash, help me. We’re going to place a field of disruptors around the house.”

“Wait,” Rainbow waved her hooves, “what’s that gonna do? It just shows who they really are.”

Twilight pointed to where the two changelings disappeared. “Did you hear it? It mentioned their cover being blown. They want to stay hidden. They’ll be exposed if they come near us again, and they don’t want that. They want to remain hidden.”

*****

Discord slid under the MSY hacking at as many of its limbs as possible without getting caught. Springing up, he twirled into the air with his paw in the air. “DRILL PUNCH!” Everything spun faster and faster as his arching descent gained more and more momentum. A blast sent him flying away, tumbling to the hex grid. As he regained his focus, a smile grew on his face as sixteen of the MSY’s lifeless appendages fell to the hex grid.

“No! I am not programmed for failure! I will adapt! I will overcome!”

Discord passively threw his boomerangs at the last two limbs of the MSY. They bent, allowing the MSY to fall to the hex grid, screaming in its synthesizer voice. “My mistake, eight attacks.” Hopping up, he saw an invisible wall part open. A new grid of squares appeared. “I did it! I made it past the MSY.” Without hesitation, he lunged through the opening. It closed the moment he was through. Once on the other side, he saw that the grid here was even larger. It’s edges disappeared into a thin horizon of purple and red. Clouds of calculated data shaped and reshaped. “Where are you Professor?”

In the distance, he saw a strange polygonal structure, a sphere propped up by pulsating arches and capped with a spire that reached high above the clouds of data. It was far away.

“Okay.” Discord pulled a triangle of white light from his back and unfolded it into a bicycle. Pulling one of his gloves off, he affixed it to the center gear. Resting both his legs on the rear wheel’s pegs, he activated the glove. “Drill punch!” The bicycle’s rear wheel ripped strings of binary into the air until it connected with the square grid, sending Discord off at an incredible speed. The binary ripping up behind him trailed for a bit as a rainbow of light before dissipating along his way.

“Discord?”

Discord glanced at the hologram of Spike while maintaining focus on the path ahead of him. “Yeah what is it? What happened?”

“Changelings, that’s what happened. We just scared two of them off with a disruptor cannon.”

“Nice work. I’m almost to where the Professor is.”

“What’s it like in there?”

“Empty.” Discord admitted. “Dark. It’d be pretty lonely if you were stuck in here. Spike, I-.”

“Oh, no. Twilight!”

“Spike? Spike! What is it?”

Horror washed over the hologram of Spike’s face. “The MSY. The computer Twilight was using to monitor it. It says it’s growing back!”

*****

“I don’t know how this is possible.” Twilight mashed the second keyboard as she and Spike fought it with the game controls. “It’s regenerated somehow. Discord. Didn’t you destroy it?”

His body grumbled in the lawn chair as his lips moved. “Shoot. I didn’t. I jumped into the system as soon as there was an opening, and I’m almost to the Professor.”

“Twilight.” Rainbow flew to her side. “I believe in you. If anyone can figure out how to stop the security, it’s you.”

“Spike and I are doing everything we can. This game is limited, and with just the two of us, the MSY will eventually catch up.”

Spike jumped in his seat. “Oh! Ah-ha! Twilight. Would an arcade cabinet work? Can one be adapted to this game?”

“I mean, sure.” Twilight shook her head. “But alone, it would just barely be faster than this.”

The dragon snapped his head towards Rainbow with a smile plastered on his face. “Call the guys at the comic book shop!”

*****

The green dragon smacked his gum in his cheek as a griffon guided the unloading of not one, not two, but twelve arcade machines off of a few autocar trucks. “So just so we’re clear, we’re using these arcade machines to fight the master security yolk of that supercomputer so your friends can escape the clutches of an insane artificial intelligence.”

Spike nodded. “That is about the size of it.”

A smile began to grow on the green dragon’s face as he turned to address the others as they set up the arcade machines. “Gentlemen, and lady, our years of training will finally be realized this day. Cream Heart, your thoughts on the AI?”

Across from Twilight on the personal computer, a tan colored earth pony with light brown hair duked it out with the MSY. “A challenge for sure, but with our forces combined, I believe we shall prevail.”

“Glorious!” The green dragon turned to Twilight. “What do we need to do?”

“Spike.” Twilight let him take control of the keyboard as she looked at all the arcade machines, now powered on. “Have everyone open their machines' backs, I need to connect them to the new interface I made.”

A griffon stepped forward. “Is this gonna wreck our cabinets? These things aren’t cheap you know.”

“Carlton.” The green dragon pat the griffon on the back. “Two irreplaceable lives are at stake, we have been called upon for a quest to vanquish evil constructs, and you’re worried about trivial material matters. Gamemaster, is this the way?”

“It is not the way.” The griffon popped the back off of a “Protector” cabinet. “This is the way.”

The others popped the cabinets open and rested a limb over their hearts. “For glory!”

Rainbow blinked at the display. “I’m surrounded by eggheads.”

*****

Discord crept along sprawling hexagonal shaped hallways inside the sphere he had reached. The digital bracer on his left arm laid out a holographic map that had set a course that would lead him to the Doc. “Almost there. Almost there…” He stopped at a blue box. His bracer beeped frantically. “Huh?” The box’s shape reminded him of a barn stable. It wasn’t very big, and it wasn’t very small. A muddled writing in white on black at the top was written in a code that Discord couldn’t read. “Woah.” Scraping the side of it, he could actually feel a wooden texture. “Professor?”

The doubled doors of the blue box squeaked open.

“Profess-. Oh. Wow.” Discord stepped into the box to find a whole other world inside. Fields of red grass rolled around holding up silver leafed trees. At the center of it all, the Doc was dancing with a mare. “Professor!” He ran towards him, slowing as he saw more ponies. They were all dressed in red, dancing to strange music. “What is this place?” He could hear the mare talking with Doc.

“It’s all right. Everyone is back. You don’t have to run anymore. Everything is perfect. I’m here, my love.”

The Doc smiled as he watched the foals around them, playing games. “I did it. I really did it. I found you all. I stopped it. I saved you.”

“Professor!” Discord grabbed him.

The Doc turned from the mare. “Ah-ha! Discord! You came here too? It’s so good to see you. I want to introduce you to my fam-.”

“It’s not real, Professor! It’s just a simulation. None of this is real! It’s just bits and numbers.”

The Doc shook his head. “Did you hit your head?” All the ponies around began to laugh.

The mare gave a crooked smile as her eyes flashed with static. “Don’t say such things, sweety. You’ll worry his wife.”

Discord cocked a brow at that. “Wife?” His jaw went slack as he saw a gorgeous pegasus fly towards him. “Fluttershy?”

“Hey honey.” She nuzzled into her leg where a small bundled blanket stirred, and stared up at Discord with the same eyes as Fluttershy. “Junior missed you.”

Discord covered his eyes. “No. You’re not real. This isn’t happening. Professor! This is a lie! It’s not real!” With his eyes still shut he swung a boomerang across this Fluttershy’s face. Opening his eyes his heart sank at the sound of crying from the bundled blanket and from Fluttershy. “No. It can’t be.”

“Discord,” Fluttershy cried, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” He turned at the mare dancing with Doc and yelled, “DRILL PUNCH!”

Half of the mare’s face exploded into pixels and numbers.

“No!” The Doc cradled the mare. “What-? How-?”

“Professor, wake up!” Discord punched a tree into shards of polygons. “You’re in the computer. You’re still plugged into the computer!” He went to town shattering one pony after another. “You’re going to die in here if we don’t get you out!”

The Doc backed away from the mare who was now scowling as she began to grow. “Great whickering stallions!”

*****

The garage boomed with the sound of arcade noises as ponies, dragons, and griffons hammered their respective cabinet controls.

The green dragon’s eyes were glued to the screen of a “Fight or Flight” machine rhythmically tapping out attack combinations. “Uppercut. Uppercut. Jab. Jab. Hey we’re gonna run out of energy real fast at this pace.”

Cream Heart spoke up. “I could really use an orange cream pop right now.”

Twilight nodded her head. “Don’t worry. Relief is almost he-.”

A red wagon rolled up the driveway and into the garage with a giant stack of pizzas and crates of soda pop. “There’s no need to fear,” a white unicorn hopped off the wagon, “Rarity is here! I got the fuel for the dream team.”

“Rarity?” Spike tried to keep his concentration on fighting the MSY through his controls to the “Tankery Unlimited” cabinet. “What are yo-.” Before he could say anything else, a slice of supreme pizza shot into his mouth by way of magic.

“Now, now, darling.” Rarity clicked her tongue as she opened more pizza boxes, offering slices to everyone else. “Eat and save Discord now, talk drama later.”

Spike saluted as he chewed his pizza. “Yefs mahm.”

From behind the red wagon of pizza boxes, Fluttershy flew right up to a fidgeting and convulsing Discord. “Oh my goodness, is he okay? Is he breathing? Is he alive?!”

“Yes. He’s alive.” Twilight frantically typed with her magic. “But, he’s fighting something big. Whatever it is, it’s almost destroying his micro mobile firewall faster than I can code it, and it’s cut off their communications with us.”

Discord hollered as his body wrenched in the lawn chair, gasping for relief from pain.

Fluttershy began to brush his arms. “Discord! Listen to me. You can do this. I know you can. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I stopped talking to you. You have to survive! You have to win! You have to come back so I can tell you.”

The green dragon glanced over his shoulder. “Who are you?”

“I’m-.” Fluttershy looked around the garage at the faces of strangers she had never met before in her life. “I’m-. I’m.” Wiping her eyes, she took a hold of Discord’s paw. “I’m his fiancé.”

“What?!” Rainbow and Rarity both gasped.

The green dragon stopped playing. Turning, he marched up to Fluttershy.

The griffon on the "Protector" cabinet shouted at the green dragon. “Marco? What are you doing? We need you fighting here!”

The green dragon took a knee and hugged Fluttershy. “Don’t worry. We will bring him back.” Standing up, he cracked all the joints in his claws. “Everyone. We now fight for more than glory. We fight for love!” He snapped at Twilight. “Can you overclock our games?”

Twilight nodded with a smile. “Yes, I can.”

*****

The grid spun below Discord as he hurtled downwards. “Ah-a-ah-a-ah-ah!” He skid into a roll before slowly stopping. “Uh-oh.” With all his might, he dodged a giant electric hoof that stomped right where he had been laying. “Professor! How are you doing?”

“I’m upgrading Twilight’s firewall. Once mine is good I’ll tend to you and aid in the fight!”

“Good.” Discord unfolded the bicycle again and circled around the giant polygonal mare with black eyes and spiked mane. “Here, here! Come on you over developed chatbot, I’ll give you memory errors for life!”

The giant mare screeched and stomped. “Hold still so I can eradicate you from my system!” She tried to squash Discord, missing again.

The draconequus did a handstand on his bicycle. “Is that all you got? F&F DOS has more sentience than you!” Hopping back on his feet, he flung his boomerangs up at her. “Was your hard drive dropped from an early age!”

“Oh, I’ve got one!” The Doc activated a pair of digital wings that flung out from his back. “Your parent operating system is so overweight the recursive function computing its mass causes a stack overflow!” Light burst from the wings, sending him up into a circle around the giant mare as he cried out, “01000010 01110101 01100011 01101011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101!”

The giant mare roared a gasp. “In all my years of operation, I have never heard such language! How am I supposed to love you when you talk like that?!”

Discord rode below the mare, sending his boomerangs at her legs. “Professor, care to explain that?”

The Doc shook his head. “Don’t look at me! I was just figuring out why it was sent to my lab.”

Discord screamed as he was knocked from his bike and crushed by a giant hoof. “Prof- ah!”

“Discord!” The Doc barely had time to react as lines of binary zapped him from the eyes of the giant mare. He slowly descended before touching down on the grid, unconscious.

The mare cackled. “I will delete you, Discord. I’ll rip you apart, code by code. Then no one will be able to stop me from loving Doctor Hooves!”

Discord felt his body losing sensation as the weight of the mare came down on him, but then he saw a crack of light. A gold pixelated missile struck the face of the giant mare, sending her tumbling over. Discord looked where the missile had come from. “Spike!”

Spike’s hologram followed a tank made up of red vector lines. “Gamers!”

Discord watched as seven more holograms appeared, taking control of various sprites and pixelated figures. He recognized them as the regulars of the comic book store.

Cream Heart’s hologram rode up alongside Spike’s tank on an ostrich with her sprite covered with medieval armor. The griffon vertically flew up in an armored flying craft equipped with laser rays. The green dragon’s hologram followed the body of a muscle shredded minotaur fighter that ripped the head of the MSY into thousands of pixels. Another hologram pointed a sword forward guiding a line of cannons, another outfitted in plumbing gear with a massive wrench, a spike covered racing autocar, and behind them all, one more hologram controlled a giant robot.

Spike cheered as he advanced in his tank. “Attack!”

The griffon flew his aircraft around the giant mare, blasting her with pulsating lasers. The giant robot picked her up and slammed her into the ground. The line of cannons fired in tandem with Spike’s tank missiles. Cream Heart rode her ostrich up and onto the mare, dragging a longsword along her side, slicing up chunks of code. The plumber jumped into a pipe that opened up over the mare’s head as he brought his wrench crashing down against her jaw. As the mare stood up, the racing autocar harpooned a tether into one of her legs and began to circle. The giant mare screeched as she tripped over her bound legs. The green dragon clapped his minotaur’s hands together and pulled them apart to ignite a glowing ball of fire that he sent flying into the mare’s eye.

“ENOUGH!” The mare spun in the air, opening her mouth to spew out a jet wave of red binary that took out every hologram and sprite in sight. “I’m tired of your pathetic games. You will not win! My programming allows me to predict every move you make, I can process codes faster than you can combat them, and your cheap tricks are too slow to defeat me. I am invincible!”

Discord closed his eyes as the mare’s hoof came upon him again. He focused. “Hello?”

*****

“Hello?”

“Discord?” Fluttershy flinched as he sat up in the lawn chair.

“Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy squeezed his arm. “Yes, it’s me!”

“Take off my collar.”

Twilight’s eyes boggled as she turned from her now blue screened computer. “What’s he saying?”

“Discord. I can’t.” Fluttershy froze as he cupped her cheek.

“Do it, or the Professor and I will die in here.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, that’s crazy. He could lose control, there has to be another way. Fluttershy? Fluttershy, wait!”

*****

The giant mare rubbed her hoof into the grid as she turned her one eye to the Doc. “Now, my love. We are alone. And, I will love you forever!”

Doc awoke, blinking as a rumbling in the grid grew louder and louder. “What is that?”

The mare looked at her hoof and screamed as light blasted through it into the air. Through the hole, Discord rose with glowing eyes as light swirled around him.

“What? How can this be?” The giant mare went to swipe at him with her other hoof, but as it came closer her whole form froze in place. “No! What kind of application are you?”

Discord smiled a ball of code grew around his paw. “I’m not an application. I’m a draconequus.”

The mare’s eye grew. “Creature of chaos.”

Discord twisted his paw as light shot from his eyes.

“No what are you doing?” Her frame moved backwards going through all her previous motions. “My internal clock!”

Discord laughed. “I’m reversing the clock; I’m hacking time!”

*****

“Fluttershy!” Twilight and Rarity tried to pry open Fluttershy’s legs as she death gripped the collar.

“No!”

The green dragon rested on his dead arcade machine. “I don’t get it. What’s the big deal about this collar?”

Twilight dogpiled Fluttershy with Rarity and Rainbow. “Discord possesses an unspeakable amount of magical power, without the collar, he can’t control it.”

“He looks fine to me-.” The green dragon turned at a humming from his machine. “Hey guys. Hey you guys! Look at-.”

A flash of light blinked from all the arcade machines.

As the light went away, Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, and Fluttershy looked around to find everyone was gone.

Rainbow flew over to the still spinning stool in front of the machine that Spike was using. “Where’d they go?”

*****

The giant mare inhaled the red binary she had spewed out earlier. “Ah!”

Everywhere the red binary retracted from, figures began to appear.

“Where are we?”

Spike looked at his black and white claws. “We’re inside the computer.” He looked up. “It’s Discord!”

“Glad you all could make it. Now, who wants to kick some artificial intelligence be-hind?” The draconequus sent light from the tips of his claws and paw digits.

Everyone lit up as their own beefed up firewalls coded themselves around them.

The green dragon clapped his claws together and stretched out another ball of fire. “Oh, yeah.”

Spike jumped in his tank, aimed and fired a shot. The missile took out half of the giant mare’s face. “Yahoo!”

The griffon’s aircraft began to spin, blasting a massive beam of energy through the torso of the giant mare.

The green dragon sent his fireball flying under the mare, launching her up into the air as cannons peppered her side, blowing chunks of code away.

The racing autocar flew off a jump, landing on the mare and using spiked wheels to spin her into ludicrous speeds.

Cream Heart flew her ostrich into the air, her sword growing to the size of a train car before chopping off the giant mare’s legs.

The giant robot wound up its arm to throw the plumber who used his wrench to whack the mare’s head from her shoulders.

As her head fell to the grid, a rainbow of codes spilled out. “No, that’s impossible. I couldn’t predict that. My programming is limited. Input... Need input!”

Discord shook his head. “No input. Just the end of your line. He grew in size, even larger than the mare ever was. Picking her head up, he wrapped the digits of his paw around it and shattered all that was left of the system.

*****

The Doc gasped as he ripped the visor from his face and the wires from his head. “Ah-ha! He did it!”

“Doc!” Fluttershy cried as Discord shook. The Y-T: 2095 sparked and smoked.

Twilight shouted over the chaos. “Is everyone out.”

Spike and the others all nodded as they took a head count. “We’re good!”

Doc rushed to Discord’s side. “Where’s his collar? His magic is flooding the computer. If we don’t get it back on, he could destroy it and himself!”

Fluttershy immediately snapped the collar back on Discord’s neck.

The sparking from the Y-T: 2095 puttered out.

Doc whipped around. “Twilight! Eject him!”

“Almost there. Hold on.” She typed as fast as she could. “He’s out!”

“Discord?” Fluttershy nudged his shoulder. “Discord? Please wake up. Please. I have to tell you. I have to tell you. Please.” She rested her head against his. “Come back.”

Rainbow shook her head. “No. No that can’t be right. That’s messed up! He can’t be gone! No!” Twilight and the green dragon held the pegasus as she flailed around. “You stupid, stupid! You can’t do that to us, you can’t do that to her!”

Fluttershy wept as she crawled onto the lawn chair with Discord.

“Fluttershy.”

She froze as an arm wrapped around her.

Discord peeled his visor off. “Already. Promised.”

“Discord!” She pressed her face into his as everyone in the garage cheered. “I’m sorry I stopped talking to you. I was afraid to tell you.”

“Tell me what?” Discord asked.

“Yes.” Fluttershy smile. “Remember what you asked me at the Hearth’s Warming dance? Yes. The answer is yes.”

“Fluttershy,” Discord shook his head. “Rainbow told me something. The way I phrased that question.”

“Yes?”

He sighed as he held her hooves. “What I meant to ask, I guess was, would you marry me?”

Fluttershy nodded. “I know.”

Discord blinked. “Uh…”

She laughed as she kissed his nose. “We’re both in highschool still. Do you really think I’m crazy enough to think you were actually proposing to me then and there? Wait, what did Rainbow tell you?”

Discord’s eyes narrowed up as he stared at Rainbow.

Rainbow laughed nervously. “Heh, heh. Whoops.”

Rarity interjected. “Hey, then what was that whole thing about you announcing to everyone that you were his fiancé?”

A blush consumed Fluttershy’s face. “Oh, well, I- uh.”

“Whut?” Discord’s eyes went wide.

“I panicked!” Fluttershy yelped.

“Wait.” Discord brushed her side as he pulled her close. “Are you lying?”

Spike waved at the others to clear the garage. The only protest came from the griffon as he chirped out, “Wait, I want to see where this goes…” The green dragon and Cream Heart pulled him along as everyone, even the Doc, left them alone.

“Fluttershy? What’s the truth?” Discord softly asked.

She slumped over into his arms. “You really were just asking if I would ever marry you, right?”

“What if I wasn’t?”

She squeaked. “What were you really asking?”

“No.” Discord kissed her forehead. “Please. Be honest.”

“I’m afraid of how you’ll react.” She sighed. “I thought you were really asking.”

“So why did you pretend like you thought I wasn’t?”

She closed her eyes. “I didn’t want to scare you.”

Discord laughed, quietly and then louder. “I’m sorry, but do you remember what I asked you during our date under the willow tree?”

She thought. “You asked me if I wanted a-.” Her face lit up. “Oh.”

“A family.” Discord hugged her tight. “I want to tell you something I’ve never told anyone. I think Rainbow would give me a hard time over it, but I’ve always wanted to be a father, not just to a child, but to a wife. Husband is part of the family deal. So, Fluttershy, I’m not afraid of you saying yes to a proposal.”

“Really?” Fluttershy’s eyes began to water as her smile crept back onto her face. “Discord, would you marry me?”

The draconequus went still. “Are you asking? Or are you asking?”

“Yes.” She smiled.

He chuckled. “Like now?”

“Not now now, but in the future, when we’re both ready for that kind of commitment.”

Discord smiled. “Yes.”

Her smile faltered at that. “Yes, what?”

After leaning in to kiss her, Discord smiled as he pressed his head against hers. “I promise.”

“Promise.” Fluttershy repeated the word as she smiled in his embrace.

*****

“I can’t believe we had to sign legal waivers.” The griffon shook his head.

The green dragon laughed. “Dude, we’re getting medals from a princess for rescuing one of the government’s top scientists.”

They sat in a windowless auditorium filled with uniformed guards and soldiers along with, Discord and his friends, and the others that joined them in their escapade from the previous week.

“And we can’t talk about it,” the griffon shook his head.

“It’s a matter of National security.” Cream Heart cut in. “Besides, look at Discord and his fiancé. They look so happy together.”

The griffon furrowed his brow. “Is she really his fiancé, though? We never really did hear the end of that.”

“Shut up,” the green dragon cleared his throat, “here she comes.”

A guard marched forward and blew on a trumpet. “Welcoming, Princess Luna. All arise!”

Rarity screamed with her mouth shut. “This is so exciting!”

The whole room stood up as a dark blue alicorn dressed in white and gold walked along a red carpet that led onto the stage. A few guards followed her with boxes. “Greeting, subjects. Today we honor the heroism of select individuals for their bravery and dedication to their country during the harrowing rescue of one Doctor Hooves.”

The guards and soldiers cheered.

The princess continued. “While these events are to remain secret due to the development of changelings in our midsts, we would be remiss not to recognise the value of your efforts.” She smiled. “Will you all please step forward.”

Discord was followed by his friends and the others as they made their way up and onto the stage. The ponies tailing the princess opened their boxes to reveal silver medals hung on rainbow ribbons.

“So cool, so cool!” Rainbow practically pranced on her way up.

Princess Luna picked one up at a time with her magic to carefully place them on each recipient. “We award you, the sister’s shooting star, the highest civilian medal.”

Discord watched as the Doc stomped his hooves on the floor along with all the guards and soldiers.

The princess continued to talk as she bestowed the medals. “My sister wishes she could have been here to announce it, but with these medals - for the sacrifice of your arcade machines - you will be receiving brand new replacements as well.”

Spike nodded to the green dragon and the others.

As soon as Princess Luna had placed Discord’s medal on him, Fluttershy broke the line to embrace and kiss him.

“Hm. Young love is a beautiful thing.” The princess did a subtle double take at Discord. “My apologies, but have we met somewhere? In a dream perhaps?”

Discord shook his head. “Not to my knowledge ma’am.”

“Curious.” She shook the idea from her face as she produced a set of keys in front of Discord. “And at the special request of our good Doctor, these are for you.”

Discord took the two keys and studied them. “If I may ask, what are these for?”

“Doctor Hooves said you will find out,” the princess smiled, “when the crate arrives at your home.”

Discord smiled back as he took the keys. “Alright then.” Holding Fluttershy tight, he beamed with his friends at the applause they received from the guards, the soldiers, the Doc, and Princess Luna. The weight of the medal around his neck dug in, but that didn’t matter. The princesses knew about the changelings, and now more than just him and his friends were looking for them. The weight of the medal was forgettable as the guards rolled out brand spanking new arcade machines for the others as they cheered their heads off. Their reaction elicited a stroke of laughter from Princess Luna who asked if she could visit their comic shop to try the new machines out with them. The green dragon and his friends lost control of their jaws as Cream Heart said yes for them.

Spike nudged Discord over Fluttershy. “Hey brother, how about we go and play some O&O after this?”

Discord’s smile couldn’t get any wider. “I’d like that.”

Author's Note:

The wait was three times as long, so, three times the song...

Comments

[Spiritofchaos227]

Man, in one night, Discord accidentally proposed to his girlfriend, got stuck in the Matrix, got a fiance, murdered a machine, and helped saved a government agent from changelings. Wish my prom was that exciting...

Anyway, the Luna scene is very interesting. Luna not only remains royalty here, but she still has a sister. So, there are two Celestias, the one from the original timeline that's in Discord's mindscape or whatever, and the one of this timeline that's Luna's sister? Alternatively, there isn't a second Celestia, and Luna has a different sister. After all, she never say Celestia's name; maybe her sister is Cadence?

Theories aside, this was a super cool chapter. Definitely great that the crew will have some help in their changeling fight. However, this event is probably going to make them all a target. Now, they not only want to get rid of Discord for him magic, but the rest of his friends for revealing them and complicating their plans. The need for revenge is a powerful thing...

Needless to say, I'm very happy to see you back! Minor error I noticed,

“So cool, co cool!” Rainbow practically pranced on her way up.

I'm assuming you meant "so cool, so cool!" instead of co.

[SpikeDark]

oooooooo YES! YES! YES!

[SuperSonicReader03]

When is the next update?

[ThePianoMan]

10184410
Eventually

[The Correspondent]

this is good.

... been about 5 months since the last update so that's a bit concerning tho.

[ThePianoMan]

10115156
01101001 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01100010 01100001 01100011 01101011

media1.giphy.com/media/90F8aUepslB84/giphy.gif