• Published 6th Jan 2021
  • 541 Views, 23 Comments

Mind and Matter - Sixes_And_Sevens



Discord welcomes home their daughter from college. However, she isn't quite as they remember. Meanwhile, a recently-summoned alicorn with memory issues stirs up ancient grudges.

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Peace of Mind

Discord came hurtling over the rooftops of Ponyville to come in for a landing beside the schoolhouse. Glancing around, they saw no sign of active hostilities, though Prince Mentiad was standing before Miss Cheerilee with a cowed expression.

They frowned. “What, did I miss all the fun?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” Twilight said, trotting over to them. “Your daughter gave us all a little history lesson.”

“Ah.”

She looked at them sidelong. “So… were you ever going to tell me that I’m apparently the reincarnation of an ancient alicorn, or…”

“First of all, that isn’t how that works,” Discord said. “You inherited her power and, in time, her memories will come to you, but you are still Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight nodded. “Oh...kay?”

“Second of all, that sounds disgustingly like being helpful.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but she was smiling slightly. “Yeah, I probably should have guessed.” She paused and looked at Discord. “Would you… I dunno, tell me about Vespertine sometime?”

Discord stared off into the distance, thoughtful. “I might. Later. For now, I have a different conversation to have. Do you know…”

“Screwball? She went that way,” Twilight said, pointing.

“Thanks,” Discord said, taking off once again.

“Good luck,” Twilight called after them.

Discord pursed their lips tight. “Hopefully, I won’t need it,” they muttered.


“So…” Mentiad said. “Um, I’ll start by saying sorry about… well, all of that.”

Cheerilee nodded, her expression carefully schooled. Mentiad continued, “I can probably fix the damage to the schoolhouse pretty easily. Er, as for the semi-kidnapping aspect…”

Semi-kidnapping?” Cheerilee asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Technically, none of you ever left the classroom,” Mentiad pointed out. “I’m pretty sure kidnapping involves a secondary location of some kind.”

Cheerilee stared at Mentiad for a long moment with weary eyes. “Give me the Magic School Cart for the year and we’ll call it even.”

“It stops existing when I stop thinking about it,” Mentiad said sheepishly. “But, er…” he pulled out a small remote inset with a crystalline blue button and handed it to her. “Press this when you want to go on a field trip, and I’ll make it happen.”

Cheerilee considered the button for a long moment. “...Deal,” she agreed, snatching the button from his hoof. “Everything else aside, you did manage to get them all genuinely invested in biology. If you can manage that with geometry, I’ll forgive you anything.

Mentiad looked thoughtful. “Geometry, huh? It’s been awhile since I paid a visit to my friend Albert Square…”

“Miss Cheerilee!” somepony called from inside the schoolhouse. “Scare Crow says her tummy still hurts! I think she’s gonna barf!”

Cheerilee grimaced. “Excuse me. Duty calls.”

“Of course,” Mentiad said, nodding.

After a moment, he turned to face Applejack, who had come up behind him. “Oh, hey,” he said.

She nodded at him. “Howdy. Uh.” She doffed her hat. “Reckon Ah owe you an apology,” she said.

He tilted his head. “Oh?”

“Uh, that medicine Bloom made ya. Ah put sugar in it. It’s mah fault y’all lost control there.”

“Ah.” He tilted his head. “Did you learn anything from the experience?”

Applejack blinked, confused. “Eh?”

“Did you learn anything?” he repeated.

“Uh… well, probably to trust Bloom with her potions more. An’ that Ah shouldn’t stick mah nose in on somethin’ Ah don’t know that much about.”

“Those are good lessons,” Mentiad said thoughtfully. “Alright. I forgive you.”

“Oh. Thank you kindly,” Applejack said, donning her hat once more. “Uh. And you? Did you learn anything from all this?”

Mentiad hummed. “...I think I did. I think that locking myself away was a bad idea that I was just too stubborn to back down from. Trying to make myself forget the bad times wasn’t just foolish, it was the antithesis of what I’m meant to stand for. I think I’m finally ready to come back to the world.” He cast a sidelong glance at where Celestia was standing. “That is, if I can.”

Celestia glanced up, caught his gaze, and quickly looked away.

Applejack chuckled. “Don’t know if that’ll be a problem. She seems pretty damn embarrassed about kickin’ up that fuss.”

“I suppose,” Mentiad said. “I think she and I still have a ways to go as far as reconciliation goes, and that’s before Luna herself comes into it. We didn’t part ways on the best of terms.”

Applejack shrugged. “Discord didn’t, either. Look at ‘em now.”

Mentiad said nothing. Applejack noticed that some of the tension had eased from his face, however, and he gave her a friendly bump on the shoulder.


It was a matter of only a few minutes of explanations and apologies to extract Screwloose from her impromptu playdate. Octavia was very understanding. Her wife, Vinyl, seemed to want to wash her hooves of the entire situation.

“That was very naughty of you, Lucy,” Screwball chided, leading her dog away from the musicians’ house. “I was so worried about you! It’s been so long since I last got to see you, girl. I missed you.”

Screwloose whined and tucked her tail between her legs.

Screwball frowned at her for a moment longer, then reached over to scratch behind her ears. “There, there,” she said. “I’m not mad, you just scared me. But you’re back now, and that’s the important thing.”

Lucy brightened immediately, her tail wagging, and she leapt up to lick Screwball’s face. “Okay, okay!” Screwball said, grinning. “Yes, I love you too.”

“Well, well,” said a familiar voice. “Isn’t this nice.”

Screwball turned, her smile dimming slightly. “Oh, hey par.”

Discord leaned over to start scratching Screwloose under the chin. She leaned in, one leg thumping on the ground. “Do I take it that we’ve had a little adventure today?”

“You might say that, yeah,” Screwball agreed. “What about you?”

“Oh, you know,” Discord said nonchalantly. “I was busy taking a little trip down memory lane and all that.”

“Mm,” Screwball said, glancing away. “I see.”

“I missed you, you know,” Discord said softly. “I still remember the night you left, laying it all out in front of my statue.”

“Yeah,” Screwball said quietly. “I remember, too.”

“I was proud of you,” Discord continued. “You probably couldn’t tell, because, you know, I was a statue.”

Screwball winced. “Yeah.”

“But I was so proud of you, champ,” Discord said, turning their full attention to her. “I was so proud of you, going to college, getting away from the fall of the gods. And… yes, I was angry, too. Angry that you were leaving me, angry because you weren’t trying to save me, angry that -- well, it felt like you had betrayed me.”

A tear ran down Screwball’s cheek.

Discord noticed, and their tone softened. “But you didn’t. I understand that now. You did the right thing, and I was the one in the wrong.”

Screwball was silent for a long moment. She took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you were. You let me down, par. You hurt me.”

Discord flinched, but paused as they felt a pair of strong hooves wrap around their waist. “Ah,” they said. “Do I take it this means…”

“You’re forgiven,” Screwball agreed. “I missed you too much to keep you out of my life now.”

Discord sighed, wiping their brow with a paw. “Thank goodness. All that aloofness and avoidance had me rather worried.”

“Yeah. I really wish that being born out of your mind didn’t mean inheriting all your busted coping mechanisms,” Screwball said.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Screwball looked up at them, eyebrow arched. “Really. Where have you been for the last couple of hours, exactly?”

Discord twisted up their face a little at that, but couldn’t find it in themself to argue. “Alright, then. Pax?”

“Pax,” Screwball agreed. “Just so long as you recognize that I’m not the pony I was a thousand years ago, alright?”

“Deal,” Discord said. “Though, on that subject…”

They clicked their talons and a box manifested in front of Screwball. “I found this at the Thinking Tree,” they said. “You don’t have to take it if you don’t want to, naturally, but…”

Screwball opened the box. Inside was a little propellor beanie. She held it up in front of her, studying it closely for a long moment. Discord said nothing.

Then, she smiled and popped it on her head. “Thanks, par.”

“You’re very welcome, my dear,” they replied. They paused. “You know, I was thinking about going to the ice cream dimension earlier today. Would you care to come along and fill an old draconequus in on the last thousand years?”

“I’d like that.”

“It’s the oddest thing, though,” Discord mused. “I do feel rather as though I’m forgetting something…” They shook their head. “Ah, well. It’ll come to me.”

They snapped their fingers, and in a pop of cold air that smelled of mint, the two were gone.


“So…” Fluttershy asked, glancing at Tree Hugger. “Do you think they’ll be back soon?”

Tree Hugger just shrugged. “Define ‘soon,’ dude. Uh, got any threes?”

Fluttershy looked at her cards and passed over the three of cups. “Have you, um, got any…” she scanned her deck, which consisted of the King of Hearts, Pikachu, the Hierophant, Skip a Turn, and Get Out of Jail Free. “Any major arcana?” she tried.

“Go fish, dude.”

Fluttershy drew from the deck the two had found in the boughs of the tree. “Oh! Blue eyes, white dragon! I win!”

Comments ( 1 )

Mentiad looked thoughtful. “Geometry, huh? It’s been awhile since I paid a visit to my friend Albert Square…”

First, assume a spherical alicorn...

Fluttershy looked at her cards and passed over the three of cups. “Have you, um, got any…” she scanned her deck, which consisted of the King of Hearts, Pikachu, the Hierophant, Skip a Turn, and Get Out of Jail Free. “Any major arcana?” she tried.

What, no Moxen? :derpytongue2:

... Oh! That was the last chapter. Heck of a time to have a hiatus, but it's not like that was under your control. In any case, lovely expansion of the universe, to say nothing of phase one of the pantheon's reunion. Thank you for it. Here's looking forward to the next installment.

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