And in a flash, you both were inside Twilight’s castle, or to be more exact, right inside the cutie mark chamber.
“Oh hey! You’re both here!” You hear Spike say. It seems he had already been waiting and ready for the both of you all morning, not at all surprised by your sudden appearance. “Awesome! I’ve been waiting all morning to show you guys something that’s gonna get you pumped!”
“Woah! Slow down! We just got here” You didn’t even get a chance to look around the area to see who and what was around, and you did notice you were one member short. “Hey, where’s Big Mac?”
“He’s already at the alley.” Spike holds up a bowling bag with a confident smile on his face “As for us, I got us something that’ll show everypony that we mean business.”
“Mean business? Ohhhh!” Discord gets excited and zips over to Spike to look over the bag “Are we going to blow open a tear in reality to send our opponents through with whatever is in that bag?” Discord then stands tall as he shakes his fist in the air “TO SHOW OUR ADVERSARIES THAT THE GUILD IS THE ULTIMATE IN ALL THINGS BOWLING!?”
“Uhhhhh...sort of?” Spike looks a little put off and confused as he places the bag on the cutie map table and takes out a bowling ball made out of emerald that had the name “The Guild” engraved on it with golden letters. It shimmered and shined whenever any light hit it. “I got us all this cool custom bowling ball we can all use. I mean, it kind of shows that we’re going to be the best team there. No…” Spike stands tall and raises his fist along with Discord “IT TOTALLY SHOWS THAT WE’RE THE BEST TEAM EVER! ONE WHICH WILL CRUSH OUR FOES WITH OUR MIGHTY ABILITY TO ROLL A BALL!”
Discord looks over to Spike with a nod and a smirk “Nice way to word it, Garbunkle”
Spike takes a bow “Thank you, Captain Wuzz”
You just put your hoof to your face. “Ok you two, can we not act like nerds when we get there? Please? We’re gonna be in public.”
Spike calls for Discord to lower his head so he could whisper to him “What’s his problem?”
Discord whispers back “He still has a ‘splitting headache’ from our last session”
“Splitting...he-he-HAHAHAHAHA!” Spike loses it and falls over, pointing at Discord with joviality “I get it! Because he got an axe to his head!”
You narrow your eyes towards the both of them. “...That’s not funny, you know…”
Discord shrugs as he gives you a pat “Relax, Anon, it’s not like it killed you. We did agree to give your character a huge increase in defense for all cranial injuries. You’ll be fine! I mean, Conan will be fine.” Discord ends his words with a slight chortle
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up you two. It was just a bad roll, that’s all.” Goddammit, it was really humiliating though.
“Come on, Anon, relax! We’re only messing with you a little bit. You’re one of us, one of the guys!” Spike hops down from the table and walks over to you. He then gives you a thumbs up. “You’re the hero colt! And part of ‘The Guild’. We know it was a bad roll. Everypony gets one sometimes, and it’s pretty funny when it happens, right? Are you saying you wouldn’t laugh at Discord if he got a critical miss at something like, erm, knocking on a door?”
“Hey! I’ll have you know that a critical miss on knocking on a door shouldn’t result in something humiliating, at least when it comes to me.” Discord interjects
“Maybe, but what if it was a cursed door or something? It’d probably react by using it’s entire frame to knock you into a pulp. Like…” Spike smacks his fist into his palm multiple times “...Ironically being knocked on BY the door, that’d be pretty funny.”
Discord being physically smacked by a door? Heh, that made you smirk “Now that would be funny.”
Discord crosses his arms and looks away with a gruff snort “Well, I don’t think so.”
“C’mon, Dad. Don’t KNOCK IT until you try it! Eh? HAHAHA!” You break into laughter, sure it was a dumb pun, but it always was extra funny if it cheesed Discord off. Especially when Spike joined in on your mocking laughter.
“Ugh...Whatever. Don’t you have a princess to talk to about your invitation?” Discord says, unamused by the laughter going on around him.
“Huh?” Spike stops laughing when he realized what Discord meant. “You mean the invitation to Twilight’s Friendship School?” Spike looks to you with curiousness “You’re gonna go? That’s awesome!”
“Err...no” You shake your head “I’d rather not. I just want to let Twilight know that I’m declining her offer, that’s all. She’s here, right?”
Spike seemed kind of disappointed by your answer as he pointed towards the other wings of the castle “I mean, yeah, she’s prepping stuff up for when the school is built and ready for classes. But why aren’t you going, Anon? You’re from another dimension, right? This would be a great way for you to learn how ponies do friendship. And I’m talking all the ins and outs of it. I mean, look at me, I’ve learned all about living with ponies by learning from my pony friends here in Ponyville.”
“Yeah, but you didn’t learn that in a school, right?” You ask him.
“Well...no” Spike replies
“Exactly. I think I’ve learned enough through experience just like you have. And it’s not like friendship is a foreign thing to me. I think I’ll be fine” You tell him
“I guess… I mean, I thought it’d be pretty helpful for you. But I can’t force you to go either.” Spike states. But then he looks back towards the inner wings of the castle and then back at you with concern “But Twilight is probably gonna try to convince you, so just go easy on her, ok? I know you kind of got this chip on your shoulder with her, but she only wants to see you get better, you know?”
..Dammit, Spike. He was looking at you with pleading eyes to be as easy with Twilight as possible. This had to mean that Twilight was probably going to be really annoying when you tell her no. “Ok, ok...I’ll do my best, I promise”
“Thanks dude, we’ll wait for you here. Been meaning to go over a few of my ideas for the next campaign with your dad anyway”
“Ahh! I had been meaning to ask you about that.” Discord said as he sat down at Fluttershy’s chair, eager to hear what Spike had to say. “Do tell me everything.”
“Alright, so…” Was all you heard from Spike talking to Discord as you made your way to the main castle library where Twilight most likely was residing.
When you got there, you could in fact see Twilight looking over a bunch of scrolls as she sang silently to herself. She was obviously full of zeal when it came to this whole school business, it almost made you want to not talk to her at all. But you knew it was better to get this over with sooner rather than later.
“Hey, Twilight, you busy?” You ask as you enter the library.
“Huh? Hmm? Oh! Anon! Hello! Good morning!” Twilight says with happy cheer in her heart “Are you ready for that bowling game you’re going to have? I have to say, Spike has been pretty excited about it for quite some time. He felt pretty bad about not getting to bowl with you before, so seeing him so happy to bowl with ‘The Guild’ makes me happy too. Thank you for having the time for that, by the way, I know school and training with Rainbow Dash has left your schedule pretty tight. ”
“Oh...Yeah, um..You’re welcome.” Dammit Twilight, you didn’t have to act so thankful and happy go lucky. You now felt bad that you might be crushing her good mood. But…
No, you had to talk to her about this. If she was truly a princess and of regal status, then she should be able to fucking understand that you don’t want to go to her school. Besides, she and the other princesses already put you through enough shit, you didn’t need any more of it.
“Anon, are you alright?” Twilight looks to you with concern. She seemed antsy about the fact that you didn’t look as cheerful as she predicted.
“I’m fine, I just came up here to talk to you about your school.”
“OH!” Twilight got super excited now and jumped up, hovered, and floated over to you as she looked to you with a happy and near Pinkie-like grin. “That’s great! I didn’t expect you to personally accept, but I appreciate you coming to tell me all the same! I have to say, Anon. I’m already really excited to have everycreature learning everything they need to know about friendship. But to have you, somecreature from the outside world, learning our ways of friendship makes me fee-”
Ok, that’s enough. You put your hoof up at her to get her to stop right there. “Twilight, I’m actually declining your offer...and er…” What the fuck word was she using? “Everycreature?”
“Oh, it’s a very inclusive word for all the kinds of...Wait.” Twilight has a double take when she realizes what you said beforehand. “You don’t want to go? WHAT?! WHY?!”
Here we go…”Twilight, I appreciate the invitation. But I just don’t feel that your school isn't a good fit for me. I mean, what else do I have to learn about friendship anyway? I reformed Starlight, Trixie...sorta, and Tempest. And then there’s the fact I already have so many friends already, including a marefriend. I think I already mastered the magic of friendship.”
“Anon, while I do agree you have an amazing knack for friendship that many ponies don’t, there’s also a few faults you have that I think could use some improvement. The way you approached befriending Queen Chrysalis was-” And then you cut her off again.
Nope, she has no more right to fucking use that against you. “Twilight…” You look at her with a more serious stare as your voice hardens “Don’t you dare. I already admitted I got obsessive when it came to trying to reform her. But at the end of the day, I still managed to BEFRIEND her. I already learned through experience to be more careful, alright? So don’t do that to me.”
Twilight doesn’t reply for a moment as she ponders on what to say. She could see that you were still sensitive when it came to Chrysalis, and decided to try treading softer ground with you. “I understand. But I still think there’s still a few important things you can learn about friendship. I don’t mean to offend you, but you kind of still have a few ways to go to learn about harmony and love. You can sometimes be very mean, Anon. Mean in a way that only the most of the nastier dragons can be.”
“You mean with Stygian, don’t you?” You ask her
She nods “That, and a few other things. For Stygian...Anon, I understand that I was with Starswirl’s conclusion myself when it came to Stygian being the Pony of Shadows. But you were meaning to destroy him even after the truth of it was revealed, you nearly destroyed him. That’s not the pony way at all.”
You’ve had this conversation with her before. You had a good reason to continue your attempt to destroy Stygian. How could you be so sure that his begging and pleading after his shadow form was destroyed wasn’t just an act or a trick? “We’ve gone over this, I didn’t want to take any risks. You said Starswirl was the best of the best and never wrong, so how could you expect me to stand down?”
Twilight sighed, she knew she was partly to blame due to her fangasming when it came to Starswirl and the original six’s return. “I suppose I shouldn’t have. But he was begging for his life, Anon. We’re not like Sombra or the humans you have told me about from your old world. I don’t blame you for your actions, but I still think there are certain facets of your understanding of friendship that can be improved. You’re the hero colt, Anon. I just want you to have more compassion in the way you handle situations like this. Because it’s not just the way you tried to handle Stygian either. You can be mean to other ponies too. I’ve heard you put zippers on Snips’s and Snail’s mouths a few weeks ago, is that true?”
Ugh...So she knew about that, huh? “Yeah, I guess. They were getting uppity again. They thought since I was getting some training from an element that they deserve training from me. They wanted to battle my ‘Bowser’ form for Celestia’s sake! If they couldn’t handle zippers on their mouths then that’s on them, I’ve told them before to stop with the hero worship.”
“I know Snips and Snails can be a little overbearing sometimes, but that’s no excuse to use that kind of magic on them, especially when it lasted until midnight. Their mothers came to me scared out of their wits, Anon. And the way they panicked when I couldn’t undo your spell? Well... Nopony deserves that. Do you understand?” Twilight looks at you with a near mother like expression of sterness.
Nope, you weren’t having none of this shit. “Twilight, look. You are one of the few who even know my true age. Maybe this body has regressed me some, but I still know that when somepony tells you enough and you don’t listen, then consequences will happen. It’s not like I hurt them or anything either, it was simply a punishment. As I said, I have a handle on friendship, just not in the way a pony would handle things. Besides, why do you need a friendship school anyway? You, of all ponies, should realize friendship is an experience, and not something you can learn in a classroom.”
“I beg to differ on that one, Anon. My school isn’t just about learning friendship. It’s to bring unity to everycreature across the world. And more than that, it’s to give those who have felt shunned and alone a place to feel accepted,validated, and have the ability to forge friendships they never thought they’d be able to have. Everycreature deserves to learn, experience, and spread friendship to everycreature else. My school will make sure nocreature feels left out, no matter what.” Twilight explains.
Wut? “Uhm, ok, that’s all well and good. But friendship isn’t that difficult. Again, given how you used to be, and don’t ask how I know, I got a feeling the school might be a little too much.”
“No worries, I won’t question how you knew how I used to be. But do you remember how Starlight used to be? Tempest? Trixie? Your father? And since I know you know, Moondancer? I mean, I’ll even mention Princess Luna.”
What was she getting at? “Yeah, what about them? I reformed like half the ponies on that list myself.”
Twilight nodded “Right. But you also know about the Cutie Map and how it specifically designates one or two or even all of us to fix a specific friendship problem. And then there’s the fact that there could be many others who have felt hurt and abandoned like those I’ve mentioned. You, Anon, know for a fact that someponies just don’t take things too well and are willing to destroy the world just to get even with it. You can’t be there for all of them, just like I can’t be. But with my school, I can bring them all together and bring harmony to all. That’s my goal, that’s what I want. I know you’re smart, so if you think I’m wrong, I’d like to hear your thoughts on it.”
Uhh…
Hmm…
Shit, you hadn’t thought of that. Equestria did seemed filled with this kind of shit. Twilight, in that regard, was mostly right. You couldn’t reform everyone nor could you be in everyplace at once. And given how Starlight had become evil over just one friend abandoning her...Ugh, fine. “No, I have nothing. I guess that's pretty solid when you put it that way."
Twilight nodded in triumph, and gave you a warm smile “I’m glad you understand.”
You did, but still… “I do, but I still don’t want to go. I guess I can cool my jets a little, but I still think it’s pointless for me to go. So let’s just let bygones be bygones, alright? I respect your school if you respect my decision not to go, alright? Please? I really don’t want to keep this up, I have a bowling game to get to.”
Twilight sighed, she really wanted you to go, but she knew that she really couldn’t force you either. She nods “Alright, that sounds very fair to me. Thank you for understanding, Anon.”
“Yeah, yeah… I guess. Whatever, good luck with the school, ok? And don’t push me, please? I appreciate our friendship, but my life is my life, and I have a good handle on it these days.”
Twilight nods again “I understand, and thank you. Good luck with your bowling game, alright?”
You nod, and calm yourself a bit now that this was over “Thanks, well, seeya Twilight.”
And with that, you made your way back to the cutie map room. Dammit, she had to mention Chrysalis. Whatever, it’s fine, it’s the past. It was time to bowl, time to win, and time to show off your new found skills.
Missing space.
That was surprisingly understanding of Twiggles.
....he didn't cave into her....
Good for him.
8994965
Well, Twilight is growing reasonably in my opinion. I mean, how many times before this point has she regret fighting Anon to a high degree? A lot, so she's gained a form of respect for him.
Good chapter, but Anon saying how simple it should be for friendship to be learned, and how a school is unnecessary is funny considering what happens.
Because if I remember correctly, the students in that episode, only learn about friendship after they've abandoned the school, and it just sorta clicked. Imagine if Anon said, "Alright Twilight, I believe in your school and its usefulness to those who need it, but don't be surprised if a majority of your students don't need it to be friends."
And his reaction to learning how they became friends AFTER they left the school could easily be a soft spot he could tease Twilight about later if he ever learns it.
If Twilight insisted, Anon should had remembered her the point that Twilight did not learn friendship in any school, and that she is the Princess of Friendship and how even now and then she had some problems.
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8994965
for the most part. Superthorthax is right, Both Anon and Twilight have grown and both know each other a lot more at this point. Unless Anon was being an unreasonable teat, she had no reason to push him, but she did want to instill that her school was necessary in her eyes
That supposed to be "You no, if you look at it that way, I guess you’re right.” at the end or?
8995447
more like I didn't word it clear enough. I'll fix it
8995420
"For the most part."
The only thing you didn't really agree with was the joke I made about how they became friends outside their teachings. Guess you don't feel the same? I mean, I could see why, the challenges they all related to and wanted to avoid brought them together, challenges being skipping school. Quite hilarious actually.
8996245
Their friends, and they are closer. But not as close as they could be, this being mostly Anon's fault. But hey, there's still a lot more story to tell, we'll just have to see how it all goes
It's been quite a while since I checked in with the pastebin on /mlp/ so I'm wondering where this is in the grand scheme of things. Last I read it, the story was at a sorta time skip withanon and DT being a couple with kids and stuff. Is this a sort of in between that time period?
8996732
it takes place before that, during Season 8. This is a continuation of the original 325 chapters.
8995339
But you're wrong. They became friends from the very second they met each other. It just didn't express itself enough to be seen by others, until they had to leave and chose to stay together. If they were friends AFTER that, they would have left and some other event would have drawn them together. They only stayed BECAUSE they were friends.
The only thing the 'School of Friendship' really does, is get the students into an area to talk with each other, which is what every basic school, job, and multiplayer game does.
The Student 6 Meeting together in ANY other situation would have the exact same effect, just like the Main 6 were always friends as far back as Rainbow doing the Sonic Rainboom as a kid, they just hadn't physically met each other yet at the time.
Because of that, Twilight's School is NOT needed, and instead should have been more of a Social Hangout spot for all races, to meet, talk, and interact. As Anon said, Experience makes you friends, not sitting in a classroom, not interacting with anyone, focusing solely on the teacher and lesson.
9472591
Agreed
There are fics with chapters so long that you forget what you wanted to comment about, because you read it a few days ealier. And there is this book, where we get one short dialogue per chapter. Now I remember why I thought it was such a pain to give a single comment every chapter
Anon didn’t get sent to go against the pony of shadows from the Cutie Map did he?
Well friendship is not something you need to teach people about. At the very least not in that way.
Wait I'm so confused. I finished reading the 'Dadonequus Discord, But It's The MLP Movie' yesterday and although I don't remember which chapter it was in I remember it specifically stated that Twilight didn't know Anon's true age. So doe's she know it or not?
11305548
I have to apologize for whatever flub i made here, as it had been quite a long time since i wrote betwern book 1 and 2 and used book 2 to finalize and retcon mistakes made in book 1.
In short, yes, she knows
9472591
More friendship books could be helpful but the school isn't really needed that much besides twilight doesn't the first thing about these kids cultures and she expects them to be part of her world without knowing anything about theirs.
This got me thinking. What about the other school? What about the schoolhouse itself? does he not go to school anymore? I know this will probably be answered in later chapters.
Ok, so Twilight mentions school here...
Makes me wonder how that went.
When did this happen?!?! AND HOW IS SHE OKAY WITH THIS?!?!
Also, I know you mentioned this is this very comment section for this chapter but it feels a bit jarring to just be there. and if Twilight knows, does that mean the rest of the mane 6 know, I know you said it was being retconned so I just don’t know if that happened during the altercation or later to keep a continuity between the books.
11716581
Only Twilight knows among the six. Season 7 is skipped entirely, with only mentions of what happened during that time. When I started Book 2, I just wanted to start fresh onto season 8 and have a few ground rules set for myself to retcon some of book 1's failings. biggest one being the stupid crossover chapter. Book 2 starts out jarring due to this, but it settles into place.
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What happened in that crossover to have such an effect?
11716983
Long story short, the story was a green text on 4chan that got intermixed with a singular thread. Everyone wanted to do crossovers all of a sudden and fanart was being made for the fics to further promote this. I was okay with it at first as I had felt I was near the end of my writing journey and thought it would be fun. It eventually became a nightmare writing wise post Flim Flam arc and my enthusiasm waned as everything became a cluster fuck. Making references to other stories and Scrappy's name not even being my decision as his alter chapter(crossover chapter from another story) was written while I was at work.
I wanted to Retcon as much of it as possible, which made the start of book 2 awkward. Of course, as a writer, there's even parts of book 2 I regret writing. Some are spoilers for you, others that are not are in fact Twilight knowing Anon's age (which gets barely mentioned later on for a reason) and not writing a big pre mini book for season 7. Book 2 is not without issues, but there are a lot of parts of book 2 I really enjoyed writing.
But to answer a question of what was my favorite thing to write. Aside from something down the line in book 2, the other would be the Flim Flam arc