Discord Between the Worlds

by Bronyxy

7 Discord the Hero?

“I love this time of day” mused Twilight, ”OK, I’m named after it, but I also like to see the night sky emerge, star at a time to show the constellations. You know, back in Equestria, Princess Luna paints the night sky herself?”
“The nearest I get to that is turning the lights on in the corridors” quipped Vice-Principal Luna, chilling with a drink in her hand. Celestia reclined, looking up at the stars and tried to picture how anyone or anypony could have that amount of artistry or indeed power.

Just then, the portal on the plinth glowed white and Sunset sprang through, greeted by three happy faces. After a few seconds, it glowed again and a duplicate of Vice-Principal Luna emerged, kneeling on the ground for safety, followed by Discord who tripped over her and performed an admirable somersault before springing to his feet and standing upright with his arms outstretched, like a gymnast awaiting applause. When the group of students and teachers rushed to the aid of the unknown arrival in preference to acknowledging his theatrics, he grumped, ”Very well, suit yourselves then; that was vintage slapstick you just totally failed to appreciate.”

“Princess Luna!” gasped Twilight, ”What are you doing here?”
“I desired to see for myself this land of which I have heard such wondrous reports” she replied, “But pray tell, how does one balance upon one's hind legs as you all appear to do so effortlessly?”
Twilight and Sunset supported her on either side, helping her as she gingerly elevated herself up, her eyes wide with apprehension.

Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna stared open mouthed at the apparition standing before them; if Luna had been carrying a clipboard, as was part of her customary uniform, she would have dropped it. Looking back at them was an exact double of the Vice-Principal herself.
Princess Luna could see their surprise, but was equally too shocked trying to take in her surroundings and new physiology to render any further comment immediately.

“Princess Luna” Principal Celestia addressed her, curtseying as befitted an introduction to royalty, “We are honoured to welcome you to our world. We have heard such great things about you, but never thought we would be fortunate enough to meet.”
Around the other side of the plinth, unseen by the others, Discord made a gesture of sticking a finger down his throat and then snapped his fingers with the intention of corralling the fireflies dancing lazily around into a gyrating arrow shape just above Luna, all synchronising their flashes to resemble a neon sign, but nothing happened. Instead, everything behaved as it should and ignored him completely.

Next he snapped his fingers to bring back the airstairs so they could all look for signs of the magic spilling out of the rift, but again nothing happened.
“Oh, poo” he muttered in disgust, realising that even his magic no longer extended into the human world.
He trudged around to rejoin the party, where both Lunas were centre of attention, enjoying a meeting of the closest friends who had never met before.
“Ahem!” he barked loudly, “I don’t suppose there is a ladder we could use to look at the top of this plinth? It appears my magic is no longer available in this world.”
“I know where the janitor keeps his stuff” said Sunset with a wry smile, “Come with me and we’ll see what we can find.”
“Oh, I suppose so” he grumbled, “But you can take the heavy end.”
Sunset gave him a playful punch on his upper arm and then took hold of it gently as she leaned into him fondly and they set off for the school together.

The conversation was buzzing excitedly when Discord returned some time later carrying a step ladder, having clearly relented about making Sunset carry it. He strolled unnoticed up to the plinth and set it up, then climbed up to inspect the site of the rift.
“Well?” asked Sunset from below, “How’s it looking?”
“It could do with a good wash and a scrub down. You have no idea how messy birds can be sometimes. Why, if I had my magic …”
“No, the rift” she asked, rolling her eyes, ”Do stay on track.”
“Oh, yes, yes, yes” he replied with mild indignation, “Gone. I’m afraid to say it’s going to be a lot more boring around here now.”
“Well done!” she cried, stretching up and embracing his legs as the only bit of him she could reach.
“Oh, I say” he giggled, ”Is this some new form of greeting?”
“It will have to do until you come down” replied Sunset happily, ”Thank you Discord, you’ve saved the day!”
“Well finally I’m appreciated” he announced, stepping down and putting his arms gently around the flame haired girl who was hugging him enthusiastically.

Twilight had seen what was going on and led the others over to find out first hand what had happened, but Sunset’s broad smile said it all.
“Has it worked?” she asked, more out of formality.
“Yes, Princess Twilight, your theory was quite right” he concurred, “All I did was make it happen.”
“All you did?” she said, “That’s a pretty big job you tackled there Discord, thank you so much!”
“That’s what friends do, right? Maybe I’m starting to get this whole friendship thing after all.”
“Thank you” said Twilight again, happily embracing both him and Sunset in a big hug.

The party went on in a truly buoyant and happy mood and although Princess Luna was the one who probably wanted to leave the least, it was she who finally brought things to a close, mindful of her duties in Equestria. They walked slowly over towards the plinth, Twilight with Sunset, Celestia with Discord and the two Lunas together, stopping just by the portal to exchange last minute hugs, kisses and promises to meet up again. Then, as the moon looked down on them, they parted ways and three travellers once again faced the spinning vortex that was the wormhole across time, space and dimension.

They all spilled out of the Crystal Mirror into the familiar surroundings of Twilight’s Castle, returned once more to their natural forms, to find a group of colourful mares and a baby dragon waiting expectantly for them, all eager to hear about their latest adventure in the human world. Discord snapped his fingers and a cup of tea appeared resting on a matching gilt-edged saucer. He didn’t actually want the tea, but was just eager to test that his magic was still working. Happy that it was, he opened the nearest window with his magic and propelled the saucer out into the night as he supped from the teacup.
“What was that? Asked Twilight, perplexed.
“Flying saucer” he retorted nonchalantly.

Luna stared out wistfully into the night sky as if looking lovingly into the face of a dear friend she hadn't seen for a long time.
“What’s up Luna?” asked Twilight, tearing herself away from another conversation.
“It is the same, yet different” she whispered with an undercurrent of melancholy in her voice.
“Come on, it’s time we got you home” comforted Twilight, “Princess Celestia’s going to be worried.”

With a flash of magic, the party suddenly appeared in the warm night air on the Royal Balcony of Canterlot Castle, Discord smiling at the success of his teleportation spell. Their laughing and chattering shattered the lonely stillness that had pervaded just a fraction of a second earlier, alerting the guards, and in less than a minute Princess Celestia had come out to greet her sister, Discord and the friends from Ponyville. She gave orders to the night kitchen staff and shortly a feast had been prepared in the dining room for everypony to tuck into as they recounted their experiences; all except for Luna, who remained outside on the balcony, staring up at the stars, alone with her thoughts, a silvery trickle caught by the moonlight running down from her eyes.

Slowly she became aware of somepony else close beside her and quickly raised a forehoof to wipe away her tears.
“There’s no need for that, Lulu” came a soft and familiar voice.
“You are right, Tia” she replied, feeling a comforting wing stretched over her, “I … I saw another sky tonight and I wish to reacquaint myself with this one, to remind it, and myself how much I love it.”
“Were you wrong to go through to this other world?”
“The ponies, sorry, people, who live there are very nice and I long to meet them again, but I now know I belong here. I am tied to this world and this night sky, and forever will be, Sister.”
“It is the role we were born into” confirmed Celestia softly, giving her sister a tender kiss, “We can never truly leave.”

Just then Discord came out onto the balcony, howling with laughter, sharing a joke with Rainbow Dash. Their moment of shared quiet reflection passed, the Royal Sisters headed back into the dining room to make way for the new arrivals.
“I loved those pranks, Discord” hooted Rainbow, “Especially that one where you turned Sunset and Twi into balloon animals!”
“Well technically that wasn’t a prank, that was more of a defence mechanism” he corrected, “But I can tell you about a prank I’ve played that nopony else knows about, if you want.”
“Cool” she replied, “Like, just you and me, huh?”
“Absolutely. But you mustn’t tell a soul.”
“Hey, you know me.”
“Precisely. Well, while I was saving two worlds, I may have accidently planted a little something here in the castle, under the floor of the Throne Room to be exact.”
“What did you do?”
“You know Princess Celestia has a bit of a thing for cake? “
“Who doesn’t?” agreed Rainbow, trying to keep a straight face.
“Well, I’ve cast a spell down in the gully under the floor that will start to sing every time cake gets brought into the Throne Room. There are ten different songs, so she won’t get bored; If I knew you were comin’ I’d’ve baked a cake, I’m gonna have my cake and eat it too, Birthday cake …”
Rainbow rolled over holding her sides in laughter.
“And because the gully runs underneath the floor, that means the songs will be heard all over the castle.”
“Best prank ever!”
“I’d like to think it’s a small price for all of my selfless work” he smirked.

Comments

[Hopeful_Ink_Hoof]

My biggest issue with the story is the conclusion on what's happening that Twilight comes to. Because it's speculation. A conclusion she jumps to with no real basis to build it on. There was no previous facts to support it, nothing to even make her think that was the case. More so when you add in the fact that the mirror was not built at the castle, or had said castle built around it. As such, there is no logical reason for the way to the human world would be stuck there.

[Bronyxy]

9765810
I based this story on the canon provided by the FIM episodes and EQG movies, but not the comics or any other merchandise where there may be other references; consequently I am unaware of your assertion that the mirror was not built at the castle.

Indeed, in the EQG movie Princess Luna states “It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle. But when Princess Cadance took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over.” Anything to do with its earlier life remains unexplained, but in my story Twilight seized on the convenient colocation to develop her initial hypothesis which she then went to Discord to explore further.

In the absence of any further information, this seems perfectly reasonable. After all, any hypothesis has got to be based on a degree of speculation …

[MixMassBasher]

Enjoyable read though I felt underwhelmed. There wasn't anything at stake here. Just characters talking of a problem and Discord solving it.

[Vaguely Demented]

Not bad but the lack of conflict kinda detracts.