Previous Chapters Next
Close
Prologue: Stanley's Day.1,133 words
Chapter 1: First Day in Equestria1,508 words
Chapter 2: Out of the Frying Pan and into the House Fire4,355 words
Chapter 3: Water Games and Appreciation2,227 words
Chapter 4: Repairs and Explanations2,692 words
Chapter 5: Learnings and Reunions1,441 words

Chapter 4: Repairs and Explanations

Twenty minutes later...

"MAN, that's some good cheese pizza!" he exclaimed, patting his now bloated belly with a hoof. "Would have been better with Pepperoni. Oh well."

While the Mask had been eating, some of the ponies had sat down with him and asked him questions. Where he was from ("Well, you know the story about when Mommy and Daddy really love each other? Well, that happened in a big place called Edge City."). What his name was. ("I, my equine friends, am The Mask!) And what he was doing in Ponyville. ("You know, that's a very good question! I'm gonna have to ask Stanley that one.") Meanwhile, the rest of the ponies had begun to clean up the damage. By the time the Mask had finished eating, all of the debris had been cleared off and the house repairs had begun. The rest of the ponies that had been talking to him had joined with the rest

"Wow, you guys sure clean up quick. How do you do it?"

"This isn't the first disaster Ponyville's faced before," said Twilight, approaching the Mask while levitating a blueprint next to herself. "We've been under attack and had several accidents before. Though that Enchanted Fire was dangerous, it wasn't the worst we've been through."

"Oh really? That giant flame monster seemed pretty dangerous to me. What could be worse than that?"

"The Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos, Discord.That's what's worse."

"Spirit of Disharmony and Chaos?!" he exclaimed, now in a reporter's outfit with a notepad. "That sounds terrible, frightful, utterly cliched! Please, do tell more! What makes him so terrible?"

"Very well. For starters, he can change everything around him to whatever form he desires with just a snap of his fingers. One second he's looking at some trees, and the next thing you know he's made them capable of walking. He looked at some rabbits and gave them five-foot long deer legs. He made houses hang upside down in the air, the sun and the moon kept rising and falling over and over in a matter of seconds, and he even made the clouds rain chocolate and the apples grow to pony size. But the worst part of it all: he turned everypony into opposites of themselves. Kind ponies were cruel, honest ones were liars, loving ones became hateful, smart ones became unintelligent, all for the sake of his amusement...come to think of it, you have powers similar to his!"

"Moi? What ever do you mean, Purple?"

"...okay, first of all, my name isn't Purple. It's Twilight, Twilight Sparkle. Second, you can materialize object out of thin air on a whim, change your appearance just with a spin, even bend some of the rules of both magic and reality itself! Think about it: you shot water out of a top hat into a house lit by enchanted fire, which somehow put it out. You then filled another house with water by sticking a fire hose into the wall, somehow making it inflate like a balloon before letting it all out with an open door. You even conjured a giant fire hydrant from random materials that you somehow got your hooves on and unleashed a torrent that, while putting out the monster, also flooded Ponyville like a giant pool."

"...and you're saying that I'm similar to this Discord guy?"

"YES!"

"Hmm...minus the turning people into jerks part, this Discord guy actually sounds kinda fun!"

"Fun? FUN?! You think he sounds FUN?!!"

"Yeeees, all except for turning ponies into their opposites and jerks," he said, now in his yellow suit and pants. "See, I enjoy a good audience as much as the next entertainer, but only when their reactions are authentic! We comedians can tell when someone's laugh is fake. It comes with the trade."

"Comedian? You think you're funny?"

"I do!" said Pinkie Pie, suddenly popping up next to Twilight.

"HEY, it's you! I was hoping to see you again, Pinks! Where've you been?"

"I was helping out with the repairs, silly! My home, Sugar Cube Corner, also got damaged, so I was busy helping with the repairs there! Oh, that reminds me. Twilight, Glitter Shine needs that blueprint as soon as possible."

"Right, I'll get it to her now," she said to Pinkie, turning to the Mask with a glare. "We're not done here, Mask."

With that said, Twilight walked off with the blue print.

"Wow, that's one no-nonsense cookie. She always like that?"

"Nah, that's nothing. There was one time she went Obsessive Compulsive over trying to figure out how my Pinkie Sense worked, and she literally burst into flames by the end of it all...although, she does get like that when she starts talking about Discord. Did she mention him?"

"Actually, she did say that he and I are similar, mostly how we can make stuff out of thin air and on a whim. She also said he turned everybody...er, every pony into jerks and opposites."

"Yeah, he definitely did a number on us with that one. He made me a big party pooper who got mad every time some pony started laughing or having fun."

"Hm...sounds like a certain Detective Kellaway I know back in Edge City. Incidentally, I wonder if this place has its own Coco Bongo?"

"Coco Bongo? Is that an instrument? There's an instrument store down the road that -"

"Nonononono!" he said, putting a hoof on her mouth (and producing a squeaky toy squeak from her). "The Coco Bongo is a jazz night club! It's where you get to dance, to eat, and make Conga lines till the sun comes up!"

"Conga lines? I LOOOVE Conga lines! I make one at every party I throw, and I throw a party almost every week!"

"A party every week? Now that's MY kind of living! The more parties the merrier, I always say!"

(Funny, I don't remember you ever saying that.)

"Hey, zip it, Invisa-head! I may not say it, but at least I live by it!"

"Yeah, at least he lives by it! Leave him alone!"

"...you can hear him?"

(You can hear me?)

"Of course I can, silly billy! I can see him, too! He's right up there, just above the words that say everything we just said, including what I'm saying right now!"

"Words? I don't see any words. (He then pulled out some glasses and put them on.) Oh, there they are! Wow, we sure talk a lot, don't we? Hey, how come Stanley's got more dialogue than me?!"

"Ooh, you know Stanley?! Did you come to Ponyville with him? Because he didn't mention you."

"Wait, you met wimpy Stanley already?"

"Yup! I like him, he's really nice. Kinda awkward like Fluttershy, but still nice! Speaking of, I wonder where he is? He disappeared after the magic flame monsters showed up."

(Well, you see the Mask is actually -)

"HEY!" he exclaimed, plugging Pinkie's ears with wax he pulled out of nowhere. "Secret identity here, remember?!"

"What?!" she exclaimed, trying to pull out the wax. "What did you say?!"

"Oh, nothing you need to hear," he said, pulling out the wax. "Career secrets that you don't need to know."

"...okie dokie," she said with a shrug. "But seriously, have you seen Stanley? He disappeared after the fire monsters disappeared and neither me nor my friends can find him. Right before you showed up, I think...I wonder -"

"Oh, I'm sure he'll turn up...in fact, I can help you look for him right now!"

"Really?"

"Sure! You go look that way, and I'll go look this way!"

Agreeing, Pinkie bounced her way over to where the Mask pointed. With her distracted the green pony sneaked into a nearby alleyway, looking around to make sure no one was within looking range ("In case you guys out there are wondering, I'm doing this because I don't want her putting two and two together and finding out who I am."). Once determined, he pulled out a suitcase from his pocket and propped it open and grabbed the edged of his mask with his inflated gloves. Lightning radiated from the Mask's mask as he attempted to pull it off, the thing stretching like elastic as he pulled at it. With a peal of thunder and a flash of light, the mask finally came of and reverted Stanley back to his blue pony self. After checking himself to see if everything was back to normal (and being disappointed that he was still a pony) he put the mask into the suitcase, closed it, and held the thing by the handle in his mouth before stumbling out to find Pinkie.

"Phunkie!" he called out after catching up. "Phunkie Phie!"

"Stanley! There you are, silly billy!" she said, hugging Stanley. "Are you okay? You disappeared after the fire monsters showed up."

"Um ukuh -" *drops suitcase from mouth* "I'm okay. I, uh, took shelter in a house a-and waited it out. I-is everyone alright?"

"Yup! This isn't the first disaster we've survived, and we'll survive even more! C'mon, Twilight and Fluttershy are worried about you!"

Pinkie Pie grabbed him and his suitcase and zipped her way towards the center of town. When they got there, Stanley was greeted by Fluttershy and Twilight, the former overly glad he was alright and the latter giving him a concerning glare. Fluttershy checked up on him, making sure he was alright before giving him a hug. Once it was established that he was alright, they all went back to finishing the repairs to the town. Stanley was volunteered by the others to help, but after the first few clumsy accidents (the least painful ones include dropping the hammer on his front hoof and accidentally bumping somepony into a freshly painted wall) he was asked to sit on the side. He agreed and just sat on a bench, watching the other ponies work. It gave him time to try and collect what he remembered from the time he wore the mask, as it was usually blank in random parts (sometimes he could remember all but the smallest details, and other times he wouldn't remember anything at all).

"Okay, let's see," he mumbled to himself. "I put on the Mask to help Twilight, and then...and then...the Mask was experimenting a little bit, taken by surprise at the new body...and then he turned into a magician...and then built a giant...fire hydrant? Well, he's done crazier things...but that's not the end of it. Ugh! I can't remember the rest."

"Something wrong?" asked Twilight as she approached.

"Oh, Twilight! I-I-I-I was, uh, ah, just uh -"

"If this is about the Mask, I already promised to keep all of that a secret. Remember? You can trust me."

"R...right, you're right. I, uh...I'm just not used to having another person to trust with this...I mean, outside of my reporter friend Peggy...and she uses the Mask's antics for her front page scoops."

"Excuse me?"

"Uh, nothing! But, um...*deep breath in, deep breath out* I'm having some difficulty in remembering what the Mask did while he was out."

"While 'he' was out? You make it sound like you're two different ponies."

"We are...er, sort of...how do I explain this? Let's see...the Mask is...well, the mask itself is, obviously, a magic mask. When someone puts it on, it grants them, well, the powers of a god. They can warp reality, they can survive almost everything that can be done to them. But that's only half of the mask's power. The other half is that it...it brings out who you really are, what you really feel. You become who you secretly are inside, even if you're not aware of what's inside of you, without the inhibitions...well, except for conscience, and even that's not always going to help. That's why I refer to the Mask as another person: he's not me, but rather what's inside of me."

"...so he's a second personality composed of everything you're repressing."

"Yes."

"And what you're repressing is a wild stallion who does whatever he wants, whenever he wants, but has a good conscience?"

"Yes."

"And as a negative side effect of wearing the mask, you sometimes have blanks in your memory from when it goes on to when it comes off."

"Yes."

"I see...how often does this happen, and to what degree of severity?"

"Almost every time. Sometimes I can remember most of what he did, but other times I don't remember anything he did."

"Hm...I don't like the Mask, but I'll help you. I can use a memory spell to try and help fill in the blanks of your memory."

"Really?! You can do that?"

"Of course, it's not too difficult for me. I used it on my friends when Discord manipulated them into being their polar opposites. I'll have to do it after we're done with repairing this side of Ponyville, it shouldn't take too long."

"Well, I'm not going anywhere today....and, uh, maybe you could help me with sending me home? That is, uh, why I came to you to begin with."

"Of course! That problem will take time and research to solve, but I'll get you home. You can count on me."

"I hope so...thank you."

Meanwhile, several miles away...

Canterlot was huge, overlooking the land from the side of a mountain. Within it was the famous Canterlot Castle, home of the famous and ever-benevolent Princesses Celestia and Luna. The city itself was home to the elite of Equestria, the rich and the upper-class. Everywhere you looked, big and expensive were the vibe. (But let's take a look at a specific part of Canterlot, shall we?)

From above the castle, a blue and white hole in the air began to open up. From within the portal stepped out the all-too-familiar imp known as Skillit.

"Okay, Stanley couldn't have gotten far," he said to himself. "Knowing him, he'd probably be in some corner rocking back and forth like a broken human, considering this is a place of total anar...chy...what?!"

It was only then that Skillit had gotten a good look at his surroundings, at the beautiful and peaceful kingdom that he was in. He looked all over, a confused expression upon his face.

"This...this is Equestria?! Where are the fires? Where's the confusion?! Why aren't the sun and moon constantly going up and down?! WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE CHAOS?!"

Author's Note:

Sorry that it took so long for this new chapter. I had one heck of a writer's block for this story and lost motivation at one point. But now, here it is. I hope you enjoy after all this time.

Please let me know if there are any errors in coloring, spelling, or grammar. Also, opinions on the chapter itself are good.

3,880 views