Prologue

Six Shallow Stallions

Prologue

A young man sat alone at his desk, the glow from his five-year-old laptop computer providing his office's only illumination. He yawned, sighed, and rubbed his face before returning his gaze to his late-night project. In an open window on the screen sat an unfinished document, a fan fiction story he'd been working on for fun. Tonight, however, he'd been plagued by the dreaded Writer's Block and could not figure out a way to finish it.

In tired frustration, he reread his latest scene:

Finally, face to face, the six strangers stood silent until the one of them removed his mask. Gasps resounded from all others present. The dawn of realization led the five remaining stallions to remove their own disguises.
The lover of fun had unhidden his rear legs.
The well read one unbound his wings.
The entrepreneur uncovered his tail.
The socialite showed his forelegs.
The competitor revealed his horns.
The shut-in looked upon the others, himself unmasked.
Their secrets had been brought to light before the whole group. It was then clear that those previously hidden pieces did not fully belong to them. Suddenly, the six became magnetized toward each other against their will. Though they did struggle, and though the ponies with them did assist, their efforts were in vain. This mismatched pieces touched, the puzzle was complete, and a massive flash of light consumed the shadows of the six. When the small crowd responsible for this meeting recovered their wits, they gazed upon what their work had yielded.
Six shallow stallions were gone, and in their place...
...was Discord.

The author groaned, "Ugh, I really like how I did this scene, but I've got no idea where I'm going from here. I mean, I'm pretty sure I can write some good dialogue between Discord, the Mane Six, and the Mayor of Las Pegasus, but then I'd still be in the same pickle. " another sigh, "How am I gonna piece together a happy ending out of all this? With everything I've already put in place against them, how do the Mane Six win?"

Here's an idea: they don't!

The weary writer rubbed his eyes. That last sentence had appeared on the screen without any input from him whatsoever.

As he sat in stunned silence, another message typed itself out:

All the way in fabulous Las Pegasus, the girls are just too far away from the Elements of Harmony to get back to them and use them before the whole world goes crazy, them and the princesses included! Discord is then free to rule forever and everypony lives madly ever after.
The End!

Surprised at the suggestion, the young man felt compelled to respond on the next line down.

That would be a horrible downer of an ending. Anyone who read that far would agree. Then there would be a flood of harsh comments, down-votes, and, worst case scenario, nobody would want to read my stories ever again!
So, no. I may not know yet how I want to end my story, but I know I don't want to end it like that!

Satisfied with what he'd typed, the storyteller crossed his arms and leaned back in his desk chair, waiting for a reply from this odd correspondent.

Sheesh! You didn't have to bite my head off! It was just a suggestion.
Besides, who cares what anyone else thinks? You're the author. This is your story. You can make it whatever you want it to be. All I'm saying is that Discord has got to be the most popular villain the series has ever had, and if you bring him into your story just to blast him with the Elements later, then not only is that incredibly rude, it's also highly unoriginal.

He couldn't argue with that logic.

Well, that's the problem I'm having. I want to resolve this conflict in my own way. I want to do something that will set me apart as a writer. I do think that playing the Elements card is a little overdone, but it's the only established solution.
If, in that case, I decide not to take that option, then how do I finish the story? What happens next?!

The young man leaned in, eager to see what this mysterious writer had to say next.

Anything could happen in that case! Including, but definitely not limited to, my earlier suggestion. I'd be happy to give you a new perspective on the matter...on one condition.

Oh? What's that?

Nothing much, really. I just want you to declare, here and now, on this very page, that the Elements of Harmony won't work as a solution.

Without a second thought, the author wrote.

You're right. It's a tired plot device with a bunch of MacGuffins.
The Elements of Harmony won't work as a solution.

The Enter key was struck, and with that the deal was sealed. The screen turned black, plunging the young man's office into darkness. Confusion took hold of his mind, and he frantically searched for the source of the blackout. When, by chance, he turned his gaze back to his decrepit laptop, he beheld the new message that now sat in the center of the screen.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Then, as the man sat watching, the text began to shift. The characters cycled through various font styles and sizes. Then more and more letters and numbers appeared, rearranging themselves and those of the original sentence into seemingly random patterns. When every pixel had finally fallen into place, the young author suddenly recognized the shape of a very familiar fanged face. The image smirked, and then the laptop speakers blared an equally familiar voice, "Welcome aboard, partner!"

"Discord!" the young man stumbled back into his desk chair, rolling it back against the wall in fear.

"Here, let me help you with that, " spoke the spirit of chaos, "you seem to have a real problem with shutting down whenever I make my grand entrances. Now, repeat after me, 'And then Discord pulled himself out of the screen.'"

And then Discord pulled himself out of the screen.

"W-What are you doing here!?" stuttered the story writer as Discord stood and stretched in the center of the young man's room.

"Well, you've been so cooperative, that I decided to come here to give you my half of our agreement in person! It's only fair."

The draconequus slid across the office floor and wrapped his hefty lion's-clawed arm around the worried writer's shoulder. The young man flinched at the close contact.

"As a matter of fact," the spirit of chaos continued, "I'm going to do better than just giving you a new perspective on your story!"

"H-How's that?" struggled the storyteller, feeling very much in need of an adult.

Discord wrapped himself around the young man from head to toe. Coils upon coils constricted the creator, and Discord looked him in the eyes and chuckled, "I'm going to give you six new perspectives! Isn't that just simply wonderful!

Laughter filled the room, and everything was spinning. All the colors the wordsmith could see began to blend together. In all the chaos, his eyes caught sight of a string of random posters he had upon the walls of his office.

Consciousness left him soon afterward as his world disappeared.

"Ah!"

Princess Luna suddenly awoke from the strangest of dreams. She didn't know why Discord of all beings was there, and the environment was completely foreign to her as well, not to mention the creature with which the draconequus was conversing. She sat up on her mattress in her navy blue silk pajamas and valiantly waged war against her growing migraine, "An oddity, though, he certainly wasn't behaving in a manner similar to when last I saw him. It appears as if he is once again up to his antics of old. I knew I couldn't trust him."

Young Twilight Sparkle's coronation was now a month behind her. Since then, life in Canterlot had more-or-less become routine, and, since his reform, the spirit of Chaos had been fighting tooth and claw to change that. However, if one were to observe his efforts, one could hardly tell how serious he was about it through his gleeful prankster's veneer.

Luna could tell, though; she knew how much that clown hated normalcy, and while his tricks had indeed become more harmless than debilitating, she still found it taxing to spend any significant amount of time in his presence. There was no time for lingering on her distrust at the moment; she still had a heavenly body to raise, and she was not going to be late for that.

That dream, though, thought the Princess of the Night, None of my own dreams have been so vivid prior to that. Could it be that my imagination is finally returning after so long, or could there be something deeper at work?

Resolving to ponder this curiosity later, Luna stepped out onto her balcony to raise the moon. In the twilight, she saw her sister Celestia poised and ready on a similar balcony on the tower across from her. She pushed all of her doubts from her mind to concentrate on her shared duty. She would not burden her sister with that which may only be a trifle. No, the Night Princess needed more information before calling upon the heavy artillery, especially if there be no need.

The two alicorn sisters rose into the air above their respective balconies, their magic dancing an ancient dance to the song of the Night Sky. Then, as it had begun, it was done. Her prime directive for the evening complete, Luna bade good night to her sister and set about preparing for the tasks yet ahead.

It was her special talent to make the night beautiful, but that meant more than just making every night a masterpiece. It took Luna getting jealous, banished, freed, and forgiven to realize that there had to be more to her talent than what she originally thought. Then one day, while she slept, she was visited by a chaotic and confusing nightmare. Explosions! Colors blazing around her! Cries of anguish coming from everywhere! and buzzing, so much buzzing! So much was happening, yet she could recognize nothing that she saw. It nearly drove her mad with terror, a terror she found herself unable to wake from. The dark alicorn's only rescue from that abominable vision was an inexplicable but entirely welcome wave of light that passed through her and the world of her dream, banishing the darkness and the chaos.

Princess Luna remembered waking up that night with an epiphany: while the beauty of her night is most plainly visible in her patterns in the sky, those who cannot enjoy that beauty, through no fault of their own, may often fall victim to nightmares and other such terrors of the soul, and as the princess who governs the night it should be her mission to make night more beautiful for the dreamers as well as the nocturnal by being the light that washes away their souls' deepest fears.

To that end, Luna developed two unique spells. One was an advanced scrying spell that she placed upon a sphere of the purest crystal. She placed this sphere on a pedestal in the center of her room. When her moonlight shines down upon it, the sphere projects a map of Equestria onto her bedroom wall, and the spell reveals the locations of souls that are troubled. The second spell was to be cast upon herself once she knew which of her subjects needed her help. It would allow a part of he psyche to enter the mind of said subjects with the purpose of experiencing the offending visions first-hoof. At which point, she could then interact with the dreamers in an effort to help them vanquish their fears and make way for more beautiful dreams to emerge.

Like every other night since she'd begun this new mission, she opened a small hole in her ceiling and let the light from her satellite strike the sphere. The Moonlight Eye, as she'd come to call it, then projected the map of her shared kingdom, and registered the location of each soul in turmoil with a small flame. Luna always liked to focus the area of her search methodically, following her charge's travels from east to west. Tonight, however, her attention was drawn in the opposite direction. The city of Las Pegasus was completely engulfed in flames!

Luna quickly adjusted the iris in her ceiling to allow in a more focused shaft of moonlight and rotated the Eye with her magic to zoom in on the, apparently thoroughly troubled, megalopolis.

"What?! How can this be? Las Pegasus was not in such dire straits last night, nor have I witnessed any warning of upcoming strife on such a massive scale." Luna scrutinized the map of the sprawling city, searching for a possible source.

"There appears to be a higher concentration of nightmares in some places than in others," she noticed, zooming further in to the point where buildings were identifiable.

"There's one cluster located in this casino district. Here's another one close by, around this amusement park." Luna placed a spell mark wherever she could best distinguish the center of each group, "There's one more near this convention center and also around this market strip, and I do believe the formations around this opera house and the hospital over here cover the rest."

"Now, what does this show me?" Luna stepped back a pace to take in the bigger picture, aiming to gleam some further clues from the relative locations of the marks she'd affixed to the wall of her room. After more zooming in and out, this time focusing the Moonlight Eye on each marker in turn, the princess quickly noticed a pattern, "How odd. It appears that, at the epicenter of each of these groupings, there is a spot with no turmoil whatsoever."

"Six of them in fact...no. Could it be?" There was only one way to confirm her hypothesis. Luna reached over to the Moonlight Eye once again, and it glowed within her magic as she adjusted the enchantment to only show the souls of those sleeping peacefully, "Exactly how many are you, ye who slumber in the eyes of these storms?"

Six flames appeared, while the rest were snuffed out, and each new flame sat squarely on one of her sigils.

That was all she needed to see, "It seems my vision upon the evening was no mere dream. I have been shown a prophesy."

Luna closed her ceiling's iris, returned the Moonlight Eye to its chest, and took her leave of her bedroom. She stepped gracefully but quickly off the edge of her balcony, her wings opening on instinct to aid in her descent toward the gardens of Canterlot's inner courtyard. She had someone from whom she required answers.

Discord, what have you been up to?

Ever since Fluttershy helped Discord reform, he'd been staying on the plot of land that used to house the castle garden's hedge maze. Celestia had granted it to him for his own personal use and gave him free reign to build, decorate, destroy, remodel, or whatever on his grounds as he saw fit. The draconequus jumped at the opportunity to have a place to call his own, even though the boundary limit should have been a hard sell as opposed to having the whole of Equestria to himself beforehand.

Discord's domicile was different each day, yet one aspect of the spirit's sense of design always remained the same: it stank. Clashing colors, neigh impossible architecture, annoying surprises for unsuspecting visitors, all were the unpleasant constants in "Discord's International House of Chaos". Luna had once pondered the reasoning behind the daft draconequus's choice of titles for his abode, but then she recalled that when Discord's involved, the less things make sense, the more sense they make. She'd since resolved to simply note that ''It's Discord being Discord" to quell her confusion and surprise at his antics.

Thus, being caught in a shower of Moon-Pies after knocking on his chartreuse, trapezoidal front door didn't even cause Luna to bat an eyelash.

Without warning, the warped demigod Discord graced his company with his presence, "Why if it isn't ol' Princess Luna! I wasn't expecting a visit from you tonight! Do come in!"

"Yes you were. You saw me coming a mile away." deadpanned the Princess of the Night, her eyes half-lidded, as she walked out of the pile of ironic pastries and into the misshapen entry portal.

Discord's smile faltered but quickly regained its footing. "Yes, yes, you got me," the harbinger of disharmony's attitude positively dripping of mock guilt and strawberry milk, "I have defaulted back to my evil ways and launched a maliciously premeditated attack upon the throne! There's no hope for me anymore! I have no choice but to banish myself to the moon for an eternity or two!"

A polka-dotted mortar cannon snapped into existence with Discord loaded into its nose. Said draconequus donned a white racing helmet and tracksuit with red highlights and sniffled as he climbed down into the barrel, "T-tell my n-new pony friends," the barrel of the cannon lowered to fire out a conveniently placed circular window as Discord burst into tears, "I'LL MISS THEM!"

The cannon fired its payload out its hatch, creating an irregular hole in the wall behind Luna and sending Discord careening out over the horizon until he disappeared from view with naught but a twinkle in the night sky.

Or at least he would have if Luna had actually turned around to watch him go. She instead turned her attention to a chandelier hanging from the floor and gave it a quick yank downward with her magic. In response, a hatch in the ceiling opened up, and Discord tumbled out onto the floor in a heap.

"Well, aren't we testy tonight." Discord noted as he pulled himself back together, "I guess I'll have to try harder at catching you off your guard next time! Now! What brings the humorless princess to my most humble abode?"

Luna gladly took the opportunity to direct the conversation, "I've found myself dreaming about you lately."

A conveniently placed glass of mango soda, which was sitting on the leg of an inverted coffee table, instantly jumped up and spat its contents out at Discord's stunned face. It fell to the ground and popped shortly afterward. The dumbfounded draconequus just shook his head and guffawed, "I -HEEHEEHEE- take back that bit about y-you -HOOHOOHAHAHAA- being the 'humorless' one! Oh, WOW, Luna!"

Luna just frowned and looked on as Discord laughed until he cried, and then he laughed again, "and the next -heheh- the next thing I know, you'll -hoooo- be saying you're actually serious!"

The princess didn't even miss a beat, "I am."

A herd of miniature triangular tires screeched to a halt nearby, and Discord stopped laughing, stood up and glanced away from Luna uncomfortably, "That...was not quite as funny as I thought it would be."

"Visions seldom are. " Luna's soberly replied, "All the same, Discord, please pay attention. I will say this naught but once."

Then, after the navy blue alicorn had finished conveying her day's vision to the draconequus, she laid out her plan, "I intend to send the Elements of Harmony to Las Pegasus on a mission to investigate possible causes for this disproportionate increase in nightmares. I want you to travel there ahead of them and provide any aid they may require during the investigation, and later apprehension of any culprits they may discover to be involved."

Discord crossed his asymmetrical arms and nodded sagely, "Nice exposition. Good plan. One question."

"And what might that be?" the slightly annoyed alicorn princess asked.

"Why should I lift a claw to help you with anything?" the spirit struck a theatrical pose: talon hand over his chest, head tossed over his shoulder, pawed hand now holding his own disembodied head, "What's my motivation?"

Luna's temper advanced but was quickly placed back in check, "The vision I received, though confusing, was clear on three points: one, that the events ahead will take place in Las Pegasus; two, the existence of these 'six shallow stallions' and the problems that will arise from them; and three, you, Discord, are in some way res-"

"Now let me stop you right there." the spirit of chaos interrupted.

The princess's anger mounted, "Yes, what is it?"

"It seems you've forgotten that little extra gift Celestia gave me along with this oh-so-generous plot of land," he paused in contemplation, "that was one of hers back in the day, wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was."

"And I imagine Laughter was hers, too?"

"Actually, that one was mine."

An awkward silence passed between the two, but neither would recall seeing it.

"Well...okay then," Discord eventually continued, "anyway, the point is Celestia's little housewarming gift to me certainly went a long way in convincing me to stay here and not actually try to take over Equestria again. Don't you remember what it was, Lulu?"

Her temper emigrated out from under her control, and it nearly immigrated into livid territory before she had it successfully deported, "Thou shalt not address me by that name, Discord. That permission belongs exclusively to Celestia!"

"Stay on topic would you, princess," the draconequus cooed, "you're making this conversation completely impossible."

A scroll snapped into being before the incensed princess and unfurled itself in midair. She took a reprieve from her internal struggle to scan over its contents, and then gasped out her summation, "A Full Pardon and Equestrian Citizenship?! Sister, why!?"

"Who cares!" Discord cackled, "With this document in my possession, I'm not responsible for anything I've done during both my release last year and the time before you two wrestled my old throne away from me!"

"Y-You..." Luna panicked, grasping at anything that might prove persuasive, "...you can't just ignore this! It's a prophesy! I know it!"

"'CAN'T'?!"

Celestia slept peacefully in her royal bedchamber. As was the case ever since Luna's return, the Sun Princess's dreams were sweet and peaceful. That wasn't entirely true more recently, though; in the weeks following Discord's reform she'd granted him some land near the castle. She'd intended for the deal to both keep Discord happy and in one place most of the time. However, she soon realized that the spirit of chaos never slept. He'd cause a terrible racket for no reason at odd hours and blasted what the princess could only assume to be what the daft draconequus considered music for hours on end.

Nothing would disrupt her sleep this night, though; she'd cast a silencing spell on every side of her sanctuary to keep out any offending din. So Celestia slept on, blissfully unaware of the gigantic, red-eyed, monstrous amalgamation of Discord and long-gone villainess Nightmare Moon that had burst through the roof of Discord's International House of Chaos, clutching Princess Luna firmly in its black lion claw.

"Why yes, Mr. Giant Birthday Cake, I would like some more of you. I don't think I could ever have enough. Mmm..." the white alicorn chewed on thin air, taking bite after bite of imaginary empty calories.

"No..." Luna couldn't move. Discord had grabbed her around the barrel, pinning her wings, and then he'd grown too large for his house. What was left of it lay in organized piles according to color on the ground beneath the giant. A tremendous snap rang through the air, and the imprisoned Princess's horn vanished. Every instinct within her screamed in her head to escape somehow, but the sight of the monster Discord became had paralyzed her.

"Now, pay attention, Lulu," Discord lectured, the stars in his eyebrows and goatee flowing in dead air with every articulation, "because I'm only going to say this once! Nopony tells me what I CAN'T do on my property! Like it or not, I'm an Equestrian Citizen now. If I want to ignore anything you have to say while on my land, I CAN, and I WILL! So every one of your little arguments about helping you being 'my responsibility' or anything of the like dies right now! Got it?"

Luna was compelled to respond, "Yes! I'm sorry!" she cried "I never should have tried to force you into helping me! But I can't just leave this matter alone, Discord! I have to send the Elements to investigate this, and I have no way of knowing what this mission has in store for them! Please! If you won't give your aid out of necessity or responsibility or any need for atonement, then would you...would you do it for dear Fluttershy and the rest of your new friends?"

A happy tune played, lights blinked, and Princess Luna, her horn restored, found herself on a wide stage before a multicolored backdrop. Discord, back to his regular size and dressed in a black suit coat and a brown plaid necktie over a clean white dress shirt and with a white handkerchief poking out of the breast pocket of the suit coat, draped his lion arm around her neck and spoke into a long, thin microphone in his other hand, "And for guessing correctly, Luna, you win..."

"A NEW CHARIOT!" Large panels in the backdrop opened up when Discord drew her attention toward them showing her prize, "It's the Night Rider 2000 Chariot! Your guards will be pulling you around in style with this luxury vehicle! It comes equipped with cup-holders for those long flights, Dual Shock Absorbers guaranteed to soften both your landings and your audience's expressions.With an Adamantium frame, and a striking black and blue design, it's the Night Rider 2000!"

The alicorn fainted.

"And remember, folks!" Discord said to a nearby camera, "In a utopian society like our Equestria, overcrowding can become a serious problem! So to help control the pet population, have your pets spayed or neutered. Goodbye, everypony!"

Sometime later...

"Good morning, Luna! Did you have a nice nap?" Discord floated beside the slowly reviving Luna.

"W-Wha...? Discord? I-I just had the weirdest..." Luna suddenly bolted to her hooves, "Did you say morning?!"

A run to the nearest window revealed to the contrary. Discord simply busted out laughing, barely containing himself enough to squeeze out a quick, "J-Just pa-HA-HAst midnight! Technically accurate! HahahaHA!"

Luna swiftly shot the draconequus a glare. She then noticed that the two of them were back in the attic of Discord's International House of Chaos. She turned to face the still-giggling trickster and demanded, "Discord! What WAS that!?"

Discord, his laughing fit finally quelled, lounged back on a grilled cheese hammock, "Oh! You gave me the answer I was looking for, so I decided to award you a little prize for your efforts. It's still sitting there in the corner for you, by the way."

"What?" Luna chanced a look in the direction Discord was pointing, and sure enough the Night Rider 2000 was parked on a low black pedestal behind her. Its jet black features seemed to absorb the light from the floodlights that were set up around it. The princess examined the plush seating area to find it dyed a deep, dark blue that closely matched her coat. She also took note of a softly glowing, whited crescent moon in the center of the carpeting, "I...I see. It's very...nice. Thank you, Dis-" she cautiously turned back to face him, "Wait one minute...."

Luna leveled her suspicion at him, "This is some sort of trap, isn't it? If I climb aboard that chariot, I'll find myself captured and under your control, won't I!? This is all part of some plot to use me as bait to force Celestia to surrender Equestria to you! Do you deny it?!"

Discord yawned, "I give you my word that there is nothing in that gift of mine that will bring either of you any harm. However much stock you want to put in that district is up to you."

"Very well," the alicorn growled, however she soon regained her composure, "we shall discuss that matter later. You have still failed to explain why you transformed into that monstrous amalgamation of yourself and Nightmare Moon!"

"Oh, that." Discord pondered then nonchalantly dismissed, "Fluttershy taught me 'The Stare'. That's all it was, really."

"Surely you jest! Dear Fluttershy would hardly be capable of such a highly effective intimidation technique!" Luna chided.

The Spirit of Chaos just stretched out his arms, touching both ends of the room in the process, and then rested his foreclaws behind his head, "Goes to show what you know about your subjects," he paused to sip up a few chunks of rock candy through a straw, "and don't call me Shirley. You wouldn't want me to call you, "Dan" or anything like that, would you?"

The awkward silence decided to make a repeat performance, this time while juggling some mangoes. It passed quickly, not able to take the stares from the two magical beings. It left the room, and when Luna turned back to face Discord, she continued their conversation as if nothing had happened, "So, do you mean to say that you shall indeed assist the Elements of Harmony in their efforts in Las Pegasus?"

A kettle whistled from the next room, and Luna looked over to see Discord striding into the room with a coffee pot in his eagle claw and a tray of scones shaped like the Elements in his lion paw. He set the edge of the tray on the tip of a large blue cone that was otherwise dawdling. It sat perfectly balanced, and Discord then proceeded to pour the liquid from the pot into his free hand. It filled the form of an insulated mug, and then it filled up said mug from left to right. He then repeated the action, pouring another mug of coffee for himself. After dismissing the now full pot of coffee, the draconequus offered, "Would you like one cream or three?"

Once Luna concluded that Discord's antics had portrayed naught but his usual level of nonsense, she decided it was safe to play along, "Three would be preferable to one, thank you."

"Here you go!" three tea spoons then proceeded to hurl up their equal measures of cream into Luna's coffee, staining it a darker black than what it had started out as, while two more did the same for Discord's beverage and dyed it green, "I like two better, to be honest."

Luna stared at the offered drink before her. Suspicions bombarded her better judgment with warnings, It's Discord! This has got to be another ploy! Poison! It's got to be poison! Mind control poison! If I were him in his position, this is exactly how I'd do it! I come to his home in need of his help, so he finds some way to capture or debilitate me and use me as leverage against my Sister! I can't actually consider drinking this! Neigh! It's his perfect opportunity to strike! But...if that's what's going on...

The princess's features remained stoic, despite her growing confusion, ...why all of this, then?!

Discord twisted a pair of ordinary straws into swizzle straws as the dark-coated alicorn puzzled further, Why go about this whole charade of being so...happy? Why be so insistent about your motivations? Why flaunt your freedom so openly when all you've really got is this one measly acre of land? You've never been satisfied with having anything less than an entire city under the talon of your sick rule! You also know that I would be aware of this fact! Are you veiling your intentions so densely now that I can no longer perceive them, or are you trying to catch me in some bizarre double-bluff?!

Satisfied with his work, Discord placed one intricately swirled straw in each of their drinks, "There we are! Enjoy. Not too slowly now, it'll start boiling if you wait for too long!"

WHICH ONE IS IT?! It certainly can't be anything else! Those are the only scenarios that make even the most remote MODICUM of...sense.

Luna blinked. All of her encephalous escapades ground to a halt. Everything had suddenly become clear.

Discord lifted his mug in a toast.

Luna reached out with her magic and did the same.

"To friendship?" the Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony proposed.

The Princess of the Night smiled, "To friendship."

Clink!

My Dearest Sister:

I have need to send the Elements of Harmony, your student Twilight Sparkle and her friends, to investigate a recent, inexplicable outbreak of nightmares in Las Pegasus. I have a few leads to possible sources, but I believe the Bearers of the Elements have what is necessary to get to the bottom of this.

Also, if you awaken to find our guest Discord absent from his "home", please withhold your alarm. He and I have come to an understanding, and he will be providing whatever aid of which he is capable to the Bearers during the oncoming investigation and, should a culprit or culprits be found, arrest.

It is strange, Sister. When I requested his assistance, I fully expected to be flatly refused. The fact that I wasn't had confused me, I must admit. When I learned, through him, of your Pardon for him and, even more surprising, that you'd granted him Citizenship, I thought it was incredible. Knowing our "old friend's" history, I suspected him heavily of foul play. However, I soon realized the most inconceivable thought!

Reality is utter nonsense for him, and vice-versa. If that is a given, then what would make the absolute least amount of sense to me after seeing all that I have seen tonight? Discord actually being not only reformed, but fully accepting of the virtues of Harmony.

So that is what I shall choose to believe.

Your Loving Sister,

Princess Luna

P.S. When you get the chance, please "check out" my "new wheels!"

With a flash of her magic, Luna's letter was on its way. Celestia would find it on her nightstand in the morning. The taxed but victorious Princess of the Night strode out from Discord's International House of Chaos on the resident draconequus's thoughtful gift to her, sipping her semi-sweet dark chocolate coffee through a blue swizzle straw.

However, when the liquid met her lips it scalded them.

"Bleaugh!" The alicorn princess spat out the straw. Her concentration broken, the mug slipped from her magical grip, and its contents were spilled all over her brand new chariot's carpeting.

"No!" Luna gasped. She braced herself for the boiling drink to splash back up to burn her further, but the scorching feeling never came.

Confused for what must have been the sixteenth time that night, Luna chanced a look at the damage to the Night Rider 2000's plush seating area. What she saw there shocked her.

The white crescent moon sat untarnished, glowing as pure as before, and the blue was still as dark and rich as it ever was, but something else was added.The coffee had become a black cloud around the moon, nearly covering half the area of the carpeting, in an eerily familiar pattern.

It was her Cutie Mark.

Then something wonderful happened. It was something that hadn't happened nearly enough since Twilight and her friends had freed her from the corruption of Nightmare Moon.

Luna laughed, and the moon and the stars laughed with her.

Elsewhere...

If there was one thing that Fluttershy enjoyed more than anything else in Equestria, it was getting up early to watch the sunrise outside her cottage while she put her nocturnal friends to bed. It reminded her that each new day was worth all the struggle, all the danger, all the turmoil of the last one. Even in a world such as hers, where all manner of monsters roamed wild just an hour's rampage from her house, the endless possible kinds trouble could only last for so long. Though many a fellow pegasus took pride on living above all worries of the land below, Fluttershy recognized the environment around her for the blessing it truly was. It was nearly impossible to see so many different colors reflecting off the bottoms of so many clouds from any other perspective. She thanked Celestia for creating such a work of art for even somepony as humble and lowly as her to enjoy.

Her tranquility was soon broken by a young dragon's shout, "Fluttershy! Fluttershy!"

"Oh, good morning, Spike." the pegasus cooed, "What brings you here?"

He took a moment to catch his breath before he gave her a look of desperation, "Fluttershy, thank goodness I found you! Here," Spike then produced a scroll of midnight blue parchment sealed with the sign of the crescent moon, "It's a letter from Princess Luna!"

"But," Fluttershy balked, "W-What would Princess L-Luna want with m-me?"

"I don't know. Maybe nothing, but it's addressed to Twilight. Plus it's got a seal on it that keeps anyone from opening it except for who's supposed to see it." Spike fussed as he fiddled with the seal on the scroll and tried in vain to loosen it.

"But, Spike, Twilight went off to Las Pegasus for its annual Literature Convention with Rainbow Dash." the pegasus squeaked.

The young dragon huffed out a small puff of smoke, "Yeah, I know, and it's not just them, too. Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack all went with them."

Fluttershy flushed over temporarily forgetting about her other friends' involvement in the trip. Applejack had a local cousin she wanted to visit, Rarity was enamored with the city's "High-Roller" culture, and Pinkie Pie was just eager to explore someplace new and make some new friends.

"But then," the yellow pegasus puzzled, "how is Twilight going to get Luna's letter?"

Spike knew he'd have to screw up every last ounce of courage he could gather if he was truly going to suggest what he was about to suggest. His breath held, his eyes locked shut, his heels snapped together, his fists clenched and ready, he stepped into the lion's den, "You'll have to go to Las Pegasus to give it to her."

The response was immediate. The timid pony's countenance crumbled. The battle of wills had begun, "B-But it's s-so loud th-there."

"I know." said Spike. His claws twitched in anticipation of the worst. The blows from her catapults did little damage against the thick outer wall.

Her primary assault weathered, she moved on to the ballista and began firing away. The pleading pegasus started sobbing "Th-the ponies there move s-so fast. Somepony could get t-trampled if she's not c-careful."

The young dragon's knees trembled, "I know." The wall was riddled with holes, but its structural integrity remained strong.

"The lights are s-so, so bright." Fluttershy fell to her knees and curled in on herself. She shuddered. Her forces, all copies of her, were ordered to reload and fire all of their projectiles at once in hopes of adding to the damage her second volley had wrought.

Spike's whole body was shaking, sweating, crying out for him to apologize to his bereft, butter colored friend. He stuttered, "I-I know." He knew she'd exhaust her ammunition in her vain attempts to destroy his outer defenses, but he hadn't imagined it'd leave so many cracks in the front gate.

It was time for a new tactic. Fluttershy's Will brought forth her favorite of all the siege weapons, the battering ram! Complete with a cute little lamb face on the business end. She openly cried, "P-Please, Spike, don't make me go th-there."

Spike's worrying got the better of him, and he opened an eye to see if she was okay. It was a grave mistake. The pegasus's army charged.

"I'm sorry, Fluttershy." he broke down into sobs right there with her. The door's been breached!

"You know I'd go myself if I could." he knelt down in front of her and placed a comforting claw on her shoulder. Retreat to the inner walls!

"It's just that after what happened the last time I was there, they won't let me get within a mile of the city," the dragon implored. He brushed her mane away from her face. Archers at the ready!

Fluttershy lifter her eyes to meet his, tears still streaming down her cheeks. She just needed to keep up the momentum and break down that final gate!

The little purple dragon just sat there and smiled at her, "And I just know Twilight would be disappointed if she found out the first letter Luna wrote since her return was for her, and she couldn't read it." Take aim!

Fluttershy's Will suddenly looked up from her position at the head of the ramming team to see a dozen archers atop the inner wall of the fortress known as "Spike's Resolve". Every one of them looked like the cute little dragon she knew, but all of their arrows were pointed straight at her. It was then that the invader noticed the well-chiseled form of Spike's own Will towering over his troops. A grin of victory flashed across his face.

"Fluttershy, I know you don't want to go, that the very thought of being in Las Pegasus is probably the scariest thing in the world to you right now, but you're the only pony in town I can trust with this," he placed the letter between her forehooves and looked into her reddened eyes, "would you please do this for me? You're the only one who can." Fire!

A critical hit! Fluttershy squeezed her eyes closed as the last bit of her will to resist failed her, "O-Okay, Spike. I'll...I'll go."

The battle's over! Spike's the winner! The victorious dragon reached out and gave Fluttershy a friendly hug around the neck, "Oh, thank you so much, Fluttershy! I knew I could count on you! Don't worry, I'll take great care of your animals here while you're gone."

Fluttershy sighed.

After a long train ride spent surrounded by five vacant seats, Fluttershy emerged from the station at her destination. It was just as she feared. There were scores of painfully bright strobe lights on every building, throngs of ponies trotting in every direction and mobs of carriages with radios that all blasted distasteful tunes as they passed. This was the city that never slept.

This was Las Pegasus.

Fluttershy wanted more than anything to just turn around and go back home, but unfortunately it wasn't going to be that easy. She was here on a mission.

"Oh, my friends. Where could you possibly be?"

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