> Interviewing Mr. Disc
>  by CrackedInkWell
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1: Interrogation and Small Talk
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Take a seat please,” she said politely. Normally I would have complied happily, especially at this time of year. Summer vacation was just about a month away after all, and I was planning to spend my creative time in childhood land of innocence and nonsense called Equestria. And normally I wouldn't mind being interviewed by anyone, even when they took me to a darkened warehouse where the only thing I could see is a table, a couple of chairs and a lamp that hung there like a yo-yo; like right now for instance.

But sadly that has been soured quite a bit recently. Ya see, the lady in white that I’m being interviewed, like how my bosses would call in students into their offices, is calling me in because I've gotten into some trouble. Oh don’t look at me like that; I didn't start it, really. I just happened to get involved in it.

“How long is this going to take?” I asked sitting down in one of the chairs.

“That depends on how willing you are to work with me.” She replied as she took the seat in across the table from me. “The sooner you answer all of my questions, the sooner that you’ll be on your way.”

“Fine,” I rolled my eyes. “And you know, come to think of it… I've think I've seen you more often lately.”

“Well, this town is part of my care to look after,” the redhead said, “Considering all the recent events such as the sirens, Ms. Shimmer, and the transfer student by the name of Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah, the nutcase then,” I nodded. “You know, a part of a few teachers and maybe one or two of my bosses (if either of them had any time), I hardly have anyone to talk to about her.”

“What about the other students?” she asked.

“Like who?”

“Oh, I don’t know…” she opened up her little black book, “Students such as Applejack, or Pinkie Pie, or Rarity, or Rainbow Dash, or Fluttershy, or perhaps from Sunset Shimmer.”

“Looks like somebody has done their homework,” I commented, giving her an amused half-smile.

“It’s what I do, so have you tried talking to them about Sparkle, before her disappearance?”

“Oh, so that’s what it’s all about then huh? Sparkle is gone?” she nodded, “Since when does the CIA get involved with a student’s disappearance?”

“From the day you were able to perform unbelievable magic tricks that would leave even the most sophisticated magician stumped. And considering the fact that on record, you were the last to have seen her.”

I looked around the black, empty space of the warehouse, “Isn't there supposed to be some recorder to… Oh, I don’t know, record all this?”

“This interview is being recorded Mr. Disc,” she replied. “If it helps any, there’s a couple of microphones that are hanging somewhere over our heads. Oh and don’t try to think of cutting them off or do anything stupid.”

“What makes you think I wouldn't?” I questioned her, lifting my right hand up, showing her that I was ready to snap them.

“I think I would take a look at your hand if I were you,” she said. Confused, I looked to find my hand was covered in red polka-dots that were made of light. 

I turned back to glare at her, “Oh that’s just playing dirty.”

“You think so? Well, when we’re dealing with a being such as yourself, we, of course, have to take a few precautions to make sure things don’t go out of hand.” She gave me an innocent smile before reaching into her white suit pocket to pull out a plastic-wrapped peppermint, “Want one?”

I shook my head, “I guess let’s get this over with.”

“Suit yourself,” she shrugged as she put the hard candy back. “Now then, down to some of the basic questions first. Your name is Julius Author Disc right?”

“Yeah.”

“And you currently live on 1314 Pony Hill Road?”

“Yeah.”

“Also, you are still currently a teacher at Canterlot High?”

“An art teacher, which I’ll have you know I’m very good at it.”

“So I've heard. I had seen a few paintings you've done in the past.”

“Oh?”

“I've seen some of your paintings you sell online, as well as your masterpiece at Sugar Cube Corner.” I've nodded, even when there’s an unknown amount of snipers in the same titanic room, it’s good to know that someone speaks highly of my art. “But is the high school aware of your powers?”

I chuckled, “As of now, it’s pretty much a worst kept secret. I mean, Cel eventually found out from my students who were taking my class. She seems to know more about all the weird stuff that’s been happening lately. No, I know she knows because she didn't even flinch when I popped a crown on her head as a joke. She said that as long as my superpowers are used for ‘educational purposes’ and that nothing gets too out of hand, I’ll be fine.”

She nodded, “Alright, has the school taking this well?”

“Actually, things had been going great since I've figured out how to use my powers,” I grinned, I whistled in existence for a glass of expensive Italian red soda. “It makes things so much easier you see. Grading papers are done in a snap, props appear at a whistle, and could create my art in an instant.”

“Do these powers affect your mental state? I mean, you do suffer from hallucinations and all.”

I pulled out my bottle of pills and placed them on the table. “These pills do tend to help. If I wasn't taking them, I don’t know if I would be able to tell the difference between my illusions and my instant creativity. And before you ask, the answer is yes, I have taken it before I got here.”

“That’s good,” she smiled.

“Oh, and before we go any further,” I said leaning to her, “What did you say your name was again?”

“Agent F.”

“No, I mean your actual name. Calling you F seems rather distant if you ask me like I’m talking to a letter of the alphabet then a person.”

“Very well, it’s Faust.”

“Much better,” I reached a hand over to her to shake her; she looked at it for a moment before shaking it. “So Faust, you were saying about the missing student?”
> 2: Suspicions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Yes actually,” she nodded, “tell me, when did you first became acquainted with Ms. Sparkle?”

“If you meant the transfer, I think it was about the beginning of the last trimester,” I told her. “At the time, things haven’t been better for me. I was gaining respect for the first time in years, students were increasingly taking an interest in what I have to teach, and I was having so much fun doing it. Anyway, Ms. Sparkle, the one you’re looking for, came to my class after Spring Break. You know, I actually mistook her for someone else.”

“What do you mean?”

_*_

You see, the way she was dressed, her hair, down to the very shade of skin color reminded me of someone that I've met before. An acquaintance of mine who always came up as uptight yet is always willing to learn. In fact, you might say that I mistook her for someone else.

Before class was done, I asked her to stay for a moment so we could have a talk. She did after class was finished and everyone left the room, she came up to my desk and I told her, “Your Highness, you can drop the act now.”

“What are you talking about?” she asked with a confused eyebrow.

I looked up, “Oh come on Twilight, I know it’s ya, so you don’t have to play dumb with me at the school.” Again, she persisted that she had no idea what I was talking about. “What do ya mean by that? Aren't you here for some friendship thing with the girls here? Is it for Fluttershy’s work at the animal shelter? Or maybe you’re here for Rarity who’s struggling to come up with an idea for a fancy dishcloth? Oh! I know why you’re here. You’re here because Sunset is trying to come up a new song.”

Still, she looked at me as if I was trying to explain physics to an infant. “I seriously have no idea who those people are.”

I think she saw my brain forming a mushroom cloud because at that moment she jumped back. I couldn't blame her when somebody has blown my mind.

“Sorry, what!?”

“GAH! How do you do that!?”

I shook my head, “What?”

“That – How did you form a little mushroom cloud over your head?”

“Smoke and mirrors,” I rolled my eyes. “But in all seriousness, what do you mean that you don’t know who they are?”

“I mean, I don’t know who Fluttershy, Rarity or Sunset are.” She said, “Look, I think you've must have mistaken me for someone else.”

I took in a deep breath, “Very well, in that case, sorry for that, you’re excused.”

As soon as she left the classroom, I made up my mind that I needed to see the girls about this. So I made my way into the cafeteria to the table where they usually sit.

“Hey Mr. D,” Applejack nodded as I approached.

“Ladies, I think we have a problem.”

“Problem?” Sunset said, raising an eyebrow.

“It’s about Twilight,” I told them, taking a seat with them. “You do know that she’s here at the school right?”

“Twilight is here!” Pinkie exclaimed, both in surprise and excitement. “Oh-oh! I really should throw her a ‘Welcome-back-to-Canterlot-High party!”

“Wait, Twilight is here?” Sunset asked, “That’s weird, she would give me a heads up before coming here.”

“Hold your ponies, that’s not why I’m here,” I told them, “I think that Twilight had a good knock to the head beforehand or something.”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked.

“Give me a sec,” I said as I left my left arm out and spotted a stray thread on my coat. I took hold of the thread with my right and pulled down a mini screen where it played the discussion I had with Twilight.

“Aren't you here for some friendship thing with the girls here?” Me on the screen said, “Is it for Fluttershy’s work at the animal shelter? Or maybe you’re here for Rarity who’s struggling to come up with an idea for a fancy dishcloth?”

“Hey!” Rarity scolded, but I let the scene play.

“Oh! I know why you’re here. You’re here because Sunset is trying to come up a new song.”

“I seriously have no idea who those people are.” Twilight on the screen said I heard some gasps from some of the girls. The scene played on for a short while before I rolled the screen back up my sleeve.

“What’s up with Twilight?” Rainbow asked, “That’s not like her at all.”

“Do you think,” Flutters suggested, “that she’s got amnesia?”

“And where’s Spike?” Rarity asked, “He’s always by Twilight’s side, yet from what you've shown, I didn't see him at-” We all heard a familiar ring. It was coming from Sunset’s bag. She pulled out the vibrating diary and opened it up.

“It’s Twilight,” Sunset said with wide eyes, “She’s saying that she’s planning to come here tomorrow.”

_*_

“Sorry, you just lost me,” Faust stated.

“What?”

“A diary that acts like a smartphone and what are you trying to imply with what Sunset said?”

“Well, we just realized that the Twilight that I talked with wasn't the Twilight that we knew.”

“So a mistaken identity?”

“Almost like a lost twin in how similar she looked and sounded.”

“But what about this book?”

“A form of communication between Sunset and the Twilight we know.”

“That rings and vibrates?”

“Look, I don’t get it either why neither of them just get a phone or something.”

“So anyway, what happened next?”

_*_

Well, as you can imagine, all of us were dreadfully confused. I mean, if Twilight is where she’s supposed to be, then who was it that I talked to?

So the girls made up their minds that they would find this other Twilight Sparkle. And I told them that I would do some investigating of my own. After that, I went to the teacher’s lounge where I found Celestia there. I went up to her table and asked: “Mind if I sit here.”

“Not at all.” I sat down across from her and I snapped my fingers for a bow of New England clam chowder. 

“So Ms. Boss,” I started, “I have a question regarding a student here.”

“Oh?”

“Tell me, do you happen to know anything about a Twilight Sparkle?”

She looked up from her salad, “Twilight?”

“Yes, I noticed that she has enrolled in my class today.”

“Oh,” Celestia nodded, “the newly transferred student. Yes, I remember seeing her around before, but it’s just yesterday that I've got the proper paperwork for her to attend.”

“Are you sure it’s really her?”

She put down her fork, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, is this the same Twilight that we know? When I mentioned the names of her friends, she told me that she’d never heard of them. And to top it all off, Simmer had received a message from Twilight, saying that she’s planning coming here tomorrow. Cel, I think something is going on.”

“Are you implying that we’re dealing with an impostor?”

“Seems like it, and I doubt its changelings.”

“Pardon?”

“Has your sister ever told you the time I brought a shape-shifter as a temporary assistant? I don’t think his kind would be here since they are afraid of us.”

Celestia blinked, “Okay? So what are you purposing to do?”

“Answer me this, you said that she’s a transfer student, right?” she nodded, “Where was she transferred from?”
> 3: Stethoscope on the Window
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“And what did you find out?” Faust asked.

“Well, before I go any further, are you sure you don’t want a drink?” I asked before taking a sip from my glass. “I can whatever drink you want to appear.”

She shook her head, “Sorry, I can’t accept drinks or anything from those I’m interrogating except for information. CIA rules you see.”

I frowned, “Party-pooper.” I down the rest of the class before refilling it. “Anyways, before I found out from Cel that Twilight the transfer is indeed legit, I got a note from Pinkie. She said that the girls want to meet me at Sugar Cube Corner to tell me what they found out.”

_*_

It didn't take long to figure out where the girls sat when I went to the place since they usually sit in the same place. So I made my way over and took a seat, the lady who ran the place takes my order and we started talking.

I asked them: “So, what did any of you girls find out?”

“It’s really weird,” Rainbow started, “I mean, she’s like Twilight yet she isn't at the same time.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie nodded, “Like when I found out that Twilight is in my music class, I was all like: ‘Omigosh! She looks and sounds like Twilight! And she uses large words that even the teachers scratch their heads at, so it must be Twilight! But Flash Sentry was also in the same class, and did you know what happened? I heard her say that she didn’t know him! I mean what?! How could she not know her own boyfriend?! It’s soo not like her!”

“And another thing,” Applejack added, “When I and RD ran into her after fifth period, tryin’ to say hi and all, she looked at us like Granny makin’ a banana cream pie.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow interjected, “We even tried telling her that we’re her friends, but she didn't believe us! So we tried telling her everything we already know about that egghead. She just called us creeps and walked off!”

“The thing is,” Applejack continued, “When we asked her if she has a brother, loves ta read, has a pet named Spike and all that, she said yes it was true, but she doesn't have a lick of who we are.”

“That was pretty the same thing that happened to us,” Sunset said. “We tried to convince her that we’re her friends, but she doesn't have any clue as to who we are.”

“Yet at the same time, like Applejack said,” Rarity stated, “She certainly has the same personality as the Twilight we know, but sees us as strangers. Whoever she is, she’s certainly an enigma.”

“Quite,” I nodded, “Meanwhile, I asked Celestia a favor to take a look to see if this Twilight isn’t an importer.”

“Or maybe…” Fluttershy started but trailed off.

“You have something to say, my dear?” I inquired. 

We waited a moment to collect herself before saying: “Um… I think I might have a theory about her.”

“Well go on Fluttershy, share it with us,” Rarity urged her on.

“Okay… Have any of you thought that since we have access to an alternative universe-”

_*_

“Stop right there,” Faust interrupted, “What did you say?”

“Weren't you paying attention, Ms. Faust?”

“No, no. I mean what was that bit about an ‘alternative universe’?”

“Now be patient, I’ll tell you soon enough.”

“Are you sure you’re not lying to me right now?” she asked, giving me a stern look.

I shrugged, “What need do I have to lie? One of the lessons I learned from being in a mental hospital is that lying against someone who wants something badly from you is always a bad idea. Besides, you being in a government agency, don’t you think you might have already rigged some truth-telling-machine that can tell you if someone is lying just by listening to their voices? Or perhaps it’s a fact that you've been trying to read my face ever since I've stepped inside this place?”

She didn't say anything.

“So do you want me to go on or not?” I asked her.

“Continue.”

_*_

As I was saying, Fluttershy said: “Have any of you thought that since we have access to an alternative universe, that there’s a second version of us that lives over there?”

We all said sure but we asked her why.

“I just had this thought,” she said, “what if that the Twilight that we know is in Equestria, but there’s a version of her that we haven’t met until today? I mean, we already know Twilight from that alternative world, but what about the one here?”

As she said this, my eye strayed to look at the windows. It was then that something had caught my eye. On the lower corner of the window that was behind us, I spotted one of those stethoscopes being pressed against the window with a purple hand holding onto it.

“Ladies,” I said, “stop talking for a moment.” They all looked at me, asking me what I meant by that. With my eyes, I singled them over to the window. “You know what; I’ll be in the bathroom, so I’ll be right back.” I got up and made my way outside. I went around the building and peeked around the corner, and do you know who I found over there? You guessed it, Twilight, using a stethoscope to spy on us.

So I did what any other reasonable man would do when he’s being spied on. I made a grandfather clock crash somewhat by her to distract her from noticing my approach. She, of course, jumped when the clock hit the grown, and at me when I said: “You do realize you’re using that incorrectly.”

“AH! What?! How?!”

“Now, now Twilight,” said leaning over her. “Even I know it’s impolite to spy on somebody even when we mistook you for someone else.”

“I don’t think so,” she said, “all of you are spying on me for some reason, and I want to know why!”

I raised an eyebrow, “We, spying on you?”

“That’s what it’s got to be,” she told me. “You guys knowing that I have a love of research; have a dog named Spike, and have an older brother who’s married. I highly doubt that you mistook me for someone else.”

“Well it was a simple mistake on our-”

“No! You guys are spying on me, and I’m going to prove that you are!” Twilight said before running off.
> 4: The Disappearance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Faust facepalmed, “That was incredibly stupid of her. The logic behind that: she spied on you guys to prove that she was being spied on without being something to record that she was being spied on.”

“Perhaps she hasn't done espionage before.” I shrugged. “That or maybe she wants to make sure.”

“Of what?”

“That she’s being spied on. I mean, wouldn't you have done the same if you suspect that someone is sticking their faces into something you don’t want to?”

“Point taken, but when was the last time that you've seen Twilight Sparkle?”

“Perhaps I can tell you what happened the next day, no?”

“Yes that’s right; she was last seen by you at the school. After that, she wasn't seen since.”

_*_

I see, the next morning, when I came to work, Celestia called me in to tell me about what she found.

“From what I've found of the paperwork, the transfer coincides to who she says she is. I couldn't find any signs of fraud. I even contacted the school she went to, Gallup High, and turns out that she’s was indeed a student over there. So as far as I can find, either this transfer is a master con or you might have been mistaken.”

For the first few hours, I remembered what Fluttershy said about that we might have run into this world’s version of Twilight. At the same time, I couldn't help but think if there’s any difference between the Twilight we knew and this one.

Speaking of which, I couldn't help but noticed how the newbie would glare at me. Like she’s expecting me to do anything destructive (perish the thought that I would do something like that)! How do I know? Maybe it could be the backpack she was carrying around looks like its stuff with equipment. (I could have sworn that I saw a wire sticking out from it!)

Once class was over, when Twilight barely got that backpack filled with who-knows-what, and I was about to step out of class for lunch, guess who happened to step in? Yep, it was Twilight, only she didn't have the backpack and she had a green and purple dog by her side.

“Hey Julius,” she said with a smile.

“Hold on,” I told her, “Are you Twilight the magical pony or Twilight the suspicious new student?” She blinked and asked me what I meant by that. I explained, “Remember how I ran into my other self in your universe, like how your friends did? Well, let’s just said that I've run into your… you.”

“Really?” both she and the dog said.

_*_

“Wait, wait, wait," Faust interrupted again, “the dog talked?”

“Yeah?” I said while quickly adding, “And I’m sure that I wasn't hallucinating right then. Besides, I wasn't that surprised when the dog started talking.”

“Why?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I had a hallucination of talking to a squeal once,” I replied while giving her a smile, she once again facepalmed.

“As you were saying,” she said.

_*_

Anyway, I told them that I was serious. “And as of now, she’s now suspicious about us.”

“What did you guys do?” the dog asked.

“Some of us had mistaken Twilight here from how similar they looked and sound. We even tried to tell her that we already knew her, but now it’s gotten her into Mission Impossible mode.”

“What?” Twilight asked, tilting her head to the side.

“She thinks we’re spying on her,” I deadpanned. “And now she’s trying to prove that we are spying on her.”

Twilight thought for a moment, “I guess I might have done the same of ponies somehow knew me before I did. I would have tried to find out how. Where has she gone now?”

“How do I know,” I shrugged. “If I had to guess, I say that she’s off to collect info or something, I don’t know. What would you do?”

“I guess I would have…” Twilight trailed off. “I think I know where she’s gone too. Where are my friends at now?”

“Right now is lunch time, so the cafeteria.”

“Come on Spike,” and with that, she and the dog exited my classroom.

But I suppose this is the part where you want to get to huh Faust? Okay, here’s what I know. I was on my way down the hall to the teacher’s lounge and my path happens that I was walking past the cafeteria.  Now grant it, yes it’s true that I did see the transfer student last. But I guess what you've haven’t heard is that I also saw our Twilight as well.

Just like that, WHAM! I was knocked to the ground and I heard one of the Twilights shout for the other to stop. Spike quickly followed suit behind them. Mind you, I have no idea what the whole circus show was about, but it got me curious as to what was going on.

The three of them were headed to the front door, the last thing I've ever seen them, was that they ran out through the doors. They were closed by the time I got there, and when I expected to find the three of them squabbling about… something, I opened the doors to find… nothing. I scanned the courtyard to find it empty. I swear that’s the last time I've seen them.

_*_

“What did you do after that?” Faust asked. “Did you try looking for them?”

“Of course I did,” I told her, down the glass. “I got out, calling out to them, even looked up and down the street to see if I could find any trace of them. I couldn't find anything, even when I got a bird’s eye view of the town.”

“What do you mean?”

“I got a Pogo stick and jumped as high as I could to see them,” I said dryly. Why do I have to explain that to her? It’s pretty much no brainer if you ask me.

“So you just looked around and then stopped?” she asked.

“I had a limit amount of time to eat and prepare of the next class, I did what I could with the time I had. Besides, I thought one of them would turn up sooner or later.”

“Do you have any idea where these two Twilights and the talking dog had gone to?”

“How do I know?” I told her, “It’s not like they…” my eyes widen. Like how an angle would drop a golden brick that’s made to construct the golden roads and accidentally dropped it on my head, so did the realization of where both Twilights had gone to. “Oh, I am such an idiot! I think I know where they are!”

“You do?” Faust said, straitening up from her seat.

“Why didn't I think of this before?! I think I know where to look!”

“Where?”

“The school,” I told her getting up from my seat. “Ms. Faust, could I get a ride to the school.”

“As long as I go with you,” she told me, “At least you've given me a lead here.”
> 5: Welcome to Wonderland Agent F
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Agent Faust parked her black car in the school’s parking lot, scanning the courtyard in front of her. She turned back to me asking, “Are you sure Twilight Sparkle is still here?”

“Absolutely? Not really, but I have a pretty good idea where to look.”

We got out of the car, and Faust looked around once more, “Where exactly?”

“How about you just wait right-”

“No,” she told me, “I need to see where she had gone to. Besides, the fact that you know where she’s gone to is suspicious in and of itself; so until I see Twilight Sparkle safe and in one piece, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

I sighed, “There’s no way of talking you into staying by the car right?” she shook her head. Giving a shrug, I added, “Fine. Fine, suit yourself.” We started walking towards the statue, “Although I trust that a CIA agent like yourself is good at keeping secrets right?”

“I’m afraid I that’s classified,” she joked.

“I’ll take that as a ‘yes-I-can-but-I-don't-want-to-say-it.’” I stopped to look around, “Say, how come none of your buddies have followed us here?”

“I’m highly trained,” she replied, “Also I trust that you wouldn't try to cross me.”

“Is that you boasting or threatening me?”

She giggled, “A little bit of both I suppose. However, I could see that you do have good intentions, yet the protocol tells me to make sure you’re not up to anything. No hard feeling really, with you I hope you don’t see me as an Agent, but a fellow friend.”

“Fair enough I guess,” I said, by now, we reached the base of the statue. “Now let me see…” I felt around the statue to see if- yes! At one side of the base, my hand went right through like a hologram. I turned to Faust to see her wide eye surprise.

“How did you do that?” she questioned.

“If I’m right,” I told her, “I think that the Twilight we’re looking for might have gone through here.” I pointed to the portal to make my point. “Perhaps by accident or something, but I’m willing to bet you that the newbie has fallen down the rabbit hole.”

“To where?” she asked, sticking her arm through the portal. “Are you telling me that this leads to that alternative universe you've mentioned?”

“Hmm… Pretty much. So do you want me to go fetch her or-”

“Wait, have you been through this thing before?”

“Well yeah, of course, I have a couple of times.”

“And you know what’s on the other side?”

I nodded, “But of course.”

She looked between me and the entrance before putting her right hand to her ear, “Agent F to Agent M, do you copy?... Hello, can you send a couple of Agents over to Canterlot High?... Yes, I think I might have found a lead… Why the backup? Because I think Mr. Disc has shown me something that I think we should have a few agents to record… Yes… Yes, of course… Thank you.”

She put her arm down and I asked her what that was about, “Clearly you've shown me a portal to an alternative universe, so I think I might as well get some witnesses to record some evidence.” She looked back at the school, “Plus, I think I need to have a talk with your Bosses later on.”

Give or take five minutes later, two black cars pulled up, and four agents stepped out of them with cameras on them.

Faust told them that she will be sticking with me and that if neither of us comes back within a few hours, then they should send in some backup. The other agents complied like robots and she turned back to me.

“Well then,” I bowed to her, gesturing over to the portal, “Women and children first Ms. F.”

She nodded and stepped into the portal, all the while the nearby agents were snapping away at what was happening. I turned to them, stepping backward to the portal, “I hope you’re getting my good side,” I joked as they were taking the pictures while getting sucked back into Wonderland. 

_*_

With the familiar sense of spinning came back to me at full force as I stepped out of the familiar mirror, I think I tripped on something that made me fall backward. Luckily, however, I happen to land on something to soften my fall. “Oomph!” Or at least, something alive that is. Even with the room spinning around like a gyroscope, I was able to make out something white that had red hair.

“I know,” I told her, “Coming or going here always makes you dizzy. Just give it a moment.”

She shook her head a bit, “Where… exactly are we?”

As my vision got more stable, I found that the white thing I've landed on had wings and a horn with streams of crimson flowing wildly down her horseified head like uncombed hair off of a doll’s. “Equestria, if you could believe it,” I told here. “Oh, and if I were you, I’d get all my screaming done right here and now.

“Why?”

“Look at your hands.”

“My ha…?” she trailed off as I guess her vision now came into focus at what she was seeing. Her eyes widen when she saw her hooves. I already put earplugs in for the blood-curdling, ear-deafening, high-pitched scream of horror she was about to unleash. He jaw hung open, even trembled in shock.

I waited. But at first, she didn't do anything until she got a look at me. I find it rather odd that she would scream at me rather than at the fact she has no hands. I took the earplugs out, “Are you done screaming?” I asked her.

“AAHHHHHHH-” she replied, I quickly plugged my earplugs right back in.

In a moment while she was screaming her head off, I saw a door opened for a moment to see a guard popping his head into what the shrieking was about before leaving.

I snapped an apple in existence and plugged it into her mouth.

“Are you quite finished yet?” I asked her, taking one of the earplugs out. She took a bit of the apple and spit out the piece.

“Of course not! I’m a horse!”

“So?” I said raising an eyebrow, “I've turned into this thing and you don’t hear me yelling.”

“Where are my hands?” she demanded, “and why do I have wings? Did I turn into a pegasus?”

“And you have a horn sticking out,” I pointed to her forehead, “Just like how the other Twilight, Cadence, Luna, and Celestia on this side of the multiverse.”

She blinked, “Pardon?”

“Yeah, those four here are like you for some reason.”

Suddenly the door busted open with a legion of gilded pony guards, “Halt in the name of Princess Twilight!” one of them shouted.
> (Do I know you: According to Agent F)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Tell me,” I turned to Julius who looked like the aftermath of a kid who took apart limbs of other toys and stick them into one body. “Does this happen very often? I mean getting arrested by ponies with spears?”

He shrugged, “I guess it’s a Thursday thing.”

I turned back to our heavily armed escorts on the ground and a few in the air, “Look, is arresting us really necessary?”

“We’re not arresting you, Miss,” one of the guards said, “although, the fact you and Discord have appeared in the same place where Princess Twilight was last seen from is indeed suspicious.”

“This brings something up actually,” I turned back to Julius, “What’s all this business of Twilight Sparkle being a princess?”

“Which one are you talking about?” he asked, holding a paw and a claw up. “Are you talking about the one we’re looking for,” in his paw, a little figuring of the missing student appeared. “Or are you talking about the one who lives here?” in his claw, a figurine of a… what was it that the guards said…? What was that word? Alicorn? Yes, it was! A purple alicorn figurine was held up in his claw.

“I suppose the latter,” I told them, watching both of them disappear into thin air.

“Yes actually,” he said, “I found that out when I first came here.”

“Wait here,” we stopped at a door in this long hallway that’s somehow made out of blue crystal. And if I didn't know any better, I’d say that the whole thing wasn't carved but formed in one piece. (I wonder how they did that.) The pony who spoke went in through the door, no doubt to talk to his superior about finding us.

“You know,” I told Julius, “if we get back, I’m going to have to face quite a bit of paperwork for finding all of this.”

He raised an eyebrow, “Paperwork? How so?”

“Really?” I deadpanned, “For the fact that there’s a portal that leads to a universe of equines that talk. So negotiating with the leaders here is going to be a migraine on my-”

“Good news everypony!” Julius’s voice declared… except it was coming from behind me. Julius looked up and I turned around to… Okay, what did I eat before all of this? Now I’m seeing a second Julius with an oversize envelope. “I know exactly where…” the second Julius looked down at me, and for whatever reason, he jumped back in fright. “GAH! U-Uh… H-Hey t-there, Ms. F. L-Long time no see.”

I looked between the two Julius’s, one was scared stiff of seeing me while the one I’ve been with gives me a confused look; confusion, something that I and of these guards share with each other.

“What’s gotten into you?” the Julius next to me asked. “You know her?”

“Unfortunately yes,” the other Julius responded. “Don’t you?”

“A little, I’m kinda in trouble with her at the moment.”

“Oh…” the other Julius shook his head but still kept his eyes on me. “Does this happen to involve a purple unicorn and a purple princess by any chance does it?”

“What purple uni-” I started to ask but I was quickly cut off with someone shrieking from the other side of the door we were waiting.

“WHAT!?!?” Not too long after that, the door inexpertly flung open, slamming a few unlucky guards between the flung doors and a wall. In the doorway was an alicorn that was blue, at first, she somehow reminded me of someone. She had a mane that was like peering into a night sky; her crown was dark and had a chest piece of a crescent moon. But why did she look so… wait… is that?

“Luna?” I asked.

The mare’s eyes were wide as her mouth is open. Before anyone (including myself) could so much as to process what was happening, I found myself on the ground with the mare’s forelegs being tightly wrapped around me.

“MOTHER! WHAT JOY IT IS TO HAVE THEE BACK ONCE MORE!” she really needs to learn about using her inside voice more often. If she keeps it up, I might go deaf!

I looked up to Julius to find that his mouth has crashed through the floor and into the basement. “Mother?” he asked.

Turning back to the mare that’s squeezing all the air out of my new body like a boa constrictor, I tried to use whatever air was left in me to tell her to let go.

“Oh, forgive us,” she said sheepishly, letting go of me. Come to think of it, she does sound exactly like the Luna I know. “We- sorry, I didn't know that you were coming. But, I and the elements have been engaged in an important matter as of now.”

Once I got air back into my lungs, I asked her what she meant by that, “A fellow Princess, Twilight Sparkle has gone missing since yesterday,” she told me. “We have sent forth a search party to find her.”

So their Twilight has gone missing as well?

“Um, excuse me,” the other Julius spoke up. “As amusing as squeezing your mother like a tube of toothpaste, I think I've found something vital.” There was a flash of light before he was suddenly wearing a costume from the old Sherlock Holmes stories, cloak, hat, and even down to the pipe that blows out bubbles. “I've taken these pictures while I was looking near the Everfree Forests.”

“Well, let us see,” Luna said as her horn glowed and the envelope floated over to us. She opened it and took out its contents. It had a few pictures and a magnifying glass. There were three pictures in all. One was a crossed looking white rabbit looking into the camera; another was an underwater picture of a fish with wings; and the last was a wide-eyed red pony with orange hair, sitting by a tiny table with a miniature tea set, an old doll sitting in a chair, and in the background was an open window that overlooked a forest that had two purple dots in it.

“Discord,” Luna looked up with an annoyed look. “What do any of these pictures have anything to do with Twilight Sparkle?”

“You said go out and find anything suspicious, so I did,” the other Julius, apparently called Discord here told her.

“Can I see this one?” I asked, pointing to the picture with the red pony. I turned back to Julius number one who has seemed to more or less gotten over his shock. “Julius, could you hold this picture up?”

He did while I grabbed the magnifying glass with both of my hooves without it slipping. Once I got a grip, I turned my attention to the window in the picture. Using the glass, I saw that those two dots were two nearly identical ponies, except I saw one with wings while the other hasn't. Plus from what details I could spot, their hairstyles match the missing student.

“Well… Discord,” I said, “I think you've just made our jobs a little easier.”

Luna grabbed the picture and the glass from us to look at the two Twilights. She grew a paler shade of blue.

“Sargent Sharp,” she said, “Make preparations to turn our search party to the Everfree Forest.” She turned to me, helping me back onto me… hooves, and dragging me into the room. “In the meantime, we ought to do some catching up.” Before the doors closed behind me, I caught a glimpse of the two Julius’s looking at me.
> 6: Into the Woods...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, that was unexpected,” I thought out loud.

“By-the-way,” the other me snapped my attention, “What brings you here?”

I shook my head until my head detached itself, “Oops,” I clumsily caught my head to attach it back on my neck. “Sorry about that, I guess I just got a little bit distracted there. Anyways, as I've said, I’m here because of her.”

“Faust?” I nodded.

“Our version of Twilight has vanished out of thin air. It wasn't until a moment ago that we've figured out where they are.”

“I see… So since you-know-who is out of sight, wanna help me out looking for the twin bookworms?”

“I don’t know… I might get into trouble if she doesn't know where I am since I’m under suspicion… why not?”

He grinned, “Well, in that case,” he snapped a claw, and in a brief flash of light like someone flashed an old camera in my face. I blinked as I heard a loud buzzing sound, only to find myself in the cockpit of one of those old airplanes. Looking around, the plan we were in has the same color scheme as the coat that I always ware, plus, I saw on one wing was a screw, and on the other, a baseball.

“Why not we start looking for them,” I turned around to find my other self, wearing a leather cap, goggles, and one of those stupid scarfs with both a paw and a claw on the stick as he shouted at me over the motor.

Turning my attention to the ground, I saw that we were flying over Ponyville. As we flew, a couple of those pegasi nearly got in the way, quickly followed by a moment of curses that quickly followed as we zoomed past them.

The other me turned the plane towards the forest where he flipped it upside-down so we could get a good look at the forest. For the most part of a few minutes, all we saw was trees, trees, a bush, more trees, a zebra, lots of trees, a giant monster, and even more trees.

“Anything?!” the other me shouted.

“No,” I yelled back. It was then that I spotted something to my left. Barely sticking out of the trees, I saw what looked like ruins. “Hey, what’s that?!” I asked, pointed over towards the crumbling structure.

He looked over to where I was pointing, “It’s a castle!”

“Why don’t we look over there?!”

“Why?!”

“Maybe they went over there,” I shrieked, “You know, shelter!”

“Ah, good thinking!” and with that, he changed course and we headed to the ruins.

As we got nearer, I saw a flash that was coming from in the direction of the ruins. When the other me flew over the ruins, I saw a slosh of purple that was waving its appendages around like it was trying to reenact a rain dance.

Before I could react, suddenly we found ourselves being ejected from our seats while the plane nosedived into the forest below, followed by an explosion.

Seconds after we were popped out, thankfully the shoots did as well, gently carrying us down to the ruins below… Hold on, what’s that smell? I looked up, “Really?!” I turned my eyes over to my other self, “A diaper?!”

“Hey, they actually make good shots,” he responded. Oh, he wants to play it that way, well two can play at this game! I snapped my paw to turn his shoot into a dictionary.

“Nooooooofaaaaaaiiiiirrrr!” he screamed as he plummeted down. Oh relax, he’s kinda me, I’m sure he’ll be-

CRASH!

…. Whelp, never mind then.

Anyway, once the ground got near enough, I jumped out of my seat and headed to see if the other me was more or less okay. As it turns out, he was sitting in an armchair, wearing a housecoat reading “War and Peace.”

“What took you so long?” he asked, closing the book.

“Hello?!” we both heard a familiar voice coming from the other side of the castle. “Hello?! Is somebody out there?! Help us!”

He looked at me, “Want to do the honors?”

I snapped my fingers to teleport us to the other side where we found a purple unicorn that looked like she just got out of basic training. Her mane was a mess and there are cuts and scratch marks all over her.

“Ah!” she exclaimed (or was it screaming) when we suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“Never fear mis,” I turned around to find my other self wearing something that I’d need to bleach my eyes with. He looked like one of those superheroes wearing a blue mask that covered half his head, a blue cape fluttering in the wind, and a yellow suit that had a white “I” on his chest with a blue outline. And there’s the underwear that looked like it hasn't seen a washing machine in years.

“Never fear, Inconsistency man is here!” he said proudly. “How may we help?”

“For starters,” I said, “you can get rid of the getup; practically the underwear on the outside thing.”

He looked down, “Am I? Huh… I haven’t worn these since I was six.”

“Can we get back to more urgent matters?” the familiar looking unicorn asked. “She’s hurt. Well, I’m… she… just come to help me!”

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“It’s the other me,” she said, “she’s unconscious!”  We followed her not too deep in the castle to find the familiar purple princess, laying her head against a few saddlebags and having a nasty looking bruise on her head. Not to mention that she had as many scratches and cuts as her other self does.

“We need to get them to a hospital,” I turned to my other self, “now.”

“I’m on it,” he snapped a paw and in a flash of light, we were beamed into the waiting room with a convenient doctor nearby. 

“What the-” the doctor started but was cut off.

“These two have been in the Everfree for a couple of days,” the other me told him, pushing the two purple ponies over to him. “One is out like a light, the other isn't. Now get to work.”
> 7: Mothers to Mothers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The other me spread the word out to the search parties that both Twilights have been found, much to the relief and worry of her highness’s friends, the Princess of the Night, and the CIA lady. The twin Twilights are in the same room, one of them sitting upright on the bed looking over to the other who’s still unconscious. Both of them were wrapped up from all the cuts they had on them.

I cleared my throat, getting her attention, “I think a little ‘thanks’ is in order?”

“Oh yeah, thanks for saving us back there...” she trailed off, staring at me for a moment. “Do I know you? You kinda sound and look familiar to me.”

“Let me give you a hint,” I said, “you were spying on us a couple of days ago.”

Her eyes widen and threw an accusing hoof towards me, “Wait-a-minute! Mr. Disc! What are you doing here?”

“I think she would like to ask you the same thing.”

“Who?”

“Oh, I don’t think I've told you about the CIA lady that has been looking for you.”

“The CIA?”

“Yep,” I said, folding my mitch-match arms, “Apparently your disappearance has landed me into trouble, simply because I was the last one to have seen ya. She followed me here because I had a very good guess where you might have been. Turns out I was right.”

“Oh,” she looked down, rubbing one foreleg with the other. “Where’s this CIA agent?”

“She’s right here,” the door opened, in which Faust came walking in along with Luna. She turned to me with an expression that I could only describe as restrained frustration. “Julius, I will speak with you about your actions of vanishing from my sight later. As of now,” she turned to Luna, she looks softening, “would you and Luna kindly leave the room for a moment. I want to have a little talk with Ms. Sparkle.”

“Of course,” Luna nodded. I followed my other, another boss out of the room, leaving the agent alone with Twilight.

“You know,” I started, “out of all the other versions of the people that I know, I don’t think we’ve met yet have we?”

“I suppose tho- you are the other Discord that my sister and Princess Sparkle have spoken of?”

“Quite. Say, could I ask you something, it’s been bothering me for a while ever since you saw your ‘mother’.”

“What about it?” Luna raised an eyebrow.

“To be honest, it’s the first time, at least on this side, that I've heard that either of you even have a mom. I don’t know about you and the other Celestia, but from where I come from, neither of my bosses hardly mentioned about their parents. No, scratch that, they've never mentioned it. Look, I honestly thought that maybe they were orphans or something, so I didn't say anything. But now with you calling Ms. Redhead mom, I can’t help but think what’s going on here.”

The other Luna sat down on her haunches, her back to the startle wall, “I see, you wish to know about our past and her correct?” I nodded. “Well, I wouldn't lie to you that I wasn't surprised that, Agent Faust, is from your world of humans. I didn't think that we- I would encounter an alternative version of the mother that I and Celestia know and love. Do you remember how in your world that there vast differences between us?”

“Like have all of you are a talking horse?” I questioned.

She narrowed her eyes at me, “We prefer ‘pony’. But nevertheless, that is one such example. This Faust, the one from your world, is like the mother we know, and yet at the same time, she’s not. For she has the same look like her, even the personality as well, yet it’s not quite her.”

I blinked, “Is this supposed to be one of those Zen riddles because you’re not making much sense here.”

She sighed, “What I’m trying to say is that she may have the same characteristics of mother, but the circumstance to which she becomes our mother has a striking difference. You see, the mother that we grew up with was, indeed, our mother that we were born from. Interestingly, however, she tells me that she didn't give birth to your Celestia and Luna, but rather raised them as her own.”

“Stop right there,” I told her. I grab hold a piece of the wall to pull out a chalkboard. “Let me see if I get what you’re saying here.” Snapping a piece of yellow chalk into existence, I quickly began drawing a line down the middle of the board, and then sketched out characters of three horses on one side and three people on the other. “You’re saying,” I tapped the side with the horses in which the drawing came to life when the two smaller horses went up to the taller one to nuzzle. “That in this universe, your ‘mother’ is your biological parent right?”

She nodded.

“But from where I come from,” I tapped the other side with the three people that when they came to life, look completely confused. “You’re saying that this Faust raised my bosses. Why?”

“That is something that both of them do have in common,” Luna commented.

“And that being?”

“In that father was abusive,” she answered, “as far as I understood from her, she said that she was adopted into the family. But after a few months, the mother of your Celestia and Luna died, leaving it up to the father to take care of the young children. She said that he became violent after his wife died, so it was left to your Faust to not only take care of them but to protect them as well. She told me that she was a few years older than them, by six or seven years, but at the time, she had to grow up fast to make sure they were safe.”

I blinked, I turned back to the board to find the people side was as surprised, if not shocked as I was.

“Did she tell you all of this when I and the… other me, went looking for them?”

“She did,” Luna said, “right away, she told me that she was from your world and why. So of course, I got curious to see if there was any difference as she was. Truth be told, we didn't know that you were gone until Discord popped in to tell us that both Twilights have been found. Still, even when the circumstance was different, the story was really the same.”

“You mean…”

She nodded, “Father, wasn't what one would call kind nowadays. Of course, he wasn't as big of a monster as Sombra or Tirek of course… But after what we've seen…” she shook her head. “It doesn't matter now. I can see that even when she comes from a different background, the personality and nature of her is the mother that I know. Carrying, imaginative, protective, strong-willed, and has a sense of duty to make sure that everyone is both safe and happy. Just like her.”

“Princess Luna!” We looked towards the sound of the voice at the other end of the hallway of the hospital to find five familiar ponies coming our way. “There you are,” Rainbow said as she stopped in front of us. “Is Twilight okay?”
> 8: Twilight's Story
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few minutes later, Faust was done with talking to the Twilight from our world to let us in. Of course, the five recently arrived mares were taken by complete shock from Faust’s appearance.

All of them, except for Pinkie who was jumping for joy, “Hi there!” she said as she hopped over to Ms. Redhead. “What’s your name? Where did you come from? Are you staying in Ponyville for very long? I hope so, that way I can throw you one of my ‘Welcome-to-Ponyville’ party. Would you prefer chocolate or vanilla cake, or both? What’s your favorite-”

“Pinkie Pie,” Luna interrupted her by picking her up off the ground by her magic. “Do calm thyself; she doth not expect to stay here for long.”

“Ah Luna,” Faust said, “You’re doing it again.” My alternative other boss turned pink in embarrassment. 

Fluttershy walked passed the two tall horses and me to the hospital beds where she finds the two Twilights. The one who’s conscious examined her for a moment before saying: “Hey, I think I know you. In fact, you all look familiar.”

“What are you talking about darling?” Rarity asked, “Of course you know us. We’re your friends.”

Twilight shook her head, “No I don’t. I think you might have mistaken me for her.” She pointed to the unconscious princess next to her. 

The others looked at her in shock.

“Okay, hold up,” Applejack interjected, “What do ya mean, ya have no friends?”

“I just don’t,” Twilight shrugged, “and why should any of you care? It’s not like… wait…” she got out of the hospital bed to look at each of them. “Now I know why all of you look familiar, all of you were the ones who were trying to spy on me a few days ago!”

“Twi, what are you talking about?” Rainbow questioned.

“You guys were the ones who had me ended up here in the first place,” she said.

“But I thought you said spotting your double was what brought you here,” Faust inquired.

“Actually,” I spoke up, snapping my fingers to have a suit, tie, and a fedora with a pencil in one paw and a notepad in the other. “I’d like to know what happened after you chased your other self through the portal. And why their Twilight hasn’t woken up yet.”

“As do I,” Luna agreed. “I’m certain that everypony here would wish to know as well.”

Faust went up to Twilight, putting a hoof on her shoulder, “Just tell them what you’ve told me.”

Twilight nodded, “Okay, I guess I should say that I’m not a pony first of all.”

“We already know that silly,” Pinkie interrupted, “I mean it’s just simple logic that you’re not our Twilight since you’re a unicorn and our Twilight is an Alicorn. But you sound exactly like Twilight, and even Discord has told us that you’re from the human world.”

Twilight blinked, “Okay… Anyway, I want to clarify that I wasn’t the one being chased, she was the one who was doing all the chasing.” She pointed to her other self to make this point. “Plus, I didn’t look to where I was going before I tripped and fell into this place. So, of course, I got scared once I arrived here with a different body that I’m not used to, along being in a world that I’m not familiar about. Who wouldn’t?”

“But, how did you end up in the Everfree?” Fluttershy asked.

“Well, she freaked me out when she popped out of that mirror, and I started running. Of course, I didn’t know where I was going, even after I ran out of that crystal place. She somehow kept popping in front of me, only to find out later that she was trying to calm me down. I tried to avoid her as best as I could until we ran into the forest. She at last gotten me to listen, saying how she’s not going to hurt me. The only problem was that by the time she was able to do so, we realized that neither of us has any idea where we were.”

“Now hold on,” Rainbow stopped her, “didn’t, our Twilight use her wings to figure out where the two of you were?”

Twilight blushed, “Oh… About that,” she rubbed the back of her neck with a foreleg… Wait, I know that look anywhere. It’s the kind of look that my students give when they knew that despite knowing fully they had a project to do they never end up doing. “I uh… Well, when she was chasing me, her horn glowed and tried to drag me back to her… but I uh… I grabbed a rock and threw it at her.”

“You broke her wing!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Hey, I didn’t know what her motivation was at the time! Plus, I didn’t know that was, well, normal here.”

“So I guess that explains how you two got lost,” I said, jotting down a few notes. “But that doesn’t explain why she’s out cold.”

“Again, my bad,” Twilight answered, “As I said, we got lost in that forest for a few days, trying to figure out where we’re going and all. Well, she… the other me tried talking to me and… we didn’t get along. She went on about the importance of friendship and I told her why I didn’t need it. I keep telling her that we have our intellect after all, so why hanging out with a couple of strangers would be any more important? And then there was all this nonsense about ‘magic’ that she was using. I keep telling her that magic doesn’t exist and even brought about scientific examples why not. So you could guess that we’d argued for a while until it reached a boiling point. We were by a short cliff when we’d bickered that I… I pushed her. She lost her balance and tumbled backward down and I saw her hit her head against a tree.”

‘Looks like we’ve got ourselves a scoop,’ I thought to myself, ‘Twilight pushes self off a cliff and into a tree!’

“How could ya do somethin’ like that?” Applejack scolded.

“I wasn’t thinking straight, okay?” she confessed, “I was angry at her. But when she hit her head… I-I couldn’t just leave her there. I mean, even if we disagreed, she’s still me. So… I tried carrying her on my back until I found some ruins where I spent the night in; which is where we stayed until we were found.”
> 9: And They Lived... Uh, Hold That Thought.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So,” Fluttershy said, turning to their Twilight, “How long is she going to be like this? I hope it isn’t serious.”

“From what I've heard,” our Twilight answered, “the doctors estimated that she may wake up within a day or two.”

It was then that I got an idea, an idea that manifested a metal bowl in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other. “Or,” I said, waltzing over to her bedside, “We could try this.” I held the bowl right over her face, and before any of them could stop me, I hit the spoon a couple of times.

Klang! Klang! Klang!

“AH!” Their Twilight screamed as she bolted upright, hitting her face against the bowl I was holding. “Owe! What the hay-”

“Twilight!” suddenly all five of her friends came rushing to her like dogs rushing to a piece stake.

“Thank Celestia you’re alright darling,” Rarity said in relief.

“I don’t know about that,” she said, rubbing her snout. “Where am I anyway?”

“At the hospital,” Rainbow answered. “Both Discords had found you and your uh… other self here.”

She looked around, spotting the other bed beside her. I looked over to her doppelgänger, which her expression was unreadable as a black book. “Good to see you awake,” she said.

“Oh,” their Twilight said, “I assume that you've already met my friends?”

“Not for very long, they've just got here a couple of minutes ago.” She turned to Faust, “Agent F, can you please take me home now?”

“Hold on a sec,” Pinkie interjected, “Don’t either of you wanna stay for a while? I can whip up a welcome party in within a half an hour.”

“No thanks,” she said, “At present, I prefer to go back home, take a shower, and then find a good book to read.”

“Well… what about you?” Pinkie asked, turning to Faust.

“I assume that I’d have to, given that those I work with would need some more concrete proof to support that I haven’t lost my mind.”

“Yay!” she threw confetti in the air, “That’s great! When do you expect to come back so I can throw you the welcome party?”

Faust thought for a moment, “I suppose within a few days. But as of now, I must respect Ms. Sparkle’s – eh, our Twilight and have her brought home. Also, Julius,” she turned to me, “I still expect to have a talk from you as well. So please follow me.”

We the three of us, Faust, our Twilight and myself began to walk away when Twilight called out, “Wait, uh, Twilight, don’t you want to meet our friends?”

“You mean, your friends?” she corrected her, “And no thanks. I have my books, my pet Spike, my family, and my future of becoming a teacher. Not this,” she waved her hoof around the room. “Look, maybe you are me, but this isn't the me that I want to be. I never asked to run into a portal into an alternative universe, nor getting lost in the wood with you. You can keep your friends; I don’t think I need them. Oh, and before I go, please do me a favor and from now on, don’t try to replace me.”

“I’m not even trying to replace you,” their Twilight objected.

“Yes you are, you came into my world, having everybody over there think that you’re me so you could do… whatever it is that you’re doing that’s giving the area school some unknown form of energy-”

“Sorry, what was that?” Faust interrupted.

“Yeah, have any of you ever noticed?” our Twilight questioned. “For the past several months, there have been huge bursts of energy from electronic, radio, and magnetic to name a few that I've recorded that has been coming from Canterlot High. It has already happened a couple of times and I’m surprised that the CIA has just started to look into this.”

Faust raised an eyebrow, “We’ll talk more about that once we get home, okay dear?”

She sighed, “I guess so.” Our Twilight turned to me, “One more thing, when we get back, could you tell your friends to leave me alone from now on?”

I hummed in thought, “I’ll see what I can do.”

As we headed back to the crystallized castle, Luna soon caught up with us. “I've forgotten to ask,” She said, “Have you seen our Discord before we've met?”

I shook my head, “No, come to think of it, I haven’t seen him since we arrived at the hospital. Don’t you have any idea?”

“Afraid not,” she shook her head, “The last time I've seen him was when he informed us that both Twilights had been found. Which makes me curious, where did he go?”

“Knowing me, perhaps he went off to amuse him-” I coughed suddenly before finishing, “himself.”

“I suppose so,” Luna turned to her (other) mother and said, “We trust that you shall be keeping your word when you said you’ll be back soon.”

“You mean ‘I’?” Faust asked.

Luna shook her head, “No, I mean We, as in Celestia and I.”

“Oh, of course, I will. Why do you ask?”

“I have told you that we haven’t seen our mother very often now, have I?” Faust shook her head. “No? I believe that the last time the mother had told us that she’ll come back soon, she never did.”

The Redhead stopped, “Sorry?”

“It’s true. In fact, the very last time that either of us had ever seen her was our coronation. That was several thousand years ago. Of course, Cel had sent out legions of ponies to find her, only to turn up with nothing. To this day, neither of us where she might be nor what she had been doing this whole time,” she gave her a smile, “Yet, with you here, that must mean that Mother is still alive somewhere.”

Faust nodded and I heard her low muttering, “Perhaps I've been far too overworked.”

_*_

After Luna said our good-byes and Faust asking her a favor to tell their Celestia that she said “Hello,” we went back through the portal once more.

So after one dizzying ride and being spat out and onto a CIA agent later, the three of us were home. Faust gave out several instructions like to have Twilight returned home and told her that she’ll have a talk with her and to make sure they get more equipment for later.

While she was talking, I was starting to have coughing fits. I excused myself to get some water from somewhere. I turned to the school, opening the doors and heading towards the first drinking fountain in sight. Along the way, I thought I had accidentally spat out something as I reached out for the little switch for the water to come flying out.

As I was taking in a few drinks, I jumped when I heard a familiar voice saying, “Well it’s about time we've got here.” So imagine my surprise when I jumped higher, hitting my head against the collapsible ceiling when I saw a second me, leaning against the lockers with his arms folded.

So of course, the first thing I did was to swallow one of my pills, but the other me snapped his fingers, only to mind the pill I was about to take was now in his hands.

“No need of that. Trust me, I’m real, and I’m here too,” he smiled.
> 10: Discord the Human.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I quickly glance around, thankfully to find nobody around, “What do you think you’re doing here?!” I hissed.

“What else,” he said, popping a tacky yellow and orange Hawaiian shirt to replace the eerily similar identical clothes that I was wearing. “You might say that I'm on vacation.”

My eye twitched, “By coming here of all places?”

“Why not?” he snapped his fingers for one a coconut glasses with a little umbrella with a red crazy straw sticking out. “I’ve always wanted to see what it’s like over here.”

I grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into a janitor’s closet; I snapped my fingers to light up the small space. “First of all,” I said, glaring at him, “How did you even get here anyway? I thought their Twilight had put some kind of curse or what have you on that portal from you getting in.”

“She did,” he took a sip from his drink, “Of course, it took me a good while to come up with a way, but I did find it alright.”

“How?”

“Why, though you of course,” he let his drink go, it didn’t fall, it just floated there as he clapped his hands. Suddenly, the closet became a classroom, completed with a chalkboard. “Here’s a riddle for you, my other self: how do you get passed any security in existence when you’re not invited?”

He turned to the chalkboard and used a finger to draw a cross-section of… well us in that weird creature.

Although fuming as I was, I already knew the answer, “Hold on, you tricked the portal?!”

“And give the boy a canoe,” suddenly, I found myself sitting down in one. “It was so simple really if I was able to see your side world, what better way to do so then to trick it that I was a part of you? I figured that I might as well have you smuggle me here by letting the spell think that I was nothing more than saliva. Of course, I had to stake at the back of your throat to do it. So I waited, you went through, and now I’m here!” Suddenly, with a “Pop!” the ceiling had started raining with confetti and balloons.

At this point, I couldn’t tell if his logic was incredibly brilliant or stupid.  But before I could respond, I heard the voice of Faust calling out. 

“Julius? Where are you?”

“Oh joy, just what I need,” I cursed, turning to my alternate ego, “could you just stay here for a moment, Ms. Redhead still needs to scold me.” 

“Really?” he asked, tearing the chalkboard off the wall to revile a huge TV set behind it. On the screen in black and white was the hallway, with Faust looking around. “I didn’t know it was on tonight,” he whistled for a Lazy Boy and sat down with a bucket of violins which he began to start crunching on.

Figuring that he’s only there to enjoy the show, I turned to the door to find her a few feet away.

“You called?” I asked and she snapped her attention back to me.

“There you are. Julius, I still need to have a word about what happened back there.”

“I’m listening.”

“Firstly, as noble as it was for you and your… other self to find both of the girls, you did break the order that you were not to leave out of my sight.”

“But you have to admit, you were the one who left me, to begin with. Plus, my other me did offer something helpful when we went on to locate them. Which, by-the-way, was something that you weren’t doing.”

“I was forced into talking with my other Luna and I found it next to impossible to leave once she started talking.”

“Still, you can’t really hold me accountable here, let’s look at the fact that I’ve ended up helping you find this world’s Twilight and bring her back home. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Faust nodded, “I suppose so. I want to both thank you and curse you. Thanking you for your assistance in finding our Twilight Sparkle. Yet cursing you at the same time for I have to deal with a magical nation from an alternative universe that I’m going to be stuck neck deep in paperwork.”

“Why Faust, I’m-” I was quickly interrupted by the sound of growling that was coming from the janitor’s closet.

“What was that?” she questioned.

“My stomach,” I answered, “is it time for dinner already?”

She looked at her watch, “Well it is past five.”

“I’ll tell you what,” I had her walking away from the closet and nearing the exit. “I know that you’re a busy woman and all, plus I still have my car keys. How about we both go our separate ways for now and take care of… whatever that needs to be taken care of.”

“Are you trying to get rid of me?”

“Maybe,” I said closing and locking the door on her. Even with her knocking, I turned my attention back to the closet to find-

“Down kitty!” he yelled, holding a fishing rod in one hand and a whip in the other, trying to calm down a lion.

Out of pure annoyance that has reached its peak, I snapped my fingers to have the titanic classroom turned back into a closet.

“Hey!”

“Look,” I told him, pointing a finger at him, “I know that you’d easily get bored often, so do I. But at the moment, I’m trying to make things less complicated than they already are!”

“Complicated? We’re chaos itself! It’s not that hard to get.”

“That’s not what I meant, I’m saying that with you here now and she sees that we’re both here, that would mean that things would get much harder for you to enjoy your vacation.”

After frowning he said, “Very well.” He sighed, “So then, what do you do for fun around here?”

“Hold up, how long are ya planning to stay here?”

“Plan? Oh dear me, you out of everyone already know that I don’t plan. I just do.”

“You know what I mean,” I grumbled.

“I do have one other question though,” he said, looking down on himself.

“And what’s that?”

“What exactly did I turn into?”

I facepalmed. Hard.
> (Time for Dinner: According to Discord.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

When my other, younger self-had facepalmed so hard that nearly gave him a concussion, I chuckled, “Sorry, I was only joking. I already know what I’ve turned into; I was just messing with ya.”

He glared at me, “But you still haven’t answered my question, how long are you going to stay here?”

“Until one of the Princesses figure out that I’m gone,” I waved my left wrist around for an hourglass watch to appear. “Which I’m guessing that they’ll realize it within a few days at least, not that I’m complaining. After all, when you’re a spirit as old as a universe, you tend to crave something new. And this, dear me, is a brand, off the assembly line of a fanfic writer new!”

“Fanfic writer?”

“Yeah, the one that’s writing our lines as we speak.”

Hey! Leave me out of this!

“Okay, fine,” I grumbled at the ceiling, “If you insist Mr. I’m-just-making-this-up-as-I-go.”

I looked back at my double, he blinked, “You mean that you hear him too?”

“Eventfully, you just learn how to ignore him, anyway, back to the story. As I was saying, this is a new experience for me since I already know everything about my universe. But here, it’s all new. There’s much to see, and countless possibilities to have some fun!”

“Will that such possibility includes you taking my medicine again?” he asked.

“Trust me, I’ve already learned my lesson the last time. As it turns out, I was wrong, when you went cuckoo, your work was sloppy.” I put a finger under my new jaw, “I wonder why though.”

“Look, we can’t stay here for long,” he said, “Eventually, someone is going to come in and find out that there are two of us. We really should get going.”

“Very good!” I clapped my hands, both in delight and to summon a bicycle where the front wheel is smaller than the back one. “Where do you have in mind?”

He looked at his watch as I started moving down the hall. “Since it’s time for dinner and getting a bit late to cook anything, let’s head over to my home for the night.”

Now my curiosity has been peaked. I immediately changed the inconvenient cycle into a steampunk motorcycle. “You want to take a long way or the shortcut,” I asked him, offering him a helmet.

“I’ll take my car.”

I shrugged, “Suit yourself,” I snapped my fingers for a rip in the fabric of time and space to appear in a wall. “So you in a sec,” before I could hear what he was going to say, I drove into the torn fabric and onto a patch of grass.

“Hey, get off my lawn!” before I could react, my motorcycle suddenly sprouted wings and began flapping.

I jumped off of it quickly before I the thing flew off into the sunset. I looked to my right to find my other self standing on a porch. Looking crossed, he said, “It’s about time you’ve got here, come in while I still have dinner set up.”

So, this is his home? Not exactly what I’d expect from my alter ego. It was big enough to have one floor that a porch with a stand-up piano, it was painted like the other homes on this street, dull. Something that even I didn’t expect because my home in Equestria is… I wonder.

Stepping inside, at first I found what appears to be a normal sitting room with an open kitchen where I found my counterpart sitting down to a plate of sandwiches. There was one of those new found radios playing a song.

Walking up to the table, I craned my neck back around to find that I was right, the perspective of the room has indeed changed! The closer that I got to the table, the more that the sitting room seems to stretch with every step I take.

Yep, defiantly reminds me of home in a way.

“Knowing you,” he said as I took my seat, “I had the sandwiches have a different flavor with every bit you take.”

“Hm, that does sound good,” I took one of the sandwiches and took a bite out of it. Oh cat food, I missed you so much! Another bite, orange caramel, “Not bad,” I told him.

“Thanks,” he took a bit of his sandwich, “I guess since we’re both here, sitting down at the same table and what not, perhaps we should get down to some unfinished business.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, it’s something that I won’t be surprised if the thought had crossed your mind as well. How come that we practically have… somewhat the same personality and even artistic style and be so different? Why is that?”

“You tell me,” I snapped for a class of gray chocolate milk to drink the glass. “It’s really puzzling for me too. I mean, we have the same friends like Fluttershy. But why do you have such a different view of madness though? That’s something that I’ve never grasped.”

“I guess you could blame my doctors for that.”

“Doctors?” Hello, what do we have here? “What doctors?”

“The ones that said I was mentally ill since I was a teen.”

Now we’re getting somewhere, “Mentally ill? You mean being normal?”

“Not what I’ve been told,” he said after taking another bite, “After mom went ‘poof’ and I started living on my own during the dark ages, I was put on medication from the countless delusions that I have increasingly had more often. So a couple of Docs had given me these pills to keep my hallucinations back.”

“Come on,” I said, snapping my fingers for the remaining sandwiches to have a football match. “You know as well as I that keeping something back never done anyone good.”

“Why, has anyone ever tried to cure you?”

“If you mean by using the Elements of Harmony on me to make me sane but it turned into solid rock for a thousand years, otherwise, nope.” As a Jell-O sandwich made a pass, suddenly, an idea cornel popped in my head. “Wait-a-hour… This is supposed to be the human world right?”

“Yeah? So?”

“And this is a world where you said that magic doesn’t exist?”

“You’re point being?”

“How come we’re able to do any of this?”

All the sandwiches, including my double, stopped to look at me.

“Come to think of it, how long you’ve been able to use chaotic magic?”

He twilled his goatee in thought, “I suppose since I’ve first come in your-”

“No, I mean here,” I interrupted. “I mean, you’ve never been able to use magic before you came to Equestria before, have you.”

“Come to think of it, no. Never until I came home from your world for the first time, I didn’t think I would have my superpowers here until I tested out… What’s going on here?” We both asked the same question.

“Oh, jinx,” I quickly said. Now he owes me a soda.
> 11: The Fire of Magic.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

After getting his soda, we both agreed that we need to call an emergency meeting to bring in everyone we know so we could find out what’s happening.

“When you say everyone,” he said, “Do you mean everyone that we’ve known or-”

“It would get overcrowded fast,” I interrupted him; “I think we should round up everyone we think would be helpful to figure out this whole ‘magic’ thing.”

“Got it, so where do you want the whole thing to take place?”

“How about in here,” I gestured him to the largest room in the house, the studio. “It would provide all the room we-”

Snap!

Before I could even think about what just happened, there was a bright flash like a photo bulb exploding for a moment. Suddenly, Agent Faust and our Twilight Sparkle appeared with a chalkboard with some charts and diagrams attached. Celestia and Luna were sitting down at a table, looked like they were having cake. Sunset Shimmer fell over as if her seat had collapsed underneath her. The Crusaders were kneeling down, focusing on dissecting a corpse of a radio. Pinkie was eating an ice cream sandwich. Fluttershy was petting a white rabbit. Rainbow and Applejack were sitting down, holding a couple of game controllers. And Rarity looked like she just got out of the shower and had a towel wrapped around her, trying to put mascara on.

“Huh?”

“Wha?”

“Hey!”

“Owe!”

Except for Rarity screaming her head off, that was what most of them were saying out of shock and confusion.

“What just happened?” Luna asked, along with her and the rest of the girls looked around.

“Mr. D?” Applebloom stood up, “Why is there two of ya?”

“Huh,” the other me folded his arms, “They really do look like their counterparts don’t they?”

“What did you just do?” I questioned.

“You said we should get everyone that’s helpful in figuring all this out, so here they are.”

“Okay, how did you do that?” Faust demanded. She looked around the room finding who else is there. Both of my bosses spotted her as well.

“Mother?” they both asked in unison.

“WHERE ARE MY CLOTHES!?” Rarity shrieked, adjusting the towel to cover up as much as possible.

“Aw come on!” Rainbow complained, “I was so close right there!”

“Forget that,” Applejack told her, “Where in tarnation are we?”

“Hello?” I called out to them, “Can I get your attention here?”

They did die down in what they were saying and looked at us.

“Julius?” Faust said, approaching us, “Why are there two of you here?”

“Hello again,” the other me reached out a hand to her, “I’m his alternate self from the other side of the portal.”

“Oh Celestia,” Sunset muttered under her breath.

“What was that?” Celestia inquired, turning to Ms. Shimmer.

“Everypony, we need to have a little talk,” my other self said, and this got everyone in the room to look at him funny for once. “What?”

“Did you just say, ‘everypony’?” Pinkie started to giggle. “That’s a weird way of saying, everybody.”

“Still,” Sweetie Belle piped up, “Why are we here?”

“I’m getting to that,” he said, clapping his hands, thereby transforming my studio into a classroom. Except for the both of us, the rest were sitting down in the rows of desks. The chalkboard in which Faust and Twilight had brought along was suddenly beside us.

“Here’s a question for you all class,” he said, turning his attention the chalkboard. “Is there any magic in this universe?”

“What?” Celestia asked, looking down to the desk she’s suddenly sitting at.

“Magic?” Fluttershy asked, “What do you mean by that?”

“What he means to say,” I gave her a clarification. “Is that when he’d got here, he made an interesting point.”

Scootaloo raised her hand, “And that being?”

“This is supposed to be the human world, right?” my other self asked, whipping a pair of reading glasses out of nowhere, taking a closer look at the board.

“Yeah?”

“So that would mean that there’s absolutely no magic whatsoever here, right?”

“Well of course,” Twilight said, “It’s a scientific fact that magic doesn’t exist.”

“You mean something like pulling a rabbit out of a hat isn’t real?” Pinkie asked, looking somewhat sad to hear the news. Nearly everyone in sight was rolling their eyes.

“I wouldn’t dismiss that Twilight,” my other self said, getting everyone’s attention.

“Whatever do you mean dear?” Rarity asked.

“If magic doesn’t truly exist in this universe,” he turned back to the class, “Then can anyone in here explain how all of you got here exactly?”

“Well…” Twilight started but quickly trailed off. There was intrigue now among them.

Applebloom raised a hand, “Mr. Disc, what’s goin’ on here?”

My alter-ego popped right between where Faust and Celestia were sitting, “What’s goin’ on indeed. Tell me something, in this universe; does the rule that nothing is made nor destroyed still apply here?”

“Well of course,” Faust said, “It’s the law of the universe for all matter. Why?”

“I want to make sure of something.” He turned to Twilight, “Is this board yours?” he inquired, pointing to the board in front of the class.

“It is,” she responded.

“So would you tell me what you’ve been up to Ms. Sparkle?”

“Well,” she said, adjusting her glasses, “As I was telling Agent F, for several months, I’ve noticed that something unusual has been going on at Canterlot High. It’s only until recently that I was able to enroll in the school that I could find out what’s really going on.”

“Oh, do tell,” Luna said, “What is it that made you wanted to investigate our school for?”

“For one simple reason,” she said, turning to Faust, “I’ve detected on two incidents, huge amounts of energy that I have pinpointed to the school. From what I’ve recorded, it is a scientific phenomenon in which I’ve never seen nor read before. Try picturing an explosion of energy, about the same amount of as a nuclear bomb going off, but there’s neither damage nor radiation. Both incidents go right to Sunset Shimmer, as well as some of these guys.” She pointed to the older students in the group.

“In a way, she’s right,” Faust nodded, “We thought that these two explosions were either thought as an attack by a bomber or some freak accident. But with some investigation, as well as from Celestia and Luna, we’ve come up with a hypothesis that Sunset, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow were involved. But the question was what happened exactly.”

“You mean the Elements of Harmony thingy?” Rainbow asked.

“Oh…” I saw my other’s self eyes widen, “OH! This makes so sense now!”

“What are you going on about?”

“Let me test something…” He paced around the room until he stopped in front of Rarity. “You’re good at clothes right?” she nodded, and he snapped some yards fabrics, a pair of scissors, and a spool of thread.  “Here, make some clothes out of this,” Rarity reached out, but my other self lifted into the air. “Hold on, I want you to make it, without touching it.”

“Are you mad?!” Rarity cried out. “That’s not even reasonably possible.”

“What are you doing?” I questioned, walking up to him.

“Just watch,” he told me, putting the raw materials onto a workbench with a sewing machine. “Or try this,” he turned to Rarity, “Try to imagine making a dress from this; that you’re the one stitching and putting everything together, without getting out of your seat.”

“Ah fail ta see what this got to do with anythin’,” Applejack said skeptically.

My other self told her to just wait and see.

Rarity looked at the fabric in front of her. “Well…” she closed her eyes. “If it were up to me using that shade violet, I would perhaps use it to make a casual dress with it. Probably use about only four pieces at most.” Then something unexpected happened, there were some sparks going around her head like how fireflies would circle around in the summer air. And the cloth she was thinking about and the scissors, without any strings attached, were lifted up and unrolled itself. As she described what she would do, the scissors cut out the cloth into four different pieces in the air.

“Uh, sis…” Sweetie Belle squeaked.

“Not now Sweetie, I’m thinking,” Rarity told her, still had her eyes closed. I turned to the rest of the class; they were memorized at what was happening like I was.

“Yes, I would make it chic and sleeveless. Perhaps adding a lighter color to offset it as a white fabric rose. It wouldn’t be too big, but just enough to catch someone’s eye.”  The scissors cut out the white fabric into a long strip before it was rolled up to look like a rose, the needle and thread were lifted up and it sewed the thing into one piece.

“Uh, Rarity,” Celestia started but was shushed by her own student.

“In a moment, I need to think… Then I would have used that machine to sew-” she was cut off when the sewing machine started up, stitching a few inches of the cloth, but suddenly stopped. “What!?” Rarity asked in shock that, although without even touching it, the dress she was describing was making itself.

“And that just proved it,” the other me said with a smile. “I think I know what’s going on!”

“Yeah, care to explain how Rare’s gone psychic on us?” Rainbow Dashed asked.

“Remember how I said that in this universe, like our own, that nothing is created or destroyed?”

“But I don’t see where you’re going with this,” Fluttershy said, “T-That is if you don’t mind of me point out.”

“No need to Shy, it’s actually quite simple,” he turned to the chalkboard and cleared all the paper that cluttered it.

As he was erasing some of the writing on the board, Twilight called out, “Hey! That took a week to write out!”

“You don’t need it anymore,” he said, turning back to the class. “Here’s an extra credit question, since all of you have been to the universe with talking, colorful ponies that have copies of all of you, what’s the biggest difference between ours, and yours?”

Sweetie Belle raised a hand, “Is it that they have ponies that look like us?”

“No.”

Pinkie raised her hand, “Is it that we have different styles in music when we break out into song?” We all looked at her, “What?”

“Is it about magic?” I asked.

“And Bingo used to be his name-o!” he cheered, “That’s it! That right there is the biggest difference is, or shall I say, there was no magic here.”

“Was?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Just because things can’t be created or destroyed, doesn’t mean nothing can be added on.” He turned to the chalkboard and quickly drew up two plants. “Let me put it like this. Let’s say there’s a planet out there that its forests are nothing but bone dry wood. Let’s say further that never in its history of this planet, has there been any exposure of fire before. But what if,” he pointed to the second planet, in which a stick figure was riding on a rocket. “This planet has the exact same conditions as the other, and its creatures have learned how to control the fire from all the stuff that’s around them. So that they know how to handle it. And let’s further that one of its creatures had flown to this planet, with a box of matches in his pocket. So this creature finds this plant’s folks that have never seen fire before. Now, what would happen if this said creature had lit a match, lit a few sticks on fire and gave it to this planet’s creatures?”

“It would spread,” Fluttershy whispered.

“Correct, and that’s exactly what’s happening here. If I’m right, when our Twilight had not only shown off the power of the Elements of Harmony not just once but twice, it has caused a wildfire of magic. But the only difference as far as I could see between this and my analogy is that it appears that you folks probably don’t have a clue that you have magic now.”

“Wait! We all have magic now!?” Applejack asked in surprise.

“It seems to be, but be careful, though,” he said as one of the drawings of the fireless planet becomes a ball of fire. “Like fire, magic can be a fantastic servant, but a horrible master. So remember, please use magic responsibly.”
> 12: Reviewing the Situation.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I did a quick scan over the room, in which I found a collective of shock and surprise on their faces. 

“So does this mean that we can move stuff with our minds now?” Scootaloo piped up.

I admit, that gotten me curious, “I’m not exactly sure if all of you would do the exact same thing that Rarity did. After all, not all of your counterparts were unicorns.”

“What do you mean by that?” Celestia asked.

“Let me try something,” I walked over to Rainbow’s desk and told her to get out of her seat and stand on top of her desk. When she did, I told her, “Try jumping off and fly a little.”

She looked behind her back, “But I don’t have wings.”

“And she doesn't have a horn,” I pointed to Rarity to make this point, “But that didn’t stop her.”

“I don’t know if I-” I snapped my fingers, making the desk she was standing on to disappear right under her. Now here’s the part where I press the slow-motion button to see what I saw. At the first few inches, her eyes widen as her brain realized she was falling. Her mouth opens and her legs began to adjust to the upcoming floor. Suddenly, about halfway down, we saw from her back had sprung open with blue wings as that was outlined by a blue light. Before she could touch the ground, her wings materialized to where there was a physical form, and those said wings had flapped in time to keep her off the floor. And now, press play, “Huh?” Rainbow looked down.

Celestia, Luna, and Faust’s jaws hit the floor.

“Dash!” Scoot’s called out, getting out of her desk, “You’re flying!”

Rainbow looked around for a bit, “Okay, that’s weird.”

“That’s, weird?” Luna questioned, “Rainbow Dash, you’re flying, in the air, and your response is, ‘that’s weird’?!”

“How are you even doing that?” Twilight asked, getting out of her seat as well, trying to feel around for wires.

“Well, it did happen before, just not exactly like this,” Rainbow responded.

“This happened before!?” Faust got out of her seat as well.

“Well yeah,” Pinkie answered, “But usually there’s singing, and our hair grows longer, and we get pointy ears-”

“Y’all mean yer band practice?” Applebloom interrupted.

“What?” Faust asked in complete confusion.

“Hold on everyone,” Sunset called out, and we looked at her, “Discord?”

“What?” we both asked, she rolled her eyes. “I mean the Discord from Equestria. If what you’re saying is true, and that there’s now actual, real magic in the human world that’s spreading, how far has it got to?”

“Let me see,” he turned back to the chalkboard and whipped it clean before drawing a circle with a line down the middle before it reached the center of it. The line moved clockwise, revealing a map of the whole country plus a few others. We noticed that our town was at the very center of this chalky radar. The second way around the board, the line was making a “Pong!” sound, revealing a cloud that encompassed about a third of the country from where we were.

“Fascinating,” I muttered, trading my coat for a navy blue coat with a parrot and an eye-patch. “So does this mean that all the magic that they’ve unleashed is all in the middle?”

“Yep,” my other self nodded. “By the looks of it… I think it’s growing a bit.”

Faust came right up front of the board to take a good look at where the magic is. “Excuse me, would either of you mind if I step out for a moment.”

“Sure,” my other self said, reaching into his pocket and giving her a card that was on a yarn necklace. “Just don’t forget your hall pass.”

She opened her mouth but shaking her head, she closed it and took the pass as she heads out the door, putting a hand over her hear.

“Agent M, this is Agent F, could you take a look at anything strange within a nine-hundred-mile radius from here?” So with that, she stepped out of the door.

“So,” Sunset said, “Does this mean that I have my magic back now? If that were true, then that would mean that I might be…. What? I’m the second most powerful pon- person on earth?”

“Make that third,” my other self said. “As far as powerful ponies go in this room, you are third compared to us,” he stretched his arm around my shoulder. “And even then, we’re still a close second to her?”

“Do you mean Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

“Nope, I mean their mother,” he looked over to Celestia and Luna. “I must sadly admit that no one, not even me, holds so much as a flashlight compared to Madame Faust. Trust me, even before I was ever turned into stone, she and I had a fight and… let’s just say that the universe that I know and love was extremely lucky that it’s still there at all.”

Wait… What did he mean by that?

“But, what do we do now?” Celestia inquired, “I mean we’ve just learned that everybody within a nine-hundred-mile radius from our town now has, well, magic but we’re the only ones to have realized this.”

“Oh dear, she’s right,” Shimmer said, turning a bit pale. “If word gets out that everyone has magic that no one has any idea of what to do or how to work it properly, the result might be total chaos.”

“Not a bad trade-off if you’d ask me,” my other self replied.

“She’s right,” Sweetie Belle chimed in, “Plus, we don’t know what kind of powers everyone now has! I mean, what if bad guys hear about this, like Sombra, or even worse?”

“Well you do have a point,” I muttered, thinking back to all the ones that I know who are in jail and the Mental Hospital. Names popped in my head. Names like Gregor, Somnablua, Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis. What if they realized they had powers too, what would they do with it given their past record? 

Or even frightening still, would Principal Cadence use her magic to be an out of control cupid?

“WHAT?!” Faust’s voice shirked from behind the door. “WHERE?!” her demands silenced everyone and their thoughts for a moment before her head popped from behind the door. “Celestia, Luna, it looks like I’m going to have to run now. It seems that I’m going to get quite busy for a while. Julius, would either you or you're other you please show me out? It’s a maze outside of this room and I don’t want to get lost in here. Also, thank of you dears so much for what you’ve done here.”

“You’re welcome,” I said, and with that, I had her teleported outside of my house.
> 13: Abracadabra.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So getting back on track,” Simmer said, “What are we going to do now? Should we get Twilight?”

“You mean me?” Twilight the scientist asked, waving a hand to remind us that she’s still here.

“I mean the other Twilight,” Sunset clarified, “Besides, does she know that you’re here?” she turned her attention to my other self.

“Of course not,” he snickered, suddenly changing his clothes into one of those old fashion dark blue bathing suits before he jumped into the ceiling, making it splash and ripple like a swimming pool. He popped back up and started to swim above our heads. “As you can clearly see, I’m on vacation.”

“This night is just weirder and weirder,” Luna commented.

“Hey, other me,” he called out, “Aren’t you going to join me? The stucco’s great!”

“Hmm… Maybe later,” I turned to the improve classroom. I made my way stepping over desks and empty chairs over to my bosses, “By the way, sorry for dragging you two into this.”

“No actually,” Celestia said, “This time at least we get a heads up of another impending disaster waiting to happen.”

“I’m wondering,” Luna thought out loud, “If Rarity can use telekinesis and Rainbow Dash apparently has the ability to fly, what could everyone else do? What could we do?”

“Where I’m from,” the other me said, popping his head right over us. “The Celestia and Luna that I know have a reputation of rising, as well as setting the sun and moon.”

“What?” both my bosses asked at the same time.

“It’s true,” he took another breath and disappeared in the ceiling before popping out of Faust’s desk. “Didn’t anypony in here ever tell you? Over there, you two are treated like demigods because you can control the very sky to your will. You’re practically royalty over there. Scratch that, you two are royalty there.”

I could see both gears in my bosses heads turn, getting an idea of what they’ll be doing for Summer Break.

“So does this mean that we can do magic too?” Scootaloo asked. “Can I fly like how Rainbow just did?” She got on top of her desk before anyone could stop her, she jumped. Just like how Dash’s wings formed, her back formed those same type of wings that made out orange light before her feet touched the ground. She stopped a few inches above the floor, just hovering. Scootaloo moved her legs to feel nothing beneath her. “Oh, this is soo cool!”

“Oh! Oh! Can I try something?!” Pinkie asked, seeing Scoots getting a bit of attitude. She tried concentrating on a cup of pencils. The cotton candy girl squinted her eyes, wiggled her fingers, saying something in Latin, such as: “Sa hcus, nital ni gnihtemos gniyas.” When nothing happened, she got up onto her chair to jump from, only for to collapse on the tiled floor. “Hey, what gives? How come I’m not able to do what they did?”

Scootaloo lowered herself to the floor where her wings dissolved; she let a hand in helping her up. We heard the young girl’s stomach growling, “Huh, I just realized that I didn’t eat anything beforehand,” she said.

The pink one’s hair twitched, she looked up and reached in her curly hair. She reached in about half her arm into it before pulling out a cupcake with extra sprinkles. “Here you go,” Pinkie said.

“Thanks,” Scoots grabbed the cupcake, quickly realizing something that all of us wondered. “Wait, what was a cupcake doing in your hair?”

“I don’t know,” Pinkie admitted. “I just felt something so I just reached in and grabbed it."

Scootaloo stared at her, “Okay, that’s really random.” She inspected the cupcake for any traces of hair only to find none. She carefully took a bite of it, “Hey, not bad.”

“I wonder…” Sunset trailed off, looking over to her bag. She closed her eyes and the same firefly-like lights lit up around her head and the bag opened up for a book to fly out to her. Ms. Shimmer opened an eye to find that the telephone book was floating in front of her. She smiled, “Ha, I have my magic back! Oh this going to make life for me so much easier,” she had the book open and grabbed a nearby pen to start writing in it.

Luna snapped her fingers. If anyone knew her, including me, they would know that whenever Luna snaps her fingers, which means that she’s got an idea.

“Cel, I think I just figured it out!”

“Figured what out?” Celestia questioned.

“I think it’s apparent that now that it’s going to be impossible to keeps something like this a secret right?”

“And…”

“So if our students alone found out that they have magical capabilities, they would naturally freak out over it, correct?”

“Well of course,” Celestia nodded, “But where are you going with this?”

“Just hear me out on this.” She turned her seat to face her older sister, “We are principals of a school where our job is to make sure our students get educated, correct? So what if we drown out their inedible fears by educating them?”

I, Celestia, the older and younger girls as well as the other me blinked at this.

“I beg your pardon?” Sunset asked, giving her the same yet equally confused look that we all have.

“Think about it,” Luna continued, “How can someone be afraid of something if they’re educated on what it is and how to use it responsibly? What if hiding this isn’t the answer, but showing them how to use it to the student’s benefit as well how to be mature using something like this?”

“But didn’t you hear what we’ve just said?” Celestia deadpanned. “What this information gets into the wrong hands?”

“Then we might need somebody to show us how to combat someone who would do ill.” Luna turned to Ms. Shimmer, “Someone that knows how to use magic, to begin with?”

Sunny looked around, “Who? Me?”

“As far as I’ve heard,” Luna told her, “You’re apparently someone who knows how to use magic as you’re clearly demonstrating. So perhaps, if I may boldly ask, how about we call in an emergency assembly tomorrow?”

Suddenly, the book that Sunset was held in her… magic… light… thingy… started to right and vibrate loudly. She opened it and took a quick look at it before turning to my other self, “Hey Discord, it’s for you.”

My other self hopped out of the desk and his rubbery arm stretched out and snatched the book. I got a look at what it said before it faded. It read: “DISCORD!!! YOU GET YOUR MITCH-MATCH, FRANKENSTALLION OF A FLANK BACK HERE IN EQUESTRIA RIGHT THIS INSTANT!!! Love Twilight.”
> 14: Channel S.O.E.T. (Spying on Equestria Television).
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once our meeting was concluded, the crusaders, the young ladies, and my bosses returned to whence they came, with the crusaders promising to come over tomorrow, I was once again left alone with my other self.

“Huh, that was quick,” he commented, “I didn't expect for Twilight to find me out so soon.”

“Or maybe Sunset told her,” I shrugged, “Now then,” with a whistle, the improve classroom popped away and gave my studio back, “Do you think that she’ll be coming knocking on my door anytime soon?”

“I would be surprised if she hasn't already, let me check,” with a clap, a television set, the kind that I haven’t seen as a kid where it has rabbit ears and always shown in black-and-white came into existence while I went over to my canvas.

While he was turning on the ancient T.V. and I calling my paints over, I suddenly got an idea for a painting. So snapping my fingers for a pencil, I quickly sketch out my inspiration. Meanwhile, my other self was bending the rabbit ears into a pretzel.

“Come on… Come on…” he complained, “I know the signal is around- got it!”

I turned around, finding on the screen a slightly scorched Princess and a dragon holding an empty bucket with water dripping out of it.

“-etter now?” the little dragon on screen asked. Say what was his name again?

She shook her head around to get her floppy mane dry the same way a dog would after jumping in a mud puddle. “Yeah, sorry about that outburst Spike, it’s just I can’t believe that Discord would do something like this.”

“Hey, you want anything?” my alternative ego asked, holding up a bucket of popcorn.

“No, I’m fine,” I turned back to the canvas but kept my ears tuned in to T.V.

“This is bad Spike! A total catastrophe! Ugh, just when things were starting to look up, Discord would go behind my back and do this. Besides, how did he get past all of those security spells anyway?”

“Well, what do you think we ought to do?” Spike inquired, “Has Sunset said anything that Discord is doing over there?”

“Nothing much, all she told me was that Discord is over there with them and they've discovered that they have magic now.”

There was a pause.

“What?” Spike asked.

“I don’t quite understand it fully myself,” Twilight replied, “From what I could gather, Sunset has told me that she and Rarity can levitate, Rainbow and Scootaloo can fly, and Pinkie… Well, it isn't quite clear on what she’s able to do.”

“So does this mean that we need to make another trip?”

“Actually, before we do so, I think we should inform the other Princesses first; although, with somepony like Celestia finding this out, there’s no telling in how she’ll react.”

“Hey, other me,” I turned around in time to wave a remote out of nowhere and pausing the T.V.

“What?”

“Do you think all the fish heads need to be a Nickelodeon slime green or an artificial orange?”

“What are you doing?” he got up and walked over to where I was.

“My hobby,” I replied, “So what do you think?”

He looked at the canvas of recreating the classroom scene from ten minutes ago, but I replaced everyone’s face with a fish head.

“Go for the orange,” he said, “Also; you might want to add some antlers on Rarity there.”

I shrugged and he returned to the T.V. to press play.

“Huh, what was that?” Spike asked, “Didn't it feel for a moment as if the universe was somehow put on pause?”

“It must be nothing, now Spike, take a letter,” Twilight said.

“Whelp, I’m bored,” my other me said as he changed the channel. I think he was changing to several channels because I heard:

“Hold that thought Brae, uh how's this, before he says anythin’, let’s make a bet, who here like ta bet that Soarin’s really-”

Click.

“MOM! Derpy has crashed in our bathroom aga-”

Click.

“Ah! Right there Lyra! Right-”

Click.

I turned my head around, “What was that?”

“Nothing,” he said quickly, his cheeks had a touch of red. I was going to say something but decided against it. Perhaps it’s best if I didn't know.

Click.

“-and your idea of invasion was any better?”

“Don’t look at me; it was Twilight Sparkle that ruined our plans.”

“If you say so my Quee-”

Click.

“Oh! It’s on!” my other self called out. I turned, looking over to the screen I saw the familiar black-and-white image of the horseified version of my boss, Celestia.

I raised an eyebrow, and he noticed, “What?”

“Nothing, but the way that you sounded so excited back there, I couldn't help but think…” I shook my head and returned to my painting that’s missing one last detail.

“Oh, so you like her too, huh?”

I paused, “What are you implying?”

He smirked, “Come on, you know exactly what I’m implying. So how about it, how far did you get with her?”

I grunted, “We both know that either Celestia’s are out of our reach right?”

“Well, I just thought I ask, I mean, being in a new universe and all… you never know.”

“So I’m guessing that you didn't get far either right?”

“Call it Trotholm Syndrome or mere admiration, because either way, you might be right. I mean, when you've been battling out or arguing with somepony long enough, eventually you start to... kinda admire and envy them at the same time.” I stopped painting when he mentioned that, he continued, “As much fun as I have for causing chaos throughout a very amusing planet, you as well as I understand that we tend to envy those who always keep order because-”

“Because order tends to gain loyalty from others,” I finished his monologue a little too early.

He nodded, “Not to say that gaining friends such as Fluttershy and the Crusaders is quite a shock to the system. After all, chaos tends to push everyone and everything away. As nice as friendship is, do you too wonder what else in life that we might be missing out on?”

I paused for a moment, finishing the painting before turning back to him. “Yes but, why on Celestia?”

“Why not? What’s there not to admire, your Celestia and my share many things. Tall, good looking, she knows when she needs to keep order and when to have some fun. Even though she’s good at managing things, I’ll be the first to admit that I do feel sorry for her.”

Is he going to say what I think he’s going to say?

“She seems too restrictive at times,” he said, “As if she thinks that the greatest joys in life are tea and teaching. It’s like she’d didn't get a chance to live free from never-ending stress, paperwork, and whiny ponies that want to see her twenty-four seven.”

“But still out of reach,” I commented, walking over to the T.V. “Anyway, what are you expecting her to do.”

“Just watch,” he told me, and I did. Horsey Celestia was lying on her stomach reading a book with a piece of cake by her side when on the screen. Suddenly, a scroll popped in front of her. Her horn glowed and opened the piece of paper up.

She took a moment to read its contents. We saw her face changed from calm to concern, at the drop of a paintbrush.

“Of course," she sighed, "Another disaster waiting to happen, why am I not surprised?”
> 15: The Assembly.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Beep! “Attention students and faculty,” Luna’s voice over the intercom said at the start of third period. “Due to some unforeseen circumstance, all classes for third to fourth period have been canceled for today. Everyone, students and staff of Canterlot High, please report to the auditorium for an emergency assembly. I repeat: all students and staff report to the auditorium for an emergency assembly, thank you.”

As expected, my third-period class (as I imagine the rest of the school) expressed total confusion at the sudden announcement.

“Come on, you all heard her,” I told them, “Get your stuff and let’s head out.”

“Why? What’s going on?” one of my students asked as she and the rest of the class started to get up from their seats.

“Yeah,” said another student grabbing his books: “Did something happen?”

“Just do as the Vice Principle says,” I said as I walked over and opened the door. “So come on, let’s go all of you.”

My class did make their way into the halls along with the rest of the school. Students and teachers alike were completely bewildered at this sudden change of schedule. I guess watching them trying to figure out what’s going on gives me some pleasant entertainment from this morn’s events.

My alternative ego is gone.

Don’t ask me how the last time I’ve seen him was that he was laying on the couch like a house cat getting ready to fall asleep, and by morning, gone. Of course, I searched everywhere that I could think of. I even try to find him by radar but came up with nothing. I even searched the internet for any sign of him, but once again, he’s nowhere to be found.

I mean, I understand that he couldn’t be kept cooped up in one place for a while, but now I’m starting to get worried as to where he could have gone to. Plus, knowing me, if or when I do something like this, at least I would leave a calling card behind to show to the world that this is my work. I would think he would turn up again sometime today.

At least, I hope he would.

“Disc?” I was pulled out of my thoughts to find Ms. Cherilee there.

“Uh, what?”

“Do you know what this is about?” she asked, “I’ve been asking everyone else and nobody seems to have a clue what this is all about. Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“I think I might have a guess,” I said, “But I don’t think I’m too certain about it though.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a little hard to explain, but let’s just say that I’ve heard that things are going to get interesting from here on out.”

She frowned, “Would you mind speak plain English instead of riddles?”

“Hmm… Nope,” I smirked.

Soon enough, the school was crammed into the auditorium like an overstuffed can of sardines. For some who aren’t in the rows of chairs, we stood in the aisles, but all of us were looking towards the stage. There on stage where both of the principles, Sunset Shimmer, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

Once it was made sure that everyone was there, Celestia took hold of the mic, “May I have your attention please everyone?” The auditorium quiets down once her voice was heard. “I know all of you are wondering what this is all about and why we’ve decided to suddenly cancel a couple of classes. Perhaps it’s best that it’s best if I get straight to the point. No doubt nearly all of you already know about the strange things that have been happening at this school recently.”

Many of the school nodded in agreement.

“And no doubt too that twice this year we almost came close to complete disaster. Yet I’m here to inform you all, as well as educate, students and staff alike, to prevent another disaster that may not happen here at the school, but all over the country as well.”

There were gasps and harsh whispers from all around, but Celestia continued: “Please, do not worry; we believe that the best way to combat this is through what we do best, and that is through education.”

“Educating us of what?” one of the teachers asked aloud.

“I will turn to Sunset Shimmer to explain it,” Celestia took the mic over to Ms. Shimmer in which she grabbed it.

“Everyone, I know this going to sound completely crazy for some of you. In fact, you might not even believe it. I don’t blame you, but it’s the truth. Especially if I told you that magic exists now.”

The room went quiet for a while.

“No, really,” Sunset said, “There is magic in this world and I can prove it. Watch,” She held the microphone out at arm’s length before she dropped it. But before it hit the stage floor, we saw the fireflies around Simmer’s head and the mic was stopped in the air, being wrapped in a golden light.

There was shock and awes in the crowd. We saw the mic being lifted back up and into Sunset’s hands. “That’s not all, Rainbow if you do the honors?”

“Sure thing!” she said, and with that, she started running to the front of the stage before jumping right off of it, before anyone could catch her, she sprouted those wings from last night and flew right over the crowd.

There were whoa’s, and cool’s, and my personal favorite “Holy Hell!” that the students and staff were exclaiming when she flew right over their heads. Rainbow flew around like a lost pigeon before returning to the stage where, once she touched the ground, her wings vanished.

The school cheered at Rainbow’s performance, and as expected, she took a bow.

“There’s also something else we need to demonstrate to all of you,” Sunset said as she signaled a couple of guys pushing one of those carnival things where you hit a weight to right the bell at the top, except there’s seem to be a lack of a sledgehammer.

“Finally, Applejack is going to do something that is deemed impossible, she going to use her leg to kick a ten-pound weight to hit that bell. Ready AJ?”

“Ready,” the farm girl replied back as she went up to it, turned around to face the school, and lifts up a foot before stomping on the tiny seesaw. The weight not only shot up to the top, not only rang the bell loudly, but it broke it!

“Whoa! Head’s up!” Applejack cried out when both the weight and the bell disappeared for a moment when it went up through the curtains above. Sunset’s used her magic to catch both before either made a few holes in the wooden floor.

“Phew,” Sunset commented as she gently laid the pieces on the ground. “So, with that out of the way, it’s time to really drop the bombshell here… Everyone in this room has one or a different variation of what all you have just seen.”

There was a solid pause before the entire auditorium erupted with a thousand hands asking a million questions.
> 16: Bring in the Teachers.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Quiet down everyone,” Celestia called out over the microphone. “I know this seems like a big shock-”

“Ya think!?” a student interrupted, but my boss continued.

“As I was saying, I know this is a huge surprise and no doubt that everyone in this room has questions. But this one of the reasons for this emergency assembly, for knowing this without gaining some proper knowledge is dangerous. The same goes with anything new that when done incorrectly would spell some disastrous results. For example, we didn’t know what would unfold at the Fall Formal, nor did we expect the Dazzling’s would do. However, pay attention to everyone, this time not only do we all have access to such knowledge, but we also need all of your help as well.

“For today, Canterlot High School is going to make history for not only informing the world that there is magic that’s spreading, but we can inform people to demonstrate how to use it properly and responsibly.”

“And how are you planning to do that?” Cherilee asked aloud.

“We are all going to be undertaking a school project together, once you’ve learned how to use your newfound powers, all of you shall report what you’ve learned to us so we can spread out this vital information to the social media. Though YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and whatever you all have so we can inform the world about this.”

“But who’s going to teach us?” a student asked after raising a hand.

At this point, Sunset took hold of the microphone, “I’ve thought about this too. Now, I realize that the three of us on stage can’t teach everyone here at once. For there are some complications when it comes to magic like some of yours may not be as experienced as I, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack.

“For there’s a reason why the three of us could do these certain things that the other couldn’t, that being magic is unique as an individual. For example, I can’t fly around nor can I kick as hard as they did. In fact, some of you may not even click when taught to do some of these the first time.

“However, I have indeed thought of this. Though some negotiation from the Principles and a few… experts, we came up with what might be the most unique and effective solution in teaching students and faculty alike when it comes to this matter.”

“Ya did?” a student asked.

“Like whom?” a teacher questioned.

As if on cue, one of the back doors opened up, students who were the closest to these doors turned gave the response of: “What?” Increasingly, we turned to see who stood there. There were four people in the doorway that lit up some of the auditorium. Two of them were men in gray skin with white, short cut hair, wearing a kind of police uniform with golden trimming and yellow police hats. Between them were two very familiar looking people. One of them was a Twilight without glasses, and the other was what made most of us take quadruple looks.

There was a second Celestia.

“Good morning everyone,” the second Celestia said with her and her mini entourage followed closely behind. “I’ve heard that all of you were in need of some special teachers to help you discover your new found magic.”

“Mr. D?” I turned to the student sitting right next to me, “Have I gone crazy, or are there two Celestia’s in the same room?”

I checked the student’s forehead and even tapped on it a few times, “Nope,” I told him, “She’s there alright, and yes, I’ve already taken my pills. She’s really there.”

The doppelgänger of Celestia made her way to the stage, “May I?” she extended her hand to Ms. Shimmer for the Mic. Sunset handed it over to her, “You know, I would expect a little more panic with my appearance.”

“Uh, no offense,” said a teacher, “We’ve just seen a mic levitate, Rainbow Dash flying, and Applejack nearly sending a ten-pound weight to the moon. Seeing a second Celestia isn’t all that shocking.”

Some of the students laughed at this.

“I see,” the second Celestia nodded, “Anyway, I expect that many of you are wondering why there are two of us here.”

“Are you Celestia’s long lost twin?” one of the younger students asked.

“In a matter of speaking, I am Celestia’s twin, but not in the way that all of you are thinking. Also, I did not come alone, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, would you please join me?” To the school’s amazement, walking out on stage was a second Rainbow and Applejack.

“Hey, what’s up?” the other Rainbow said waving over to her other self.

“I want to have all of you know,” the other Celestia continued, “That our intentions of everypony coming here is to teach your other selves in what abilities you have and how to use them responsibly. Outside in front of this school, everyone will find your other selves that will help guide you. Once you find your other self, you’ll be split into three groups. One shall meet at the back of the school, one in the gymnasium, and the rest shall be in the cafeteria.”

Oh, this is going to be interesting.

“Also, before anyone goes, would a Mr. Disc please remain here? I want to have a word with him.”

Students and teachers alike made their way out of the auditorium while I walked over the seats to the front of the stage.

“Well, I didn’t expect you would be showing up,” I commented as I set foot on the stage.

“It was all Sunset’s idea,” the other Celestia glanced over to her. “Which I might say, it’s both genius and risky at the same time. But she has called out to assist everypony here before a disaster could occur.”

Ms. Shimmer nodded her head, “Fancy to be seeing you here, Princess, and Twilight,” she went up and hugged her. “Thanks so much for coming here on such short notice.”

“You should really be thanking everypony outside,” Twilight point out. “After all, I’m actually impressed in how many of them were willing to come here.”

“Yeah,” the other Applejack said, “So this is what this place is like? Ah admit, bein’ in a new body is a bit weird and all, but Ah think Ah’m gettin’ used to this.”

“Just sucks that I don’t have wings,” their Rainbow muttered.

“I wouldn’t say that,” our Rainbow replied as she jumped and her wings appeared. 

The other, meanwhile, stared for a moment before saying: “Okay, that’s impressive.”

“Come on,” our Rainbow said, “I’ll race you outside.”

But before either could do so, my boss said quickly, “Not so fast, since some of my students can fly, I think I should include a new rule: No flying in the halls.”

“Ah what?! Come on!” Rainbow whined, “We can fly now.”

“But you could hurt yourself or someone else just by flying. After all, there’s a possibility that you may crash.”

“Ugh, fine,” our Rainbow grunted as she lowered herself back onto the stage.

Their Celestia turned her attention to both Applejacks, “Why not you two start making your way to the cafeteria?”

“Uh, sure thin’ princess, but, how do Ah get there?” their Applejack asked before the other farm girl told to follow her.

Our Celestia told Twilight and Sunset the same thing, only for them to go to the gym, leaving myself, the two other Celestias, and what I assume are my other boss’s bodyguards on stage.

“Well,” the second Celestia started, walking over to her other self, “Perhaps a little introduction is in order.” She offered up her hand up to her other self, “Good morning, my name is Princess Celestia, co-ruler of the kingdom of Equestria and raiser of the sun, and you?”

Although I could tell she was a bit weirded out, my boss took her hand to shake it, “Just Principle Celestia. I’m the one who helps run the Canterlot High School alongside with my sister-”

“Luna?” the other Celestia finished my boss’s sentence.

“Why, yes,” my boss nodded, “She’s the vice principle here. So, who are they?” she pointed to the two other guys in uniform.

“These are my guards,” the other Celestia answered. “They volunteered to follow me here. I must say, this is quite interesting then my personal student has described. It’s all very strange, but in a good way.”

“Princess huh?” my boss said, “You mean that you’re royalty or something?”

“I am indeed, it’s the reason why my subjects are here now to help organize teaching their other selves before things get out of hoof here.”

“Hand,” our Celestia corrected her. Her duplicate blinked so she went on explaining, “Over here, it’s ‘before things get out of hand.’ But from what Sunset Shimmer has told me, everyone is a… pony?”

The two of them talked like this before I got bored enough to interrupt. “You did say that you wanted to see me right?”

“Oh, that’s right,” their Celestia nodded, “I nearly forgot, thank you. So Mr. Disc, do you have any idea where your other self has gone to?”

Crap.
> (Hello and Magic 101, Part 1 of 3: According to the Great and Powerful Trixie.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Trixie is okay,” the Great and certainly most dizzy Trixie stated as everything around her became blurred. Please, do not ask Trixie where she along with these other ponies is at. For Trixie, she isn’t too sure what was going on.

For you see, dear readers, just this morning, yours truly, along with everypony else have received some mail from Princess Celestia herself, informing Trixie that her assistance will be needed for a serious matter and that she must prepare herself before the swiftest of pegasi guards come to Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle.

Trixie admits that it was rather suspicious that the Princess of the Sun herself would call upon her to come to… her castle. At first, she was reluctant to go because Trixie would head straight towards the pony who she outright avoided for some time. Yet on the other hoof, Celestia did say that it was important that she should come, perhaps this might be an excellent opportunity to get Trixie noticed.

Even though the note said that Trixie would spend a few hours so packing won’t be necessary, Trixie packed a saddlebag full of the most basic necessities since she’s going to encounter Princess Celestia. The pegasi guard came to whisk her away by chariot and Trixie is ready for anything when she stepped upon that chariot.

Or at least, so did Trixie thought.

When the Great and Powerful Trixie landed once again in Ponyville, she found that she wasn’t alone. Gathered outside of the new castle were other ponies that Trixie recognized a few. Most of them were commoners while others Trixie saw that there were famous ponies amongst the crowd. For she saw Fancy Pants, the Wonderbolts, DJ Pon3, even Hoity Totty to name a few, yet like Trixie, many of them were confused as to why all of them were summoned along with what Trixie assumes to be at least four or five hundred other ponies. A few, as Trixie saw were foals while others were much older than Trixie, yet some of them were more or less around her age.

Not long after Trixie made her grand entrance, the front doors to Twilight’s new castle opened up to which we found both Princess Celestia and Sparkle to be there. Celestia gave a cryptic speech in that all of us will be going someplace that very few ponies have. She said that this, “World” has gained magic for the very first time in its history and would require guides for the ponies there to understand how to use it, so it would require us to help guide them.

It is here that Trixie stopped listening to whatever she was saying and wondered with everypony there what she meant by that. Trixie thought this must be pure nonsense. What “world” doesn’t have magic that’s discovering it for the first time? What did she mean about, “prepare to meet your other selves?”

Soon enough, we were lead into the castle until we came upon a room where a mirror was kept. Trixie thinks that this mirror was rather tacky but she did saw ponies walk right through the mirror and how it ripples like a pond of water that defied gravity.

Before the Great and Powerful Trixie walked into the unknown, she was told to remain calm at all times, that she should follow the instructions, and that she should help other ponies as they went through the mirror.

What Trixie saw was rather difficult to describe once she went through the mirror. It was as Trixie was falling but wasn’t. That she saw bright colors that flew by her at astounding speeds yet in front of Trixie was a tunnel that twisted and turned until she was tossed out into a blinding light.

This is where Trixie found herself as she stumbled about; trying to figure out what was going on.

“Here, stand on your hind legs,” Trixie heard one says to her as she suddenly felt fleshy claws gripping Trixie’s forelegs.

Trixie’s vision regained itself, and that she could see clearly something more strangely then Trixie has ever thought possible in her most wild of dreams. If she would go off by the colors alone, Trixie would assume that they were some of the guards, yet when her vision cleared, she saw that before her, they were not ponies at all.

To Trixie’s confusion, she saw… creatures, beasts that stood only on their hind legs, their coats were replaced with shaven hides; they didn’t have any hair except for their manes. The faces were flat, eyes that were smaller, and they lacked a snout. They had on more clothes than a pony usually wears, and giving them a second look, some of them had some familiar looking cutie marks on them.

“Ms., please remain calm,” one of them told Trixie, “and before you ask, yes, this is temporary.”

Trixie looked down at herself, she was no longer in her beautiful, perfect body, but instead, she finds herself in the same alien bodies like them. But even in this stretched and twisted body, Trixie could still pick up some recognizable features that are, well, Trixie. The hide, clothes, and even my mane was something that looked like yours truly.

“Uh… just… what?” Trixie said as she looked at her pair of fleshy claws attached to her forehooves. She said this not just out of shock mind you, but partly out of curiosity as well.

“Whoa!” Trixie turned around to find another of those creatures to fall out of the base of a statue. Only this time it was much a bit taller than some of the other beasts around. She had on a blue cap with a bolt of yellow lightning going down the middle and wore a whistle around her neck. It took her a few moments to recognize who she was looking at.

“Spitfire? Captain of the Wonderbolts Spitfire?” Trixie inquired.

She shook her head for a moment, “Ugh, yeah, it’s me. So where…” she looked up at me. “What in the living hay are you?”

“Let me help you up,” one of the used to be ponies said as he helped Spitfire up.

“Okay, where are-” That was as far as she got before she was knocked down by two more… things. One was mostly a light green and the other had a curly blue and pink mane on her head.

“Owe! Get off me!” she demanded.

“Oh! Sorry about that,” the one with the curls said as she and the other mare got off of her. “Lyra, what’s the big idea? You really shouldn’t have pushed-”

She was suddenly cut off by the loudest squee that Trixie has ever heard. And it was coming from the mare in green with a too large of a smile on her face.

“Oh my Celestia! I’ve died and gone straight to heaven!” she said in a too excitable and very high pitched voice.
> (Hello and Magic 101, Part 2 of 3: According to Spitfire.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Once the ringing in my ears stopped, thanks to a pony that goes by the name of Lyra, I stood back up to get a quick look at my surroundings. By the looks of it, we were in a three-sided courtyard with the statue in the middle.  It looks like we’re in some kind of town that looked a little… odd. There were ponies – well, I should say ponies that turned into these two-legged things that keep popping up out of the stature where I think is this place’s source of the portal. All of them came out of that thing stumbling, not to mention to be on some level of shock. Once I got my balance and as well as my senses, I start helping the guard helping everypony onto their… hind legs?

Anyway, while I was doing this, and telling them to put themselves together, I along with several others took notice of the sign that was held above the door of the building we were thrown in. I read: “Canterlot High School.”

“How many are here now?” I asked a nearby guard.

“By my count, we have at least 300 ponies out here,” he said before another one popped out. “Make that 301,” he added as he helped…

“Soarin?” I asked and he looked up at me.

“Spitz?” Soarin stumbled as the other guard and I helped him up. “Is that you?”

“Yeah, I know, weird ain’t it?” I answered what was obviously was on everypony’s heads when they first stumble through.

“Ugh, that was wild,” he said as he shook his head to clear it up. “Where are we?” he looked down at himself, “What are we?” he turned his neck as far back as it would let it, “And where are my wings?!”

“Soarin, calm down,” I ordered him, “Where ever we are, we can worry about that later, but for now, help me with these other ponies stumbling out.”

“Uh… Yes Captain,” and with that Soarin complied, not without falling over a few times.

Soon, more and more ponies came, along with Princesses Celestia and Twilight who they along with a few other guards walked into the building. Eventfully, with the last to come through, we began to look around, trying to figure out where we are, what we are, and what happens to our bodies.

There was a rumor amongst us of a word that I haven’t heard outside of foal’s fairytales, a word that was traced back to the all too happy green mare known as Lyra, “Humans.” No, come to think of it, I don’t think they were fairytales, was it from ghost stories? What were they about again?

“That’s everypony,” the guard said as the last pony came out of the statue.

Now with no more ponies to help up, I was able to get a good look around, and I noticed a few things as well. For one, I was among the few here that were taller, perhaps, somehow older than many here. Second, the clothes I was now wearing, it reminded me of the kind of clothes that my gym teacher way back used to wear. And to the street where the town was clearly seen, I saw weirdly shaped black carriages that were not being drawn had pulled up to us.

There were five of these black carriages in all, and out stepped out eight of these… humans, I guess in black suits and ties that got out and walked towards us. I along with the guard went up to them.

“Good morning,” one of them said, “We were told you’ll be arriving this morning.”

“And who are you?” one of the guards inquired.

“Oh, where are my manners?” He extended his foreleg out to us, “I’m Agent M for the Central Intelligence Agency, or simply CIA; on behalf of the citizens of America and the World at large, welcome.”

Guessing that this human is offering up a form of a hoofshake, I offered my right foreleg and he took hold of it, giving it a few shakes in his fleshy claw.

“Captain Spitfire,” I told him, “Leader of the Wonderbolts for Equestria. Now since you’re here, I have two questions to ask.”

“Go ahead,” he said warmly.

“Where are we and, more importantly, what are we?”

“Oh yes, Agent F did mention something about this…” he muttered, “You along with everyone else is in a town called Equestria, and this place is its high school where you’ll be helping the students and staff here.”

Students and staff…  Things are slowly beginning to make sense here. This explains why some of the ponies look roughly about the same age and height while others look older and taller.

“Oh,” I said, “So I’m guessing this is all some alternative universe or something huh?” he nodded. “Okay, this is pretty cool actually. But there’s something that Celestia didn’t make it all clear though?”

“And that being?”

“What did she mean by, ‘prepare to meet your other selves?’ Do any of you have any idea what that’s about?”

“It’s part of the reason why we’re here,” he said as he gestured for all of us to get near the school. “Understand that, for our part, this is very last minute here. But from what Agent F has told us, there’s apparently a copy of everyone in the school from where you’re from.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” I interrupted, “A ‘copy’ of everyone?”

“Yes, and apparently from what we could gather, magic from your world has spread into our own, but the problem is that nobody here has any idea how to deal with it except for you guys. I mean with students finding out that they could lift stuff with their minds, or fly, or whatever, you could imagine that it’ll be a huge mess for everyone, right?”

Okay, I think this starts to make a bit more sense here.

“So tell me, how long would you Equestrians plan on staying here?” he inquired.

“From what we were told, not for very long,” I said, “We would just pop here, says ‘Hello,’ teach them some very basic magic and make an appointment with them before we all go home.”

“Ah, I see,” he nodded, “the Principal here at the school is planning to help educate not only her students but hoping to spread the word out the rest of the world that there’s magic here and how to use it responsibly. That’s where we come in. We’re here to not only gathering whatever the students and staff here learned but for us to figure out how to use this information to spread the word without causing panic. I’ll tell you what,” he said, putting his claw, thing, on my shoulder, “you teach them, they take notes, and we’ll take care of the rest. Good?”

“Well, I suppose,” I answered, and then, the doors to the school opened up. When they did, all of us were probably stunned because we saw a second… us. Really, there were duplicates of everypony that came out of those doors. They wandered around until they found a copy of themselves.

“Uh, Coach Spitfire?” I turned around to find… a second me there.

Whelp, this is going to be an interesting day.

“Yeah?” I answered myself… I think.

“Do you want to come to the back of the school with us?” she asked, “I think, from what your guys said, that we’re going to learn about flying, right?”

“Uh… sure,” I said dumbly, “Lead the way I guess.”
> (Hello and Magic 101, Part 3 of 3. According to Bon Bon.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So, let me get this straight,” I interrupted, “You’re saying that your Celestia is a Principal at a school; Spitfire is a PE teacher; Discord has a job for teaching art; you live on a street called ‘Pony Hill Road,’ just got into the candy making business part-time, you’ve been dating your Lyra for a few months, and that she thinks that unicorns are real?”

My double nodded, “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

The four of us, me, Lyra and our other selves decided that instead of meeting up with the others in either their Cafeteria or Gym, we would just chat in the hallway with a thousand lockers. I admit, when I first saw her, it was both weird and concerning at the same time. On the one hoof, I know they are really me and my Lyra, yet on the other, the more we talked, the more… interesting things became.

Oh don’t get me wrong, we both shared some similarities, sure. Like her Lyra was interested in music while my duplicate said that she’s improving her confectionery skills. And the fact that we the four of us have more or less the same relationship dynamic, so to speak.

Yet at the same time, both of us couldn’t help but notice a few things.

Her Lyra asked, “What’s so surprising about us dating? Aren’t you doing the same thing?”

“Well not quite,” I responded, “Truth be told, we’ve been married not too long ago.”

“Really!” they both nearly shouted in surprise as their eyes went as wide open as their mouths.

“Yeah,” my Lyra nodded, “We’ve been hitched for several months now.”

“Hold on! Hold on!” my counterpart interjected, “How old are you two?”

“I’m twenty-seven and she’s twenty-six,” I answered, “Why? How old are you two?”

“I’m seventeen and she’ll be my age come July,” she said.

“Yeah, and I’ll be turning twenty-seven in July too,” my Lyra said. “You know, this is really fascinating.”

“Tell me about it,” the other Lyra agreed, “I mean, just now, we've learned that unicorns exist!”

“And humans too!” my Lyra grinned while I and I think my other self rolled our eyes.

“Let me guess,” my counterpart said, “Your, uh… Wife is a bit nutty too?”

I sighed, “Oh yeah. I’ll be admitting that my Lyra isn’t what you call… normal compared with other ponies. I mean sure, she tends to sit weirdly or plays on an instrument that no one ever plays anymore. And not to mention her interests in, well, you guys. Yet at the same time,” I put my left foreleg to wrap it around my Lyra, “That’s what I like about her, you know? It’s because she’s weird that life with her never gets boring. Don’t get me wrong, making candy is great, but it can get repetitive at times doing the exact same thing. Plus being around somepony who has a weird little mind, she can get surprisingly creative in ways that I never thought possible before.”

“Awe, come here,” my wife leaned in, both to kiss me on the cheek and to use her new… hands weren’t it? Yeah, she used her new hands to mess up my mane a bit. Smiling, I didn’t stop her.

“Although, I have to ask,” My wife said, “You didn’t suggest to her to make jalapeno peanut butter truffles yet have you?” they shook their heads. “A bit of advice, whatever you do, don’t make it. Trust me, I suggested it, she made it, and we both ended up regretting it. Okay?”

They nodded.

“So…” their Lyra started, “If it’s true that everybody here has magic, how do I do it?”

“Oh! That’s easy,” my Lyra beamed, “Perhaps it’s best if I show you. Can I see your lyre?”

She said sure and that she’ll get it from her locker, the other Lyra went down a bit until she got to a particular locker and opened it. Out of it, she took out a small but familiar black case. She came back to us with the case and opened it up to a familiar golden lyre.

“Okay, so what now?” she asked as she handed the instrument over to her double.

“Here, watch this,” my wife said before her head glowed with her magic. It was rather odd to watch because not only she doesn’t have a horn, but the way her aura worked was rather weird too. Instead of her usual wavering aura that stays in one place, this time, it was like watching bright yellow fireflies’ whizzing around her head.

She picked up the lyre in her magic, “The way I do it,” she said, “Is that I imagine hard enough of me picking up the lyre. Of course, the key is to concentrate on what you want to play, and to practice just like any other instrument.” Then suddenly, the same misty claws formed beside the instrument and she just let them slide up and down the strings before giving it back to her other self. “Now you try.”

I noticed that the other Lyra looked hesitant but my other self put a hand on her Lyra’s shoulder, “Come on,” she said, “You can do it.”

“What if I mess up?” she asked.

“Look,” my wife said, “Everypony that starts out using magic is always guaranteed to mess up. Even I messed up too. But it takes a bit of practice to get the hang of it. But at least try though. Try to picture your hands picking up the instrument first.”

Her counterpart nodded before closing her eyes. For a moment, nothing happened until we saw the same fireflies going around her head, and the light on her lyre was taking hold as my wife let it go. Eventually, she was holding the thing on her own.

“Lyra! You’re doing it! It’s floating!” my other self cheered. The other Lyra opened her eyes and saw her achievement, that was before her aura flickered and dropped it. Luckily, my wife was able to catch it just in time.

“Whoa, that was close,” my Lyra commented, “But that was a really good try though. Just don’t feel bad about it; sometimes it takes a bit of practice.”

“That was incredible!” the other Lyra exclaimed, “Did you see that!? I just lifted that thing without touching it… Hmm… I wonder what else I can do with it.”

“How about we tell you what,” I said, “I really need to get back to work and so does Lyra. But maybe we could come back sometime and Lyra could teach ya some more?”

“You can do that?” the other I questioned.

“Well, given what’s been going on, we can now.” I said, “But I don’t know if I would come back tomorrow since mom will be swinging by.”

“Same here,” the other me said, “I have a math test I need to take. Perhaps sometime Saturday is alright with you two?”

“Sure,” my wife nodded. “I can come back to teach you some more magic and my Bonnie here can teach your ‘marefriend’ a few tricks as well when it comes to sweets, deal?”

Before we could shake hoo- eh, hands on it, we felt a sudden gust of wind along with somepony chanting, “Thisisbad! Thisisbad! Thisisbad! Thisisbad!” we looked to see what ran passed us.

“Was that Mr. Disc?” my other self asked.

Not too long after that, both Celestia’s and a Luna lookalike speed right by us, calling out for him to stop.
> 17: Paranoia.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, so let’s go over this again,” my other boss told me.

“I told you, I honestly have no idea where he went,” I retorted back. By now, we’ve decided to move away from the auditorium to go about the school to see how everyone else is doing with their duplicates. At the moment, we’ve just gone back inside to see what was happening with the pegasi population at the back of the school. Of course, we found that the Equestrians have already figured out how to fly while their counterparts were trying to grasp with some of the basics. In my opinion, they need work… lots of it. The slapstick became exhausting after a while.

At this point, the Princess Celestia had brought up the topic of where the other me had gone to.

I added, “I keep telling you, the last time I saw him, he was sleeping on my couch, I went to bed, woke up the next morning, and he was gone. Besides, even I did know, he would have at least had left a hint as to where he was headed, I know I would.”

“But are you sure?” my boss questioned, “After all, this alternative you do sound a bit unstable, so where do you think he could have gone to?”

“Anywhere in the world by now, besides, he was curious about what this place would look like, and the fact that he could teleport as I can, that tells me that he could be anywhere.”

“Wait a moment,” the other Celestia thought out loud, “How do you know he even left?” I stopped, my boss and I looked over to the other Celestia and inquired what she meant by it. “You were right on one thing; the Discord I know would leave some calling card to give a hint as to where he’s going. But what if he didn’t leave one because he wasn’t going anywhere too far?”

“You mean that he could be still here?” Principal Celestia asked.

“Who’s still here?” we turned to find that the Vice Principal walking up to us with one of those CIA Agents in a stiff black suit.

“Good morning,” the agents greeted us, “So would you tell me where I could find a certain Princess Celestia?”

“That would be me,” the other Celestia said stepping forward. The agent took a bit of a bow and introduced himself on behalf of all humanity as Agent M. While both Celestias were talking and Luna joining in the conversation, I leaned back against the lockers and thought for a moment about Equestrian Celestia’s comment and wonder what she could have meant.

She did have taken my point about leaving a calling card thing, but what if he’d never left. What does this mean? Is he still around?

Frankly it’s about time you’ve thought of that.

I looked around in shock. That was his voice alright. I heard it as clear as glass, yet there is something odd about it. By the sound of it, he sounded like he was right next to me, but I don’t see him anywhere. It was as if he were coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Yeah I know, it does sound like a Zen riddle at first doesn’t it?

“Where are you?” I asked aloud, getting the attention of the more serious adults in the hallway.

“What was that?” Luna questioned.

And while you’re at it, stop looking around, I’m much closer than you think.

“Julius?” my boss asked, “Is something wrong?”

Is something wrong? Of course, there’s something wrong.

“Am I the only one that’s hearing this?” I asked them, “Can you seriously not hear him talking right now?”

“Who, me?” the agent asked.

“No, not you, the other me, Discord, he’s talking right now.”

I would rather quit while ahead if I were you, otherwise, they’ll think you’ve gone cuckoo again.

“See! Right there! Didn’t any of you hear… you’re not hearing this, aren’t you?”

They shook their confused heads.

“Uh, excuse me then,” I started to pace myself some distance while grabbing out my cellphone to put it against my ear. “Okay, seriously, where on this bloody earth are you!?”

Two things, what are you doing?

“I’m putting my cell against my ear so to make it look like I’m not talking to myself.”

Well, you technically are. But anyway, onto my second thing, I uh… I really need some help here.

I stopped, “Help? What do you need help for? You’re practically the God of Random aren’t you?”

My, my, we’re asking a ton of questions here aren’t we? Just listen okay. Last night, when you’ve mentioned that you have some mental illness, and concerning the stupid things I’ve done to you since we’ve met, I’ve thought of something, to your eyes, to redeem myself. Some symbol to show you that I’m not the bigger jerk here.

“What did you do?” I said sternly.

He heard him sigh, That’s the thing, and trust me, in my current situation, you’re not going to like it one little bit.

“Try me.”

Alright. Julius, it’s true, I’ve never left by your side. In fact… you may say that I’ve learned quite a bit from you when you get lost in your copy’s own mind.

I stopped. What did I just hear? He did he just say what I think he just said? I felt a familiar sense of dread dumped on me like a bucket of water that had rock salt and ice that had been soaked for a while.

“What?”

He-he, yeah… I thought I could try to find the source of your problem and maybe get you well enough that you didn’t have to take those dreadful pills. Yet, by doing so… I realized that I’ve done something incredibly stupid. I’ve forgotten to leave a trail of breadcrumbs so to speak.

“But… Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, teleport out of my head?!”

Don’t you think I’ve already tried!? Look, being inside somepony’s mind is one thing, but I’ve never attempted to navigate my way through a being that’s, well, me. So, of course, I tried getting out the easy way, but every time I did, I end up in some other part of your mind that I’m not familiar with. Not that makes any difference here. I honestly have no idea where I am in here; the maze in Canterlot’s royal garden is less confusing than this place.

‘This is bad,’ I thought.

Tell me about it, he retorted.

“This is bad,” I said aloud, “This is bad. This is bad, this is bad, this is bad, thisisbad…” I keep saying over and over as I started to head down the halls into a full gallop.

“Julius! Where’re you going?” I heard Luna behind me, but I just ignored her. By now, I ran past everyone. I need to get out! I need to leave! There’s no telling what he has been doing in there for… I don’t know how long! This is bad because now, not even my medicine can help me!

I need to get away, what if I start hallucinating and I use my powers again? The last thing I need is a repeat in what happened in Ponyville.

Bursting through the doors, I ran for the direction of my car. I snapped my fingers for the keys to appear in my hands. I’m almost there!

“Julius! Stop!” I heard one of Celestias voices before I was suddenly tripped and landed face first in the grass. Before I could start to crawl, I was lifted upside down in the air to find that one of my boss’s head’s aglow, soon enough, the other Celestia, Luna, and the CIA agent caught up to her.

“Mr. Disc,” she said, “What has gotten into you?”

“I know where he is,” I told them, “and I really need to get out of here!”

“Why?” she demanded, “Where is Discord?”

“He’s in my head,” I confessed, “Discord has gotten lost inside my mind.”
> 18: Into the Mind of a Madman.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Would the following students please report to the Principal Celestia’s office: Fluttershy, and Applebloom Apple, along with the counterpart of Twilight Sparkle, please come to Celestia’s office at once?” Vice Principal said over the intercom’s mic before turning the thing off in her office. By her desk were both Celestia’s, the CIA agent, and myself pacing around in front of them, trying to remain as calm as my mind would allow.

“You do realize all the things that might go horribly wrong here, right?” I questioned, keeping my darting eyes to the carpet. “I mean, what if they don’t find their way out either? What if they damage something? What if they see or hear something that I don’t want anyone to know? What if-”

“Julius,” one of the Celestia’s cut me off my panicked ramblings. “I fully understand what-”

“No, you don’t!” I snapped at her, “You don’t have any clue as to what I’m going through right now! My other self has gotten lost in my mind since last night and I have no idea what he’s been doing in there all this time! Oh! Did I mention that I never invited him to do this, to begin with?”

“Which is why we’re going to help you find him and get him out of your mind,” the other Celestia said. “I admit, this was unexpected, but in my Kingdom, something like this has been done before, only very rarely and at the last resort. Also, it tends to help to have someone who you trust the most to navigate through your mind.”

“I understand the trust part of the deal here,” I told her, “Yet what I don’t know is if they or he have done anything to make me worst off given what I have mentally.”

“Mr. Disc does present a compelling point,” Agent M commented, “Agent F did present his track record of all the vandalism and making a danger to himself while being controlled by his hallucinations. Who’s to say if this experience makes matters worse for him?”

For a minute, I let them debate amongst themselves while my mind tries hard not to imagine my worst fears of this failing. Unfortunately, the more I tried not to think about it, the more paranoid I was becoming.

“Cel,” I interrupted their conversation, “I mean, Principle Celestia, I need you to do me a favor if this doesn’t work.”

“Of course,” she said, “What is it?”

“If they are unable to find him, or if nobody comes out of it, or that I’m acting a little too weird than usual… I really hate to even say this, but, if worst comes to worst, I want you to have me recommitted at the mental hospital for everyone’s safety.”

“Julius, stop! I’m sure they have a plan in finding your other self. Besides,” she pointed to her Equestrian duplicate, “She’s leading the search party, and she’s done this before.”

The other Celestia nodded, “Yes, I do have a plan, and I have done this before… Well, I’ve done something like this only twice in my whole life.”

“Oh, gee thanks,” I said sarcastically, “I’m beginning to feel so much better now.”

There was a knock on the door, and Celestia’s sectaries stick their heads in to tell us that the students and the Twilight copy have arrived. Soon enough, the human Fluttershy and Applebloom, along with the other Twilight were shown in, having the door closed behind them.

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight began, “Have you found Discord yet?”

“Unfortunately,” the Equestrian Royal said, “We know where he is now, but he needs help getting out.”

“Discord needs help?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, “From where?”

“He’s in here,” I said, tapping my head until the three of them quickly got the same idea.

“The other Mr. D is in yer head?” Applebloom asked, and I nodded.

“Is he alright?” Ms. Shy asked with a look of worry. I told her that he sounds fine, but he’s just lost.

The royal Celestia went into her plan as to how to find the other me, she said that with my powers, I could let them inside my head so that she, Twilight, Shy and Bloom could go on a search party to look for him.

“But if the other Mr. Disc is lost in his mind,” Fluttershy started, “How do we find our way through somebody’s mind?”

“Twilight,” the other Celestia turned to the other Princess in human form. “Do you remember the story of Starswirl’s adventure into the Hydra’s cave?”

“How could I forget?” she answered, “Starswirl was looking for a Hydra egg inside a cave so huge, that ponies couldn’t find their way out once they entered in. So, before entering the cave, Starswirl thought about how to navigate through the dark labyrinth to find the egg when he thought up of an idea. He gathered as much string and twine as he could find, tied it all together, and wrapped it into a ball. That way, before he wandered through the cave, he tied one end to near the entrance while he unravels the ball of twine as he went through the maze.”

“And that,” the other Celestia said, “Is exactly how we’re going to find Discord. Twilight, Applebloom, and Fluttershy, the four of us are going to spread out through Mr. Disc’s mind, yet we’ll leave a trail behind us as we go through.”

“But what are you going to use for string?” Agent M questioned. The other Celestia’s head glowed for a moment until out popped four golden balls of yarn in which she levitated one to herself and the others to the students and Twilight.

“Since it’s nearing lunchtime, of course, we’ll need something to eat as we explore,” the Celestia copy commented.

“Ah think Ah got that covered,” Applebloom took off her backpack and unzipped a section in which she brought out a couple of apples, and handed them over to them.

I went over to Fluttershy and put a hand over her shoulder, “Ms. Shy, do you want to do this?”

Shy thought for a moment, “W-Well… How long has your other self been lost?”

“Since last night.”

“Oh… Um… D-Do you even trust me in going into your mind? I mean, I don’t blame you if you really don’t want to. I think I understand.”

“Fluttershy, I trust you in making sure you don’t touch anything in there, in fact,” I turned to the others, “Promise me that whatever you find in there, you’ll leave it alone?”

They agreed with it before I turned back to Ms. Shy, “So, do you really want to do this?”

“I think so,” she answered softly.

“Well then,” the Royal Celestia said, “Shall we get going?”

I took a deep breath and headed to the door. Kneeling down, I reached to take hold of one of my hairs from the top of my head and plucked one out. “Owe!” I said before turning my attention to the doorknob where it has a keyhole. I put my hear to the door and placed my strand of hair into the doorknob. Carefully listing, I fiddled around, trying to pick the lock of the door until I heard an audible “Click.”

“That should do it,” I said before standing up and opening the door. On the other side, to their amazement, they didn’t see the reception area of Canterlot High’s offices, but rather the light green foyer of the Mental Hospital that I was once in. Complete with a double staircase leading to the two wings above, a hallway that splits on the other side and right in the center of the large room was the familiar large wooden desk where the nurse/sectary would be.

The more magical experienced Celestia used all four ends of the balls of yarn to tie to the door handle. “How long do you expect to be in there?” I inquired.

“Try giving us a few hours,” the other Celestia said, with the search party the following suit. “We all have watched on us right?” they nodded, “Alright then, let’s go find Discord.” The four of them stepped into my head before Applebloom, the one in the rear of the group, closed the door behind her.

I reached for the doorknob, only to open up to the reception area of the High School.

“They did it,” I told myself, “They’ve gone inside my head.”
> (Exploring: According to Appleblooom.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Won’t these things snap?” I asked the other Principal Celestia. 

She turned around sayin’: “Not to worry, dear Applebloom, these balls of string are indestructible. Test it yourself,” And that’s what I did. I tried pullin’ on it, biting it, even tryin’ to cut it off with a sharp corner, but no matter what I did, nothin’ happened to it.

“Won’t we run out of this?” Fluttershy questioned, holding up hers.

“I can assure you Fluttershy,” the other Twi said, “This is the kind of string in which you could stretch around the planet several times and won’t even come close of running out.”

“But how does that work?” Flutter’s asked.

“These things are magic, aren’t they?” I stated and Twi said that Ah was correct.

Before we all headed out, Celestia made us all promise that, as she put it: “Whatever you find in Disc’s mind, stays in Disc’s mind.” We all agreed to it befor’ turnin’ towards the stairs in front of us. It was decided that Twi and Celestia would try the upstairs while we stick with the main floor.

So me and Shy entered the short, green hallway where it splits. Shy said that she’ll go left if I’ll go right, I agreed to it. We wished each other luck, and with that, we separated.

To tell y’all the truth, at first, the place was jus’… (how do I say this) spooky. It’s kinda like walkin’ in one of those horror trailers with its green walls, its black and white tiles, not to mention about the lightin’ of the place gives ya the impression that a ghost is nearby.

After a while, the only sound I heard was mah own footsteps. So I thought it’ll be about time I start callin’ out, “Uh, Mr. D? Discord? Y’all around?” Nothin’. “Hey! Anyone here?”

This time, I did hear somethin’, about ten feet away, I was gettin’ near a hallway that split to the right, where I found not too far off a door there. It was one of those heavy metal doors, the kind I think they might use in a prison. By the sound of it, the laughin’ was comin’ from it. I saw as Ah drew near that it was one of those doors that had one of those see-through slots where you’d see what’s on the other side without openin’ the door.

“Hello?” I called out to whoever was giggling behind the door. Not ta say that I would be lyin’ if I didn’t say that there was somethin’… unnerving about the laughin’, somethin’ not right about it. I reached out for the slot that was at ma height and opened it.

I saw through that little panel a white padded room, with Mr. D, wrapped up in one of those straitjackets, gigglin’ his head off like Pinkie jus’ swallowed several pixie sticks at once.

“He-he-hahaha! Applebloom!” he bolted upright to his feet, “Good little Applebloom! What- haha, what joy it is to see you here of all places!”

“Mr. D, Y'all alright in there?”

He laughed some more, now I could see his eyes starin’ at me like I was an apple pie. “Alright? After from getting fired and bein’ thrown in here! Never better! Hahaha! I just had the worst day of my life, and yet I never felt better! But- heheha, but enough about me, what about you, have you gone cuckoo too?”

“No, I ain’t,” I said, “I’m jus’ lookin’ for someone is all.”

“Awe… What shame,” he purred, “Here I thought you might have brought me some news.”

“News?”

“About moonbutt,” he replied, “Has Luna gone mad yet? Did my plan work?”

I blinked, “What plan?”

He rolled his eyes, “Isn’t it obvious? Hehe, the plan to drive the Vice-Principal to insanity,” although I couldn’t see it, I could tell he was grinning.

Okay, this was gettin’ creepy, I turned around to leave, only ta find the same metal door with a giggling Mr. Disc lookin’ through the slot, “Don’t you want to know how I did it?” he asked. I looked down at my golden line of thread, it leads right underneath the door in front of me.

“Wait,” I said, “I remember that there was a hallway right there a moment ago.”

“Remember?” the crazy Mr. D chuckled, “Oh I don’t I would be doing that if I were you. Remembering things is a dangerous business you know.”

“What do ya mean?”

“Ya see, one moment, you could be headed down in a festival of pleasures with the bright lights of puberty and the delicious tastes of childhood, then suddenly, you turn around the corner and BAM! You’re somewhere where you don’t want to be in, someplace that’s just… unpleasant. Memories, my dear Applebloom can be such brats, like… like children! HAHAHA!”

I started to back out when I ran into the first door I saw comin’ in, “But can’t we live without remembering?” I turned to find Mr. D’s grinned through the slot.

“Live without rememberin’?” I questioned.

“Yes, after all, in the words of the Joker, ‘Memories is what is reason is based upon. If we can’t face them, we deny reason itself.’ But is it really such a bad thing?”

“W-What do ya mean?”

“We’re not really tied down to sanity, aren’t we? So, my little student, take this lesson with you: If you find yourself on some unpleased thought, going straight down a path where the SCREAMING IS UNBEARABLE!!!” he shouted the last three words at me, makin’ me jump pretty high. “Remember Applebloom,” he said again in a playful manner, “There’s always madness. All you have to do is just step outside and close the door with all those terrible things that you could just simply lock away. Madness, you see, is the emergency exit! Hahaha!”

As Mr. D was losin’ his mind, there was a bright, neon red light above mah head, it was a sign that read, “Exit” on it, so I decided to take a chance, and open the door. On the other side of the door wasn’t the padded room with Mr. D all wrapped up, but I found myself in somebody’s home. A bit of a messy one too. There were clothes in piles, dishes with food going to rot every few feet, and to top it off, on the walls, there were crayon drawings that looked like they were made by a little kid.

“Owe!”

“I’m almost done sweetheart,” I looked to mah left and found somethin’ I thought I've never seen. Sittin’ on a piano bench was… well… Mr. D but a whole lot younger than me by several years, ma guess he’d had been… seven or eight maybe. He had his leg stickin’ out that was being wrapped up in bandages by a lady that I’ve never seen befor’.

The lady’s hair was frazzled, and I think it’s dyed white. She had on thought, black framed glasses, had on a tied dyed shirt and jeans. She said, “This is what happens when you go jumping off from the roof Julius.”

“But mom,” he whined, “I sprouted wings and I was sure that I could fly! I mean, they were there a minute ago.”

“Julius, you really ought to be careful about these things, you could have gotten yourself killed if you didn’t land on the bushes.”

“But… I saw them,” he told his mom, “they were right on me, I even pulled on them to see.”

I looked around fer a bit and saw there was an open door there that leads to someplace else. I opened it to find myself steppin’ out into the hallway of a school I wasn’t familiar with. “Discord? You here?” I called as I stepped out into the unfamiliar school.

“How much longer?” I heard a deep voice asked, I looked at the sound of the voice only to quickly regret it. I saw a plaque that was on one particular door that almost made me wanted to turn around and run.

The plaque read: “Principal Sombra’s Office.”

I really was about ta leave if it wasn’t fer Mr. D’s voice answering him, “Be patient, will you? I’m almost done with the hair. So what’s the rush anyway? School hours are already over aren’t they?”

“Just… Just hurry up,” Sombra growled.

“And ruin your portrait? Good art doesn’t rush the artist you know.”

Okay, his other self probably isn’t here, so I decided to get away from this place as soon as possible. Suddenly, out of nowhere, I ran into a trash can wear it and I made quite a noise fallin’ over.

“What was that?” I heard Sombra’s voice, turning around to see that the blue hallways were now pitch black. And then I saw those eyes, “YOU!” he barked, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT HERE!?” he demanded before I ran.

I ran as fast as mah legs could carry. I wish that Scootaloo was here with the Crusader mobile to outrun that monster chasin’ me now. I saw at the end of the hallway a door that was marked as a janitors’ closet.

“GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BRAT!” Sombra roared, soundin’ closer now. With nothin’ but fear in me, I tried to outrun the approaching shadow that was gaining up on me.

Yet I was able to reach that door, swing it open to get myself inside and slam it shut. I breathed a little, tryin’ to calm myself down as much as possible after bein’ chased like that. While I was catchin’ my breath, I took a moment to figure out where I am now. By the looks of things, it looks like I’m on a porch in some neighborhood.

Only that some things ain’t quite right, like how the sky is purple, the trees are growing squids, and that there’s on the front lawn across the street, there was a familiar lookin’ red hair girl yellin’ at a younger Mr. D.

“What’s the big idea of throwing these at them?!” the taller, redhead demanded.

“They’re just paper airplanes,” little Disc explained, “I don’t know why they-”

“These aren’t paper airplanes,” she scolded at him, holding up a paper airplane, “These are rocks! What’s the matter with you?”

“But… But I thought-” was as far as Disc got before he was cut off.

“Don’t play around my little sisters again! Or I will make you pay!” with that, she stormed off the lawn, leaving a tearful lookin’ Disc behind. Now havin’ my breath back, I walked over to him.

“Hey, Y'all-” That was as far as I got until he turned and ran into one of the houses, slamming the door right behind him. Ah guess Ah might wanna follow him ta see where he goes off to. Who knows? Maybe he’d lead me to his other self.
> (The: According to Fluttershy.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why do these hospitals have to be creepy? There’s really no reason to be like this, it’s like I’m entering one of those horror/survival games that Rainbow and Applejack would play. The fact that this place is empty and so quiet doesn’t really help much.

“H-Hello?” I call out, well, not exactly called out but more whispered. Yet even my whisper and my footsteps echo in this endless hallway. Turning my head around, my line looked like it stretched to back for miles. How long have I-

“NO!” the sudden shout made me jump a good deal, which I found it was coming to my left. I saw about twenty feet away down a short hallway Mr. Disc in a straightjacket with two very imitating looking men in white dragging him while being followed by a doctor with a clipboard. “NOT THAT! ANYTHING BUT THAT! NO! PLEASE!” Disc screamed out of fright as he was being pulled out of sight.

Feeling concerned, I ran over, peaking around the corner in time to see him taken through a pair of white doors, in which above them was a brass sign that read: “Therapy.” Even with the doors closed, Mr. Disc’s screams still penetrated through the doors.

“NO! NO! DON’T! STOP!” What on earth were they doing to him? I never heard him begged like this before. “HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP!” I couldn’t take this anymore, I came out of my hiding place and opened the double doors, only to find Mr. Disc’s classroom.

To my complete confusion, there wasn’t anything awful that I’d expected like him being strapped down to a medical table. Instead, I saw that the double doors opened up to the back of Mr. Disc’s classroom.

“Good morning class,” he said, standing up from his desk, “Welcome to Art, My name is Mr. Disc, or you could call me Mr. D, and this is my first time teaching. And since this is my first time teaching, don’t expect that your syllabus that outlines the rules would remain permanent. In other words, everyone here is a test rat for what will work and what doesn’t in this class.” As he was talking to the class, he took no notice that I entered his classroom as if I were invisible.

The first thing that I looked for is the calendar that is usually hung by his desk, to my surprise; it was from almost twenty years ago.

“Hey, Mr. D,” somebody asked, I looked over to find a student with his hand up… and has a shovel for a head. “Your syllabus didn’t say anything about homework, does that me we don’t have to do any?”

Looking back to Mr. Disc, he blinked for a moment, “As of now, no,” he answered as he reached into his pocket, “Unless you really need to learn something, do some catchup, or misbehave; no one will get homework from my class.” He pulled out of his pocket the orange bottle of pills. Before I left, I glance over the classroom to find that the entire student’s heads were replaced with gardening tools.

I exited the classroom through the door that usually leads to the school’s hallways, but instead, it opened up to a darkened hallway that looked like it was from somebody’s home. It was rather hard to see. Then I felt my shoe bump into something solid, reaching down, I felt a glass bottle.

I admit, I was rather confused at first, did Mr. Disc drink?

But that thought was dashed when a door creaked open to find a kid there in his pajamas, “Psst! Get in here,” he waved me in frantic, “Quickly, before mom sees ya.”

Complying, I entered through the door to find myself in a child’s bedroom. The walls and some of the floor were covered in drawings in pencil, pen, and crayons. There were toys too from Slinkys to Lincoln Logs that were in piles.

The child that closed the door behind us took me a moment to figure out who it was. It was Mr. Disc as a child! “You should be quiet,” he said, “Mom isn’t well, and you shouldn’t be out there.”

“Why? Is something wrong?” I asked.

“Um… Not really, it’s just that she said she’s feeling down again, so she’s taking something to make her feel better. But if she takes too much, well…” he trailed off, but shook his head. “I guess that doesn’t matter now… Are you real?”

This question caught me completely by surprise, “What do you mean?”

“I mean, are you really here, or are you not? Mom says that my imagination tends to act upon its own you know.” He went over to pick up one of the Slinkys, “Just watch, you’ll know what I mean.” He dropped the coiled spring, but it didn’t hit the ground, instead, it hovered there for a moment before it started to move through the air, something like a snake.

“You’re seeing this right?” he asked and I nodded, “I swear, I’m not doing this at all! It always happens when I pretend, weird stuff like this happens.” The Slinky was now draped around the fan on the ceiling.

“JULIUS!” The room shook with the shriek of a woman's voice so harsh, that I can compare it someone scratching nails to a chalkboard. “Have you haven’t practiced your piano, have you?!”

“Oh no,” he said meekly before the sounds of stone heavy footsteps shook the room. “Quick! The toy chest!” He rushed over and opened the box at the foot of his bed, “Come on!”

“Julius!” the sound of glass breaking and that shattering voice was more than enough for me to forget logic and jump right into the toy box. There I found not a box that was filled with toys, but a flight of stairs that lead downward.

“Aren’t you coming?” I asked him.

“I’ll be fine,” he told me, “Just get out of here while you still can,” and with that, he slammed the lid on me. The situation was making me so uncomfortable that I did as he said and just rushed downwards.

At the foot of the stairs, I found myself in a room where everything except the floor, some of the walls and a door on the other side of the stairs, has been burnt. The only source of light in the room was a nightlight that outlined the scorched room in a lightless void. I remember how quiet everything became when I walked on that wooden floor.

“Hello?” I said, and my voice echoed. What happens here? Why isn’t the floor burnt like the walls and ceiling? Was it always like this?

And why is that door left untouched? I went over to open the door to find myself in Mr. Disc’s house, or at least, in his living room. There on the couch was another Mr. Disc sitting on the couch, he turned his head to me and even jumped up as I entered the room to close the door behind me.

“Wait!” he cried, “Don’t close that-” the door behind me was shut, “…. Door.”

“Um, are you the other Mr. Disc?” I asked him.

He sighed, “Yes, hello to you too, other Fluttershy. I would be more than happy to see you if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re now trapped here for all eternity.”

I blinked, “Pardon?”

“See for yourself,” he said gesturing to the door I came in.
Curious, I opened the door to step out, only to find myself to be walking into the kitchen; I turned around to find the living room, as well as myself at the back door.

For a while, I tried everything I could think of to get out of the house, when I tried the window, I fall out another window but only to fall right back into the living room. When I tried going under the couch, I fell into the fireplace. When I tried getting out by the Dishwasher in the kitchen, I came out of the pantry.

“You see,” the other Discord said, “We’re stuck.”

“Oh dear,” I said, whipping the dust off of me, “I'd hope that the others would be able to find us eventually.”

“Someone’s looking for us in this maze?”

“Uh-huh, and I think they’ll be able to find us here.”

“Well, while we wait,” he reached into his sleeves and pulled out a board game. “How are you at Monopony?”
> (Heart: According to Princess Celestia.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Well, this is new,” I said to myself,” for a while, the setting of a grim, yet clean hospital has morphed into a trashed hallway of someone’s house. The green walls were replaced with Cheshire red and violet wallpaper. I couldn’t help but take notice of the pictures hanging on the walls. Some of them were in frames while others were just drawings that looked like they were done by a foal that was only head up on the walls by tape.

The floor, as I noticed, was littered with bottles, toys, crumpled paper bags, and torn music sheets. And the carpet I was walking on looked like nopony had vacuumed it in months.

“Discord,” I called out, “Are you here?”

“Go away!” turning to the source of the sound on my right, I found in a child, with his back turned away from me and looking out a window in a room that looked like as if it fell into disrepair. Cushions on the couch had been taken out and tossed about. A picture frame of what I assume a very young Julius Disc, and even more amazing, the human form of his mother, where the glass on it had been smashed. Even the stand-up piano didn’t survive in the evidence of a post-violent affair as not only that some of the keys were missing, but there was an ax that was buried in the side of it.

I stepped inside the room, knocking a few bottles over, which the “cling” got young Julius’s attention, “Didn’t you hear what I said? I said leave!”

“What happened here?” I asked, waving over to the chaotic mess in the room.

“Mom ran away, that’s what happened!” He snapped at me, “Those bullies were right! I’m just a huge freak, so mom drove off, and she’s never coming back ever again!” I was stunned, if not completely speechless. The young Julius was fighting hard to keep his tears back, “Just go away, nobody wants me anymore. Nobody wants to be friends with me o-or that anybody cares.” He slumped back to the window, his body shook before he started to bawl his eyes out.

“Julius,” I said, taking a few steps forward, “I had no idea at all. I’ve never-”

“I SAID LEAVE!” Julius screamed, picking up a pair of scissors and threw it at me, luckily he missed, “GET OUT!”

He started to throw everything at me from whatever he could get his hands on. I spotted what looked like a front door and ran for it as things “Thumped” and “Crashed” behind me. I flung the door opened and quickly closed it before he threw his broken family portrait at me.

After shutting the door, I looked around my surroundings to find that I was on the porch of someone’s home.

“I’m still surprised that you’ve decided to come over,” I heard Discord’s voice. I turned to find that this wasn’t him, but another memory of Julius’s. I saw him and Fluttershy’s human counterpart sitting down at a stand-up piano with a teapot and cups on top of the instrument.

“Why’s that?” human Fluttershy inquired, “Has anyone even came by to say hello?”

“Nowadays? Nope,” he replied as he poured himself some tea. “Even with Celestia rehiring me, everybody is keeping their distance from me. Perhaps they think I’m unstable or something. Which brings up the question of why you’re here, to begin with? Last time I’ve checked, you’re doing pretty well in my class.”

“I’m not here for the art class,” she confessed, and Julius raised an eyebrow.

“Come again?”

“I just think it’s rather unfair that everybody has been outright avoiding you. It just seems to me, if you don’t mind of me saying, that it’s like you don’t even have any friends.”

“I don’t,” Julius responded before taking a sip of his tea. “I just have students, co-workers, and my bosses that have given my job back.”

“Well, do you want to be my friend then?” Fluttershy asked, and I saw Julius being completely taken aback at this.

“What?”

“I’m asking if you want to be my friend,” the shy counterpart of her pegasus self said before taking a sip out of her cup, “That is if you want to anyway.”

“You want to be friends with an old weirdo like me?” Julius asked suspiciously. “You’ve probably had already heard about my reputation of a literately insane teacher.”

“So?”

Julius blinked… and blinked again, “So? Look, I already know how this is going to end, every time I reach out my hand for companionship, they either leave, go straight to jail, locked up in the puzzle house, or I end up working for them. Trust me, no one in their right mind would ever want to so much be my friend.”

“I would, I mean, I have my Angle Bunny who’s quite… demanding, so I don’t think being friends with you would be too much trouble on my part.”

Ah, I see, this must be when Discord’s counterpart friendship with Fluttershy must have started. But I must keep moving to find the Discord that I know.

Stepping off the porch to figure out where to go from here, I spotted a little alleyway which at the other side showed the halls of the high school. Curious, I went down to see where this new path would take me.

At the end of the hallway was the entrance to the school’s office. As I noticed walking in, the office where the sectaries’ were was decorated in hearts, and a banner saying “Happy Valentine’s Day!” If I didn’t know any better, it has the feel of a Hearts and Hooves day.

I spotted, facing towards my counterpart’s office, Mr. Disc holding with his sweaty hands a yellow envelope. “Come on Julius,” he said to himself, “You can do this. Just walk in and ask.” He took a deep breath before opening the door. Curious, I followed inside.

“Good afternoon Ms. Boss,” he said walking in. I saw on my counterpart’s desk a very familiar sight, piles of paperwork while the other me was bent over signing away.

“What do you want Julius?” she grumbled, “I’m a little busy here at the moment.”

“Are you, by any chance, planning on anything this evening?”

“I do actually, filing the rest of this paperwork by tonight.”

“Really? Don’t you let Luna take care of-”

“I can’t,” she interrupted, “All of this has to be signed and reviewed by me. So whatever you had in mind, forget it.”

“But,” Julius confident smile retreated, “It’s important too.”

“Can’t it wait?” she questioned. Somehow, this conversation seems vaguely familiar to me. She added: “Or could you ask someone else?”

“No it can’t wait,” he said, “Nor can I ask someone else about it, it requires you.”

“I’m sorry, but whatever it is, I just can’t do it today.”

“But I haven’t even told-”

“Julius, I’m busy,” my other self interrupted.

Julius nodded, “Alright, sorry that I’ve bothered ya,” he said with a hint of bitterness before walking out of the office and throwing away the envelope.

What was he trying to do here? And what was in that envelope? I went over to the trash bin and picked up the envelope that had my name on it. After opening it up, I was completely caught by surprise to find that inside was a note in the shape of a red heart.

“Happy Valentine’s Day Boss,” it read, “If you’re not getting buried in school stuff or if you don’t have a date for this evening, would you care to join me at the Red Rose at 7:20 tonight so I can be your valentine?” This got me wondering about several things, it was clear that the note is meant to ask, well, my other self on a date. But what does this mean? Does it mean that at one point Discord had liked me, but if that was the case, why didn’t I hear any of this before?

Perhaps this memory had already told me why, he tried, but I wasn’t listening.

“Celestia?” I quickly turned around and put the not behind my back to find the other Applebloom, still holding onto her string trail, “Have Y'all found the other Mr. D yet?”

“I’m afraid I haven’t,” I answered, “And by the looks of things, you haven’t either.”

“No luck yet, but the more Ah go around this place, the more Ah learned about Mr. Disc that Ah didn’t know about befor’.”

I agreed.

“Say,” Applebloom added, “Ya haven’t seen any of the others yet have ya?”

“No, in truth you’re the first that I’ve run into.”

“Um, could Ah follow ya around fer a bit?” she asked, “This place is a bit crazy and Ah was hopin’ Ah won’t be alone here.”

I nodded, “I understand, come on, let’s go this way.” I pointed to a door that leads to my other sister’s office.
> (Of: According to Princess Twilight Sparkle.)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

‘Now where am I?’ I thought to myself as the hallway of a hospital how turns into the halls of Canterlot High, only that I’m walking on the ceiling as the students walk below me.

“Hey, Discord!” I looked up to a student above me, looking at his direction, I found human Discord turning around.

“Stop calling me that,” he said, “It’s just Disc now.”

“Who let you out of the madhouse?”

Mr. Disc’s eyes narrowed, “If you must know, it was Principle Celestia. Now, what do you want?”

“I was just wondering, aren’t ya going to ask your class to paint the whole school again?”

With a “Humph,” he turned around sharply to walk up to a door before entering and slamming it shut. I went up to it; I noticed a sign that, although upside-down, read: “Dr. Foxwit. Psychiatrist & Therapist Ph.D.”

Curious, I jumped up to take hold of the doorframe, and with my magic, opened the door for me to climb in. Once I got inside, the room was right side up. The room was painted a light purple with a few windows, a table with cups, papers, pens and a plaque of the Doctor’s name. Sitting on a chair next to the human Discord in a blue uniform, the kind one would see at hospitals was a human mare in a white coat, holding up a clipboard in one hand and a pencil in the other.

“I can’t say that I’m not surprised that the treatment isn’t working,” the human Doctor said, jotting down a few notes. “Frankly, I don’t know why Dr. Mindweave insists on these techniques, even when they have been out of date with modern practice.”

“I always get headaches when I wake up from them,” Julius commented, “Couldn’t you guys just give my usual prescription of pills?”

“Perhaps we could,” she nodded in thought, “But maybe we could try other things, to see if your past doctors missed something that could be more effective.”

“Like what? Dumping my head first into a bucket of ice water with piranhas swimming around?”

“I mean things that are within reason.”

“Reason?” Julius raised an eyebrow, “Doc, this is a mental hospital, reason doesn’t exist here.”

Clearly ignoring his remark, the Doctor asked, “So, has there anything else that has been happening lately you want to talk about?”

“Oh! I do in fact,” he smiled wickedly, “Have you noticed that Luna is a patient here too?”

What?

“Luna? All I know is she’s new here? Why? Have you met her before?”

“She was my other boss. And the fact she’s here tells me my little revenge has worked.”

“What revenge?”

“To put a long story short Doc, her older sister, Celestia was unfair to me, so I decided to get a bit of payback. I honestly didn’t think it would happen this quick though. He-he. Now knowing that she’s as mad as me, I can help but gloat at what I’ve just accomplished.”

The doctor was just as taken aback as I was, “What did you do?” she asked.

“Tell me something,” Julius sat up, “Have you by any chance read the comic book called, ‘The Killing Joke’? It’s a Batman comic where it focuses on the Joker. Anyway, there’s a part where the villain has his famous monolog. ‘I’ve proved my point,’ he says, ’I’ve demonstrated that there’s no difference between me and everyone else! All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy. That’s how far the rest of the world is from where I am. Just one bad day.’ Truth be told doc, he is quite right… and at the same time quite wrong.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m saying that, from personal experience, it’s true that it takes a really bad day for a man to go cuckoo, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Ya see, my plan to drive the Vice-Principle nutso was to give her a series of bad days until she cracks. Driving somebody mad isn’t as hard as you doctors make it out to be. A dismissive remark here, a flat tire there, a forgotten invitation on one corner and an important event that nobody remembered in the middle; and what do you have? You get a classic nutcase!” Julius laughed a little.

“Disc,” Doctor Foxwit said in astoundment, “You… You’re responsible for Luna ending up here?”

“No need to thank me for that extra cash in your paycheck,” Julius remarked, “After all, I think there’s so many bad days, so many trials, long periods of neglect, so much of fill in the blank that one could take before they snap. Hey, how did you think I ended up here? Huh?” After a creepy chuckle that he gives from saying that, I decided to keep moving onward.

I tried the windows, to see if I could get them open. When I couldn’t find a latch, I tried to force it open by using my magic. To this, it worked beautifully. On the other side of the open window, I saw in a kind of living room, a human Fluttershy and Mr. Disc playing a board game.

“Go straight to jail and do not collect two-hundred dollars,” Fluttershy said reading from a card.

“Did you hear…” human Discord said before he saw me at the window, “Twilight! Don’t close that window!”

I tilted my head, “Why?”

“Twilight! Is that you?” Fluttershy got up and ran towards the window. “Thank goodness you’re here; we can finally get out now.”

“Huh?”

“Long story short Princess,” the defiantly other Discord we were looking for said, “I and the other Shy got trapped in a mind prison, but now thanks to you, we can bust out of here.” He turned to Fluttershy, “Ladies first,” he said, helping her out of the window.

Once both Fluttershy and Discord hopped out of the window, the three of us agreed that we should start making our way out. But when we opened the door of the doctor’s office, following my line, I noticed something was completely off. For one, the hallways of Canterlot High were I enter the Doctor’s office from was somehow replaced with forest. While the line was still there, instead of a straight line, now it twisted itself among the trees.

“I don’t remember coming by this place,” I told them.

“Oh…” Discord thought aloud in realization. “Now it makes sense.”

“What does?” Fluttershy inquired.

“This is why I got lost,” he said, “Like my mind, his always changes, which means when he does it, the mindscape changes too. No wonder I had a hard time navigating my other self’s mind.”

“M-Maybe we should find our way out quickly,” Fluttershy suggested. When I asked why, she held up her line, and to my amazement, it was cut. “Remember that room that we were trapped in, well when I entered it, the line you said was indestructible was cut. So, if you don’t mind of me asking, could we hurry back before your line gets cut as well?”

I agreed, “Come on, let’s get out of here,” and with that, we start retracing the line, hoping to find our way out. And I hope that Celestia and Applebloom would be able to find their way out as well. "Oh, and by-the-way Discord," I added, "When we get out of here, I think you and Princess Celestia are going to need to have a long talk, especially about Princess Luna."
> (Insanity: According to Discord)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s rather curious how my other self’s mind works at times, not to mention downright frustrating. I mean sure, he’s practically me and all, but at the same time, he’s like a different being of chaos. Sure, there’s the artistic value like this green and white tile room that we’re in now where we’re walking on the walls which means that we needed to jump over the doors that drop into an abyss.

If I didn’t know it, I would say this place kinda looks like my summer home if I forgot to put in the swimming pool of green jello.

Anyway, Twilight, Fluttershy and I were making our way, following Twilight’s string trail to the exit when I heard a familiar voice that was coming from the floor sideways from beneath us. “So what are you in here for?” Hold on… That deep voice yet creepy voice… Is that who I think it is?

“Long story short,” replied my duplicate’s voice, “I didn’t take my pills because I ran out of them, got fired from my job, and now I’ve ended up here. But what about you Gregor? I haven’t heard from ya in a while.”

Stopping, I looked over to the source of the conversation to find my other self and… him, sitting down at a table in the same blue hospital uniforms, eating from boring bowls of soup, with a couple of guards nearby. Even in human form, I could instantly tell it was him with hypothermia blue skin, his horn like the haircut and his white beard and deep red eyes. The noticeable thing I noticed with this alternative Gregor is the lack of his necklace with a bell hanging off of.

“Still committed in this place,” he answered, “Being locked up in a madhouse would make one go insane from sheer boredom.”

“Discord?” I heard the other Fluttershy voice called out, “Aren’t you coming?”

“Wait just a moment,” I told them, “I want to hear this.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” my other self said, “But you know, it’s the first time I’ve seen you out here with the rest of us screwballs, why’s that?”

“I’ve been told for ‘good behavior’ that I get to eat outside of solitary confinement.”

“You know, I haven’t seen you since College, so how did you end up here?”

“To put it short, I was found guilty for murder,” this got both of our attention, my other self asked to explain why he isn’t in prison. “Since I was dealing with, what I guess you might call the occult, I was doing a ritual that requires a certain… sacrifice. However, the jury ruled that I was guilty, but at the same time deemed me as insane for the why reason it was done. I was granted a plea of insanity and ended up here but under some watchful eyes.”

“Uh… Discord,” Twilight said, snapping my attention, “M-Maybe we should get going.”

I don’t blame the purple princess of friendship from sounding nervous, even I’m a bit unnerved from hearing that piece of news.

The string trail lead us to an air duct, with a little help from y screwdriver of a hand, was able to open it for us three to crawl in. Funny, I didn’t know that the mind has a ventilation system.

We called though mostly in the dark, with Twilight at the head and me at the rear because human Fluttershy was getting nervous of being at the head or the back. Again, the only thing that guided us was the string. Yet, that air duct wasn’t entirely dark, every so often; we would go past memory or so. There was one with the other Celestia signing my other self out of the asylum; another where he was in a fight with other children in a playground; and there was the time when we first met in Equestria.

Eventually, the string leads us falling down a dumbwaiter shaft and on top of each other in a tight space. I knew it was a dumbwaiter because I was getting rope burns and we landed hard on a wooden platform.

A few owe and a “Get off of my face” later, Shy felt a door in which we were able to tumble out of.

“Isn’t it amazing that none of us have broken our necks from a fall like that?” Flutter’s asked, rubbing her neck.

“Where are we now?” I asked getting up. By the look of things, it looked like we fell into a kitchen.

“What was that?” a familiar Southern voice asked. Not too long, it came in was human Applebloom and Celestia.

“Twilight, have you found Discord?” Celestia inquired.

“It’s him alright,” Twilight confirmed this. The alternative Celestia came marching up to me and slapped me.

“Discord! Do you have any idea whatsoever how much worry that you caused us in Equestria!?” scratch that, Princess Celestia scolded me as I rubbed what remained of my face.

“Owe! I’m on vacation here. I would think that whats-her-name would have said something about that.”

“Sunset did. I don’t mind you need a break, but here of all places?”

“I don’t like being locked out of something I want in,” I replied.

“Hey,” Applebloom called out, “Since we’ve found the other Mr. D, don’t ya think we should focus on gettin’ outta here?”

“Applebloom’s right,” Twilight agreed, “We already got Discord, now let’s try getting out of Julius’s head.”

Celestia took a deep breath, “I suppose you’re right Twilight. We ought to do just that. So whose path should we take then?”

“Celestia,” Fluttershy spoke up, “I think we might have a problem with these magic balls of twine you’ve given us.” She went on explaining that when she found me in that mental prison, her line was cut.

“But that’s not possible,” Celestia commented, “These are indestructible.”

“Want to give it a good tug to prove it?” I said. There was a pause before those who had the string to pull on theirs to see if they are tight. As it turned out, Celestia’s and Twilight’s string had snapped while Applebloom’s seemed to have held up.

“Maybe we should hurry before this thing breaks,” Applebloom suggested and the rest of us agreed.

“Perhaps I could help with that,” I said, snapping my fingers for an enlarge pinewood derby car with a metal loop at the front. Applebloom quickly got the idea and tied some of the string on it as I got into the driver’s seat.

The four of them climb into their seats while trying their best to avoid the splinters. Once we’re all in, I turned the key, shifted the thing into drive, and we started moving. “Let’s hope the thing doesn’t snap,” I commented as we zoomed through rooms and hallways.

Fast paced images came and went like a melting kaleidoscope. We saw an underwater pool, a starry night, a human Chrysalis in an orange jumpsuit, a movie theater, a teddy bear, a chalkboard, music sheets, needles, Luna in a straitjacket, Applebloom as a pony hugging me, the portal, mother at the piano… Wait, what was that last bit?

“Discord,” Celestia snapped my attention, “What were you doing in your counterpart’s mind?”

I turned my eyes back on the images, “Celestia, my intentions here are for a good cause. He said that he had a mental illness, so I thought I could lend a helping hoof to the matter and try to erase the very source of it.”

“But how do you know what you’re looking for?” she questioned, “In a place like this with countless problems we’ve seen, what were you trying to find?”

“Tell me, had any of you encountered some places where whole rooms looked as if they were burnt?”

Celestia paused, “Now you’ve mentioned it, Applebloom and I had encountered an entire hallway that was like that – where the walls and ceiling had been burned completely, leaving nothing except the floor.”

“Uh-huh,” I nodded, “And have you guessed what it was?” She shook her head, I explained: “Those burns, from what this place tells me, were probably made from an electrical fire. My guess is that those doctors were probably were looking for the problem but never got it. So I tried tracking down the burns to see if I could find the source of the problem, but that leads me nowhere.”

“Electrical fire?” Twilight asked, “Hold on… Does this mean that Julius was given electroshock therapy?”

“Maybe that’s why,” Fluttershy started, “I remember passing a memory where Mr. Disc was being dragged by scary looking doctors while he was screaming for not letting it happen to him. Maybe that was it.”

I turned my eyes back to the stringy road. It was right then I saw something that made me stomp on the breaks, I saw the door that the string was tied to. “Well, mares and ladies, I believe we’ve made it to our destination.”

As we got out, we looked around to see that the string was tied to the knob of the front door of my counterpart’s childhood home. I think it’s about time to give my other self a call to open the door.
> 19: The Living Silhouette.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the past few hours, I tried to keep myself as calm as I possibly could, which was very difficult for the fact that there’re now five people in my head doing who-knows-what. Even when things drifted back to normal as the Equestrians made their appointments with their copies before heading back to their lives, although, some of them decided to stay for a little longer.

The CIA was practically everywhere now, helping the students record what they’ve learned and in some cases confiscated digital files and videos of their counterparts and/or they flying or using magic for the first time. The men and women in black informed us that they’ll be the ones to release this information when the time was right, and they’ll organize what the students learned so that the country can be educated of it.

There was also the matter of them trying to figure out how to not only introduce a brand new country but a whole alternative universe that they told us to keep it on the down low until further notice. In other words, what we’ve found out in this town about our alternative selves, stays in this town until they say otherwise.

As for me, we were in the last period, and so far, I haven’t heard a word from the search party, nor from my other self. I tried to continue to teach my students (and a few extras) as best as I could give the current situation.

“That’s technically half true,” I answered my student’s counterpart’s question. “When shading a landscape, one has to realize where the sun is regarding the piece you’re working on. However, we should also keep in mind the other light sources as well such as light bulbs, T.V. sets, computer screens, flashlights and so on. So yes, sunlight is a good thing to keep in mind, but so are the other-”

Discord to Julius, Discord to Julius, do you read me?

“Uh… Would you excuse me for a moment class,” I said as I reached out for my cellphone, “I need to answer this call for just a moment.” Sitting down at my desk, I put the phone to my face and answered: “It’s about time I’m able to hear anything from you? Have they found ya yet?”

Actually, they did. We’ve followed the string back and now we’re all at the door where they came in. So would you mind opening the door for us to get out of your head?

“Since I’ve been itching for you to arrive, give me a moment to do just that.” After pretending to hang up and putting it back into my pocket. I stand up while getting an idea. Turning to the student’s counterpart who asked the shading question, I told him, “Actually, how about I do a demonstration of shading right now.”

I took a couple of pencils and waved out a long roll of paper, I had the sheet nailed to the walls above the chalkboard by the same pencils I’d picked up.

“He’s a simple exercise; let’s say the subject I want to draw is a door. Now with the current lights in the room that you see, and given the current position that this sheet is now, what are the lights that I need to keep in mind?” I asked as I began drawing the outline of a door.

My students and some of their counterparts answered as I quickly drew. They pointed out the light from the windows, the lamps on the ceiling, the hallway, etc… Meanwhile, I drew out the door, its frame, and a doorknob. Taking note of my own shadow, I put in the shadings of the knob and its frame.

“Shading is a fantastic tool to use,” I commented, putting the last detail on the hinges. “Because when you do your shading just right, the result is that the subject of your piece becomes realistic. And if you do it really well,” I reached for the paper doorknob and turned it. “Your artwork could look real enough to touch it,” to prove my point, I opened the door to find my other self, along with the search party on the other side.

“Was there any mail for me while I was gone?” my duplicate asked as he stepped through. I half expected that I would hear a horrified gasp, the sound of students sharping the pitchforks and lighting the torches, or they might applaud for the latest magic trick. When there was none of the above, I turned around to my students. Apparently, one of them answered from reading the confusion on my face.

“Mr. D,” she said, “I know you’re expecting something from us, but from what we’ve seen today, I think we’re practically used to this.”

“So how’s the day been, my little ponies?” the regal Celestia asked, making the student’s copies get out of their seats to take a quick bow.

“It’s been… interesting to say the least.” One of them responded I think it was the richer ones… Something or other Pants. “That is if that’s truly you, your majesty?”

“Yes it is,” she nodded, “I take it that it has been educational for yourselves as well as your counterparts?”

“Absolutely,” said another, as she quickly added: “But tell us, is it true that we could come here as well from now on?”

Before my other Boss could answer, we heard a sharp scream and turning around, I nearly did as well.

Holding onto the door frame for dear life was Applebloom, the last to step out from the rest of the search party. Clawing at her leg, trying to pull her it was something that I barely remember in a nightmare. It was more of a living silhouette than anything else. The hand it was grabbing Applebloom by was claw-like, the arms stretched to the other side of the room like black taffy from what looked like my old home where I grew up in. Its body had the outline of a large man, with hair that reminded me of Medusa. I saw in its other hand was a two-by-four plank.

“I’ll teach you what happens when you disobey!” The thing yelled with the voice of a sharp knife to a chalkboard.

Out of fear and concern, I, my other self, the rescue party, even the students and their counterparts flung in to pull Applebloom away from the door from that thing. Applebloom, of course, was screaming her head off, even tried kicking the claw from her leg. But even when we pulled her away from the door, the taffy-like shadow of a hand stretched into the classroom. And even to our horror, it started to march towards us.

“Close the door!” I cried out, those who weren’t helping Applebloom went to the paper door, putting their backs as well as their powers to shut the door. But even when the door was nearly shut, the thing’s arm still kept it open.

“Discord!” I turned my attention to my copy, “Do something!” He looked around the room until both of us spotted the fire extinguisher. After whistling for it, he turned a dial on the thing to make it whatever came out to be as cold as liquid nitrogen. He had it sprayed over the shadow’s arm.

There was a shriek from behind the door before it let go of Applebloom and recoiled back to the door where the students were able to close it. Thinking quickly, that this thing is still made out of paper, they tore the door into shreds, making any eatery into my mind useless.

“Applebloom, are you alright?” Twilight asked. Applebloom told her that other than feeling shaken, she was alright.

“Excuse me, Celestia,” I said turning to her, “Before you do anything with him,” I pointed to the other me, “Can I have a word with him first?”

She told me to go ahead, so I step over to the very cause of my high-stress levels these past two days. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through?”

“Look, I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t mean for things to go like this. I was trying to help you with that mental illness of yours and my plan backfired on me.” My scolding eyes remained unchanged, “Look, is there anything that you want me to do for you to forgive me?”

An idea popped into my head, “Now you’ve mentioned it, yes, there is one thing you can do.”

“What’s that?”

“Just hold still.”

“What?”

It was then, in front of all of those witnesses, I punched myself dead in the face. Hard. Hard enough for him to fall over, so stepping over, I looked down at him and said, “Now, you’re forgiven.”
> 20: Breakfast with Faust.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Click.

“Breaking news: the crazy rumor of seeing twins in the town of Equestria that came from an alternate dimension has been confirmed by the CIA. I know what you’re thinking and no, this is not a joke.”

Click.

“-esident has agreed in speaking with one of the royals from an alternative universe in a historical conference to discuss new-”

Click.

“So you are a real Equestrian?”

“Ah am indeed Mis.”

“And you’ve already met your other self here, have you?”

“Oh yes, Ah admit, Ah won’t deny in sayin’ that it was rather weird in meetin’ yerself. Ah mean, it ain’t like you’re meetin’ up with somepony new, it’s, well, you. But after a while of gettin’ ta know each other, we became good pals. Plus, he’s real easy ta talk with.”

“I see. So Braeburn, was there anything you found surprising other than turning into different species?”

Click.

Weeks after the beginning of summer break, with government agents eyeing not only who’s going in and out of the portal, but the town as well, the CIA have decided to, gently let out the secret. Of course, they didn’t tell the world about the whole magic thing yet, but they did mention about the universe of talking ponies.

Click.

“-ow do we know what their intentions are anyway? What do we know about these Equestrians really? They’re maybe copies of us, sure, but how much like us are they real-”

Click.

“Tomorrow we interview one of Equestrian royalty and national hero-”

Click.

This was what I’ve been seeing all morning as I flipped through the channels. Equestria was on everyone’s lips it seems.

Click.

“Really? You two are married?”

“That’s right; our anniversary is coming up soon. Although, I confess that I’m still trying to figure out what to get Vinyl.”

“So tell me, Octavia, in regards to same-sex marriages in Equestria, is this a new thing like it is here?”

“Um… not really? I wouldn’t say that nearly about… two, three hundred years of ponies getting married to the same gender to be considered recent.”

“Seriously? That long? So does homophobia exists when something like gay marriage has been as long as it has where you’re from?”

“Unfortunately yes, just how there some prejudice of gryphons or zebras still exist even when they-”

Click.

They were naturally curious about how their society and culture worked. That was expected for those who haven’t gone over there for themselves. There were the interviews, the talk shows, the conspiracy theories that got hold of a camera talking away about the ponies from the other side.

The doorbell rang, thankfully turning my attention away from the repetitive news. “Give me a sec,” I called out, getting off the couch to my front door. On the other side was Ms. Redhead herself.

“Good morning,” she smiled warmly.

“Let me guess,” I said, taking another bite of my bagel, “I’m in trouble again, am I?”

“Not quite. Considering your involvement with Twilight Sparkle’s disappearance, the discovery of a whole new universe to explore, and international affairs with a nation of ponies, I had my work cut out for me that I haven’t gotten the chance to say, thank you.”

“So is that it? You’re here to thank me?”

“If it’s alright with you, I would like to have another interview with you.”

“What? Whatever for? I thought you said I wasn’t in trouble.”

“You’re not; I’m here to have somethings cleared of something that’s a little murky to us.”

“Well… Do you want to come inside; I can fix you up something.” She thanked me and stepped right in. She sat down on the couch, across from where I was having breakfast.

“You don’t have to fix me anything,” she added, “I already ate on the way here.”

“Suit yourself,” I slumped down, snapping my fingers to shut off the T.V. “So, what do ya want to talk about?”

She pulled out from her white suit a little recorder and sat it down on the table. “Tell me, Julius, on the day after Twilight was found and that the Equestrians came, do you remember what happened when school was over?”

“Yeah, I still remember what happened a month ago. I assume that somebody had already told you about my other self getting lost in my head right?”

She nodded, “I remember Celestia talking about that.”

“Which one?”

“Both actually, Princess Celestia said that you punched your counterpart in the face, is that correct?”

“Yep,” I admitted before taking a sip of my morning coffee.

“Could you tell me what happened after that?”

“After that? Well, I could tell ya that he bleed for a while, covering his nose with an icepack and gauze. I’m not too sure about what happened to him after my other boss dragged him out of my class. She probably gave him a good tongue lashing knowing Celestia.

“Even when school was over, I did saw a very few students and staff with their twin before I was able to get in my car. I think I even saw both Celestia at the gate of the portal; my guess is that they were plotting of a vacation or something.

“I drove home to relax for about an hour until my doorbell rang. In a way, I kinda knew that it would be the Crusaders since they come over for a visit every week or so. What I didn’t expect though, was that it was that they had their copies with them! Of course, I asked them why they were here, and they told me it was because they wanted to try out an idea they had.

“You see, they got the idea of becoming writers, and they turned to me to write out my biography. Of course, I told them that it was kinda a bad idea since my memory isn’t as keen as it used to be. But they persuaded me with the confidence that they could piece my story together.”

“Did they let them?”

“I ended up letting them interview me on the porch, with a piano and a cup of tea.”

“Oh, I see, what did you tell them?”
> 21: Interviewing Mr. Disc.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“I only got some polka-dot tea on hand,” I told them as I stepped out onto the porch. I put the tray on the piano, glancing over at the double crusaders with me sitting in their chairs that I waved into existence. Scoot’s had on her one of those recorders that you have Ms. F.

“What in the hay is polka-dot tea?” Applebloom asked as I was handing out cups to them.

“It’s part citrus, and part whatever I had for dinner last night,” I answered. After all six of them had their cups, I poured out the dotted liquid to them. Once it settled in the cup, the tea had a blue base with colorful circles at the top, where all the other flavors were at.

Anyway, after a spit-take from both Sweetie Belle’s, an okay from Appleblooms, and can I have some more from the Scoots later, I opened up the piano, telling them that I was ready for the interview.

“But you must keep in mind though,” I added, “My memory isn’t as it used to be, so I may or may not remember everything on my part. So what do you girls want to hear?”

“Why not something relaxing?” Sweetie Belle from our universe suggested. (You know what, for now on, I’ll just refer our Crusaders by their names and the others will be given nicknames. Sound good to you Ms. F? Good.)

“Mousier Chopin’s music is always relaxing,” I said, and began to play a Nocturne from memory. “So girls, what do you want to know from a weird little man like me?”

“Perhaps Y'all could start from the beginning?” Bloom suggested, “That’s always a good start Ah think.”

“Very well,” I nodded, “At the beginning of it all, I couldn’t remember much because it all far too dark and wet to see.”

“Ah wasn’t askin’ the beginning of the world here,” Bloom interrupted.

“I wasn’t. I literally couldn’t remember anything past childhood. Maybe for you girls probably remember what it was like being a baby, but I couldn’t. Anyways, at the start of it all, I wasn’t born and raised here. Truth be told, I couldn’t tell you where exactly since my earliest memory was that we were moving into a house in another town other than here. I could, however, tell you what I remember of mom.

“My mom had love with music; I guess that’s where I got it from. She was a teacher herself who taught students how to play the piano in our home. I have a blurred memory of all the people who went in and out of our house. Sometimes there were children that were younger then you, other times it was really old people who came to learn how to play. As you could guess, she taught me as well. Although, I have to admit, sometimes she can become strict with me on the piano when she’s having a bad day. Like this one time, I was practicing one of Beethoven’s music and I happened to miss a key, and then, WHAP! She smacked my wrists with the flat side of a ruler and told me to play again.

“Now don’t get me wrong, mom wasn’t as all evil, but she wasn’t all good either. She did care for me surely. But as a kid, I was difficult to handle.”

“Why’s that?” Scootaloo asked.

“You see, as far back as I could remember, the way my own mind worked was always a bit… funny then how everyone else’s does. For example, when I was a kid, mom asked me about the imaginary friend I had, (Smooze I think it was) which I kept insisting that he was real because, to me, I could literally see him. Not just my imaginary friend, but practically everything that some thought I was pretending, I actually saw and heard. I think (don’t quote on me on this) that there was a time where I could control my imagination. At times, I saw worlds underneath the bathroom sink and heard a conversation while mom was playing.

“Yet, I admit that there were times, plenty in fact where my mind became too out of control.”

“How so?” Belle questioned.

“Tell me, did any of you ever had the feeling that before you go to bed or when you’re trying to sleep, you can’t help shake the feeling that there’s a monster nearby?” They nodded. “There were times where not only have I felt that, but at times, my fears would manifest themselves right before me. Even when I screamed for mom, she comes in, turning on the lights, I would still see it.”

“Like that shadow that grabbed me?” Applebloom inquired.

I nodded, “Yes, but it was usually different every time. Like the time where I thought my toys were attacking me. Or when the food in the kitchen started a revolution and tried throwing me into the microwave. Or the time when I pulled the covers of my sheets to find an abyss that threatens to swallow me whole.

“But it wasn’t all nightmares in the daylight though. Sometimes, my hallucinations gave me hours of entertainment. In truth, I once thought that all kids hallucinate when they played. But the other children recognized that I was different because even though they may stop pretending, my imagination still kept going.

“Of course, there were other problems as well. Sometimes, my hallucinations would cause me to hurt people or myself. Like this one time where I jumped off the roof because I honestly saw wings on my back and I wanted to try them out. I ended up breaking a leg from the fall. Mom was both terrified and angry at me for doing that.”

“Didn’t your mom ever tied to help you?” Sweetie Belle asked, “I mean, didn’t she tried to get you pills or something?”

I shook my head, “Never could afford them. Mom wasn’t making enough like a piano teacher as the years went by. I guess the lack of a livable income probably affected her more than anything. Perhaps it could be one of the reasons why she took up drinking. Don’t get me wrong, mom wasn’t what you might call an alcoholic. She drank only when she had a bad day that she needs relief from. When she did, I tried to stay away because her personality flips from the mom that I knew into this…” I trailed off.

“M-Mr. D?” Scootaloo started, “Did your mom, you know, hurt you?”

“Physically, no. But when she has a bad day she couldn’t cope, and some amount of alcohol later… She would be the one breaking things of whatever she could get her hands on. Where it be her dress or my drawings that I worked hard on, she would break things, sometimes yell at anyone who came near, things like that. When she yells, let’s just say that I’ve learned a few things that you girls shouldn’t know until you’re late teenagers and leave it like that.

“Then one day, after she got drunk… I never saw her again.”

There was silence behind me, but I kept playing. “I think I was about… ten, maybe eleven when mom disappeared. I woke up one morning, expected to see her cleaning up the mess she left behind, only to find an empty house. So you could imagine as a whole day went by without any sign of her. Eventually, I just broke down. Not just crying but getting angry that I too smashing whatever I could get my hands on.”

“Dear Celestia,” Bloom commented, “That’s downright horrible!”

“That’s a very kind way of putting it,” I replied.

“What about your Dad?” Scoots asked, “Do you ever had one?”

I shrugged, “Can’t say. I don’t really remember him… or… do I?” I stopped playing to think for a moment.  “I don’t think I’ve known him personally since I grew up with mom… But Dad… I think I’ve seen him once. I’m not sure about it, but I did remember when I was very little that Mom was having a really heated argument with somebody downstairs. Being the stupid kid that I was, I remember going down to find mom and… somebody in the kitchen. All I remember was that I asked Mom what was going on. The next thing I knew, I woke up with a few bruises that I defiantly don’t remember getting. Maybe it was my dad, but all I know, I never saw that man again. More tea?”

They shook their heads, saying things like: “Not right now.”

“Suit yourselves,” I muttered before deciding to play another piece.

“So,” Belle began, “What happened after that?”

“Well, to make a long story short, I was put into the Foster system, going from family to family for quite a while. Of course, in my mental state, I didn’t last very long. I didn’t bother making friends since I wouldn’t have a clue where I would be the next month, so I turned to my art for a company. It was during my teenage years that I improved my artistic skills in drawing, chalk, and discovered the use of paint for the first time. For fun, I actually did characters of the families that I stayed with while using my twisted sense of humor. Like I remembered drawing a portrait of a family if they were made up of pineapples, or the time that I drew the mother as a werechicken, I guess you might say that I was interested in surrealism from the start.

“Then one day, when I was about… fourteen or fifteen, I was staying with a family that was able to get me on these pills to make me sane. These are the same pills that I take to this day mind you.”

“You know what I just realized,” Scoots asked, “I think there’s one major difference between you and our Discord.”

I stopped playing and turned around, “Oh? And what’s that?”

“With Discord, he said that he’s been around since… well, forever. So I guess when he’s been around as the spirit of Chaos, nopony has ever tried to treat him, saying he’s sick. But with you, ponies- sorry, people here did try to help you. I guess.”

“Really?” I raised an eyebrow. “Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah, the pills. For a while, when I took the recommended amount of pills, it was, really one of the worst points in my life because not only had the hallucinations stopped, but my creativity as well. In a way, I didn’t really feel like… well, me. Taking all of those pills means that I turn into someone else, someone dull, unimaginative, and not as chaotic. In truth, I didn’t like taking the whole thing because my personality becomes a shadow of itself. So I learned that I didn’t have to take it all, which lead me on a never-ending balancing act of sanity and insanity.”

“But has that ever gotten you into trouble?” Sweetie Belle asked.

I sighed, “Sometimes it has, like the time in high school in my gym class where I was having a hallucination that the students were falling through the floorboards that collapsed on them. The teacher didn’t even leave paranoid me out of there until class was over to take my pills.

“Anyway, as my art skills improved, I learned that I could use my mental illness to my advantage, where I was able to see things, imagine things that nobody around me has ever dreamed up of. I started taking the Tim Burton approach where I would try to draw down whatever thought took a casual stroll across my head. I studied the artwork of Salvador Dali, Andre Breton, and Frida Kahlo, just to name a few. I painted my way through High school and into college.

“While I was in college, I was introduced to not only other artistic styles, but I’ve encountered a club on campus that was made entirely of outcasts. It was a group where I encountered Chrysalis who was trying to become an actress; Grogar was a Goth who always kept to himself; Tirek was what I liked to call an Armature Machiavellian; and then there was Somnablua, she was one of those who cared more about her looks than anything and would do anything just to keep herself young.

“Once I got out of college, for a while I survived on commissions from anyone that needed something painted. I painted mostly portraits, sometimes for jerks like Sombra when he was in charge of the Elementary school. Other times people would buy my surrealist art to hang them upside down in a living room somewhere.”

“Then, one day, I was hired by Celestia and Luna to paint their portraits. They started talking to me as I painted them. I told them that I didn’t have much of a job outside of doing art. Then to my complete surprise, Celestia offers me a job at the school as an art teacher since theirs had retired at the time. They were even putting in a regular salary so I could actually have a life.”

“So how were ya when you started teachin’?” Applebloom asked.

“At first? I honestly had next to no idea what I was doing. Trust me; I wasn’t used to being around others who have to pay attention to me before. But after a while, through trial and error, I learned how to become a teacher that you know today. Some of the students I had liked me because I was so unusual. I would cancel classes at random so we could go outside, or that I would assign the class to sketch out whatever they had for lunch, or that I would have them create something to their favorite music that was being played at the same time during class.

“Before I got fired, I could do practically anything to my madness desire that didn’t involve me getting into too much trouble. I was once known for pulling pranks with anyone. Students, teachers, janitors, the principal, really no one was safe from my little fun that I felt like doing. I didn’t do anything cruel, but I did go for the unusual. The weirder, the better, like the time I super-glued the cash register in the cafeteria to the ceiling, or that time where I littered the inside of a teacher’s car in eggshells.

“Then one day, I ran out of my meds, which, I assume some of you know that lead me to me getting fired and Celestia had me committed to the mental hospital. It was a place where I spent three miserable years in. Being locked in a padded cell with a straightjacket, doctors try to pry open your head to figure out why you’re so different from those outside, and the food was something that should be put on a survival show.” I stopped playing, took a moment to look behind me before I get too invested in my own rant. “Sorry, but when you’ve been in a place where you were told every day that you were broken, you tend to feel a bit cranky looking back on it.”

Both Appleblooms nodded, Scootaloo said, “So, how did you get out?”

I turned back to my piano and started to play something else, “If you could believe it, Celestia had a change in heart and had me taken out of the nut factory. I couldn’t figure out why though, by the time she let me out, she was a bit more… forgiving? I think that might be the word, I’m not sure. But after spending three years in a madhouse, Celestia had changed somehow. Because the last time I saw her, she was so mad at me for what I’ve done that she wouldn’t listen to what I had to say, but here, she’s a whole lot nicer towards me but still kept an eye on me.

“When I returned teaching, I had trouble trying to reintegrate since my reputation was at this point tarnished. Nobody wanted me to substitute, students were on edge when I entered the room, and the worst part was no one had the courage to talk to me. That was until a student named Fluttershy came up when she noticed that I was having a rough day. Later that day, we had tea on this very piano where she did something that no sane person had ever done before.”

“What’s that?” Belle squeaked.

“She asked if she could be my friend. Mind you, up to this point, I was mostly avoided because of me being too different to the point that I was unlikeable. I never had a friend who not only became one but stayed because all the people I’ve met ended up going away. Even those ‘pals’ during my university days eventually drifted away. But with Fluttershy, it opened the door that, maybe someone won’t mind that I’m crazy.

“And then, I was introduced to you three, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Well, I wouldn’t use ‘Introduced’, more like came to me for ideas to figure out what you were good at. All the while, I purposed ideas to you three and no matter how dangerous it was you still took it. But when things got frustrating, and you three told me that you appreciated for having me to help you…” I trailed off, taking my hands off the keys of the piano, I turned to them, “Crusaders, I have a confession to make. On that day, for the first time when I got home and reflected what you said to me, I cried. This time, it wasn’t out of self-pity or depression, for the first time, I cried out of joy. Yes, joy, an emotion that I haven’t felt since I was a little kid. The three of you made me realize that I’m not the only one who is going through being different. It was at that moment that all of you became a little more than just friends… but the family that I never could have. For that, I’m forever indebted to you all for what you’ve shown me. I guess I should say this that’s been long overdue, so Crusaders thank you.”

The six of them all smiled and all of them got up to put me in the middle of a group hug.

_*_

“Afterwards Ms. F, I told them how I ended up in Equestria, and the rest, as they use to say, is history.”

She smiled, “That was quite lovely. Did you know what they’ve done after that?”

I shrugged, “When we were done, they said thanks and went their way. Why? Have they gone missing or something?”

She giggled, “No actually, both Crusaders are where they are meant to be. In truth, I came by because a certain redhead wanted me to give you this.” She pulled out from her inside suit pocket a rolled up paper book and gave it to me. It was done entirely out of crayon, with a close-up of me and the words “Mr. Disc” above. In truth, I could easily tell that it was done by the Crusaders, yet I admit, it was a good drawing of my good side.

I flipped through the little paper book, it had snapshot drawings of my life on one page and a written part on the other. At the end of the book, there was a picture of me, the six crusaders, and on the other side, it read: “A huge thanks to Mr. D for letting us interview him. For taking his time in telling his story, for being a good friend, and being the dad we never had.”

Dad? I couldn’t help but grin at that word. That or maybe it’s just the caffeine kicking in.

“Thanks,” I said, then a thought came to mind, “Say before you go, can you answer me one thing?”

“And what’s that?”

“Who did you say brought this to you? You mentioned a redhead, so was it one of the Appleblooms?”

“No actually,” she answered, getting up from her seat on the couch, “Some motherly figure from the other side asked to give this to you. So now that my business is taken care of, I need to run so I won’t be late for an appointment.”

After we said good-bye, I took the book into the studio, for I think I could get an idea or two from what those crazy kids have given me.
> 22: Epilogue and a Postcard.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“…. And that was how the multi-universe was unmade,” I said as the last tiny mound of huckleberry slipped off the spoon with wings and into my mouth.

The Crusaders blinked, “What does that have anything to do with what we were talking about?” Scotaloo questioned.

I shrugged, “Sorry, I guess in my rumblings, I may have forgotten what we were talking about. So… What was it again?”

Applebloom gave a frustrated sigh, “Possible carriers that we might wanna look inta next.”

“Oh! Oh yeah,” I said, flicking the spoon that smacked to a nearby window like a windshield. “Let’s see… You three had already covered inter-dimensional travel, cinematography, pyrotechnics, writing that adorable book about me… So what haven’t any of you three had done?”

“Um, excuse me, dearie,” I looked up to find the blue lady that runs Sugar Cube Corner. “Are you done with your ice cream?”

I told her that I was, and when she asked where the spoon was, I pointed over to the window.

She grunted, “Not again,” the waitress muttered as she took the spatula out of her apron.

As she tried to peel the spoonfly off the window, I and the Crusaders saw that the Twilight with glasses was walking her way around the building to the front door. She came into the lanky yellow guy with the white hat, asking for a cranberry muffin with iced tea.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head like an exploding lightbulb. “I think I’ve got something,” the three kids asked what I was talking about until Twilight the nerd got her order and looked for a place to sit down.

“Hey, Ms. Sparkle,” I waved over to her, “Come here, I wanna talk to ya for a sec.”

The purple teen raised an eyebrow, “What do you want?”

Awe come on, all I did was mistaken you for the other Twilight and probably accidently sent you to an alternative universe, had you get lost in an enchanted forest with mythical and possibly dangerous creatures for a couple of days, and confront your other self that got off to a rocky start – why do you have to be so cautious around me?

“Just come here, me and the girls want to talk to ya about something.”

She frowned, “If this is about the whole friendship thing, then no thank you.”

“Now hold on a second,” I interjected, “Whoever said that this was a friendship thing?”

“Look, I don’t want to deal with those guys that tried to force me into being friends with those I have nothing in common with. You know somebody like Fluttershy, or Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, those people. I’m trying to have a relaxing summer, okay?”

“And I’m telling you, this has nothing to do with friendship at all, just try to hear me out.”

Reluctantly, she put her food on the table and asked what I wanted. “Tell me,” I said, “have you ever had the chance to teach someone before?”

She shook her head, “Not really.”

“Had you ever considered perusing a career in teaching?”

“Well… a little. I used to dream that I would become a teacher one day if it weren’t for the lack of social skills. I don’t think I would be a good one anyway.”

“How about we test that?” all of the girls at the table wondered what I was talking about. I turned to the Crusaders, “Tell me, girls, have any of you done anything with science?”

“Y’all mean like, being a scientist or somethin’?” Applabloom asked.

I could see the gears turning through their eyes as they generated the same idea.

“Hold on,” Sweetie Belle squeaked, “Have we ever thought of doing that before?”

“Doing what?” Twilight intervenes, “And where are all of you going with this?”

“I don’t remember if any of us have,” Scoot’s confessed, “Maybe would become scientists. Actually, that might be kinda cool.”

“Y-Yeah,” Bloom caught on, “Ah think Ah see where this might be goin’.”

Twilight looked at me, still confused, “What is going on?”

“Ms. Sparkle,” I purposed, “How would you like it, just for the summer, like to teach these three what it is to be a scientist? If the counterpart that I know is anything like yourself, you have a passion for dissecting the world, measure it, and try to figure out how it all works, correct?”

“Um… yes?”

“Good, so how about it? How about you test that little dream out on these three? They’re always eager to learn how if you show them.”

Twilight hesitated, “Um… I-I don’t know.”

“Oh come on,” Sweetie Belle said, “Please…” She added, giving her some very large puppy eyes.

“But… I don’t know if-”

“Come on,” Applebloom drawled, “maybe we’d help ya with some experiment yer doin’.”

“But I don’t think I’m that good with kids.”

“We’ll behave,” Scootaloo begged, pulling off a kind of pitiful face that would have her win an Oscar if this was caught on camera. “I swear on Crusader honor that we’ll do what ya say. We just want to know what we’re good at.”

Twilight stuttered, but that three pair of teary eyes forced her to give in. “Ugh, alright, fine,” she said, and there was much rejoicing.

"YEA! CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS SICENTISTS! YEAH!!!"

“Could you not do that,” Twilight said, putting a finger in her ear to stop the ringing.

I could tell that she wasn’t completely sold on this, so I tried to sweeten the deal by said, “Hey Twilight, how about I further the deal with something.”

“Like what?”

Tilting my head, I tapped my fist in one ear, and one of the books from my personal library falls out the other. “If you would take the time to teach these three for the summer ever so often before school starts I will give you this.”

“A book?” she questioned.

“Ah, not just any book,” I explained, opening up the first few pages. “This is a very early copy of Gulliver’s Travels. It’s over three hundred years old, but, it’s who signed this that makes it very, very special.”

I showed her the autograph that’s right under the long title. She gasped, “Voltaire! You have a book that’s signed by Voltaire?!”

“This is his copy in French,” I explained, “So if you want this, all you need to do is teach these three every week or so a little bit about what it’s like to be a scientist. Deal?”

Without hesitation, she agreed. And from the Crusaders, there was more rejoicing.

“Ooh! Ooh! Can we call it Twilight Time?” Sweetie Belle asked as they followed Twilight to another table, leaving me behind.

Not that I mind, lunch was done and the Crusaders are being occupied, so I guess I could leave…I could lea-ah… ah… AH… ACHOO!

I covered my nose with my right elbow, and a white envelope fell out.

Blinking, I picked it up, “Okay… that’s new.” As I’d checked the little paper envelop that had my name and stamp on it, I flipped it over to find the elegant words of, “Open Me” on the back.

After sniffing it, concluding that I may not have anthrax, I opened it with one of my sharper teeth and pulled out a postcard.

At first, it was a still image of a ponyfied version of Principal Celestia. I could tell because she even has the vanilla suit on. And then, the image not only moves, it even spoke.

“Hey Julius,” she said, her voice sounding like it was coming out of an old radio. “It’s me Celestia, and before you start taking your pills, don’t worry, this is really happening. The card you’re holding… well, from what I understand, it’s enchanted that it plays back a recording of what is going on as I speak. But hey, it’s magic so I guess it’s best not to question it, right?

“Anyway, I, Luna and Mom want ya to know that we’re doing fine here in a place called Lost Saddle Beach. At the moment, the three of us are just relaxing, enjoying the warm sun and cool breeze and taking a dip into the sea now and then.”

Then the picture moved from Celestia’s horse face to another, this time it was Luna, laying in the shade of a palm tree with her front legs behind her head with sunglasses. She tilted her head towards the photo.

“Say hi Luna,” Celestia said.

“Oh come on Cel, put that thing down, I don’t think it’s recording,” her little sis replied.

“No-no, I think I’ve got it right this time. Now say hi to Julius.”

With a sigh, Luna said, “Hey Julius, even though you may not be seeing this, we are having a good time on a beach in the middle of nowhere.”

“That’s not really true,” a female voice corrected her. “We’re still not too far from Applewood.”

“Oh, I almost forgot,” Celestia’s voice was heard as the picture now swung to the sandy shoreline until it rested to the horseified Agent Faust, laying on a blanket by the sea under the shade of one of those beach umbrellas – and surrounded by an army of staff in uniforms, two of which who were next to her were fanning palm leaves while a stallion was mixing a drink.

“Say, Julius, remember how you came here with Mother? Well, here in the country of Equestria, she’s basically seen as the Messiah.”

“Now, now Celie, how many times do I have to repeat myself,” Faust said, lifting her sunglasses, “I’m not the Messiah; I’m a very spoiled mare that’s overworked.” There was laughter from the servants when the joke was said.

“Now mom, won’t you say something to Julius since I’m sure this thing is recording?”

“Actually, since you’ve mentioned it…” she said as the picture zoomed in for a close up on the agent’s face. “Julius, if this thing is working, I want to say thank you once again. This time, it’s for letting us find this place. I must say, this is without question, the best vacation that we’ve ever had. Period. I mean, would ask for anything we want, we can skip lines, get into hotels for free, and being treated like gods ever since we’ve stepped through the portal. I would love coming back here, don’t you girls?”

There was an agreement between the sisters.

“Anyways, a bit of advice, when you do come here, ask for some tickets for the Sapphire Shores concert. Oh! Now she knows how to entertain! Trust us, we had fun and you won’t regret it, I promise.” She tilted her head to her right, “So, do you want to add something?”

The picture was taken once again, showing Celestia’s face, “Oh, and I guess I should show you one more person before I end this…” she looked around, “Now where did he have gone to?”

“You called?” a familiar voice inquired, making Celestia jumped.

“Augh! Discord! Would you stop doing that?”

“What? I was trying to have some fun,” the other me explained as the postcard now moved to show the other me in a safari outfit, hat and all. “Oh! You’ve finally got that thing working I see.”

“So it is working?” Celestia asked.

“Yeah, see that little red dot in the corner,” he pointed to the card, “that means its recording.”

“Oh good,” she sighed, “So before I end his, is there anything you’d like to say to your other self?”

He put a lion’s paw to his chin, “Actually… I do!” He straightens up, looking directly at the postcard with a none expressive look… Uh-oh.

“In my previous expiation,” he said in a British accent, “My party has traveled through the deserts and thick jungles of Zebraca. While there, we’d encountered tribes and wild creatures that served drinks at too high of a price for anyone is reasonable to pay. Anyway, one of these tribes, a lion one, has given me this as a souvenir to take home.”

Here, he pulls out from his creamy colored shorts a little wooden statue of a carved lion’s head. “They called this in the village ‘Lowo Kuletha Amashwa.’ While the name could be mistaken for a type of coffee, the name actually translates to, ‘He that Brings Bad Luck.’”

“Uh, Discord,” Celestia said in a cautious tone, “What are you doing?”

“Ever since,” he continued, ignoring my Boss, “My home sweet home has turned the way I certainly don’t want it to be. All the dishes were clean; the dust bunnies had committed suicide by going up the vacuum tube. And just recently, a certain mailmare has dropped an expensive marble statue on my head. So without further ado…”

Suddenly, his claw popped out of the postcard, with the statue in it, and dropped the carved object on the floor.

“As payback for busting my nose, you keep it,” the other me said with a wicked grin. “Have a good day,” and just like that, the card went static before it faded to black.

I looked down at the small wooden statue at my feet before I heard a cracking noise from above. Looking up, I saw a good chunk of the fresco of the restaurant celling was forming above my head.

“Crap,” was all the time I had to say before some plaster fell upon me.





Two years later...