Sunset Shimmer has stolen Twilight's crown, and she is going to get it back! And Discord is going to help by giving Twilight some magic to bring with her! But will she regret bringing it when she runs into Discord's human counterpart?
Twilight's crown has been stolen by a mysterious thief from another world, and she has to go and get it back! But when Discord learns that nobody else can go with her, he decides to give her a secret item containing magical power... just in case she winds up needing it. But when Twilight runs into Discord's human counterpart in the other world, will she regret bringing Discord's magic into the other world?
Reading The Fugitive Draconequus is not be required to read this story, although reading it anyway will provide context to events in this story, and it would also be much appreciated.
The image of Discord in the coverart is from Derpibooru by the user Markiz93.
"Sunset Shimmer. A former student of mine," spoke Princess Celestia sadly. "She began her studies with me not long before Twilight. But when she did not get what she wanted as quickly as she liked, she turned cruel and dishonest. I tried to help her, but she eventually decided to abandon her studies and pursue her own path. One that has sadly led to her stealing your crown."
"She replaced Twilight's with this one," said Spike, holding a duplicate of Twilight's crown out.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light.
After the light faded away, all ponies present beheld Discord where it had been, standing on a pair of skis and holding two ski poles. Upon his head was a ushanka hat with holes for his horns and a red and yellow striped scarf was wrapped around his neck.
"Let me see that thing!" he demanded, stepping out of the skis and giving his ski poles to a nearby bewildered orange guard.
He snatched the crown from Spike's claws.
"Hey!" complained Spike.
"Hmm," he muttered to himself. "No magical traps waiting to spring. You did check for them, right?" he said, addressing Twilight.
"Yes, I did."
"Good. Hmm. This thing is made out of cheap plastic, but it matches the form of Twilight's real crown soooo exactly. Suspicious."
"I was photographed wearing it for the coronation, Discord," answered Twilight. "And ponies across Equestria have seen that picture by now."
"Yes, I understand that," said Discord nonchalantly, "But you see, this fake copy is exactly the same shape as the real thing. Exactly. And yes, I can tell."
"It is?" asked Twilight in surprise. "But that would mean that the thief must have stolen my crown once before already, made a mold of it, and then put it back!"
"Perhaps," mused Discord. "It is also possible magic was involved, of course. But any spell that could replicate your crown to such precision would be quite difficult to cast."
"That is even more worrying," Twilight pointed out.
"It is."
"But I don't understand!" Twilight continued in dispair. "How could this have happened? Where did she go? Where did she take the crown?"
"I have no idea," answered Discord.
"Ahem," said Princess Celestia, glaring at Discord. "I was just about to explain before we were interrupted. Come."
"This is no ordinary mirror," said Luna, looking upon the strange mirror that the thief had disappeared into. "It is a gateway into another world. A gateway that only opens once every thirty moons."
"Luckily for you," said Discord (who had followed them), "That particular fact is irrelevant thanks to my ability to teleport anypony I want to that dimension anyway."
"Sparkly!" cried Pinkie happily as she tapped on the mirror, which rippled with power.
"Please refrain from commenting until I have finished," replied Luna patiently, using her magic to gently push Pinkie away. "It has always been kept in the throne room of Canterlot Castle, but when Princess Cadance took over the Crystal Empire, we sent it here for her to watch over."
"I had always hoped that Sunset Shimmer would someday use it to return, to come back to Equestria seeking my guidance," said Celestia. "Obviously, this is not what has happened."
"Twilight," said Cadance. "You must use the mirror to go into this other world and retrieve your crown. Without it, the other elements have no power and Equestria is left without one of it's most important means of defense!"
"Your crown does not belong in the place Sunset Shimmer now calls home," said Luna. "And in her possession, your element of harmony will no doubt be used to bring harm to the inhabitance of this other realm. They will not have the power to defend themselves."
"I'd like to see that put to the test," muttered Discord.
Luna shot him a silencing glance.
"You understand the importance of your task?" asked Celestia as she magically levitated two saddlebags of essentials onto Twilight's back.
"Of course!"
"Good. Then you must go at once."
Twilight sighed and prepared to step into the mirror.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash flew through the air and landed in front of her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she cried. "If she's going, we're all going!"
"It's bound to be way more interesting than hanging around here, at any rate," said Discord's voice.
The ponies followed the voice to Rarity and saw a miniaturized Discord leaning back on the back of her horn as though it was a tree.
"I'm afraid I can't let you go," said Celestia sternly. "Especially you, Discord."
"Oh, going to be a fun-sponge again," said Discord in annoyance. "Aside from the fact that you can't actually stop me, why shouldn't I go?"
"Sending all of you could upset the balance of this alternate world, creating havoc that would make it impossible for Twilight to get her Crown back from Sunset Shimmer. This is something Princess Twilight must do alone."
"Alright, fair, I would probably cause more havoc than those six all by myself," said Discord. "I wouldn't be the lord of chaos if I didn't. Fine, have it your way then. Twilight, before you go, come speak to me."
"Time is of the essence," Luna said, and she started casting magic illustrating the night sky. "On the third day, when the moon is at its peak in the night sky, the gateway will close! And once it does, it will be another thirty moons before you will be able to return."
"Seriously, doesn't even matter," said Discord in deadpan. "I'll just bring you back myself if you need some extra time."
"Discord," said Luna in irritation. "We would prefer that this matter was resolved with as little extra magic as possible. This world has none of its own, and using magic in it could have unforeseen consequences."
Discord only responded by letting out a "Humph," and crossing his arms.
Twilight turned to Discord.
"Even if you can bring me back, it shouldn't come to that. But time is of the essence. What is it you wanted to tell me, Discord?"
"Away from prying ears, if you please," said Discord, and he snapped, and Twilight's vision was filled with light.
She blinked and found herself in a broom closet with Discord.
"Uh... what's this about?" she asked in confusion.
"Listen," said Discord. "You remember last week when I opened up a portal to another world? The world in that mirror is that world, and I happen to know a thing or two about it."
"Really?" said Twilight in interest. "But why couldn't you let everypony else hear that?"
"That's not the part that I don't want them to know. The thing is, Lulu wasn't kidding about the whole 'no magic' thing. There isn't a drop of magic in their world at all, at least that I can tell. And furthermore, when you go through that mirror, it will transform you into something that can't use magic. As you are still an Equestrian pony at heart, you will have magic within you, but your anatomy will offer you no way to harness your magic. It's going to be awful. Unbearable, honestly."
"Maybe it would be for you," Twilight replied, "But I have been in that situation a couple of times before. One of those times was because of you, if you remember."
"Yes, I remember. Look, it doesn't matter. Whether you can bear it or not doesn't matter, because you don't have to. Sunset stole that crown of yours because magic imbued into objects is still usable even in that world, right?"
"I suppose so, otherwise she would have little reason to steal it. But what is your point here? The element of magic is already gone, and I can't use the other elements."
"Lookie what I have here!" said Discord smugly, suddenly holding up the fake crown.
Twilight looked at it for a moment in shock, but her expression quickly morphed into bemusement when she realized that it was not the real crown.
"When did you get ahold of that?"
"Everyone stopped paying any attention to it after Spike showed it off," Discord explained. "I just took it to inspect it for traps and nopony wanted it back, so here it is. I still have it."
"But that crown isn't imbued with any magic whatsoever."
"Not yet!"
Discord snapped once again, and then the fake crown suddenly seemed to glimmer with power.
Twilight looked at it in surprise.
"What did you do to it?"
"I put a piece of my power into it. When you are a master of chaos like I am, it's quite easy."
"But I don't know how to use your magic," Twilight pointed out.
"You won't have to. The magic that I put into it will trigger by itself when you speak the code-phrase. Once you activate the magic, it will turn you back into an alicorn. But it will only last for about twenty-four hours. I can't put any more magic in it than that without disrupting the balance of magic that Celestia insists on preserving."
"But what about what the Princesses said?" said Twilight uneasily. "I'm supposed to keep from making a disturbance, or using magic to solve the problem!"
"I'm not telling you to use it as soon as you step into the other world," Discord argued. "You don't have to ever use it at all. But you know perfectly well that this might be dangerous. It is possible that Sunset will attack you if you follow her. If you are in danger, then forget all of that subtlety garbage, and you'll be happy you have some magic when you really need it."
"Well... Okay," said Twilight. "I'll do it. Just for some extra security."
"Excellent! Oh, and by the way, don't be weirded out too much if you see some individuals over there that are suspiciously similar to ponies that you know on this side of the mirror."
"Does that include you, Discord?"
Discord suddenly stopped and gazed at Twilight.
"I never thought of that. Um, maybe? Although, that world doesn't have any magic, so how could I possibly exist over there, right?"
"I guess I won't know for sure until I see for myself. So, I'm afraid to ask, but what's the pass-phrase for this magic in the crown?"
"Oh, of course. Almost slipped my mind. The pass-phrase is..."
Twilight Sparkle was wandering through the hallways of the strange school on the other side of the mirror that she now knew to be Canterlot High, in the form of a strange creature that she had never seen before, but most closely resembled a skinny minotaur. Spike had been transformed into a dog.
Discord hadn't been joking when she said that she would probably meet some familiar faces. She had already bumped into Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, and Applejack had already mentioned that Rainbow Dash was around here somewhere as well. Although, it seemed like they were not on the best of terms at the moment.
And for that matter, Pinkie Pie didn't seem to think too highly of Fluttershy either. How anypony... or rather, anybody could ever have a negative thing to say about Fluttershy, she could not understand.
Thankfully, when Twilight's crown was thrown through the portal, Fluttershy had found it and taken it before Sunset Shimmer herself had returned, thinking that it was lost property. When Fluttershy had taken it to Principal Celestia, she had mistaken it for the missing crown to be awarded to the winner of what was known as the fall formal.
As Twilight turned a corner in the hallway, Twilight realized that she was walking toward a dead end. The lights were sputtering in this section of the hallway. She heard foot steps behind her.
"Can't believe I didn't recognize you earlier."
Twilight turned around to face Sunset Shimmer, who approached her.
"Should have known that Princess Celestia would send her prized pupil here after my crown. And her little dog too."
"It's my crown!" cried Twilight, pointing a thumb at herself and secretly hoping that she wasn't misunderstanding the meaning of the gesture.
"Whatever," said Sunset Shimmer. "This is just a minor setback for me. You don't know the first thing about this place, and I already rule it."
"If that's so, why do you even need my crown? You went to an awful lot of trouble to switch it with this one."
Twilight reached into the backpack that her two saddlebags had strangely been transformed into and produced the crown which originally came from the school.
She knew that Sunset would have no way of knowing that the crown was now enchanted, and this was the perfect excuse to have it at the ready should Sunset attempt to attack her in this dark, dead end hallway.
"Why did you even bring that thing back here?" asked Sunset in surprise.
"Because I was going to give you the chance to trade my crown back in exchange for it."
"Why would I do that? That thing is worthless. My crown has the power to make me a queen. Pop quiz! What happens when you bring an element of harmony into an alternate world?"
Twilight started to answer, but realized that she didn't actually know. She tapped her finger to her chin, trying to think of something.
"You don't know?" cried Sunset in mock disbelief. "Seriously? And you're supposed to be Princess Celestia's star student? Then again, what were the chances she would find somepony as bright as me to take under her wing after I decided to leave Equestria? Bit embarrassing that you were the best she could do."
Spike, who had momentarily hid inside of Twilight's backpack, popped out of it again to growl at Sunset angrily.
"Oh, and I'd keep an eye on your mutt. Hate for him to be... taken away from you."
"Is that a threat?" asked Spike menacingly.
"Oh, of course not!" responded Sunset. "But I'd cut down on the chatter if I were you. Don't want everyone to know that you two don't belong here, now would you?"
Sunset looked back to Twilight. "You want to be a princess here? Please." She began to walk away. You don't know the first thing about fitting in."
Before Sunset could turn the corner, suddenly a very tall man rounded it and stood in front of her with his arms crossed. Ironically, it was abundantly clear from his very appearance that he did not fit in in the slightest either.
Twilight and Spike both gasped, knowing exactly who this was. It was the human counterpart to Discord. As far as Twilight could tell, he was the same species as all of the other people in this place, but his strange choice of attire was completely mismatched, and emulated the Equestian Discord's body with surprising accuracy.
Discord was easily the tallest person in this world that she had yet seen, including Principal Celestia. Although his body seemed to technically be about the same thickness as her own, with his extreme height, he appeared to be stretched out so much that it gave him an appearance of being very skinny and lanky. His skin seemed to be purely the same shade of grey as the Equestrian Discord's head, and he was wearing a rather worn looking brown trench coat that matched the color of his counterpart's torso. The left sleeve was ripped at the cuff, matching the place where the Equestrian Discord's coat stopped and his eagle claw began. The right sleeve was almost completely ripped off, but Discord had apparently sewn on a yellow sleeve to replace it. It was obviously a match for the other Discord's lion arm. He was also wearing a yellow fingerless glove on his right hand, in contrast to his other hand, on which he was wearing nothing, save for a bracelet that was the same shade of yellow as his counterpart's eagle claw.
He was wearing a black shirt, but it could barely be seen underneath the red vest he wore over it, which matched the color of his counterpart's tail. Of course, this Discord did not have a tail at all. His pants were a light brown, almost khaki, that matched his counterpart's deer leg. On his left foot, the leg of which corresponded to the deer leg, he was wearing a simple brown boot. However, on his right leg he was wearing a humongous green rubber boot that he wore overtop his pants and reached up to his knee. It was the same shade of green as his counterpart's lizard leg, and the sole of the rubber boot was the same white as the claws which protruded from his counterpart's lizard leg.
After a moment of staring at him, Twilight realized that the various patches that adorned his strange clothes were all dark blue on his right side and light blue on the left side. Exactly the same colors that corresponded to his counterpart's wings. Also, she noticed that this Discord's eyes were yellow with red irises, one smaller than the other, giving him a slightly deranged look. Just like the Equestrian Discord.
The differences that this Discord had from his Equestrian counterpart were few. He lacked any actual horns, wings, or tail, and the hair on his head was entirely white, unlike his counterpart's black mane. It was also rather longer than how his counterpart usually wore his, and in addition to his usual thin beard, this Discord also had a thin but long moustache.
Twilight had seen many other people in this place that looked similar to ponies that she knew, and they looked so similar that it was uncanny. But uncanny didn't fully describe what she was feeling in Discord's case. This Discord, despite being the same species as the rest of the people here, looked so similar to the Equestrian Discord that it was creepy.
"Well now, what have we here?" he said, in a voice that perfectly matched what Twilight was expecting.
"Mister Discord," said Sunset uneasily. It was the first time that Twilight had seen her act as though she was not in complete control. And knowing Discord, it was likely for good reason. "What brings you here?"
"It's my off period. You know, when I heard that the fall formal crown had been stolen, I suspected you, Sunset, but Sunset is not the one I have discovered holding that crown."
Twilight looked down at the crown in her hands in horror.
"I didn't steal it!" she cried at Discord desperately "I promise you!"
"Hmm, I'm being told one thing, but my eyes are telling me another. Maybe the students were right after all, maybe I am crazy! Tell me, am I crazy?"
Twilight sputtered. "What? I wasn't saying that... I mean... Um..."
"You're definitely crazy," said Sunset. "But that is definitely the fall formal crown in Twilight's hands."
"And just how did you wind up with it?" asked Discord, walking forward and glaring down at Twilight. His arms never uncrossed, leaving Twilight feeling quite intimidated.
"Uh, you do know that the crown was already found and returned to Prin...cipal Celestia, don't you?" asked Twilight meekly.
"I know. Principal Celestia informed the staff that we didn't need to be on the lookout for it anymore. I was under the impression that Vice-principal Luna was keeping it safe. I am wondering how anybody could have stolen it yet again."
"I was just yelling at Twilight because she got jealous of me and stole the crown," said Sunset, crossing her arms.
Twilight turned and looked at Sunset in despair.
"Wait a second, I wasn't jealous of anyone! You're the one who stole the crown!"
Sunset ignored Twilight. "Look, I'll admit that I took the crown the first time, but I was only borrowing it. Twilight and I took it back to my house and we made a replica of it, and then we brought the real one back. If you examine that crown closely, you'll notice that it's really light and made out of cheap plastic. That's because it's the real fall formal crown. I decided that after three years of taking home worthless crowns, it's time I had one that I could actually be proud of. The crown you found earlier today is made of real metal and glass because it's the one that Twilight stole from me!"
"You made a metal crown?" asked Discord in surprise. "How?"
"I have a lathe at my house," said Sunset.
"Really?" said Discord, suddenly interested. "Your parents let you have something like that?"
"I don't live with my parents. I'm old enough to be legally independent, even though I'm still in high school."
"You seriously believe her?" asked Twilight in surprise.
"You don't?" asked Sunset.
"Well, I'm not surprised about the whole living by yourself thing, but the rest of it?"
"I've never actually held the crown in my own hands," said Discord. "I'll admit that I find it perfectly believable that Principal Celestia wouldn't spend the extra money for a quality crown when we all know that you are going to take it home again, but then, Celestia often doesn't see things my way. But now I have no idea whether Sunset is telling the truth. But I know how I can find out. Twilight. Give me the crown."
Twilight hesitated.
"Twilight, give me the crown or this is going to get ugly. We don't want that."
"Okay," said Twilight weakly, and she finally handed it over to Discord. "But you can't let Sunset have either one of the crowns. They don't belong to her."
"That remains to be seen. Both of you, come with me. We're going to take a little trip to Vice-principal Luna's office."
"When Vice-principal Luna confirms that that crown is the real one, you'll let me have the one that I made back, right?" said Sunset.
"You shouldn't have 'borrowed' it in the first place," said Discord. "But, why would you make a replica of the crown in the first place? The replica has no originality, and therefore no value."
"Look, it's valuable to me, and that's all that I care about," said Sunset. "I don't care whether you think that it's worthless."
"Well said. Very well," said Discord. "If you are telling the truth, I see no reason why you shouldn't be allowed to keep the replica. If... you write me an essay defending the artistic merits of recreating existing art. It will be your grade for the semester."
"Wait, what?" cried Twilight in confusion.
"Ugh," moaned Sunset into the palm of her hand. "Twilight, meet Mister Discord. He teaches art class here at CHS. He has very unconventional methods of teaching. On one hand, he is actually kind of cool because he basically lets us do whatever we want in his class. He doesn't even care if we text in the middle of class."
Twilight stared back at Sunset uncomprehendingly.
Sunset rolled her eyes, and then continued. "On the other hand, he is completely nuts, and doesn't have an actual outline for graded assignments at all. Nobody in his classes gets the same assignments. Once a semester, he randomly gives us each different assignments on a whim, and if we happen to do poorly on that assignment for whatever reason, we get a poor grade for the semester."
"What?" cried Twilight in surprise. "But- but..."
"Discuss my controversial teaching methods if you want," said Discord, "but move while you do it. Sunset, kindly lead the way to Vice-principal Luna's office. Oh, and Twilight? For your sake, make sure that talking dog of yours remains hidden."
Twilight let out a sound of surprise.
"Not everyone around here is as lenient about that stuff as me."
A short while later, Twilight and Sunset found themselves seated in a waiting room outside of Luna's office. Discord had taken the crown into the office alone and was talking to Luna in private. There was a desk clerk behind a desk in the waiting room making sure that Twilight and Sunset didn't try to run off. Twilight was slightly startled when she realized that it was probably Miss Harshwhinny.
"You lose, Twilight," Sunset whispered. "You should never have brought that thing back here. Now, because you did, I'm going to get the real crown back, and I don't even have to go through the fall formal to get it."
Twilight let out a worried whimper.
"You've lost, and you know it."
"Do you have any idea who Discord is?" whispered Twilight. "Back in Equestria, I mean?"
"No. You mean to tell me that he has a duplicate over there? Is he an even bigger freak than this one?"
"Well, he has phenominal magic power, so... yes? I'm not surprised you don't know who he is though. I didn't know who he was either until Princess Celestia explained it to me. Do you remember the statues in the royal gardens?"
Sunset narrowed her eyes at Twilight.
"Why am I even talking to you about this? I don't even care." Sunset whipped her head away from Twilight and stared straight ahead.
"There was a statue of a strange creature called a draconequus in the royal gardens."
Sunset suddenly looked back at Twilight.
"I do remember that statue. Supposedly a representation of... holy crap... Discord."
Sunset looked back at the doorway to Luna's office with wonder of her face.
"But why in two worlds would there be an actual living, breathing copy of that statue in this world?"
"Because the statue in the royal gardens wasn't actually a statue at all! Discord was a real creature, and he took over all of Equestria over a thousand years ago before the Princesses turned him into stone with the elements of-!"
Suddenly, Twilight cut herself off and looked at Sunset in shock.
"Wait a minute, you mentioned the elements of harmony before. How do you even know about them? I didn't know about them until right before I found the element of magic! Well, that's not completely true, I did read about them a few times before, but I didn't think anything of it at the time."
"Looks like you didn't study as hard as I did," said Sunset with a smile.
Twilight narrowed her eyes at Sunset.
"You take that back."
"No."
"Urgh!" Twilight crossed her arms and looked away from Sunset.
There was a period of awkward silence.
"You know," said Twilight after a while, "ever since I got here, I've been seeing familiar faces all over the place. Did that happen to you too?"
"Yeah..." said Sunset without any hint of menace in her voice. In fact, she looked down at the floor as she said it. "But a lot of those people went their own way over time. I don't know where most of them are any more."
"I've noticed something strange. A lot of their ages seem wrong. I don't know what the normal life span is for... whatever creature we are-"
"We're called humans Twilight. We live for about the same length of time as a pony does."
"Oh. Well, I may not be an expert at gauging a human's age, but I'm pretty sure that all of the students here are close to the same age. But the ponies in Equestria that they correspond to are often much younger or older than they seem to be. Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle are much younger in Equestria than they are here, but then there are ponies like Fluttershy who are older than they are here. Even I seem to be younger here than in Equestria."
"I have no explanation for you, Twilight. Some things just can't be explained."
"I've learned that the hard way. But, actually, I do have a theory."
"Oh really? Let's hear it then, this should be good."
"Well, even though everyone seems to be about the same age here, there doesn't seem to actually be anybody who is older than someone else when they shouldn't be. There is also the fact that Celestia and Luna appear to be in their thirties, maybe mid thirties?"
"Sounds about right," said Sunset.
"Well, it seems like everyone's age in comparison to their ages in Equestria follows some sort of logarithmic function. Ponies who are about eighteen in Equestria seem to be approximately the same age here, and it takes a case like Celestia's and Luna's, who are over a thousand years old in Equestria, to be even as old as thirty-five."
"Hmm. That's actually a better theory than I was expecting."
"Oh my gosh!" blurted Twilight. "I just realized something. If Celestia is in her thirties here and is over a thousand years old in Equestria, then what does that say about Discord? He looks like he's about sixty years old here, right?"
"You know, I still am not sure that I believe you about him. I admit, you might be telling the truth, since there do seem to be facts that I can't just ignore... but I mean, come on."
"If Discord is sixty here, then back in Equestria, he must be at least five hundred thousand years old!" cried Twilight in shock. "If not more!"
"Well, it was a good theory, but there is just one problem with it," said Sunset. "When I first came into this world it was about twelve years ago, and I was almost your age back in Equestria. When I stepped through that mirror, I was in the body of a first-grader. I was already a genius, but putting the mind of a full grown mare into the body of a child? School was a breeze. And, the strangest thing of all is that when I went back to Equestria a while ago, I didn't seemed to have aged very much. So I don't know what the heck is going on. People's ages between here and Equestria are just all kinds of messed up."
"Oh. So maybe Discord isn't that old in Equestria. What's he like over here?"
"I already said. He's nuts. Half the time when he speaks, I either don't have any idea what he's talking about, or I do understand it and it's just completely ridiculous. He's also one of the only people at this school who doesn't respect me. He only began teaching this year, but apparently he used to work at this school before I attended. I know that he and the principals have some sort of a history, and it isn't pleasant, but all of my attempts to find out anything about him turn out to be fruitless."
Suddenly, the door to Luna's office opened. Luna walked out, followed by Discord, who was holding both crowns in his hands.
Twilight looked through the open doorway into Luna's office and noticed that the light was off, and had never seemed to be on in the first place. There were blinds over the window, completely blocking any outside sunlight. The only light in the office was a dim lamp on her desk.
Sunset stood up with a triumphant smile on her face.
"So, now that you know that I was telling the truth, I would like my crown back," she said, holding her hand out to Discord.
"Not so fast," said Luna. "I'm afraid that we simply have no idea which crown is the real one. It is clear that you have in fact created a replica of the fall formal crown, but I do not know which one it is. I will have to ask my sister which one is the real crown, and I won't be able to talk to her until tomorrow. I will allow you to keep the replica once the matter is cleared up... on one condition."
"I'm listening."
"You must not run for the fall formal princess this year."
"What?"
"You heard me. You've won three years in a row now. If you went to the trouble of creating your own crown, which you are going to be allowed to keep, the least you can do is let someone else have the spotlight this time."
"But she is the only other one running," Sunset said, pointing a thumb at Twilight.
"I have a feeling that we might get a few last minute volunteers," said Luna.
Sunset hesitated for about five seconds. "Fine. I won't run."
"Very well. You are dismissed."
"Me?" said Sunset. "What about her?"
"You are dismissed Sunset."
Sunset gave Luna a look before stomping out of the room.
Once they were alone, Luna continued.
"Twilight. Since you have never been to my office before, and on Discord's recommendation, I am going to let you go without punishment. But if you are working with Sunset, perhaps you should re-evaluate your choices. This is all I will say on the matter. Discord wanted to speak to you."
With that, Luna went back into her office and closed the door.
Twilight looked up at Discord nervously.
"Why do you have both of the crowns, if you weren't going to give them to Sunset?" she asked.
"Well, you see, you two know now that the crowns were being held in Luna's office, but she and I agreed that there is a... not insignificant chance of them disappearing again. I am taking them somewhere where they won't be found until the fall formal is over. But anyway, come with me."
"Where are we going?"
"To my classroom."
Twilight followed Discord out of the door and through the halls of the school, saying nothing. Thankfully, the halls were mostly deserted at this time, since most students were in class, but there were a few students who passed by anyway. When they saw Twilight walking alongside Discord, they gave her funny looks, making Twilight feel very self-conscious.
Suddenly, Discord stopped and pulled Twilight asside into an alcove where there were a couple of drinking fountains.
"I know your secret," he said bluntly.
"What?" cried Twilight, trying to hide her panic. "What do you mean?"
"I was spying on you two for a little bit before I stepped out," said Discord. "I know that you don't actually go to this school. And I know that you have a talking dog."
"Look, I can explain!" said Twilight, now no longer hiding her panic. "I'm not even from here!"
"I already know that."
"You do?"
"Yes. You see, something like this has already happened once before."
"Wait, really?" asked Twilight in surprise.
"Oh yes. I never met him myself, but there was once this stoner dude who broke into some government lab somewhere and kidnapped a talking dog because they treated it inhumanely. But after he did that, he was on the run from them, so he and his four friends, including the dog, traveled around the world in their van. In order to evade the cops and make enough cash to live, they would solve mysteries for people. It was the last thing the police would have suspected. That was some time ago though, so I'm not surprised that the talking dog that you stole from them has better enunciation than that other one did. Don't worry, your secret is safe with me."
"What?" cried Twilight in bewilderment. "You think that I stole Spike?"
"Okay, I get that you have to deny it, but really, your secret is safe with me. But the problem now is that you don't go to this school. We can't have you crashing in the school at night, or some such thing. Do you have a group of friends that you live with in a van, or something?"
"What? No!"
"Are you going to be moving on to the next town soon?"
"No! I have to get that crown first!"
"Well then, that's a problem. I don't understand your obsession with that crown, but if you are not leaving until you get it, then I can't leave you unattended. Not that I would normally care, but if the cops come looking for you and your talking dog, I'll throw them off your scent. When school is over, you'll come with me and stay the night at my house. Until then, you can hang out in my classroom."
Twilight stared at Discord, not believing what she was hearing.
Suddenly, she felt a rustling in her backpack as Spike poked his head out. "I don't think we have a choice, Twilight," he said.
Twilight sighed.
"Alright. I'll go with you."
"Good. Glad we came to an understanding."
Discord started walking again. Twilight followed after him.
"Twilight!" whispered Spike.
"What is it?" she whispered back.
"I've been thinking about something."
"What is it?"
"Discord- Our Discord I mean, gave you that crown because he knew that nobody else would know the pass-phrase except you, right?"
"Yes?"
"But now that crown is in the possession of this Discord! What if he doesn't need to know the pass-phrase? What if he can use the magic in that crown for his own purposes anyway because he is Discord?"
Twilight stopped in her tracks and her eyes bulged.
After a moment, she lightly chuckled. "How could that happen?" she said, failing to conceal worry. "This Discord doesn't even have magic!"
"Neither does Sunset, at least, not when she is in this world, but with your element, she will. What if it's the same with Discord?"
"Even if you're right, he seems nice enough. I mean, he is definitely far to forgiving of people who break the rules, but he still seems... nice..."
"But he's never had magic before!" whispered Spike urgently. "What if he gets it and then goes mad with power? You know that he is fully capable of doing that!"
Twilight gulped. "You're right! We'll just have to not draw attention to the crowns, and hope that we can get them away from him soon!"
"Twilight!" cried Discord, who had stopped a short way ahead and was looking back at her. "Just because I'm keeping your secret doesn't mean I'm going to let you run off on your own."
"Sorry!" cried Twilight, running to catch up.
"Well," muttered Spike. "This should be interesting."
"Behold, my classroom!" declared Discord as he reached for the door handle and pulled the door open.
As he stepped aside to let Twilight pass, she eagerly stepped forward to see what strange things this Discord had filled his room with.
The room inside was larger than she was expecting. Paintings lined all four of the walls. The students' desks were completely disorganized, seemingly bunched together into groups at random and not following any sort grid pattern at all. The front of the room actually had a stage, which still had props from what was likely a play or a skit about trains. Discord's desk was in the far corner of the room, and was shaped like a horse shoe. There were multiple rectangular objects standing up from the desk, and they were glowing on one side, but Twilight had no idea what they were. Behind his desk was a small square shaped closet. There was also a strange and sizable metal tube of unknown purpose on a table fixture in the middle of the room.
Twilight hesitated.
"I was expecting it to be a little more... chaotic."
Suddenly, Discord gave Twilight a surprised look and stared at her.
"Did you say... chaotic?" he asked in a playful tone.
"Um, yes?"
"Hmm... What an extraordinary coincidence!"
"Why?" asked Twilight.
"Oh... never you mind that."
Twilight stepped into the room and was followed by Discord.
"Hey Mister D!" cried a familiar voice. Twilight turned and saw that a human version of Rainbow Dash was lounging on a green and red plaid couch on the wall with the doorway. She had not seen her at first because the couch was out of view from the door. Rainbow was laying on her back and had apparently been looking at a rectangular object in her hands with a glowing front, much like the bigger ones on Discord's desk. She had pushed her head back into the arm rest in order to look at them and was watching them with her head upside-down.
"Who's the new girl?" Rainbow asked.
Actually, Twilight noticed that there was another girl on a yellow and purple polka-dotted couch next to the first one, although she was sitting on it the normal way. It was Fluttershy, and she had the same bunny, kitten, and bird from when Twilight first met her loose in the room.
Twilight followed Fluttershy's example and let Spike out of her bag. He stretched on the floor, grateful to be out of his confinement.
"This is Twilight," said Discord. "She's new here, but they haven't quite got her schedule worked out yet, so until then, she's going to be my student aide."
"Really?" asked Rainbow in surprise. "Aw man, I wish I had thought of that. An excuse to hang out here all the time would be sweet!"
"You really like Discord's classes that much?" asked Twilight in surprise.
"Pssssh, of course! Everyone does!"
I guess this Discord isn't as much like the other one as I thought, thought Twilight to herself. In Equestria, Discord is merely tolerated, but it seems that here, Discord is actually... popular!
"Hey, Mister Discord," said Fluttershy. "Why are you carrying two copies of the fall formal crown?"
"Sunset made a copy of it and we can't figure out which one is which. I'm keeping them safe until we can figure out which one is the real one. Speaking of which, I have to get changed."
"Righto," said Rainbow Dash.
Discord walked over toward his desk, and then opened the door to his closet and stepped inside. Twilight looked around the room and decided to walk over to Fluttershy.
"Mind if I sit next to you?" she asked.
"Of course not."
"Huh," said Rainbow Dash as Twilight sat down. "You're not usually so friendly with new people Flutters. Have you met before?"
"She's the one who stood up to Sunset Shimmer for me," Fluttershy responded.
Rainbow sat up and looked at Twilight.
"Really?" she asked with interest. "That takes some guts. I respect that."
"What are you two doing in Discord's Classroom?" asked Twilight. Suddenly, she gasped. "Rainbow Dash, you arn't skipping, are you?"
Rainbow looked back in confusion. "How did you know my name is Rainbow Dash?"
Twilight blinked, realizing her mistake, but quickly came up with a way to cover it up.
"Well, I may be new here, but come on, who here hasn't heard of Rainbow Dash?"
Rainbow suddenly beamed.
"That's true. Who hasn't heard of me? I'm awesome! And I'm the captain of the soccer team. And also the fastest runner on the track team!"
"Right. So, are you skipping?" asked Twilight again.
"No," said Rainbow as she laid back down and started messing with her rectangle device again. "Fluttershy and I are lab partners in chemistry and we finished our experiment early. Miss Zecora let us leave after that."
"Oh," said Twilight, surprised to learn of yet another doppelganger.
"Wait, you're not skipping?" asked Discord, opening the closet door and walking out. When Twilight saw what he was wearing, she stared at him open mouthed, despite the fact that his attire was actually much more normal than what he had been wearing before.
"No, we're not," said Rainbow without looking at him. "You never asked."
"I never asked because if I did, and then if you said you were skipping, I would have to make you leave."
"What in the world are you wearing?" asked Twilight.
"Seriously? You're asking Mister D that question? Mister D doesn't need a reason to wear anything, he just does. Sometimes it makes this other girl in the class named Rarity throw a fit."
Rainbow put her rectangle away and sat up again to get a look at Discord, and then she burst out laughing.
"Good one, Mister D!"
Discord was dressed up in blue jeans and a simple long sleeve shirt and a a triangular hat with a bob on the end, but the hat and the shirt were both white with horizontal red stripes.
"No, I have no idea why he would dress up like that, or what it has to do with putting the fall formal crowns in a safe place."
"Well, you see," said Discord, "I have to put them in a place where nobody sees me do it, and everyone knows that if you dress up like this, nobody will ever find you so long as you stay in a crowd. The bell will ring any second now, and when it does, I'll just step into the crowd and nobody will see me when I hide the crowns."
"Um, in that outfit?" said Twilight doubtfully. "I'm pretty sure that it will draw attention to you."
"You'd think that, but it's strangely true."
Suddenly, the school bell rang.
"Thar she blows!" cried Discord. "Rainbow, time me!"
"Gotcha!" cried Rainbow, getting to her feet. "Hold on..." she said, still messing with her rectangle. A stream of students stared to walk past the window in the doorway. "Hold on... Go!"
Discord raced toward the door and flung it open. Twilight scrambled right after him, unable to bear the curiosity of whether or not Discord's strange outfit would function as advertised.
Twilight looked down the hallway and saw no sign of Discord. She quickly looked in the other direction, but failed to spot him.
"What?" she cried out in confusion. "He actually disappeared! He should be easy to see, he is taller than everyone else in this whole school! How in the name of harmony?"
"Doesn't surprise me," said Rainbow Dash. "It's not like this is the first time that he's done something like that."
"What do you mean?" asked Twilight urgently. She approached Rainbow. "Does Discord have magical powers?"
"Don't be ridiculous, of course not. He just has this weird ability to pop up out of nowhere when you would swear that he wasn't anywhere near you a second ago. Makes sense that he can disappear when he wants to as well."
"I have to go to my next class," said Fluttershy, walking past them.
"See you later, Flutters," said Rainbow.
Fluttershy left the classroom, leaving Twilight and Rainbow Dash alone.
"Don't you have to go to your next class too?" asked Twilight.
"Nope! I'm already here! This is my next class!"
"Oh. Well, that's convenient."
"And awesome!"
The pair stayed quiet for after that, neither one of them having anything to say.
Without warning, the door opened again and Discord came running through, unexpectedly carrying a pail of water and a mop, before skidding to a stop. A black streak was left on the tile floor from his brown boot as a result.
"Time!" cried Rainbow.
"So, what was it?"
"Two minutes and thirteen point forty-seven seconds!"
"Ha! That's exactly four thirds of my record! Haha!"
"Why did you come back with a bucket of water and a mop?" asked Twilight.
Rainbow Dash let out a snort. "I know why!" she declared happily.
"Why?"
"Just wait, it'll be great!"
"Let's just say that I'm going to need it for today's class," said Discord cryptically.
"Are you going to let the class paint the floor?" asked Twilight.
"Nah, we already did that," said Rainbow Dash.
Suddenly the door opened again and a person that Twilight would swear was Roseluck entered the room.
"The students are starting to arrive," said Discord. "Twilight, why don't you sit... um, here let me just move this..."
He walked over to one of the couches and started dragging it across the floor.
Twilight quickly ran over to help him, only to find that Rainbow Dash had had the same idea.
"Here," said Rainbow. "You take that corner and I'll take this one."
"Thank you," said Discord as they lifted all of the legs of the couch off the floor at once. "Over here, if you please."
Discord walked them over to a spot next to his desk, where he set the couch back down, and Twilight and Rainbow followed his lead.
"You want me to sit here?" asked Twilight in confusion.
"Well, you are my student aide, are you not?"
"I suppose so."
Twilight sat down and watched as the students continued to fill the room and take their seats. Soon, she was surprised to see a girl who was a match for Rarity come through the door before remembering that Rainbow Dash had mentioned that they had this class together.
Twilight noticed that Rainbow Dash had taken a seat at the front of the classroom while Rarity had taken a seat in the back. Worried about the implications, she stood up from her spot on the couch and approached Rainbow Dash.
"Arn't you and Rarity friends?" she asked. "Why are you sitting so far apart?"
"Huh?" asked Rainbow in confusion. "Oh, yeah, she's cool. She just isn't as enthusiastic about this class as I am."
"Oh. Sorry to bother you."
Twilight returned to her spot just as the bell rang once again.
The students started looking around in slight confusion.
"Where is Mister Discord?" asked an extremely muscular young man that Twilight was absolutely certain was named Bulk Biceps.
"I'm right here!" cried Discord's voice, and he stepped out of his closet once again, now wearing his 'normal' clothes again.
Twilight's jaw dropped.
I never even realized he had gone back in there! she thought. Did Discord actually disappear again because there were too many students in the room while he was wearing that strange outfit?
She refused to believe that the outfit had any magical properties. Magic wasn't supposed to exist in this world. It had to be some sort of trick that Discord knew.
The question was, was Discord magical? Or was it merely a sleight of hand?
Unfortunately, there were no answers to be had at this time. She decided to worry about it later and wait to see what Discord would do.
He walked up to his desk and lazily picked up a piece of paper.
"Alright, so is anybody not here?" he called out.
"Daisy is home sick!" called Roseluck.
Discord picked up a pencil and made a mark on the paper.
"Anyone else?"
There was a period of silence as the class looked around the room, looking for other missing classmates.
"I guess not."
"Wait, that's how you call roll?" asked Twilight.
"Why not?" asked Discord. "If someone is missing, someone would tell me. Class, this is Twilight. She's going to be my student aide for a little while."
"Like you need one!" cried Rainbow Dash.
"Alright, now that roll is called, let's get on with today's activity."
He walked behind his desk and opened up a sideways door on a box sitting underneath it. Twilight could see this and realized that it was a small refrigerator.
He pulled out a gallon jug of milk and set it on his desk in view of the class.
"Have you ever seen a person down an entire gallon of milk in one go?" he asked eagerly. "It can get rather messy. You see, you're stomach actually expands to make room for it all. Sure, some people can hold it in for a little while. Most people can actually manage to keep half a gallon down if they haven't had anything to eat or drink in a while. A few can even manage three quarters. But once you get a whole gallon in you, it's just a matter of time before it comes shooting out of both your mouth and your nose! You won't believe how fast a human can expel liquid from their body until you've seen this! Any takers?"
Twilight stared at Discord in complete and utter horror.
A student raised their hand and stood up.
"The great and powerful Trixie accepts your challenge!" she cried out. "Maybe nobody else has managed a whole gallon yet, but Trixie will be the first!"
"I wouldn't count on that!" said Discord with a grin. "But by all means, feel free to show us all. Here, come and get it."
"This isn't a lesson!" blurted Twilight. "This is madness!"
Discord hesitated, and then shrugged. "Yeah, pretty much."
"Didn't you know that he was like this before you signed up to be his aide?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"No! No, I did not!"
"Perhaps you should just do what I do when the class gets up to some of the more... outlandish things we do," called Rarity from the back. "Just pull out your phone and ignore it."
Twilight didn't know what Rarity was talking about, but she knew that there was no way that she could ignore what was about to happen. Trixie approached Discords desk with a smirk and snatched the jug.
"Watch in awe!" she cried out. "As the great and powerful Trixie chugs a whole gallon of milk!"
She raised the jug to her mouth.
"Those of you close to her, I would get away!" called Discord.
The students who were close to her quickly grabbed their desks and scooted them far away from Trixie with much squeaking.
Trixie kept on drinking the jug, and Twilight could only watch in horror. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash started chanting "Chug, chug, chug!" Much of the rest of the class joined in.
"You people are crazy!" Twilight said half-heartedly, but her voice was entirely drowned out.
Soon enough, the jug was entirely empty.
Trixie set the empty jug back on the desk and started to bow to the class, but them abruptly stopped.
"Trixie thinks that perhaps bowing would not be a good idea. I'm afraid that I might throw up. Also, Trixie did not realize how heavy her stomach would feel."
"Wow," said Rainbow Dash. "I didn't think you would actually finish it."
"Trixie always finishes what she starts," Trixie answered. "Actually, Trixie doesn't see why this was supposed to be hard. She could stay like this all-"
Before Twilight could react, Trixie suddenly and rapidly lurched forward and milk was ejected from her face. Twilight quickly brought an arm up to cover her eyes, but could not forget the brief moment that she had seen.
"Ooooooh!" cried out much of the class.
"Trixie is okay!" Twilight heard from the floor. "Oourughhh..."
"I have another one!" cried Discord, producing another jug. "Does somebody else want to give it a go while I mop up Trixie's mess?"
"I call it!" cried Rainbow, standing up and running forward.
"What?!" cried Twilight in astonishment. "Why would you do that? You know what's going to happen, you just saw what happened to Trixie!"
"Yeah, it was awesome!"
"You're insane!"
Rainbow Dash shrugged and grabbed the jug.
"I can't watch!" cried Twilight, standing up and running to the back of the room.
Twilight ran behind Rarity's desk and stared straight at the wall.
Although she didn't dare watch again, she couldn't help but listen to the sound of Rainbow hurling and the reactions of her classmates.
When she was sure that the worst of it was over, she ran back to Discord, who was now mopping up Rainbow's mess.
"This is completely insane!" she cried. "Why does Principal Celestia even let you teach here? Don't you ever do anything productive?"
"Of course we do," said Discord. "Have you not noticed that the walls are lined with student artwork?"
"And that's it?" demanded Twilight.
"Well, no, we do other stuff."
"Like what?"
"Um... er, I guess now is not the time to mention the time we tried eating spoonfuls of pure cinnamon?"
"No, it's not! What about that weird tube thing over there?" asked Twilight, pointing at the object in question in the middle of the room. "What is that thing? Is it a piece of abstract statuary?"
"Ah, that thing!" cried Discord happily. "Say, class, what do you say? Want to fire it up again?"
There was a great cheer of approval from the class.
"It's a machine?" asked Twilight, surprised. "What does it do?"
"That, my dear Twilight, is a Rubens' tube. Not to be confused with a Rubik's cube. Although, if your name is Ruben, then it becomes a you-tube and you can watch videos with it."
Much of the class started laughing.
"What?" said Twilight helplessly.
"Just a little joke. In all seriousness, it's a device that shows the hidden artwork in the very nature of the world itself."
"I don't understand."
"Allow me to demonstrate. I just need to get my gas pump. Rainbow Dash, would you please go to one of the science rooms and ask for a couple dozen protective goggles?"
"Sure thing Mister D!"
Rainbow Dash stood up and dashed out the door.
Twilight watched as Discord produced a strange machine from behind his desk and attached a hose from it to the tube. Discord spent some time fiddling around with the machine and checking that the hose. Once he was satisfied, he went behind his desk again and grabbed a black box from it's surface, but not one of the glowing ones. He set it right up against the other end of the tube.
Rainbow Dash came back into the room at this point, carrying a box full of goggles and already wearing a pair.
"Got the goggles!" she cried out.
"Good, everyone put a pair on. The last thing I want is for you to burn your eyes out."
Twilight was startled to learn that whatever was going on was potentially dangerous, but at least Discord had enough presence of mind to maintain basic safety procedures. She got up and followed the other students to grab a pair of goggles.
Once she had acquired and adorned a pair, she returned to the tube, where all the students had gathered to watch what was about to unfold.
"Looks like everyone is ready," Discord declared. He turned a valve on the gas pump, and then suddenly produced a large matchbox. He opened it up and struck one along the side of the box, lighting it aflame.
He ran the burning match over the holes in the tube, which were all releasing gas, and therefore immediately caught fire. Within seconds, there was a row of dozens of small flames burning along the top of the tube.
Discord then did something to the box, and it started playing music.
Twilight gasped in astonishment as the flames immediately reacted. She had never seen such a thing before, but she easily identified the sine wave pattern that the flames adopted as the sound resonated through the tube. Even more astonishing, the flames bounced up and down as a reaction to the changing pitch of the sound of the music. It looked for all the world like the flames were dancing, and they weren't even alive or being manipulated by magic.
She looked over to Discord, who was looking back at her expectantly.
Actually, she realized that the entire class was.
"This is unbelievable!" she said in reverence. "Did you come up with this?"
Discord laughed.
"Oh no, of course not. Mister Ruben did. All I have done is spread the wonder of this little gadget."
"I don't understand, is this an art class or is it a science class?"
"Twilight, if you stick with me, you'll learn that there is art to be found in everything. Literally everything. You just have to know the right tricks.
"Now!" he called out loudly, addressing the entire class. "Who wants to plug in the microphone and see how the flames react to someone singing?"
It was the final class period of the day and the students in Discord's last class were currently either grouped up with their peers and casually talking, or else using their rectangular devices which Twilight had deduced were phones.
Suddenly, the school intercom turned on.
"Hello everyone!" cried a strangely cheery voice that didn't belong to either principal. "It's me again, your friendly student announcer, Derpy! I hope you have all had a good day today!
"There's a rumor floating around that Sunset Shimmer decided to not run for fall formal Princess after all, and I just asked Vice-Principal Luna and she said that it is true! In other completely unrelated news, the candidates are locked in now, and we have now have three candidates to vote for. The first is Twilight Sparkle! The second is The Great and Powerful Trixie! And the third one is me! Derpy! Please vote for me! Unless you are voting for someone else! I won't be mad! May the best girl win! Also, school is over now! Bye!"
Wait! thought Twilight to herself uncomfortably. I'm not even sure that I should run for fall formal princess at all anymore now that Sunset Shimmer has dropped out and Discord has the crown! Even if I won, they will just be giving me the wrong crown, and Sunset will still get the real one! And now the candidates are locked in? Should I just throw the competition and focus on getting my crown back before Sunset steals it again?
The other students hurried out of the room while she pondered to herself. Eventually, she was alone with Discord.
"Hmm," said Discord, suddenly right behind Twilight. She turned around on her spot on the couch and saw Discord was leaning on the back of her couch and resting on his arms. "I don't think many people are going to vote for Trixie, but Derpy is going to be tough to beat. She is rather popular around here, you know, and most of the people here have never even met you."
"I'll figure something out," said Twilight.
"Well, it's time for us to go. Come with me and we'll get in my car."
"Car?" said Twilight in confusion.
Discord raised a bushy eyebrow at her in surprise and Twilight immediately realized her taboo.
"I'm sorry, like I said, I'm really not from anywhere even near here."
"I should say not," said Discord. "You must be from one of those countries that doesn't have much in the way of technology. You must have had one heck of a time traveling all the way here."
"You have no idea."
"A car is just a big box on wheels that people drive to take them where they want to go."
"You mean like a carriage?"
"Well, sort of, but cars are self propelled by gasoline or electricity, or both. Mine is only a two-seater, unfortunately, and there isn't much leg room, especially if you're as tall as I am, so you will have to hold your bag in your lap."
Discord walked toward the door and Twilight followed after him. He then proceeded down the hall and made a turn, eventually coming to one of the school exits. Once outside, he led the way to the teachers' parking lot.
Twilight was able to figure out which car was Discord's almost as soon as she saw it. It was much stubbier than the other cars in the lot, only slightly longer than it was tall. It was also the same shade of grey as Discord's skin. Although why such a tall man would drive such a tiny car, she had no idea. Aside from the fact that Discord had a habit of making irrational decisions.
But what really gave it away was the fact that instead of an antennae like the other cars, Discord's car had two horns sticking out of the back that looked exactly like the horns on the other Discord's head.
On the left side of his car were the words 'A world without string is chaos', written in red. She didn't understand why Discord would write that specific phrase, but quickly dismissed her confusion, remembering that, again, this was Discord. She suddenly became curious as to whether the other side had the same words.
It didn't. Instead, in yellow, was written 'Eat at Joe's'.
She briefly wondered to herself whether this referred to a counterpart of Pony Joe. But if it did, did he have the same name?
Discord opened the opposite door and climbed into the car, but Twilight didn't see how he had accomplished this. She tried pushing on the door handle, assuming that it would function just like the front door of the school had, but this accomplished nothing.
Suddenly, the window on her side started going down, startling her.
"Are you getting in?" Discord asked.
"How do you open the door?" asked Twilight awkwardly.
"Just pull on the handle."
"Oh."
Twilight opened the door and then took off her backpack before climbing inside. Once she was inside, she unzipped the bag to let Spike out before marveling at the car interior. Discord didn't seem to have made any personalization to the interior of the car, but the various dials and buttons were labeled with pictures or single letters, and Twilight occupied herself trying to guess their function as Discord turned the car on with a key on a key ring that he had attached to his belt.
Twilight quickly saw that there was one thing in the car that certainly did not come with the car. There was a picture of Fluttershy standing next to Discord taped to a part of the front that had nothing else there.
"Why do you have a picture of Fluttershy in your car?" asked Twilight.
Discord looked at the picture in surprise, clearly only just remembering that it was there.
"Oh. Don't tell the other students this, but Fluttershy is sort of my favorite student."
"She is?" said Twilight.
"Yeah... She's the one who convinced me that I should give teaching another go... after last time. And she helped convince Celestia to let me come back."
"What happened last time?"
Discord let out a sigh.
"I'm not as great a person as a lot of the students here think I am," he said darkly. "Let's just leave it at that. The fewer people who know about that, the better. You have your secrets, and I have mine."
"Alright. I didn't mean to pry into your personal business."
The car started moving for apparently no reason, and Twilight, determined to not make a fool of herself by asking more questions with seemingly obvious answers, silently attempted to figure out how the machine worked on her own as Discord drove.
Surprisingly, it was only a few minutes before he turned off of the road and into a driveway, by which time Twilight had realized that the two levers under Discord's feet made the car stop and go, but she had figured out very little else.
There was a wrought iron fence surrounding Discord's property, which looked to be decently sized, but for some reason, the only building inside looked like it was nothing more than a large shed.
Is that where Discord lives? she wondered to herself, not believing it.
There was a gateway across the driveway preventing their entry, but strangely, when Discord's car approached, it opened automatically.
"How did you do that?" asked Twilight. "Why did the gate open all on it's own?"
"There's a device built into this car that the gateway can sense."
Discord drove onto the lot, and when he drew near the small building, pushed a button on the roof of the interior of the car. This caused a large door that made up almost the entire side of the building to open up, revealing almost complete emptiness within.
Discord drove the car into the building, and then turned it off. Twilight noted that the door was only barely tall enough to accommodate the two horns on the car.
"This is just a storage facility for the car!" said Twilight in realization.
"Yep."
"I don't understand, do you not live here?"
"I do. Come, I'll show you the door."
Discord led her back outside and then pulled out his key ring again and flipped to a square shaped device on it with a button on it. He pushed the button and the door went back down.
Twilight had no idea how normal this was. It was possible that this world had technology that allowed all of this for even normal people, but this version of Discord had already demonstrated that he was not normal. It was possible that what she was seeing was considered weird and she didn't even know it!
Discord led her over to a seemingly empty part of his yard before she suddenly caught sight of something colorful on the ground.
It was an orange door.
It also apparently led straight down into the ground.
Discord produced another key and used it to unlock the door, and then pulled it up and open.
"After you."
Twilight stepped into the chamber within uncertainly, nervous about seeing the inside of Discord's house. She had not yet even seen Discord's house in her own dimension, and had no idea what to possibly expect.
The fist chamber was actually nothing more than a brown-carpeted flight of stairs that led deeper into the ground before stopping in front of another orange door, this one standing up in the normal way.
Discord locked the door behind them while Twilight opened up her backpack and let Spike out once again. Twilight then walked down a few steps before stopping and looking around her in surprise.
"What is it?" asked Discord.
"I just realized something," explained Twilight. "These steps look exactly the same on both their tops and on the sides. And the wall and the ceiling also look identical . If it wasn't for gravity, it would be impossible to tell which door leads out!"
"How perceptive of you. I do enjoy it myself."
Twilight continued walking down and was suddenly stopped right before the door when Discord called out, "Wait! I just remembered something!"
"What is it?"
"Um..." he began awkwardly. "This didn't even occur to me until just now, but you're here now, and there is no way that you aren't going to see a certain something now that you are here. Have you ever seen someone else that looks very much like somebody else that you already know?"
Twilight looked at Discord in astonishment.
"Yes, I have!"
"And have these other people ever been not people at all, but an entire other species entirely?"
Twilight's jaw dropped open.
"How did you know about that?"
"Huh. How unexpected. Just the same, I think you had better just see for yourself..." said Discord uneasily.
He stepped in front of her and opened the door and stepped through. Twilight followed, and Discord shut the door behind her.
The room inside appeared to be Discord's living room, but the only seating in the entire thing was one rainbow couch that was absurdly long and also curved in several places, zigzagging back and forth throughout the room, and strangely also twisting and curving to go up the wall and ceiling as well. Twilight assumed that that part of it must be bolted to the roof. There were tables in between the gaps between she couch's seats, including on the walls and ceiling. There were also more of the glowing boxes on every face of the room, even on the floor.
Deciding that it wouldn't be seen as suspicious since Discord had already assumed that she was from somewhere with little technology, Twilight felt it was safe to ask about them.
"What are those?" she asked, pointing.
"Those are televisions, which are sort of similar to the computer screens I had in my room, only they have the ability to tune into television channels all on their own."
Suddenly, Twilight caught sight of motion along the floor, and it was moving toward her. It was pink, and moving very fast. She was almost frightened, but stayed calm since she was certain that Discord wouldn't actually have anything dangerous in his house.
The pink blur raced past her entirely and flew up Discord's leg and up his body before coming to an abrupt stop on his shoulder, where Twilight was finally able to see what it was.
It was a mouse.
With an extremely familiar hair style.
It looked just like Pinkie Pie.
"What in Equestria?" cried Twilight in disbelief. She instantly realized what she had said and looked at Discord nervously, but his next words gave no indication that he found her words to be strange.
"There's another one around here somewhere. Probably. They usually don't ever go anywhere alone, at least."
Twilight looked around and realized that there was another mouse sitting on top of the back of the freakishly long couch, simply staring back at her.
If the pink mouse had shocked her, this one completely blew her mind.
It was purple and it looked very much like herself.
"Whoa!" exclaimed Spike. "That is weird!"
Twilight lifted a quivering finger up and pointed at the purple mouse.
"Wh- who are they?!"
"Why, they're Pinkie and The Brain!" answered Discord, who then threw his hands out in the air. "They're Pinkie and the Brain! One is a genius and the other one's insane! I used to keep them in a cage, but Fluttershy convinced me that I should let them run free, and she was right. They kept on escaping from their old cage anyway, and even when they disappear for a while, they always come back."
He walked into the room and approached a wall with a doorway in it, which he opened and revealed to be a pantry. There were a few foods and treats inside that Twilight recognized, but far more of them that were completely unfamiliar to her. Discord grabbed a plastic box and opened it up and pulled out a pink-topped cupcake, and then put the box back and shut the door. He then walked over to one of the tables and set the cupcake down. The Pink mouse let out a delighted squeak and then dived off of his shoulder and into the cupcake, disappearing under the icing.
"I always found it strange how much that one is like Pinkie Pie," said Discord. "But after I got a good look at you, I just couldn't believe my eyes! It's almost enough to make one believe in the supernatural, isn't it?"
"Yeah," said Twilight breathlessly.
"Maybe I should rename the other one now that I've met you."
The cupcake disappeared before their eyes within seconds, eating from the inside by the overly-hyper mouse. After it was gone, it jumped away and through a doorway.
"Where is she going?" asked Twilight.
"Probably to run on the exercise wheel. She runs on that thing so much, I hooked it up to a generator and it produces so much electricity that I actually make a small profit from selling power to the city."
"They aren't going to be scared of Spike, are they?"
"No. Actually, he might should be scared of the purple one. She's not exactly friendly, to tell you the truth."
Twilight felt a wave of sadness coupled with disbelief wash over her.
How could that be? Every other look-alike I have seen until now was similar enough to their counterpart!
"But," continued Discord, "Just so long as he stays out of her way, he should be fine. So, I have to have a word with Celestia, but I don't know when she will be available, so I need to wait in my computer room for her to come online."
Twilight looked at him in confusion.
"I don't really understand what you mean."
"Oh, right," said Discord. "How about I show you what a computer is while we wait for her?"
"Umm..." Twilight said, slightly unsure, but she quickly made up her mind. Learning about anything new, regardless of what it was, was something that she would surely enjoy. "Okay, sure."
Discord's computer room was not what Twilight had been expecting, but that was to be expected.
The first thing that she noticed about it was that the floor could not be seen anywhere because it was covered with hundreds of pillows of every color and pattern she could imagine.
The second thing that she noticed was that there were several paintings hung in the room on the walls, but only on the walls.
The third thing that she noticed was that the only other thing in the room was a desk with a lot of machinery under it, and a few devices on it as well.
Also, it was sticking out of the wall at a ninety degree angle to the floor, and about three feet off the ground.
"There's not much in here," Twilight noted, taking off her shoes so as to not dirty the pillows, before stepping inside.
Discord, who entered after her, apparently didn't care about his own boots, because he left them on and trampled across the pillows unceremoniously. At least they didn't appear to be any worse off afterward.
He walked over to the desk and pushed a button on one of the machines.
Lights across all of the electronics lit up.
Twilight meanwhile took the time to examine the paintings. Each one seemed more surreal than the last. One in particular caught her eye. It was a picture of multiple sets of stairs that connected to various platforms at various angles, often in impossible ways, and there were people walking up and down many of the stairs, and none of them seemed to share the same gravity.
"What is your fascination with putting objects on walls, or treating them as though gravity is coming from a different direction?"
"As an artist, one must be willing and able to look at everyday things in a different manner that most would never think to try. Who wants do be stuck on the ground? Unfortunately, it is impossible to rebel from the iron grip of gravity except for in the imagination."
"I guess that's understandable."
She looked away from the paintings and toward the electronics.
"I thought you said that computers had screens like the ones in the living room," she said, failing to find one.
"Not always. Looks like it got buried, hold on."
Discord walked to the very middle of the room, where Twilight realized there was a light shining through between the pillows. He picked the pillows up and tossed them aside and suddenly the light was shooting straight up, covering the entire ceiling.
Twilight could now read words on the ceiling. 'Welcome ChaosMASTER. Please enter your password.'
"Projectors can also be used," said Discord.
Twilight suddenly realized that all of this was sort of being powered by energy harnessed from another version of her most energetic friend and was left feeling very strange about that indeed.
Discord then walked back to the desk and sat down in front of it, and then laid down underneath the desk and put his hands on a device that was covered with dozens of buttons, many marked with letters and numbers.
"That can't be normal," remarked Twilight. "In fact, I saw your computer in your classroom, and it wasn't like this."
"Well, that one belongs to the school. This one is mine."
"Are you not afraid that that desk is going to come off the wall one of these days and crush you?" asked Twilight with worry.
"Nope. I made sure that it is very, very secure. Here, come lay down next to me and I'll show you all about it."
Twilight did so, but did not actually put any part of her body underneath the desk.
Discord spent a while explaining to her how the strange machine worked, and Twilight marveled at it more and more as Discord continued to reveal more uses for it, seemingly never running out of functions that it was capable of doing.
Eventually, he convinced her to switch places with him and try controlling it herself.
"I had gotten rather comfortable in my old spot," Twilight noted as she lay down under the computer. "These cushions are very comfy. I bet it would be very fun to read in this room too."
"I have a rather large selection of books of all genres, you know," mentioned Discord. "You might find me old fashioned of course, but you may have a look if you want."
"Really?" cried Twilight happily. "Thank you!"
Twilight thankfully only made a few mistakes with using the computer, having had the benefit of watching Discord use it for an entire hour. She was in the middle of using a drawing program and drawing pink clouds raining a brown substance (which Discord seemed to be enamored by) when suddenly a box appeared overtop her drawing.
Twilight read the contents of the box: 'Solar Princess: Hello Discord. Luna informed me of what happened with the fall formal crown today.'
"Switch with me again," said Discord. "I need to talk to her."
Twilight did so, and Discord quickly made himself comfortable in her spot again and he typed out his response.
ChaosMASTER: Looks like we will have a different princess this year.
Solar Princess: Thank goodness.
ChaosMASTER: Have you figured out which 1 is real?
Solar Princess: Not yet. I need to see them for myself first. Where did you hide them?
Discord hesitated.
ChaosMASTER: I can't tell you right now, I have company.
Solar Princess: Oh, alright. I'll get out of your unkempt hair then. I'll find some other way to unwind.
Twilight looked at that last word in surprise. "What does she mean by that?"
Discord didn't answer her, but typed back to Celestia.
ChaosMASTER: U don't have 2 do that, we weren't doing anything important. What U have in mind?
Solar Princess: You want to find out if you can rule a kingdom better than me this time?
"What?" cried Twilight in astonishment. "Why would she say that?"
"She wants to play a game to unwind from the stress at work," Discord answered. "Do you want to see it? If you would rather, we can go back to your picture. Or we can save it and we can pull it up again later."
"Wait, you can play games with other people with these things even if they aren't anywhere close to you?"
"That may as well be half of the reason that computers exist."
"Sure, I'd love to watch," said Twilight, eager to see what Celestia would do with Discord.
Discord started the game up and after a few minutes of setting up, the game began.
"In this game, you basically are the king or queen of a kingdom in a fantasy world with magic," he explained. "But there are monsters all over the place, and since it's not fitting for a ruler to fight them off themselves, you have to hire heroes to fight them for you."
"Makes sense," said Twilight, inwardly thinking of herself and her friends and the way that they wind up fighting monsters rather a lot.
"When you're playing with another person though, they run a kingdom of their own, and you either work together to achieve a goal, or you fight each other in addition to all the monsters."
"Which way are you playing?"
"I'm fighting Celestia, of course!"
"Oh."
"She likes to use loads of paladins, but that's not my style. I like to use these guys!"
Twilight read the name under Discord's mouse pointer in disbelief.
"Warriors of Discord?" she cried.
"Oh yeah!"
"Did you make this game?"
"Oh, good grief, no, I don't have the knowledge to do that. It's just a really funny coincidence! Hey, you want to screw around with Celestia?"
"How?" asked Twilight in confusion. "Are you going to attack her?"
"No, even better. You see, in this game, you can pay to use magic spells from a small list. This one here will let me engulf one of her heroes in vines and it stops them from doing anything for a while!"
Discord clicked on the spell and then used it on one of Celestia's paladins.
And then he did it again, and then again.
"Uh oh, it looks like she noticed!" he said with a laugh. "She's using a different spell and turning my heroes into stone, which functionally is the exact same thing I just did to her."
"SHE'S DOING WHAT?!"
Twilight covered her mouth in embarrassment.
Discord looked at her in confusion.
"You know, you're weird. I like it! Oh, look, now she's recruiting sun warriors, go figure."
Twilight took a look around and noticed something.
"Hey, where's Spike?"
Discord looked around too. "He must be exploring the rest of my house. Oh dear."
"What is so bad about Spike being lost in your house?" asked Twilight as she followed Discord through his living room. "There isn't anything dangerous in here, is there?"
"It shouldn't be dangerous, no, just so long as he stays behind the safety rails."
"Safety rails?"
"There's nothing dangerous on the other side of them, I assure you," Discord said quickly. "You see, a house like this that is built into the ground can easily become waterlogged after a good rain. In order to solve the problem, there is a big cistern that collects rainwater and flows through a barred tunnel and back outside into a valley behind my house, where it evaporates."
"How clever!"
"Indeed. However, I need access to the cistern in case anything should ever go wrong, so it's built underneath a rotunda that has the rest of the rooms of this house branching off from it. When it rains, you can actually stand in it and watch the water flow down the walls." Discord stopped in front of the only remaining door in the living room which he had not opened yet. "It hasn't rained recently, but I give you... the Cistern Chapel!"
He opened the door up and Twilight stepped inside and gasped.
The room inside was actually quite enormous. It was cylindrical in shape and had one spiral ramp running along the wall that had several doorways as it descended. Although none of the doors were at the same height and therefore there was no real way to determine the number of floors, Twilight could see as she approached the safety rail that the part of the ramp that she was on looped under itself two more times.
The ramp never actually touched the wall, however, except for in a few places where it was suspended by white supports. There were more supports vertically as well. In the places where there was a doorway in the wall, there was a short bridge to cross to get onto the ramp, and Twilight also saw that there were sorts of awning over the doorway that would redirect the water that Discord had told her would run down the wall and ensure that it didn't fall over the doors.
The bottom of the ramp ended with a small platform overlooking a pool of still-present water. Just as Discord had said, there was indeed a barred tunnel on the opposite side of this platform for the water to escape to.
"This is remarkable!" cried Twilight, admiring Discord's creative architecture.
"I'm glad you think so. It's not often that I get to show this stuff to others. Oh, and by the way."
Instead of speaking, he continued by simply pointing up at the ceiling. Twilight looked up and saw that the ceiling was painted.
It was a painting of the human Discord. It depicted him grinning and reaching out with his hand...
And pushing every single button on an elevator. There were a lot of buttons.
Suddenly, Twilight was startled to hear a noise like a trumpet being played off key, seemingly coming out of nowhere.
"What was that?" she asked in confusion.
"That would be my doorbell."
"You have a doorbell?"
Discord didn't answer her, but instead turned around and went back through the door from whence they had come. Twilight followed. He walked to the door to the entrance and opened it as well, and walked up the steps to the final door, which he used his key to also open.
"Fluttershy!" he cried in happiness. "How nice to see you again!"
Twilight looked past him and saw that Fluttershy was indeed standing outside, holding a box.
"Twilight?" she asked in confusion. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh!" said Discord, realizing that this was a problem. "Er-"
"It's fine," said Twilight. "To tell you the truth, I don't actually go to CHS. I only came here because Sunset stole my crown and Discord decided to put up with me until I leave."
"Hang on!" cried Discord. "You're still telling me that you're still sticking to the story that the crown is yours, and that Sunset stole it from you, even though I know your secret now?"
"Yes. That is why I have to get it back!"
"Hmm. How could you have owned a crown that looks exactly like the one Principal Celestia made for the fall formal?"
"I don't know, but I did!"
"Well, I am inclined to believe you, but this presents us with a new problem. Although I believe you, I can't simply give you your crown back without completely irrefutable proof. You can still get the crown back by winning the title of Fall Formal Princess, and I would love to help you with that, but I can't do very much to help you without making it look like I'm playing favorites."
"Um, was this a bad time to visit?" asked Fluttershy. "I brought a little something for Pinkie and The Brain, but I can come back later."
"I wouldn't dream of it, my dear!" cried Discord. "Please, my house is your house! I mean, I gave you a copy of my key and everything!"
"I know," said Fluttershy. "But I still don't want to walk in on you unannounced. I only have the key with me in case of an emergency."
"Well, now that you're here, maybe you can help us find Twilight's pet dog, Spike. You see, he appears to have disappeared and-"
Discord abruptly stopped talking and looked at Twilight nervously.
"Oh no!" cried Fluttershy. "Is the poor dear lost?"
"Oh not at all!" said Discord, more hurriedly. "In fact, he's only been missing for about five minutes now. But I just remembered, perhaps you shouldn't visit right now after all. We can find him on our own."
Twilight hated to see Fluttershy turned away like this. "Wait, Discord, don't send her away. I'm sure that Spike will be on his best behavior."
Discord gave her a look. "Well, if you say so. Do come in, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy came through the doorway, which Discord locked again, and then followed as Discord led them back into the house.
"Those mice appear to be missing at the moment," Discord said, looking around the living room. "Oh well. You can leave your present on one of the coffee tables, Fluttershy.
"What is that, anyway?" asked Twilight.
"It's a tube network for them to climb inside," explained Fluttershy as she set the box down. "You see, in the wild, mice are prey and they hide from predators inside holes dug in the ground. Even though they don't have any predators here, their natural instincts still urge them to find narrow places to hide. They will feel right at home!"
"I do pride myself on being a good caretaker of animals," said Fluttershy. "Speaking of which, we should find your dog!"
Twilight and Fluttershy followed Discord through the doorway into the cistern again. When they were inside, Twilight realized that she could hear a strange and constant noise.
"What is that?" she asked.
Discord scrunched up his face. "If that's what I think it is... Oh no!"
Suddenly, the man started running down the ramp at a sprint.
"Discord!" cried Twilight in surprise, trying to run after him.
Unfortunately, since she was unused to her body still, she tripped and fell.
"Are you okay?" asked Fluttershy, helping her to her feet.
"I'm fine," said Twilight. "Luckily, the floor even in here is carpeted, so I just have a mild carpet burn."
She looked down the ramp.
"Which way did Discord go?" she asked, not seeing him.
"I suppose we should go toward that strange sound," said Fluttershy.
Twilight started jogging down the ramp, restraining herself a little more in order to keep from tripping.
She found Discord easily. He was standing just inside of the doorway of one of the rooms.
The room inside appeared to be a storage space for unused furniture, as there were various chairs, tables, shelves, and other things stacked together in strange combinations that Twilight had come to expect from Discord. She also saw that the thing which was making the strange noise.
There was an enormous row of dominos sitting on the furniture, zigzagging every which way an branching off to cover nearly every nook and cranny of the room. And they were in the process of falling down.
Just a short distance from Discord was Spike, sitting on the floor and looking at Twilight rather guiltily.
Discord was staring at the scene open mouthed, but said and did nothing.
Until finally, all of the dominos had fallen down.
"That..." he began weakly. "That took me weeks to set up. And I wasn't finished yet."
"I'm really sorry!" cried Spike. "I didn't realize how much it meant to you, I just looked in here and it looked so cool and I sort of nudged it without thinking about the consequences!"
"Spike can talk!" cried Fluttershy in shock.
"He can indeed!" cried Discord in a tone of frustration. "But that doesn't mean that he knows how to keep his paws to himself! Why, I ought to-"
"Mister Discord, please!" cried Fluttershy, stepping between him and Spike. "He didn't mean it! He said he is sorry!"
Discord looked down at Fluttershy. "I- I- Argh!" he moaned. "Blow me to Bermuda!"
Something extremely strange started happening. Before their eyes, Discord's body changed shape, his head becoming more narrow and his feet growing wider. Within seconds, his whole body looked like a cone. And then flames appeared underneath his feet.
"What in the world?!" cried Discord, no longer angry, but clearly very panicked.
The flames grew more intense and he started to rise up into the air.
"What's happening to me? ARGHHHHH!"
This final scream accompanied his body suddenly shooting into the ceiling at high velocity, but instead of being stopped by it, his body appeared to drill straight through it.
Large clumps of dirt started to rain down from the ceiling.
"What just happened!" cried Fluttershy hysterically.
"Well Twilight," said Spike. "It looks like Discord does have magical powers after all. But it doesn't look like he's ever used them before."
"Fluttershy!" cried Twilight. "Please calm down! I know what happened to Discord!"
"You do?"
"I do! You see, one of the fall formal crowns is actually a magical artifact! Well, to be honest, both of them are. Discord appears to have absorbed at least some of their power!"
"Given the circumstances, I think I will choose to believe you," said Fluttershy hurriedly. "But what do we do now?"
"We shouldn't leave Discord's house. There is a good chance that he will use magic again to bring himself back. But you are right, we can't just do nothing! That phone of yours gives you the ability to contact people who are far away, correct?"
"Yes?"
"I need you to call Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack, and tell them to meet us here! Tell them that it's an emergency!"
"You want me to call all of them?"
"Yes!"
"Alright, I'll do it, for Mister Discord's sake."
Suddenly, there was a noise of splintering wood from the living room.
Twilight and Fluttershy looked at each other in shock before running up the ramp once again. Spike was left behind for the moment.
When they reached the top of the ramp, they hurried into the living room and saw that it was not Discord who had caused the disturbance at all.
Sunset Shimmer was standing in the room, leaning on the handle of a sledgehammer. The doorway to the entrance was smashed to pieces.
"I never should have let that madman out of my sight!" she cried. "I saw what just happened outside and I know that he somehow managed to tap into the power in my crown. Now then Twilight, exactly how are we going to get my crown back?"
“You’re not just a thief!” cried Twilight. “You're also a vandal! I can't believe you destroyed Discord’s doors!”
“I normally wouldn't dare,” said Sunset. “I don’t need to draw that kind of attention to myself. But now that Discord has the crown, I am willing to do whatever it takes to get it back. Please don't tell me that you told him about the magic inside it.”
“I didn't tell him! I have at least as much to lose as you if he steals the crown. However, there is just a small complication. Discord wasn't in possession of the crown when he shot into the air like that.”
“Don't lie to me. He can't have used magic without it.”
“I believe that he absorbed some of the crown’s power before he hid them, without actually realizing what happened.”
“Do you really expect me to believe that? How could he have done that?”
“I don't know, but back in Equestria Discord has a very strange and unique magic that doesn't follow the same rules as other forms of magic. Maybe this one is similarly able to manipulate magic in ways that nobody else can. He just hasn't had any magic to actually use until now.”
“See, I can't trust anything you say to me,” said Sunset in frustration. “I know perfectly well that you don't want me to get the crown, so it would make sense that you are just lying to me.”
“I don't want you to get my crown, but I am not lying,” said Twilight, crossing her arms. “But I can't prove to you that I am not lying without actually finding the crown.”
“What,” cried a new voice, “the heck is going on here?”
They turned toward the door and saw Rainbow Dash stepping over the splinters of the broken door, fists raised.
“What are you doing here?” groaned Sunset, hefting the sledgehammer up and holding it at the ready.
“Fluttershy texted me and said there was trouble. Lucky I live so close by.”
“She isn't the only one,” Fluttershy added. “Soon there will be six of us.”
“Wait, you called everyone from our old group?” asked Rainbow. “Even Applejack and Pinkie Pie?”
“Yes, I did.”
“Hmm. Not too excited about being with those two again,” said Rainbow reluctantly, “but even though some of us have our differences, there is one thing that we all have in common, and that is the fact that we really don't like you, Sunset. And now you're blatantly committing crimes? You might get away with all kinds of stupid crap at school, but guess what?”
Suddenly, Rainbow looked behind her in surprise, and then stepped aside and let a shocked Rarity into the room.
“As I was saying,” Rainbow continued. “This isn't the school; therefore, all of that authority doesn't mean anything here. Sure, you have a huge hammer, but if you try to fight us all, it will not end well for you. Now where is Mister Discord? You better not have hurt him.”
“Ya got that right,” said Applejack, who then stepped through the doorway. “Ah might not interact with the man very much, but trespassing, vandalism and violence are completely unacceptable.”
“Well, on that we can agree, at least,” said Rainbow.
Sunset glared at Rainbow Dash, and then looked around and realized that she was outnumbered.
“I didn't do anything to the weirdo. I only came in here after he blasted off. Technically, I am here for the same reason you all are, I just want to know where he went.”
“Technically?” asked Rainbow suspiciously.
“She is telling the truth, actually,” said Twilight. “Sunset may not be the friendliest person around, but she hasn't done anything to Discord aside from breaking down his door.”
“Seriously?” cried Rainbow Dash. “Why the heck would you break in if you are trying to find Mister- oh, wait, because you can't get in, duh.”
“Uh, obviously.”
“He is going to be super ticked off at you when he finds out. But forget about that for a moment, what the heck happened to him?” Rainbow asked urgently.
“Did you see the hole in the ground before you came down?” asked Twilight.
“No, what hole?” answered Rainbow.
“Ah was in too much of a hurry to take notice of a hole in the ground,” said Applejack. “Did Mister Discord fall into it?”
“Not exactly… You will just have to see this for yourself. You won't believe me otherwise.”
“And what about Sunset?” asked Applejack.
“She should come along.”
“What?” cried Rainbow.
“Wait, you want me to come?” asked Sunset in surprise.
“If we let you go now, you will start plotting revenge against the wrong person. I can't allow that.”
“And you really expect me to stay in your company after Rainbow Dash threatened me?”
Twilight sighed. “Rainbow Dash. I understand why you don't like Sunset, but so far the worst that she has done is break into Discord's house. Violence isn’t going to help Mister Discord.”
Suddenly, there was a rumbling that could be felt through the floor and in the air. A moment later, the wall erupted and a giant drill machine came through and into the room.
There were screams from everyone in the room as they ran away from the machine in panic.
The drill machine came to a stop and a hatch on the top popped open. Discord popped out of the hatch with his hands over his ears.
“Would you all please stop screaming!” he shouted loudly. “I can’t hear myself think! Which actually might be a good thing, come to think of it!”
The shock of his freakish entry was enough to silence the screaming girls as they stared at him in shock.
“Thank you!” cried Discord, still shouting. He climbed out of the hatch and hopped to the floor, and then held out a frying pan.
“Sunset, you don’t like me, right?” he said hurriedly.
Sunset was able to recover from her shock easier than most of the other girls because she was aware that there was a magical explanation for everything that had just happened. “Um, yeah!” she said with open hostility. “You stole my crown, so yes, I have a significant amount of animosity toward you, you nutcase!”
“Good!” he cried happily. “I need you to knock me out with this!” He held the frying pan out toward her.
“...What?” said Sunset, not expecting this reaction at all.
“You’re completely right, I am a nutcase! I’ve completely lost my marbles! I have no idea where they are! I have suddenly started hallucinating all sorts of crazy things, and I realized that just about anything that I think of suddenly appears and starts chasing me. The only way to make the hallucinations stop is to knock me out cold! Hurry, they’ll be here any second!”
“Who will be here any second?” asked Sunset in bewilderment.
There was more rumbling as another drill machine erupted out of the wall. It came to a stop and the hatch popped open.
A very strange face popped out of the machine. Twilight realized that it was a human doppelganger of one of the diamond dogs that had kidnapped Rarity back in Equestria.
“Behold!” he cried. “The Underminer! We are beneath you, but nothing is beneath us! We hereby declare war on peace and happiness!”
Sunset gaped at him for a second before turning to Discord again.
“What in tartarus is the Diamond Dawg Gang doing here in that thing?” she cried.
“I told you, my every strange little thought is coming alive and chasing me!” cried Discord. “Hurry up, knock me out cold!”
“If you say so. Hey Twilight. It looks like violence is exactly what will help Mister Discord.”
CLONG
Sunset had not held back. Discord fell backward onto the floor. Additionally, both drilling machines and their occupants glowed white and then vanished.
Inexplicably, Sunset also fell to the floor unconscious.
“Hey girls, what did I miss?” cried Pinkie Pie joyfully as she arrived through the door leading into Discord’s cistern.
“What in Sam Hill just happened?” cried Applejack.
“I believe Mister Discord’s insanity has rubbed off on me,” declared Rarity. "That cannot have just happened."
“You’re not crazy,” said Twilight. “And neither is Discord. I have to confess something to all of you, but it will take a while to explain everything.”
Sunset Shimmer groaned as she abruptly woke up. She was startle to hear another voice doing the same. She quickly sat up and tried to look at the other person in the room with her. Unfortunately, her vision was blurry, and her head was pounding. Fortunately, this person was dressed colorfully enough for her to figure out who it was anyway.
“Mister Discord. Where are we?”
“Ugh!” moaned Discord, grabbing his head. “If I had to guess, I would say that after you knocked me out, someone brought me to the madhouse, so this is probably my cell.”
“What?” cried Sunset in confusion. Thankfully, her vision was returning to her quickly, and she could now make out that the room that they were in. There room contained nothing other than the two inhabitants, but it did not look like a room in an asylum. The floor was a series of waxed wooden planks and the walls were painted green. There were no windows, but there was a simple wooden door that was the only way out.
“Does this look like a madhouse to you?” asked Sunset in frustration.
“No, but that’s kind of the point. I’m clearly insane, which means that I can’t trust that what I am seeing is even reality. This may look like a green room with a wooden floor, but I bet in reality I’m wrapped up in a straightjacket in a padded white room.”
“I’m seeing the exact same thing as you, Mister D!” cried Sunset.
“That doesn’t mean anything either. Either you’re a figment of my imagination, or else you really are here and my poor brain thinks you are telling me that I am not crazy when in reality I actually am. Either way, I can't trust anything you say to me. If it is the second case, then I should at least thank you for visiting me, even though I’m not actually hearing anything you’re actually saying to me.”
“You think I’m a hallucination too!” cried Sunset in realization. “Look, if this is an inmate cell in an asylum, the door would be locked, right?”
“Obviously,” answered Discord, who had scooted into the corner of the room and was holding his head.
Sunset tried opening the door. It opened without resistance.
“Ha!” cried Sunset triumphantly. “You see?”
Discord frowned and stood up, and then walked toward Sunset. He stopped in front of her and examined the doorway suspiciously, and then stepped outside.
Sunset followed after him and found that they were now in a green hallway.
“I must be even crazier than I thought,” Discord decided aloud.
“Discord, you’re not insane!” cried Sunset. “You’ve been using the magic inside of the fall formal crown and you have no idea to control it! That’s why we are in this place, wherever it is!”
“You’re telling me that I have out of control magic powers?”
“Yes! The crown is from another world where that Twilight girl and I are both also from. In that world, I’m a unicorn and Twilight is an alicorn princess, even though she doesn’t deserve to be. That’s a unicorn that also has wings by the way. And that world has magic all over the place.”
Discord stared back at her in bemusement.
“Oh, crud!” said Sunset, slapping her palm to her face. “I just made it sound like you are totally bonkers, didn’t I?”
“Pretty much. Goodness me, but my mind can sure come up with some weird stuff.”
“There’s really no way to convince you, is there?” said Sunset in defeat. “Alright, you know what? It doesn’t even matter. Go ahead and think that you’re crazy if you want, but you must still remember where you put the fall formal crowns. You obviously don’t have them with you. Where are they?”
“They’re in the janitor closet in the same hallway that my classroom is,” said Discord simply.
“Wait,” said Sunset in surprise. “You’re just telling me? Just like that?”
“Sure. It’s not like I have a reason to care about anything anymore.”
“Oh.” Sunset almost felt sorry for the man. But she had a mission. “Where exactly in the closet?”
“There is a ladder in there that goes into the rafters of the school, I put them up there.”
“Perfect!” cried Sunset happily. “Then you are of no further use to me. Have fun.”
She started walking away, but almost immediately stopped when she realized that Discord was following her. She turned back to face him.
“What are you doing?” she demanded.
“Well, even if in reality I am still locked in my room, this is still far more interesting than just sitting on my butt for the rest of my life.”
“Go away.”
“No, I don’t want to.”
Sunset grit her teeth as she realized that she could not stop the madman from following her without resorting to violence. She had already hit him, of course, but he had asked her to, and attacking him now would almost certainly get her into deep trouble.
“Fine,” she said begrudgingly.
Discord wordlessly motioned for Sunset to lead the way. And so she did.
The hallway was fairly long, but Sunset could see the end without much trouble. Which, now that she thought of it, meant that she had apparently recovered from being unconscious without any lasting damage. She hoped that Discord was okay too. Just because she wanted everyone to recognize her greatness didn’t mean that she wished harm upon them, even Discord. Of course, considering that hitting him had banished the hostile constructs that he had unknowingly manifested with magic, it was obviously the best thing to do.
She stopped walking as she realized something.
“We aren’t going to be attacked by more of your wacko ‘hallucinations’ are we?” she asked nervously.
“Well, I still can’t stop myself from thinking about all sorts of different monsters and stuff, but nothing seems to have jumped out at us yet. Maybe they gave me some medication to help keep it under control.”
“Discord, you’re not insane,” repeated Sunset, even though she knew it was futile to say so. “I’m telling you, even though my explanation sounds even more unlikely than yours, it is the truth all the same. It’s all just magic.”
“I’m not convinced.”
“Why are you even responding to the things that I am saying if you think that I am just another hallucination and everything that you are hearing from me is not really what I am saying?” asked Sunset.
“Well, you see, if I just ignore you and everything around me, I am just going to get super bored. At least I can keep myself mildly amused by talking to you.”
“I guess that makes sense,” said Sunset.
“At least my brain saw fit to give me some company, even if it is, well, you. I would get very bored very quickly otherwise.”
“Don’t treat me that way,” Sunset snapped. “You have no idea who I am and what I am capable of.”
“Well, according to what I heard from you a bit ago, you said you are a magic wielding unicorn.”
“That’s not what I- Whoa!”
Sunset stopped in her tracks, staring at one of the walls. Or, rather, a lack of a wall. There was instead thick iron bars that separated them from another hallway beyond. But the thing that had startled her so was the fact that there was a Sunset Shimmer and Discord in the other hallway, and they were both carrying an assortment of items that Sunset and Discord certainly did not have, eliminating the possibility that it was a mirror.
“What. In. Tartarus!” shouted Sunset as she stared at herself. She lifted an arm up and pointed an accusatory finger at her other self. “Are you-“
“No, I’m not a human Sunset Shimmer that you never found until now,” said the other Sunset.
“How did you know that I was going to say that?” demanded Sunset.
“Because Discord apparently created a strange loop with his magic and I am you.”
“Oh no,” moaned Discord. “It’s one of those situations, is it?”
“Yep. Also, you’ll need this.”
Sunset gaped as the other Sunset passed a silver bowl through the bars and held it out toward her.
She reluctantly took it and looked inside.
There was a block of cheese sitting inside the bowl.
“The frik is this for?” she demanded.
“You’re going to get hungry.”
“You’ll also need this,” said the other Discord, and he passed a blunt kitchen knife through the bars.
“What?” cried Sunset in alarm. “What’s that for?”
It’s for the cheese,” explained the other Discord as the first Discord took the knife. “And you’ll need this.”
He passed a pair of tweezers through too.
“Alright…” said Sunset uneasily. “And what are these for?”
“They’re for the cheese too,” answered the other Discord. The first Discord took them as well.
“Wait, wait,” said Sunset. “You said we’re in a strange loop, and that you two are us. Have you figured out where in the world we are?”
“No,” said the other Sunset. “I’m not even sure that this place is actually even in the world at all. Time and space doesn’t make any sense here.”
“What?” cried Sunset. “What the heck did Discord do with the element of magic that screwed things up this badly?”
“It wasn’t the element of magic,” said the other Sunset. “Twilight Sparkle had the Discord from Equestria imbue his magic into the fall formal crown that you left with her, but when this Discord here touched the stupid thing, he accidently sucked the magic up like a magnet.”
“What?” cried Sunset. “Why would she- Oh. Right, she was going to use the magic to get the element of magic back, duh. Wait, hold on, how do you know all that?”
The other Sunset rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. “Um, the other me told me that.”
Sunset’s eyes unfocused as she processed that information. “Let’s get out of here before I totally freak out,” she said, tugging on Discord’s sleeve. She started running away, and Discord did as she asked and followed after her.
“There’s no reason to be surprised by any of this,” Discord said as he jogged alongside her. “None of this is real, so none of it has to make any sense.”
“It’s all real Discord!” cried Sunset. “And that’s what makes it terrifying!”
Sunset quickly reached the end of the hallway, which was in fact an L turn leading into another hallway. She stopped and leaned her back against the wall and took several deep breaths, trying to keep from freaking out. She looked down and realized that she was still holding the bowl of cheese.
“Can I see that for a second?” asked Discord.
“The cheese bowl?” asked Sunset. “Sure. I need a moment.”
She gave him the bowl, and then sat down.
"Thank you,” said Discord. “So, you’re a unicorn from another world called Equestria, huh?”
“I thought you said you didn’t believe me,” said Sunset suspiciously.
“I don’t, but I figured that I could get a rather entertaining story out of you anyway if I ask you about it.”
“It’s the world where I came from, and it is very much a real place, thank you very much.”
“Yes, yes,” said Discord, cutting into the cheese with the knife. “But what is it like?”
“There are a lot of ponies there who look and act just like people here. Celestia is an immortal alicorn tyrant who rules over Equestria and controls the sun.”
Discord had just popped a piece of cheese into his mouth, but after hearing Sunset’s statement, he lurched and spat it out again before collapsing on the floor laughing.
“Now that is funny!” he cried between laughs. “Can- can you imagine? Celly the queen of horsy land and- and controlling the sun! Hahahahahaha!”
“Actually, it’s Princess Celestia. Not Queen.”
“Wait, really?” said Discord in surprise. “They let the princess rule the kingdom? What, is the King or Queen too sick to rule or something?”
“No, there is no King or Queen. It’s not a hereditary system like what your human Kings and Queens use. Like I said, Celestia is immortal, she doesn’t need anybody to claim the throne when she dies because she won’t ever die ever! Actually, it’s basically a dictatorship. ... Wait, did you just eat some of the cheese?”
“Yeah,” said Discord, taken aback at Sunset’s sudden severity. “Was I not supposed to?”
“Do you have any idea what it means to be trapped in a strange loop?” demanded Sunset.
“Of course I-“
“It means that that bowl of cheese, and the knife, and the tweezers have no point of origin!” screamed Sunset. “We got them from our other selves, and, unless I am very much mistaken, they got them from their other selves, and those other selves got them from yet another pair of other selves, and on and on for infinity!”
“Yes, I know that,” said Discord.
“So tell me this, Mister D!” cried Sunset. “How are we supposed to give our other selves the cheese when you ATE THE CHEESE?!”
“I didn’t eat all of it!” Discord pointed out defensively.
“That doesn’t matter!” cried Sunset. “It’s still less than what we got!”
“So what? It’s not like something bad is going to happen, right?” said Discord, apparently slightly worried.
“I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen now!” cried Sunset frantically.
“Well, let’s go find out, shall we?” said Discord, motioning toward the new hallway.
Sunset gave Discord an accusing look. “Fine, but if anything bad happens, it’s your fault.”
“Sorry.”
Sunset snatched the cheese bowl away from Discord.
“I’m not letting you eat any more of this,” she said. “It will probably make everything even worse.”
She started stomping away down the new hallway.
Meanwhile, Discord stroked his beard in thought. Eventually he realized that Sunset was getting away from him and he shrugged to himself and took off after her.
“You never finished telling me about this alternate version of my boss!” cried Discord as he caught up with Sunset. “You make her sound awful.”
Sunset slowed down and hung her head. “She wasn’t all bad. She might selfishly hoard all of the most powerful magic for herself, but Equestria has thrived under her rule. It doesn’t matter what you think of her, you only have to look around the country to realize that.”
“Well, considering that people over there, sorry, ponies over there don’t have to spend a fortune campaigning against each other, they probably have more money to spend on practical things,” Discord mused.
Sunset huffed. “I know, right? And even with hereditary monarchies, the most evil King or Queen will still ensure that the kingdom’s economy is as strong as possible because they will be feeding off of it for their whole life, and then their descendants will too. Most people don’t care about that in a democracy, they just want to plunder the system as much as possible before their time is up."
“But keep in mind that hereditary monarchy leads to all kinds of disputes between siblings over who should be the ruler,” Discord pointed out. “And those disputes often turned into wars.”
“Okay, yes. That is a good point. And another good point is that with every ruler, it’s a gamble whether they are a good one or a bad one, but with a monarch, if you get a bad one, you usually have to deal with them for several decades before you can toss the dice again. But Princess Celestia doesn’t have either of those problems. Nopony is starting wars for her throne because, one, there isn’t anypony else entitled to it, and two, she isn’t ever going anywhere anyway. Good grief, I never wanted to steal her throne, I just wanted two things. Firstly, I wanted some public recognition for being the second most powerful pony in Equestria, and two, I wanted access to the most restricted spellbooks in Equestria, which I was entitled to as Celestia’s most powerful and trusted student! I worked extremely hard for that position! I deserved it!”
“Well, if Celestia won’t give you what you want, then go out and make a name for yourself without her, is what I say,” said Discord. “Who needs her, right?”
Sunset looked at Discord in surprise. "That's basically what I did when I came here. Also, Celestia’s your boss,” she pointed out.
“Well, she finally agreed to let me do things my way, and so far, it’s been working out great, so that shows her!”
Discords pleased expression suddenly fell flat.
“Or, at least, it was working out great. I guess they’ll have to replace me now.”
“Wait a second,” said Sunset, stopping. “Are you actually saying that you are on my side here?”
Discord also stopped and turned to look at her.
“For the record,” he began, “I happen to think that nothing that I hear you telling me is true because I am insane. But I can’t stand people who have that holier than thou, stick to the rules and never make any exceptions no matter what attitude. So, yes, I am on your side there. But if you step all over my students while trying to prove your point, then I am most definitely not on your side there.”
“Figures,” said Sunset bitterly. “For a second, I thought that you might actually understand. People don’t pay any attention to you unless you make them!”
“People used to pay attention to me, and I didn’t make them do that.”
“That was because you are such a psycho that people couldn’t help it. So, in a way, you kind of did!”
Discord looked surprised, and then thoughtful. “Hmm. Good point.”
“See? I’m right.” Sunset started walking again.
“I think we’re finally getting somewhere,” she called to Discord. “There hallway ends right up here.”
“Good, a change of scenery would be nice.”
Sunset and Discord said nothing more as they approached the door. Sunset reached it first and pulled it open. When she saw what was on the other side, she gasped.
“Holy Tartarus, this place is huge!” she cried.
Discord peered through the door and beheld the scene with a bemused expression.
“Another hallway. More green walls and wooden floors,” he muttered. “Darn.”
“Does the fact that it is about two hundred times taller and wider than the one we just came out of not bother you at all?”
“Sunset,” he said slowly. “I’ve gone mad. I was expecting weird. What we should be more concerned about is the fact that that there appears to be about a five hundred feet drop to get down there. There does appear to be another door that is more our size on the floor of the opposite wall, but I doubt we’d survive if we jumped. Unless it's not as high as it looks, and it probably isn't...”
“There’s something coming!” said Sunset in surprise. “Who is… Oh, holy crud!”
“Hmm, now that’s interesting,” said Discord. “It’s you and me again, only about six hundred feet tall if I had to guess.”
Sunset said nothing as she watched the two giants come closer.
They drew near, and then stopped directly in front of them, looking straight at the doorway.
Sunset tried to speak, but found that it was difficult to do so when she was so terrified. “Are… are you… the two we met before?”
The enormous other Sunset put her hands on her knees to get a better view of them.
“I’m pretty sure we’re all the same two people, actually,” whispered the giant, although her voice was still so enormous that it boomed anyway. “Here, let me help you.”
The giant Sunset held out her hand just below the door. Her hand bobbed up and down slightly, as she was incapable of holding it completely still.
Sunset looked up at her giant self.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Look, I know it’s scary as Tartarus, but I’m not going to hurt you, and the sooner we get out of here, the better.”
Sunset gulped. “Okay, you have a point.”
She stepped out past the door and onto the giant Sunset’s hand, and then immediately lost her footing and fell over on her face. She quickly flipped herself around and looked up at her giant self nervously.
“Sorry, can’t help it,” said the Giant. “Come on, Mister Discord.”
“Well, this is certainly a new experience,” mused Discord. Then he shrugged and turned around, and then let himself fall backward onto giant Sunset’s hand.
After Discord was securely held in the giant’s palm, she started moving. Thankfully, the enormous scale of the room made it seem like they were moving at a decent rate of speed, even though Sunset knew that from her own perspective they were probably actually moving at about a hundred miles an hour. Thankfully, the giant hand around the blocked out the majority of air friction.
Still, the short ride was, in a word, terrifying.
The giant Sunset set her hand down on the floor of the enormous hallway and waited for Sunset and Discord to hop off.
“I hope I never have to do that again!” cried Sunset after hitting the floor.
“There’s no telling what the future holds,” said Discord as he did the same.
“Yeah, well until today, carrying myself in a giant version of my own hand was not something that I thought was even in the cards!”
“There are plenty of other cards in the deck that have yet to be drawn,” warned Discord.
“All things considered, I don’t like thinking about the implications!”
“But consider them we must.”
“Hey, I have something for you,” called the giant Sunset.
They both looked up and saw the giant lowering her hand toward them again. She was holding a giant pair of tweezers.
As it drew nearer, Sunset realized that there was a cube of cheese in the grasp of the giant tweezers. Tiny in comparison to the size of the one who was giving it to them, but it was still almost the size of her own head.
“What the tartarus!” she muttered, but held out her cheese bowl to accept the gift. "I have been saying that a lot recently..."
The giant Sunset released the cube and it fell into the bowl. It was about quadruple the size of the cheese that they had originally started out with.
“That was just a tiny piece of what they have!” said Discord in fascination.
“Yeah,” agreed the giant Sunset. “And for us, it was basically nothing. We can still give the rest to ourselves and still have some leftover.”
“This place is super freaky,” said Sunset. “We have to get out of here.”
Without waiting for any response, she suddenly dashed away toward the door to the door that the giant Sunset had set them next to. She hurriedly pulled it open and was slightly bemused to find another green hallway with wooden floors.
Discord clearly shared her sentiment. When he came through behind her, he took a look around and said, “Well, here we are again. I hate being trapped here, it’s like I’m trapped as a statue all day and forced to stare at the same thing for forever.”
Sunset whipped her head around to stare at Discord.
“Why did you say that?” she demanded. “How did you know about that?”
“Know about what?” he asked in confusion.
“There is another version of you in Equestria. Apparently, he got trapped inside a statue.”
“Really? How did something like that happen?”
“Celestia and Luna trapped him in there with magic.”
“Hah!” cried Discord in amusement. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I am sure that I am hallucinating right now, I would marvel at what a remarkable coincidence that is, but as it is, it is pretty obvious that my brain set that up for myself on purpose.”
“Good grief!” cried Sunset in frustration. “I can’t impress you with anything anymore! ‘Hey Discord!’ “ she said in a parody of her own voice. “ ‘I’m a magical unicorn from another world!’ ‘That figures,’ " she said, this time parodying Discord’s voice. “ 'I’m insane, so nothing surprises me anymore!’ I mean, come on! Remember when you were an art teacher? Remember how you used to find such wonder in the most seemingly simple of things? I mean, it was a little weird, but it’s like you don’t even care anymore.”
“Yeah…” said Discord wistfully.
“Come on,” said Sunset. “If there is a way out of this place, we’re going to find it. I haven’t come this close to reclaiming what is mine only to give up now.”
They continued walking for a little while longer.
Eventually, Sunset noticed a small spot on the wall that stood out. As she drew nearer, she realized what it was.
“Oh no…” she muttered.
“Fascinating,” said Discord with a grin.
Sunset proceeded and stopped in front of a tiny little doorway in the middle of the wall. Inside was a tiny version of herself and Discord.
The tiny version of herself was clearly terrified, and with good reason. Sunset smiled at the irony. The tiny her said something, but she was too small and speaking too softy to be heard. Fortunately, Sunset already knew what she had said.
She put her hands on her knees to get a better view of the tiny copies of themselves.
“I’m pretty sure we’re all the same two people, actually,” she whispered in answer to the unheard question. “Here, let me help you.”
She held her hand out under the doorway, ready to return the favor to a version of herself who had not even helped her yet.
The tiny Sunset looked at her incredulously.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
“Look, I know it’s scary as Tartarus, but I’m not going to hurt you, and the sooner we get out of here, the better.”
The tiny Sunset gulped, and then said something that went unheard.
She stepped out past the door and onto Sunset’s hand, and then immediately lost her footing and fell over on her face. She quickly flipped herself around and looked up at her giant self nervously.
“Sorry, can’t help it,” said Sunset, understanding exactly what condition her tiny self was in at that moment. “Come on, Mister Discord.”
Tiny Discord said something, and then he shrugged and turned around, and then let himself fall backward onto Sunset’s hand.
After Discord was securely held in the her palm, she started lowering them to the ground, making sure to drop them as close to their intended destination as possible. Actually, she had not even looked to see if there was indeed a tiny door for them, but there it was.
Sunset felt conflicted about the situation. On one hand, it felt nice to be able to help herself, in this strange, strange manner that was occurring. But on the other hand, she felt bad that it was necessary to scare her other self nearly senseless in order for them to be able to proceed. It was a necessary evil. Hopefully it would pay off in the end.
Sunset set her hand down on the floor and waited for the tiny Sunset and Discord to hop off.
Tiny Sunset started wailing as expected after she had hopped down, but Sunset couldn’t hear her. And then Tiny Discord spoke, and then Tiny Sunset again, and back and forth and back again.
Sunset decided that she didn’t have the time to wait for the two of them to stop arguing about whatever it was that they were arguing about. She had actually already forgotten. It didn’t matter.
She turned to Discord, ready to ask a question, but then realized that he was already holding the handle of the knife out to her and grinning at her like an idiot.
She rolled her eyes at him and took the knife, and then carefully sliced a tiny chunk of cheese out of her cheese bowl. She then passed the knife back to Discord and accepted the Tweezers from him.
“Hey, I have something for you,” she called down to the tiny people in a restrained volume.
They both looked up at her and watched her lower the cheese chunk down in the tweezers. Her other self cried out, but held out her own cheese bowl to accept the gift.
Sunset released the cube and it fell into the bowl.
This time Discord managed to speak loudly enough to be heard. “That was just a tiny piece of what they have!” he said.
“Yeah,” agreed Sunset. “And for us, it was basically nothing. We can still give the rest to ourselves and still have some leftover.”
The tiny Sunset said something, and then scurried away through the tiny doorway.
The tiny Discord took a moment to give her a thumbs up and then ran after his companion.
Sunset turned to look at her own Discord with a raised eyebrow.
He smiled and shrugged.
“She’s still right,” said Sunset. “This place really is super freaky. Being on this side of the whole exchange was just as bizarre as being in their place, if not nearly as terrifying. At least the first other versions of us were the same size as us. I swear, if Princess Twilight knew what kind of crazy I’m going through right now…”
She trailed off.
“What?” asked Discord.
“I don’t know. It's not like she will decide that I deserve to have it and let me have it. Come on, until we get out of here, we have to keep moving.”
“I’m following you.”
And so Sunset continued on.
It was only a short while later that she came across something that made her sigh with relief.
“Oh, thank goodness, look, its those bars where we saw ourselves for the first time!”
She pointed at a set of iron bars, behind which was another pair of themselves.
“Hold on!” she suddenly cried in shock. “We only made one ninety degree turn on this whole trip! How in tartarus did we wind up back here without doing a one-eighty?”
“Not only that,” said Discord. “But our bigger selves and our smaller selves both were traveling along a path perpendicular to our own. We never took any turns during that portion of our little adventure either, which means that if they really were us, then space warped somehow.”
“Oh, so that’s what I meant when I told myself that time and space is warped here…” Sunset said to herself in realization. I wasn’t sure that I believed myself when I said that you didn’t absorb the power of the element of harmony. I don’t think it can do something this nuts. This is insane!”
Suddenly she realized what she had just said, and quickly added, “Pun not intended. Because you are not insane.”
“Right.”
Sunset sighed.
“I just realized that the cheese is still too big. Give me the knife again.”
Discord passed it to her and she went to work.
“We have to give them the bowl, you realize,” Discord said. “What are you going to do with the rest of the cheese?”
“I’m going to take it with us in my hands, of course. I never ate anything.”
“Oh, so you’re suddenly okay with eating the cheese now?” asked Discord, crossing his arms.
“There is nothing wrong with eating it after the loop has come to a full circle,” said Sunset, who had finished the job and handed the knife back. Discord took it and Sunset started crushing the remaining cheese strips into a ball behind her back.
“There is nothing wrong with eating it once the loop has been brought full circle,” Sunset said. “But, I will admit, this is super weird, even weirder than what I was expecting.”
“How so?”
“When we give the bowl, knife and tweezers to the next group, they will disappear from the timeline for good. They will cease to exist. The moment that the loop both begins and ends is the moment that they stop existing. But the cheese… We are giving them all of the cheese back. In fact, I have a suspicion that I ‘coincidentally’ sliced the cheese in exactly the same shape as what we first received without even meaning to. But… I think we’ll still have some of the cheese left afterward. The cheese which was created because of a strange loop. And we’ll still have it after the loop is over. That’s not supposed to happen.”
“I don’t think strange loops are supposed to happen at all,” said Discord.
“You know what I mean!”
Suddenly, another Sunset walked in front of the iron bars on the other side. She immediately noticed them and froze, stared at them.
"Whoa! What. In. Tartarus!” shouted the other Sunset as she stared at herself. She lifted an arm up and pointed an accusatory finger at her other self. “Are you-“
“No, I’m not a human Sunset Shimmer that you never found until now,” said Sunset, remembering her intended accusation from before.
“How did you know that I was going to say that?” demanded Sunset.
“Because Discord apparently created a strange loop with his magic and I am you.”
“Oh no,” moaned the other Discord. “It’s one of those situations, is it?”
“Yep. Also, you’ll need this.”
The other Sunset gaped as Sunset passed the cheese bowl through the bars and held it out toward her.
The other Sunset reluctantly took it and looked inside.
“The frik is this for?” she demanded.
“You’re going to get hungry.”
“You’ll also need this,” said Discord, and he passed the knife through the bars.
“What?” cried the other Sunset in alarm. “What’s that for?”
“It’s for the cheese,” explained Discord as the other Discord took the knife. “And you’ll need this.”
He passed the pair of tweezers.
“Alright…” said the other Sunset uneasily. “And what are these for?”
“They’re for the cheese too,” answered Discord knowingly. The other Discord took them as well.
“Wait, wait,” said the other Sunset. “You said we’re in a strange loop, and that you two are us. Have you figured out where in the world we are?”
“No,” said the other Sunset. “I’m not even sure that this place is actually even in the world at all. Time and space doesn’t make any sense here.”
“What?” cried Sunset. “What the heck did Discord do with the element of magic that screwed things up this badly?”
“It wasn’t the element of magic,” said Sunset. “Twilight Sparkle had the Discord from Equestria imbue his magic into the fall formal crown that you left with her, but when this Discord here touched the stupid thing, he accidently sucked the magic up like a magnet.”
“What?” cried the other Sunset. “Why would she- Oh. Right, she was going to use the magic to get the element of magic back, duh. Wait, hold on, how do you know all that?”
Sunset rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. “Um, the other me told me that.”
The other Sunset’s eyes unfocused as she processed that information. “Let’s get out of here before I totally freak out,” she said, tugging on the other Discord’s sleeve. She started running away, and Discord followed after her.
Sunset let out a long sigh.
“Please tell me that that was the end of the loop, and we can go home now."
“We’re not out of here yet,” Discord pointed out.
“Well, one can hope. Also…”
Sunset held out her other hand. She had a blob of cheese clutched in it.
“It looks like I was right.”
“That can’t be sanitary,” Discord remarked.
“It’s not like I have a choice. Come on, the next door is just over there.”
Sunset hurried toward the door. She opened it.
“What the-“
“What are we doing in my classroom all of the sudden?” said Discord, looking past her shoulder.
“Why are you questioning this?” Sunset asked. “I thought you decided that everything can be explained by your insanity.
“Oh, right.”
Sunset stepped into the classroom.
“Did… did we make it out? Are we back in the world of normalcy?” she asked, unsure.
She looked back and realized that the doorway that she had just walked out of was Discord’s closet.
Still, it was possible that the doorway served as a portal between the classroom and Discord’s magical world of weirdness.
There was at least one way to find out.
She ran toward the classroom’s door and flung it open without waiting for Discord. Everything in the hallway appeared to be normal at a glance. She jogged down to the janitor’s closet, and opened that door too. Thankfully, it seemed to be unlocked.
The inside of the closet was extremely cramped. An entire wall was occupied by one of those giant machines that the janitors rode around on to clean the floors similar to how a riding lawn mower mows lawns, but she had no idea what it was called. Nor did she care.
She quickly saw that the ladder that Discord had mentioned was hiding behind a group of mops. She shoved them aside and climbed up, opening up a hatch in the ceiling when she got near enough, and then poking her head through.
It was quite dark in the rafters, but thankfully the light in the closet was just powerful enough to shine slightly into the darkness. Sunset studied her surrounds carefully. She finally saw the shine of light reflecting off of metal and gemstone. She reached out and grasped at it and her hands closed around something. She pulled it into the light and confirmed. Yes, it was the crown!
Both of them, actually. Discord had apparently stacked the two crowns together. Sunset gleefully ducked back down the hatch and climbed the ladder with only one hand, using the other to ensure that the precious crown wasn’t damaged. She didn’t even wait to reach the final rung before jumping off, and then she carefully separated the crowns from each other.
Identifying the one that came from Equestria was easy. She reveled in her achievement for only a moment, and then adorned the crown upon her head and waited for the power to make itself known to her.
But that didn’t happen at all.
After a few seconds of waiting, she yanked the thing off of her head and quickly tried the other crown, thinking perhaps that she might have somehow made a mistake. But clearly she had not. This one seemed to be just as powerless as the first.
There was only one explanation. They hadn’t escaped into the real world yet. This was clearly a magical recreation of the school from Discord’s subconscious.
She moaned in frustration. They would have to keep searching for a way out.
She took a look at the crowns, one on her head and the other set on a stack of towels.
She took the one she was currently wearing and switched it for the one on the towels.
Even if it didn’t have any power, wearing it made her feel… somehow more driven, determined to make it back home.
She ran out of the closet, and then sprinted down the hallways, looking for the nearest exit from the school. When she found one, she would know for certain whether they were still trapped.
She found a side exit and turned the handle, opening it.
In her adventure with Discord, she had been surprised by a great many things. The threat of being inadvertently crushed by her giant self had certainly been the most terrifying. But nothing that she had yet encountered shocked her as badly as when she opened up that door and looked at the other side.
The other side of the door was not outdoors at all. It was a room, an extremely huge room, apparently built to a similar scale as the hallway where she had encountered her giant self. She had seen this room before, although never two hundred times bigger than it should have been, of course. She spent a good deal of time in this room in the past. It was the school library.
She bolted back into the building frantically, rushing to the place where the library should have been. Along the way, she literally ran into Discord, knocking them both to the ground.
“Whoa!” he cried. “There you are. What’s the rush?”
“Come with me!” cried Sunset, and she offered no further explanation as she scrambled to her feet and ran off again.
She reached the library door and hesitated. Who knew what horrors the library might have been replaced with?
But she had to know. She gripped the handle, gulped, and then pulled it open.
Inside was the library.
Sunset stared at the room, not believing her eyes. She rushed to the spot where she was sure she saw the oversized library from when she had tried to go outside.
And there on one of the tables was a model of the school. Now that she was seeing it, Sunset vaguely recalled it being a recent addition to the school library.
But she was almost certain that this one wasn’t even a model at all.
“Good grief girl, what has gotten into you?” said Discord, hurrying to catch up.
“Discord!” cried Sunset. “There’s no way out of here!”
“Isn’t there?” asked Discord. “Wait, why did you come to the library to find that out?”
“Because the school is inside the library!” said Sunset, pointing at the model.
Discord gave Sunset a look.
“Are you sure you haven’t lost your marbles too now? Of course the school is in the library.”
“No!” screamed Sunset. “That’s not what I mean! If you go out the doors that are supposed to lead outside, you will come out of this building right here! The one that I am pointing at! The school is inside itself, which means that there is no way out!”
“Oh,” said Discord. “That’s a problem.”
“Yes! That is a huge problem!” cried Sunset in panic. “We’re going to starve!”
“No we’re not,” said Discord, apparently untroubled. You still have that cheese, right?”
“That will tide us over for, what, a day?” cried Sunset. “If that?”
“No, look, we can basically do the same thing that we did before,” said Discord. “Give me the cheese.”
Sunset, wondering if Discord genuinely knew some sort of way to make the cheese last, hesitated only for a second before holding her hand out and dropping the glob of cheese into his hand.
“Look,” said Discord.
He set the cheese blob on the grass of the soccer field in the school’s model.
Sunset’s eyes bugged out as she stared at the simple act that Discord had done.
He had effortlessly solved the problem.
“Holy tartarus,” she wheezed, finding the wind had been knocked out of her from the shock.
She rushed for the door, out into the hall, and then ran toward the side of the school and opened another door leading outside.
And then she gawked at the unmissable yellow blob the size of a building in the middle of the soccer field.
Suddenly, she heard maniacal laughter behind her. Discord had caught up. He was truly happy for the first time since their adventure together had begun.
“See? I am a genius!” he cried out, clearly pleased with himself. “And even if we manage to eat all of that giant thing, we can just take a piece inside and do it all over again, so long as we don’t ever eat all of the cheese and leave nothing left.”
“When you started eating the cheese, I was pissed,” said Sunset. “I thought you had doomed us forever by making it so that we could never finish the loop. But if you hadn’t eaten any of it, we would have just walked through that place and given our other selves the uneaten cheese and it would all be gone. Instead you ate it and we freakishly wound up getting even more cheese, and now...”
“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” said Discord gleefully.
“If your blatant disregard for continuality had resulted in the universe being destroyed, or something like that, that would have made sense. Instead... Your blatant disregard for continuality has resulted in an infinite amount of cheese. I can’t believe that I just said that, and actually meant it.”
“Hmm, infinite cheese! I shall call it infinicheese!”
“Okay, I guess we won’t starve to death,” Sunset admitted. “Not that it actually matters, now that I think of it. We can just live off of what’s in the cafeteria until we figure out how to get out of here.”
“Actually,” said Discord, ”I searched the cafeteria when I was trying to figure out where the heck you had run off to. I should have realized that you had gone to go grab your crown. By the way, does it work?”
“No. This isn’t the real crown.”
“So you’re finally admitting that I’m insane?” he asked hopefully.
“NO! cried Sunset. “For the last time, you are not insane! Is this place a hallucination? No. Is it a replica of reality constructed with magic? Yes! But this replica of my crown is not the real crown, and therefore it doesn’t actually work!”
“A pity,” said Discord. “I would have liked to see what kind of chaos you would pull off. Anyway though, as I was saying, I searched the cafeteria, and for some reason, it’s empty of all food. Luckily, there seems to be water still, and we can create more of that the same way we do it with the cheese.”
“Oh. Well, then yeah, it’s a really good thing you somehow created infinicheese. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here.”
“Sunset, you just said that there is no way out because the school is inside itself.”
“That’s true. But the way that we got here in the first place was through magic, so the way that we leave must logically also be through magic!”
“I thought that your crown thingy doesn’t have any magic,” said Discord.
“I’m not talking about me, I’m talking about you! It was your magic that put us in this mess in the first place.”
“You want me to just ‘magic’ us out of here?” asked Discord incredulously. “Ha! As if. I can’t just snap my fingers and instantly stop being insane. Nobody ever returns to sanity that fast.”
“Oh my- Discord, if you say that you’re insane one more... Actually, wait a second. So, if I can get you to magic us back into the normal world, and if I show you how to control your magic so that your mind stops using it subconsciously, would you take that as evidence that you are not insane?”
“You mean if everything suddenly goes back to normal and there are no more monsters?” said Discord.
“Yes, basically.”
He paused to consider.
“I suppose so. Like I said, you can’t just suddenly decide to stop being insane and poof, you’re sane again, so there would have to be another explanation. I would definitely have to rethink things if we can get back.”
“Perfect. I am so glad that I didn't make you leave me alone when you started following me! I am going to teach you how to control your magic so that you can get us the heck out of here! I might not be familiar with whatever freaky magic this is that you have, but if anyone can figure it out, it’s definitely me. It’s not like either of us have anything better to do, right?”
“That’s true. So the teacher is to become the student, eh? What a plot twist.”
“Mister Discord, try to be serious for once!”
“I am being serious! Believe me, if there is the slightest chance that this will get us out of here, I’ll do it! The school may be more bearable than that awful, stagnant hallway place, but it's still terribly lonely here, and nothing ever changes unless you or I do something ourselves, which means that it is quite boring around here. I want out.”
“Good! Let’s get started! And I really hope you’re a fast learner and that I can be a good teacher, because I don’t know how long I can stand to eat literally nothing but cheese.”
“So let me make sure I've got all of this straight,” said Rainbow Dash. “You're an alicorn Princess from another dimension full of magic, and Sunset Shimmer is a unicorn also from this other dimension, and Sunset came into your dimension last night and switched the fall formal crown for your crown, which by a weird coincidence looks exactly like the fall formal crown. Is that all correct so far?”
“Yes,” answered Twilight.
“But when you came here to get your crown back,” Rainbow continued, "the Discord in your dimension, who has super crazy powerful magic compared to everyone else, put magic into the fall formal crown, which you were going to use on Sunset.”
“Only if she forces me to.”
“Right. But now our Discord touched the fall formal crown and appears to have absorbed the magic for some reason and he doesn't know how to control them, which is why we got attacked by the Diamond Dawgs in a giant drill machine. Discord thought he was hallucinating and asked Sunset to knock him out, and she did.”
Rainbow stared at the two unconscious bodies which had by now been laid out on Discord’s twisty couch, with Fluttershy sitting between them.
“And you think that Sunset hitting him like that caused something you called a magical surge, and that surge also knocked her out.”
“It's hard to know for sure, but that does seem likely.”
“This is absolutely awesome!” cried Rainbow. “Actual magic!”
“Don't go gettin’ excited just yet,” said Applejack. “Ya've already seen that this magic is dangerous. If ya would ever take anything seriously, ya would realize that.”
“Me not take things seriously?” cried Rainbow in disbelief. “That's rich, coming from the girl who makes me get the team out for an event that doesn't actually exist just for some stupid, cruel prank!”
“What’re you talkin’ about?”
“Uh, the bake sale?”
“But you were the one who never showed up!” cried Applejack in confusion.
“Oh, oh really?” said Rainbow in frustration. “You gave me very precise instructions! Look, I'll show you right now!”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, and then pecked her fingers on it for a few seconds before practically shoving it in Applejack's face.
Applejack grabbed the phone and looked at it for a few seconds.
“That ain't my email address, Rainbow,” she said, suddenly sounding much less angry.
“What?”
“Here, I'll show you.”
Applejack pulled a phone out of her pocket too. She swiped her fingers across the screen and then handed it to Rainbow.
“That isn't mine either,” muttered Rainbow. “Give me my phone back.”
Applejack handed it over and Rainbow immediately began pecking on it.
“So who the heck is this?” She wondered aloud. “Hello... Applejack...” she said slowly as she typed.
She then hit the send button.
A few seconds later, they heard the sound of a phone buzzing in Sunset’s pocket.
They both stared.
“No way...” said Rainbow in disbelief. She reached into Sunset’s pocket and pulled the phone out.
She messed with it for a second.
“It's locked, obviously, but I can still see abbreviated notifications. Oh, what's this?” She said sarcastically. “It's the email I supposedly sent to you! Applejack, I think I owe you an apology.”
“No ya don't,” said Applejack, crossing her arms. “She fooled me too, so that makes us even.”
“Um, excuse me,” said Twilight awkwardly. “What just happened?”
“Applejack and I just checked our E-” Rainbow started before stopping as she realized the problem. “Wait, you don't even know what Email is, do you?”
“No, but it sounds like a mail system of some sort.”
“Pretty much. Anyway, when I sent a message to 'Applejack’, Sunset's phone was the one that received it. She's been making a fool of us for ages!”
“I don't suppose that she has been impersonating Pinkie Pie as well?” said Rarity, holding her phone.
Sunset's phone buzzed in Rainbow’s hand.
“Yep,” said Rainbow.
“So, does this mean that you never told me that you can't stand to be around me?” asked Pinkie to Rarity.
“I never have said or typed those particular words.”
“Whee!” cried Pinkie happily, pulling Rarity into a hug.
Rarity reacted to this by holding her arms out in surprise at first, but then returned the hug after a moment.
“So,” began Rainbow Dash. “That's all settled, but we still have a problem. What are we going to do with them?” She pointed at the unconscious bodies of Discord and Sunset.
“Leaving Discord alone is out of the question,” answered Twilight. “If Discord wakes up, he is probably going to start summoning random things with magic again. And he is going to wake up sooner or later.”
“Hey, I have an idea,” said Rainbow. “Why don't you just go and get the Discord from your world and make him take care of them?”
Twilight shook her head. “It was a mistake to bring his magic into this world in the first place. Discord’s idea of fixing a problem is to throw magic at it. If I brought Discord himself into this world, I can guarantee that the chaos will become much worse, one way or another.”
“Okay, so what do we do then?” asked Rainbow.
“We obviously have no time to waste. We have to search the school from top to bottom until we can find my crown. Once I have it back... well, actually, once I have both of them back, I might be able to remove Discord’s powers, or suppress them somehow, and I’ll figure out what to do about Sunset Shimmer as well. I obviously can’t risk letting her steal from me again.”
“But...” began Applejack uneasily. “The school is closed, and the doors are locked. We can’t get in until tomorrow.”
“Oh,” said Twilight in disappointment.
There was a moment of silence.
“Um, maybe not?” said Fluttershy.
“What’s that?” asked Applejack.
“I said, maybe not.”
“That’s what ah thought you said. Yer tellin’ me that there’s a way into the school at this time of the night?”
“Well, yes. As a teacher, Mister Discord has a key to the school.”
Everyone looked surprised to hear this.
“Really?” asked Rainbow Dash, intrigued.
“It looks like he is still wearing the same clothes that he was wearing earlier today,” said Fluttershy. “Which means that there is a good chance that the school key is still in his... erm, pocket.”
“Wait, are you telling me we have to pickpocket our unconscious art teacher?” asked Rainbow in bewilderment.
“Well, this is an emergency,” Fluttershy pointed out.
“He does have his keyring in his pocket,” said Twilight. “I saw him put it there.”
“Well, since you know which pocket it’s in, why don’t you be the one to get those keys?” said Rainbow.
“Um...” said Twilight hesitantly. But then she approached Discord, still sitting unconscious on his couch. “I guess we have no choice. Okay, here I go.”
She quickly stuck two fingers into Discord’s pocket and quickly found the ring for the keys. She hooked her fingers around it and then pulled them out. She held them up for everyone to see.
“That is a fair number of keys,” remarked Applejack. “I don’t suppose you know which one is the right one Flutters?”
“Um, no?”
“That’s a shame. We’ll just have to try them one by one, ah suppose. Well, ah say we. Actually, I might not be able to stick around all night long. My folks will probably start worryin’ about me soon as it is.”
“Applejack,” said Rainbow accusingly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this is, like, super crazy important!”
“Well, it’s not like I can tell them that. Ah can't tell them that our teacher suddenly sprouted magic powers and we have to find a magic artifact to fix everything. They’d think I’m lying, despite my reputation. I suppose ah could try to talk them into letting me have a last minute sleepover, but ah don’t think they’ll go fer it.”
“Well, it’s worth a shot,” said Rainbow Dash. “I gotta call my folks too, but I’m pretty sure that they’ll let me stay and help.”
Rainbow Dash pulled out her cellphone and walked toward a corner of the room.
“I shall call my parents as well,” said Rarity.
Within moments, Twilight found herself alone with Discord’s and Sunset’s bodies as the other girls all separated and called home, making her feel rather awkward.
Rainbow Dash was the first to return. She was courteous enough to not speak aloud for the sake of the others, but she did give Twilight a smile and a thumbs up. Twilight sighed in relief and gave her a thumbs up in return.
It’s a good thing that Spike’s various hand gestures appear to be the norm for these humans as well. If I hadn’t grown up with him, all I would have is a tiny amount of information from books about minotaurs. I wonder if creatures with hands universally define certain gestures to mean certain things, or if it is just another strange parallel between this world and my own.
Soon, Fluttershy and Pinkie returned as well. Fluttershy smiled and nodded when she stopped in front of them. Pinkie actually came to a stop with a summersault before returning to a standing position and pumping both arms with a cheerful grin.
Rarity returned next, but did nothing. Rainbow held her arms out in front of her, as though to say ‘Well?’, but Rarity pointed her thumb as Applejack. Rainbow rolled her eyes, but they waited for Applejack to finish.
Since she was the only one left on the phone, it was easy to overhear her when she said “Alright then. Ah’ll be home in a jiffy. See ya’ll soon.”
The other girls looked at each other in dismay.
Applejack hung up her phone and returned it to her pocket.
“Ah suppose y’all heard that,” she said, obviously saddened. “Ah just couldn’t figure out how the hay to explain all this without really explaining it, ya know?”
“I understand completely darling,” said Rarity. “I had the exact same issue.”
“Aw, common!” cried Pinkie and Rainbow simultaneously.
“Don’t worry about it,” said Twilight. “We still have enough eyes that we will be able to cover a lot of ground before morning. And if we haven’t found it by then, then you can just help me once you come to school!”
“Let’s hope you find it before then,” said Rarity. “And I don’t know how much help I will be, considering that I still have classes to attend. Even if I were inclined to skip, and for the first time ever, I am considering it, it would be suspicious if our classmates see us in the halls but not our classes.”
“Oh. I guess that’s true,” said Twilight. “Well, hopefully it won’t come to that.”
“Hey, wait a second, Pinkie, how the heck did you convince your parents to let you ‘sleep over’?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion. “Aren’t they, like, super... uptight?”
“Well, now that I can drive, they are willing to let me do what I want a little more than they used to,” explained Pinkie. “Also, I promised to do extra chores to make up for it.”
“We have another problem!” said Twilight suddenly. “We can’t leave Discord or Sunset here by themselves. If either one of them wakes up before I get my crown, they’re going to cause trouble, of one kind or other.”
“Oh, that’s true,” said Pinkie. “Um, we can take them with us? Me and Fluttershy brought our cars, so we could put Mister Discord in one and Sunset in the other, and then we can bring them into the school with us and someone can keep an eye on them while the rest of us search?”
Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Fluttershy looked at one another uncertainly.
“As much as I would rather not be involved with smuggling unconscious bodies into a public school, I think that is the best choice we have, actually,” said Twilight with some unease.
“Creepy, but kind of cool, like a spy movie,” remarked Rainbow.
“I guess I’ll do it if I have to, but will one of you please ride with me too?” asked Fluttershy. “I don’t think I could handle either one of them if they wake up.”
“Don’t worry Flutters, I’ve got your back,” said Rainbow. “Although, I think we better take Mister Discord. I think that if I was alone with unconscious Sunset I might give into this urge to punch her.”
“Rainbow, hurting Sunset would get you into huge trouble!” Fluttershy chided.
“I know. That’s why I said we should take Mister D.”
“I guess it’s decided then,” said Twilight. “You two take Discord and Pinkie and I shall take Sunset. Obviously, Pinkie has to be the driver. We should get going right away. The sooner we begin, the sooner we will find my crown.”
“I do apologize again for being unavailable,” said Rarity. “I promise I’ll find a way to make it up to you!”
“That’s not necessary, Rarity,” said Twilight.
“But I shall just the same. But for now, I must go, as must you. I will see you soon, I hope?”
“Yes, of course,” said Twilight. “Even if we find my crown quickly, I still have to stay in this world to try to correct the damage from all of this magic.”
Twilight chose to not mention that she only had two days left to do so.
Although, now that she thought of it, it wouldn’t actually be so bad if she needed more time than that. After all, the Discord from Equestria had specifically said that he would come and get her if she wasn’t home in time.
If it came to that, hopefully she would be able to convince him to come back later and keep him from making things worse.
“I’m right behind you Rarity,” said Applejack. “And, er, same stuff that she said applies to me too. Sorry ah can’t help tonight, but I really do have ta get home. So, er, yeah. See y’all.”
Rarity and Applejack turned away and walked toward the shattered door and carefully stepped over the pieces of it before climbing the steps out and out of sight.
“We had better help you move Mister Discord first,” said Twilight. “After all, one of us needs to open your car up so that you can get him in.”
“Come help me with mister D, Fluttershy,” said Rainbow Dash. “And be careful, we don’t want to hurt him.”
Fluttershy let out a giggle. “Normally I have to tell you that, Rainbow.”
“You know,” said Rainbow Dash, “I just realized that we’re probably going to be getting any sleep tonight. Look’s like we’ll be pulling an all-nighter."
“That’s true. I hope I can still function in the morning,” said Fluttershy. “This really is going to be a long night. I’m having to do breathing exercises to stay calm as it is.”
“Are you going to be okay driving?” asked Rainbow with concern.
“Oh don’t worry,” said Fluttershy. “I can keep focused. I would never do anything to endanger my friends. Rainbow! We’re not going pick him up by his arms and legs!”
Rainbow instantly let go of Discord’s feet and her face turned red.
“We need to hold onto each other’s arms to make a kind of chair,” explained Fluttershy. “And then we can put Mister Discord’s arms around our necks to help keep him upright.”
“Oh. Yeah, that sounds way better than what I was about to do. Man, that would have been bad. Thank’s for the save.”
“You’re welcome, Rainbow. Here, get your arms under his legs like me.”
“Like this?”
“Yes. I found you, now grab ahold of me just like I am doing to you.”
“Alright, done. Now we wrap his arms around our necks, right?”
“I’ve got it!” said Pinkie.
“Thanks,” said Rainbow. “Now we lift?”
“Why don’t we count to three?”
“Okay, you want me to count?”
“Alright.”
“Tell me if you can’t handle his weight, he’s a really tall dude. Alright, here we go. Three, two, one!”
There was a bit of grunting from both friends, but they lifted Discord off of the couch with little difficulty.
“Wow,” remarked Rainbow. “Actually, this isn’t so bad. This chair idea of yours is pretty great.”
“Actually Rainbow, we learned this in health class.”
“We did? Oh, wait, yeah we did! Huh, I totally forgot about that. Come on, let’s get him through the door.”
“I just realized... I have to take care of something” said Twilight. She walked away and into Discord’s computer room.
She took a look at the computer, and then grabbed the mouse and assessed the damage.
“Whoa,” she muttered to herself. “Celestia has completely wrecked Discord’s kingdom. I wonder if she figured out that he isn’t here anymore?”
She had watched Discord send Celestia messages more than enough to know how the procedure worked. She typed out a message for the principal.
‘Sorry, something has come up. I have to go.’
She opened up the menu and was about to close the game when she saw Celestia’s reply.
‘You’re just quitting so you don’t have to watch me win, aren’t you?’
Twilight quickly closed the menu and typed another message out.
‘No, really, something crazy just happened. I have to go.’
Celestia replied with, ‘Alright, I believe you, thanks for the distraction from work.’
Twilight quit the game. She then considered the computer itself, but realized that she did not know how to turn it off.
She would just leave it on. There were more important things to worry about.
She returned the living room and found that her friends were already taking Discord up the stairs.
“You know,” said Fluttershy, “I’ve been wondering, do you think Discord and Sunset are completely unconscious, or do you think that they are dreaming?”
“I have no idea.”
“Alright Mister Discord,” said Sunset Simmer. “I was hoping that this would be easy since you were able to conjure up at least two drill machines without even trying, but it looks like trying to have you just will things to happen isn’t accomplishing anything.”
“Well, you said that my supposed counterpart from your world has this same magic. How does he use it?”
“I have no idea, I’ve never actually seen him use any!”
“Pff, well that’s helpful.”
“Hey, I didn’t say that I’m out of ideas. I may not know about draconequuses, but I do know about ponies and how we harness our magic. Each kind of pony channels our magic through a different part of our body, which is useful because it usually prevents the unintended use of magic. We have to use it on purpose to get an effect.”
“But I wasn’t conjuring up monsters on purpose,” Discord pointed out.
“True, but humans don’t have natural spellcasting instruments like unicorns do, so that could explain why your magic is so unstable. Let’s try it the way that wizards in some fantasies do it, try using your hands."
“Using my hands,” repeated Discord in bemusement. “How? What am I even supposed to do with them?”
“I don’t know, just try channeling your will through your hands and point at the cup and see if it you can levitate it.”
“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to ‘channel my will’ through my freakin’ hands, but here goes nothing.”
...
“You’re right, that was definitely nothing.”
“Told you.”
...
“Actually,” said Discord suddenly, “what if we change it up a little bit? Take this, cup!”
Sunset actually jumped in surprise as the glass cup immediately crushed in on itself as a clump of shards and thousands of grains.
“Whoa! Well, something happened! But you were supposed to lift it, not crush- What are you doing?”
“What does it look like I’m doing?” asked Discord, and then he let out a laugh. “Actually this is kind of cool.”
“You’re flexing all of your fingers at the cup.”
“Yeah?”
“Flexing isn’t the same thing as channeling!” cried Sunset in frustration. “Stop being dumb and stop flexing your fingers, but keep doing whatever it is that you are doing otherwise.”
“Er, okay?”
Discord did as Sunset requested and the ball of glass dropped straight down onto the table in the teacher’s lounge that they were practicing in.
“Oh, come on!”
Without prompting, Discord flexed his fingers at the glass again and it once again seized together into a clump.
“Haha!” cried Discord. “Look, I’m a jedi!”
“What?” cried Sunset in exasperation. “That’s what you’re thinking about while doing this? Also, you do realize that magic and the force are two totally different concepts!”
“Well, it made sense to me, and you can’t argue with the results!”
“They don’t flex their fingers to lift junk either!”
“I just felt like putting my own spin on it. It feels more involved this way, rather than just vaguely handing my hand out.”
“But it doesn’t have any effect whatso- ARGH!” she screamed as there was a very loud crunch behind her.
She turned around and saw that there was a giant sphere of scrap floating where the microwave used to be.
She whirled back to face Discord. “Discord, be careful! You’re going to hurt one of us if you don’t tone it down!”
“Sorry. But lookie, I can use my foot too!”
“Okay, what?”
Sunset looked under the table at Discords legs and saw that he had one sticking out in the general direction of the former microwave.
“How in tartarus can you flex your foot?” she cried. “And for that matter, how are you channeling so much magic? I mean, crushing a glass, sure, but a microwave?”
Sunset actually found herself very irritated by the fact that Discord was so powerful. He had no training whatsoever and he was crushing sturdy appliances with his magical grip. Meanwhile, it had taken her years of practice and study to be able to achieve the same results. Discord had done no such thing to deserve to be able to do this.
But she would have to swallow her anger for now. She did need Discord to be powerful, after all. She needed nothing less than teleportation into another dimension from him.
“I think I just realized why this is working for you,” Sunset finished, putting her right elbow on the table and resting the right side of her face in her palm.
“Oh?”
“You were subconsciously casting magic on a level that I’ve never seen before, so it is possible that your whole body is capable of casting magic. Which is unheard of in Equestria, but it could be different for humans. I think that your mind finally figured out how to block the random magic all over the place, but you also won’t let you use magic without clearly defining what you want to happen, and the stupid flexing at stuff is your way of focusing your magic on the effect you want, and only the effect you want. In other words, you are doing the same thing that a unicorn’s horn does naturally.”
“So what you’re saying is that the flexing isn’t actually necessary, but it helps me to focus?”
“Yes, I think so. If my theory is correct, you could pick other methods of focusing your magic even, just so long as the method makes sense to you.”
“Huh.”
“Alright, so the plan was to put Mister Discord in his own chair in his own classroom so that it doesn’t look too suspicious if somebody happens to come along, right?” asked Rainbow Dash as she and Fluttershy carried the man in question into the school.
“Yep!” answered Pinkie. “And then when we do, you stay with him while Fluttershy and I go and fetch Sunset, because someone needs to watch him, just like how Twilight is watching Sunset right now!”
“I wish this wasn’t so complicated. Where are we going to put her?”
“At one of the desks, I guess,” answered Fluttershy.
“What in Tartarus!” screamed Sunset.
“Wait, is that actually working?” asked Discord. He considered the refrigerator floating in the air in front of him. This was in addition to the table, his own chair, a bookshelf of textbooks, and a ceiling fan ripped from its original home. “Apparently so.”
“Discord, what are you doing with your hair?” cried Sunset frantically.
Discord looked up and saw his own hair sticking straight out. And also grouped together in the shape of a hand, pointing at the fridge.
“I was out of limbs, okay?”
“Hair is dead!” cried Sunset in bewilderment, standing as far away from Discord as possible. “It should not be possible to cast with it, much less move it all on its own! Are you using magic on it with some other part of your body just to be weird?”
“Um, no.”
...
“I have no words.”
“Twilight!” cried Rainbow Dash as quietly as she could as she came running down the hallway.
“What is it?” she whispered back.
“The principals and janitors are starting to arrive. We have to find somewhere to hide until classes start.”
“Is it time already?” said Twilight in shock. “But we haven’t found my crown yet!”
“I know. Look, I already told the others to go to Discord’s closet. We’ll hang out in there until school starts, and then we can continue the search once the students start arriving and we can blend in. Once classes start though, you’ll be searching on your own until lunch.”
“But what if a teacher stops me and asks me why I’m snooping around the school?”
“Mister D has a bunch of excuse slips in his desk. Forging one for you shouldn’t be hard, he’s got pretty sloppy handwriting. Not as bad as yours of course, but I guess I just realized why that is.”
“Wait, what about Sunset?” asked Twilight.
Rainbow let out a groan. “Oh no. Discord does whatever he wants, so nobody is going to care if it looks like he’s sleeping through class, but we can’t leave Sunset at the desk we put her in. Man, we’re going to have to bring her into the closet too.”
“Alright, should I even bother saying ‘what’ this time?” said Sunset as she stared at Discord’s latest antics.
“You didn’t tell me that I could tell stuff to keep on keeping on without any further input,” said Discord.
Sunset considered the hundreds of paper balls flying through the air in circles over their heads. Each one was following a different path. And with so many paper balls flying along different intersecting paths, they were bound to collide at some point, but, astoundingly, they were dodging each other when necessary, and with such frequency that Discord could not possibly be intervening each and every time. Surely.
“You can’t!” cried Sunset in tired annoyance. “Or, at least, not forever. It is possible to cast persistent spells that will keep going without your focus, but you have to leave behind some extra power to fuel the spell, and also... it requires a deep understanding of some extremely complicated magical concepts that I know for certain that you have no clue about!!”
Twilight was very hungry indeed when the lunch bell finally rang, having stayed up all night. She reluctantly decided that she would have to interrupt her search in order to reenergize herself.
However, because of her hesitance, she was later than the other students getting to the cafeteria, and she was astonished at what she saw inside. Trixie had set up a very makeshift stage for herself and was apparently performing stage magic tricks.
And in a different part of the cafeteria was... a full blown stall. Derpy was standing behind it and seemed to be having a very successful muffin sale.
Once she realized who it was engaged in these strange acts, she quickly put together their probable reasons for doing what they were doing.
“So if I’m not mistaken, Trixie and Derpy are campaigning for votes for fall formal princess, right?” she asked nervously.
“Looks like it,” answered Spike’s voice from her backpack (which was partially unzipped in order to allow him a view of the outside world). “Do you think it was a mistake to not do the same thing?”
“I don’t know. I mean, Celestia and Luna don’t actually have my crown, so becoming fall formal princess wouldn’t actually achieve anything. Right?”
“I guess so.”
Meanwhile, at Derpy’s stall, yet another customer stepped forward.
“I’d like a chocolate chip muffin, please,” said the girl that Derpy knew as Fleetfoot.
“That will be twenty-five cents!” she answered back cheerfully, and she quickly retrieved and then held out the requested muffin before it was even paid for.
“Thanks,” said Fleetfoot, placing a coin in a piggy bank set on the table. “By the way, do you have any idea who that third girl running for princess even is? Twilight something or other?”
She stared as an army of brooms with limbs marched into the teacher’s lounge with two buckets of melted chocolate each, set them down, and then left the room.
Discord simply laughed in delight and dipped his magically repaired glass into one of the buckets and brought it to his lips.
“I swear, if you kill us by drowning us in chocolate, I will haunt you forever.”
“If I wasn’t so famished from worrying and searching all day, I would not have agreed to this,” Twilight said as she walked through the doorway to Sugarcube corner after her friends, except for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. They had stayed behind to watch Discord and Sunset.
“Well, you’ve been working the hardest out of all of us, darling,” said Rarity. “So I think you should get to order first. My treat."
The other girls quickly voiced their agreement.
“Well, alright. But we can’t linger here.”
She approached the counter and was not at all surprised to see a human Mrs. Cake standing behind it. She smiled and made her order.
“And can I get it with extra oats?” she asked eagerly.
“Oats?” asked Mrs. Cake in confusion.
Twilight mentally kicked herself and laughed nervously. “Um, scratch that. However you normally make it is fine.”
Mrs. Cake gave her a look, but gave her the beverage.
Twilight looked down at the drink licked her lips and turned around and started walking while still staring at the drink and then crashed into something, and the drink went flying out of her hands and clattered to the floor.
“Oh no!” cried Twilight before realizing that she had not crashed into something, but rather someone. It was the blue haired boy from before. Flash Sentry, she recalled. His shirt was soaked with her drink.
“Oh, I am so sorry!” Twilight cried.
“It’s alright,” Flash answered, trying to wipe the dampness off with his bare hands. “We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this.”
Twilight realized that this was indeed the second time she had physically collided with Flash. She crouched down to pick up her glass, but as she touched it, she felt another sensation and realized that Flash had also tried to pick the glass up for her and was now touching her hand.
She quickly withdrew her hand in embarrassment.
“Ehheh,” she laughed nervously. “It’s a really good thing my boyfriend didn’t see me do that. He probably would be on the floor laughing his head off...”
“Oh!” cried Flash in surprise, and he quickly stood up, holding the glass. “I didn’t realize that... um, is he somewhere around here?”
“Oh, no, he’s far from here at the moment.”
“Oh. I see.” He held his arm out and offered her the glass, which she took. “Um, well, see you at school!”
“See you.” said Twilight.
Twilight watched him leave before turning down to look at her drink in dismay.
“Don’t worry, deary,” said Mrs. Cake. "I saw what happened and it was obviously just an accident. I’ll get you a new one on the house. Just try to be more careful with it.”
“Really? Thank you!”
Twilight quickly was given a replacement drink. This time she was more careful when she walked away from the counter.
“I didn’t know that you had a boyfriend,” said Pinkie Pie as Twilight approached the group. “What’s he like?”
“Oh, uh, I really shouldn’t discuss it.”
“Aw, why not? Is he weird? Is he a nerd? Who is it?”
“You really don’t want to know. Seriously, just forget I said anything.”
“But I-“
“Pinkie,” said Rarity sharply. “If Twilight doesn’t feel comfortable with this topic of discussion, then we should respect her wishes. ... Even if I am dying to know."
Sunset drifted through the halls of the fake Canterlot Hall in surreal horror. The hallway now twisted in on itself so that the floor shifted to the walls as the hallway went along, and then became the ceiling, and then down the opposite wall, and then became the floor again before repeating again until the end of the hallway. There were weird and colorful furry creatures that fit into no taxonomist’s vocabulary flying up and down the hall. Not that they had wings, there just wasn’t any gravity. A rubber band marched down the hall playing their instruments. And she was pretty sure that the classroom next to her was filled with gingerbread men and snowing sugar.
She didn’t dare speak a word aloud. He might hear her. There was no telling what he was capable of.
She hadn’t realized before, but in order for her to return to the real world, Discord was going to have to come back with her.
She was about to release a monster upon this world.
The instant we get out of here, I’m grabbing the crown and running straight through the portal. And then I’m going to break it.
“I don’t understand!” said Twilight in dismay. “We’ve checked the entire school and still not found the crown! The school key even conveniently opens the doors to all of the classrooms and we didn’t find my crown in them either! Where can they possibly be? I really hope he didn’t hide them outside. Does anybody have any idea where we should check next?”
“Not really,” said Rainbow Dash. “It’s just so frustrating! I mean, the man who knows where they are is right there and we can’t even ask him because he might turn the school into wackyland if he wakes up!”
“Perhaps we should-“ Pinkie began, but then abrubtly stopped and shivered. She turned around and looked at the door.
The others turned to look too. A moment later it opened and Principal Celestia walked in.
“Discord, why in the world have you not been answering my- oh,” said Celestia in surprise. “What are you girls still doing here? School closed two hours ago!”
Rainbow looked at the others.
“We’re busted.”
“Discord, why are… is he asleep?”
“Er, yes he is,” said Twilight. “He was just so exhausted when he came to school that he fell asleep right in his chair! Ahehehe! He must had something important keeping him busy all night last night!”
“I see. Well, as much as I appreciate you keeping an eye on him, the school is closing soon, and we all need to-“
Suddenly, there was an inexplicable flash of light and Discord bolted upright out of his chair, wide eyed.
“Wait… I did it?” he asked in amazement as he stared at Principal Celestia. She stared back in shock. “Celestia, is that you?”
“Um, yes Discord. What in the world happened to you last night?”
“Oh, lots of things. It started out with me taking a suprirse vacation to Bermuda, but then I got chased by monsters and then I fell into a loop in time and space.”
Suddenly, Discord’s closet door flew open and Sunset came sprinting out. Rainbow Dash barely had time to shout “Hey!” before she had pulled the classroom door open and fled the room.
“Whatever she’s rushing for, it can’t be good!” cried Twilight, running to the door.
“I’ll catch her!” screamed Rainbow.
Twilight and Rainbow Dash bolted out of the room and the other girls looked at each other in worry. Rarity decided to run after Twilight and Rainbow, and Pinkie and Fluttershy followed after her, leaving Discord alone with Celestia.
Celestia turned to Discord in complete confoundment.
“Discord, please explain this instant what in the world is going on here!”
“What’s going on is that I’m not insane! Hallelujah, I’m not insane!”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I thought I was insane at first, but I realized that Sunset was right! It’s all me! It’s all me, baby!”
“Discord, answer me honestly. Are you high right now?”
“I don’t know, Celly,” he ansered, crossing his arms and his legs, leaving himself floating in the air. “Am I?” He then floated up to the ceiling.
Celestia gaped at him.
“How are you doing that? Is this another one of your stupid pranks? Did Trixie help you set up some cheap-“
“Nope, nothing of the sort. You see, I have realized that I am the only real person in the entire world.”
...
“What?” cried Celestia helplessly. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“It’s like this!” he cried happily. “I thought I was insane because impossible things were happening to me, but now I’ve reconsidered and realized that nothing is impossible because I am clearly all powerful and the entire universe is entirely a fabrication of my mind that I made to keep myself from getting bored. And I know that I am all powerful because this is my world. Originally, everything was like a dream, where things happen around you but you have no control over anything. You know what I mean? But now, thanks to Sunset, who is actually just an agent of my own consciousness, I have figured out how to unshackle those limitations and I am truly free for the first time in my life!”
“Discord, you’re scaring me!” cried Celestia.
“Don’t be scared of me. Just because you’re not really a person doesn’t mean I’m going to hurt you. Why would I do that? You see, I have other plans. I had a little talk with Sunset and she made me realize what I did wrong all those years ago. Instead of wasting time doing things that are stupid and pointless, I should be trying to make my world a better place! It is my world after all, so why wouldn’t I want it to be? I’ll start small with just the school, since I still need practice and I can’t do big things yet, but just you wait and see. I’m going to turn this place into the happiest place you’ve ever seen, and when all of the students come to school tomorrow, they’ll be having so much fun that they’ll never want to leave!”
“Discord, that’s completely crazy! I’m all for making learning fun, but fun must take a back seat to their education!”
“Oh, don’t be like that Celly,” said Discord. He started waving his hand through the air in front of her, slowly.
“You actually think that this is the best idea I’ve ever had!”
Celestia blinked in confusion, and then instantly became calm.
“Actually, this is the best idea you’ve ever had!” she cried in realization.
“I know, right? It’s going to be great, just you see!”
Sunset was running as fast as she could.
Unfortunately, the girl behind her was faster.
She prepared herself, and then abruptly stopped in place and turned around. Rainbow Dash was not prepared for this, and Sunset managed to grab her leg as she ran past and pulled, flipping the other girl into the air and landing her on her back.
“Aaaahhow!” cried Rainbow in pain, but she immediately scrambled to her feet.
Sunset didn’t waste any time in getting a head start.
“Sunset, you’re not going to get away with this!” cried the enraged Rainbow Dash.
“You had better hope I do!” she cried back to her pursuer. “I’m going to save all of you morons!”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
“Discord is completely out of control! He’s going to turn this school into a madhouse! I’ll even let you come through the portal with me into Equestria before I break it. That’s how bad this it’s going to be!”
“You’re not going anywhere!”
“You’ll change your tune when you see what he’s about to do!”
Suddenly Sunset made a turn and almost crashed into a door. She pulled it open and, to her relief, recognized it as the janitor’s closet where she had found the fake crowns. The real ones would be here.
She turned on the lights and then slammed the door behind her, keeping a grip on the handle with one hand. Moments later, she felt the pressure of Rainbow trying to force it open, but Sunset managed to keep her out.
With her other hand, she grabbed ahold of the large floor washing machine that was in the closet and pulled. The wheels were turned in her favor, and she was easily able to roll it in front of the door, but the same wheels were in exactly the wrong position to roll for Rainbow.
She finally released the door and frantically climbed onto the ladder even as Rainbow pulled the door open.
“Dang it, Sunset Shimmer, you cheater!”
Sunset ignored her and climbed up. She was into the rafters in seconds. She immediately knew where she would find the crowns, and she reached out and seized them.
She could hear the noise of Rainbow pushing the machine out of the way, but Sunset knew that it was too late.
She separated the crowns and identified the Equestrian one, and then put it on her head, not releasing her grasp on the other crown. She knew it’s dirty secret and would not allow Twilight or Discord to use it against her.
She was immediately overwhelmed by how much power she could sense in the crown. The only thing left to do now was to simply take hold of it and make it her own.
She did so.
And then there was pain.
There was an incredibly bright light that forced Rainbow Dash to look away and put her arms over her eyes. It lasted for several seconds. Eventually, the light died away and Rainbow quickly looked back up, fearing the worst.
She gasped.
There was a humongous red demon girl thing filling the closet and staring at her angrily.
Rainbow tried studying the creature to see if she if she truly looked was Sunset, but she didn't get enough time to catch any details.
“Get out of my way!” it screamed.
“Holy hell, Sunset, is that you?”
The creature didn’t answer, but held her hand out and shot a ray of energy at Rainbow, knocking her into the air and throwing her all the way into the far wall of the hallway.
Rainbow grunted with pain at the impact.
“Easy!” she complained. She rubbed her head and looked up, and then realized that the demon was literally flying down the hall.
Rainbow ignored the pain in her torso and stood up again to chase after it.
There was another flash of light, but this time it wasn’t blinding. Although it did seem to cover the whole school.
“Crap, what happened now?” she cried to herself.
The demon Sunset stopped in front of one of the side exits of the school. It was locked, but a beam of magic was all it took to solve that problem.
The door opened at her Sunset’s beckoning.
And then she screamed in hideous rage.
Rainbow Dash covered her ears even as she ran to catch up.
She stopped behind Demon Sunset.
“What in the world are you so mad about?”
“I’m going to find that maniac and inflict unimaginable pain on him until I force him to let me out of here!” screamed Sunset.
She took off once again.
Rainbow Dash didn’t follow this time. She was much too confused by what was outside the door.
“Why does it look like a gargantuo library outside?”
The door to Discord's Classroom exploded into a thousand pieces.
Naturally, this got Discord's attention.
"Discord!" screamed Sunset in rage.
"Ah, Sunset," answered Discord cheerfully. "So, that crown actually worked out for you, eh? Totally menacing look there. That might scare the students, so I think we might have to discuss that. Oh, and please don't destroy my stuff. I have to stop and fix it again."
The door pieces suddenly picked themselves off the ground.
"Although... I suppose thanks to this little incident," Discord mused, "I can take the opportunity to change things up a bit."
The door reassembled itself in it's frame, but then shifted form into a pentagon shape.
"Shut up!" screamed Sunset. "I'm only going to say this once. Send. Me. Back. I hate it here. I thought you hated it here too, come to think of it!"
"Well, I did hate it back when I didn't have any control over it. But now I can change whatever I want, which means that this is effectively my little sandbox. Don't worry about a thing." He waved a hand at her. "You will love it here when I'm done."
Sunset immediately sensed a magical intrusion upon her mind and quickly blocked it with her own power.
"HOW DARE YOU! YOU'VE JUST USED UP YOUR ONE CHANCE!"
Discord scrunched up his face, seemingly unconcerned with the she-demon charging up an orb of magic between her hands. "Wait a second, why didn't-"
There was a blast of orange magic, and it quickly expanded to engulf Discord, who cried out in shock, and then in pain.
Sunset let the spell die and glared down at the man, now laying out on the floor on his back.
"That hurt!" he complained.
"There's more where that come unless you let me out of here!"
"Let's try this again with a little spin on it," said Discord, standing up. He held up a strange metal rod.
"You don't want to hit me," said Discord. "And you're going to love it here."
The top of the rod flashed with light.
Sunset blasted him again.
Discord picked himself off the ground again. "Huh. This is a problem. Look, why don't we get rid of that crown and then take it from the top."
Discord flexed his hand in her direction and Sunset gasped and threw up a magical defense. Strangely, she didn't feel any magic fall upon it.
"Alright, something is up here, levitating stuff is beyond simple at this point. Maybe-"
There was another blast of magic.
This time when it cleared away, Discord was no longer standing where he had been.
"Alright, look, I get that you're not happy right now, and that's a problem," said Discord. Sunset turned around and realized that he was leaning against the wall that had previously been behind her. "If you would just see things my way though, you wouldn't be unhappy anymore, and we'll both be just fine and dandy."
"I'm not interested in your definition of just fine and dandy, and, obviously, you can't make me!"
"Apparently so. It would seem that despite everything that you have done for me, there are still some parts of my power locked away."
"What are you talking about?" cried Sunset impatiently.
"Well, as I was explaining to your Principal a while ago, I thought I was insane because of the impossible things that have started happening to me. But now I have realized that the reason I can do the impossible is because the world itself is a construct which I created to keep myself from getting bored. Perhaps even subconsciously. I don't remember. But the point is, nobody in it is even real other than me."
"Hold on, you said that if we got back to the real Canterlot High that you would reconsider thinking that you are insane."
"And I did!"
"And now... you're a solipsist?!"
"I don't know what that word means. Does it mean someone who thinks the things that I do?"
"Duh!"
"Well, then sure, why not. I don't care what you call it."
Sunset stared at Discord for five seconds.
"Discord... You idiot! You freakin' idiot! You weren’t insane when we first got trapped in this stupid place, even though you thought you were, but now you have indeed fallen into the depths of insanity even though you think you are not!"
"Say what you like, but you can't prove me wrong. And, seriously, stop attacking me, it's annoying."
"You know what, I don't care what you think. You want me to stop, then all you have to do is get me out of here!"
"Well, Sunset, you see, I can't do that. Or, rather, I won't."
Sunset blasted him with more magic.
This time when the magic died away, there was a painting of Discord directly on the wall.
"I'll admit, you surprised me with the first two times, but I totally saw that coming," the painting said, moving as it spoke. "You can't hurt me like this, you know. Even if you broke the wall, which I'm not going to let you do that, it still wouldn't hurt me."
Sunset stared at him in anger.
"Why won't you let me go?" she demanded, and realized that she sounded desperate.
"Well, you see, it's like this," Discord said. "If I send you back, you're going to go back to that Equestria place, and then one of two things are going to happen. Either you are going to build up your strength and then come back and try to ruin everything that I am doing here, or else you won't come back. I don't want the first thing to happen for obvious reasons. But if you were to leave and I never saw you again, it would only be a matter of time before I forget your face. And then a little while longer and I might forget about you completely. And if I forget about you completely, then you will effectively have never existed, since if I don't think you are in the world, then you arn't. And I would rather you not disappear. After all, you are the reason that I was able to unlock my true potential."
"You... don't want me to leave," stated Sunset in deadpan shock. "Even after everything I just did to you."
"Well, it occurs to me that the reason that bad things are still happening to me is that some part of my mind that I have no control of is making it happen for some reason, in the same way that bad dreams happen even though you don't want them to. It's not your fault though; it's something wrong with me."
Sunset blasted the wall where the Discord Painting was.
She quickly let up when, true to Discord's word, the wall did not come crumbling down.
"I told you, that's not going to work." insisted Discord.
"Fine. Let's see how you like having a taste of your own medicine."
Sunset released an entirely different kind of magic, but it failed to take effect.
"Did you just try to mind control me?" asked Discord in surprise.
"For all the good it did! Besides, you tried to do it to me!"
"All I tried to do is get you to see things my way. You just tried to force me to do your bidding."
"It's the same thing!"
"Not really. With my way, everyone gets to be happy in the end. As your fellow students will soon find out."
"What? You mean Twilight and those other five girls?"
"Well, sure, but the rest of the school too. I set up this thing that will teleport the students here once they set foot on campus."
Sunset was silent for a moment.
"You're wrong. Look, I was going to force the student body to follow me through the portal into Equestria to help me take over, but I was going to let them go in the end, and then once they saw the end result of the entire ordeal, they would be forced to admit that things are better with me in charge. They would never come to that conclusion if I didn't force them to help me. But you... you're..."
Sunset trailed off. Then she started speaking once more. "Actually, never mind. Forget it. I see your point. I'll be getting out of your way now. Do what you will."
"Well, alright, fine. I have things to do. We're going to have to pick this up again later, but unfortunately I can't seem to stop time, so for now I have a very special fall formal to plan."
Sunset landed and walked toward the door wordlessly. She pulled it open.
Then she hesitated when she saw the group of girls waiting on the other side.
She quickly slammed the door closed and then charged a spell, and then released it.
There was a flash, and then there were screams from the girls.
"What did she do?" cried Rainbow in panic.
"Wait a moment," said Twilight. "We're fine. She... teleported us. Into another hallway."
"How much did you all hear?" Demanded Sunset.
"I heard everything," said Twilight carefully. "I saw you go back to Discord's room and followed you. You look different..."
"No kidding."
There was awkward silence.
“Where your mutt?” asked Sunset, looking at Twilight's unzipped bag.
“When you ran out of Discord’s closet, I started to chase you, but then I realized that I was battering poor Spike, so I let him out of my backpack. I don’t know where he is right now.”
“Hmm. Bummer.”
“I have a feeling that you are not being sincere.”
“So sue me.”
"So..." said Twilight. "Mister Discord has turned into a solipsist."
"What's a solipsist?" asked Pinkie Pie.
"Technically he's a metaphysical solipsist," growled Sunset. "That means that he believes that all of reality is a fabrication of his mind, including the people in it, which means that he also thinks that he is the only true consciousness."
"But... that's just simply not true!" insisted Pinkie Pie. "I mean, look at Dashie here, she's obviously a conscious person, and I know that I'm a person!"
"Actually," said Twilight sadly, "While solipsism is impossible to prove, it's also impossible to disprove. Rainbow Dash might actually be a biological calculator created with instructions on how to make decisions, but otherwise not actually be a consciousness."
"That's stupid!" cried Rainbow Dash. "I know that I'm real!"
"You do know that you are real, but you don't know if Pinkie is real, do you?"
Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes.
"Well, I guess I can't actually prove anything, but this is just ridiculous!”
“I know it is. Once ponies- and other creatures too, of course, starting thinking that way, they can easily find themselves thinking along very dangerous lines. One of the primary arguments against Solipsism is that if the universe was created in the mind of one person, then that person should be able to change the state of the universe with their mind alone. Most individuals can’t do that.”
“Oh my goodness,” breathed Rarity. “But Mister Discord suddenly can now, more or less, and that argument has been invalidated for him! I think I can actually almost understand what he is going through right now!”
“Exactly.”
“That’s not the only problem,” said Sunset. “Most solipsists will continue to at least keep from making other people angry, even though they don’t think that they are really people, because they will still have to contend with consequences when they make them mad. Mister Discord has become so powerful that that has suddenly become a non-issue too. Even I can't stop him now, I can’t fight him. Nobody can."
Twilight gave Sunset an uneasy look. “If you give me the element of magic, I might be ab-“
“No! Completely out of the question! We shall be leaving the crown with the person who is the most powerful! I am better than ALL of you!”
“Sunset.”
Sunset blinked, and then turned to stare at Fluttershy in surprise.
“The quiet one speaks. You had better have something worth hearing.”
“I think so. I have a question.”
“Then hurry up and ask it!”
“What if the only bird singing in the forest was the one that was best at singing?”
Sunset growled in irritation. "Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to. It would be a very quiet fore-“
Unbidden, Sunset’s mind conjured up an image of herself as a bird in the forest.
“Congratulations!” cried the hated voice of Discord. “You’re the queen of this entire place!”
“But there is nobody else here!” she answered.
“Exactly!”
Sunset shook her head, as though trying to dislodge the image from her brain.
“Shut it, Fluttershy. You could twist anything in your favor if you think about it the wrong way.”
“We shouldn’t be fighting with each other,” Twilight pointed out. “Right now, Discord is a much bigger problem for Sunset and all of the rest of us. We have to work together to bring him to his senses! We can fight over the crown after we ensure that Discord doesn’t turn the whole world inside out!”
“Sunset has no interest in stopping Discord,” spat Rainbow Dash with disdain. “She’s planning on escaping through the portal.”
Twilight paled.
“You wouldn’t!”
“But,” said Rainbow, now sounding confused, “she also said that she would take us with her.”
“What?” cried Twilight. “Why?”
“I was planning on bringing the whole school, you dummies!” cried Sunset. “If I’m going to be a queen, I need subjects!”
“But Equestria has plenty of potential subjects,” Twilight argued. “And if your plan to dominate the will of your fellows actually would work, then it would likely work on ponies just as easily.”
Sunset glared at her.
“Look at this.”
She cast a magic spell and a doorway opened. The giant library was on the other side of it.
The girls stared in confusion.
“Yeah, about that,” said Rainbow Dash. “Why is the outside world gone and replaced with a big library?”
“Because Discord.”
“What?” said Rainbow in confusion. “That doesn’t explain anything!”
“Trust me, I have very quickly realized that when it comes to that madman, that’s all the explanation you should need. His twisted mind spawned this sort of a pocket dimension when I knocked him out, and he kindly took me in with him."
Sunset groaned and grabbed her forehead.
"Once he started playing with magic, he started transforming the school into... a freak show. Although, apparently all that stuff is gone, which is a little odd, but it will be back soon, mark my words! You see that giant library in there? That is the library. His freak magic will shrink you and take you right back to the center of the school if you try to leave. No matter how many times you try, you can’t get out of here. We’re stuck here. Welcome to my tartarus.”
“What?" cried Twilight in panic. “That shouldn’t be possible! The other Discord told me that the crown only has enough power in it to transform me into my normal self for twenty-four hours! There is no way that the crown contained even close to the amount of power it would take to create a pocket universe that bends space this severely!”
“Ah. So that was your plan for this stupid thing. I was wondering.”
Twilight gasped as Sunset held up a previously hidden fall formal crown.
“You make a good point, actually,” Sunset admitted. “It sure feels like there is still a lot of magic in here. Seems like Discord didn’t suck it all up after all.”
“But then where is all of this power coming from?” asked Twilight.
“Who knows? Who cares? What does matter is getting out of here. Leaving through the portal to Equestria is impossible now, it does not exist here. As the most powerful person here, and as your queen, it falls to me to get you all out of here. You and the entire student body.”
“Wait, you want to help us?” asked Rainbow Dash in confusion.
“Use your brain, Rainbow,” growled Sunset in irritation. “Unlike Discord, I am not a solipsist! No matter how dumb you all are, you are definitely all real people, and I can’t leave you all with Discord. You are all beneath me, and many of you downright deserve a good slap, but the reason that I worked so hard to become a Queen in the first place was so that I could be a better ruler than Celestia, to be a benefit future subjects, for which I ask only recognition and admiration in return.”
The girls all stared at her with disbelief.
“You’re not quite who I thought you were,” said Twilight in wonder.
“That’s because you know nothing about me. Here.”
Twilight barely had the presence of mind to catch the fall formal crown that Sunset tossed to her.
“What? You’re giving this to me?”
“Don’t make me regret it. I can still overpower you. Once you use it to assume your pony form, we will have two magic casters, and we might be able to overcome Discord.”
“Sunset, we can’t beat Discord in a fight. I saw what he was capable of. But there are alternatives to fighting.”
“Like what?” cried Sunset in frustration.
“We need to try reasoning with him.”
“Reason with him?” cried Sunset in disbelief. “Twilight, you said yourself that it is impossible to disprove solipsism. Not only that, but Mister Discord doesn’t strike me as the sort of person to care about rationality.”
“Then it’s a good thing that we aren’t going to try to disprove anything,” Twilight answered. “What we are going to do is make him realize that whether other people are real or not, he does care about them. We just have to help him see that what he is doing isn’t what he wants. Not what he really wants.”
Sunset put a pointed fingernail to her chin in thought.
“Alright. It’s worth a shot.”
“Then you will need me,” said Fluttershy, stepping forward.
“What?” said Sunset in confusion. “What good will you do?”
“Because I know Discord better than any of you do. This version of him, anyway.”
“Argh, fine then. Come on then, let’s get this over with.”
Sunset flapped her wings and took to the air, then started flying down the hall, once more to Discord’s classroom.
“Hey girls,” whispered Pinkie Pie. “didn’t Sunset have... er, a bunch of frayed holes in her wings and stuff a bit ago?”
“Shh!”
“Twilight!” cried Sunset.
They looked and saw Sunset had flown back and was gazing down at them.
“Um, yes?” asked Twilight nervously.
“I didn’t give you that thing for nothing. Discord is going to try to brainwash you all. If you want to have any chance of stopping that, you need magic.”
Twilight hung her head slightly. “I guess you’re right,” she said. “I mean, I have nothing to hide now. It’s just... there’s one small little thing...”
“Are you seriously telling me we have a problem here?” demanded Sunset, almost threateningly.
“Well, no, not as such. It’s just, the crown has a passphrase to activate the magic, and the passphrase is a little bit... silly.”
“Twilight, seriously,” said Sunset, slapping a head to her forehead. “On a scale of one to ten, that is a zero on things we care about right now.”
“You’re right, sorry. I just thought I would warn you all.”
“Wait, yer going to turn into a pony? Now?” asked Applejack.
“I guess so. Why, is there some reason I shouldn’t?”
“Er, no... Ah just... I can’t picture you like that. It’s so strange... But don’t mind me none, you go right on ahead.”
“Alright then. Here goes nothing,” said Twilight. She hesitated, and then spoke out in embarrassement.
“It’s morphin’ time.”
The moment before being engulfed in light, Twilight became very aware of the stunned stares coming from every single other girl in the group, Sunset included.
Twilight felt herself body shift, and in a couple of seconds, the light died away and she was in alicorn form once more.
Sunset Shimmer fell out of the air and collapsed in the floor, laughing hysterically. The other girls just stared at her.
“What?” demanded Twilight in humiliation. “You said it wasn’t important! I know it sounds stupid, but all things considered, it made quite a bit more sense coming from Discord than I thought it would.”
“My sides!” cried Sunset in laughter. “Twilight, I’m sorry to tell you this, but the other Discord made a fool of you!”
“What?” cried Twilight in alarm. “What do you mean?”
"I might have known," said Twilight, her cheeked flush with embarrassment. "That Discord. He just can't help himself, he has to poke fun at me even when he's trying to help me. Of course, the fact that he made a joke that originates from this world does mean that he must have spent more than just a little bit of his time investigating this place."
"Um, Twilight?" said Fluttershy.
"Yes, Fluttershy?"
"I was... er, that is to say... would it be... actually, never mind..."
"I think Flutters wants to pet you, Twi," said Rainbow Dash with a grin.
"Pet me?"
"It was a foolish idea, forget I said anything!" said Fluttershy quickly.
"No, it isn't foolish. I mean, you can if you really want to."
"But I'm not actually sure I should," said Fluttershy. "I mean, you're not just another creature, you're my friend."
Twilight gave Fluttershy an uncomprehending look.
"Are all of your pets not also your friends?"
"Oh, I they are!" insisted Fluttershy. "It's just that, um... most of them can't talk about things that I don't even understand."
Twilight continued to look confused. She looked toward Sunset.
"I have a feeling that I am failing to understand a difference in culture here. My first thought is that what Fluttershy is asking isn't that different from two mares combing their friend's mane."
Sunset grinned back at her. "The problem here Twilight is that humans don't pet one another, ever. They pet animals, not their peers. It's like us and the way that we nuzzle critters in Equestria. Fluttershy here is torn. On one hand, she doesn't want you to think that she is treating you like a critter... But on the other hand, it looks like she actually didn't bring any of her own pets to school today. That's a first."
"That would be because I left them at home when I drove to Discord's house," Fluttershy pointed out. "And since I haven't actually been back home ever since, I haven't had the opportunity to be with them again."
"Fluttershy, please pet me."
Sunset's eyes shot wide open at Twilight's words.
"You're seriously letting her do that?"
"I don't particularly care what connotations the action involves. I don't consider it to be demeaning, I consider it to be a show of affection from a friend. I mean, if you aren't comfortable with it Fluttershy, I won't make you, but I promise you, I don't mind."
"...Okay," said Fluttershy after a moment's hesitation. She reached down with one hand and started lightly running her hand through Twilight's mane.
"This is ridiculous!" protested Sunset, who was silently wondering what it would feel like to be in Twilight's position at the moment.
"Actually," said Twilight, "that feels really nice. I was actually rather tense because of Discord, but Fluttershy's touch is somehow reassuring." She suddenly wiggled her head back and forth into Fluttershy's fingers, encouraging the girl to put more vigor into it.
"Are you serious?" cried Sunset. "Have you forgotten, we have to go and have a word with Discord!"
Twilight let out a sigh. "Okay, you are right. The sooner we confront him, the better."
She stepped forward and away from Fluttershy, who made a small noise of disappointment, but then she followed after her.
Sunset huffed, and then led the way down the hallway.
"I don't think Discord is in his room any more," she said. "He said something about getting the fall formal ready. Why he cares about that thing, I have no idea, but that does mean that there is a good chance that he is in the gym."
She rounded the hallway, and then stopped in her tracks.
Principal Luna was standing there, staring wide-eyed back at her. She held Spike in her arms.
The two stood silently, watching one another for any sign of movement. Meanwhile, Twilight and her friends came into view behind Sunset. They looked between the vice-principal and Sunset nervously.
"Sunset Shimmer?" said Luna warily.
"That's me."
"What have you done?"
"What do you mean, what have I done?" cried Sunset. "Mister Discord is the one who trapped us all in here!"
"Sunset, your complexion. Your figure. What happened?"
Sunset looked down at herself. "I'll tell you what happened. I have finally acquired what I have been seeking for years. Take a good look, vice-principal Luna. This is what power looks like."
"It is horrible. You have become an embodiment of fear."
"Of course I have. If other people will not follow me willingly, then I will keep them in line with fear. You know of what I speak. There is a reason that students who get into trouble get sent to your office instead of Celestia's. There's a reason that you keep your office nearly pitch black. It makes the student feel more like he is in an interrogation chamber than an office. You employ fear to keep order in this school. You know as well as I do what a potent tool it is when wielded correctly."
Luna looked taken aback.
"Is that all that you think of me?" she asked, apparently hurt.
"How could it not be?" Sunset demanded.
"Fluttershy," said Luna. "I suspect that this young fellow belongs to you." She lowered Spike to the ground. He hesitantly looked back at her, and then scurried past Sunset and stood amongst the girls.
"I have duties to attend to," Luna said. She turned around and walked away.
Twilight stared at Sunset.
"How could you say something so horrible to her?" she whispered.
"I didn't say anything horrible about her, actually," argued Sunset. "Technically, I was giving her a complement. Actually, I am a bit surprised that she didn't say anything about the alicorn in our midst."
"She probably had more important things on her mind," said Twilight. "Do you think that she enjoys having to punish troublemakers?"
"Don't ask stupid questions, of course she doesn't enjoy it. But she is very good at it."
"Well, she obviously doesn't feel the same way about it as you do. Do you enjoy making other people upset?"
"No, I don't, Twilight. I don't do things for the sake of enjoyment, I do things because they are necessary. Not like you."
"What?" said Twilight in confusion. "What are you talking about?"
"Look at you. You're a princess and you're too afraid of what others think of you to tell them what they need to hear, to do what needs to be done. What do you even do with your position?"
Twilight looked down.
"You're right. I never asked to be a Princess. I never wanted this."
Sunset looked at Twilight in confusion.
"You're telling me that you were Celestia's student for years and the thought never crossed your mind?"
"That is what I am saying right now."
Sunset groaned. "Then why do you fight so hard to deny me what I have worked so hard to achieve? The position is wasted on you!"
"That crown that you are wearing is more than a symbol of authority, Sunset. The element of magic first appeared to me when I first discovered the magic of friendship."
"Oh, really?" spat Sunset. "And when exactly was that?"
"It was when we used the elements of harmony to save Luna from her own nightmare, known as Nightmare Moon."
Sunsets eyes flew wide in realization. "What?"
"Er, Twilight, what is Nightmare Moon?" asked Applejack in confusion.
"Most ponies in Equestria believe Nightmare Moon is nothing more than a fable about a monster who will gobble them up if they misbehave, similar to the boogie man in this world," said Sunset before Twilight could speak. "But I know the truth. Nightmare moon is a real mare, and Celestia's sister. If there was ever any doubt, the mere fact that Luna exists in this world puts that doubt to rest. There's a reason our vice-principal is feared."
"But what you don't know is the fact that Luna wants to be loved, just like her sister," Twilight said. "Nightmare Moon may have enjoyed putting fear into others, but Luna absolutely does not. That woman clearly has far more in common with the Luna I know than she does with Nightmare Moon. And the Luna that I know detests the fact that some ponies are frightened of her. You basically just now told that woman that she is better off as a nightmare."
An unpleasant sensation started to arise in Sunset's stomach.
"What happened, exactly?" she demanded. "The day that Nightmare Moon returned. Did she attack Celestia?"
Twilight hesitated for a few seconds.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"She wanted to force everyone to love her over Celestia. She was tried to cover all the land in eternal night."
"Um, I feel a little bit lost here," said Applejack.
"Oh, good," said Rainbow. "I thought it was just me."
"Do you mean to tell me," started Sunset, "that if Nightmare Moon had succeeded, she would have taken rule away from Celestia and subjected Equestria to unending night?"
"What do you mean, 'taken rule away from Celestia?'?" asked Rarity. "Are they school principals in your world as well?"
Sunset snorted. "Not even close. Celestia is ruler of the entire nation."
The human girls gasped in shock.
"Sunset!" complained Twilight. "I wasn't going to tell them that! They have enough to deal with as it is!"
"It doesn't matter now. Twilight, you do realize that if Nightmare Moon had succeeded in usurping Princess Celestia and subjugating ponies, there would have been nopony left to stop her?"
"Yes, I am very much aware of that," said Twilight. "It is an extremely good thing that I was there to prevent it!"
"But suppose you hadn't been there," said Sunset frantically. "For whatever reason. I would still come through the mirror, since I wouldn't know what was going on in Equestria, and when I did, I would quickly figure out that something is wrong, considering that the mirror has always been kept close to royalty. I would then realize that I might literally be the only pony left who isn't being watched by Nightmare Moon, and therefore the only remaining hope for overthrowing her!"
Sunset's breathing was becoming heavier. She leaned back into a wall and put a hand to her stomach, huffing.
Twilight watched her for a while.
"Would you have done it?" she finally asked. "Would you have attempted to save Equestria from Nightmare Moon, if it had come to that?"
"What choice would I have had?" Sunset answered. "If there was any chance that I could succeed, then I would have to! I mean, the element of magic probably wouldn't even be around, but I am still powerful in my own right. I mean... Good grief, I... I feel... I don't know what I feel! I mean, in comparison, my getting angry at Celestia seems... petty! Who would even give a hoot whether I was a proper princess or not? It wouldn't even matter, all that would matter is that I would stand up to her! And ponies..."
Sunset sat down against the wall.
"Ponies would finally respect me. Not because I become a second nightmare moon, but because I'd be a hero... Assuming I actually could ever win against Nightmare Moon. But even if I didn't... They'd still remember my name. They would know that I was the pony who had the nerve to..."
Sunset trailed off. The strange feeling inside her gut was getting worse. Something was definitely wrong.
"It doesn't matter," she said, shaking her head frantically, and standing up. "It's no use pondering what might have happened. We still have a job to do."
"So..." said Spike. He glanced at Sunset nervously. "I get the feeling that I missed something." He then looked at Twilight. "And it looks like I missed the big moment too, huh?"
"Unfortunately for you," said Sunset. "Although, you wouldn't have got it either. Come on, let's go find Mister Discord."
"I can't carry you in my bag anymore," Twilight said to Spike. "It turned back into a pair of saddlebags. You'll just have to stay by my side this time."
"Well, that's a relief!"
Discord was in the gym as expected.
Sunset was actually surprised to see that Discord hadn't actually taken down anything that Pinkie Pie had decorated the room with beforehand. The room still had the same party balloons, streamers, disco ball, and props as before. There was however a table with a tea set on it. Discord stood in front of it, talking to a seated Principal Celestia.
"What are you two up to?" Sunset asked suspiciously, running up to Discord and Celestia.
Celestia gave Sunset an astonished look, no doubt because of her appearance, but Discord answered immediately.
"We were just discussing possible last minute changes," Discord said.
"Sunset Shimmer, what happened to you?" cried Celestia in shock.
"Don't you worry about that, Celly," said Discord. "It seems that I'm not the only one with magic around here. Ever since my own power was awakened, magic around here has kicked into overdrive. Like that, see look at that!"
Discord pointed behind Sunset. Sunset turned around and realized he was pointing at Twilight, currently in alicorn form.
"Twilight Sparkle, am I right?" said Discord. "Sunset told me that you were in truth a pony."
"Discord, we've come to talk to you," said Twilight. "Your magic is incredibly dangerous. You need to stop using it so thoughtlessly! People are going to get hurt!"
Discord waved a hand at Twilight and she immediately lit up her horn.
"And you especially need to stop trying to use magic to change our minds!" she cried.
"Look, this magic is still new to me. I only just unlocked the part of my mind that lets me use it. Here, have some tea."
Suddenly a mug of steaming hot tea appeared in Discord's hand. He offered it to Twilight. Twilight hesitantly accepted it.
Sunset looked at the tea set in confusion.
"Why do you even have a teapot if you're just going to magic the tea into existence anyway?" she asked.
She cautiously approached the table.
"This is pretty good, actually," said Twilight, after taking a sip. "Now, Discord. If you claim that part of your mind was 'locked' before, that just brings up another question."
Discord raised an eyebrow at her. "What question is that?"
"Why would that part of your mind be locked off from yourself in the first place?" said Sunset in realization.
Discord stopped to think. He stroked his beard.
"I have no idea," he admitted.
Suddenly there was a commotion. Sunset had removed the lid from the teapot and found that it strangely didn't contain tea at all. However, a frog wearing a top hat and holding a cane had leapt out and started to dance on the table, causing her to cry out in alarm.
"Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal!"
Everyone stopped to stare at the bizarre spectacle.
"Send me a kiss by wire! Baby my heart's on fire! If you refuse me, honey you lose me, then you'll be left alone! Oh baby telephone and tell me I'm your own!"
The frog ended his song and sat back onto the table in the position a frog would normally assume, and then hopped away.
"Bravo!" cried Pinkie Pie, clapping.
Sunset turned to Discord.
"...Why?"
"Why not? Besides, I didn't make him do that."
Sunset was at a loss for words.
"Okay," said Twilight. "I don't know what just happened, but I really need you to take this seriously, Mister Discord."
"Fine, I'm listening."
"If we assume for the moment that you are indeed the only real person in the world, then there are only two explanations that I can think of that you would have the power to create the world and then lose it," said Twilight. "The first possibility is that you accidently locked yourself away from your own power because you were clumsy."
"Hmm. Well, that's not a pleasant thought," said Discord. "What is the other possibility?"
"The other possibility is that you locked yourself out on purpose, and then made yourself forget that you had done so, and also made yourself forget why you did it."
"But why would I do that?"
"I don't know," said Twilight. "But if that is indeed what happened, then you must have had a good reason for doing so, right?"
Discord hesitated.
"There's no other explanation?" he asked uncertainly.
"If we assume that you are correct in your proposal that you are the only real consciousness in the world and that the world is your creation, then the cause for anything and everything can only fall upon your shoulders," answered Twilight. "The only detail that is uncertain is whether you did it on purpose or on accident."
Discord hesitated again.
"However, if we don't assume all of that, then there is another possibility. It is also possible that you are wrong about the world and everyone in it being a fabrication of your mind, in which case, the you no longer take blame for bad things that happen due circumstance."
"Well, it's an interesting thought," he finally said. "But there is no way of actually answering it, is there? Once I finally figure out why my magic isn't affecting you, bygones will be bygones."
He lifted his arm up and pointed at them again and Twilight threw a shield up.
"Mister Discord!" cried Fluttershy reprovingly. "Why are you doing this?"
"Fluttershy," said Discord in soft surprise. "I didn't realize you were here already. You're awfully easy to miss when you are literally hiding behind your friends."
"Please, answer my question, Mister Discord."
"Look, all I want is to ensure that everyone has a wonderful day today," said Discord, crossing his arms. "I don't see why you girls are so determined to make sure that that doesn't happen!"
"Have you noticed that every single person who is trying to stop you is somebody you have failed to brain control?" demanded Rainbow Dash angrilly. "Look Mister D, you are a cool teacher and all, but that is just completely not cool at in the slightest!"
"Rainbow Dash," said Cellestia. "I am helping Mister Discord of my own violition."
"That's just what he wants you to think!" cried Rainbow Dash.
"What exactly are you helping him with?" asked Sunset.
"We were just discussing the idea of removing gravity from the gym and turning the floor and walls and ceiling to rubber."
"Ooooh!" said Pinkie Pie, clearly intrigued by the idea. "That sounds like fun! Like a giant bouncy castle!"
"Precisely!" said Celestia.
Sunset turned to face Discord.
"I know our principal. She would never be in favor of an idea like that if you hadn't done something to her."
"Well, it is a good idea, is it not?"
"No, as a matter of fact, it is not. Crazy people like Pinkie Pie might like the idea, but some of us take the fall formal seriously. But that isn't even the biggest problem here. You've not only made her think that your idea is a good one, you've also made her think just like you."
"Well, that's not necessarily a bad thing, is it?"
"Discord, you might not realize it, but you really don't want to craft everyone around you into a replica of yourself. 'A replica has no originality, and therefore no value.' "
Discord winced. "Ouch. Way to turn the tables." Then he started to get angry. "Listen here, you brat! That concept doesn't apply when replicating perfection, and if you would just get that through your thick skull-"
"Mister Discord!" chided Fluttershy. "Have you forgotten everything that happened to you all those years ago?"
Discord immediately calmed down and had the decency to look at least slightly ashamed.
"What happened all those years ago?" demanded Sunset.
"Fluttershy..." said Discord helplessly. "You promised me that you would keep this a secret!"
"I know," she answered in despair. "But I can't just sit by and let you do this."
Discord hesitated.
Finally, he came to a decision.
"Alright. I can tell that you are torn. I don't want to force a conflict of interests, so you don't have to tell them. I'll tell them myself."
He sighed and then clapped his hands once and a blue armchair appeared behind him, which he let himself fall into in a heap. He remained motionless for a bit, but then finally looked up and saw nine pairs of eyes watching him expectantly.
"Here, sit down," he said before clapping again and summoning a teal sofa underneath them, startling them.
"Alright. So here's the deal. I used to be a teacher here at this school years ago. I still taught an art class. But I was not a nice person. Not at all. I actually believed that my own art style was the be all and end all of all art. Anybody who preferred anything else was automatically wrong. Now, obviously I don't believe that any more."
He suddenly stopped speaking, apparently being surprised by his own words.
"And that all by itself really should tell me something, if I was thinking clearly!"
He waved his hand at Celestia. Twilight prepared to try to stop whatever he was about to do, but then realized that he was simply dispelling what he had done to the principal already. Celestia blinked in surprise, but did not otherwise move.
Discord continued speaking. "But I'm getting ahead of myself. Like I said, I wasn't very nice. Although you would never have been able to get me to admit it at the time, I would make up things about my artwork that supposedly gave them deeper meanings, and then criticize other people for not understanding that hidden meaning. But the truth was that I was willing to make up just about anything to make myself look good.
"People usually only barely passed my class, and the stress that I caused them also affected their other classes as well. Many of the students outright hated me for being such a jerk and presumptuous snob. But the worst thing about it was that I liked the fact they hated me. I wanted them to hate me."
"You wanted everyone to hate you?" cried Rainbow Dash in confusion. "But why?"
"I can't explain the reason, Rainbow Dash. All I know is that making others angry was a delightful little game to me. And the principal of the time wasn't about to fire me either. I had him fooled into thinking that I was actually as great as I said I was, that I was a fantastic art teacher and that the students were just too mediocre to understand it.
"You can imagine then how I panicked when he moved on to the school board and two former students of mine became principal and vice-principal."
"Celestia and Luna," Sunset marveled.
"Got it in one. One of the first things that Celestia did when she stepped up was try to talk some sense into me. I didn't listen, so she fired me."
"Did you find another job?" asked Applejack.
"I was able to live comfortably enough by selling commissioned artwork to the 'elite of Canterlot'," Discord said, his voice dripping with obvious sarcasm. "They are every bit as presumptuous as I was, and I hated them for it. They had extremely specific ideas about what they wanted from their commissions, and I was forced to do things their way for a little while until I figured out that they were actually susceptible to my little 'deeper meaning' scam. I started to show them some of my own works and I would make up some nonsense about a hidden meaning, and they bought it. And I mean they bought it both figuratively and literally. I'll be honest with you. Getting fired was the best thing that could have happened to me as far as my finances went. I was able to sell that garbage for a lot of money. It's how I paid for my house, in fact. But on the other hand, I hated the people I was working for. I hated them because they thought that they were somehow better than me. And so, even though I used the profits to comfort myself as best as possible, when it came down to it, I was honestly pretty miserable.
"That all changed when a young neighbor of mine started poking around. Fluttershy here, in fact."
The other girls gave Fluttershy various looks, and she hid in her hair to avoid looking back.
"I was pretty awful to her. Not actually surprising, considering that I wasn't nice to anybody. But the weird thing was that she would keep coming back, even despite everything I said to her. Strangely, I started to keep track of the times when she tended to show up just so that I could be ready for her. I was still saying awful things to her every time I saw her and it turned into a kind of game for me.
"I don't even know how it happened, but somehow we started discussing those snobs that I was working for and I expressed my... dislike for them. And then, to my astonishment, I learned that Fluttershy didn't exactly approve of them either. I suddenly stopped being such a jerk to her and started keeping track of how she was doing in school.
"That went on for a few years, until one day, something happened that changed me forever.
"I was talking a walk in the city park, but I had sat down on one of the park benches to relax for a bit. And I overheard a conversation. It was a group of college kids discussing an abstract statue that they have on display.
"Everything that they said about it was wrong.
"Out of habit, I started to get up and give them a piece of my mind, but I stopped when I realized that I suddenly wasn't feeling right. It felt like my insides were being twisted, leaving me feeling queasy.
"I realized that, for the first time in my life, yelling at those kids wasn't going to give me any pleasure, nor was it going to make me feel superior. Instead, just thinking about doing it was actually making me feel nauseous."
Sunset Shimmer's eyes flew wide open at this. She once again started to feel an a sense of unease in her stomach. It was exactly the same sensation that Discord was describing at that very moment.
Discord continued on, oblivious to Sunset's discomfort. "I instead decided to listen to what they were saying, to try to see the stupid statue from their perspective. It actually didn't work at all, I never could understand why those kids liked the thing. But I did find it interesting to hear their opinions anyway.
"And then I realized that it didn't even matter anyway. Who cares what one piece of artwork says to them, or to those Canterlot snobs, or even me? Art is nothing more than a way of expressing yourself, and it really doesn't matter if other people see it the same way I do, or if I see it the way that they do. Either way, it gives us something interesting to think about, and that helps keep life from getting boring.
"And it was at that moment that I realized that I should not only value other people, but I should actually be nice to them, and nurture their creative spark. Because I had at least as much to gain from doing so as other people do.
"There isn't much more to tell. Fluttershy quickly figured out that I was a changed man, and I admitted to her that I still detested the Canterlot snobs and wished that I had my old job back. She was in high school by then, so she simply walked up to Celestia and asked her to give me another chance. She came over to my place and we talked, and then I got my job back. That's that."
There was a moment of silence as Discord finished his story.
Twilight suddenly spoke.
"There is just one thing that I don't understand."
"What would that be?" asked Discord.
"You claim that you now believe that you are the only real person in the world. There is logically no reason to care about other people after all. And yet, you still do. Why?"
Discord stroked his beard.
"You're right. But I've never been a particularly logical person, to tell you the truth. Even though everyone else might not be real, there is still one fact that I can't escape. If I treated you all the way that I treated you back then, it would make me feel like a piece of garbage. In fact, I was still feeling that way even just using magic to alter your minds, but I ignored it because I was so sure that everything would be fine once I had everyone under control. But I don't think that bad feeling would ever have gone away, would it? It would still be in the back of my mind forever, even as everyone around me enjoyed themselves."
He looked down at the ground.
"Furthermore," he repeated. "If I force everyone to like me with magic, then I also remove their creative spark and replace it with my own. Even if everyone else really is just a subconscious extension of my own mind, they still are more valuable to me when they are propagating their own ideas rather than my own. ... Blast it, why did I forget about that? Why must my brain be so limited? This is all too complicated to keep it all in mind all the time, and now I find myself in defiance of my own values!"
"It's not entirely your fault. You simply weren't-"
Whatever Twilight was about to say was cut off by the sound of a very audible noise of distress from Sunset.
"GRAGH!" she cried out in agony, clutching at her chest.
"Sunset!" cried everyone simultaneously. They stood up and gathered as close to her as they dared.
It was obvious that Sunset's transformation was fluctuating out of control. Her skin appeared to bulge outward and inward again, and seemed to be turning grey. Her wings were receding, as were the points of her ears and nails.
"What's happening?" cried Celestia in alarm.
"I have no idea!" cried Twilight. "Nothing like this has ever happened before!"
"ARGHHHHHHH!"
Sunset reached up to the crown upon her head and yanked it off her head. Sparks of purple lightning shot from the crown and into her head as she did so (or perhaps from her head and into the crown), but she ignored the pain. Her only concern was getting the thing off of her head.
Once she had it in her grip, she stood up from Discord's magical couch and pulled her right arm as far back as she could and hurled the crown across the gym as far as she could throw it.
It hit the far wall and fell clattering to the floor.
Sunset's form had stabilized to look like her old self, and she was curled up on the floor, sobbing.
The clattering of the metal crown rang in her ears.
She opened her eyes and looked up and saw everyone in the whole room gathered around her and staring open mouthed at her in complete astonishment.
She quickly scrambled to her feet and looked at them all for a moment. They simply stared back.
She started to back away from them, only to remember that she was surrounded when she backed into Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.
She whirled around to face them, but they continued to stare back.
Suddenly, she shouldered past them and ran out of the gym, freely crying out in despair as tears rained from her face and to the floor.
After she was gone, they continued to hear her cries reverberate down the hallways of the school.
Finally, they could hear her no more.
"So, that just happened, right?" said Rainbow Dash in shock.
"I've never seen her like that before," said Rarity uncertainly.
They watched as Twilight ran to where the crown had fallen and then levitated it into the air with magic. She didn't put it on. Instead, she brought it with her as she returned to the group.
"Come on girls," said Twilight. "We need to follow her."
"Ah don't think that she wants to be anywhere near us," Applejack said.
"I think you are right, but she needs us anyway," said Twilight. "Assuming that you can refrain from trying to hurt her even further for what she did to you." She looked at Rainbow Dash.
"No way," asserted Rainbow. "If I lashed out at her right now after that then I would feel like a piece of garbage."
"Then we better go after her. Except for you, Pinkie Pie."
"What, why me?" complained Pinkie. "You think that just because I'm all hubbly bubbly happy fun most of the time that I can't help you now?"
"No, it's not that," assured Twilight. "I think you should stay with Discord. There is still a fall formal to plan, and I think that you are just the person to help him add some finishing touches."
Discord raised an eyebrow at Twilight. "Now you want me to use magic?"
"If you keep what Pinkie Pie and Principal Celestia say in mind then I'm sure that it will be a wonderful time for everyone. Just make sure that if you do use magic that the other students don't realize that you have magic. It's supposed to be a secret. Not a very well kept one so far, but at least make the effort."
"Fair enough," said Discord. "I mean, I guess I won't be keeping them all here forever after all..."
"Oh, and you might want to apologize to Principal Celestia in the meantime. And Luna."
Discord rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeaaaaah, I was kind of dreading that part."
Celestia gave Discord an uncertain look. "Perhaps you could begin by making sense for once and telling me what in the world is going on here?" she asked helplessly.
Discord sighed.
"Alright. So, this is going to sound completely crazy, but..."
Twilight decided to leave Discord be for the moment. She turned to her friends. "Pinkie Pie, one more thing." She levitated the element of magic over to her.
"I think it might be a good idea to keep this thing far away from Sunset for the moment," Twilight explained. "Hold onto it for me?"
Pinkie stared at it in surprise, and then snapped to attention and brought a hand up to her brow in a salute.
"You can count on me!"
"Thank you."
Pinkie grabbed the crown out of the air and then stuffed it somewhere into the recesses of her hair.
"Nobody but me will ever find it now!" she whispered conspiratorially.
"So, er, does anybody know where Sunset went?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"No, but I think I can figure it out," answered Rarity.
"Really? How?"
"She left a trail of tears behind her. We can follow it."
Rainbow Dash felt a wave of pity come over her.
"Oh..."
The last of Twilight's tea was left on the table, undrank.
The tears turned out to lead into Discord's classroom, but Sunset was not inside it. They continued following the trail to Discord's closet.
The girls all looked at one another in confusion, but Twilight opened the door.
None of them expected to see a green hallway with a wooden floor on the other side.
Sunset was lying in the middle of the floor a short distance down the hall, sobbing.
"Sunset," whispered Twilight, loudly enough to be heard.
Sunset looked up at them, but showed no reaction to their presence.
Twilight motioned for the others to stay put and slowly approached.
Once she was next to Sunset, she sat down on the floor.
Sunset spoke first.
"You said you were going to make Mister Discord realize what it was that he really wanted."
Sunset stopped speaking and started sobbing more, but Twilight waited for her to continue.
Sunset tried continuing on, but she was finding it even harder to speak.
"I don't know whether... you meant for it to happen or not, but I realized that what I thought I wanted isn't what I really want either. But it's too late. I've burned down too many bridges. I can't ever have what I really want now."
More hesitation.
"When I was Princess Celestia's student, she showed me the mirror and asked me what I saw when I gazed inside. ... I saw myself... as a princess. That was when I decided that I should be made a princess. Celestia... disagreed. I came to feel like she was keeping me on a leash, reeling me in whenever I tried to seize that destiny. But that isn't what she was doing at all, was it?"
She turned her head back to facing the floor.
"There are very few ponies who deserve to be a princess less than I do."
She let out a laugh, albeit, a bitter one.
"What an irony. The pony who didn't want to become a princess in the first place was the best choice for the job after all."
"Sunset..." began Twilight.
The broken girl looked at her, almost pleadingly.
"What do I do with myself now?"
"Actually," said Twilight, "Don't assume that you've burned all of your bridges just yet. I think I have an idea."
"Sooooo... Mister Discord."
"Yes, Pinkie Pie?"
"So you can use magic to do whatever you want, right?"
"Not quite, it seems, but quite a bit, yes. Why do you ask?"
"Can you turn me into a flamingo?"
"What? Why do you want to be a flamingo? Is it because they're pink?"
"Nah, I just want to know what it's like to stand on one foot all the time."
... "You know what? Sure, why not."
Discord waved a hand at Pinkie, and then there was a flash of light.
"Twilight, apologizing to the school is not going to make everyone suddenly forgive me for being such a jerk to them in the past," said Sunset.
"I know," said Twilight, "but it would be an excellent first step. Also, trust me when I tell you that if you apologize to everyone, some of the guilt that you are feeling should go away."
"How can you be so sure?" asked Sunset skeptically, still lying on the floor. "Right now, I feel like it would be a pretty good idea to just go home and stay there forever."
"If you run away, the guilt will follow you wherever you go. If you apologize to everyone, you can confront that guilt directly. Unfortunately, you can't change your past, so only some of the guilt will go away, but you can face it and tell it to take a hike. You don't have to let it control you."
Sunset sighed. "You're right. If I run away, I will be miserable for the rest of my life. But apologizing to the entire student body could take a while. There are hundreds of students at this school."
"How did you manage to manipulate hundreds of students into fearing you in the first place?" asked Twilight. "I mean, strictly from a practical point of view, I don't see how you could have the time to deal with everyone. We already figured out that you were using emails and text messages to drive people apart."
Sunset winced. "You found out about that, did you? Well, if you are wondering how I made time to send emails and texts to everyone at school, I didn't. Your four friends here plus Pinkie Pie were sort of special. Most of them are pretty prominent social figures in this school, which made them primary targets. Rainbow Dash is the captain of the Wondercolts. Pinkie Pie is the head of the party planning committee. Rarity is an enterprising business woman that sells Wondercolt outfits sanctioned by the principals. Er, I also sort of intimidated her into making my gown for the previous fall formal. Which I really am sorry about, Rarity. For what it's worth, it really was exquisite, even though you didn't like me, for perfectly good reasons."
"Well..." says Rarity, feigning hesitation. "Since your apology is so heartfelt... you are forgiven, Sunset."
"Oh, and Spike?" continued Sunset.
"Yeah?" said Spike uncertainly. "I thought you might have forgotten that I'm here at all, actually."
"Why would I forget about Twilight's talking dog? That's not normal in this world. I also wanted to apologize to you for threatening to have you taken away."
"You said it wasn't a threat."
"You would have been a fool to believe it."
"I guess that's true. But, well, you seem nice now, so I can forgive you too."
Sunset furrowed her brows, and then put her hands to the floor and pushed herself upright into a sitting position.
"Huh. All of that just sort of came out. That was easier than I thought it would be. I still feel awful though. But, back to what I was saying. Those three were the primary targets because of their prominence. Applejack and Fluttershy were not as essential to suppress, but I targeted them anyway because of their friendships with the other three. But most of the students at CHS were not targeted specifically. In order to control most everyone else, it was mostly a matter of just being a jerk to everyone who happened to be around me. And also, I have a blog that I use- well, used to spread rumors around the school, and blackmail if I felt it necessary. People hate me, but I still have almost the entire school checking on that blog, like they can't stand not knowing what the latest drama is. I'm a monster."
There was a moment of silence.
"Umm... what's a blog?" asked Twilight awkwardly.
Sunset facepalmed.
"It's just a thing you can make on the internet that lets you talk about whatever you want to talk about and other people can find it and read it."
"Oh. I guess that's simple enough."
"So, yeah. That's what I've spent most of the last three years doing. Such a waste of time. No, worse than a waste, I would have been better off doing literally nothing."
"Well, it is probably going to take some work to make amends to everyone, but I don't believe that you should do it alone. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy... would you be willing to help her?"
"I don't need your pity help," Sunset grumbled.
"I don't want them to help you because we pity you!" Twilight exclaimed. "I want them to help you because I think you have genuinely changed into someone worth being friends with, if they are willing to give you a chance!"
"Well, friendship is a thing that she'll have to earn," said Applejack. And then her expression softened. "But, in the meantime, ah'll at least be willing to give her that chance."
There were murmurs of agreement from the others.
"I..." Sunset stammered, and then began again. "I guess I'm grateful, but you do realize that I am probably really bad at the whole friend thing. I don't have a lot of practice, just a lot of practice at being the exact opposite of a friend. Heck, I don't even have anything in common with any of you. I have more in common with Twilight here than any of you, and that is just because we both studied high magic under Princess Celestia."
Rarity shook her head. "Such statement will never cease to be surreal."
"I think we should get out of... this place," said Sunset, standing up. "This place gives me the creeps. I only came here because I wanted to get away from everyone, but... well, it turns out that talking to you all actually kind of helps."
"Why does this place frighten you?" asked Twilight. "Admittedly, it doesn't spatially make sense, but it was created by Discord."
"I'll tell you what happened later. It's too weird for me to talk about right now. Let's just... go outside or something."
Sunset stood up and pushed the door open and lead the way into Discord's classroom.
"You know," said Rainbow Dash, rubbing the back of her head. "I do know that you get ridiculously good grades on pretty much everything. So between all of the social media and the tons studying that you must have done to get grades that good, did you even have time for anything else?"
"I barely had to study anything, ever," said Sunset in deadpan.
"What?!" cried Rainbow. "How?"
"Because I was already knew almost everything. I was learning calculus back in Equestria when I finally left and came here. In the body of a child. All I had to do was study the subtle differences between Equestrian and human teachings. Oh, and history. I had to study all of human history because I obviously knew none of it at first. And some of the science stuff too. Stuff in this universe actually works very different from Equestria if you look closely."
"Well," said Rainbow thoughtfully, "then if you didn't have to study that much, what do you even do with your spare time, aside from... you know, manipulating relationships?"
"In case I haven't made it clear by now, that is stopping immediately. But, other than that... I sometimes spend my time studying the differences in the laws of nature here from Equestria."
"Well, that sounds boring," said Rainbow.
"Rainbow," said Rarity in frustration. "I know that you restrain yourself from making such comments concerning my career. Please extend Sunset the same courtesy. We are trying to be friends now."
"Well, one simple difference is that in Equestria, gravity drops in strength in a linear fashion until it becomes non-existant. But in this world, it drops in strength in an inverse square curve, which means that everything in this world is gravitationally attracted to every other thing, even if only barely. Even things across the universe from one another."
"Yer saying that gravity has a limited range in your world?" said Applejack. "That's awfully strange."
"Well anyway," Sunset continued, "as a consequence, planetary bodies don't actually move through space in our world without someone forcing it to with magic. In this world, planets move through space autonomously in orbits. I can't believe that a bunch of titan balls hurling through space without any sentient driving force doesn't result in everything being sucked into the sun, but against my expectations, the math actually works out. By some miracle, everything is balanced in exactly the right way that the planets do not plummet into the sun or fly off into deep space, they stay at approximately the same distance from the sun for billions of years."
"You're right," said Twilight skeptically. "That does sound very far fetched."
"I swear to you, that's how things work here."
"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash. "But you do realize that entire planets being controlled by magic is even more ridiculous?"
"No it isn't!" insisted Spike. "It makes way more sense!"
"All three of you think that that is normal?" asked Rainbow in disbelief. "Whatever... It's not like I actually care."
"Actually," said Sunset, stopping in the hallway and turning around and looking Rainbow in the eye , "I think I know of at least one little fact that should interest even you. It's about Rainbows."
"Rainbows?" asked Rainbow Dash suspiciously, but slightly intrigued just the same.
"Yep," Sunset continued, turning back around and walking forward again. "In Equestria, rainbows are corporeal."
"Say what now?" asked Rainbow in confusion.
Sunset shook her head in frustration. "What I mean is that in Equestria, rainbows are made out of a liquid that you can touch and feel."
"What?" said Rainbow in confusion. "How the heck does that even work? Is she for real?" This final question was directed toward Twilight.
"Um, yes, she is telling the truth," said Twilight. "But your specifying that rainbows are corporeal in Equestria implies that they are incorporeal here. Is that true?"
Sunset actually smiled a bit. "Yep. Rainbows here are made out of light."
Twilight stared at Sunset for a moment in surprise.
"What? Made of light, or they just emit light? Because there is magic in Equestria that does emit rainbow colors, but it comes from magic, which is mostly non-existent here."
"There is no magic, they are essentially made out of light, if you say that they are 'made of' anything at all. Colors here work somehow differently than in Equestria," Sunset explained, her smile increasing a little. "In this world, white light is actually a combination of every color in the visible spectrum. When you shine light through something transparent, different colors get bent at slightly different angles, separating the colors that make up the white light into a rainbow literally made of light. There are glass structures that are designed specifically to split light into rainbows. I have one in my locker, actually. I guess if you want, I can show you."
"Yes, please!" cried Twilight excitedly. "As far as I know, the light splitting thing doesn't happen even with magic, the magic just emits the colors of the rainbow to begin with, and this is something new entirely!"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you're getting so worked up over this."
"It's interesting!" Sunset insisted. "Besides, I bet you don't even know what you what you will find in the exact center of a rainbow. An arching rainbow that is, not a straight one from a prism."
"What's that?" asked Twilight immediately.
"Prisms are transparent structures that separate light into it's component colors."
"And did you say that there are two kinds of rainbows?"
"Yes, I'll tell you in a second. So, do you have any clue, Rainbow?"
"Um..." Rainbow Dash scrunched her forehead in thought. "Well, I don't think you're talking about pots of gold. Those are supposed to be found where rainbows hit the ground."
"Really?" asked Twilight, her intrigue growing.
Sunset groaned in frustration. "That is a myth designed to make fools of the ignorant. Rainbows in this world are not only incorporeal, they don't have an actual location either. They are optical illusions that appear to be at a set distance away from the viewer no matter where they stand, which means that if you try to chase a rainbow, it will never get any closer. It will just appear to move with you."
"That is so fascinating!" Twilight exclaimed with glee.
"Alright, so you said its not a pot of gold," said Rainbow. "So what is it then? Because I have no idea."
"In the very center of a rainbow, you will find the shadow of your own head," answered Sunset.
Rainbow raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"What, really?"
"Yep. Every single arching rainbow that you see, ever."
"So there are arching rainbows and there are straight rainbows and they are not the same thing?" asked Twilight eagerly.
"Er, sort of," said Sunset. "It's all rather complicated. An arching rainbow is an illusion that only the viewer can see, but a prism actually projects a series of colors onto a target that anybody can see, because it's not actually an illusion, it actually has a real location. But you can't see the color streaking through the air, you can only see the colors on the surface of the object that it hits.
"In contrast, arch rainbows are usually caused by tiny water droplets that are suspended in the air, which is common immediately after it rains. The water droplets act as prisms."
"But wait," interupted Twilight. "If water droplets act as prisms, then shouldn't there be thousands of rainbows being projected at once?"
"Yes," answered Sunset. "But you can only see the ones that just so happen to be aligned in exactly the right way so that they are projecting into your eyes. If you imagine invisible cones sticking out of both of your eyes, then only the water droplets that intersect with those cones actually matter."
"Which must be the reason that the rainbows in those instances are circular in shape!" cried Twilight.
"Right."
"Okay," said Rainbow Dash, holding her hands out. "I've just learned more about my namesake than I even thought existed, and I only understood about half of what you two just said. It actually is kind of cool, but its also making my head hurt. So, unless you can say all of this in a way that I can understand, can we cut nerd time short here?"
Sunset looked at Twilight for a moment, then at Rainbow Dash.
"The short of it is that Rainbows are weird, but also awesome."
"Sweet!" answered Rainbow.
"Here's my locker," said Sunset, stopping. She turned the lock for a few seconds until it fell open and allowed her access.
She pulled out a triangular glass object.
"This is a prism."
She held it out in the light, projecting a rainbow onto the floor.
"This. Is. Incredible!" cried Twilight.
"I do own more trinkets that exhibit behavior different than in Equestria, but the rest of them are at my house."
"It certainly is quite an interesting little toy," said Discord.
Everyone turned to look at him in shock.
"Where'd you come from?" cried Sunset.
"I just came here to check on you all. It seems to me that everything went... erm, good?"
"I think we are all doing okay, Mister Discord," said Rainbow Dash. "Even Sunset."
Discord raised an eyebrow and said nothing.
Sunset gave an awkward smile.
Twilight turned her attention away from the man and back to Sunset.
"So, is there any way that we can experience this world's arching rainbow at this time?" she asked eagerly. "It sounds particularly interesting, but I did do enough research on this world to realize that weather control isn't actually possible, so I would understand if-"
"Nothing is impossible with me here," Discord interrupted. "What do you need?"
Sunset hesitated.
"Um... I don't know how easy it would be to do this, but, could you... say, make it rain here in the hallway a short ways away but get rid of any of the water that pools on the ground so that the only water left is in the air?"
The man gave Sunset a look.
"Of course I can do that."
And then he did.
Is it working?" asked Twilight in anticipation. "I can't see anything yet."
"We have to find a good angle here..." muttered Sunset, walking around the miniature rainstorm and tilting her head up and down."Ah, here we go, come look at it from this spot."
Twilight quickly did as she was told. She pointed her head the same way as Sunset, down away from the light and towards the shadow of her own head, which, considering what she had been told, made sense.
"Wow!"
"Here, let me see," said Rainbow Dash walking to a spot next to Twilight. "You've got me all curious about it now." She looked up. "Huh."
The other girls wordlessly began crowding around them as well, taking in the sight.
"Hey girls!" cried Pinkie Pie's voice.
They turned to see a Flamingo dash down the hallway, looking quite ridiculous taking such long strides with such skinny, tall legs.
"Pinkie Pie?" said Fluttershy uncertainly.
"That's me!" answered the flamingo, stopping in front of them and gazing at them with familiar gleaming blue eyes.
"Why are you a flamingo, darling?" asked Rarity.
"Because I wanted to see what it was like to do this!"
Pinkie lifted a leg and tucked it under her body. She was now standing on one foot.
She suddenly crouched down and then leaped up into the air, jumping with only the one foot.
"Boingy! Boingy! Boingy!" she cried, jumping high into the air for each 'boingy'.
"Umm... good for you?" said Sunset.
"And that's not all! Look at this!"
Pinkie turned her elongated neck completely around several times until her neck looked like a spring.
Everyone gave Pinkie a look.
"Pinkie, never change," said Rainbow Dash. "Um, except you do have to change back soon. I'm pretty sure that we don't want the other students to know about the magic, and a magical talking flamingo will tip them off."
Pinkie uncoiled her head in such a way that her head was frozen in place but her body was a momentary tornado as it unwound itself. "But nobody else is going to even be here for hours and hours!" Pinkie pointed out.
"Oh, wow, you're right!" said Sunset, suddenly realizing that she felt rather tired. She turned to Twilight.
"Um, Twilight... I want you to know that I am extremely grateful to you. I will be forever. If you hadn't shown up, there is no telling what would have happened to me in the end. But... You don't have to stay here for my sake. I can take care of myself. You have your crown now, so... I guess there's not really a need for you to stay in this world any longer."
"Well, I do have some time," Twilight said. "I don't have to leave just yet."
"Pinkie Pie!" said Discord. Or, everyone thought that he had said it, but his mouth didn't move. "I was wondering, do you think it would be too much to have fireworks launch when we announce the Fall Formal Princess?"
Discord's face took on a worried expression.
And then another Discord rounded the corner.
Everyone looked between the two Discords in confusion.
"Wait," said Spike. "Discord, is that you? Er, I mean, not the one from here?"
Twilight suddenly adopted an expression of annoyance.
"Discord! You weren't supposed to follow me! I still have over an entire day left!"
"Er," said the Discord standing amongst them. "I got impatient?"
Twilight sighed. "Of course you did..."
Everyone else was still looking at the two Discords.
The Discord close to the group turned to look at the other. "I say, sir, you have an uncanny resemblance to someone I used to know," declared Discord calmly. "Sound just like him too, actually."
The other Discord froze, and stared at his doppelganger for moment before speaking.
"You found the mates to my boots? Where the heck were they?"
The Equestrian Discord looked down at himself.
"I didn't find these things, they just kind of showed up when I transformed into a human. I found them to be suitably mismatched and felt no need to change them."
Mister Discord snapped his fingers in realization.
"Ah, now I understand! You're the me from that other world! Sunset told me all about you. Wait, so if you're not even human, what are you?"
Discord snapped his fingered and there was a flash of light, and then he was transformed into his draconequus self, and without the analogous apparel.
There were cries of surprise and alarm from Twilight's friends.
"What on Earth!" cried Rarity.
"What are you?" asked Rainbow Dash in confusion.
"I am Discord," said Discord with some pride. "The ponies were the ones that decided that my 'species', so to say, needed a name, but since I am basically a chimera of a whole bunch of different kinds of creatures, they couldn't figure out what to call me, so they just named me after the two creatures that were most apparent to them. Dragons and equines."
Mister Discord looked him up and down.
"So, are you my spirit animal or something?"
Discord crossed his mismatched arms. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Mister Discord stroked his beard.
"Well, I guess maybe I'm your spirit animal, but that would be kind of boring, wouldn't it?"
"You have a point. But, I have one pressing question. I recently searched this world for any sings of magic and found basically nothing. But now that you're here in front of me, other me, you're practically radiating chaos magic. If you weren't me, I would feel a bit offended by that. Now, were you hiding from me, or did something happen in the last couple of days?"
"Mister Discord confiscated the Fall Formal crown from me because it was his job to," explained Twilight. "When he came into contact with it, it apparently awoke magical powers within him."
"Oh. How odd. Wait, you're employed?!" Discord finished in surprise.
"I work at this school as an art teacher," Mister Discord explained.
"As an... well, it could be worse..."
"Principal Celestia is his boss," Twilight added.
"Oh chaos," said Discord, putting his paw on his forehead. "Please tell me you don't let her run your life."
"On the contrary, I'm something of a rule breaker around here, and I'm still a teacher anyway. She finds me very irritating," remarked Mister Discord with a nasty grin.
"Hmm. Maybe we have a little more in common than I thought," said Discord, grinning back.
"Um, excuse me," said Sunset, earning the attention of both Discords.
"Ah, and the apparently reformed Sunset Shimmer," said Discord. "You know, after I learned of your existence a couple of days ago, Princess Celestia told me a lot about you."
Sunset gulped.
"Did she..."
"You know, if you like, you, me, and Princess Lulu could form a reformed villains club and meet on Thursday afternoons. Or whenever, really."
"Um, no thank you. Look, I'm feeling quite overwhelmed right now, and I was actually wanting to go home and try to get some sleep. And also, I need to work out how the heck I'm going to apologize to the entire school, and I think I will be able to think more clearly at home. Only, I kind of left my motorcycle outside your house, Mister Discord. So, I was wondering if you could just teleport it to me so I can go home?"
"I don't think it is a good idea for you to be driving that thing in your current state," said Mister Discord. "I'll drive you to your house myself."
"Oh... Okay?"
"Ah dare say that we should all be gettin' some shut eye," said Applejack.
"Um, Twilight?"
"Yes, Sunset?"
"If you really meant what you said before, about being here for me for this one last day... Er, no, I mean... Look, you wanted to know more about how this world is different from Equestria, right?"
"Right," Twlight acknowledged hesitantly.
"Well, er, how would you like to sleep over at my place? I mean, you don't exactly have a place to sleep anyway..."
"That would be wonder- er, ahem. I accept your invitation. Assuming of course that Spike is welcome too."
"Sure. Um, are you going to be... er, staying like that?"
Twilight looked down at herself.
"I'm small enough that I should be able to stay hidden in a car," she answered. "Plus, I really want to test how your gadgets work with my magic!"
"So you're really staying for another night?" said Discord. "Not that I mind. Gives me an excuse to take a look around myself."
"Well, yes..." answered Twilight, slightly worried. "I do intend to help Sunset as much as possible before I am forced to return home because of the portal. I do have an entire day left."
"Well, if he is going to take you to Sunset's house, I'm coming with."
"Hold on!" cried Mister Discord. "I've only got room for two people in my car, including the driver! I can't take four people!"
"I'll forgive you for thinking like a normal person," said Discord, turning to his doppelganger. "But just this once, considering that you aren't used to our power yet. Everyone who's coming, follow me!"
Sunset turned toward Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and the still Flamingo Pinkie Pie.
"I think you're forgetting about something, Mist D."
"What?"
Sunset pointed at Pinkie.
"Oh. Yeah, sorry."
Mister Discord clapped and Pinkie suddenly poofed out into her human form.
"Awww..."
Discord looked at his counterpart in surprise.
"You know, snapping is much easier, in my opinion."
"It hardly matters to me. I'll do it however I want."
"Alright, but I'm just saying."
"I guess this is goodbye then," said Sunset. "With Twilight's help, I will try to think of something for an apology tonight, and when I come back tomorrow... we'll see what happens."
"I am a little sad to see you go so soon after you became reasonable," said Rarity. "But we shall see one another soon enough. Goodbye Sunset."
"Um, yeah, what Rarity said," said Rainbow Dash.
Rarity rolled her eyes.
"You really do seem nicer now," said Fluttershy.
"She does," agreed Applejack.
"We should totally have a 'Sunset's not an evil she-demon anymore' party!"
Sunset facepalmed. "Pinkie, can we please not call it that?"
"Oops, you're right. How about a 'Hurray for our new friend' party instead?"
Sunset sighed. "I can tolerate that. I suppose. I'll see you all tomorrow."
"You just turned my smart car into a smart van," remarked Mister Discord as he looked at his now elongated vehicle. "I didn't even know we could do that. Or can I? Is it just you"
"Well of course we both can!" said Discord, now back in human form. "You just need some practice."
"I can't help but notice that the horns I put on my car look kind of exactly like yours did," said Mister Discord. "I feel that this is evidence that you are indeed my spirit animal."
"Cosmic coincidence is far more common than you might think. I recommend you just don't think about it. Or laugh at it. Either option works."
"I'll take your word for it. Everyone into the vehicle, if you please."
The two Discords separated and went to either side of the vehicle and climbed into the front seats.
Twilight and Sunset shared an uncertain look.
"Is this safe?" Sunset asked.
"It should be," Twilight answered. "Discord would never do anything to actually hurt us."
Sunset pulled one of the new back doors open and slid over to the opposite side, allowing Twilight and a magically carried Spike to enter through the same door and also sit down. Once in the car, Twilight used magic to shut the door.
"Um, Discord, there are no seatbelts back here," Sunset remarked.
"No what?" asked the Discord in the driver's seats.
"She means these things," said the other Discord, tugging on his own seatbelt. "They keep you from flying out of the car if you crash."
"Oh, I see," answered Discord. "Yeah, we don't need those. I can manipulate space and momentum and stuff, so we actually can't crash."
"Wait a second!" cried Sunset in alarm. "Which one of you two is driving?"
Discord snapped his fingers and the vehicle roared to life. It then started driving itself out of the school parking lot.
"Where do you live, Miss Shimmer?" asked Discord.
"Wait a minute!" cried Sunset. "I'm not so sure about this now! Can't you just teleport me home?"
"I could," Discord began, "if I had ever been to your house in the first place. But I have had very little time to explore this world, so I can't. Have you ever been to Sunset's house, good sir?" he said to Mister Discord.
"Not a once."
"Well, then there you go. We can't teleport you, we'll have to actually travel through the space between point A and point B. So, where do you live?"
Sunset gave her address.
Discord turned to his counterpart.
"Er, yeah, I have no idea what that means. Do you know where that is?"
"Not off the top of my head, but I do have something here that will help."
Mister Discord held up his phone and glued it to the dashboard with magic. On the screen was a roadmap with a particular path highlighted.
"This is a GPS. Humans use these things all the time. We just have to follow the path shown on that screen and we'll wind up where we want to go."
"How odd."
The vehicle sped up considerably, leaving the school and turning onto the public road. Sunset and Twilight both experienced the strange sensation of knowing that they were moving but experiencing no momentum whatsoever.
"Whoa!" murmured Sunset. "That is weird! By the way, you really should turn the headlights on!"
"Well, I don't need them," Discord answered. "But I guess if you want them, I can oblige."
He snapped and the headlights powered on.
"Why is everyone else going so slow?" Discord complained.
Without waiting for an answer, the car drove itself halfway out of the lane and between two cars ahead and began to accelerate.
"Discord!" cried Twilight and Sunset in shock.
Space seemed to warp around them, because suddenly there was much more space between the two cars ahead than there was before.
The car easily passed between them.
"Discord, don't scare us like that!" cried Twilight. "We thought we were going to be hurt!"
"We can't crash, actually," said Discord. "Even if I somehow fail to notice something in time to deal with it, we'll just phase through whatever hits us."
"That actually sounds kind of cool," Spike admitted. "Can we try that?"
"No!" cried Twilight and Sunset together.
"Oh, come on, you heard Discord, it won't hurt us."
"It would still be terrifying!" Sunset cried.
"Hey, road ahead is closed," Mister Discord said, pointing at a sign.
"But that's the way that your device wants us to go," Discord complained.
"It doesn't know that the road is closed."
"Not for us!" cried Discord.
He drove the car through the blockade in the road, which rotated out of the way like a turnstile as they passed.
"Discord, this is against the law!" cried Sunset.
"Those laws are made for people who can't bend the fabric of the universe to their will," Discord answered.
Twilight groaned.
"I shouldn't have let him drive."
"Come on," said Spike. "This is kind of great! Just relax!"
"Don't worry about other people seeing us," said Discord. "I worked a bit of magic to make it so that anybody who does see us won't actually find us interesting and will forget that we were ever here."
"You're not even staying between the stripes!" cried Sunset.
"There's not even anybody else on this road," Discord pointed out. "Anyway, this driving business is far too orderly for me to do it 'properly'. Hey, me, why is this road going away from Sunset's house?"
"Well, there's no road that goes straight there from where we are now, so we kind of have to zig-zag a bit."
"We don't 'have to' do anything. In fact, I just decided that we're taking a more direct path."
The car suddenly swerved hard enough to plaster the occupants to the wall, if not for Discord canceling out the momentum. The car drove into the trees.
Sunset screamed.
The trees in the way of the car jumped out of the way.
And they continued to jump out of the way, because the car was now driving through the woods.
Sunset stared out the window in fearful wonder.
"This is crazy!" she remarked.
"GPS says there's a pond in our way here," said Mister Discord.
"Oh good, I can't wait to see how this isn't a problem either," said Sunset sarcastically.
She was expecting the car to drive over the pond.
Instead, it disappeared under the water, without making so much as a splash.
If anybody had been watching from above the water, they would have seen a comically oversized periscope pop out of the water where the car had been. A yellow eyeball with a red iris was visible on the end.
The car emerged from the opposite side of the pond a moment later, dry as it was before.
"You know," said Sunset, who was somewhat calmer at this point, "this is actually quite impressive. The sheer number of spells that must be in effect to make all of this happen... A single unicorn wouldn't be able to manage it."
Twilight gave Discord a look. "Discord is certainly... something special alright."
Sunset raised an eyebrow at her. "I can't tell if you are being sincere or mocking."
"Both."
Suddenly the car emerged from the tree line again, revealing a large clearing.
There was an enormous pit in front of them.
"Uh oh, I just remembered, there's the quarry!" Sunset blurted quickly.
As the car drove off the edge of the cliff, space warped again as the car apparently stretched over the sheer drop and then continued straight down, wheels still hugging the cliff face.
"This isn't going to damage my car, right?" asked Mister Discord. "This is some awfully rough terrain."
"Of course not."
The car then scrunched together as it passed from the cliff face and onto the bottom of the quarry, and then returned to normal. After a short ways, it then drove onto the opposite cliff and up, and then out once again.
Twilight and Sunset watched as more trees began leaping out of the way.
"Are we leaving a trail of uprooted trees in our wake?" she asked nervously.
"Nah," said Discord. "They go back where they were supposed to be afterwards."
"We're almost there," remarked Mister Discord.
"Oh thank goodness," said Sunset.
And then they emerged from the trees again and found that they were rapidly approaching the back of her house.
"Oh crud!" Sunset shouted.
The car came to an instant stop.
Sunset let out a sigh of relief.
"Please tell me it's safe to get out of this car."
"It's safe to get out of this car," said Discord.
"Remind me to never ride in a vehicle with him ever again," said Sunset to Twilight before opening her door and stepping out.
"Discord," said Twilight. "You really could have found a way to get here without scaring Sunset so badly."
"I wanted to make a strong first impression!" Discord argued.
"Well, you went a little overboard. Again."
Discord sighed. "Alright. HEY, SUNSET!" he suddenly screamed, loud enough that Sunset was able to hear. "SORRY!"
Sunset simply stared back.
"WELL, IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU DON'T REALLY WANT ME TO STICK AROUND," Discord continued. "ONCE TWILIGHT JOINS YOU, YOUR TEACHER AND I WILL BE ON OUR MERRY WAY."
"Could you show me how you did all of that stuff back there?" Mister Discord asked. "I haven't figured out how to do half of what you did."
"Hmm, a night out causing chaos, just you and me?" Discord pondered. "I think I can clear up some room in my schedule..."
"Discord," said Twilight sternly. "We absolutely must not draw attention to our magic while we are in this world."
"Well, that spoils some of the fun, but I promise you that nobody else will even notice our presence!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow at him.
"And collateral damage?"
"Everything shall be returned to it's original, uninteresting state, I assure you."
Twilight sighed.
"Fine. You can go, but don't make me regret this."
"YES!" cried Discord, pumping a fist.
"Hey, Twi, can I go with them?" asked Spike.
Twilight gave him a look.
"You should be getting to bed right about now, Spike."
"I know, but hanging out with Discord and another Discord sounds like it will be tons of fun! It would be like a guys night out! Plus-" Spike let out a cough, "er, I can keep an eye on them for you. Make sure they don't get into trouble and all that."
Twilight considered only briefly.
"Okay Spike, if they are willing, you can stay up with Discord and Mister Discord."
"Please bring me with you!" cried Spike at the two Discords.
"Alright, sure," said Discord lazily. "We'll show you what a night of fun is really all about!"
"Awesome!" cried Spike.
"If Spike falls asleep, I want you to bring him here straight away," said Twilight. "Without making a bunch of noise, please."
"Alright, alright, I get it!" said Discord. "Seriously though, we're going to be having too much fun for him to fall asleep."
"That's what worries me..." said Twilight. "Look, if Spike wants you to stop doing whatever it is you're doing, you listen to him, okay?"
"Nag nag nag! Alright, we will!"
Discord turned to his counterpart and started loudly whispering.
"It's funny because the word 'nag' also is a way of referring to an old mare!"
"If you think that laughing at falsehoods is funny, then laugh it up," said Twilight. "Just stay out of trouble."
Twilight finally popped her door open and stepped out.
She stepped over to Sunset.
"SEE YOU GIRLS LATER!" cried Discord.
Sunset looked at Twilight questioningly.
"Spike wanted to stay with them," Twilight said. "I told him yes."
"Are you sure that's wise?"
"No. But I'm not sure that leaving Discord alone with himself is wise either, and Spike said that he would keep them under control."
Twilight saw that the remaining occupants of the car were waving at her, so she waved back.
The car then fell backwards so that it was sticking up into the air, and then fire shot out of the bottom, propelling it into the air like a rocket. It quickly straightened out and disappeared behind the trees.
Twilight turned back to Sunset.
"This place is rather big for just you. How did you afford it?"
Sunset gave Twilight an uncertain look.
"Follow me inside and I'll show you."
Sunset led Twilight to the front of the house and produced a key, which she used to unlock the door. She opened it and they both stepped inside.
"It's... homey," Twlight remarked, standing in a foyer.
"This way," said Sunset.
She led Twilight through a hallway and into her bedroom.
Twilight's eyes lit up when she noticed that Sunset had two entire bookshelves full of books.
"Oh, what sort of books are these?" she asked eagerly.
"It's mostly textbooks and instruction manuals," said Sunset. "I don't have a lot of time for fiction. Or, well... I didn't. I don't know, maybe I'll try it now."
She reached under her bed and pulled out a chest with a lock on it. Twilight watched her with interest. After inputting the combination, the lock popped open.
Inside was a pile of equestrian bits.
"You brought all of that with you when you ran away?" said Twilight.
"Yep."
"Please tell me that it's not... stolen?"
"It's not. It's all legitimately mine. Anyway, the exchange rate here for solid gold is absolutely obscene. If I'm careful to not overindulge myself, this can probably keep me going for a lifetime.
"Well, that's... convenient," said Twilight.
"Yeah..."
Sunset closed the box and locked it again before putting it back under the bed.
"I didn't always live here, of course. When I first came to this world, I had some papers forged to give me an identity."
"How did you make that work with no guardians?"
"That's the thing. My papers claimed that I was living in an orphanage."
"Claimed?"
"In reality, I was renting an apartment. Can you imagine? A little girl living in an apartment, all by herself? The neighbors didn't know that I was alone of course, they didn't have much desire to get to know me either. But the landlords knew."
Twilight narrowed her eyes.
"Who in the world would rent out an appartment to a little girl? I mean, I get that you could take care of yourself, but they couldn't have known that. You didn't tell them about... everything, did you?"
Sunset snorted.
"No way. I trust those two even less than I can throw them."
Twilight blinked.
"Wait a second. By chance, were your landlords named Flim and Flam?"
Sunset gave Twilight a look of surprise.
"How the heck did you- You've met them before, haven't you?"
"Their equestrian counterparts, yes. So, Flim and Flam were your landlords. That explains a lot actually."
"That's not all. When I started... acting up in school, the teachers wanted to meet with my guardians. I paid Flim to pose as my caretaker from the orphanage. He put a disguise together so that nobody would recognize him and he made some fake credentials. He told the teachers that he was sympathetic toward them, which was a total lie, but that he had his hands tied by orphanage regulations and all sorts of bureaucratic crap. He was very good at it. The teachers quickly figured out that trying to sic my supposed caretakers on me was a waste of time."
"That is..." Twilight began. "Incredibly clever. Devious, but clever."
"Needless to say though, dealing with them was a pain in the butt for me as well, so the moment my forged papers said I was eighteen, I bought this place."
"So, do you just spend all of your time cooped up in here?" asked Twilight.
"I dunno. I guess I hang out at my house a lot. Watch TV, stay up super late, eat whatever I want whenever I want. Living alone is actually pretty cool."
"You said that you have more trinkets that exhibit behavior that doesn't occur in Equestria. Could you..."
"You want to see one?" asked Sunset. "Okay, um..."
Sunset took a look around the room.
"Ah, here's something."
She walked up to a shelf and grabbed a spherical object from it, and then brought it to Twilight.
"This is something called a tipee top. It's... a top. As in, the toy. But, as you can see, unlike other tops, it doesn't have a pointy end, it's an oblate spheroid with a chunk taken out of the top for the handle."
"And this does not behave like a top should?"
"Nope. We need a smooth surface for this, the carpet in here won't do. Let's go to my living room."
Sunset led the way through the house and into the living room, where she had a flat screen TV with an entertainment center in front of it. Between the TV and the sofa which was set in front of it was a coffee table, currently littered with papers, remotes, and candy wrappers."
"Ugh, gotta clear off some space."
Sunset put the top down and started stacking papers and shoving the remotes and trash to the side. She quickly made a suitably clear area.
"Okay, watch closely."
She spun the top on the table.
At first all seemed normal. But Twilight quickly realized that the top was falling over even as it spun, thanks to its round bottom.
And then something very strange happened. The handle of the top touched the table, and then it almost immediately flipped upside-down and continued spinning on the handle.
It continued spinning for a few seconds until it ran out of momentum and fell over and came to a rest.
"Wait, wait, wait," said Twilight in wonder. "This is not a machine, right? It doesn't have moving parts?"
"No moving parts," Sunset confirmed.
"But... it raised its own center of mass to a higher position... well after you stopped applying any force to it!"
"I know."
"That is strange."
"That's not the only strange thing though."
Twilight gave Sunset a confused look.
"What do you mean?"
"Here, watch again, and pay attention to the direction of rotation."
Sunset spun the top again, clockwise, Twilight noted.
They watched as the top turned upside-down once again.
And then Twilight realized that it was still spinning clockwise.
Twilight waited for the top to sputter out again before speaking.
"It was spinning in the same direction even after flipping upside-down! That just defies logic! If you flip a clock upside-down, the hands would start moving counter-clockwise from an overhead perspective, but this top didn't do that!"
"I know!"
"But that would mean that it completely reversed the direction it was spinning in autonomously, and apparently without even slowing down first?"
"Yep. This is actually one of the weirdest gadgets I own. I've at least reconciled everything else with the physics in this world, but this one just blows my top. Pun intended."
"Are we sure that this doesn't happen in Equestria?"
Sunset took on an uncertain expression. "Well, I'll admit, I don't actually know if such a device would work over there, but I do know that I never came across such a thing in all of my time there. It is possible that it does work and nopony ever actually invented it. I suppose you could test it when you go back, but... well, I won't be there to see what the answer is."
"I really want to study this... but at the same time... do you have more toys like this?" Twilight asked with barely restrained glee.
