Vinyl quickly packed her things, her limbs tingly with anticipation. She and Thorn agreed on packing their stuff, then meeting in the town square before heading to the beach to summon Philomena. Vinyl didn't have much to pack other than a week's supply of food and a tent, so she was done pretty quickly.

Vinyl hurried out of Dragon's Bluff and into Ponyville's main square, where her changeling companion was already waiting for her. He stood impatiently, his fly wings buzzing with anticipation. He looked almost as nervous as Vinyl felt.

"Ready?" The white unicorn asked.

Thorn nodded, "As I'll ever be."

They started to walk together. However, an orange blur shot through them and stood before them, preventing the two from advancing to the beach. At first, both Vinyl and Thorn weren't sure who the newcomer was, but her fiery orange mane gave it away.

"Sunset Shimmer?" Vinyl asked, "Shouldn't you be somewhere eating foals or being someone's else's trouble?"

Sunset calmly ignored the insults and straightened her mane, "Do you really think I came here just to bother you?"

"Well, I'll go ahead and let you know," Vinyl began, "That we don't have any valuable treasure. Unless you count an apple as being valuable."

"I don't want your treasure," Sunset replied rather blankly, "What I want is to go with you."

Vinyl scoffed, "As if we would. You're nothing but a backstabbing, unreliable jerk!"

"Look, I know I might of treated you bad in the past," The orange mare began, "But if you please just let me go, I'll make up for all those things I did."

Vinyl ignored her pleas, "Where's Gilda and Lightning Dust?"

Sunset hesitated, "That's not important right now. Won't you please let me go with you?"

Thorn shrugged, "The more ponies we have, the more of a chance we stand against Discord. Strength in numbers, after all."

"You've never met Sunset Dimmer though," Vinyl growled, "She tricked us into almost getting killed!"

"But I swear by Celestia!" Sunset exclaimed, "I'll help you this time!" She paused, "Plus, if you don't let me go with you, I'll tell Luna you're going to Discord's Domain."

"There's the Sunset Shimmer we all know and hate," Vinyl sneered, "Well, since you're gonna blackmail us, I guess we don't have much of a choice. You packed?"

Sunset gestured to her saddlebags, which were all packed and ready to go.

Vinyl sniffed, "Alright. I guess Thorn's right. We're probably stronger in numbers. Maybe Discord won't expect two unicorns and a changeling to show up to stop him." She turned towards the path leading to the beach, "Well... Let's go."

---

With no hesitation, Octavia drew her cello bow and readied to defend herself. However, Discord did not attack as she would have expected. Instead, he held up his mismatched hands defensively.

"Whoa there, Psycho Cellist," He said, "In case you're wondering, I support classical music. No need to shove it down my throat; and that's quite literal."

"You know what I'm here for," Octavia growled, refusing to put her cello bow away, "So hand them over."

This caused Discord to laugh, "Ah yes, the loud-mouthed Alicorn and the bratty blank flanks... Before we get to that, why don't you come in and sit down, my dear?"

In a flash, Octavia found herself seated at a small café table. On the table in front of her sat a cup of what appeared to be piping-hot tea. Seated across from her was Discord, drinking his tea like a regal, old Englishman.

"So you came all this way to save Rainbow Crash and the blank flanks," He began, "Definitely impressive. Especially when even Lulu and her cronies wouldn't come."

Octavia knocked the tea in front of her aside, the cup breaking on the floor and the tea splattering out, "Stop playing games. Give me what I came here for."

"Now look at what you've done!" Whined Discord, gesturing to the spilled tea on the floor, "I just had those floors waxed! Now I'm going to have to rewax them, thanks to your clumsy hoo-"

At that moment, Octavia couldn't take it anymore. She lunged across the table and tackled Discord, taking his long neck in her hooves. However, she discovered that the real Discord had disappeared and replaced himself with an inflatable version that shared uncanny resemblances. It popped and sputtered out pathetically upon Octavia putting pressure on it.

"What the..." She started, but something yanked her back by her tail and dangled her in mid-air. She was raised up -while upside-down- to meet the sneering face of Discord. His tail was wrapped around her own, threatening to drop her head first on the hard, black-and-white tile floor.

"Feisty, aren't we?" He chuckled, "Here I am, just wanting to make a friendly negotiation, and all you can think about is beating me into submission. And they call me the spirit of disharmony?"

Octavia only growled resentfully as Discord placed her back down on her chair. This time, her rear was glued to the seat, making her unable to get up and attack again. Her opponent took a seat calmly in front of her, summoning the tea once again.

"I realize you're not very happy about this whole thing," Discord began, "But I'm not one to just give up something I worked so hard to achieve. Therefore, I decided since you worked so hard to get here, I'll make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?" Octavia asked, cautiously guarding her mind and heart in case Discord decided to pull out an unexpected curveball.

This question caused the multi-beast to chuckle condescendingly, "A choice between two, very important object. You chose either Dashie and the Crusaders, or..."

"Or... What?"

"Hang on! I'm thinking..."

Octavia waited patiently as Discord began to pace. He eventually gave up pacing and sat himself back down.

"How about this..." He started, "I know there's a special somepony in your life, but you just can't have him..."

Octavia tensed, "I don't have a special somepony."

This caused Discord to laugh, "Oh, you don't? Not even a little school-filly crush?"

Octavia shook her head.

Discord rose from the seat and began circling around the table, making Octavia nervous, "Well, you may say so, but is it true? You've lost a little piece in your life that can't be replaced. It's not your friends at the guild, nor is it Vinyl Snatch."

"Scratch."

"Whatever. Anyways, what I have to offer you is something of great worth. Something that may change your mind about saving Rainbow and the Crusaders."

Octavia snarled, "You can't give me anything that will make me change my mind. I came here to save them, and that's what I'm going to do."

Discord slid closer to the mare, making her jump at first. He leaned right next to her ear and whispered a simple question.

"Not even for Whooves?"

---

I apologize for the short chapter, but I had to cut it here for because cliffhanger.

DUN DUN DUUUUUNNN.