Twilight Sparkle wobbled to her hooves and shook the blurriness from her head. As her vision focused, she found herself in a twilit world of temporal distortion.

"Where am I?" she asked aloud, then spotted a misshapen clock drifting off into space. "Or better yet, when am I?"

"I'm going to pretend I didn't just hear that completely lame time joke and move things along now," Discord said as a tiny version of himself slithered out from behind Twilight's ear.

"Where's Spike?!" Twilight demanded.

Discord shrugged as he stood atop Twilight's muzzle, forcing her cross-eyed. "How should I know where the little twerp ran off to? If you ask me we're better off."

Twilight shook the provocative demigod away and stomped the ground. "I'm not helping you with anything until we find Spike."

Discord returned to his usual size as he bashfully kicked at the ground beneath. "Alright, Twilight, you win. I'm rather certain I spotted Spike falling from the sky somewhere over that way there... ish."

Twilight followed his stretching and twisting talon with her gaze until it managed to point straight towards a black castle sitting on the horizon. Above it a swirling lightning storm flashed and rumbled, and beneath an enormous wall of blue fire raged. Twilight's eye twitched as she began to hyperventilate.

"Discord!" she shouted. "You're going to poof into that castle and get Spike out this instant, or I won't be helping you with anything, ever again!"

Discord rolled his eyes and condescendingly waved the flustered princess down. "Alright, alright. I'll come clean, Twilight. I pushed Spike off in that direction. I knew it was the only way I could get you to go in there. I'd love to go deal with this on my own, but you see," he pointed to the wall of flames." Once I cross that wall, I lose all my powers. You, on the other paw, will be more powerful than ever."

"And what in that castle is so important that you'd go through all this trouble just to get me in there?" Twilight asked.

"All in due time, Princess. All in due time." Discord rubbed his inter-species hands together, and grinned. Deviously. Menacingly. Maniacally as lightning crackled behind him!

"Okay, I'll do it. I imagine playing along is the only way to get home, anyhow. So let's go." Twilight begrudgingly trudged towards the distant castle with Discord cheerfully skipping by her side.