Kathy Thorndale was just like every other sixteen year old girl at her high school; she went to class everyday, she studied for her classes almost all the time, and she thought about boys every now and then. That was all she had in common with the other girls. Most of the time she was either lurking behind the group whenever something was happening or when someone talked to her she remained quiet. She was one of the shyest students at the school, but the teachers turned a blind eye to it because she was doing so well in her classes and the other students tended to ignore her.

"Hey Kathy! How are you doing?"

Then there was the one student in the entire school, across at least three hundred students, who bothered to try and befriend her, despite her attempts to be left alone. Joey Larkson, a sixteen year old boy, was the name of her shadow and she was getting used to seeing him wherever she went while she was at school. He was one of the few Bronies in the entire school, labeling him as 'gay' to the rest of the student body and left him with little friends to hang with. Lucky for him there were two or three more Bronies hanging around the school, so he wasn't completely alone in that regard.

Kathy sighed and set her pencil down, letting her eyes linger on the drawing she had been doodling while she had patiently waiting for the first bell of the day to sound. Joey had infected her with, as he called it, the 'Magic of Friendship' and had somehow pulled her into his fandom despite her attempts to stay away from it. She had to admit, though she would never admit that she adored the characters of the My Little Pony show, she did enjoy the unique creatures she discovered. One such creature was Discord, the mix match creature known as a Draconequus, who savored laughter and chaos more than anything else.

Her drawing was of one such creature, a purple coated Draconequus that she had taken to calling Pandora, the Spirit of Madness.

"Oh sweet," Joey said, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder at the still incomplete drawing, "you've got another drawing of Pandora. If I didn't know any better I'd say that she'd be you if you ever ended up in Equestria. Though let's be honest, if you ended up in Equestria I wouldn't be far behind you."

Kathy sighed as she pulled the drawing into her art folder, where she kept all the drawings that she had been working on when she wasn't busy with schoolwork. The first time she had drawn Pandora she was using Discord as a reference, but once Joey saw it he had wanted one of his OC, a unicorn stallion that he called 'Stargaze'. Once Joey had given her all the colors that he desired on the stallion's coat and mane he left her to work on him, though it had taken her a whole week to even complete the drawing. With it in hand Joey had somehow convinced his friends to commission her to draw their own 'ponysona's', the only other ponies she had drawn.

"Hey Joey," one boy called, just as he and another girl approached the table Kathy was at, "Alice and I were wondering what you had planned for the weekend."

Alice and Jared Silvermen weren't related by blood or anything, they just happened to share the same last name and that seemed to be the bases for their friendship since the day they met. After a few days they had discovered that Joey was also a Brony, so they naturally attached themselves to him and seemed to be anywhere that he was. As a result of that they had also discovered the schools shyest girl around and had taken it upon themselves to befriend Kathy and try to cure her shyness. That was before they asked her to draw their OC's, a pegasus mare named 'Cloud Strider' for Alice and an earth pony stallion called 'Ironside'.

"Yeah, my parents are going to be out of town for the weekend," Alice continued, just as she and Jared took a seat across from Kathy and Joey, "and they told me that I could invite a few friends over to hang out while they were gone. Nothing as major as a sleep over or anything, but we can play some video games or catch up on the latest season of My Little Pony. Jared and I are about halfway through the season, so don't ruin anything for us if you've seen the later episodes."

"I'd have to ask my parents," Joey replied, not even bothering to think about it, "but I don't think that they'd be against me from hanging out with a few friends. How about you Kathy?"

Kathy looked up for a moment to say something, but then shut her mouth and simply shook her head. She already knew that her parents would be gone for the weekend and that they fully expected her to do something with a friend, if she made one while they were gone. She knew that she would never really make any friends until she was out of school and got a job somewhere, but even then she really didn't know if she could make friends. She thought about replying to the question anyway, but before she could even open her mouth the bell started ringing and a bunch of students moaned at the same time.

"Oh well, we'll talk again later," Joey said, getting onto his feet before turning towards the building that held his first period class, "I'll see you guys at lunch then."

Kathy barely acknowledged Joey or the twins, as most of the students tended to call Alice and Jared, as she collected her backpack and headed for her classroom. She passed by several students, barely lifting her head as she made her way to her first period, her English class, and took her seat at the back of the room. Her classmates slowly joined her and began taking their seats, chatting amongst themselves until their teacher, Ms. Rocksworth, joined them with their assignment for the day.

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Kathy let out a sigh after the day had passed her by. She had paid attention to her teachers, wrote down the assignments that she failed to complete during class, and even ignored the lunch hour by simply going to the library to work on her drawing of Pandora. When the final bell had rung she quickly made her way to the side of the school that the buses came to so they could pick up the students and waited as dozens of students joined her. Eventually most of the students were standing around the gates, waiting for the security guards to open the doors and allow them to leave the school for the weekend.

Before the security guards got close to opening the doors Kathy felt a tap on her shoulder, but she immediately knew who it was without even looking.

"Sooo?" Joey asked, leaning on the wall next to Kathy as Alice and Jared joined them, "How about it Kathy? Want to spend some time with the three of us, or are you going to study for Monday again?"

"Let me check before I agree to anything," Kathy said, pulling herself into her jacket while Joey sighed.

"We have got to work on this shyness of yours," Joey replied, rubbing the back of his head for a bit, "but I'm sure that, given time, we'll be able to warm your heart and get you to open up to some people."

Before Alice or Jared could say anything the security guards opened the gates and the flood of students began to spill out towards the buses, allowing Kathy to fall in quite easily. She quickly made her way to her bus, climbed on without a moment wasted, and made her way towards the very back of the bus, where she took her seat and waited for the others to get on. Despite the fact that her bus was almost full every day she still somehow found herself sitting alone on her bench, but all it did was allow her mind to wander while the bus moved on its route.

While the buses departed from the school and began to travel on their individual routes Kathy barely listened to the chatter that came from the other students on her bus. Many of them were talking about their plans for the weekend, one of them mentioning that they were going to visit family somewhere close to the border and another saying that she was going to watch a movie at the theater. Some of them even mentioned that they were holding a party at the local pool and that they had invited most of their friends to come over. Kathy didn't mind not being invited, as most of the students either didn't know she existed or barely noticed her at all.

Eventually the bus came to her stop, allowing her to get off after five other teenagers made the trek from their seats to the front of the bus before she did. Lucky for her and her parents the bus stop was at the top of the hill, sitting right next to the mailboxes that housed the mail for everyone in the neighborhood. She pulled out her keys, drew out the mail key, opened her mailbox, and pulled out what little mail there was before closing the door and locking it tight. She then made her way down the hill, walking towards her two story house while she wondered if she would catch her parents before they left.

"Hello?" Kathy called, after opening the door and looking around for anyone, "Mom? Dad? Anyone home?"

After a few moments she decided that she was alone and locked the door behind her, before making her way to the kitchen and tossing the mail on the counter. Before she really did anything else she  approached the table, pulled off her backpack, pulled out her art folder and art supplies, and then gently pulled out the drawing of Pandora she had started earlier. She gently pulled her headphones on and picked a song in her playlist, letting the music fill the silent house as she continued the work she had started earlier. One way or anything she'd finish the drawing and add it to her folder that kept all the drawings of Pandora she had already done.

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After what seemed like hours of drawing, inking, and coloring Kathy finally finished not only the drawing she had meant to work on, but three more that involved Pandora. Each of them showed her character, but the main difference was that Pandora wasn't alone in these three drawings. The first was of Pandora and Stargaze, followed by the second being Pandora accompanied by both Cloud Strider and Ironside, while the third and final drawing showed Pandora surrounded by all three of them. Kathy thought it was odd that she would actually add the others OC's into her drawings of her own character, but maybe they were actually rubbing off on her.

"Hahahahahaha."

Kathy looked up in surprise as she heard, or thought that she heard, someone laugh over the sound of her music, but there was no way that someone could get into the house without a key or violently break one of the windows in. Even with her music at half volume she would have heard the noise if someone broke a window, but after pulling herself out of her chair and looking over the main floor she was certain that no one had broken in.

"Hahahaha, oh lovely Pandora. You are so cute when your confused."

Kathy spun around, searching for the sound of the voice that seemed to be speaking all around her and yet there was no one around her to speak of. The voice, whoever it was, sounded familiar, yet she couldn't place her finger on who or what it was. She was fairly sure that she knew who it was, yet the name seemed to escape her.

"Oh? I do adore how your running around like a chicken with its head cut off."

"Who are you?" Kathy shouted, staring at the walls as if she was expecting something to happen.

"You know me, yet you cannot name me. Turn around and I'll show you who I am."

Kathy slowly turned around and her eyes widened as she spotted the mix match creature that stood directly behind her. It wasn't any mix match creature out of some horror story, but it was the original Draconequus that the Mane Six and the Princesses had feared for some time. She knew who the creature was without it having to say a single word, yet the word, the very name of the creature, caught in her throat as she tried to say it.

"I am Discord," the Draconequus said, reaching out to touch her with his clawed hand, "and you, my dear, must be the ever loveable, and very much insane, Pandora I have heard about."

"N...n...no," Kathy replied, shivering as the Spirit spoke the name of her character with ease, "I'm...I'm not Pandora."

"Your not?" the Spirit asked, as if he was mistaken but then changed his mind, "Oh, but I do believe you are. I can Hear the Madness inside the deepest parts of your mind, almost as if you want her to come out and play."

Kathy tried to back up, but she found that her body would not respond to her urges. She wanted to get as far away from the Spirit as possible, but whatever hold he had her in she couldn't shake it if she wanted to. She was barely breathing when his claws stopped a few meters from her eyes, as if they would cast a spell on her all by themselves.

"You are lovely, my dear Pandora," Discord said, his voice washing over her and holding on tight, "It may not be now, it may not be tomorrow, and it may not be a few days from now, but you will welcome your true self into your life. Trust me in this my dear, Pandora will become your life and soon you'll love the madness that hangs around you. I shall awaken your inner madness and you'll likely black out from the intense pain that's to follow, but you'll survive and eventually you'll be like me. Too bad you won't remember our little chat, over wise it would have been funny seeing you trying to tell people that I actually came and visited you."

The last thing Kathy remembered was an intense rush across her entire body as her body hit the ground and she, like Discord predicted, blacked out from the pain. Next Chapter: Chapter Two Estimated time remaining: 36 Minutes