Star charged the spell for a considerable amount of time. The blue hue on his horn was growing more opaque with every passing second. He then finally cast it, letting the built up magic expel itself from his horn and fly into every direction, before fading away. We waited anxiously. I listened intensely, waiting for a whoosh of magic, or the familiar snap of fingers. But many seconds passed, and there was nothing.

"Star... Did you cast the spell properly?" I asked him, hesitantly.

"Yeah, I read through it multiple times to make sure that I got every part of the spell perfect." Star replied.

There was no noises in our immediate position, but the awkward sound of howling wind. I wouldn't have been surprised if a tumbleweed rolled in front of us.

"Cast it again." Armstrong said.

After a few seconds of letting his magic recharge, Star concentrated as he cast the spell once more.  One he had finished letting the spell charge for a few more seconds, Star cast it again. And we were greeted by that awkward wind once more.

"FUCK IT!" I shouted in anger as I kicked the ground with my hoof and stormed off.

After a few moments, and one more attempt from Star, I walked back and laid on my back in frustration.

"Sooo... We risked our lives and ruined our reputation so that the wanker won't appear?" I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Now, when you say it like that, you make it seem like I'm much more of a bad guy."

I immediately jumped up when I heard that familiar voice, but all I was greeted with was a mirror image of myself. As I tilted my head in confusion, the mirror image did the same, but in the opposite direction. I raised my right hoof slowly, and the mirror image raised its left hoof.

"Besides, when you ring my doorbell more than once, it won't make me appear any faster..." The mirror image said, but in Discord's voice.

"Discord." Star said from behind me.

There was a flash of light, and then two mirror images were stood in front of us. But it was me and Star. Not Armstrong or Barrel, yet anyways.

"Quite right. By the way, I was pleased with your tremendous performance a few minutes ago. Absolutely astonishing." Discord said, using both of the mirror images he has created.

"What performance?" Barrel asked.

As you could have guessed, there was now three images. Stood in the exact same pattern the four of us were stood in, apart from Armstrong, as he remained quiet.

"Oh you know..." Discord trailed off as we heard a snap of fingers and saw a flash of light.

"That little act of thievery you just committed to get my attention." He continued.

When we could see again, the three mirror images of Star, Barrel and Me were now wearing black duffel bags over our shoulders, Star was in a suit, Barrel was in casual clothes and aviators and I was in tattered and dirty clothes. I then felt a strange gust of wind hit us, and when I looked down. I could see that I was wearing the same clothes as my mirror image.

"Yeah, that was so we could talk to you." I continued, ignoring the change of clothes.

And I stank like shit. Like if I didn't shower for three months.

We heard the snap of fingers again, and the three mirror images morphed together to create Discord's true Draconequus form.

"Well, you have earned an audience from me..." Discord said, sitting in a cinema chair.

"First, could you give us our normal appearances back?" Star asked.

"But could I keep the aviators?" Barrel said before Discord could snap his fingers.

There was the infamous snap of his fingers, and we were back to normal. And Barrel was very satisfied with his new pair of aviator sunglasses.

Although I never understood why he wanted them, as he was blind in one eye.

"Discord, what do you know of Harmonious Crystals...?" I asked him, not rushing to the fact that we have ten of them in our possession.

"Those crystals that explode? That you have ten of?" He replied, wittily.

'Fuck it.' I thought to myself. I really wanted to keep some of that secret, but then again... This is Discord we are dealing with.

I sighed heavily.

"I guess you saw that too..." I trailed off, looking at the ground.

"I did indeed. At this pace, you four shall become my Apprentices of Chaos!" Discord said, then he began to laugh maniacally.

"I've already been an apprentice. And it really isn't fun." I scoffed, causing Discord to stop laughing and wipe a single tear from his left eye.

"Well, if you are not going to be my apprentices, what do you want from me?" Discord continued, rolling up the single tear to become a bat with a pig for a face.

"We'd like to ask you for a favour..." I asked sheepishly.

I wasn't really sure what I was getting into. But we were all about to find out.

"You want Chaotic Crystals, don't you my boy?" Discord said, smirking.

He already knew exactly what we wanted. Discord petted the bat-pig that was hanging off his tail upside-down.

"Yeah. Anyway you can help us with that?" I asked further.

Discord snapped his fingers and the bat-pig disappeared.

"Yes I can. But you must be obliged to help me. Eye for an eye and all.." Discord said darkly, as he rolled one of his eyeballs out of it's socket and began spinning it on his finger as if it were a basketball.

"Alright, what do you need?" Armstrong said finally.

"I want to give Auntie Tia a bit of a surprise." Discord said, with an even more dark look on his face.

Although it was quite funny, as he still had an eye spinning on his finger.

"We are going to to do something to Celestia..? Oh shit..." I said, anxiety building inside me.

"Just a harmless prank, that is all..." Discord said finally, before placing his eye back in his head.

________________________________________

"That's all..." Discord finished with his work, and took pride in what he had created.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me." Barrel deadpanned.

"Nope. This is happening." I reply back to him.

We were currently stood in the middle of a massive field, trying to gain balance of the third body we have been converted into. Discord converted us into Draconequus' for his little prank.

Four of them.

I just hope this didn't go too far and end up with us getting discovered as our true Human forms, or worse, obliterated by Celestia and Luna as soon as we teleport into their Throne Room. Discord decided that all four of us should have a share of his Chaos magic, so we could defend ourselves. But mostly to mess around with, bringing inanimate objects to life and the such.

And we all look the same. But when we look at each other, the magic tells us who we are looking at. So I know who I'd be talking to if there were two or more of us in the same room. I was very scared of what was going to happen. But Celestia knew for a fact that Discord could not duplicate himself, so we were going to try and have some fun with this.

"Oh goodie, this is going to be so much fun!" Discord nearly squeed, which was very out of character.

All four of us just stood there, staring at him unenthusiastically.

"Come on fellas, cheer up! We get to have a good ol' mess around with Celestia!" Discord said again, using his hands as binoculars to look at Canterlot.

"I'm good with the idea, as long as we don't get locked in Tartarus. Or killed." I said, stepping forward.

"Or both, I would imagine." Discord happily added on the end.

I did a double-take on Discord's last statement. So apparently it was possible to die horribly, and get locked up in prison-hell. I'm guessing that you do not want to drop the soap in Tartarus.

"Here we go!" Discord said as he rubbed his hands together.

One snap of his fingers later, he was gone.

"Um, what now?" Star asked, as all four of us stood idly.

"I think if we give it a minute, we'll be right-"

Before I could finish, the four of us were teleported through the weirdest bend in spacetime I have ever seen. I then ended up stood in Luna's bedroom.

Alone.

And she was still asleep.

"-in the middle of the shit." I said to myself, finishing my last sentence rhetorically.

I tried using the thought communication magic that Discord taught us.

'Uhh, hello? Is there anyone else in here?' I thought to myself.

'Woah, Circuit, is that you?' I heard in my head, with the voice of Armstrong.

So telepathy did work. That was pretty cool.

'Where are you dude?' I thought to myself again, as I contemplated starting a full Dubstep Set in Luna's room. As an alarm clock.

It was only a snap of the fingers away.

'I'm in Celestia's room.' I heard Armstrong say.

'I think this is Twilight's brother's room...' I heard Barrel add on the end.

'And Star?' I thought.

And we all waited for his response.

Nothing.

'Alright guys, you got something planned for your room?' I said in my mind.

'Yeah.' I heard both Armstrong and Barrel say.

'Three... Two... One...' I thought to myself as I snapped my fingers, summoning a EDM booth in the corner of her room.

As I as counting down, I had placed strobe lights, disco balls, speakers and subwoofers all around Luna's pitch black room.

'Time to go crazy.' I though to myself.

I then gave myself tinted glasses and headphones like Vinyl Scratch and stood behind the EDM booth. I grabbed a microphone and took a deep breath.

"NOW THROW YOUR X UP!" I shouted into the microphone as I pressed a large play button on the EDM booth.

Luna groggily lifted her head up as there was a booming voice that shouted "x" before proceeding to the drop, shaking the castle room.

The strobe lights flickered to life and shone proudly across the room, refracting occasionally off the disco balls. The bass reverberated continuously around the room, making Luna leap out of her skin when the drop...

Well...

Dropped.

"I do love a classic, don't you Luna?" I shouted into the microphone as she looked at me with a fiery rage I have never seen before.

She was going to tear me limb from limb.

"Well, I do hope you enjoyed my set, but I have a tour to continue. Fair well!" I spoke loudly before snapping my fingers to teleport to Armstrong's location.

Once I arrived in Celestia's bedroom, I saw Armstrong wrapping everything in tin-foil. And I mean everything.

"What the fuck? You do know she can rid of this with one spell?" I said to Armstrong as he concentrated.

"No... I've done a bit of Chaos magic on this. Try and pull it off." Armstrong said to me, not even breaking sight with the last bit of wrapping he was doing.

I walked over to the Discord lamp Armstrong had made and picked it up. I pulled one large strip of tin foil off, for it to reappear. Twice.

"So... It is similar to relighting birthday candles?" I asked, dropping the shred of tin-foil.

"Mmhm." Armstrong hummed as he finished the last object, which was the logs in the fireplace.

"Done. What did you do?" Armstrong asked, standing up.

"Woke Luna up with Autobot sex noises."  I smirked.

But Armstrong stared at me blankly, as he didn't get the reference.

"I blasted dubstep in her room. Strobe lights and everything." I added, and Armstrong finally caught on.

"Wouldn't she be pissed...?" Armstrong asked, as he turned towards me.

As I was about to reply, we heard something thunder down the Royal Halls of this section of the castle.

"DISCORD!" Luna shouted in the old Canterlot Voice.

"Yeah... I disrupted her slumber." I said sheepishly.

"Find the others?" Armstrong said hastily, as Luna was looking for us. Or Discord, as far as she knew.

"Yep." I said as we stood together and I snapped my fingers.

We were then stood in the middle of the Throne Room, with two other Discord's in front of us and a third Discord stood beside us. One of the two in front of us was Star, so he was with the original Discord. And Barrel had teleported beside us. Discord turned around and saw the three of us stood there.

"Good afternoon Discord! Would you like to join in the game of 'Guess the Discord?'" Discord asked enthusiastically.

"But of course, Discord!" I said, trying to keep to my best Discord impersonation.

The good thing about this spell, is that we all sounded like Discord, so none of us could be distinguished by our voices. All five of us then stood in a line in front of a very unimpressed Celestia, sat in a rotating throne.

"Ready, your Highness?" Discord asked rhetorically.

Celestia could do nothing but give Discord a death stare. Discord did his infamous finger snap, and we all swapped places. Again and again, faster and faster. It was similar to the 'Ball in the Cup' game. But trying to spot which Discord was real, as we teleported about rapidly. After we came to a stop, I looked the Discord to my left, to find out that it was Barrel.

"Discord, am I the real Discord?" I asked Barrel, teasingly.

"I am not entirely sure, Discord. Let me phone a friend." Barrel said before putting a banana to his ear.

The Discord on the far left, which was Armstrong, heard a vibration and brought a similar banana to his ear.

"Hello? Discord here." Armstrong answered.

"Afternoon Discord, it's Discord here. I'm just calling to ask you which Discord is the real Discord. Discord to my right asked me, but I am unsure. Could you tell me, Discord?" Barrel asked back.

"Let me think on that Discord. One second, let me ask the audience." Armstrong said while smirking.

Armstrong lowered his banana phone and whispered to the Discord to his right,  which was the real Discord. After a few seconds, Armstrong put the phone back to his ear.

"I'm sorry Discord, me and my friend Discord are not sure. Discord did mention that perhaps the Discord in the middle may be the real Discord. Could you try asking him?" Armstrong replied, smiling stupidly.

"I will do that! Thanks Discord." Barrel said before putting the banana back in his pocket that didn't exist.

"So what did Discord say, Discord?" I asked Barrel, certain that this was either confusing or annoying Celestia.

"Well Discord, Discord said that the Discord in the middle could be the real Discord." Barrel said, making sure to not trip over his words.

"Discord in the middle! Anything to say about this incident involving Discord?" I shouted to the middle Discord, which was Star.

"ENOUGH!" Celestia shouted in her own Canterlot Voice.

"Oh my Discord, it seems that the almighty Princess Celestia needs assistance in solving our Discord problem!" Discord said to the rest of us.

"I shall give you a fifty-fifty, how does that sound?" I asked Celestia before snapping my fingers, turning Star and Barrel's Draconequus bodies a shade of red.

"Hey Discord! Discord's guess about the Discord in the middle was wrong!" I shouted to Armstrong from the other side of the line.

Armstrong looked at Discord and tutted while shaking his head.

"I have no words for you right now Discord, your Discord-guessing skills are worse than Discord himself!" Armstrong said to Discord.

We were all really enjoying this. Apart from Celestia, that was bound to her rotating thone.

Before anyone could say anything else, a furious Luna burst through a set of double doors at the opposite end of the room.

"Sister! Are thou okay?" Luna shouted before seeing five Discord's in front of her.

"Discord! What is the meaning of this!?" Luna shouted at us, looking at every single of us.

"Don't worry Discord, Discord's got this." I said to Discord as I walked forward.

Luna immediately charged her horn with a spell of some sort, and was planning to cast it in the general direction of my face.

"Not another step, Discord!" Luna shouted, while focusing on on me.

"Trinity! Help!" I mimicked, as I took three more steps forward.

Luna then proceeded to release a flurry of spells at me, but I decided to give the guys something to laugh at. Before the spells impacted me, I did the Bullet Time dodge on the spells, similar to the way Neo did. Complete with waving arms.

I stood up straight after dodging the spells and snapped my fingers, making a large spoon appear in my hands.

"There is no spoon." I said in an impersonation similar to Keanu Reeves.

Discord then proceeded to teleport beside Luna and pointed his fingers beside Luna's head.

"Dodge this." Discord said before snapping his fingers, making Luna teleport elsewhere.

My mouth dropped open as there was no way in Tartarus that he knew that reference. He then walked forward slowly, snapping his fingers again, making shades appear on his face. Discord then proceeded to stand in line with all of us again and we all looked directly at Celestia.

"Oh, where are my manners. I'm Discord, this is Discord, Discord, Discord and Discord." Discord said, pointing at every single one of us in succession.

"This is enough Discord!" Celestia shouted through gritted teeth.

"Oh, yes, I suppose. I guess I've had my fun." He said, less cheerily than he was earlier.

One snap of his fingers, and the Throne Room was back to normal, with Luna teleporting beside her sister.

"Ta ta for now!" Discord said sarcastically, before snapping his fingers, making all five of us fall towards the ceiling and fall through it.

When I opened my eyes again, I was in Pony form again, stood in that large field like we were before the prank.

I looked around to see that the rest of the guys were with me, with Discord stood over us. I shakily stood to my hooves, as I had to learn a quadrupedal body again. I looked up to see Discord spinning five Harmonious Crystals around his fingers, and they were deep red, similar to the state they were at before exploding in Barrel's face.

"Discord! What are you doing with those!?" I shouted, unsure if he knew what those things did in the presence of disharmony.

Before I could say anymore, the red became less intense and the horrible screeching stopped.

"Five Chaotic Crystals, yes?" He said proudly, levitating them in front of me.

"Yeah... That's it." I uttered, unable to believe that we had the five crystals we needed.

"I wish to know, why do you need these?" Discord asked, with a devilish look on his face.

"Well..." I started to explain.

But before I could even explain, Discord had already teleported away.

"So much for explaining." I added with a sour tone.

I looked down, to see the five Chaotic Crystals resting on the floor. I picked one with my hooves and it was so cold, dry ice was nearly visible.

"Well guys, that's that. We have all we need. Now we just need to build Excalibur." I said proudly.

"Sure, but how are we supposed to get back into Ponyville? All four of us are wanted, especially you two." Barrel said, pointing at me and then at Star.

"We can try sneaking into our place? Teleport into the loft or something?" Armstrong said out loud.

My mind snapped with a good idea.

"Yes! Wait until nightfall, complete the Crystal Core, fit it, test Excalibur and if she works, live in there until we are free and clear." I said.

"And if you cannot complete it?" Star asked.

"Then I hope I am not sharing a platform with you in Tartarus." I said dismissively.

"But ye of little faith, I'll complete it. I have my Vision and the night on our side." I added on.

"Christ man, we are building a spacecraft, not assassinating Twilight Sparkle..." Star hissed.

"That's not an option?" I asked sarcastically.

Everyone gave me a deadpan stare.

"Of course that was a joke... Maybe." I said as I gave Armstrong a side-stare.

"Star, you can get us into our loft?" Armstrong asked Star.

"I believe so. Couple of rapid teleports can get us in there." Star replied.

"I fucking hope so... I bet Sparkle is snooping around there right now." I said bitterly.

"Probably." Barrel replied quietly.

"Alright man, whenever you are ready." I said to Star.

I gathered all the Chaotic Crystals together in one pile and waited for Star to finish concentrating, as he was planning a teleportation route.

"Alright, ready?" Star asked us, slightly straining.

We all nodded at him.

Star then released the pent-up magical energy he had built up and teleported us near the Scrapyard, then down the road, and then even further from that in quick succession. After about five teleports, I caught glimpses of our cottage surrounded by ponies, to then be surrounded in darkness.

"Star... Did it work?" I whispered quietly, not moving a muscle.

Star proceeded to illuminate the tip of his horn slightly, so that we could see inside the loft.

"So we did make it." I sighed quietly.

I checked beside me to hear a slight clinking of crystals impacting each other.

And we brought the Chaotic Crystals with us.

"Just imagine if we left them in that field..." I said, trying to suppress a laugh.

All it was now, was a very long wait until nightfall.

"Star, how many ponies are around us or in the cottage?" Barrel asked quietly.

After a slight splutter from his horn, Star looked back at us.

"I felt about fifteen ponies. And there was a monumental amount of magic in one of them, so I assume that one is a certain Alicorn." Star said quietly.

"Sparkle..." I said sourly.

"You really don't like her, do you?" Armstrong said, nearly giggling.

"Gee, what made you think that, Einstein?" I said rhetorically.

The next few hours was agonisingly awkward silence, as we couldn't make much noise. We almost kept falling asleep, but Star kept casting spells on us to keep us awake.

Seven hours gradually passed, although it felt like thirty thousand years.

"Right, that's midnight. Let's go." Star said, trying to keep his eyelids open.

Star then charged his horn with the teleportation spell, and with a very bright flash of light, we ended up under the gazebo in our garden. There was quarantine tape everywhere, along with analysis swabs, clue markers and even some tools were missing.

"Thieving bastards. Anyway, to work." I said, grabbing some necessary tools that I had left.

I activated my vision, unlocked Excalibur's bay door and dragged The Crystal Core into the garden.

After about twenty minutes of tweaking, I asked Star to shield the five Harmonious Crystals as I fitted the Chaotic Crystals opposite. It was a tense scene, similar to defusing a bomb.

But it essentially was a bomb.

After the fifth Chaotic Crystal clicked into place and caused the Crystal Core to roar to life, I was relieved and decided I should fit it now.

We had Armstrong and Barrel as lookouts, with Barrel hiding in the roof and Armstrong circling in high altitude. Before I could properly lift the Crystal Core back under Excalibur, Armstrong landed in front of us in a fit of panic.

"Guys, she's coming. With armed guards. We must of hit a booby trap of something!" Armstrong said, turning a shade of white.

I left all colour in my face drain away. This was not good.

"Fuck! Star, help me get this inside!" I said quickly.

"Barrel! Get down here!" Armstrong shouted from the garden.

Barrel had spotted them too by this point.

"Fuck, she's running for us! We're so dead!" Barrel said, hyperventilating.

After lifting the Crystal Core inside the bay door, I scanned my surroundings for something to do. But our options were limited.

"Can't Twilight read teleport paths?" I asked Star, with a undertone of worry in my voice.

He nodded slowly, dread filling his face. I looked up at Excalibur when one idea struck me.

"Everyone, get inside!" I said, re-opening the bay doors.

Everybody piled inside, just as I spotted Twilight and her armed guard turning the corner at the end of the garden.

"OH FUCK!" I shouted, jumping inside the bay doors.

I scrambled for the seal button as Twilight charged at us with full speed. I luckily pressed it at the right time and it sealed shut, without crushing Twilight in the opening or locking her in with us.

"Oh fuck me. Is she still out there?" I asked, shaking.

Barrel poked his head above the tempered glass view slowly.

"Circuit, come and see this." Barrel said, quivering.

I slowly stood up and looked out the window. Armed guards had surrounded Excalibur from all sides and Twilight stood proud in front of us. The sudden realisation made a shiver flow through me.

"She's besieging us." I said coldly.

"Let's just fly away! You finished, right!?" Armstrong said loudly.

I simply shook my head and pointed at the Crystal Core on the floor.

"The bay that requires the core is underneath Excalibur. We're stuck." I said, with less emotion than before.

"So you're telling me..." Armstrong trailed off.

"Yeah. The only way we'll get out of here is if we hand ourselves in. And we don't have food or water." Star said coldly, like I did before.

We were trapped in our way out of here.

Talk about irony punching you in the face.

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