To say that the occasion was unwarranted was a gigantic lie in the eyes of Pinkie Pie. A min party had sprung out of nowhere showering the two in confetti and sprinkles for some reason. The sheer joy on her face had left the two stunned by just how wide her smile had gotten and how genuine it seemed to be. The tears had still been trickling down her cheeks while the reunion went on. Discord at least kept up the sweets demand providing the beverages while Spike merely danced with Pinkie to make sure the smile on her face remained. Though the party soon came to an end as Pinkie packed everything back up into her mane. Then her blubbering reached its peak when she tried to speak.

“I was so worried about you guys. You turned into potato chips and started cracking to pieces then the big meanies chewed on gum in front of us but I’m sure it was you two. Then they ran off without even thanking us for the food which was super rude. I didn’t even get to give them a party for arriving and I had already planned to make decorative cupcakes of pure vanilla and pure chocolate which would be so sweet they could burn your face off in a flavor explosion. Then we all found these mirrors we had to go into just to find you guys again but the princesses were all like ‘We will hold the line!’ and I was all like ‘Oh my Celestia you ponies are so brave.’ while Twilight was all ‘But I don’t know nothing bout birthing no fillies.’ then I found this world which was almost as random as me. It was amazing and I went on so many adventures though my hero-ing days did get a bit out there. Jim was a bit… sociopathic from time to time. Still we did save the universe but I now have to save him from himself. Anyways I worked super duper hard on figuring things out but I don’t really get the controls on this thing then I found this cape with my cutie mark on it but I don’t think it’s doing anything for me. Maybe Discord could make it work out better than I can. Still its super fantabulous that you two are still ok. I thought you had died.” Pinkie finally took a breath of air. Spike eyes twitched after the intensity of everything that he heard while Discord had just shoved cotton candy into his ears. They could handle the party, they could handle the sobbing, but they couldn’t handle the rambling.

“I’m glad we’re not dead too Pinkie. Now what are you doing here now when you seem to be done in this world.” Spike motioned his claws to all the levers that adorned the machine she had been standing at.

“Try to summarize faster if you please.” Discord piped up eliciting a chuckle from the perky party pony,

“Well Jim got hurt so I’m taking over and hunting down a dangerous criminal known as Professor Monkey-For-A-Head. He’s a very bad man who worked with these other villains to make a powerful super suit using the Battery of the Gods, ” Pinkie held up a small replica of a suit with a small D-battery with a small sticky note on it reading ‘Battery of the Gods’. “Right now I’ve been going back to previous adventure spots hoping to get a clue as to his whereabouts. Though now that you guys are here it should be easy. Also this is for you Discord. It seems important, I think” Pinkie smiled just a widely seemingly content over the new turn of events.

“Sorry Pinkie but I’m have trouble with what you just said. Did you say Professor Monkey-For-A-Head and use that seriously? This world is so Celestia damn confusing to me.” Spike rubbed his temples trying to alleviate the aneurysm that was building up at this point. The chaotic nature of the world made his skin crawl which confused him because it never had happened when Discord used his chaos magic.

“Yeah. I know it’s a bit strange but that’s the truth of the matter. He’s a big meanie who works for an even eviler jerkface. I wanted to make the beings of this world smile but everytime I make some progress those weird spheres come in and ruin everything. You should’ve seen what they did last time I almost got everyone here to sit down for peace. It was horrible. Everything I know doesn’t seem to work here and they make sure that it doesn’t… “ Pinkie’s mane deflated but her eyes didn’t betray the determination she felt.

Discord place the cape on his back which for some reason had gems in the shape of Pinkie’s mark on it. He felt whole the moment the clasp was wrapped around his neck. The gems glowed softly and the feeling of the item in the world he needed disappeared.

“Pinkie, where did you get this?” Discord was stumped because it shouldn’t be possible that she would have this.

“Oh that old thing. I found it a long time ago when we faced an evil queen. That was quite the adventure but that is a story for another time. The author doesn’t want spoilers until after we finish your adventure you know.” Pinkie explained almost matter-of-factly while her mane re-poofed back to its original shape. She turned back around to the console working at the controls before she finally felt that she got the right settings.

“I think I have his location. Are you two ready to go save somebody… someworm… I don’t really know in this case because they’re anthropomorphic now. Hm… we’ll go with the second one then. We’re gonna figure out how to save him now.” Pinkie triumphantly pumped her hoof above her head before bouncing over to the teleporter pad. The pair followed her forcing the three to get shunted far from the underwater city to locales so far away.

The three landed in a heap with Discord on the bottom followed by Pinkie with Spike carrying up the rear. Groaning the three extricated themselves from the pile rubbing the soreness while Pinkie pulled a detective cap out of her mane. Quickly blowing some bubbles from the pipe she had acquired from somewhere she led the three out of the room they landed into a giant cruise ship in the middle of space.

“WHAT!?” Two beings screamed out while Pinkie began examining for clues.

“Well that’s surprising.” Pinkie spoke up but her eyes were on a small machine around her hoof.

The two looked at Pinkie while her nonchalant attitude made their eyes bug out from the shear strain. Spike was sweating bullets while Discord was looking around a bit worried about the environment.

“Whata-a-matter with ya two? Haven’t you seen a ship in space before. I know Spike has at least seen one in any of the comics he’s read before. I don’t know what’s got you so shocked Discord.” Pinkie raised an eyebrow in confusion before breaking out into a giggle fit. She looked around as well and finally noticed just what was getting their attention.

Standing at the other end of the deck was a tall figure wearing a yellow hazmat suit with a large glass dome surrounding their head. The head was pure black with yellow eyes and a strange beak like appearance from where his mouth was. In his hand was what looked like a hair dryer but the muzzle seemed to hold large rusted hooks. Then he took to the air and slowly hovered over to the three.

“Well well well… If it isn’t Pinkamena Diane Pie. Looks like you got a little entourage with you right now. Seems a shame you came so far for absolutely nothing.” The figure shot out raised his gun firing off a set of hooks at each of the heroes forcing them on the defensive.

“Oh Psycrow you’d be so much happier if you just let me throw you a party. Still can’t let you go empty handed.” Pinkie started tossing a collection of pies at the evil bounty hunter knocking the stray hooks out of the air while hitting his feet as well.

“Now we actually face a villain from the world and get his name as well. Jeez why is it that Pinkie’s world makes the most sense now.” Discord summoned a cavalcade of cotton candy clouds sending them flying at the hovering Psycrow. He dodged with the greatest of ease like a man on the flying trapeze.

“I know that’s really surprising too but I was think more about why we’re in space. This guy looks a bit goofy to me.” Spike fired off an assortment of fireballs taking care not charge any of them up. A well placed shot from the hook launcher caused the fireballs to explode in mid air. The mini food war encompassed the entire deck after a while leaving rusty hooks, pie filling, cotton candy residue and scorch marks covering the entire deck.

“Give up Psycrow. You know you can’t stand against the creamy filling of the pie known as justice. It’s super delicious and made from all the sweet things in the world. There’s apples and cherries and mangos and strawberries. Oooh maybe I should make some cherrychimichangas then you’ll sit down for the friendship.” Pinkie waved a hoof around the ship while Psycrow only groaned at the pseudo-pun she had made. A flurry of hooks answered Pinkie’s hoof.

The cotton candy clouds couldn’t hit their mark due to how fast he was zipping around which infuriated Discord to no end. For some reason the clouds wouldn’t summon directly on top of him which he had tried every other summon. Spike was also having trouble being unable to fully track his target even with the constant stream of fire he was forced to use just to get a lucky break. The gouts of flames always barely reached a leg causing Psycrow to squawk like a crow.

“Oh that’s why you’re Psycrow. You’re a psychotic crow. That makes perfect sense.” Spike exclaimed smiling widely at the revelation. This didn’t turn out well for the bounty hunter though who gritted his teeth in annoyance and rage.

“So what if my name is like that. At least it had meaning. What’s your name? Spike right. Nothing more than a dog’s name for a worthless creature with no sense of agency.” Psycrow sneered at the words he mentioned while his eyes glowed a dull red before fading away to the yellow he normally had.

Spike flipped out charging up a large beam and releasing it on the unsuspecting bounty hunter. Pinkie also got in on the action pulling out her party cannon but she kept the shot only primed. The beam missed as Psycrow dipped down underneath the beam. He then got in range of the party cannon that had appeared below him as a large cannonball flew out of the barrel. With the cannonball also flew Psycrow with a damaged jetpack flying out of the glass pane and out into space leaving the three behind, exhausted but victorious.

“What was that?” Discord groaned as he pulled off some cotton candy that had fallen on top of him filled with hooks.

“What do you mean? Psycrow or the ship? Maybe it was the hook gun thingie? Spike what do you think he means?” Pinkie seemed to roll her hoof around trying to find the right words to say. With a flick of her hoof the party cannon also disappeared. Spike merely stayed quiet and rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

“The look in his eyes I mean. It was quick but I tend to notice those tiny things. It looked like he was controlled at the last set of attacks before you sent him flying. Chaos magic was being used on him.” Discord explained shocking Spike while Pinkie just smiled.

“Oh that’s what you mean. They are actually named Harmonia and Angra Mainyu. Those are the magical beings that govern over the magics of harmony and chaos.” Pinkie smiled even wider at the knowledge she had found out and relayed.

“You mean those spheres had names!?” Spike was the first to actually squeak his surprise as manly as he possibly could.

“Yupperooni!” Pinkie bounced around with giggle.

“So that’s who we’re dealing with then? I knew about Mainyu… though I still think that is the stupidest name he could have chosen. Damn mythologists are going to get on our case now for choosing such a complex name. Still this is surprising. How did you learn those names Pinkie?” Discord gestured his talons towards Pinkie forming a cotton candy seat for her in hopes of hearing a long tale. He did not get a long tale.

“They told me after they tried to infect the villain of this world. I got them so super duper mad and they blurted out their names saying ‘blah blah blah you dare defy blah blah blah…’ then I hit them with a pie.” She giggled at the memory.

“Right… Anyways Pinkie weren’t we hunting down someone right now?” Spike pointed out returning Pinkie’s serious face and detective gear. She began walking off for the captain’s cabin leading the two forward.

The rest of the deck was bare even though the ship should have had staff manning it. The eerie silence sent Spike on edge though he hid it went behind his chattering teeth. Discord merely looked annoyed now that he knew who was behind it. Though he didn’t want to admit it the reveal had left him worried. Angra Mainyu, as he was called now, was one of the more dangerous aspects of chaos and a near omnipotent god on his own level. He was just as strong as Mainyu but his stamina didn’t match when it came to using chaos magic. ‘Damn I should have really started working out the moment I was released from my stone prison… the second time.’

“Okie dokie lokie everypony. I know he’s in this place. And before you ask how I know it’s Pinkie Sense. I got a bulgy eye and itchy hoof which, as you know, is the universal sign for the target is nearby now.” She raised her hoof just like Twilight did whenever she was making her point or being right about something before giggling and leading the way.

The two nodded in agreement though Spike was still skeptical about some of the points she made. Still Pinkie Sense made a whole lot of sense in the long run and hadn’t betrayed them before hoof. The cabin door opened with a metallic shriek allowing the three to hop inside. The cabin was smaller than they expected and in the corner was Professor Monkey-For-A-Head but he wasn’t what they expected at all. The professor looked a manic mess and could barely stand. His eyes were filled with Chaos magic and the spasms from his body caused him to jerk in unnatural movements. Pinkie stopped smiling once again forcing the three to get him on the small bunk that was for the captain’s leisure.

When they lifted him his whole body was cold and lifeless. If not for the light breathing he could have passed for a corpse. The sight was much worse than the other beings that had been infected with chaos magic. Psycrow had been made stronger and much more intimidating though against three opponents, that was asking too much. The professor looked to be suffering much worse effects than those that had been discorded so long ago.

“Discord do you remember when you had discorded us?” Pinkie spoke up. Even though she was frowning she kept the bubbly tone though it sounded strained.

“Yeah. I do remember. This is much worse than that though. Whenever I used my power to corrupt your thoughts I never let it get this bad. I always left enough of your minds behind so you could break free if you absolutely needed to. Remember I’m no killer no matter what my power set may be but these beings have to have something within them to withstand the overwhelming magical energy behind both chaos and especially harmony.” Discord explained while he attempted to drain the chaos magic out of the professor. It was something he could do but it had been a very long time since he had actually done it. Placing his talons on the professor’s head he attempted the spell.

A chaos tendril smacked away the talon and the chaos magic dissipated before the spell went off. Pinkie managed to keep Discord from being flung back thanks to her natural earth pony strength. Spike took the lead and wisped flames around the dispersing chaos magic which strangely elicited some screams of pain. The professor stopped looking horrible and started mumbling about horrible nightmares involving a pink pony wearing a hay bale and somehow gaslighting his entire lab every single time he blinked.

“What’s up doc?” Pinkie chortled out mystically pulling a carrot out of her mane and chewing on it obnoxiously. The professor’s eyes turned to pinpricks before he passed out from sheer terror.

“Pinkie what did you do to him?” Spike managed out while poking the professor just to make sure he didn’t die. Luckily he was still breathing and looked healthier than he did previously. The chaos magic had been taken away.

“Oh Spike~ Don’t you remember? Never break a Pinkie Promise or I will get you~!” Pinkie’s singsong tone said everything he needed to hear. The understanding for breaking a Pinkie Promise was somewhere between insanity and the apocalypse. Discord, finally, got his attention to his paw pointing outside.

“Pinkie. The two of us are gonna step outside so you can deal with the professor. We know you can get the info out of him. You’re very persuasive and I believe in you.” Spike genuinely smiled for her leaving a tear of joy exiting her eye as she got to work on waking him up. The two stepped outside and closed the door leaving Detective Pinkie to play both good cop and bad cop.

“What’s wrong?”

“What are we going to do about this? We are probably going to be forcefully yanked back to the room with Freya any moment now and this cape had done nothing for me yet even though it had the right magical signature of an element embedded in its fibers. Pinkie will try her best not to split the party and this moment right now is the only exception because we are still here by this door.” Discord explained almost monotonously as if the happiness in his voice had been wrenched out of him. His frown showed his thoughts on the matter clearer than his words.

“I know so we tell Pinkie and hope for the best. It looks like they have overtaxed their abilities right now so we can at least circumvent some of their designs. Remember they messed up when they tried to turn the tides in both Turner’s and Lyra’s worlds. Whomever was the villain in those worlds made sure to make themselves as uncooperative as possible or were so far into their own power that they could at least manage both this Harmonia and Angra Mainyu. Right now we have a bit of free reign since we managed to meet back up with one of our friends and tell them that we are ok. We’ll tell the truth after she gets the info and hope that we can make it to the end of the adventure.” Spike formulated the plan and bit the bullet in this case. He was going to tell Pinkie what was going to happen.

The two reopened the door stepping into a musical number as Pinkie was playing every instrument she had used against both Trixie and the parasprites. The professor was wide awake trying desperately to escape in any way he could only for a selection of cotton candy clouds to envelope his legs and keep them in place. The screams and vulgarity that were heard that day trumped anything that Discord had even heard with a lot of clever lines about Pinkie’s mother and bear traps was used in every combination possible. Spike merely looked confused by the twist of events and merely covered his ears to keep from hearing the insults. Pinkie then played faster which made her louder causing the professor to cry uncle while the monkey half seemed to swoon at the music that was being played.

“Now tell me where you hid the bomb Professor!” Pinkie put the instruments aside and slapped the professor across the cheek leaving a hoofprint behind.

“What the hell are you talking about you crazy b-” The professor screeched out before being struck again.

“Tell me about the rebellion plans and the Death Star!” Pinkie struck him again though on the other cheek leaving another hoofmark behind.

“What are you talking about!” He screamed in annoyance while the monkey half seemed to enjoy the physical abuse.

“Oh right sorry bout that. Hee hee hee I meant to ask where the battery is and so help me you better tell me. Or else!” Pinkie dramatically raised her hoof skywards as if she could drill through the sky and pierce the heavens.

“I’m telling you jack shit you stupid pink pony.” The professor crossed his arms in defiance and glared at Pinkie.

“You asked for it then.” Pinkie breathed in deeply readying herself for her plan.

“I like funny words. One of my favorite funny words is kumquats. I didn’t make that one up. I would work in a kumquat orchard just so I can say kumquat all day! Kumquat. Kumquat! Kumquat~! And pickle barrels. Isn’t that just the funnest thing to say. Pickle barrel. Pickle barrel! Pickle barrel~! Say it with me. Pickle barrel, kumquat, pickle barrel, kumquat, pickle barrel, kumquat, chimicherrychanga~!” Pinkie began her singing repeating those three words over and over again making sure to get extremely shrill whenever she got to chimicherrychanga.

“Shut up. Shut up! Shut up!” Professor Monkey-For-A-Head tried in vain to cover his ears but that wasn’t enough to stop the sound and the monkey was working against him now keeping his human arms away from his ears.

Discord formed two set of earplugs for both himself and Spike and made sure they were dense enough to cover sound and by the eighth repetition of Pinkie’s impromptu torture session they were glad to still be sane enough to handle just how brutal this actually was. Tears formed freely as he suffered silently, at least it was silently for the two heroes of this tale. Then Pinkie stopped talking causing the two to take off their earplugs.

“I’ll talk just stop talking for the love that of pumpernickel bread just make it stop.” He was openly sobbing at this point unable to even fall to the floor defeated because of all the cotton candy that was surrounding him.

“That’s good Doccy. Now we can finally be friends and then I’ll tell you how I got my cutie mark.” Pinkie beamed a genuinely friendly smile while the professor grimaced even deeper. He proceeded to pull the battery out of his pocket handing it over to Pinkie.

“Now get out of my sight. I never want to deal with this ever again!” The professor merely fell over as the cotton candy dissipated allowing him to curl up into the fetal position and suck his thumb from the four hours of horrible torture he just endured.

“Let’s get out of here guys we need to go save Jim!” Pinkie led the way back to the deck bouncing and smiling the entire way forward. Spike and Discord followed as well but their pace didn’t try to match the party pony in front of them as they were ready for one of the hardest things they could possibly do.

Once on deck she pulled out a large rocket from her mane. She quickly called it the Pocket Rocket Deluxe though the reason it was deluxe was because it was pink instead of red and silver with a blue metallic trim. Discord stood still as Spike stepped up to the plate.

“Pinkie… We need to talk… “ The tone was anything else than pleasant.

“I know... “

That was all that was said. While she didn’t say more about it she just hugged the two in a near bone shattering hug gushing out tears like a fountain. They looked apologetic for their need but that didn’t change how they felt about this. There was something fundamentally wrong with leaving Pinkie to combat evil alone in this universe but they also knew just how dangerous it would be if the spheres got involved directly.

“Will you guys even be okay? I could call the girls before I head out so that way they can know that you guys are safe. Maybe even they could do something about it like use their magic to-” Pinkie was stopped by a claw and forced to be quiet which she frowned at.

“We’ve thought about that Pinkie but we all know that they effortlessly stopped all three of the princesses without even trying just to capture the two of us. They’ll hurt you badly if we go with you so we play their plan for now just to make sure you girls stay safe. That is my Pinkie Promise to you. We’ll do our best to keep you safe. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” Spike did the motions managing to nudge into Discord who did the same albeit without words behind them.

Pinkie merely nodded smiling through her tears as a door appeared nearby. On it were the same three balloons that had led them to this world. Pinkie nodded them to enter the room and get back to their quest waiting for them to finish stepping through the threshold. The door closed and they were gone from sight back wherever they had been kept as captives.

Biting her lip to keep from crying Pinkie got onto the Pocket Rocket and keyed in some coordinates before gripping the throttle in her hooves and pulling it with all her might. Within those few seconds her smile came back because now she knew. They were safe and probably had a plan to get back home. Even within the cold darkness in space the laughter that could be heard amongst the stars broke every law of physics possible just from the happiness she felt. Though that happiness was not felt by all beings.

Floating right outside the window she had broken out of was a highly pissed off Psycrow who had managed by sheer force of will to swim back to the ship. While he didn’t see where the dragon or the freak had gone he did notice the pink pony was all alone once again. A devious smile appeared on his pseudo beak as chaos magic started to fill him once again. Those few seconds allowed the magic to work on his jetpack repairing it good as new. He zoomed off following after the crazy party pony ready for another round against the pink menace.

Spike stood up looking around for Freya while Discord removed the cape. It floated over to its right spot and disintegrated allowing the gems to be dragged into the floor and lighting up the corresponding mark as well. Freya was nowhere in sight leaving the two a chance to relax and wait for the next door to reveal itself The next door had three diamonds glowing incandescently within the darkened room. Spike rushed for the door eager to get into the next world just to find Rarity and save her… ‘ I mean find her to get her to the others’ Spike quickly amended the author’s words until a tail stopped him in his tracks.

“Not yet. We need to rest after what we’ve been through and right now Freya is missing. That means we should take this chance to figure out some more things about our enemies. Rarity isn’t going anywhere casanova and she can wait. Besides, remember what you told Pinkie. You wouldn’t be able to do anything for her anyways.” Discord smirked though his eyes seemed more tired than they used to be. Spike merely looked on indignantly though the sigh that escaped his lips revealed just how he felt on the matter.

“Can’t blame a guy for being a little excited. What do you mean though?” Spike asked as politely as he could though the harsh tone still lived within his breath.

“They already had to deal with the problem and probably already dealt with it as permanently as they could without disrupting the world they were in. That means we are being watched again. Pinkie probably got lucky otherwise they would have attacked almost immediately. So now we have to make them believe that we didn’t manage to contact any of them. We go in too eager and they’ll think we did something that should have been impossible.” Discord explained but still made sure Spike was still wrapped in his tail just in case.

“Fine.” Spike finally relaxed and went into the next room allowing them the chance to rest. Freya made her appearance once again.

The piece of paper he was handed was not bare and he kept quiet.

They have finished the battle and emerged victorious. Eat this note when you are done. They know you have finished four of the rooms already and they are eager to find if you did something differently this time. Luckily only a fraction of their power was left behind and was just placed under a time release spell. Keep quiet about things and mind Spike as well.

Finishing his reading he worked on reaching Spike and keeping him quiet. The rooms were quiet and Spike was asleep on his bed. Annoyed, Discord went to his own bed resting from finding out about Harmonia and Angra Mainyu.

‘Great. Those two were always trouble back before I made it to Equestria. What the hell are they planning now. Last time they tried some plan they nearly caused three different apocalypses just by channeling their magical power. Then they targeted me and for some reason Spike. We’re targets but what kind of targets?’ Lost in his thoughts Discord went back to checking out his marks now. Near the lightning bolt mark was now three balloons. He couldn’t activate the power while in the room but he knew he would find out what the mark would be able to do.

Meanwhile…

Harmonia hovered over one of the scrying pools she had summoned and checked on Pinkie’s world. They had just left meaning they had no data and the pain from combating that particular monster had left it drained.

Angra Mainyu focused it’s eye appearing to be smiling while the scrying pools went back to Turner’s and Lyra’s world. The two that had tried to fight against them were now stuck in time loops. No one would interfere again,